Performance difference

[alphawolf010]

Right now I have an opty 165 oc'd to 2.7ghz, but I'm caught in the "I cant go any further corner". How big of a perfomance difference will I notice going from the 165 to the e4300 or the e6320, and is the $50+ worth the 4 meg L2 cache?

 

[Roguestar]

"Opteron". A small difference will be noticeable in general program performance but moreso in games, especially if you play higher details and have a good graphics card to back it up.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: alphawolf010
How big of a perfomance difference will I notice going from the 165 to the e4300 or the e6320, and is the $50+ worth the 4 meg L2 cache?

It all depends on what YOU USE your PC to do. Only YOU can know what programs and tasks your system will be running most of the time.

Think about how YOU USE it and look here for similar benchmarks tests. I would think your stock 165 would bench about the same as the X2 3800+.
The 3800+ runs 200MHz faster, but has only 512kb L2 per core vs. the 1MB per core for the 165.

 

[alphawolf010]

I use my computer specifically for gaming. The main reason I'm doin this is because my GF wants a decent computer, and I would love to give her mine since she doesnt care much about upgrading and what not, and do an overhaul on my system.

I'm looking at a 16:10 20.1 inch monitor, a 8800gts 640 (or the r600 series). From that site, it looks that stock I should go with the e6320.

Edit: Price/performance shows that the e4400 is pretty damn snazzy...so back to the main question...e4400 or e6320?

 

[bob4432]

imho i would stay w/ your opteron @ 2.7GHz - it is plenty for games for some time. build your gf one of the cheap am2 3600 combos that newegg sells w/ onboard graphics and 1GB ram for ~$125 and load yours up w/ the 8800

 

[ribbon13]

Whoever said an Opty 165 == x2 3800 is full of it. The L2 is easily worth 200MHZ and an additional 5% performance as it scales. On that list it would place slightly above the 4000 given socket differences. With that being said I suggest E6420 CPU

 

[Roguestar]

I do believe you just called Blain out.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Whoever said an Opty 165 == x2 3800 is full of it. The L2 is easily worth 200MHZ and an additional 5% performance as it scales.

Wow, you are right as usual... There's a night & day difference between the Opteron 165 and the X2 3800+! :shocked:

 

[Roguestar]

0.3FPS is definitely a dealbreaker!

 

[ribbon13]

Um, yeah, this is an overclocked system...

check out the conclusion:
http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/opteron-165-180/index.x?pg=16

Then look at the OPs post.. "Right now I have an opty 165 oc'd to 2.7ghz"

More L2 is something CPUs need to maintain efficiency as you scale it's speed. This is a fact, and I see no reason to believe he won't overclock his C2D platform.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: TechReport Article
Although AMD's K8 architecture delivers quite a bit of performance per clock, the Opteron 165's 1.8GHz clock speed is low enough to keep it from really exploiting that architectural advantage. The 165's relatively low memory bandwidth and high memory access latencies in our synthetic memory tests compared to the other K8 chips we tested are testaments to that fact. I would recommend stepping up to a higher clock speed if possible. At 2GHz, the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ looks like a better option for those building their own systems, at least if we're talking about running at stock speeds.

So, if we're not considering it when overclocked, they're recommending an X2 3800+ over the Opteron 165. Ok.

So how about overclocked?

Originally posted by: TechReport Article
There's no guarantee that the one you buy will reach 2.65GHz and run stable like ours did, but you can probably bet that it will reach well beyond its stock 1.8GHz and that its performance at that higher clock speed will be very nice indeed. For a relatively affordable dual-core PC enthusiast's processor, the Opteron 165 looks very attractive. The only thing is, you will need a heavily overclockable motherboard in order to reach the near-300MHz HyperTransport speeds we used to realize this chip's full potential.

Well then. The question then becomes: which one will overclock further; the X2 3800+ or the Opteron 165?

Anecdotal evidence from our CPU/OC forums suggests most people can get 2.6~2.7Ghz from theirs without pushing the VCore too far and 2.6 is with only a HT of 266Mhz.

Now, what does the question become? I reckon price. Price, and usage. If he's encoding a lot or rendering a lot he'll use that cache a lot more, but if he's gaming then I say the X2 3800+ is the better choice.


Edit:
Some more overclocking results for the X2 3800+ and the Opteron 165.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/att...&attachmentid=46180&stc=1&d=1145639746
http://itznfb.com/images/db.jpg

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: ribbon13

More L2 is something CPUs need to maintain efficiency as you scale it's speed. This is a fact, and I see no reason to believe he won't overclock his C2D platform.

That's only true if your system memory doesn't scale upwards along with your CPU.

I ran some SuperPi tests on a wussy little Brisbane 3600+ at different clock speeds while maintaining the same RAM ratio and timings. Overclocking was accomplished by raising HTT, and results are here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=2016843

check the fourth post specifically.

All I had to do was maintain the same RAM ratio and timings and the X2 scaled with perfect efficiency.

L2 is still nice, I mean hell, who doesn't want extra memory that's 12-cycle versus system memory which is probably 120-cycle or slower? But, at least on X2s, a small L2 cache isn't necessarily going to become more of a liability at high clock speeds.

 

[Maluno]

Keep the 165, unless you really want to invest in a new rig. I personally couldn't justify going to a new system, especially considering that you would have to change platforms, which means new ram, new mobo, etc...

 

[ribbon13]

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=2903&p=6

See there... look at the kind of clocks that 2MB E4300 has to have to compete.

Neh?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Yes, but notice that you're talking about Core 2 chips, not X2s. Memory performance (latency-wise anyway) does not scale upwards with clock speed well on any of Intel's FSB-based systems. L2 has a much bigger impact on Core 2s for numerous reasons.

However, we were discussing 512k L2 X2s vs 1 meg L2 Opterons, which is a slightly different ball game depending on whether or not you're using some nice RAM.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

The OP has stated that this system is used specifically for GAMING. At the resolution he's talking about (16x10), with AA/AF, he's going to be limited by his GPU in most games anyway. So the extra cache or higher overclockability means absolutely nothing. As seen in these tests, the GTS 640 at 16x12 resolution, a stock 4300 offers the same performance as an EX6800 (1, 2, 3, 4, etc... with HL2 Ep1 showing a 12% gain). The Opty @ 2.7 falls in the middle of that range I'm sure.

Do what others have said-- keep your Opty for now, grab that new monitor and GPU and build your GF a cheap little desktop.