How important is cache??

[ender11122]

I am thinking about building a very cheap gaming rig for the girlfriend and am wondering how a sempron would perform. The $69 cpu/mobo combo is to much to pass up if the CPU wont limit it to much. Thinking of coupling the combo with a 6800NU or something like that.

Anyways, the question is, is the sempron going to gimp gaming, or in this kind of lower end setup will the limitations be elsewhere (read video card)? Also, is there any drastic architectural difference between sempron and A64 other than chache size?

 

[HardWarrior]

I'm not up on the sempron enough to say for sure. However, I can say that it pretty much hinges on what games she wants to play, at what detail level and resolution she wants to play at and how much stutter she can endure. The more you spend the more performance return you get. As far as cache, you can look at all contemporary computer architecture as very dependent upon increasingly faster storage\temporary holding areas for data. The registers in a CPU are nothing more than holding areas for data to be manipulated. Metal oxide particles on a hard drive platter save the same purpose. The only real difference between the two is speed. So yeah, caches make a difference.

 

[nyker96]

The A64 (.5Mb) and Sempy 64 (.25Mb on certain models) has cache difference and single vs. dual channel RAM diff. Also the 754 generally goes with AGP and 939 with PCI-e g-card. The cache does make a difference in games, I'm running my budget gaming setup for low end gaming coupled with 6600GT. From the benchmarks it takes about 100-300Mhz of hit vs. a comparable A64 setup in gamez. So a 2.4Ghz Sempy = about 2.1Ghz A64. That is if the bottleneck is on your CPU. However for all none game stuff, a 2.4Ghz Sempy runs faster than a 2.2Ghz A64. But since sempy is cheap and OCable, it's a very good deal. My total RAM+mb+Sempy 2800+ CPU costs about 200 bucks. Plus g-card it's about 300. Overall, I also discovered that the bottleneck in my gamez (Oblivion etc) is usually in g-card not the CPU.

 

[betasub]

OP: if you're talking about a Skt 754 Sempron, then it should stand up to gaming pretty well (having the same architecture as the Athlon64). Cache size isn't a major factor (unlike for Intel's Netburst architecture), and 256kB doesn't cripple the Sempron like some low-cache Celerons. Should be a pretty well balanced system with a 6800NU or 6600GT graphics card.

If the Sempron/mobo combo you are looking at is Skt A, then effectively you're dealing with an older AthlonXP-type set-up. While not necessarily too slow for budget gaming, yoiu'd be CPU-limited with a 6800NU, & you could do a whole lot better (i.e. the Skt754 set-up).