Name: wgaxp Date: September 26, 2007 at 14:43:16 Pacific Subject: best 939 cpu core for gaming OS: xp pro/sp2 CPU/Ram: 3800+ 1 gig Model/Manufacturer: n/a
Comment:
hey all was wondering if anyone knows what the best core for gaming would be in a 939 pin setup the 3800+ i have now is a single core. any suggestions are welcome.i play mostly racing and fps
The Opteron 185 and Athlon 64 FX-60 are the best 939 processors.
Both run at 2.6GHz and have 2MB of L2 cache. Both have their own unique little bonuses. The Opteron 185 is a server chip, which means that it is more tolerant to harsh conditions. It should overclock higher because of this. The FX-60 has unlocked multipliers, which allows for ridiculously easy overclocking.
Both processors will easily handle current games when paired with a good graphics accelerator.
The Opteron currently has the advantage of being much cheaper than the FX-60. I purchased an Opty 185 for around $150 from eBay a couple months ago, and have it running trouble free at 3.0GHz.
Super Pentium III: NOW WITH 7950GT AGP! PIII-S cpu overclocked to 1.66GHz--As fast as a 2.5GHz P4! 2GB of PC2700 memory QDI Advance 12T board Audigy 2 Vista Home Premium
Jam,to be honest with you,i have never overclocked before..not to be rude but i don't intend on overclocking it.i just want to get the best cpu for this.my other specs are xp pro sp2 1 gig ram...AMD Athlon...Ati radeon express 200 for video card.250 gig sata drive...this is a 90 nm venice core..and 512 Kbytes of L2 Cache.and the memory type is ddr pc 3200..if you have any more questions let me know thank you.
jackbomb...btw i love the p3 setup that's awesome man !!!! that p3 must be something !! i didn't know you could overclock the p3 to 1.6 ghz...i just think it's awesome that you have a p3 running with those specs...btw thanks for your suggestions...they are appreciated.
Opterons Dual Cores on the socket 939 are way overpriced, you'd be wasting your money if you bought an Opteron 185 for the price that they want for it. IMO you're better off building a new rig then to spend 250 plus on an Opteron 185. There are AM2 Athlon 64's that are higher speeds then the Opteron 185 for much less.
For a 2001-style processor running at 1.66GHz, it sure is an amazing little chip. A P4 running at the same speed is nowhere near as fast. I'm currently using it as an HTPC rig for the family room, and with the help of the high-powered video card, it plays back the movies that I've ripped to 1080p WMV-HD format without a hitch. I'm bragging, I should stop...
--- "Both processors will easily handle current games when paired with a good graphics accelerator."
I wrote that earlier assuming that you already had a dedicated graphics accelerator card. Trouble is, the X200 is not a true graphics card. It is a video controller built into your motherboard's core logic. It uses the CPU to perform certain 3D operations and uses system RAM to store video data.
You'll get much better gaming performance by installing a dedicated graphics accelerator first, and worrying about the CPU later on (like maybe when Crysis is released ;) ).
Super Pentium III: NOW WITH 7950GT AGP! PIII-S cpu overclocked to 1.66GHz--As fast as a 2.5GHz P4! 2GB of PC2700 memory QDI Advance 12T board Audigy 2 Vista Home Premium
No offense jacky, but I think your obsession with PIIIs in general & your SKU in particular is IMHO pollyannic. In reality, it could have unintended effects on many folks who read your posts, especially the uninformed ones.
While it is true that some P4s aren't as productive as the P3s that came before them or even Athlons, it is better to note that this is only applicable to the lower rung P4s & not very many people still have machines equipped with those these days.
Today, socket 423 based P4s are virtually extinct & the socket 478 variants with their puny little L2s are only but a step from achieving that status as well. In addition, most of the 478 based P4s are clocked between 2GHz - 3.4Ghz ultimately putting them ahead of the P3s in overall performance despite the less work per cycle deficiency.
The P3 "was" good .... but fact remains that it is old technology. The screaming video cards of the P3 days now lay in rest across many different landfills & I'm not too sure extolling the virtues of a CPU from that era -- no matter how awesome it was -- is a positive move when discussing hardware gaming at today's demanding levels.
I'm really sorry, but my overclocked P3 HTPC setup here is every little bit as fast as a 2.5GHz P4.
Now if you want, I can post screen caps of benchmarks that I can run on both the P3 machine and a similarly configured P4 Northwood 2.2, to prove my point. The 1.66 P3-S easily beats the 2.2, and performs similarly to a 2.5-2.53.
The reason I use this rig as an HTPC rather than the Athlon XP 2400 or P4 2.2 that I have lying around is not because I'm "obsessed" with the P3. I do it because it uses less power, makes less noise (I can passively cool the CPU, even though it's overclocked, using a large Socket A cooler), and runs HTPC tasks better than the other two (playback, DVR, etc).
So there...
Super Pentium III: NOW WITH 7950GT AGP! PIII-S cpu overclocked to 1.66GHz--As fast as a 2.5GHz P4! 2GB of PC2700 memory QDI Advance 12T board Audigy 2 Vista Home Premium
I think you are misconstruing my point -- the issue is not so much about discrediting your P3's performance. As I clearly stated, there is no questioning the fact that those P3s do more work per cycle than some P4s.
The argument is they are not that fast -- not even by yesterday's standard; let alone today's. This is because the 2.5GHz P4 that you are relating them to have not been considered fast processors for a very long time now ;-)
In the last five years or so, I've gone from an Athlon XP 2600+ to an A64 3400 & now a cheap E4300 that's overclocked to surpass the performance of X6800 C2D Extreme. To point out what I was getting at -- the AXP 2600+ that I had several years ago outperforms a 2.5GHz P4 from back then & therefore by proxy the phenomenally overclocked P3. Fast forward to now & the point am making becomes even more crystal clear.
I hope that it never sounded as if I were comparing my overclocked P3 to an Athlon 64 or 800MHz FSB P4, because I wasn't. It's just that when people ask about upgrades for their Socket 370 systems, I (enthusiastically) recommend FCPGA-2 adaptors and Tualatin CPUs instead of brand new systems because for as little as $20 on eBay, the combo mentioned above could bring old Coppermine-based systems to P4 1.8-2.4 level performance (depending heavily on the board's capabilities). Perhaps I'm assuming that every Socket 370 user owns the QDI Advance 12T a tad too often :).
I'm well aware of the fact that the P4 2.5 (or, h34v3N f0|2b1d!!, the P3 1.66) is not a fast processor by today's standards. In fact, the absence of SSE2/3 on the P3 makes the P4 2.0-2.5 a much better choice for certain tasks. That's why I use the Opteron 185 mentioned in the first post for work, dvd-ripping, etc. You'll probably be happy to hear me admit that the Opteron 185-- which I never advertise in my signature--crunches through DVDs and 'Folds' many times faster than the glorious, always-shown-off P3! Yet even that Opty's gonna get killed by Intel's quads in Crysis.
For standard music, movie, photo, and Family Guy viewing, the P3 1.66 is fast enough and does its work better than the 400MHz P4s/266MHz Athlon XPs. For anything else, a fast P4, Athlon 64, or dual core would undoubtedly be much better. I've finally admitted the obvious. It's settled. Though if you still want screencaps...
I've finished my novel and am going to bed. lol
Super Pentium III: NOW WITH 7950GT AGP! PIII-S cpu overclocked to 1.66GHz--As fast as a 2.5GHz P4! 2GB of PC2700 memory QDI Advance 12T board Audigy 2 Vista Home Premium
AMD Opteron 185 @ 3.0GHz 4.0GB of OCZ DDR400 RAM 8800GTS 640MB at 625/2000 core/mem, 1500 shader Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe X-Fi, Vista 64-bit, yada yada Completely owns the Super P3
Got no reason to upgrade until those AM3's come out with the Bull Doser core and when DDR3 becomes a lot cheaper then it is now, which will be around the time when the AM3's come out.
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