Upgrade from AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 939 to conroe worth it?

[daeron]

Hi all I'm a hardcore gamer with limited budget and I wonder if upgrading to a core 2 duo 6600 is a good idea. What do you think guys?

My setup:
ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Clawhammer socket 939
2 x 1GB OCZ Platinum DDR400 2-3-2-5
Evga 7900GTX
Coolermaster RealPower 550W

 

[ElMoIsEviL]

Hi all I'm a hardcore gamer with limited budget and I wonder if upgrading to a core 2 duo 6600 is a good idea. What do you think guys?

My setup:
ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Clawhammer socket 939
2 x 1GB OCZ Platinum DDR400 2-3-2-5
Evga 7900GTX
Coolermaster RealPower 550W

Your system should be more then fast enough. Not really worth the huge expense of going DDR-II, 775 motherboard and Core 2 Duo processor. The performance improvement will be significant when doing heavy encoding and multi-tasking but not so significant under gaming where the Video card is your bottleneck.

 

[Finneus]

Have to agree with the previous post, maybe just save up your cash and buy a new graphics card when the next generation comes out. Probably better to wait till the end of next year to upgrade everything else.
More games will be attuned to multi-core and gives about 6-8 mos. for Vista to mature and developers to bring out directx10 compatible games.

 

[jaguarskx]

Stick with what you have. Unless there is a very specific reason to get a dual core CPU, you will be wasting your money for marginal increases (if any) in gaming performance.

 

[jitpublisher]

Hi all I'm a hardcore gamer with limited budget and I wonder if upgrading to a core 2 duo 6600 is a good idea. What do you think guys?

My setup:
ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Clawhammer socket 939
2 x 1GB OCZ Platinum DDR400 2-3-2-5
Evga 7900GTX
Coolermaster RealPower 550W

In my opinion, the cost of a platform change vs any performance increase for gaming is going to leave you seriously disappointed and feeling you totaly wasted your money....with that 4000+ 2 gigs of OCZ, and 7900GTX, you have "about" the best your going to get for gaming right now at any price.
If, and ONLY if you want to game at extremely high res, you'd be better off to just SLI what you have.

 

[WJC]

Limited budget, what do you mean by that. Your cheapest option to gain some extra processing power will be to slap an X2 in your current rig. If your limited budget do allow you then a E6600 will defiantly be a faster rig.

So see what your budget allow and go for it.

 

[daeron]

WOW that was a fast answer.

Thank guys

Another thing is. If I have a person that would buy from me my MB, CPU, and memory, for lets say 500$ do you think I could find a conroe setup for a decent price without putting much more money?

Sorry for my english.

 

[pancito]

the thing is memory and motherboard.

You can find a cheap MoBo for C2D sure thing, but if you want to overclock and get the most out of that little ah heck you should buy a quality board.

And since now you have a $300 CPU and a $200 Motherboard, there is not much room for memory.

I had a X2 4800+ performancewise its the same as my C2D 6400 overclocked at 2.66

If you are really in a tight budget you can always buy my "old" (LOL) 4800+ and overclock it to FX-62 specs,

 

[jitpublisher]

WOW that was a fast answer.

Thank guys

Another thing is. If I have a person that would buy from me my MB, CPU, and memory, for lets say 500$ do you think I could find a conroe setup for a decent price without putting much more money?

Sorry for my english.

It seems to me that you have you have your mind made up that you really want to get yourself a Conroe set-up, even though everyone has voiced their opinion you won't see much difference over what you have now for game-play. But hey, it's your money and peace of mind.

Sooo...I'd say if you want to build a Conroe setup you'd probably need to spend about $700 for MB, CPU, and Memory. If you skimp here, that Conroe CPU ain't going to do anything more than what you have now.

 

[jaguarskx]

Stick with what you have. Unless there is a very specific reason to get a dual core CPU, you will be wasting your money for marginal increases (if any) in gaming performance.

That is all about to change with games like Alan Wake and Crysis on the horizen. Both of which will make heavy use of multi core processors.



Gaming is still at the dawn of multi-threaded coding. I do not doubt that the two games you mentioned will be heavily multi-threaded, but for the most part a single core CPU (espeically the A64 4000+) should still be capable of handling games for a few more years.

Are there any preliminary benchmarks the show how those two games perform in a dual core vs. single core system?

 

[ElMoIsEviL]

WOW that was a fast answer.

Thank guys

Another thing is. If I have a person that would buy from me my MB, CPU, and memory, for lets say 500$ do you think I could find a conroe setup for a decent price without putting much more money?

Sorry for my english.

Dude, thats not worth it at all. You can get either one of those X2's I was talking about for around $250-$280 off newegg.com. Thats much better and less expensive than starting over with new Ram, Motherboard and CPU.

The only benefit that Conroe will give you in gaming is if you game at 1024X768 or less resolution. Crank up the Res to 1280X1024 and other graphical settings and the X2 will do just as good.

Here's an example of a statement that is true varying on too many other variables to be deemed factual.

You see, when gaming at 1280x1024 or higher the Athlon64 X2 processor won't do as good as you say. It is still slower by 20-40% but your system is limited by the video card (in the case of single GPU/VPU configurations that is). Therefore the Core 2 Duo system is being slowed by this bottleneck, held back from achieving it's true potential.

Now for the variables I was talking about... replace that 7900GTX/x1900XTX with an nVIDIA G80 (coming mid-November) or an R600 (coming mid-January) and your results are quite different. No longer is the system AS bottlenecked by the video card.

So, given the past performance increase in Video Cards it's safe to say that current titles bottlenecked to 1280x1024 will play with full fluidity up to 1600x1200 or higher on a single graphics card.

Therefore that Core 2 Duo that is 20-40% faster per clock then that Athlon64 X2 will be offering 20-40% more performance as it is no longer being held back by the Video card.

So, to tell someone to omit considering a Core 2 Duo under these circumstances is not advised.

FACT is.. Core 2 Duo's are 20-40% (sometimes even more up to 60% on some tests) faster per clock then Athlon64 X2 processors and the cost is around the same.

 

[jitpublisher]

WOW that was a fast answer.

Thank guys

Another thing is. If I have a person that would buy from me my MB, CPU, and memory, for lets say 500$ do you think I could find a conroe setup for a decent price without putting much more money?

Sorry for my english.

Dude, thats not worth it at all. You can get either one of those X2's I was talking about for around $250-$280 off newegg.com. Thats much better and less expensive than starting over with new Ram, Motherboard and CPU.

The only benefit that Conroe will give you in gaming is if you game at 1024X768 or less resolution. Crank up the Res to 1280X1024 and other graphical settings and the X2 will do just as good.

Here's an example of a statement that is true varying on too many other variables to be deemed factual.

You see, when gaming at 1280x1024 or higher the Athlon64 X2 processor won't do as good as you say. It is still slower by 20-40% but your system is limited by the video card (in the case of single GPU/VPU configurations that is). Therefore the Core 2 Duo system is being slowed by this bottleneck, held back from achieving it's true potential.

Now for the variables I was talking about... replace that 7900GTX/x1900XTX with an nVIDIA G80 (coming mid-November) or an R600 (coming mid-January) and your results are quite different. No longer is the system AS bottlenecked by the video card.

So, given the past performance increase in Video Cards it's safe to say that current titles bottlenecked to 1280x1024 will play with full fluidity up to 1600x1200 or higher on a single graphics card.

Therefore that Core 2 Duo that is 20-40% faster per clock then that Athlon64 X2 will be offering 20-40% more performance as it is no longer being held back by the Video card.

So, to tell someone to omit considering a Core 2 Duo under these circumstances is not advised.

FACT is.. Core 2 Duo's are 20-40% (sometimes even more up to 60% on some tests) faster per clock then Athlon64 X2 processors and the cost is around the same.

If you wait until 3rd quarter 08 when the new Light-speed-super-dupper-video-mega-chipbuster-R1000 version b comes out, you will see a %150 increase in blah, blah, blah.......
The OP wanted to know if he can upgrade to a Conroe system for about $500-$600 that will give him worthwhile improvement playing games over what he has now.
Answer to his question following the parameters HE HAS SET, no.
That G80 or R600 will probably cost close to that much by itself, no ones knows for sure as they are not even available yet.

 

[ElMoIsEviL]

That wasn't the point of my post. When you buy a CPU you normally envision using it for 1-3years. Graphics cards change every 6months. I'm simply showing you what a single graphics card generation can do for Graphics card Bottlenecks. in 1-3 years you'll be faced with 2-6 generations of graphics cards.

So, my post was to affirm the 20-40% performance per clock improvement the Core 2 Duo brings to the table.

The OP is being told he should do this and do that. I've stated my opinion which is that he should not jump the gun as his current system is more then adequate for games. But should he do so, he has several options at his disposal.

It's up to the OP if he wants to spend ~$200USD on an upgrade to a dead-end 939 platform or move to a platform that has future updated processors coming about in 2007 (LGA775).

It's also up to the OP if the 20-40% increase in performance per clock is worth it for him. Seeing as he's running a 7900GTX something tells me he's not into low end GPU's thus nulling your argument regarding R600 and G80. Something tells me he may upgrade to a DX10 card sometime in the First Quarter of 2007.

He's a gamer. an Athlon64 X2 would give him no performance benefit now and a small benefit in the near future under games. The Core 2 Duo would give him a small benefit right now under games but a larger benefit down the road.

OP is looking at an E6600, there are no comparably priced/performance AMD offerings.

 

[l1zard]

Hi all I'm a hardcore gamer with limited budget and I wonder if upgrading to a core 2 duo 6600 is a good idea. What do you think guys?

My setup:
ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Clawhammer socket 939
2 x 1GB OCZ Platinum DDR400 2-3-2-5
Evga 7900GTX
Coolermaster RealPower 550W

NO WAY. it doesnt worth it at all. think about it in about a year.

 

[BaronMatrix]

Hi all I'm a hardcore gamer with limited budget and I wonder if upgrading to a core 2 duo 6600 is a good idea. What do you think guys?

My setup:
ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Clawhammer socket 939
2 x 1GB OCZ Platinum DDR400 2-3-2-5
Evga 7900GTX
Coolermaster RealPower 550W

Definitely. Going from 939 to Core 2 is a LARGE jump in perf. You should only need to replace the RAM and mobo.

 

[morpheous_2812]

Hi all I'm a hardcore gamer with limited budget and I wonder if upgrading to a core 2 duo 6600 is a good idea. What do you think guys?

My setup:
ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Clawhammer socket 939
2 x 1GB OCZ Platinum DDR400 2-3-2-5
Evga 7900GTX
Coolermaster RealPower 550W

What is your definition of limited budget? Upgrading to a core 2 duo 6600 would mean changing mainboard and ram as well. Are you running at ultra high resolutions such as 1600x1200 or higher with full eye candies?

Imho, you have a system capable of playing most games currently in the market now, with the exception of Oblivion of course, that is one game which needs next gen cards to run at full resolutions, by full, I mean 1600x1200 or higher, with 8xFSAA

My suggestion would be to wait for next gen videocards to arrive. Because if you are running at ultra high resolutions, I would suspect the bottleneck to be more on the GPU than CPU. Unless you know that the game which you must play now is bottlenecked by your CPU, I do not recommend upgrading your system right now.

Of course, if you are able to sell off your MB, CPU and memory for $500, then this upgrade is worth considering, as you would not need to spend too much to get a system that is upgradable.

My $0.02

 

[gorgerax]

WOW that was a fast answer.

Thank guys

Another thing is. If I have a person that would buy from me my MB, CPU, and memory, for lets say 500$ do you think I could find a conroe setup for a decent price without putting much more money?

Sorry for my english.

Sell your stuff for @$500, get *this* for @$500, OC it to 3.0 GHZ EZ and it will KILL what you have!!!


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[danny9894]

I say just stick with your current system and wait a year and get whatever your heart desires then. I have almost the same system as you except I have a 7800GT for my video card and I can run any game I want on high settings with no fps problems.