Is the AMD Athlon 1800 Still a player?

ifOnly

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I'm feeling like boosting my PC a little, and trying to avoid spending too much money. Currently I have:

AMD Athlon 1800
1.5 Gig PC2700 RAM
ATi 9800 Pro Graphics card (AGP)

I've migrated all of my 'serious' computer uses over to my old iMac, leaving this purely as a gaming platform. This is fine for Counter-Strike, Battlefield 2, or running three concurrent Everquest accounts.

My questions is whether this CPU still has enough oomph to handle newer games if I throw in a new graphics card - something like the AGP 7600 GT. I tend to just want to play the game and not be dazzled by graphics, so if it would be capable of handling 1024 x 768 with no AA and reduced detail then that's fine by me.

I realise that these things to some degree go hand in hand, but can anyone provide feedback on what throttles games like F.E.A.R. and (as much as anyone could say in advance) the new Battlefield 2142? Is it processor power or the graphics card?

Any advice would be welcome :)

Rhys
 

jamesgoddard

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People that quote hard figures for what will bottleneck a system are talking bull tbh... It will vary from app to app and then vary due to what settings you run that under.

Also saying X component will bottleneck Y component is bull, the best way to think about this situation is that the system will only run at the speed of the slowest component, it's not like adding a faster gfx card or CPU would ever make the system as a whole slower, whatever people say, it just may not make the system faster, get it?
 

ifOnly

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Thank you for the responses. I had considered looking for a cheap CPU upgrade too, but have been unable to find anyone selling socket A processors. I'll do some more browsing and maybe check e-bay :)

Rhys
 

OldGoat

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Thank you for the responses. I had considered looking for a cheap CPU upgrade too, but have been unable to find anyone selling socket A processors. I'll do some more browsing and maybe check e-bay :)

Rhys

Check out www.geeks.com they have a few Socket A CPU's for sale. Also browse through cnet shopper and see what they have.
 

jamesgoddard

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So you prove my point, the data you provided shows that in a single app you reach the performance limit of the CPU, but say now you stick something like Oblivion on that same rig and run it at 1280x1024 and medium to high settings, I can guarantee you that the gfx card will be the limiting factor and getting a 7600GT will increase performance!

The performance limit changes for every single app you run, and with more recent, very heavily graphical depended apps, the gfx card will be the limiting factor.
 

orsino

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Well......maybe the cassette drive deserves to retire. :wink:

OK, then how about replacing my Mac Plus' 9 inch B&W for a 30 inch Apple HD Cinema Display? I can upgrade the CPU to the 32MHz 68030 and just interface the X1900 XT externally through the DB-25 to give me 2560x1600 resolution, right? :D
 

shabodah

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Ok, I'm a broken record. You're considering BOTH a new graphics card and CPU, correct? The barton surely was a nice chip, but you can buy a better CPU (try Sempron 2800), motherboard (any 6100/410), and GPU (7600GT PCIe) for $250, which isn't much more than you'd be spending on the barton and 7600GT AGP.
 

dreams411

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Honestly, I would scrap the set-up and build mostly new from scratch. The added cost of a new motherboard (and additional possiblities you'll have in the CPU and GPU areas) would be worth it IMHO. That is, if you have the money to spend. :p
At best, you'll be able to upgrade what you have now to the point where it will play current games well to adequate, but new games will run slowly. Spending the $400 now will only buy you a little time. Spending maybe $600 will buy you more time now and in the future for upgradability's sake.
 

Kelkins

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Not likely as the db25 off the MAC+ was a serial port ( Yes they actually made serial attached external drives that ran at about the same speed as a floppy drive) on the very early models, a scsi port on the later models.
 

orsino

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Not likely as the db25 off the MAC+ was a serial port ( Yes they actually made serial attached external drives that ran at about the same speed as a floppy drive) on the very early models, a scsi port on the later models.

Yeah, but that's because you're not taking into consideration the Orsino DB25 serial to PCIx interface. 40GB/sec and supports D3D10. It comes with an upgrade kit for the 128MB ROM and 4x1GB 30 pin SIMMs. At NewEgg now. :lol:
 

SciFiMan

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IMO, it's worth you looking at retasking that system for something other than gaming. I have a Barton 2500+ mildly overclocked to 2800+, with 1.5GB of RAM and a X1600Pro 512. I can run HL2 on high settings just fine at 1024x768. For Fear (using it's built in test) I got between 25-45 FPS and it was playable with only a few slow downs in a couple spots if I remember right. I play BF2 online on high settings but no AA or shadows. Same engine so I'm expecting nearly the same in 2142. I do not expect that the system will play Crysis and other upcoming shooters.

However, I am building a new system after the first of the year, and my current system will be great for years yet for my 8 yr old, and to use for burning family video DVD's. With DX10 cards a couple months away, I can't recommend you upgrade your current system. Time to move on to PCI-e.
 

jthorn

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However, I am building a new system after the first of the year, and my current system will be great for years yet for my 8 yr old, and to use for burning family video DVD's. With DX10 cards a couple months away, I can't recommend you upgrade your current system. Time to move on to PCI-e.
<---------My plan too. Sometime early 2007 for me, maybe iE6600, DDR2 ram, PCIe DX10 ?, and a bigger power supply to support it all. I dont know about vista though - not much written on that yet. You got to wonder about MS these days. But, PC architecture is taking a giant leap forward atm - plan your $$ well. You dont want to have to buy twice.
 

PaCanc

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Right now I'm using an AthlonXP 2000+ at 2600+, 1GB DDR333, 6600GT AGP 4x.
I can tell you that HL2 ran well at 1024x768, 2xAA, all settings on high.
Also NFS:MW on high settings, same resolution, 2xAA.
Oblivion is running OK if you play with the settings (1024x768, less than medium settings).
Probably, with a 7600GT AGP, I could up the settings, but I don't want to upgrade this machine anymore. I'm planning on a new system Q1 2007.

Maybe you should save for a new computer, if this one doesn't meet you're expectations anymore.

But first, you could try what I did with my CPU: I changed the FSB from 133MHz to 166MHz from a jumper on the MB (VIA KT333). So, only the CPU is overclocked (+25%!, from 1.66GHz to ~2,08GHz). If you can do the same you'll instantly get a 2400+. My temps rose about 7C (from 45-50 to 55) under full load.

It's running very stable, and it will go higher, but I can't lock the PCI bus, so I'm limited there.
 

ElMoIsEviL

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Right now I'm using an AthlonXP 2000+ at 2600+, 1GB DDR333, 6600GT AGP 4x.
I can tell you that HL2 ran well at 1024x768, 2xAA, all settings on high.
Also NFS:MW on high settings, same resolution, 2xAA.
Oblivion is running OK if you play with the settings (1024x768, less than medium settings).
I guess nobody told you you were running actually running at DX8 and not realising a lot of eye candy has been lost, blame the game developers for that. (I don't blame you because no one knows except the gfx gurus that dwell down there)
Difference between 9800Pro running DX9 and your 6600GT being forced to running DX8 is one heck lot of performance gap.

This forum is not the place to talk about gfx card as there are hardly any members here that posses the trained knowledge from the gfx forum.
Go down to the gfx forum and ask people like GeneticWeapon, GreatGrapeApe, PaulDH, Cleeve, Raven_87, Prozac26 and myself. There you will find real anwsers in gaming performance&setup.

6600GT is a GeForce 6 series. It runs in HL2 DX9 mode. GeForceFX (5xx0 series) run HL2 in DX8 mode.

As for Oblivion.. I'm unsure if it runs games in DX8 mode with the GeForce 6600GT. Would seem logical.. due to the performance increase but you never know. All I have heard is that Oblivion is Strictly DX9 but I have seen a patch that fixes issues with older graphics cards.
 
I realise that these things to some degree go hand in hand, but can anyone provide feedback on what throttles games like F.E.A.R. and (as much as anyone could say in advance) the new Battlefield 2142? Is it processor power or the graphics card?

In general, games are more dependant on the GPU than the CPU. However, I think there exists a minimum threshold for CPU though to take advantage of a GPU. In my opinion, I think the Athlon 1800 XP will drag down the performance of the 7600GS a little. I'm loosely basing that on more recent CPU and more powerful GPUs comparisons.

The Athlon 1800 XP's stock speed is 1.53GHz (IIRC), or the very rough equivalent of a 2.0GHz Pentium 4. That's bit slow for current games, but still managable. To extend the life of this gaming rig a more powerful CPU is recommended. You can opt for a Socket A Sempron 2800+ (~ $55), or the Athlon XP 2500+ (~ $75). The Sempron 2800+ is clocked about 170MHz faster, but only has 128MB L2 cache which is 1/4 of that on the Athlon XP 2500+. I'm not familiar with the Sempron's performance, but the Athlon XP 2500+ is roughly comparable to a 2.6GHz Pentium 4.

The cheapest solution is to simply purchase the 7600GS and be done with it. But if your budget rannges between $190 - $210, then upgrade the CPU as well. This should allow you to play most 2006 and 2007 games at low to medium resolutions. It may be a little dicey in 2008.

In regards to Battlefield 2142, I think you should be okay since the minimum hardware is a 1.7GHz Pentium 4 and ATI 8500 GPU. Gaming wise, as long as you have relatively low expections, your upgrades should last you 2 or 3 years.
 

PaCanc

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I don't claim to be an expert, but the nVidia 6600GT IS a dx9.0c card.
That means SM3.0.
I am sure it's running in DX9 mode (both HL2:ep1 and Oblivion), because I can enable HDR if I want (though it will run like crap).
Yes, I know HL2:ep1 doesn't have "true" HDR, but Oblivion does.
Anyway, thank you for trying to give help.