What would an Opteron 165 equate to?

djdube

Member
Jan 4, 2005
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I think I'm going to bite the bullet and build a new machine for win7...
Just trying to get a better feel/understanding where I should expect to see gains.

I running an Opteron 165, slightly over clocked to 2.250GHz -> An rough idea on what this processor would equate to in today's processor line-ups either in the Intel or AMD lineup?

For instance, how would a AMD x4 620 compare?

Video card wise I know I'm in the dark ages. :) 6600GT - I know I can see drastic improvement with minimal $$$ spent.

Given my computer has the above CPU, video card, and 2GB of memory, any idea how Win7 would run? Similar to XP? Possibly a bit faster?

The computer is mainly used for office apps, photoshop, video content creation... ie little to no gaming.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Dave
 

Rhoxed

Golden Member
Jun 23, 2007
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your current computer would run win7 fine, not as fast as XP but that is any machine, xp is just slimline compared to win7

now to get the full visual effects of win7 you need at least a dx10 vid card (any low-end model will do with no gaming)

as for the AMD x4 620, it would be close to twice to speed easily of your current CPU, coupled with decent ddr2 or ddr3 ram it would provide huge benefits over your current configuration.
 

djdube

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Jan 4, 2005
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Originally posted by: Rhoxed
as for the AMD x4 620, it would be close to twice to speed easily of your current CPU, coupled with decent ddr2 or ddr3 ram it would provide huge benefits over your current configuration.

Oh wow... no kidding.

Thanks for the input! This may be the low cost option I was hoping for.

Dave
 

exar333

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2004
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Originally posted by: Rhoxed
your current computer would run win7 fine, not as fast as XP but that is any machine, xp is just slimline compared to win7

now to get the full visual effects of win7 you need at least a dx10 vid card (any low-end model will do with no gaming)

as for the AMD x4 620, it would be close to twice to speed easily of your current CPU, coupled with decent ddr2 or ddr3 ram it would provide huge benefits over your current configuration.

Close to 2x the speed is probably a little misleading. With highly-threaded programs, you would see some good gains going to the AMD X4 620, but only if it utulizes the extra cores. The X4 runs at 2.6, and you should probably be able to get your Opty 165 to 2.4 or 2.5 easily.

The hardest thing about your current setup is that it is limited by DDR bandwith and size, and getting above 2GB isnt easy (or economical). If you need more RAM, the 620 would make sense, if you don't need extra memory, then your current system would be fine. You could probably sell the Opty for about the price of a CPU/MB combo and then fork in some extra cash for the RAM (4GB optimally). Those Opterons often sell for ~$100 on ebay and are still in prety good demand.
 

Rhoxed

Golden Member
Jun 23, 2007
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Originally posted by: ExarKun333
Originally posted by: Rhoxed
your current computer would run win7 fine, not as fast as XP but that is any machine, xp is just slimline compared to win7

now to get the full visual effects of win7 you need at least a dx10 vid card (any low-end model will do with no gaming)

as for the AMD x4 620, it would be close to twice to speed easily of your current CPU, coupled with decent ddr2 or ddr3 ram it would provide huge benefits over your current configuration.

Close to 2x the speed is probably a little misleading. With highly-threaded programs, you would see some good gains going to the AMD X4 620, but only if it utulizes the extra cores. The X4 runs at 2.6, and you should probably be able to get your Opty 165 to 2.4 or 2.5 easily.

The hardest thing about your current setup is that it is limited by DDR bandwith and size, and getting above 2GB isnt easy (or economical). If you need more RAM, the 620 would make sense, if you don't need extra memory, then your current system would be fine. You could probably sell the Opty for about the price of a CPU/MB combo and then fork in some extra cash for the RAM (4GB optimally). Those Opterons often sell for ~$100 on ebay and are still in prety good demand.

i wouldn't quite say 2x is misleading, you factor in the overclock to 2.5/2.6 on the opty (which is near the limits of those chips) to the stock speed of a quad core that can easily oc to well over 3ghz, factor in the increase from ddr1 to ddr3, i would say the system would come very close to being 2x as fast (in the apps he mentions, adobe, office and video creation) if not faster

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=106&p2=37

Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Retouch Artists Speed Test
Time in Seconds - Lower is Better
27.5 -athlon x4 620 @ 2.6 stock speeds
62.6 - athlon x2 @ 2.3 with ddr2 (will be better than his opty)

SYSMark 2007 - Video Creation
Score in SYSMarks - Higher is Better
205 - athlon x4 620 @ 2.6 stock speeds
119 - athlon x2 @ 2.3


Microsoft Excel 2007 SP1 - Monte Carlo Simulation
Time in Seconds - Lower is Better
37.518
86.5

you get the point



as i said, in the programs he will be using, the athlon x4 will be MUCH better
 

alyarb

Platinum Member
Jan 25, 2009
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sell your whole setup. socket 939 parts have held their value rather well, but that isn't going to last forever so dump it all ASAP before the price plummets.

look at this combo. it's very inexpensive and will allow you to reap massive single-threaded gains over your current setup.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?ItemList=Combo.271972

The X3 720 gives you a very good chance of unlocking the 4th core, and you're able to achieve way higher frequencies (3.5-3.7 GHz) than the X4 620, so in the off-chance that the fourth core won't unlock, your 800 MHz clock advantage over the Athlon X4 will more than mitigate the lost performance due to threading.

photoshop demands a unique blend of single-threaded and multithreaded performance. it depends on exactly what you're doing in the program, and worst case scenario, a high-freq tri core is a faster compromise than a low-freq quad core, but favorable odds suggest you could get four cores at 3.6 ghz from that combo.

sell the opteron, board, RAM, and geforce, and this upgrade will cost you less than $100 net (assuming you spend $60 on 4GB DDR2-800).
 

djdube

Member
Jan 4, 2005
39
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Originally posted by: alyarb
look at this combo. it's very inexpensive and will allow you to reap massive single-threaded gains over your current setup.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?ItemList=Combo.271972
Thanks for the pointer... just curious... are there better slightly less feature rich MBs that I should consider? I'm assuming the one pointed out is very high quality... good over clocker...

Don't need/want HDMI (will get an inexpensive dual DVI vid card to drive a couple of monitors).

I do appreaciate all the advice everyone. I'll definately be ebaying once I get things built.

Dave
 

Munky

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2005
9,372
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76
Originally posted by: Rhoxed
Originally posted by: ExarKun333
Originally posted by: Rhoxed
your current computer would run win7 fine, not as fast as XP but that is any machine, xp is just slimline compared to win7

now to get the full visual effects of win7 you need at least a dx10 vid card (any low-end model will do with no gaming)

as for the AMD x4 620, it would be close to twice to speed easily of your current CPU, coupled with decent ddr2 or ddr3 ram it would provide huge benefits over your current configuration.

Close to 2x the speed is probably a little misleading. With highly-threaded programs, you would see some good gains going to the AMD X4 620, but only if it utulizes the extra cores. The X4 runs at 2.6, and you should probably be able to get your Opty 165 to 2.4 or 2.5 easily.

The hardest thing about your current setup is that it is limited by DDR bandwith and size, and getting above 2GB isnt easy (or economical). If you need more RAM, the 620 would make sense, if you don't need extra memory, then your current system would be fine. You could probably sell the Opty for about the price of a CPU/MB combo and then fork in some extra cash for the RAM (4GB optimally). Those Opterons often sell for ~$100 on ebay and are still in prety good demand.

i wouldn't quite say 2x is misleading, you factor in the overclock to 2.5/2.6 on the opty (which is near the limits of those chips) to the stock speed of a quad core that can easily oc to well over 3ghz, factor in the increase from ddr1 to ddr3, i would say the system would come very close to being 2x as fast (in the apps he mentions, adobe, office and video creation) if not faster

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=106&p2=37

Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Retouch Artists Speed Test
Time in Seconds - Lower is Better
27.5 -athlon x4 620 @ 2.6 stock speeds
62.6 - athlon x2 @ 2.3 with ddr2 (will be better than his opty)

SYSMark 2007 - Video Creation
Score in SYSMarks - Higher is Better
205 - athlon x4 620 @ 2.6 stock speeds
119 - athlon x2 @ 2.3


Microsoft Excel 2007 SP1 - Monte Carlo Simulation
Time in Seconds - Lower is Better
37.518
86.5

you get the point



as i said, in the programs he will be using, the athlon x4 will be MUCH better

I'm pretty sure most people here don't run monte carlo simulations or synthetic benchmarks as the main use of their machine. The retouch artist test is also a hack, because I do a lot of photoshop stuff, and my workflow resembles nothing like the tests included in that benchmark. If your most demanding use of the machine is gaming, then you should get a Phenom2 X3, forget the crippled X4's with no L3 cache. If you're just using the machine for web browsing, watching movies and light office work, there's absolutely no reason to ditch his Opteron 165, it's perfectly up to the task.

A side note, I'm getting really fed up with reviews and readers pushing synthetic, unrealistic benches to gauge HW. I'm using a 4-core 8-thread i7 860 at the moment, and guess what - in most things I do, it's absolutely no different than the 3-core Phenom 720 I just upgraded from.
 

alyarb

Platinum Member
Jan 25, 2009
2,444
0
76
Originally posted by: djdube

Thanks for the pointer... just curious... are there better slightly less feature rich MBs that I should consider? I'm assuming the one pointed out is very high quality... good over clocker...

Don't need/want HDMI (will get an inexpensive dual DVI vid card to drive a couple of monitors).

I do appreaciate all the advice everyone. I'll definately be ebaying once I get things built.

Dave

part of the cost is that it's a brand new chipset, new integrated video and new southbridge (SB710). you need a board that supports ACC for unlocking disabled cores, that's the catch.

at $90, it's a little expensive, but the combo knocks $10 off. there are $70-80 boards that support ACC, but then you give up the $10 combo discount, so it's a wash. I would stick with the gigabyte board because it's the best/most complete for what you're doing.

It's better/cheaper to just use the dual video out on the motherboard in the meantime than spend another $30 on a separate video card. getting this kind of combo done for under $200 is hard to beat.
 

firewolfsm

Golden Member
Oct 16, 2005
1,848
29
91
The Phenom II architecture is faster than the old Athlons by almost 50% now. Think how much faster the Core 2 was back when it came out, then the 45nm update, then consider that the Phenom keeps up with it. IPC is up about 50%, clock speed is up 20%, and core count is up by 100%. In threaded applications you should see around 3 times the performance, and almost double in dual core applications. If you overclock the 620 that will only solidify these estimates.