Poll: HELP!! Theoretical ? AMD Duron vs. AMD T-Bird for GAMING

Fisher999

Golden Member
Nov 12, 1999
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I'm sorry I am unable to do the research right now to try to resolve this dilemma myself.

I have an I-Will KK-266-R mobo-with Via KT-133A chipset-(which received a 9/10 rating in a recent Anandtech review) on order and due to arrive VERY SOON.

I also ALREADY have an Intel 800EB on an ASUS CUSL2 with 256MB of Mushkin HP Rev 2 and the Gigabyte GeForce 2 GTS.

THE DILEMMA IS THIS:


Which scenario would prove the most cost effective for a decent gaming rig?


AMD Duron 750 to 850 MHz?
AMD T-Bird 800 to 900 MHz?
Intel PIII 800EB on an Asus CUSL2 with the Gigabyte GeForce 2 GTS (already owned)

The price difference I'm looking at is around $60-$70 for the AMD Duron vs the T-Bird.

I ALREADY have BOTH of the Gigabyte cards (see below) at my disposal.


Hardware on hand to install in rig:

128 MB Mushkin Rev 2 PC-133 CAS 2
2-Maxtor 10 GB 7200 RPM, ATA-66 Hard Drives
Gigabyte GA-GF2560T (standard GeForce 256)
or Gigabyte GA-GF2000 (Geforce 2 GTS)
Pioneer DVD-115

Other equipment that could end up in this rig:

Linksys LNE-100 TX NIC
ATI TV Wonder TV Tuner Card
Sigma Designs REALMagic Hollywood Plus DVD-Decoder Card
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! MP3+ (future upgrade to Platinum 5.1 with LiveDrive II)
TKD VELO CD 12X10X32X CD-RW Drive

Power Supply: Enhance ATX-730
+3.3 V 30A
+5.5 V 20A
+12 V 14A
Maximum Combined Wattage on +3.3V and +5.0V rails= 165 Watts

TOTAL POWER AVAILABLE FROM P/S is 300 WATTS.
THIS P/S is ON AMD's APPROVED Power Supply List!!!!


Which is easier (or more RELIABLE) to overclock (by unlocking the CPU multiplier and running the CPU at 133MHz times X multiplier, where X equals the highest multiplier
to get a STABLE system: The AMD DURON or the AMD T-Bird?

I don't have my spec sheet available right now but I think I recall that the T-Bird
is more Amperage hungry.

Is the Duron a better OC'ing choice?

Suggested HSF's? Thermaltake Chrome Orb? (clip-on variety)?

The above equipment runs very stable on an Asus CUSL2 with an Intel 800EB FC-PGA CPU and 256 MB Mushkin Rev 2 with the same two Maxtor hard drives!

The key is STABILITY; I looking for the most reliable and STABLE OC'ing scenario
VERSUS a GOOD BALANCE of gaming performance!!!!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as there is a computer show in my town tomorrow, Sunday March 11th so I have to make a AMD CPU decision quickly.

Thanks for any imput!!!!
 

arod

Diamond Member
Sep 26, 2000
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You're going to need more than a 165 watt ps. BARE MIN of 250. I have a chrome orb that i got for $11 and its runs a tbird 900 @ 1050.
 

BurntKooshie

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,204
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If you run games at a high res, at this point, games are fillrate/bandwidth limited, so even the "lower end" duron will perform like a champ. Wether that will hold for future games, I dunno.
 

KevinH

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2000
3,110
7
81
Yep, any 800mhz'ish processor can handle the current video cards with ease. Of course, bumping up cpu horsepower will help if you play with the lower quality/resolutions. However, for the most part, the bottleneck becomes the video card at that point.


-k-
 

Fisher999

Golden Member
Nov 12, 1999
1,670
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TTT

I REALLY need some opinions on NOT ONLY the Duron vs T-Bird question

but ALSO the Intel PIII 800EB vs. AMD Duron vs. AMD T-Bird dilemma.


ASSUMING ALL OTHER HARDWARE VARIABLES are the SAME.... which of the three
choice above would make provide the BEST BALANCE of STABILITY versus PERFORMANCE???

This question ALSO ASSUMES that the AMD choice will be multiplier UNLOCKED and OC'd as high as possible and that the INTEL PIII 800EB would be running NON-oc'd.

Thanks for any input.

ALSO, PLEASE VOTE IN THE POLL....
 

johneetrash

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2001
3,791
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stop yelling :(

anywho i agree with the others and probably a duron would suit you best.. and when you get the amd system u can compare it to your intel system ;)
 

Cosmic_Horror

Golden Member
Oct 10, 1999
1,500
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ok at high res (say 1200 x 1024 @ 32 bit) the duron, athlon and P3 800 will all run at the sam speed because the video card will be the limiting factor.

the most cost effective gaming rig would be the duron with the geforce 256.

Are you looking to replace your current setup? or biuld another one?

depending on the game the speed of the processors would be

athlon @900
p3 @800
with a very close duron @ 850


the duron should overclock better as it;s defult voltage is lower than the athlon hence has a little more head room.

to be honest with you, if you are replace your current setup i doubt you will see any difference in how fast it runs, and thus yhou are just wasting money...

if you are seting up a second gaming rig the go with the duron as it is a better price to preformance ratio :)
 

MGMorden

Diamond Member
Jul 4, 2000
3,348
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I'd say to get a radeon le over a geforce 256. Also if you get one of the newer duron's you're probably going to have a good chance of hitting 1ghz (or at least 900mhz).
 

esung

Golden Member
Oct 13, 1999
1,063
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If you want stability, then don't OC the system after all, because if you only OC 50Mhz over, it still introduce a factor that could cause programs, which will make you think whether your problem might be due to OC. BTW, as for reliability, just change the multiplier, since FSB will OC everything in your ssytem.

and even if Duron has a better OC ability, it still perform slower then Tbird because it's smaller L2 cache(the contribution to better
overclocking). IMHO, unless you can OC Duron much higher then the Tbird can attain(150Mhz or more), stay with T-bird for it's performance. another factor is the cost to OC (a lot people do it for hobby, so cost isn't the consideration), if you have to spend more
money on the cooling peripherals, might as well use the extra money to
buy a high speed CPU and run it at normal speed anyway.

The last thing is, what kind of games you are planning to play? and what quality of the game is your main goal?will
it be graphic intensive? or CPU intensive? if it's CPU intensive, of
course you'll want something that as fast as possilbe(flight sims like
M$ Flight simulator, X-plane, or strategy games like Harpoon4), otherwise you can just get a slower CPU and use a faster video card.
 

Verygreedy

Senior member
Feb 25, 2001
257
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T bird is a better CPU no doubt about it! If cost is an issue then it doesnt matter.. get a 1.2 GHZ Tbird.. they arent that expensive.. 220? or less now..
 

SammyBoy

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2001
3,570
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go to compuwiz1,

buy a Tbird 750 that is guaranteed to run 7.5X133 for 1gig, and its at 133fsb so it is faster.

all you have to do is possibly boost the voltage and change the jumper and youve got 1 gig.

the cpus compuwiz1 sells are also unlocked so you can experiment with lower multipliers and TURBO fsb speeds.

I believe that these were selling for 105 SHIPPED from him last week

KILLER DEAL, go for it
 

nortexoid

Diamond Member
May 1, 2000
4,096
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i'd say go with the duron because 1) although t-birds are faster than durons, durons tend to overclock better; 2) higher resolution/color depth = video card bottleneck, not cpu...so u won't notice any difference between the 3 cpus u're considering; 3) between general applications and games u're not going to notice any difference between the duron, t-bird and p3; 4) the duron is cheaper.
 

robg1701

Senior member
Feb 12, 2000
560
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Arod, note that he says 165w Combined on the PSU, hes not saying its a 165w PSU :p

Just to cover myself, i see that he has edited his original message, but the forum lists the message times and the edit times in different timezones, so if he added the bit about the total power after you posted then i withtract my comment, hehe.