Small upgrade worth it?

[Illusio]

I know its old, but would I see much of a difference If I upgraded a processor from an AMD Sempron 64 3000+ to a AMD Athlon 64 up to 3700+?

I only use the computer to play 1 game (city of heroes) so I don't want to put a lot of money into it, its just to tide me over till i get afford a macbookpro later this year.

How much of a performance boost would I see? Currently i have that with 1gig of ram and a Radeon 8500 graphics card (no laughing please).

 

[coolpurplefan]

With a game like UT2004, you'd see a significant difference. I don't know if you mean a socket 754 because the only place you could find those is probably eBay. 2.4 GHz would be worth it. In the socket 939, I'd still go for a 2.4 GHz. In any case, it does depend which benchmarks you're looking at.

Yeah, that graphics card does kind of suck. I guess you could find a cheap Geforce 6600. I just ordered an X1650 XT because it has passive cooling but not as powerful as the X1950 Pro. I'm not sure I'd go lower than X1650 XT these days because apparently all of them are HDCP compliant.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

If your just looking to improve game performance your better off just upgrading the Video Card. That 8500 is probably your biggest culprit, and I remember seeing a AGP 6600GT for ~ $50 on the hot deals page.

 

[Illusio]

It is a socket 754. I was debating getting a AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2.2GHz Socket 754 Processor. But if you think a vid card would be better, maybe I'll do that instead.

 

[coolpurplefan]

Yeah, I just saw an article with benchmarks on that card and it's dated March,2002. I'd say even the 6600 non-GT would beat that card hands down. But the GT model would be even better.

I just did a search and here is the 6600 GT for sale at Tigerdirect.com
I've ordered from Tigerdirect.CA because I'm in Canada. Be very careful with the rebates. You have to follow every single instruction to the letter or I've heard they won't pay it. In my case, all rebates from Tigerdirect.ca were paid but I included every single copy of everything they wanted and I used a street address. In any case, here it is:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications...em-details.asp?EdpNo=2884779&CatId=318

That's the AGP model. The PCI-Express model is even cheaper.

There's some more here:
http://www.compuvest.com/Search.jsp?Search=VCG6600GAPB&advsite=shopping

 

[Maximilian]

I dont think you would see any noticeable performance increase at all from upgrading the cpu, especially if you only play that 1 game. Go with what dark jedi said and upgrade the video card.

 

[f4phantom2500]

i also think you should upgrade that video card. a sempron 64 3000 is far and away above an equivalent processor for a radeon 8500 (it's basically an a64 with less cache, it's really not all that bad). if i were you i'd get that 6600gt, it'll be a huge upgrade and will totally destroy that radeon 8500.

 

[yuppiejr]

Newegg has the socket 754, Venice core Athlon 64 3200+ CPU for $36 shipped (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103035) - if overclocking is in the cards this would be the processor to get even over the 3700+ model. If you're running stock speeds, I'd probably spend my money on the video card first.

You might want to check out this post for some AGP cards in the FS section here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=45&threadid=2053220&enterthread=y

He's got a Leadtek 6800LE, 128 meg AGP card for $55 shipped or a X800XT AGP with aftermarket cooler for $80 shipped. Both seemed pretty well priced to me.

 

[Illusio]

Cool, there is a tigerdirect right by my house, so I?ll stop in and see about getting a 6600GT. If they don?t have it, I also was checking out circuit city (overpriced, but I have a gift card I could use to help defray the costs). They had these 2 models. Are they any good? How do they compare to the 6600GT or what I have now?

6200LE and 7600GS

 

[coolpurplefan]

You mean which would you get between the 6200LE and 7600GS?

The 7600GS would beat it. The 6200LE is not worth getting. I wonder if you'd need a new power supply though. 6600 GT may not require a new PSU but maybe a 7600GS might require you to upgrade your PSU. I'd have to check of course.

I guess I'm wrong about the new PSU. Looks like the 7600GS is pretty efficient. I don't know if anyone can confirm that but the extreme outervision PSU calculator puts it pretty low in power consumption.

 

[Illusio]

There are so many fricking numbers with these geforce cards, I have no idea whats good and whats not now a days. Is there certain ones in general that are good or is it just the higher number the better?

 

[coolpurplefan]

Originally posted by: Dark Jedi
There are so many fricking numbers with these geforce cards, I have no idea whats good and whats not now a days. Is there certain ones in general that are good or is it just the higher number the better?

Well, you can say the 7600 is more powerful than the 6600. If you're that confused about it, look up the benchmarks at Xbitlabs and Tom's Hardware. You might have to click around to find the older benchmarks but it's not that bad.

If you're looking for an ATI card, I'd be looking at X1650 XT then X1950 Pro. There's already a thread about that in the video forum.

 

[coolpurplefan]

Ah, here's a cool link:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-x1650xt_6.html#sect1

 

[Illusio]

I actually wanted to go with the GeForce because the ATIs have been having issues with the latest patch of COH.

 

[Bradtechonline]

I got two rigs here at my house. I run a clawhammer s754 3700+ that I was thinking about selling on ebay so I could go dual core possibly. They are selling for about 150-160 on ebay right now.

Which ironically is the same price for a Core 2 Duo E6320. I dunno if it would be worth paying that much or not. There are some lower model Socket 754's I think the 3400+ which can OC pretty good.

 

[coolpurplefan]

7600 GS AGP $99 U.S. (I know they deliver to Canada as well.)
http://www.compuvest.com/Description.js...essionid=a9GqIDJBnwfgma0_Jl?iid=459634

EDIT: I just made some comparisons with the 7900 GS and I couldn't find a better price than that. That $99 US deal for a 7600 GS AGP is the best deal I can find. I could look more, but I'm kind of tired. Heh.

 

[f4phantom2500]

don't get a 7600GS for $100; it's a good card, but it's not worth that much more than the 6600GT. If I were you, I wouldn't look any lower than a 6600GT, then like the 6800 series, and I would rank the 7600GS between the 6800GS and GT (since you're going AGP), and then the 7600GT. I wouldn't even consider an AGP 6800 Ultra, as they require 2 molex connectors. That's the highest I would consider going for AGP, as the 7800GS is overpriced imo.

 

[coolpurplefan]

OK, I just looked at some benchmarks and yes, the 7600 GS is only a little better than the 6600 GT. Gee, that was weird. But, I suppose the 7600 GS might have better Purevideo or better HDR. I don't know. There must be a reason why it's in the 7000 series and not the 6000 series. Oh well.

 

[lopri]

I'd say any Sempron to any Athlon64 is worthwhile. Especially if you intend to overclock. (which you should ) I mean, I know we now have Core 2 Duo and all, but I still remember how fast A64 @2.7~3.0GHz is. Up until early this year I had an Opteron 146 @3.0GHz and an E6600 @3.60GHz, and most of the games ran equally fast. (of course the bottleneck being video cards) And you won't tell the difference with normal office app. (except running a script/macro/database) But Semprons are weak so do Celerons. I have a Celeron 331 ($21, ) as an emergency CPU, and even at 4.0GHz, it feels sluggish. Upgrading from Sempron to Athlon64, and overclocking it to 2.40~2.60Ghz (and beyond, if you want/can) will definitely improve your overall computing experience.

 

[coolpurplefan]

Ah, I found a real cool article here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/01/...g_video_cards_for_the_money/index.html

As you can see in the URL, it's a list of the best video cars for the money for May, 2007. There's a list for AGP as well as for PCI-Express. It's a wicked find. Too bad I didn't see fanless cards mentioned.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: lopri
I'd say any Sempron to any Athlon64 is worthwhile. Especially if you intend to overclock. (which you should ) I mean, I know we now have Core 2 Duo and all, but I still remember how fast A64 @2.7~3.0GHz is. Up until early this year I had an Opteron 146 @3.0GHz and an E6600 @3.60GHz, and most of the games ran equally fast. (of course the bottleneck being video cards) And you won't tell the difference with normal office app. (except running a script/macro/database) But Semprons are weak so do Celerons. I have a Celeron 331 ($21, ) as an emergency CPU, and even at 4.0GHz, it feels sluggish. Upgrading from Sempron to Athlon64, and overclocking it to 2.40~2.60Ghz (and beyond, if you want/can) will definitely improve your overall computing experience.

dude, he's using a radeon 8500. a sempron is slow, but if all he wants is faster gaming, upgrading that cpu won't help much because he's already really bottlenecked there; he needs a better video card. you know what you said about your 3ghz opteron and 3.6ghz c2d running equally fast? that's what would happen if he upgraded to an athlon and overclocked it because his video card is so old. i mean, the geforce 4 ti's outperform his card.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500

Originally posted by: lopri
I'd say any Sempron to any Athlon64 is worthwhile. Especially if you intend to overclock. (which you should ) I mean, I know we now have Core 2 Duo and all, but I still remember how fast A64 @2.7~3.0GHz is. Up until early this year I had an Opteron 146 @3.0GHz and an E6600 @3.60GHz, and most of the games ran equally fast. (of course the bottleneck being video cards) And you won't tell the difference with normal office app. (except running a script/macro/database) But Semprons are weak so do Celerons. I have a Celeron 331 ($21, ) as an emergency CPU, and even at 4.0GHz, it feels sluggish. Upgrading from Sempron to Athlon64, and overclocking it to 2.40~2.60Ghz (and beyond, if you want/can) will definitely improve your overall computing experience.

dude, he's using a radeon 8500. a sempron is slow, but if all he wants is faster gaming, upgrading that cpu won't help much because he's already really bottlenecked there; he needs a better video card. you know what you said about your 3ghz opteron and 3.6ghz c2d running equally fast? that's what would happen if he upgraded to an athlon and overclocked it because his video card is so old. i mean, the geforce 4 ti's outperform his card.

Yeah, and tbh semprons are no slouch, theyre pretty decent performers.

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: Soviet

Originally posted by: f4phantom2500

Originally posted by: lopri
I'd say any Sempron to any Athlon64 is worthwhile. Especially if you intend to overclock. (which you should ) I mean, I know we now have Core 2 Duo and all, but I still remember how fast A64 @2.7~3.0GHz is. Up until early this year I had an Opteron 146 @3.0GHz and an E6600 @3.60GHz, and most of the games ran equally fast. (of course the bottleneck being video cards) And you won't tell the difference with normal office app. (except running a script/macro/database) But Semprons are weak so do Celerons. I have a Celeron 331 ($21, ) as an emergency CPU, and even at 4.0GHz, it feels sluggish. Upgrading from Sempron to Athlon64, and overclocking it to 2.40~2.60Ghz (and beyond, if you want/can) will definitely improve your overall computing experience.

dude, he's using a radeon 8500. a sempron is slow, but if all he wants is faster gaming, upgrading that cpu won't help much because he's already really bottlenecked there; he needs a better video card. you know what you said about your 3ghz opteron and 3.6ghz c2d running equally fast? that's what would happen if he upgraded to an athlon and overclocked it because his video card is so old. i mean, the geforce 4 ti's outperform his card.

Yeah, and tbh semprons are no slouch, theyre pretty decent performers.

QFT. Don't confuse an A64-based Sempron with some old Netburst junk, even if they are both marketed as budget The Sempron has plenty of OC potential as well, but as plenty of posters have stated, the old 8500 is clearly the part that needs upgrading: another vote for a cheap 6600GT AGP :thumbsup:

 

[lopri]

Didn't see the Radeon 8500 part. LOL. Sorry ignore my post please.

 

[yuppiejr]

OP - what kind of PC is this that we're talking about upgrading - is this a "name brand" Dell/HP/Acer/etc... or a homebuilt setup? Do you know what kind of mainboard you have (brand/model)? Also, what brand and model of power supply - and what are it's published specifications including 3.3/5/12v rail amperages?

Knowing the above info will help us narrow down the right upgrade for you. I think spending $100 on a new 7600GS series AGP card is a waste, look for something in the ATI x800 series or Nvidia 6600/6800 lineup and either get more for your money or spend half as much for the same performance in a used part. Heck, a Radeon 9800 pro would be a huge upgrade from the 8500 you're currently using - and if you're only playing one game, is probably more than enough to get you by until you move into the new powerbook.