What to do with processor?

[Dethred]

Alright, I have a P4 2.01 ghz processor (not sure if Prescott or Northwood) along with:

2GB of DDR400
6800GT
PT8 Neo LSR Mobo

I can almost get all high graphics with a decent frame rate but it slows down drastically when a lot of stuff is going on (large battle at a base)... Almost to the point of being unplayable sometimes.

My question is:

Would it be more bang for the buck to buy a good heatsink and overclock the current processor or buy a new Motherboard and a better processor for ~300 dollars? I was thinking a 939 AMD myself...

Would I see any benefit from getting 2.4Ghz out of the P4 for ~$40 with a heatsink or would I see better results from a 3000+ or 3500+ AMD? If so would it be worth the 300 dollars on an already tight budget? Give advice after putting yourself in my position.

Thanks,

Ryan

[Zeratul]

Re: What to do with processor?

OC'ing to 2.4 ghz wont give you much of a boost. It will give you a $40 dollar boost. Which wont be much.

AMD 3500+ will perform about 2x better then a 2.0 ghz intel. AMD 64's completely out class intel pentium 4's. You can get a new mobo and an AMD 3500+ for around $300.

[Dethred]

Re: What to do with processor?

Do you have any combo advice? How does your PC run BF2?

[Zeratul]

Re: What to do with processor?

I run everything on highest with 4x AA and get great FPS, no noticable slow downs even in the most intense situations.

By combo I think you mean motherboard/CPU combo?

I suggest this:
CPU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103533

With this MOBO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813152053 (PCI Express)
If you need AGP this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813152052

[D3TON8R]

Re: What to do with processor?

and make sure your new mobo is agp if you're going s939.......

[neo265]

Re: What to do with processor?

Its actually been proven that BF2 is not a CPU bound game. The difference between same generation processors are minimal. They tested a 2.8Ghz P4 v a 3.8Ghz P4 and found there was only 2FPS in it. Ill have a look to see if I can find the web review.

However, when I moved from a Athlon XP2700 to a Athlon64 3500 I noticed a huge difference. Really do advise moving to an Athlon64 for games.

[[F.E.A.R]Cicada]

Re: What to do with processor?

whats the max fsb of your mobo...

if it's 800mhz it might be worth going for a 3.2/3.4 P4. But thats only if the board supports HT.

[Warm Pudgy]

Re: What to do with processor?

the 2ghz p4 prolly only has a 533 fsb or lower, so that means your memory isnt running at 400mhz but actually running at 333mhz or lower.

from my observations, bf2 is very memory dependent
when i play with all settings maxed, it takes up almost 900 megs on 64 player maps

but when i originally played with only 1gig of ram it would fill up my memory and then, it apparently compressed it or something back down to 200megs

so i got another 512 and now it doesnt do that, and sits around 860megs

so what im guessing is for better performance i would definitely upgrade your cpu,
it doesnt have to be the brand spanking new ones, but a cheaper 2.8ghz or maybe 3ghz would prolly give a significant boost

[gsxr310]

Re: What to do with processor?

i'd definately find out the specs on your mobo and see wats the highest CPU you can put. wats the model for ur mobo?

[signa]

Re: What to do with processor?

Would it be more bang for the buck to buy a good heatsink and overclock the current processor or buy a new Motherboard and a better processor for ~300 dollars?

well it all depends on how much you want to spend. Generally buying a new mobo means your old ram may not be compatable, and say you do buy a new AMD mobo (and cpu) it will have to be AGP to go with your vid card. so now your spending $$$ and your still limited to agp vid cards in the future.

I looked at your mobo it seems to only support northwoods at 800fsb (prescotts at 533). not a problem since northwoods run cooler and have shorter pipelines than similar prescotts, although some have smaller L2 caches. the highest cpu it supports is a northwood 3.2EE, but im sure that is way expensive. you could probably get a northwood 3.0 or 3.2 for around $200. add in a thermalright xp90 heatsink and your good to go.

[ChopperKill]

Re: What to do with processor?

Yeah BF2 isn't CPU limited as someone already said so if you are thinking about doing it just for this game you won't see too much of a difference. Other games though well that's a different matter.

If you decided to do it I'd go for a 939 probably a 3000+ as you can overclock them to a 3800+ very easily with stock cooling and they are really cheap now. If you didn't want to overclock then basically anything 939 with a venice core.

[Shamus]

Re: What to do with processor?

PT8 Neo-LSR [10/100 LAN, SATA(SB)]
• Supports Intel® P4 Northwood / Prescott (FSB 533 only) / P4 Extreme Edition processors.
• Supports up 3.2GHz/800MHz and higher speed

The rest of your components are great, if you moved to the AMD 64 S939 platform you will nearly double your system performance because of AMD's onchip memory controller. You could expect the investment to extend the half-life of the PC up to 18 to 24 months.

[Dethred]

Re: What to do with processor?

Well I tried turning everything but AA last night to full on a 40 person server and it ran really smooth. For some reason at the 64 player level it starts lagging. It sounds like an AMD64 is the way to go. My motherboard only supports crap CPU's. Its either a toss up between 1MB L2 cache and 533FSB or 512 L2 and 800FSB. Since I have two Hard Drives is it possible with a new AMD supported Mobo to format my backup drive and install windows on it and leave the Game/media HD intact?

[Dethred]

Re: What to do with processor?

^^^bump^^^

[WickedSlammy]

Re: What to do with processor?

Alright, I have a P4 2.01 ghz processor (not sure if Prescott or Northwood) along with:

2GB of DDR400
6800GT
PT8 Neo LSR Mobo

I can almost get all high graphics with a decent frame rate but it slows down drastically when a lot of stuff is going on (large battle at a base)... Almost to the point of being unplayable sometimes.

My question is:

Would it be more bang for the buck to buy a good heatsink and overclock the current processor or buy a new Motherboard and a better processor for ~300 dollars? I was thinking a 939 AMD myself...

Would I see any benefit from getting 2.4Ghz out of the P4 for ~$40 with a heatsink or would I see better results from a 3000+ or 3500+ AMD? If so would it be worth the 300 dollars on an already tight budget? Give advice after putting yourself in my position.

Thanks,

Ryan

I just upgraded and i am selling my old cpu and mobo. It is by no means slow at all and ran this game quite good. It is the last great overclocking P4 and i ran it OCed for 2 years with no problems. Its a 2.4 C class P4 800mhz FSB, i ran it at 3.3ghz 1100mhz fsb with voltage only raised from 1.525 to 1.55. It would run at stock voltage all day but i give it alittle bump just because i wanted to. The mobo i have is a Abit AI7 which has AGP, dual channel DDR400 and everything you could possibly want. Its a really awesome setup and i hate to sell it but i really need to make some money back after what i just spent. Im looking to get about $200 for the mobo and cpu and i have all the boxes for both and everything they came with. Email me at Slammy@charter.net if anyone is intrested.