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How much does my 6600gt depend on my CPU SPEED

M

Monoxide Child

Junior Member
I have a 2.4 pentium 4, 1 gig of ram dual channel and a HD with 8 meg cache.
But i am am less then impressed with my 6600gt, AGP.
I play alot of CS:Source and just can't get the frame rates i want.
I have upgraded my power supply to a 450w unit and that did give a marked improvment but still not what i bought a 6600gt for !!!
IS IT WORTH UPGRADING MY CPU ???
 
Yes, 2.4 just isn't cutting it nowadays (I don't know if you can overclock, if you haven't you may want to try that) A lot of games out there are heavily CPU dependent.
 
Which P4 2.4 are you using?

2.4, 400fsb or even 533fsb, is likely slow enough to be limiting.

2.4C, 800fsb is unlikely to be *much* of a bottleneck, and as a bonus, should overclock quite well.
 
You are fine. You can always raise the resolution to 1600x1200 in games that you feel are cpu limited. As far as CS:Source is concerned, check the frames using FRAPS. I am not sure what you find too slow for yourself. You should be easily getting 100frames at 1024x768 with your setup. If that score decreases dramatically with higher resolutions and settings, it is mostly your 6600GT to blame.

You could always try to overclock the 2.4 (esp if it's C revision) as those go to 3.2+
 
yeah i have just done a fresh install

i am only getting 55 fps in the cs sourse video test

that is with no aa or anti anilising sh*t on !!!
 
That seems really low. At 1024x768 4xAA/16xAF I can get over 104 FPS in the stress test. What drivers are you using? I'm guessign that your CPU is dragging you down, but it could be many other things. If possible, you may want to OC you card a bit. Depending on the core, you may be able to get a few hundred extra MHz (much more if it is an 800MHz model).

Edit: try cranking up your setting a little bit and see if our score changes much. If not, your system is CPU limited. If it does change alot, it is something else messed up (drivers, hardware, etc.). Even at 1600x1200 6xAA/16xAF, reflect all (completely maxed out) I still get over 70 FPS.
 
SneakyStuff < THANKS MAN 🙂

I got slated in a thread last week as i said more and more new games need cpu/gpu not like old days just gpu, this info is avail all over web, yet i get peeps telling me i talk crap etc, i compaired to mates pcs with 1 having amd2800xp and crappy g 4mx passive gpu playing PK better than the others p4 2.0gig and 5600 non ultra 256MB gpu.

At least some here know what there talking about and i build pcs for living for my own customers but most not use £400+ gpus

Fact is lots of new games are pc rapers like farcry and even chrome was bad on cpu.

You need decent cpu added to decent gpu nowdays to play new games.
 
Monoxide Child... you still didn't specify WHICH 2.4GHz P4 you have... three differant bus speeds can make a serious impact on what results your getting... big differance between a 2.4GHz 400MHz FSB and 2.4GHz 800MHz FSB.

This might explain your problem if you've got a 400MHz FSB.
 
Also look into your MB BIOS firmware. Go to the manufacturer's website and see if you have the most current BIOS, and if not, flash the BIOS... that might help with a few things, never know.

I'm not sure how much of a performance hit there is between the 2.4 533 and 2.4 800... I'm sure this plays into things a bit though.

I have a 3.0GHz 800FSB P4 (i865 chipset) with a 6600GT, and am very happy with my Doom3 gamespeed and resolution, though I certainly can't max everything out (probably would need a 6800GT for that).

Other then that, just ensure you have the most current video and MB drivers available, and you turn off any background CPU cycle-sucking programs like virus checkers and the like.

Another thought, if you have a 533MHz FSB P4, does that mean you have the i845 chipset? If so, that limits your 6600GT to AGP4X instead of AGP8X.

If you have a 533MHz FSB combined with limiting the 6600GT to AGP4X, all these things probably will slow it down enough to make a noticeable dent in performance/speed. If these last observations are true, I'd say it's your FSB and AGP settings that are limiting the 6600GT from giving you it's full benefit. You might be CPU/MB limited rather then the video card not giving it's all.
 
thanx heaps Wolfshanze, great amount of help, you are definately onto it, you are right and the cpu limiting the card to 4x agp !!!!! Right on the money, i am off to buy a new CPU tomorrow, will let you know how the results go !!!
 
Another thought, if you have a 533MHz FSB P4, does that mean you have the i845 chipset? If so, that limits your 6600GT to AGP4X instead of AGP8X.
Click to expand...

It has been stated here many, many times that there is no noticeable performance difference between 4x and 8x agp?


thanx heaps Wolfshanze, great amount of help, you are definately onto it, you are right and the cpu limiting the card to 4x agp !!!!! Right on the money, i am off to buy a new CPU tomorrow, will let you know how the results go !!!
Click to expand...

It would NOT be the cpu which is limiting you to 4x agp. It's the mobo!

Umm. Hope nobody waste's any money here 😱

I'd recommend a little doing a benchie or two and comparing to similar rigs to make sure yours is set up properly b4 blowing $. Who knows, maybe the FSB is mistakenly set to 100 instead of 133? (Sissoft Sandra will tell about these sorts of problems).

Fern
 
Well it seems like you have an i845 chipset MB. There are a number of differances between it and more recent intel MB chipsets.

For instance the differance between an i845 and an i865 are:

FSB limitations... the i845 may be limited to 533MHz FSB while the i865 can go 800MHz FSB.

Dual Channel Memory... i865 has it... i845 doesn't.

AGP differances... i845 tops at 4x, i865 tops at 8x.

As the previous poster stated, you might want to double-check the differance between AGP4x and AGP8x and see if it matters... I do NOT speak from experience at saying there is a huge differance, I honestly don't know, I just know the differance between the i845 and i865 as I have both MBs in my house.

I suspect the bigger drag might just be the i845 architecture, FSB speed & Dual Channel support (or rather the lack of), and of course the differance between having a Celeron and a true P4.

Not sure what your budget is, or how much elbow grease you are willing to use, but in case you're interested the i865PE Asus P4P800SE (refurbished) MB is $49 bucks (a new one is $96). Not saying you need a new MB, just saying if you wanted dual-channel, AGP8X and a faster FSB, it's something to consider.

Not sure if your i845 supports 800MHz FSB or not... some can with a BIOS flash, others are stuck at 533 or below. In either case, if you do decide to get a new P4, you should be looking at one with a FSB of 800MHz or above (once again, check your current MB for compatability). So which model MB do you have?

As the previous poster stated, it's the MB that limits you to AGP4x, not the CPU... but since you have a Celeron, it's not exactly a screamer at game performance either, so it probably wouldn't hurt to get a "real" Pentium 4.

Research, research, research!
 
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