gaming experience with winchester athlon 64 3ghz non-OC

[zyzplasmaz]

Hi,
i'm wondering if anybody has a 1.8ghz (3.0+ghz rating) that was not overclocked and what's your gaming experience with it.
i bought this around a year ago and finally decided i should upgrade my video card. i had a AIW 600pro which i used mainly for watching tv(and rarely at that, will probably ebay it after i switch) but decided i want a new video card for gaming purposes. i was thinking of the new 7900gt (which i hear will retail for 300) or the x1800gto whichever seems to be the better value for performance. i also bought a new antec 550 tp2 psu so it should be able to handle any single graphics card.
i was thinking of getting the 6800gs but i think waiting for a few weeks would be worth it in the long run since the new cards are coming out in a week or 2.

anyways what i'm most interested in is what graphics do you have with this cpu and how was your gaming experience? resolution? fps? did it seem like it was too cpu limited? or did it not make much of a difference. would you upgrade you cpu if it was within your budget?

and before anybody say why dont you upgrade or oc your cpu, it's because im thinking of eventually just replacing most or all of the system in 6months - 1yr or so when the new AM2 boards comes out (and i could get a athlon 64 X2 cpu with it) so this is just a temporary solution till then. besides, i dont like OC, it's just my general paranoid with keeping a CPU comfortable and happy (even though every site says i should OC this)

 

[brainysmurf]

Yeah, I had that chip in my system for about a year. It worked fine for me ... but I wasn't trying to run the very latest games.
I started out with an MSI Nforce 3 board with AGP graphics w. 1 gb dual channel mid-quality RAM (2 x 512mb)
I then upgraded to a new MSI Nforce 4 board and PCI-E graphics (Nvidia 6600GT card).
Then last month I upgraded to an X2 3800+ (same board, RAM, video card, etc.)
The X2 has a newer core revision, is 200 mhz faster and, oh yeah, has an extra core.
The dual core provided a very noticeable improvement in response time, especially when doing multiple tasks. Microsoft Office seems to like it a lot. Windows likes it and I haven't had a single crash since I upgraded. But as others have documented elsewhere, it doesn't have much impact on games because most are single-threaded apps.
To sum up, yeah, you'll get respectable performance out of the Winchester. The 1.8 ghz stock speed and slightly older core version will have some impact ... but as many, many posters on this site have attested again and again, it's the video card that has the greatest impact on today's games.
So, if you're trying to save money... sure, I'd go with the processor you have and just buy the best video card you can afford. You'll get more bang for your buck doing that than you would buying a new CPU and less expensive card.
If I had it to do over again -- I'd still buy the X2. But gaming isn't my primary focus. If gaming was my focus, I'd have kept my Winchester and spent that $329 on a better video card.

 

[zyzplasmaz]

hi thanks for the valuable feedback. i dont play games as much as before but some of the new games coming out are just so tempting :twisted:
i have a MSI Nforce 4 mobo also and at one point i was thinking of getting a new CPU (athlon x2 4200+) when AMD announce the price dropped, but then i figured.. they're going to have the AM2 soon so i decided to wait a little.
i think i'll wait a few months and upgrade most of my system or maybe all of it and give my old pc away or ebay it if im not too lazy 8) 8) 8)
now the hard part... getting the unknown x1800gto or the 300 7900gt... decisions decisions.....

 

[brainysmurf]

Which video card to choose?
Lots of folks here have their favorites. Sometimes it boils down to which game or games you plan to play the most. Different games have different requirements.
One of the other forums could help you with that decision.
As for me, I just CANNOT bring myself to spend more than $200 for a video card. I COULD fit it into my budget if I really wanted to, but I just can't rationalize it.
If you're intent on playing F.E.A.R., Battlefield 2, Quake 4 or Doom 3 at the highest resolution possible with the fastest framerates, go for it.
But if you're into other types of games, you may find that a mid-level card does just fine. My XFX 6600 GT has proven more than adequate for Sims 2, Age of Empires III, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 and Guild Wars -- those are the only games I've got loaded up right now.
When the Morrowind sequel Oblivion comes out (hopefully in a few weeks) we'll see how well my card holds up.

 

[thebunny]

I have an winchester 3000+ (1.800) and a new video card would make a much greater impact on gaming rather than a new CPU