Going from Pentium III 500Mhz to 900Mhz Thunderbird.....Is it worth it?

[SammyUSMC]

I just got a deal to upgrade my computer from a Pentium III 500 to a 900MHz thunderbird. I'd just like to know what kind of performance increases/decreases I should get. I've always stuck to Pentium/Intel processors from day 1 and this is my first time to the "other side."

What category does the thunderbird fall under? I mean, is it value based like Celeron or is it AMD's current high end? I'm mostly concerned with performance expectations however, keeping in mind I'm also going from a 2x motherboard to 4x, and 128Mb 100Mhz Ram to 128Mb 133Mhz Ram, and keeping my Geforce DDR (Hercules).

 

[PliotronX]

In games, it should give you a nice increase in framerate. In Windows, you might notice a difference, but encoding MP3s, running RC5, and the like should be more than twice as fast.

 

[formulav8]

I would jump on it if it is a good deal.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

The thunderbird can beat a p3 at same clock speed. The duron(value like celeron) is about 95% of a p3's performance(it massacres the celeron + its cheaper)

 

[Noriaki]

The Athlon is high-end desktop same class as Pentium3.
Thunderbird is the 2nd revsion of Athlon (much like Coppermine is the 2nd revision of P3).
If you care the Duron is value desktop, in the same category as Celeron. They are NOT in the same performance class, but they are in the same category....barely...

The TBird and P3 are pretty even at the same clock speed in games, the P3 has a slight edge but not much. The Athlon's FPU outclasses the P3 by a good margin, if you are into RC5 cracking, or heavy duty professional 3D work then AMD's CPUs are definately for you. For games they are pretty close.

A P3-500 to an TBird 900 is quite a decent jump. With a DDR GeForce you should notice a decent jump in performance.

Don't expect windows desktop performance to increase, MS Word stopped being CPU limited around a P2-350 (the RAM speed should increase Windows 2D speed though)

All in all, I'd probably go for it, I'd like to upgrade my 550 with 128MB of PC100 RAM to a 900 with 128MB of PC133 RAM

 

[rockhard]

Hi

Ive just done the same as u
If you are looking for better performance than ur current rig then u have nothing to worry about
With a gig T-bird im getting Sandra CPU benchmark 2898mips/1394fpu, memory bench 560ish/655ish when at cas2.

If u havent yet got your ram be sure to get some ram that will do high memory mhz. I thought my Crucial Cas2 was up to the job but it aint, had to order some Mushkin PC133 rev2 EMS's PC150 HSDRAM would also be ideal.

A lot of people are saying that u cant overclock the fsb much? hmmm?
Im beginning to wonder if it may be their ram thats at fault like me as i also thought i couldnt overclock the fsb much till now Doing 115 fsb with my Crucial @ cas3. Goin to see if i can get it to do 120 fsb when i get the mushkin as i have read of other people reaching this and am beggining to think these guys have the ram that'll do 160mhz cas2. Heh, i can always pop a bigger fan/sink on the northbridge if i have any trouble

If u go down this road make sure u have the latest official bios flashed/installed and make sure u have all the latest drivers, 4in1's etc.
If ur goin to use Win2k make sure u install the reg fix also and you should have no problems

Oh yeah, an alpha sink/fan be nice

Heh, threads like this goin to have the Intel zealots turning in their grave at one of their own jumpin ship ROFLMAO

Good luck buddy,

rockhard =)

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Apparently not everyone dislikes the new simlies...

 

[rockhard]

NaughtyusMaximus U remember my post about these naff smilies a bit back i see

I just use them as a creature of habit.
Wish these smilies were like the UBB ones. The animated ones ive seen like the one where two smilies are humping cracks me up
Shame UBB doesnt have the features of this board, as it looks good too.

rockhard =)

 

[Mem]

SammyUSMC, I say yes,btw I`ve just upgraded from Intel celeron 333 to 900 T-bird & well I won`t talk about speed since it was fast,anyway stability wise rock solid,very happy,I`ve no problems recommending AMD & T-bird system.

 

[HellRaven]

I went from k6-2 400 to a soon to be 1ghz (hopefully) AMD Duron and it was a big jump. I just need a new vid card (V3 3k).

 

[chiwawa626]

ive gone p3 450 to tbird 900,
i knoticed stuff like netscape, Ie , office load faster, and it makes my adsl seem faster.
and for games, it did wonders its worth the upgrade