What's my bottleneck for gaming here ??

[HardwareAddicted]

• AMD 2000+
  Shuttle Socket A 35GT ...266a chipset
  GeForce Ti4600
  768 RAM
  7200 rpm drives

It's the main rig in my sig ...

And before I go and upgrade to a WHOLE new AMD system, I just want to put a little life into this old PC.

Thx !!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Does that board have overclocking features? I'm not familiar with it. If the HDD isn't 8mb cache that would be a nice upgrade, and throwing a mobile barton in it and overclocking with multipliers would be a good boost if the board can handle it. Other than that I'd go with the new A64 system.

For the strictly gaming aspect a 9800p or 6800 and the mobile Barton would be the way to go provided the board has the necessary overclocking features.

 

[VIAN]

Nothing seems the be a bottleneck in that system.

You did go overboard on the RAM though, but that's not a bottleneck.

 

[Mik3y]

welll, if you want to be able to game the new ones really well, your bottle neck is the cpu and vid card, but it should be descent enough for doom 3.

 

[Stormgiant]

To answer your question, video card.

 

[DaNorthface]

i think his cpu and grapihcs card is a perfect match.. What is the bottle neck? Well if you get a better CPU, games will run faster.. But if you get a better video card, games would also run faster.

 

[carlosd]

Maybe the chipset. But I really don't see bottleneck. In general you can play most of the games at good framerates.

 

[Dman877]

I'd say the cpu, mobo, and video are your bottlenecks But seriously, that's a well matched system. IMO, start with a new mobo/cpu. OC'd 4600 can still play most games with a good cpu.

 

[moonboy403]

get a vanilla 6800 and it should last you a long time

 

[pantner]

I'd say the CPU is the bottleneck...but just barely...

you may want to look into changing the way you have you RAM in the system (if its DDR RAM...please tell me its DDR RAM!!! i know the 266a supports both!)

i've seen systems with 3x256 or 1x256/1x512 RAM and they perform better when you take out one stick of 256 (ie, you have 2x256 or 1x512), so you may want to look into getting 2x512 DDR 400 ram...you will get a little performace increase at the moment, but when you do upgrade you won't have to worry about getting new RAM....unless you go for the Intel 775 (or 755...watever)

 

[Melectricus]

35GT ?

What mobo is this? akxxx? Couldn't look up max cpu, may not be enough of a bump for the cost anyway.
I'd lean towards the 6800, you could always move it into your next system upgrade.

 

[pipsey]

In my opinion, your best investment would be in the direction of a new video card, but I'm no nVidia expert...

 

[pantner]

i don't think its a good idea to buy a 6800....if he does that then his CPU really will be the bottleneck, and he won't get the full potential out of the GFX card, and i'd expect the MB is only 4x AGP...

That MB would have a max CPU of a 2400 i think (possibly 2600...i remember seeing one that had a 266FSB) with a FSB of 266 (hense the chipset name of 266a) BUT i don't think they accept Barton Core CPUs, so you would have to find a T-bread one....which i think AMD have stopped everything below a 2600 Barton!

So, get a new CPU/MB/RAM and then about 6 months or so, get a new graphics card....(IMO!)

 

[Jalf]

Sounds like a well-rounded system to me. No obvious bottlenecks.

However, if you really want to upgrade only one component, i'd say a new graphics card could be worth it. But only if you skip to a x800 or GF6800. Upgrading from a TI4600 to a Radeon 9xxx or GF FX would be pretty pointless. You'd spend a lot of money on a pretty small performance increase.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Jalf
Sounds like a well-rounded system to me. No obvious bottlenecks.

However, if you really want to upgrade only one component, i'd say a new graphics card could be worth it. But only if you skip to a x800 or GF6800. Upgrading from a TI4600 to a Radeon 9xxx or GF FX would be pretty pointless. You'd spend a lot of money on a pretty small performance increase.

Actually a 9800p 256bit for $180 will be a nice upgrade from the G4 series in most everything while providing DX9 features and AA/AF eye candy for most titles the G4 can't.

For gaming the vid card is the single biggest upgrade you can make, and 4x AGP isn't a performance problem, you might loose a couple frames tops compared to 8x.

 

[MDme]

It's a pretty well matched system. think of it this way, if you upgrade the CPU, the vid card will be the bottleneck and if you upgrade the vid card the CPU will be the bottleneck. mobo is not much of an issue since if you upgrade the CPU you will change the mobo.

 

[VIAN]

So, get a new CPU/MB/RAM and then about 6 months or so, get a new graphics card....(IMO!)

I would probably do this also. I definitely know its not worth upgrading your graphics card for that system. If anything, upgrade the Mobo, RAM, CPU first and the graphics card is ok for now. Maybe you can catch the fall refresh of video cards.

 

[Mavrick007]

The Ti4600 is still a good card for games, but you will lose out on DX9 and AF/AA.

Chances are you will not be able to upgrade the cpu much on that chipset (I'm still running a 266a in my old board and it only supports up to a 2100+). If it's a Palomino, forget about overclocking that puppy cause it's not going to work well at all. You might get it to 2100 or 2200+ stable.

Chances are you are running PC2100 ram so it's basically upgrade mobo, cpu and ram, or just do a vid card for now and the rest later (unless you want or can afford to do all of that now).

If you do decide to go with an upgrade of mobo, cpu and ram, I would probably say to go for an A64 754 mobo, cpu and at least PC3200 ram or higher since it's the best price point right now since the 939pin setups are still a big high and features such as DDR2 and PCI-Ex are not available, unless you want to go Intel

It's a hard choice because your setup is pretty evenly matched. I will tell you though that I got almost 5000 increase in 3dmark2001SE when I went from my 1900+ to a Barton 2500+ @ 3200+ and new PC3200 ram almost 2 years ago. Alas, my TI4400 vid card will not do DX9, is crap for AA/AF, and doesn't get anything much in 3dmark2003, but it still plays everything I've come across.

 

[n7]

If you don't have a lot to spend, i would recommend a new vid card.

While you do need a better CPU (& faster RAM) eventually, i would get a new vid card first, i.e., a 6800/6800GT, or if that's too much a 9800 Pro.

Yes, your CPU will hold you back, but you'll be amazed at what a better graphics card can do.



Edit: Many on this thread are recommending a new CPU/RAM etc.
To me that makes zero sense unless you are gonna go full out & get an A64 system. Getting a 2600+, or any Athlon XP will not make a huge difference, & is only gonna delay moving to an A64 anyway.
A new CPU will be somewhat of a waste of money, since if you get a higher Athlon XP, you'll not be getting much selling it when you decide to move up to an A64 or higher up Intel CPU.
The video card will be good for a while if you get a 6800/6800GT.

My $0.02.

 

[ViPerZX]

That is a well balanced system. If you were to upgrade just one part of it then the video card would make the biggest difference in games. A 6800 would definitely be held back by that cpu and chipset though.

 

[pantner]

so 'HardwareAddicted', has any of this helped at all??????

 

[SPEEDingMoNK]

yeah i completly agree, you can always take the vid card w/ you to the next PC. thats what i would have done if i didnt have to RMA my board 2weeks+ w/out a PC to play games or other crap on I think not..

BTW a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ and a MSI K8N Neo Platinum nForce3 250Gb cost $291.00
thats alot less than a 6800... Il still get the 6800 just not for a while

peace - |V\oNK

 

[pantner]

Have you seen wat performance people with GFX cards like 6800u's and X800 PRO/XTs get with low-end CPU/MB/RAM???

If he does get a new grpahics cards, it would be best to upgrade his whole system...however, his GFX card is still relativley good, so if he gets a A64 3000/MB (or watever) and some DDR400 RAM, and keeps his current card, he'll be ready to get a new card in a few months or so (and is prolly cheaper too!!!) and then he'll be set!

 

[HardwareAddicted]

HI GUYS !!!

Your info has helped ALOT !!

It's pretty clear after the comments here, that unless I plan to change out the MB/CPU/RAM, that the video card would be my best choice as it will work with my new system even better when I upgrade the rest.

A Socket A CPU would be of no use after I upgrade ...

But keeping in mind that I would be held back alot by the system, it may be better for me to wait and get everything all at the same time.

I know I'll pay alot less for the same Video card if I wait until I have a mtching system that would not hold it back from REALLY showing it power ...

So in short, I'm gonna wait ... you guys have helped me alot with your comments ...

Thx again ... you guys ROCK !!