Phasma

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Hello everyone, I am about to upgrade my computer from previous specifications to run a game called The Elder Scrolls Oblivion. Now I'm upgrading my motherboard to PCI-E and getting a new video card (since Oblivion is very graphically intensive).

The video card I'll be upgrading to is called the SAPHIRE Radeon X850XT 256 MB. The current socket 754 processor I have will stay the same, it's an AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.8 Ghz processor.

Will this new Video Card be bottlenecked by my processor, if so, how badly? If I need to upgrade to see quite a bit of a performance increase, what should be suffient to keep from bottlenecking on most of the high-end video cards out today (and perhaps tomorrow)?

Thanks in advance,
Daniel
 

endyen

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Yes, and no.
That Sempron has only 128k of cache, so it will be the bottleknck in your system. Will it make the game unplayable? No, you should still have decent quality, and reasonable framerates.
If you already had a s754 board, that you could re-use, I would suggest getting one of the venice core 3200s (yes, it's the only venice core for s754).
As it stands, stick with the new gfx card and the sempron. It means you will need a major upgrade sooner, but, that way you may end up with a better setup later, and will have accepable perf now.
 

hashv2f16

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OK, so you're buying a new socket 754 motherboard??? What the.. Why can't you just ditch the sempron crap and get an Athlon 64?
I say this because if you do this now, then you will save yourself a lot of trouble down the track where you have to buy yet another motherboard (and the hassles that come with it), just to get a faster processor.
 

Datman

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You can get that card in AGP, which would be as good and saves buying a new motherboard.

Better to upgrade to a new setup that's faster and more powerful in every way, sometime sooner or later.
 

Stimpy

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Personally,
I'd stick with the motherboard/CPU and just upgrade the graphics card to a fast AGP, card.

1) Upgrading the motherboard just for PCI-E with the same socket leaves you at a dead end.
2) Upgrading to an s939 motherboard will need a new CPU+graphics card. Also s939 is coming to the end of it's life with AM2 around the corner.

So save your money and put up with a minor upgrade, i.e. enought to make you game playable and then go for a major upgrade later with
AM2, CPU and PCI-E graphics card (option 2 above)
 

ChipDeath

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Socket 754 officially supports A64s at speeds of up to 2.4Ghz. More, if overclocking (especially a 754 board bought now, as they'll no doubt all be very mature products).. so let's assume he'd be able to get a venice 3200+, as endyen says, and run at 2.5Ghz.

OK, so he won't have the option of dual-core, but I don't have a dual core chip, and all my games run fine. The simple fact is, doing what he wants will be cheaper in the short-term, and dual-core is not going to become necessary for games for a looooong time. Sure, it may well help, but it won't be a requirement.

By the time he wants/needs to upgrade, 939 will be just as dead as 754. It'll be a long time before he gets a game that runs unplayably because of his CPU.

Upgrading the motherboard just for PCI-E with the same socket leaves you at a dead end.
This is true of all motherboards and sockets, and always has been. Every new socket launches with the promise of supporting newer, faster processors... But every time I've wanted to upgrade my CPU, it's always involved a new motherboard. Not necessarily a new socket, but there's always a better board required to fully take advantage of newer tech. For example I went through 3 socket A boards, a KT133 one, then a KT333 one, then an nforce2 ultra one. The vast majority of people simply are never in a position to get a noticable improvement through just swapping out a CPU. by the time they reach a point where it's struggling, it's down to RAM and Graphics over the CPU.

The Kind of guy who bought a sempron in the first place isn't the type of guy who will feel satisfied at replacing a 2Ghz 3200+ with a 2.6Ghz X2 in three years' time.

A Replacement motherboard is a much smaller expense than even a mid-range chip. Assuming you don't buy some ridiculous thing with 8 million PCI-E slots for SLI and stuff that is, which most people don't of course.

Everyone looks at 'how upgradable' a motherboard is as if it's the most expensive thing in the PC, whereas in fact it's not by quite a long way. My RAM, Power supply, Case, Graphics card and CPU all cost more.

Righto, Rant over. :mrgreen:
 
Personally,
I'd stick with the motherboard/CPU and just upgrade the graphics card to a fast AGP, card.

1) Upgrading the motherboard just for PCI-E with the same socket leaves you at a dead end.
2) Upgrading to an s939 motherboard will need a new CPU+graphics card. Also s939 is coming to the end of it's life with AM2 around the corner.

So save your money and put up with a minor upgrade, i.e. enought to make you game playable and then go for a major upgrade later with
AM2, CPU and PCI-E graphics card (option 2 above)

Great idea, I think this is the optimal solution. If all you are really going to change is the video card then just get an AGP one. They have a GeForce 7800 GS that comes in AGP as well as other versions that are at lower prices.

Then, once you find that your system isn't fast enough (1 or 2 years from now) you can do a major upgrade of CPU, MOBO, Video card.
 

sandmannight

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its always a good idea to spend more so your not dissapointed. although 939 will not be the newest when the new amd socket comes out...lets just say its lightyears better than 754
 

Phasma

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Indeed, I agree. I am going to build a completely new computer after the next generation hardware is released, right now I just need the power to play the game, and spending $200 by upgrading to a new mobo and getting virtually the same power card as the 7800 GS for a hundred dollars less seems more practical for now to me.
 

Mobius

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You should be shot for using bottleneck as a verb!

The bits that end up on the ground should be incinerated for using a socket 754 processor too!
 

SuperFly03

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You should be shot for using bottleneck as a verb!

hmmm... Not really. According to Dictionary.com

"His laziness has bottlenecked our efforts to reform the system" is totally valid.....

[/pedant]

Oh god lets not get in an english debate 8O

As for video card choice, I recently saw my friend play Obilvion on an Xbox 360 and it looked nice (ok its not PC but stick with me). I personaly would NOT get a X850XT simply because it does not support Shader Model 3.0. I assume that Obilivion for the PC uses SM3.0 of course, in that case I would go with a 7800GT or an ATi equivilant (i dont remember the right model # off hand). Just don't short yourself SM3.0 if your going to upgrade.[/b]
 
Socket 754 compared to socket 939: what's the difference if you're not using dual channel?

If you're only using it for games, what's the advantage of PCI-E over AGP 8x?

Going with a good 7800 AGP card would be cheaper, and not be any slower than changing mobo AND gpu.

However, a 1.8 GHz cpu is a bit too little to handle those 7x00 beasts, so if you're ready to change your mobo, go all the way.
 

darkstar782

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The 7800GS is a superior card to the X850, its in the same generation as the X1800 series, and it shouldnt be much more expensive if at all.


I know the 7800 has been around nearly as long as the X800, but thats just because ATi couldnt get the x1800 to work, not because its not as good :)

I'd go with the 7800GS AGP myself.
 

SuperFly03

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Socket 754 compared to socket 939: what's the difference if you're not using dual channel?

If you're only using it for games, what's the advantage of PCI-E over AGP 8x?

Going with a good 7800 AGP card would be cheaper, and not be any slower than changing mobo AND gpu.

However, a 1.8 GHz cpu is a bit too little to handle those 7x00 beasts, so if you're ready to change your mobo, go all the way.

PCI-e is necessary for the future but as of now has little performance benefit unless you do bridgeless SLI. The reasoning behind PCI-e is the power requirements for GPU's keep growing and AGP has become uncapable of delivering the necessary power to the cards across the bus. Yes I realize there are external power cords. The main reason, as i understand it, is the 8x AGp is roughtly equivilant to 4x PCI-e and so there is much more headroom for GPU's.

S754 v S939 Diffrences (that i know of): Dual Channel memory, Higher HTT speeds, better processors. I am by no means an expert on these diffrenecs, just a few that i remember off the top of my head.
 
The reasoning behind PCI-e is the power requirements for GPU's keep growing and AGP has become uncapable of delivering the necessary power to the cards across the bus. Yes I realize there are external power cords. The main reason, as i understand it, is the 8x AGp is roughtly equivilant to 4x PCI-e and so there is much more headroom for GPU's.

S754 v S939 Diffrences (that i know of): Dual Channel memory, Higher HTT speeds, better processors.

Dual Channel: I saw it first :p
Hypertransport: useful when dealing with Dual Channel, pretty much useless without (the RAM is the bottleneck)
Better CPUs: irrelevant since he doesn't want to change his cpu, but true.
AGP 8x is worth PCI-E x8 upstream, and no graphic card is able to exceed such data flow by much yet.

I stand your point, and mine.
 

Phasma

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Are there any other PCI-E video cards you'd recommend for about the same price ( $160 - $180) with Shader Model 3.0 support?

Also, a good portion of the games you see today (much like Oblivion) only give the recommended system specifications for processing in Intel's operating frequency, does anyone know a conversion for what the equivelent of a Intel processor to an AMD processor is (say a 2.0 Ghz AMD is equivilent to a 3.4 Intel or something)? I'd like to know how my 1.8 Ghz compares to the Intel line of processors.

Thanks, (and thanks again for all the replies),

Dan
 
"The 7800GS is a superior card to the X850"

Only the massively overclocked 7800GS variants even come 'close' to offering "7800"(GT) levels of performance....; it might defeat the 850XT, but the 7800GS is not worth $300....; at $200, it would be! :)

IMO, even labeling it as a 7800 did the 7800GT a great disservice by asociation;....it's more of a die-shrink 6800Ultra than it is a 7800; too few pipelines, shader units, and too low of a core/mem clock....
 
A Sempron 3000+ is usually defeated (barely) by a socket 939/2800+, which roughly equals a socket 775/3.0 P4 in typical games/applications...; I'd say it would offer parity with a decent running Northwood "C' core at 2.8G..

(My daughter has a socket 754 Sempron 3000+ rig, and we are both quite satisfied with it; she is usin via integrated video at the moment, and is bugging me to install the old 9800 Pro sitting next to it!)
 

Phasma

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So it's about a 3.0 Ghz P4, eh (give or take)? Awesome! Thanks for the advice guys, think I'm going to stick around these forums.
 

darkstar782

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"The 7800GS is a superior card to the X850"

Only the massively overclocked 7800GS variants even come 'close' to offering "7800"(GT) levels of performance....; it might defeat the 850XT, but the 7800GS is not worth $300....; at $200, it would be! :)

To be honest I wasnt aware of the pricing on the two cards, I know the 7800GS is no GT, but as we have both said it would be better than the 850XT

Having just looked at prices here (UK, so £ not $ :p )


7800GS AGP - £199

850XT PCI-E - £152
PCI-E Mobo - £60
Total - £212



Given that the 850XT solution is more expensive here, and the s754 PCI-E mobo will need upgrading next CPU upgrade anyway. I'd go for the 7800GS.

The only advantage of the 850XT is that if you later upgrade to a 939/AM2 mobo you can re-use the gfx card...

EDIT: 850XT AGP is £176 over here, tbh I'd spend the extra £20 and get the 7800GS still :)