Will Athlon XP 1800+ (T'bred A) hold back R9700 Pro?

[brigden]

I have a R9700 Pro on the way and would like to if my processor is going to hold it back. I have not overclocked, nor do I intend to. My system:

Athlon XP 1800+ T'bred A
EPoX 8RDA+
512MB Generic PC2100 RAM (1 single-sided, 1 double sided)

 

[MrEgo]

Well you'd definitely notice a difference between your 1800+ and a 2800+, but you should be fine. Whatever your old video card was, you'll definitely notice a difference in your 9700 pro. I could easily tell the difference when I upgraded from my old Radeon 8500 64MB to my 9700 Pro, when I was using my Athlon XP 1900+. However, I'm now using the Tbred B 2100+ @ 2300 MHz and my FPS is insane in any game, even with AA/AF and the game settings turned up.

 

[KillaBong]

It depends if you care about it holding it back...as long as you pump up the card settings (aa and af) its completely worth it.

I personally have run my 600mhz p3 with a radeon ve, geforce 2 mx, and a ti4600.

I get about 700 with the radeon, 1000 with geforce 2, and about 6 - 7000 with ti4600 in 3dmark.

With my 1600+ I only got 7500 with a ti200 and 8500 with it overclocked.

Just shows you that 3dcards will up performance no matter what.
I also plan on putting a r350 or r400 when there out in my 1600+ instead of a new processor.

 

[zephyrprime]

It will. I have a 1800+ and a 9500 hacked to 9700 speeds and it only gets like 9950 on 3dmark. Other people with faster processors can get several thousand more points that I do. You should be able to overclock you 1800+ a little though since you have the TBred A while I only have the palamino.

 

[brigden]

I'm not overly concerned with a 3DMark score. As it stands now, my score is 2546 with a GeForce2 MX400 64MB!

 

[zephyrprime]

People often say they don't care about 3dmark but 3dmark is a quick, easy, and pretty effective way to judge the performance of a card. It's better than any other benchmark and it is certainly better than using a single game as a benchmark. The only way to get a better benchmark would be if you benchmarked your hardware with, like, the 20 bestselling games from the last year or two but that's far too difficult.

 

[brigden]

I fully appreciate 3DMark's usefulness. My comment was a jab at my currently low scores. Basically, my score after installing the R9700 Pro should be consideribly higher - well, at least I hope it will.

 

[pelikan]

You could look at it like this: The processor is not holding back the 9700 Pro. And the 9700 Pro will not hold back a faster processor if you ever get one.