Upgrade from AMD Athlon XP to 64

[nasky]

I am thinking of upgrading my computer from an AMD Athlon XP 1900 to an AMD Athlon 64 3000 but I'm not sure whether it will have a significant difference in performance (gaming in particular)

currently the specs of my computer is an AMD Athlon XP 1900 with 512MB DDR333 (PC2700), Nvidia FX5700 128MB (however, my motherboard supports a maximum of 4X for the AGP

will the performance improve noticeably if I upgrade it to an AMD Athlon 64 3000 processor and motherboard that supports an 8X AGP card? I'll use the existing memory modules (512MB DDR 333 - 2X 256 MB) and video card (Nvidia FX5700 128MB).

thanks.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Your AGP card is not that good, you'll need a better graphics card to see significant gaming performance increase after CPU upgrade. AGP 8x doesn't have performance advantage over AGP 4x, unless you're playing latest games at 1600 x 1200 with 4x AA.

Your DDR333 will cripple performance of A64 3000+, not much though, around 5% on average.

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[TheRod]

Have you tried to overclock your XP1900+, XP chips can easily run at 2GHz on air with a bit of vCore tweak.

You can expect rating between 2400+ and 2700+ to be easily reachable. I am personnaly satisfied with my CPU for gaming and general purpose stuff... (I have an overcloced XP1800+ to Sempron 2800+).

You will surely benefits from a better GPU, an X800 or 6800 would probably be too much for your rig, but a 9800 PRO based board would definitly gives you a good boost in most games.

NOTE about DDR333 and A64 : I will buy an A64 based system within a couple of weeks/months (I wait for PCI-EXPRESS MB to be available) and I will keep my DDR333 memory. Because the integrated memory controller of the A64 CPU's have very low latency and the money I will save for the RAM will surly cut my performance a bit, but I will buy a better GPU with this money, which is a WIS move considering that a faster GPU will be better than faster ram in most situation.

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A7N8X / <font color=green><b>AMD Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green> <-- <i>Is this affecting my credibility???</i>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290

 

[addiarmadar]

You will see a defiante boost in synthetic performance but in gamming not really.

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

Your AGP4x is fine, the best cards of a year ago barely made a difference with 8x as compared to 4x, and then only when you cranked up the settings to the point the games weren't playable anyway. Your real weaknesses are that you have a halfassed video card and a weak CPU.

Your video card won't offer better performance at all in 8x mode, the processor would help a little but not as much as a more powerfull card. But your processor is too weak to make better cards perform near their peak.

I'd consider upgrading to an XP2800+ if your board supports it, or getting a Mobile Barton (XP-M 2500+ for example) and using its unlocked multiplier to increase your clock speed. Those options will help you save money until you can afford a better card, and the longer you save, the better upgrade you can afford.

I should really just say that with a decent processor, that system could be a nice midrange PC. Putting parts such as your old video card into a new system would drag it down. So putting as little money as possible into making your system barely adequate right now may allow you to build a complete system later, like next spring when all these new technologies will be mature and cheap.

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[endyen]

If you are running a via, or sis chipset, get the A64, if you have an nforce board, get the xp-m chip, and a better graphics card.