Athlon1400 vs Athlon2800+, how much of a boost ?

[rc23]

I really want to upgrade my PC, right now I'm running an Athlon/Thunderbird 1400 based system. I'd like to upgrade my CPU,RAM, and Mobo to something faster. I'm thinking of upgrading to a Athlon/Barton 2800+. What I'm wondering is what kind of real performance differance can I expect ?


Athlon tbird 1400 w/512mb pc2100ram on an ASUS A7M266 Mobo
vs
Athlon Barton 2800+ w/512mb pc3200 on an ASUS A7NX8-E Mobo

 

[EeyoreX]

The short answer is that there will be a difference. The slightly not-as-short answer is that the measurable difference depends on what you are doing. If the only thing the computer is used for is the Web and email and Word you will not really notice much difference. What is the computer going to be used for? Does the computer seem slow to you now? If not, then you won't notice a difference.

\Dan

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

I'm willing to bet you will see a performance boost in almost every application. You're moving from 266DDR FSB to 333DDR FSB and 1.4Ghz to 2.0Ghz. That's a 30% boost in each category. You can usually start to "feel" the performance boost when you hit 15% and you're doubling that!

In addition to the processor speed you are also gaining 256k of L2 cache, SSE support, pre-fetch, and the better TLBs that were introduced on the Palomino core.

P.S. My numbers do not take into account any overclocking to better utilize that RAM.

 

[Serp86]

Like EeyoreX said, you must use it for games/cpu heavy applications to notice a difference.

I didnt notice much difference when i went from P3 1ghz to 2600+ except in games.

 

[Swanny]

You should notice a big improvement, especially in things like games and encoding tasks.

You seem to be the sort that likes to keep your computers for a while. If that's the case, I might recommend bumping your upgrade up to an Athlon 64 3000+. They're sitting at a little over $200 right now. While it will cost more, you might be thankful for the 64-bit capability down the road.

 

[Davegod]

real performance differance? in what?

Seeing as you dont specify anything, I'll assume its the usual home stuff. So I'd say if you game, them yeah very noticable in anything recent. Else, well IE might load a second or two faster, and MP3's might rip a bit quicker...

 

[rc23]

Thanks for the replies guys. I really guess I was interested in what type of increase i'd see in games. After I posted this thread I found a cool benchmark article over at Tom's Hardware, that compared CPU's from Pentiums100's to Athlons to P4/3.06's.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030217/index.html

 

[butch84]

i think you would see more of an improvement if you pony up the extra dough for an althon64 rig. It might cost a bit more, but it would put you up to the performane level of the current generation of cpus. Why upgrade to a line of cpus (athlon xp) that is already dying? Of course if price is a large concern, the short answer is yes, the upgrade you are proposing would be faster. But as long as you upgrading, why not go for something you will really notice?

just my $.02

 

[EeyoreX]

They Athlon XP line may be "dying" but I am guess ing for most tasks most people perform, the higher end Athlon XPs should last for a while yet. I am betting on at least 1.5 years for my 2800+ rig. It replaced a 1.4GHz Pally rig that I wanted for a file server. There is still too big a price difference (IMO) for me to go rushing off into A64-land. Especially when my current rig will likely last me long enough.

\Dan