the ultimate gaming CPU

[dagadegatto]

I'm building a PC fo all my gaming needs now and those to come. What CPU(s) do you guys recomend.

 

[pitsi]

Are you planning to overclock? What's your budget?

 

[Snaggle]

Depends upon the games you want to play:intell is greate at gl games and bad at directx;amd the reverse.The p4ee and amd64 fx51 are about the same now;but the fx51 will pull ahead with 64 bit games or even just windows 64(maybe);at the next level down the clawhammer/amd64 3200+ is the clear best gaming cpu;but below that intell p4s with fsb800 are the best,pricewise the amd athlonxp 2500+barton is the best(it should sell for $250 based upon performance and overclockabilty).

 

[ytoledano]

What makes you say that Intel is better at OpenGL?

Is 2^33634943-1 prime? (more than 10Mil digits @73.31%) I will know in 10 days when <A HREF="http://www.mersenne.org" target="_new">Prime95</A> finishes checking!

 

[shadus]

Holyshit, it's sodnighthawk's alter ego.

Edit: Please explain those uh... 'interesting' views since it contradicts what 99% of people here have experienced and almost every benchmark on the net.

Shadus<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by shadus on 12/11/03 01:03 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[dagadegatto]

My budget is about 1000 for the CPU. I'd rather pay less but I want power over a good price. I'm willing to save up and pay over 1000 if it means top performance. As for overclocking, well...I have never done that so I am a little nervous in that area. What would be the benefits of Overclocking?

 

[shadus]

When you say CPU are you refering to the entire computer or just the single component in the system?

Shadus

 

[dagadegatto]

The games I play most are First Person Shooters. Doom 3 clearly being something I want to run well on this thing. And UT 2004 and 2005. My goal is to build the best Gaming Machine I can. Even if it takes me 6 months of saving my money to buy the parts. SO for FPSs which CPU is best?

 

[dagadegatto]

Just the processor. Though if anyone has recomindation as to the rest ofthe system I'm all ears. I know that an sata will be my HD of choice and that I will be using Air cooling.

 

[sjonnie]

I'm willing to save up and pay over 1000 if it means top performance.

What a total waste of money. What performance boost do you expect to get from a $1000 CPU?

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A>

 

[dagadegatto]

I have no Idea, that is why I'm asking.

 

[shadus]

For that kinda money look at the AMD FX-51 and the P4 EE 3.4, the FX is slightly faster in some games the EE slightly faster in others. You'll pay out the nose for either .

Those are hands down the top performing chips. I don't know anything about FX motherboards other than you want to go with the via chipset not the nvidia chipset (Haven't had the opportunity to build one yet.) and that you need to get registered memory for the FX which is a bit more expensive than standard memory. Abit, Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte all make nice i875 boards for the intel chip. If you are going for a system with that high of performance make sure you get two WD Sata Raptor 10kRPM 8mb Cache 74gb driver and stripe them togeather. Also, WAIT until the beginning of 04, there is alot of new tech coming out then... pci express, ddr2 memory, new chipsets, new graphics card lines, etc.

Shadus

 

[shadus]

If he wants the fastest pc period, it isn't a waste. It's a waste to you because you don't care to spend that kind of money on a system. To him its worth the money.

Edit: One size doesn't fit all, ya'know?

Shadus<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by shadus on 12/11/03 01:32 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[sjonnie]

Well, most people don't have bottomless bank accounts so usually aim to build a computer within a specific budget. At the moment with a 2.4GHz/2400+ CPU, 512MB of RAM, an ATI 9600/FX5600 and Audigy2 in your system you are going to be able to play anything. You might see improvements in image quality if you go to higher specs, but that will also depend on your monitor and what resolution you play at. Of course it's nice to allow some headroom for future games but the cost of buying top-end hardware is so high it's probably better to keep the money you save in a savings account for 2 years and buy a new computer or upgrade when you need it.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A>

 

[pitsi]

If you are absolutely sure that you need the BEST .. here is my reccomendation to you:

Athlon FX-51 Retail CPU $776
Asus nForce 3 Motherboard for Socket 940 Opteron 200 Processors, Model "SK8N" RETAIL $210
Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Platinum Series, Low Latency (Twin Pack) 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) ECC Registered DDR PC-3200 - Retail ($295)

Some here will say that the P4 EE 3.2GHz performs about the same as the FX-51. The reasons I am suggesting the FX though are:
1. It is much cheaper, even taking into account the fact that it needs registered memory. The P4 EE costs over $1000 and that's just the CPU.
2. This CPU paired with that particular memory should perform quite better than what is shown in the various benchmarks. In all benchmarks published on the Web everyone used CL2.5 memory for the FX, but this memory has CAS2. It is very clear from the reviews of the S754 A64 that the onboard memory controller benefits quite a lot from lower latency timings.

So to sum things up ... FX-51 is what you should get, if you can afford it !!!

 

[SJJM]

Well if you want to save up the money then get this.

<A HREF="http://www.go-l.com/desktops/machl38/features/index.htm" target="_new">http://www.go-l.com/desktops/machl38/features/index.htm</A>

<font color=green>P4 2.6c at 3.25, P4P800(soon to be P4C800 dlx-e), OCZ pc 4000, 2X raptors in a raid, and ATI 9700 pro 390/324.</font color=green>

 

[dagadegatto]

Thank you all for this input. One question about the Mobo. I read a review on this very site that the nvidia chipset is inferior when it comes to the 64 fx. That it limits the Hyper Transport or something of the sort. Do you know anything about this?

 

[dagadegatto]

Wow, that Mach 3.8 sure is something...amazing

Thanks for the info but I want to build my computer, more fun that way.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

If you really want to spend $750, then buy Athlon64 FX-51

Otherwise I would say, buy Athlon64 3200+ and save money.

----------------
<b><A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86" target="_new">My Website</A></b>

<b><A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/myrig.html" target="_new">My Rig & 3DMark score</A></b>

 

[CaptainTrap]

dude the 2500+ sells for 85 bucks on pricewatch.com


Asus A7N8X Ultra Delux w/ AMD XP2800+Barton
Corsair XMS Twinx DDR400 1gig
Geforce 4 TI4600 128ddr
Audigy 2 Platinum
Samsung Silent 7200rpm 80gig
WD Secondary Crap 5200rpm 40gig

 

[Snaggle]

yeah if you're spending for only the best it has to be either the p4ee or amd64 fx51,hard to tell which of those is actually better.

"Asus nForce 3 Motherboard for Socket 940 Opteron 200 Processors, Model "SK8N" RETAIL $210"-pitsi

the asus sk8n does not support ddr400;so boards which do like the gigabyte ga-k8nnxp are better most likely.

"dude the 2500 sells for $85"-unknown

More like $90;but still the best budget gaming cpu,which can be overlocked almost to barton 3200 performance.

The review of the 64's and p4ee showed them ahead in directx and behind in gl,follow the links to other reviews at newegg and you'll see basically the same thing.

 

[Crashman]

I wonder why sodomitehawk hasn't replied?

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[HardWareBoss]

Sleeping.

 

[TTZX]

A complete P4EE system will cost less than a A64FX system.

 

[pitsi]

Thank you all for this input. One question about the Mobo. I read a review on this very site that the nvidia chipset is inferior when it comes to the 64 fx. That it limits the Hyper Transport or something of the sort. Do you know anything about this?

Although I have read somewhere about it, I am not the best person to answer this for you. You have to carefully read THG's review for more info. My first choice would be a K8T800 board as well but after doing a small search at Newegg, I found out that they only sell nForce 3 mobos for Socket 940, i don't know why. The only K8T800 available is the dual-CPU version of the one reviewd at THG's a few weeks ago.