P4 Bottlenecking Graphics?

[Axeon]

Hey, I have a 2.4Ghz P4 system (single core) and I am going to get a HD 3650 from HIS, I just want to confirm that it is good for my system and it wont bottleneck the card. I have 1GB Ram and 250GB HDD.

 

[Xenonvector927]

Hey, I have a 2.4Ghz P4 system (single core) and I am going to get a HD 3650 from HIS, I just want to confirm that it is good for my system and it wont bottleneck the card. I have 1GB Ram and 250GB HDD.

I'm assuming that the P4 is LGA775? You might be a little better off getting a CPU with better cache, not to mention dual core processors are much better for gaming. You'll find a large increase in gaming speed by upgrading. If you choose not to, you can buy a cheap CPU cooler and overclock your processor quite far to get a little closer to what a CPU upgrade would do.

 

[Reynod]

With luck it might be an old Northy 2.4 ... punches you over 3Ghz easy on a moderate OC... shouldn't have a bottleneck then.

Classic chip that one.

Likely to be a problem with the graphics if your on an AGP mobo ... better check before you buy a PCI-E card and find it don't fit.

What is the mobo you have and is the CPU LGA775 or socket 478 ??

I couldn't find a 2.4 in 775 so odds are it is a 478 - therefore might be (quite possibly) and older AGP graphics based mobo.


http://processorfinder.intel.com/List.aspx?ParentRadio=All&ProcFam=483&SearchKey=

 

[Xenonvector927]

With luck it might be an old Northy 2.4 ... punches you over 3Ghz easy on a moderate OC... shouldn't have a bottleneck then.

Classic chip that one.

Likely to be a problem with the graphics if your on an AGP mobo ... better check before you buy a PCI-E card and find it don't fit.

What is the mobo you have and is the CPU LGA775 or socket 478 ??

I couldn't find a 2.4 in 775 so odds are it is a 478 - therefore might be (quite possibly) and older AGP graphics based mobo.


http://processorfinder.intel.com/List.aspx?ParentRadio=All&ProcFam=483&SearchKey=

Definitely check that out! If it's a Socket 478 then you're really out of luck and will need to upgrade your processor or buy an old crappy AGP card. It REALLY sounds to me like your computer is a Socket 478, so you'll definitely need to ugprade your mobo and proc to be able to use that graphics card. Bad luck.

 

[Reynod]

If you can OC the old Northy - push it to around 3Ghz and it is an AGP you can still get quite a grunty AGP card ... last I saw was a HD3850 or so.

Breath a bit of life into the old dear I guess.

Look at it as palliative care though ...

 

[Xenonvector927]

If you can OC the old Northy - push it to around 3Ghz and it is an AGP you can still get quite a grunty AGP card ... last I saw was a HD3850 or so.

Breath a bit of life into the old dear I guess.

Look at it as palliative care though ...

Lol. You might be better off saving your cash and investing in an i7 down the road. Well down the road.

 

[Reynod]

We don't kill old PC's off ... enthusist means you have a passion for the PC.

Surely we are not all i7whores with mounds of cash ??

We just WANT to be right??

The global economy is also in the toilet ... $100 US gets you a good card and a bit of tinkering gets the CPU speed up a bit.

$100 gets you the sticker from a decent i7 system ...

a 3Ghz P4 with a decent graphics card and a couple of gig or RAM will be able to play most of the newer games ... eye candy off and lower res ... but play them nevertheless.

Tough times ... recycle the old girl.

I am even thinking of keeping my wife for a couple more years ... lol.

 

[Xenonvector927]

We don't kill old PC's off ... enthusist means you have a passion for the PC.

Surely we are not all i7whores with mounds of cash ??

We just WANT to be right??

The global economy is also in the toilet ... $100 US gets you a good card and a bit of tinkering gets the CPU speed up a bit.

$100 gets you the sticker from a decent i7 system ...

a 3Ghz P4 with a decent graphics card and a couple of gig or RAM will be able to play most of the newer games ... eye candy off and lower res ... but play them nevertheless.

Tough times ... recycle the old girl.

I am even thinking of keeping my wife for a couple more years ... lol.

Obviously there was a misunderstanding! I absolutely HATE people like CompuTronix with their i7 OCed to 4.1GHz, and their dual $1000 gpus, and their 12GB 1600MHz RAM!!! I still regularly use 3x1.7GHz P4s, and a 500MHz PIII!! I freakin hate Intel for making the i7 prices so ridiculously high, and I'm angry that a decent rig would cost soooooooooooo much more money than my current rig cost me ($450 AU - about $300 or so American, I think).
I totally agree with what you're saying - it's just that it seems a lot of people on these forums are upgrading to the latest, and seem to have bottomless wallets. I couldn't even afford to buy a copy of XP - and couldn't settle with Linux due to driver incompatibilities, so you know what I turned to...

Sooooorry!!

 

[San Pedro]

What are you aiming to do with your system BTW?

 

[Xenonvector927]

What are you aiming to do with your system BTW?

Seeing as he's buying a 3650, I'm gathering it's main purpose is gaming...

 

[loneninja]

As far as I'm concerned my old 2.2Ghz Athlon was a bottleneck to my Radeon 3650, and the Athlon is better than your P4. I saw good performance gains when I replaced the Athlon and put in an Athlon X2 overclocked to 3.0Ghz while still using the 3650.

 

[Xenonvector927]

As far as I'm concerned my old 2.2Ghz Athlon was a bottleneck to my Radeon 3650, and the Athlon is better than your P4. I saw good performance gains when I replaced the Athlon and put in an Athlon X2 overclocked to 3.0Ghz while still using the 3650.

+1. Get a dual core!! I believe in the States you can buy E2160s dirt cheap (and I mean DIRT cheap) and OC them like hell!!

 

[Axeon]

Its a socket 478 mobo thanks! And i'm planning to get this so i can watch 1080p without CPU jumping to 100% lol. How wopuld i oc a northwood mPGA 478 chip? Please Help!

 

[Reynod]

Go into the bios and raise the FSB frequency ... a bit at a time and then save and reboot.

You might have to raise the cpu core voltage a little ....

Look up overclocking Pentium 4 threads here at THG ... there are tons of old ones.

Hint ... in the Overclocking Forum section ... where the fearless live ... heh heh.

It is pretty simple really.

 

[Xenonvector927]

Go into the bios and raise the FSB frequency ... a bit at a time and then save and reboot.

You might have to raise the cpu core voltage a little ....

Look up overclocking Pentium 4 threads here at THG ... there are tons of old ones.

Hint ... in the Overclocking Forum section ... where the fearless live ... heh heh.

It is pretty simple really.

:lol: We're brave, and courageous, heck, if we were knights we would have killed dozens of dragons by now... I know no fear...

 

[winh8r]

You are generally right guys that he shouldn't waste $$$ by upgrading his CPU to the newest possible but a P4 ~3.0ghz definitely will be a bottleneck already in some games (like GTA4 which more relies on the many cores)
also keep in mind AGP cards are more pricey so moving to same card on PCI-X and sth like E2160 is a generally more cost efficient solution (although needs more cash at the beginning)

 

[Xenonvector927]

You are generally right guys that he shouldn't waste $$$ by upgrading his CPU to the newest possible but a P4 ~3.0ghz definitely will be a bottleneck already in some games (like GTA4 which more relies on the many cores)
also keep in mind AGP cards are more pricey so moving to same card on PCI-X and sth like E2160 is a generally more cost efficient solution (although needs more cash at the beginning)

Yay! I guess that means I'm right! Sorta...

 

[B-Unit]

I picked up a 478 mobo with DDR2 and PCI-E support. Worked pretty nice, but very limited OC, took my 3.0Ghz Prescott to 3.2-3.3Ghz. Thats also using the stock Dell heatsink tho, so it may be able to go higher. Ive got an 8600GTS in there, havent really gamed with it (use it as a BOINC and Folding box) but I may fire it up and see what kind of bottlenecking I get.

Hheheh, for giggles, may try out one of my 8800GT and my 4870 too

 

[Xenonvector927]

I picked up a 478 mobo with DDR2 and PCI-E support. Worked pretty nice, but very limited OC, took my 3.0Ghz Prescott to 3.2-3.3Ghz. Thats also using the stock Dell heatsink tho, so it may be able to go higher. Ive got an 8600GTS in there, havent really gamed with it (use it as a BOINC and Folding box) but I may fire it up and see what kind of bottlenecking I get.

Hheheh, for giggles, may try out one of my 8800GT and my 4870 too

Nice job finding that mobo!

 

[Axeon]

There are mobos like that, like the biostar P4M900, I can't overclock with my motherboard so whats the best other way?

 

[Helloworld_98]

you could try biostar's in-os oc facility if they have one.

 

[mamw93]

You'll be bottlenecking anything that has been released in the past four or five years with a pentium four.

 

[Axeon]

lol, i'm getting a Sapphire HD 3650 for bluray watching so I'm not really gaming with it, Do you think it'll work.