Is a 1.8ghz p4 a bottleneck to newer video cards?

[Silversierra]

How much bottleneck would a 1.8ghz p4 northwood 400mhz fsb be for a 6600(vanilla) agp card? Would it bottleneck a card like that very much? If so how much(estimate: bad, moderate, some, etc)? Thank you!

 

[THUGSROOK]

yes ~ extreme

 

[RussianSensation]

6600 is roughly equal to say 9700Pro/9800Pro. So, those cards max out at P4 2.6-2.8ghz. Either way both the processor and the videocard are bottlenecks for you for today's latest games. You should be able to play anything at 1024x768 though.

 

[VIAN]

1.8 GHz, wow, that's like Geforce2 Ultra/Gefoce3

 

[sxr7171]

Whatever people say, even with an old processor like the 1.8 P-4 upgrading your video card will let you run games that you otherwise would not have been able to. It just won't be as much of improvement as it would be for someone with a faster processor.

 

[Aisengard]

I have a p4 1.8 (Willamette, not Northwood ) and have a Geforce 3 (Ti 200, not 500).

Just, you know, that's what I have.

...

...

*chirp*

 

[sxr7171]

I used to have (about 3 months ago) a P4 Williamette 1.7Ghz. I started with a GeForce MX200, upgraded to a GeForce 4 Ti4200, and ended with the Radeon 9700pro. Each upgrade made a big difference in game performance.

 

[NokiaDude]

It's time to upgrade.

 

[Spikesoldier]

Originally posted by: VIAN
1.8 GHz, wow, that's like Geforce2 Ultra/Gefoce3

more like gf4 ti4xxx series

 

[StrangerGuy]

Overclock that 1.8A and see how high it reaches? At 2.4GHz+ it should give a nice CPU boost.

 

[Painman]

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
Overclock that 1.8A and see how high it reaches? At 2.4GHz+ it should give a nice CPU boost.

If it's an SL68Q like my old one, 2.7-2.8 may not be out of the question.

 

[Lonyo]

How about how much RAM you have? That will make quite a difference as well (below 512MB = very bad, 512MB = acceptable)

 

[Lithan]

It's not too bad depending on what games we are talking about. If I were you I'd get a gig of pc3200 (2x512) and a 865 or 875 board and see how high that 1.8 overclocks (I'd set ram 1:1 with loose timings, then once I'd maxxed out cpu start tightening timings.)

 

[Silversierra]

I thought about oc'ing it, could it actually reach 2.4-2.6? I have 512mb of ram. Games like c&c generals, ron, aom, bf1942. Does anyone know if this board can overclock? Here's a link.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-222&depa=0

 

[StrangerGuy]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
I thought about oc'ing it, could it actually reach 2.4-2.6? I have 512mb of ram. Games like c&c generals, ron, aom, bf1942. Does anyone know if this board can overclock? Here's a link.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-222&depa=0

I will prefer the Abit IS7 myself as Abit mobos are more OCing oriented than Gigabytes.

And BTW, have you ever considered building a totally new system from scratch?

 

[Silversierra]

Ok, if you want the whole story here it is. I just built a new computer, vnf4ultra, 939 3000+, 6600gt, 1gb ram, etc, so I have a good computer and know how to build. I have an older computer with a p4 1.8ghz northwood 400mhz fsb. I'm thinking of upgrading it to use as a backup pc. It has a mobo that doesn't have agp, and doesn't have oc'ing options. I'm thinking of getting an agp mobo with oc'ing options, and possibly getting a 6600 or 6200 agp card for it. I would like to keep the cpu to keep the cost down, so I thought maybe I could oc my 1.8 to a more respectable speed. So what MICRO atx socket 478, mobo that supports the 400mhz fsb, should I be looking at to oc a 1.8ghz p4? Is the gigabyte I listed ok?

 

[Silversierra]

Would this be ok?
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-138-020&depa=0
It's cheap, seems like it's overclockable, matx, and has agp. I'm not sure if via or biostar are any good? Any input?

 

[Slaimus]

Is that a 1.8 or 1.8A? During the brief period my AthlonXP 1600+ was paired with a Geforce 6800, I did see very significant speed increases compared to the Ti4200 it replaced.
If it is a 1.8A, you should be able to get away with a 6600. The 6600 non-GT is more in line with a 9600XT, except maybe in Doom3.

 

[Silversierra]

How do I know if it's an a? I know it's a p4 northwood 400mhz fsb.

 

[Silversierra]

Everest says "Intel Pentium 4 A, 1800mhz", so it's a 1.8a? Is "a" good?
It also says Northwood A80532, does that mean anything, it's under cpu alias?
Edit: Holy cow, is this true?

Intel Pentium 4 1.8A. This CPU is one of the overclocker?s favorites. The Pentium 4 1.8A is among the junior Pentium 4 models on the 0.13-micron Northwood core and it can easily speed up reaching the frequencies of top-end Pentium 4 on this core. Nearly all Pentium 4 1.8A chips can overcome the 3GHz barrier and many such processors are stable at 3.2GHz and higher. You overclock the Pentium 4 1.8A through increasing the FSB because this CPU, like the Celeron, has a locked multiplier.

 

[RussianSensation]

Yeah you should take that 1.8A to 2.6ghz with ease. I dont know about being able to get over 3.0ghz easily...but dont waste $$ buying any motherboards. Overclock the cpu first. Then, depending how high you get it, pick a videocard to match it.

let us know.

 

[Silversierra]

Well, I can't oc now, my mobo has no oc options. It also has no agp, so if I upgrade I need a matx socket 478, 400mhz fsb cabable, and overclockable too preferably under $100, but lower is better. Can you use software oc'ing if your bios doesn't allow oc'ing?

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
Well, I can't oc now, my mobo has no oc options. It also has no agp, so if I upgrade I need a matx socket 478, 400mhz fsb cabable, and overclockable too preferably under $100, but lower is better. Can you use software oc'ing if your bios doesn't allow oc'ing?

Yes, download ClockGen (Clock Generator). I dont remember if it allows you to raise CPU voltage in Windows though.

 

[bobsmith1492]

The slow ram/FSB would likely be a big holdup. It was amazing the difference between this SIS mobo that limited me to DDR333 and 1.53 GHz and an Nforce II that got it up to 400 ram and 2.1 proc. Games were originally choppy when you turned around which disappeared immediately after the swap.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
yes ~ extreme