Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

[farty_mcrablice]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

Whether or not it's worth it depends on what the rest of your system looks like. What video card, RAM, etc. do you have? My P4 isn't the best gaming chip, but it's hardly a bottleneck. Video card and RAM are usually much more important factors for gaming. If you're looking for a noticeable upgrade, your money might be better spent somewhere else.

[Dethred]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

Jesus Christ, we have people recommending $300 CPUs for someone who is budgeted towards a $200 CPU.

3500+ will be equivalent, on average to a 3.5ghz Intel chip. If you factor in everything you'll be using it for it will be about the same speed; gaming, audio, browsing, general Computer usage, etc.

AMD Athlon 64 processors do more instructions per clock therefore a 2.0ghz Athlon will do about the same as a 3ghz Intel in many aspect (very rough estimate). I got a $205 3500+ and have it overclocked to the FX55 clock speed and it benchmarks as high as an FX55, which is an $800 chip.

To give you an estimate, my friend's 3.8ghz overclocked Intel Celeron D processor gets ~800 points in 3dmark06. Another friend's $215 Intel 3.2ghz 2mb L2 cache HT CPU barely makes 800 points on the same test. My stock clocked 3500+ got an ~850. At 2.6ghz it makes 1015 3dmark points for the CPU.

[SHADOW2492]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

Whether or not it's worth it depends on what the rest of your system looks like. What video card, RAM, etc. do you have? My P4 isn't the best gaming chip, but it's hardly a bottleneck. Video card and RAM are usually much more important factors for gaming. If you're looking for a noticeable upgrade, your money might be better spent somewhere else.

Well here are my specs that I know of.
P4 2.66 GHZ
1 GIG PC3200 (2x512)
EVGA 6800GT AGP

[SFR-MAINE]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

or if you wanna wait, wait for the new intel processors conroe which i think will help INTEL retake the crown but we will see.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=787

[DisposableHero]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

get the AMD. you won't regret it. i remember when i was skeptical about getting one. you'll love it.

[Dethred]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

or if you wanna wait, wait for the new intel processors conroe which i think will help INTEL retake the crown but we will see.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=787

All I saw from that article is better architecture (maybe wont run at 60+*C under load?) and a larger cache. My 3500+ was $205, and it beats the crap out of my friend's $215 Pentium 3.2 2MB L2 cache CPU even at stock speeds... and his runs at 63*C under load, so if he plans on overclocking he'll need a heck of a HSF or watercooling just to bump it up a little. Not to mention my CPU at 2.2ghz beats his in every kind of process (encoding, zipping, photoshop, etc) we could test them on side by side.

[SFR-MAINE]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

All I saw from that article is better architecture (maybe wont run at 60+*C under load?) and a larger cache. My 3500+ was $205, and it beats the crap out of my friend's $215 Pentium 3.2 2MB L2 cache CPU even at stock speeds... and his runs at 63*C under load, so if he plans on overclocking he'll need a heck of a HSF or watercooling just to bump it up a little. Not to mention my CPU at 2.2ghz beats his in every kind of process (encoding, zipping, photoshop, etc) we could test them on side by side.

hmmm lets see i have my CPU overclocked at 3.2 GHZ and i never get above 40C under load also i paid 170$ for my CPU back in june. so what if you get an extra 5fps in some game big deal. Also if you havent heard 65nm process is alot less hot, ofcourse they are getting a better architecture the P4's are old. I just have a feeling that come the next few months the new Intel chips are gonna be alot better, i wish i could find some benchmarks with the new yonah chip i hear it did quite well against the FX-57.

[imported_Wreck]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

Ok, so Intel may be catching up with AMD's years old technology. By then AMD will have something far better. Do you guys not think AMD has something up their sleeve?

[Dethred]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

hmmm lets see i have my CPU overclocked at 3.2 GHZ and i never get above 40C under load also i paid 170$ for my CPU back in june. so what if you get an extra 5fps in some game big deal. Also if you havent heard 65nm process is alot less hot, ofcourse they are getting a better architecture the P4's are old. I just have a feeling that come the next few months the new Intel chips are gonna be alot better, i wish i could find some benchmarks with the new yonah chip i hear it did quite well against the FX-57.

The day a Prescott core Loads at 40*C on a stock heatsink is the day I'll flap my wings and fly... unless of course the room its operating in is below freezing.:laugh: You got your $170 intel to 3.2 but a stock cooling 3200+ for $170 will reach FX53 and FX55 speeds. You get more for your money with AMD most of the time.

[farty_mcrablice]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

Ok, the 3500+ would be a nice compliment to the rest of your system. You can't go wrong with an AMD chip. I say that as a former AMD owner, current Intel owner, and a very near future AMD owner... :)

[firezip]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

I herd Intel was coming out with a QUAD core processor, but it is mainly for servers

[Dethred]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

Well it would be useless for anything but servers. People barely put their Dual cores to good use now, and they're pointless in games up to this point.

[Sir. S.A.S]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

The 3500+ would be a nice upgrade from your P4, for gaming at least. Do you do anything else with your computer?

I have one and its amaizing itll out run my machine downstairs with the same specs by 20 fps PLUS

[LoD]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

hmmm lets see i have my CPU overclocked at 3.2 GHZ and i never get above 40C under load also i paid 170$ for my CPU back in june. so what if you get an extra 5fps in some game big deal. Also if you havent heard 65nm process is alot less hot, ofcourse they are getting a better architecture the P4's are old. I just have a feeling that come the next few months the new Intel chips are gonna be alot better, i wish i could find some benchmarks with the new yonah chip i hear it did quite well against the FX-57.

Its going to be a crap shoot. Intel has had lower performing, higher thermal output and a dated architecture for the last 2+ years.

The next gen intel chips will be better, but they probably will not retake the performance crown. Intel is focusing on shifiting off netburst and is adopting dual core as an alternative to higher clock speed. Dual core while nice will not give huge performance gains in non multithreaded applications. Until Intel gets an onboard memory controllers AMD will have the performance advantage.

[knghtwhosaysni]

Re: Thinking of converting to AMD need advice.

To give you an estimate, my friend's 3.8ghz overclocked Intel Celeron D processor gets ~800 points in 3dmark06. Another friend's $215 Intel 3.2ghz 2mb L2 cache HT CPU barely makes 800 points on the same test. My stock clocked 3500+ got an ~850. At 2.6ghz it makes 1015 3dmark points for the CPU.

I don't know what is up with your friends' cpus, because mine gets in the 1080s.
But to the original poster, getting an AMD 3500 or 3200 would be a good idea, and both can overclock pretty well with the stock heatsink+fan.