What difference in gaming performance might I see if I went from this to this?

[JoeFoster]

What difference in gaming performance might I see if I went from this:

CPU: AMD Athlon 2500+ Barton 1.8gHz
Motherboard: Abit NF7-S Version 1.0
Memory: Corsair Value Two 512MB PC3200 DDR
Video: Radeon 9700 Pro AIW

To this:

CPU: Opteron 144 at 1.8ghz
Mootherboard: ASROCK 939DUAL-SATA2 ULI M1695
Memory: Corsair Value Two 512MB PC3200 DDR
Video: Radeon 9700 Pro AIW

?

 

[SynthDude2001]

My guess is "not too much" - your 9700 Pro would definitely be holding you back at that point. Of course, if you want a CPU upgrade for other reasons (video encoding, whatever), that's a good choice of motherboard (well, really the only one) that lets you keep your video card until you're ready/can afford to upgrade your video card to a newer PCI-E one...

 

[EuR Fr3nCh T3rRoR]

I think you should upgrade your videocard over your processor. Spend like $50 and get a XP-120 heatsink and a Panaflo 120mm fan and overclock it to around 2.2 or more. That's my opinion, you need a bit more GPU then CPU at the moment mate.

 

[JoeFoster]

Already purchased the opteron 144 so I guess i'll have go ahead with the upgrade. I'll go big on a pci-e videocard within a couple months. I probably should of just spent the $210 for the opteron/asrock on a new agp videocard. I guess I just want an excuse to rebuild my system. Have not touched or upgraded anything in about a year.

 

[evilsaint]

The 9700 is a pretty strong card, but in my system, w/ the same CPU and half as much RAM (previously), my benchmark scores went up a whopping average %22 just from upgrading from my 9700Pro non-AIW (almost exactly the same as yours) to an x850Pro 256MB, and that was still when I was constrained by only having 512MB of RAM which killed some of the newer benchmarks.

You probably could've used this advice a day ago, but just in case you feel like doing another small upgrade in the near future instead of going all out, here ya go

 

[robertk2012]

Originally posted by: JoeFoster
Already purchased the opteron 144 so I guess i'll have go ahead with the upgrade. I'll go big on a pci-e videocard within a couple months. I probably should of just spent the $210 for the opteron/asrock on a new agp videocard. I guess I just want an excuse to rebuild my system. Have not touched or upgraded anything in about a year.

Why did you ask our opinion if you were going to purchase it anyways. I cant quite figure out some of the people on this forum.

 

[EuR Fr3nCh T3rRoR]

He probably already had made the purchase, but wanted to hear our opinions anyway. I guess he could've always exchanged it, before he opened his new CPU, if it came down to it. I don't really know mate....lol

Next upgrade for you JoeFoster, should definitely be a new GPU though, even though the 9700 is a strong card at its time, but you can find great deals on new generation cards right now, so good time to upgrade the good ol'e GPU mate.

 

[RussianSensation]

Probably no difference to talk about. Your system with 9700 will be gpu limited in all current games at all resolutions above 1024x768 without AA/AF enabled. Which means you'll enjoy higher minimum framerates at 800x600 and that's about it. Get a new videocard and overclock the 144 and then we are talking 1.8ghz is about 3000+. The cpu upgrade itself is not tremendous either.

 

[EuR Fr3nCh T3rRoR]

It's a better CPU obviously, but RussianSensation is correct, you will be GPU bound at 1024x768 and higher resolutions. Once you get a new GPU, then you will see the difference your CPU upgrade is doing and actually see the performance boost.

 

[coolpurplefan]

I went from a Duron 1.8 GHz with Ti4200 to a socket 754 Newcastle 2.4 GHz 3400+ with X700 Pro. It rocked like you can`t imagine.

You can find the Newcastle 2.4 GHz at newegg right now for $150 US. That can`t be beat right now in terms of performance. Then I would get a geforce 6800 GS and use pricegrabber to find the best price. Have fun.

 

[EuR Fr3nCh T3rRoR]

Some good suggestions by coolpurplefan, that is a good processor for the price mate.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Thankfully you got an AGP/PCI-E combo board...You can upgrade to a 7800GT I you wish which is much more powerful than your current 9700 Pro.

 

[EuR Fr3nCh T3rRoR]

Or wait until the 7900GT comes out in a few days and pick one of those up for $299, you will gain a extra 4 pipelines, since the 7800GT has 20 and the 7900GT is SUPPOSED to have 24 at the same $299 price point. This is if the rumors out there hold, because who knows what Nvidia really has up their sleeves mate.

P.S. I know the 7900GT will be $299, because the local CompUSA has it in their system for that price, just not in stock yet.

 

[JoeFoster]

Originally posted by: EuR Fr3nCh T3rRoR
Or wait until the 7900GT comes out in a few days and pick one of those up for $299, you will gain a extra 4 pipelines, since the 7800GT has 20 and the 7900GT is SUPPOSED to have 24 at the same $299 price point. This is if the rumors out there hold, because who knows what Nvidia really has up their sleeves mate.

P.S. I know the 7900GT will be $299, because the local CompUSA has it in their system for that price, just not in stock yet.

Ok that's the card I will be getting. I will overclock that opteron to a decent 2.4-2.5. Very glad to get rid of my refurbished nf7-s v1.0. I could never clock my barton well and had problems with the mobo.