quick question

[jon754]

how much will an e2180 oc'ed to 3.0-3.2 ghz bottleneck an ati 4850 in games? or a 4870? thanks.

 

[DSF]

It really depends on the game. Certain kinds of games are extremely CPU dependent, whereas most recent graphically intensive games are very GPU dependent.

As a stock answer, I'd say it wouldn't, or not by much. But again, it depends on the game.

 

[AsusGuy]

it will not bottleneck those cards except in most situations. I would say if you are looking for a video card upgrade those are the best cards to buy (assuming you have a card thats older then an Nvidia 8XXX or Ati HD 3XXX card.

 

[jon754]

what about the e7200? it has 3mb of l2 cache instead of 1 like the e2180. would i have to buy faster ram to keep up with the higher fsb of the e7200? also what's a good quiet hsf for under 25 dollars?

 

[DSF]

Do you already own the E2180? Why don't you give us as much detail as possible on the parts you currently have.

 

[jon754]

i've not gotten a processor yet. right now i'm using an athlon xp-m and a 9800 pro so yea i need to upgrade pretty bad lol. for my upgrade all i've gotten so far is a motherboard (a gigabyte ep45 ds3l). i'm planning to overclock and i know the average e2180 oc is 3-3.2 ghz so that's why i put that. my gaming resolution is 1680x1050. what i have to buy still...

processor
hsf
ram
video card

 

[AsusGuy]

Get a good dual core with some cache. A lot of games see improvement with a large cache that frequency can not compensate for. Eg. the Unreal 3 engine used in a lot of new games see quite an improvement with a fast and large conroe/penryn cache. The E7200 is a very good chip for the price. So are the E6XXX w/ 4MB or E8XXX with 6MB.

 

[jon754]

i thought intel was supposed to be having price drops on the 20th of july? the e7200 is supposed to go down to 110 but i still see it listed at 125-130. what about ram? pc8500 ram is like twice as much as pc6400.

 

[GundamF91]

L2 cache is not all that important.... HOWEVER, when you're talking about only having 1MB L2, it does take a hit in terms of performance when compared to 2MB or above CPU. You're really having 1MB shared between dual cores, so it's a limiting factor. Get the E7200 if you can.

 

[jon754]

can someone please explain fsb ratios and stuff? aren't the multipliers locked on the newer processors?

 

[cubeless]

narp... time to do some searching on these forums and find the basic oc'ing posts...

or just do like u r told and go get a 7200 at your freindly neighborhood fry's...

 

[Ratman6161]

Originally posted by: jon754
can someone please explain fsb ratios and stuff? aren't the multipliers locked on the newer processors?

Everything you need to know to get started

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: jon754
i thought intel was supposed to be having price drops on the 20th of july? the e7200 is supposed to go down to 110 but i still see it listed at 125-130. what about ram? pc8500 ram is like twice as much as pc6400.

The prices listed for the Intel price drops are not MSRPs. They're the prices that Intel charges distributors/OEMs per processor when they buy in lots of 1000. It's pretty typical for the prices at Newegg and other vendors to stay above that price for a while.

 

[jon754]

so with pc6400 ram i would be limited to 3.8 ghz then?

 

[DSF]

On an E7200 yes. But that's going to be about the limit of that chip anyway, regardless what RAM you use. You might be able to push it a little bit farther, but it would require good cooling, a lot of work, and some luck.