Would an AGP 3850/70 be wasted on a64 3000+?

[FearoftheNight]

Thinking of breathing more like into my agp rig. Currently have x1950 pro will 38xx be worthwhile or will the 3000+ and only 1 gig of ddr400 waste it?

 

[Stumps]

yes it would be wasted, even an X1950pro is bottlenecked by a lowly 3000+.

But and this is a BIG but, if you can afford it and are willing to OC the 3000+ a bit, using a 38x0 series card with your rig would pretty much eliminate any video card bottleneck so most new game should run reasonably well...but don't expect any miracles though.

I have a A64 3000+@2.87ghz with a Sapphire X1950pro AGP 512mb in my file server, When I upgraded my main rig to a C2D (from the A64) I used the Asrock 4coredual VSTA mobo for a short while and used the X1950Pro AGP with it. I saw a considerable increase in gaming performance just from upgrading the CPU from the A64.

 

[FearoftheNight]

I see. Btw: why did you have the 1950 on a file server?

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: FearoftheNight
I see. Btw: why did you have the 1950 on a file server?

It was left over from my upgrade (see sig), and I needed an AGP video card to go with my A64 setup.

My file server is the second fastest rig I have on my home network (I have 8 rigs on this network) so it see's the odd bit of gaming as well.

 

[imported_clockerspiel]

Well there are different degrees of "bottlenecking"...depending on the clock speed, # of cores, cpu and memory cache levels, memory channel architecture, fsb and/or memory controller speeds, and how any particular application demands use of advanced shaders, ROPs, etc., etc., etc. Cleeve over at Tom's Hardware produced some interesting articles regarding this topic:

http://www.tomshardware.com/20...agp-platform-analysis/

http://www.tomshardware.com/20...agp-platform-analysis/

So, Stumps isn't too far off base with regard to the bottlenecking that could occur on a 3000 rig. However, going up from P4s at 3.4E or EEs to say single core Athlon 64s in the 3500, 3700 and above range and dual core X64s (and there are a bunch of these processors out there with AGP motherboards), then for heavily dependent GPU operations (many of the newer games), a move to a 3800 series ATI would probaly pay off. We have indications that some ATI partners will produce 3800 cards:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/...capture-100-agp-market

The lower power requirements of the 3800 series of cards and their new REALTO bridge chip appear to make this possible. The question is when...some pundits have indicated just before Christmas, others the latter part of December or later. It will be an interesting development to follow.

My old P4 Northy 3.2 and X1950 VTek are starting to really show their age. I have a brand new SL8K4 waiting for when the 3800s are available (backup rig). For those that have an Asrock board with Core2 capability and an 8X AGP port, the 3800s may be a God Send. I would never entertain the notion however, that any AGP solution will play Crysis and what lies beyond, "the way its meant to be played". Athough I have a Vista Ultimate rig with an E6600 and 8800 640 GTS, it is interesting and downright fun to "tinker" with an old AGP box just to see how much extra I can squeeze out of it.

 

[evolucion8]

If you overclock that Athlon 64, you will get a considerable boost in performance, in scenarios were the game is not optimized for dual core, the difference between single core and dual core based on the same architecture is non existent, will tend to be more GPU dependent. If you are able to upgrade that CPU to a Dual Core would be nice though, Pentium 4 is the worst CPU for gaming, that's why I ditch my P4 EE 3.4GHz for the current CPU I own which in many scenarios were the game is not Dual Core Optimized, it can be as fast as an Athlon 64 X2 4800, and sometimes even faster. So if you can't upgrade your CPU, overclock it, or do an upgrade if you got the budget. That CPU will bottleneck the card, but not in the level that Pentium 4's do.