OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

[<DV8>mrbucket]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

Please please please dont waste your money and buy a system you will regret in 6 months. Save your money and buy stuff that is still considered new or adequate to handle tomorrows games. Things that will be around a little while- 6800 series and x850 series (minimum) and newer, Power supplies of 500w and over w/ sli, newer motherboards w/ 939 socket and sli, Ram over 3200 speed (minimum), a processor of at least athlon 3200 minimum.

[imported_shadow_vision]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

Please please please dont waste your money and buy a system you will regret in 6 months. Save your money and buy stuff that is still considered new or adequate to handle tomorrows games. Things that will be around a little while- 6800 series and x850 series (minimum) and newer, Power supplies of 500w and over w/ sli, newer motherboards w/ 939 socket and sli, Ram over 3200 speed (minimum), a processor of at least athlon 3200 minimum.

thats what i dont understand ... how can you say the 6800 series will be considered good for "tomorrows games" when the x800 ( let alone x850) have so much higher core clock and higher gb/s and the same pipe number

as for the other things u mentioned ... all of my new system will have exactly what u said ( 500 watt, 3200 etc)

[<DV8>mrbucket]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

thats what i dont understand ... how can you say the 6800 series will be considered good for "tomorrows games" when the x800 ( let alone x850) have so much higher core clock and higher gb/s and the same pipe number

as for the other things u mentioned ... all of my new system will have exactly what u said ( 500 watt, 3200 etc)

The higher clock really doesn't mean anything, it's the architechture of the chip and the ram. Don't get me wrong, I love my ATI cards, but you are going to be hardpressed to find a better deal than a 6800 gt. It also has shader model 3, which isn't a big deal yet, but in the future most games will have it. You can get the lower end card, but it's just that. Games will become more and more advanced and the 6800 and 850 series can run them fine for now, but next year the x800 and anything under the 6800 will be the minimum cards REQUIRED to play smoothly.

[[2bit]Modmaven]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

Not sure why you would recommend that system without a 6800 gt. Not to mention without a HD with 16mb cache, which todays hard drives are slightly under the speed of the raptor with the 16mb cache(hardly noticeable). That system will be considered slow and low end in a year.

Good call on the 16mb cache...I didnt even notice they are about the same price:p . The 6800gt is at a weird price point right now. It is typically about 250 bucks. You could spend 50 bucks more than that and get a 7800GT!!! At about 125.00, the 6600gt is a very good bang for the buck deal.

As far as the computer being low end in a year...Well yeah, that is kind of the problem you run into when you only have 700 bucks to spend. I was just trying to stay within budget.

I cant under emphasize the importance of a good power supply in your system. Especially with gaming stretching your system to the max, you are going to want a stable PSU in there. In other words, dont buy some case for 60 bucks that has a built in power supply. I have learned from experience on that one

[imported_shadow_vision]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

I cant under emphasize the importance of a good power supply in your system. Especially with gaming stretching your system to the max, you are going to want a stable PSU in there. In other words, dont buy some case for 60 bucks that has a built in power supply. I have learned from experience on that one

this is what ive been looking at as far as the PSU goes ... any complaints / praises?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148027

Oh btw .... you guys all have been much help ... Even though ppl seem to get very frustrated with my budget ... heres the deal I actually will have a 900$ budget BUT I must buy a monitor ... such i waste of money i think they are way overpriced ... but that leaves me with only 750$ for a good system ... its why im so damn cheap hehe, anyway ty much 4 the help, I'LL probably buy this comp in about a week ... I heard that newegg usually has an after xmas sale, can anyone confirm this?

[DrunkenPirate]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

Moved to Hardware.

[[2bit]Modmaven]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

[quote=shadow_vision]this is what ive been looking at as far as the PSU goes ... any complaints / praises?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148027

A 500 Watt PSU for only 40 bucks is a little suspect...It seems to be hit and miss looking at the reviews.

I would seriously look at the line of antec cases with built in PSU. They all come with Antec PSU's, which are very good. Only problem is, most of the ones that come with PSU built in are not very "gamer" Most are fairly heavy and dont have a bunch of lights, if you care about that.

If you want a more gamer looking rig you could go with a case with lights and then add on a good PSU.

Like this...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129145

with this...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103937

[Death Merchant]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

dont get the 6800/x800

get the x1600xt (think it was released today) 600mhz core 1600mhz memory 12 pipes

and has shader model 3.0 support at $170 or &#163;120 over here

[cloakster]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

the X1600 XT isnt that great. it has high core and memory speeds but it doesnt do that well for gaming. its fill rate is really slow

[[2bit]Modmaven]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

For further guidance check this out

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/02/vga_charts_viii/index.html

These are the VGA charts as of December 2.
It also has a really cool chart that shows you the performance increase going from one card to another.

When you are working on a limited budget as most of us are, it is a delicate balance. I have played Battlefield 2 on a system with a 6600gt at 1024x768 High/Medium settings and it was smooth as butter. I have also played on a system with a 7800gt in it with everything maxed out and it was just as smooth, just better looking. It all boils down to how much image quality really gets you going. I would much rather have a fast frame rate than totally beautiful graphics, and if that can save me 150 bucks(6600GT vs 7800GT) well, maybe that is the way to go.

Another consideration to weigh is whether or not you are getting a flat panel or CRT. All flat panels have a native resolution that is pixel for pixel the resolution of the panel. If you are getting a flat-panel, you are going to want to get a video card that is capable of smooth play at 1280x1024 (assuming you are getting a 17" or 19") Playing at lower resolutions on these flat panels brings in pixel interpolation, which makes the image very ugly indeed.

If you are going the CRT route, they support any resolution using no interpolation. Woot!

Anyway, I digress

[Regent]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

You can get a used CRT pretty cheap. I picked up a Sony 21" Trinitron at a local store for 80 bucks! Good luck finding one that cheap, but Ebay has them for about 125. Again, don't waste money on a case with a bunch of bells and whistles, just get the best hardware you can.

[Umi.Ryuuzaki]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

To the topic: AMD is good for gaming. If you look around major hardware websites, for gaming and gaming alone, AMD reigns king right now. Next year however is going to be a year to watch as both companies bring in their new Dual-Core CPUS and with Intel using the Pentium Mobile as a basis for thier new CPUS (and dumping netburst), AMD might have actual competition. In terms of prue stablity and the fact one might do gaming and heavy multitasking, a X2 can get the job done, but in the lower price ranges, a P4 with HT is something to respect. But, honestly, price/performance, in gaming, I rather use a A64.

Prescotts are hot...even with a properly installed heatsink and AC5, when compared to a A64.

GPUs - its not always pure speed and pipelines: its also archtechure (spelling?). Right now, nvidia's cards have the considerable edge at the moment. IGNORING the non-playable 3D-Mark benchmarks and using REAL games like BF2, FEAR, others games, price per dollar, its mainly nvidia's cards. The X1xxx was a good response yes, but too little too late. We'll see if ATI actually improves with the R580 core

Yes, i'm sounding like a fanboy, but I have more faith in nVidia in getting the staff actually out.

As for your actually system, if you squeeze in more money, you can get a good system. I think a 3200+ 64, a decent NF4 board, 6600Gt/6800GS, 1gb of ram, a good PSU (VERY IMPORTANT - a bad PSU will kill any system. If you need a recommendation, i'll swing one over), and a decent case with cooling...that shouldnt break 800 ish..

I'll post a "list" if you havent alreadly gotten your parts.

[imported_shadow_vision]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

heres the deal ... just got my xmas $$$ ... this is my new budget ... 820
I literally ... CANNOT... spend more uhm heres what i thought about getting ... and if you have ANY suggestions of how to make a better system ... then plz also suggest what to "downgrade" in order to fit my budget ty advance

AMD 3200+ ( $180)
Asus 4Mb PCIE ( $70)
Aspire 500 Watt PSU ( $40)
GieL 2x512 Ram ( $80)
x800gto16 256 Mb ($180)
HD 80 Gb 7200 ( $55)
Found this monitor ... prob $#!t but v cheap ( $70)

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/ESA-Monitor-E17CRT1-/sem/rpsm/oid/95496/catOid/-12965/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

this is 675 bucks ... very good since i will prob have to buy a router too but i can obviously raise a little bit ...but im hopin this system is ok

I also was thinkin about buying a 2Mb Max Motherboard and buying 1 gig ram instead of 2x512 ... this would save me 20 bucks and if no one has a reason not to... then i prob will

[HyperBlade]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

I would suggest this site for reviews, www.hardocp.com the best second to none, actual reviews on gaming performance rather then benchmark scores.

Do not trust a single tomshardware review.


Back to the original topic, Amd is the way to go, no questions, you just have to pick the right one now

Make sure you get some good (stable, fast timings) ram to go with it, even if you get less, as it makes a very large difference with the performance of bf2.

Edit: As noted, dont scimp on the powersupply, it is the one piece that is worth spending the extra money, it means a lot less hassles in the long run.

[imported_goya]

Re: OK ... Why AMD Not P4?

it's simple amd rocks p4 sucks