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Upgrade Time! X2 3800 vs 64 3800 venice

G

Gatecrasher3

Senior member
i have some money i would like to dump into my pc so im going to upgrade my cpu.
i have an OC (2mhz) 64 3000 and i would like to hit some better speeds.
all i really do is play games with my pc so im looking for the better cpu for gaming.
i would get the x2 but i have been hearing all this things that 2core is not has good for gaming.
what should i do?
 
The harsh reality is that dual core doesn't really benefit gaming at the moment. It may in the future, but it's hard to really say when and how much. An X2 is a great proc, but if you're on a really tight budget, a single core A64 will work too.
 
games liek Quake 4 do see a benfit though (As do Far Cry and COD2?? I'm not sure, I'm still working on a 2.533 P4 :laugh: ) But I do think as long as it can be afforded the X2 is definitely the better deal, if anything, to simply assign your game its own core, free from Windows background tasks.
 
WHo cares if it doesn't see a benefit gaming? You will see 100x more gain through dual core than with single core in overall system performance.

Losing 400mhz causes you to suffer like 5% performance, but the fact that you can multitask outweighs your 5% in framerate loss. Trust me.. this is not even a question anymore. I bought a 3700+ San Diego last August and I regretted it in like 2 months. We're 1 year ahead now and single core is seeing EOL and you're telling me it's even in consideration?
 
Originally posted by: Gatecrasher3
i have some money i would like to dump into my pc so im going to upgrade my cpu.
i have an OC (2mhz) 64 3000 and i would like to hit some better speeds.
all i really do is play games with my pc so im looking for the better cpu for gaming.
i would get the x2 but i have been hearing all this things that 2core is not has good for gaming.
what should i do?
Click to expand...

unless you are running one of the bette gpus, for gamng you may as well stay with the current cpu and get either more ram or a better gpu. for game, unless hitting the really high resolutions a 3200 is fine with a good gpu (with the exceptios of oblivion which need like 2x x1900xts and the faster cpu out there to maitain 30fps @1280x1024)
 
if you're an overclocker, then definitely get the dual core. it should OC to at least 2.4GHz, and some hit like 2.7-2.8GHz, so the lower speed penalty will vanish. in the long run the dual core will be better. more and more software is being written with multithreading, and even games are getting in on this - oblivion runs much better on a dual core for example.
 
Originally posted by: gobucks
if you're an overclocker, then definitely get the dual core. it should OC to at least 2.4GHz, and some hit like 2.7-2.8GHz, so the lower speed penalty will vanish. in the long run the dual core will be better. more and more software is being written with multithreading, and even games are getting in on this - oblivion runs much better on a dual core for example.
Click to expand...

he is, according to his example, not a hardcore o/cer with a 200MHz o/cer. op - no disrespect meant....but a 3800 x2 would be basically 2x what you have and in single threaded games, they will usually get 1 dedicated core while all the other background stuff is handled by the other one.

 
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: gobucks
if you're an overclocker, then definitely get the dual core. it should OC to at least 2.4GHz, and some hit like 2.7-2.8GHz, so the lower speed penalty will vanish. in the long run the dual core will be better. more and more software is being written with multithreading, and even games are getting in on this - oblivion runs much better on a dual core for example.
Click to expand...

he is, according to his example, not a hardcore o/cer with a 200MHz o/cer. op - no disrespect meant....but a 3800 x2 would be basically 2x what you have and in single threaded games, they will usually get 1 dedicated core while all the other background stuff is handled by the other one.
Click to expand...


Sorry, but you're too naive. Making threads in games that perfectly utilize dual-core is programming wet dream. If you've had a decent amount of knowledge in software programming/architecture, you'll find out that putting codes in separate threads is not easy, let alone make them 100% efficient.

Dual-Core will give you some bit of performance boost, but it'll be hardly significant overall. Most of the current/near-future games will only offload minor roles to the 2nd core, so you will definitely not see a 2x boost.

Even with what I wrote above, I would still vote for X2 though. The cost of moving up from 3800+ Venice (~$100) to 3800+ X2 (~$150) is pretty minor. Assuming you're on Socket 939, the X2 will be your last CPU on that platform. Overclock it to 2.4-2.5ghz (easily done even with stock cooler), you'll have enough CPU power to last another year or more. By then, if you upgrade, you'll be force to ditch the entire platform altogether (CPU/RAM/MOBO).

Btw, being able to alt-tab easily out of games to answering IM and changing songs in WinAmp alone made the $160 I spent on getting the X2 well worth it.
 
Originally posted by: razor2025
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: gobucks
if you're an overclocker, then definitely get the dual core. it should OC to at least 2.4GHz, and some hit like 2.7-2.8GHz, so the lower speed penalty will vanish. in the long run the dual core will be better. more and more software is being written with multithreading, and even games are getting in on this - oblivion runs much better on a dual core for example.
Click to expand...

he is, according to his example, not a hardcore o/cer with a 200MHz o/cer. op - no disrespect meant....but a 3800 x2 would be basically 2x what you have and in single threaded games, they will usually get 1 dedicated core while all the other background stuff is handled by the other one.
Click to expand...


Sorry, but you're too naive. Making threads in games that perfectly utilize dual-core is programming wet dream. If you've had a decent amount of knowledge in software programming/architecture, you'll find out that putting codes in separate threads is not easy, let alone make them 100% efficient.

Dual-Core will give you some bit of performance boost, but it'll be hardly significant overall. Most of the current/near-future games will only offload minor roles to the 2nd core, so you will definitely not see a 2x boost.

Even with what I wrote above, I would still vote for X2 though. The cost of moving up from 3800+ Venice (~$100) to 3800+ X2 (~$150) is pretty minor. Assuming you're on Socket 939, the X2 will be your last CPU on that platform. Overclock it to 2.4-2.5ghz (easily done even with stock cooler), you'll have enough CPU power to last another year or more. By then, if you upgrade, you'll be force to ditch the entire platform altogether (CPU/RAM/MOBO).

Btw, being able to alt-tab easily out of games to answering IM and changing songs in WinAmp alone made the $160 I spent on getting the X2 well worth it.
Click to expand...

how am i being naive? i am saying he will basically have 2 3200cpus, when gaming 1 core will do the game and the other will do the background windows stuff. i am not saying he will get 2x the speed nor am i saying he will benefit greatly from dual core when gaming as i know he won't, and i do know a bit about how smp/smt software works.

you say i am naive but basically say the same thing i do....???😕
 
i really like the idea of being able to jump programs.
say im playing BF2 and i want to answer someone on IM or see how my dvd burning is doing. can just alt tab and do what i need to do?
am i way off in thinking this is how well it works?
 
Originally posted by: Gatecrasher3
i really like the idea of being able to jump programs.
say im playing BF2 and i want to answer someone on IM or see how my dvd burning is doing. can just alt tab and do what i need to do?
am i way off in thinking this is how well it works?
Click to expand...


Unless losing fullscreen crashes the game for some reason.
 
some people have issues alt-tabbing out of bf2 - a buddy of mine - 7900gtx, 2GB pc3200, x2 4400, 74GB raptor, nice machine can't alt-tab out of the game, well he can it is just his mouse doesn't come over to the new window. i have no issues alt-tabbing with my setup, the game if kind of buggy, and i have been gaming with it since the first demo came out before the actual game was available.
 
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