• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

How high of a processor would i need to take full advantage of a 9800 Pro?

4

4fingerwu1

Senior member
I currently have a athlon 1600
How high of a processor would I need to take full advantage of the speed of a 9800 Pro?
Basically what is the minimum processor speed I could utilize and still take full advantage of the 9800
 
Originally posted by: 4fingerwu1
I currently have a athlon 1600
How high of a processor would I need to take full advantage of the speed of a 9800 Pro?
Basically what is the minimum processor speed I could utilize and still take full advantage of the 9800
Click to expand...

How high of a processor does your motherboard take? 😉
 
Even a 3.2ghz p4 takes full advantage of a 9800Pro as 3dmark score increases linearly even from 1600+ so it's a tricky question to answer. At the same time your 1600+ will play games at exactly the same speed as a 3.2ghz p4 at 1600x1200, especially with AA/AF enabled
 
Russian your sentences seem to contradict each other
If there is a linear increase with processor speed how can the game performance be the same between a 1600 and 3200 to use an example?
 
I don't think that there's a certain rule that can be applied in this case.
Experiencing the latest games though with the heavy shaders of dx9 and observing the requirements for optimal performance in the readme files, I must say that a mediocre processor could be a bottleneck for your system.
A P4 C or a A64 would be the perfect choice for any case.
See IMO it's just not a matter of "fully utilizing" the gpu, it's a matter of having a strong system.Ram is essential too.

 
You basically need a 3.2 GHz class processor or faster; I went from a 2.666 GHz P4 to a A64 3200+ and I still noticed a difference in some games at 1600 x 1200 with a 9700 Pro. Of course even then a lot of games are still CPU limited at times.

Here, take a look.
 
Originally posted by: BFG10K
You basically need a 3.2 GHz class processor or faster; I went from a 2.666 GHz P4 to a A64 3200+ and I still noticed a difference in some games at 1600 x 1200 with a 9700 Pro. Of course even then a lot of games are still CPU limited at times.

Here, take a look.
Click to expand...

wow.. nice job.. that must've taken a bit of time 🙂
 
Well, if it helps at all, here are the system requirements on the 9800 Pro box:

Pentium4/III, Celeron II
AMD K7/Athlon/Athlon XP
128MB system RAM
 
Originally posted by: 4fingerwu1
Russian your sentences seem to contradict each other
If there is a linear increase with processor speed how can the game performance be the same between a 1600 and 3200 to use an example?
Click to expand...

There is a linear increase for all resolutions other than 1600x1200 at which point the cpu speed stops to matter. And once you pile up 4AA and 8AF on top of that your videocard will be playing the game and your cpu will just be laying on the couch.

Here is an example.

Look at UT2003

As you can see at all resolutions other than 1600x1200 cpu speed matters. But after that it does not. Also imagine playing at 1600x1200 with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. So my statement about the importance of cpu speed is thus partially wrong and partially right.

Here is another example:

Quake 3 indifferent to CPU speed at 1600x1200
*when i say indifferent I mean almost when from lowest to highest cpu the speed difference if 5FPS out of 250FPS you know cpu speed doesn't matter.

And most games react this way, but of course a lot of ppl do not play at high resolutions. Remember, the higher the resolution and graphical settings you have set, the less important the cpu speed is. That is why I always try to tell people that GPU matters the most for real world gaming regardless of what 3dmark01 or whatever other benchmark tells you.

It's true cpu speed matters to some extent for calculating AI and all that neat stuff, but CPU cannot calculate shadows, lighting, pixel and vertex shaders, and takes way longer to render a scene than a dedicated graphics card. Of course my argument is not 100% valid as if you pair a 500mhz celeron with radeon 9800Pro of course you'd be chocking due to slow memory and the fact that cpu speed is way too low but between 2ghz and 3ghz it doesnt make a lot of difference. I personally think, if you play videogames upgrade the videocard first always unless your cpu is severely lacking.

just look at BFG's post and you can clearly see the difference between a 2.666 and his 3200+ is minimal at best and definately does not warrant an upgrade strictly for gaming at high resolutions. Now imagine if he has a geforce 4 4200 instead of 9800Pro or any other faster card, not even a 4ghz cpu would help him achieve such high scores. So if you play at high resolutions like I do then you should buy the videocard and forget the cpu upgrade if you are on a tight budget. If you play at 1024x768 a cpu upgrade would be beneficial.
 
wow.. nice job.. that must've taken a bit of time 🙂
Click to expand...
Thanks; it wasn't too bad. I'd have posted it here too but Anandtech doesn't have the tags that I need to get the formatting right like Ars does.

just look at BFG's post and you can clearly see the difference between a 2.666 and his 3200+ is minimal at best
Click to expand...
Careful now; you have to look at each game individually and what setting I ran it at before passing judgement. Looking at the results as a whole doesn't work.

Yes, the 9700 Pro is certainly limiting in games like the three Quakes at the settings I use. But look at UT2003 (botmatches) and Elite Force 2 which are running at 1280 x 960 and you'll see significant gains. Also if we assume he doesn't run at 1600 x 1200 or higher like I did the gap will increase even more.

Also if you get a really CPU limited game like Undying then the gap will increase dramatically (50% faster in my case), even at the 1792 x 1344 setting I play it at.
 
Originally posted by: BFG10K
wow.. nice job.. that must've taken a bit of time 🙂
Click to expand...
Thanks; it wasn't too bad. I'd have posted it here too but Anandtech doesn't have the tags that I need to get the formatting right like Ars does.

just look at BFG's post and you can clearly see the difference between a 2.666 and his 3200+ is minimal at best
Click to expand...
Careful now; you have to look at each game individually and what setting I ran it at before passing judgement. Looking at the results as a whole doesn't work.

Yes, the 9700 Pro is certainly limiting in games like the three Quakes at the settings I use. But look at UT2003 (botmatches) and Elite Force 2 which are running at 1280 x 960 and you'll see significant gains. Also if we assume he doesn't run at 1600 x 1200 or higher like I did the gap will increase even more.

Also if you get a really CPU limited game like Undying then the gap will increase dramatically (50% faster in my case), even at the 1792 x 1344 setting I play it at.
Click to expand...

Thumbs up for the nice job man. I would be extremely curious to see similar results with a P4C scaling from 2.4 to 3.2 compared with an A64 3.2
 
I say just go with the strongest processor your motherboard can handle (2500 i think you said), maybe a mobile barton 2500+ or so, unless you are willing to switch your motherboard, either way I'd recommend the 2500+ overclocked to somewhere around a 3200+, that should give you the best bang for your buck, I don't think you will notice too big a difference from that setup or a high-end processor and new mb compared to the weight loss in your wallet! Games are still a bit behind using the 9800 pro's (and high-end cpus) full potential anyhow so relax for now as you'd have to spend way too much dough to run the card full power. Also make sure your current mobo supports at least a 166 (333 processor) bus that can be overclocked faster than that or your board will be just plain too slow to keep up with the cpu/vid card.

Just MHO🙂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top