Budget card advice.....

[blueviking11]

I'd like to update my rig and I've decided to start with a graphics card. I'll do some light to mid-level gaming and dabble with a few high end games but I'll do it expecting realistic results (won't expect amazing speed and fantastic graphics with high resolution). I currently have a 1.4 Ghz Thunderbird with 512 megs of PC 2100 ram on a NF7-S v. 2 board. 400 watt power supply. I'll soon be upgrading to a 3.2 Ghz processor and 2 sticks of quality 256 meg PC3200 or PC3500 ram. I really won't be able to invest much more in the video card after these upgrades so I'm limiting myself to $75 for the video card. I hate to bug you guys with research that I know I should be doing myself, but I'm stuck......
I like the specs on the 9550 Radeon cards because I'm comfortable with overclocking and they're cheap. So I found the card in the below link and I really like the look of it but I can't find a review on it or anything very close for that matter. So, does anyone in here have any experience with this card? And, do you think that for the price I'm getting my best bang for the buck?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-123-149&depa=1

 

[cleeve]

Since you're comfortable with overclocking, the 128-bit 9550 is a great idea for you.

Here is a review of a 9550, and the reviewers overclocked it and got 9600XT performance:

<A HREF="http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/9550/" target="_new">http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/9550/</A>

It's probably wishful thinking to expect the memory to be this oc-friendly on all 9550's, but it's realistic to guess a 9550 will get to at least 9600 PRO speeds on the core.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[blueviking11]

My bad on the misnomer in describing my "3.2 Ghz processor upgrade". I meant to say that I'll be keeping the NF7-S board and upgrading to an XP 3200 with 400fsb.
Having said that, I guess I have 2 new questions......

Is the XP 3200 the best way to go? I know the XP 2500 Mobile is a good overclocker but I didn't plan to do any overclocking on anything but the video card.

Secondly, I would love to have 1 gig of ram. I'll try to fit it in the budget if I can. But I've heard that 2 sticks of 256 runs faster than 2 sticks of 512. Would my need for more ram to play certain games outweigh the speed advantage I might have if I stuck with the smaller sticks?

Any thoughts?

 

[pauldh]

The mobile XP2500+ will easily reach XP3200+ speeds (2.2GHz) at stock XP3200 voltages. Don't think of it as overclocking, think of it as a good price on a 2.2GHz AXP. Of course, if you want to rais voltages and really OC it, you'll have a good chance of doing 2.4 GHz or higher. I have two of them, both on NF7/S mobos, and they do 2.4Ghz and 2.6GHz on air. Also, both will run XP3200+ speeds at stock XP3200+ voltages.


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[cleeve]

The XP 2500+ is the easiest thing in the world to get to 3200+ spec. Just look at my sig.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[blueviking11]

I totally agree with you guys and I realize that the XP 2500 mobile is a badazz cpu. I guess my question is this....
Is an overclocked XP 2500 mobile any better than a stock running XP 3200? Lets assume the price was completely irrellevant. What would be any advantage or disadvantage between the two?

Nuther question. Can an XP 3200 400 fsb be safely overclocked or is it already maxed out at factory specs?

 

[cleeve]

Both have 512 cache, the most any AthlonXP cpus have. So at identical clockspeeds, they perform exactly the same.

The Mobile 2500+ lets you change the multiplier though. Regular AthlonXP 2500+ and 3200+ do not.

In theory, the 3200+ CPU should be slightly better at overclocking because it should be binned with the best of the XPs.

You gan go over 400 FSB, but alot of motherboards don't like it so much. Average overclocks over 400 would be in the 420 range. People consider themselves lucky to get 440 or above.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[blueviking11]

Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it. Now I guess my next question is one I've alraedy asked but we kind of strayed a bit...... Concerning the ram memory, I keep hearing that I ough to "stick" with 2 sticks of 256 because of a speed advantage of 2 sticks of 512. Which one of these scenarios outweighs the other for a person who usually runs pretty low-intesity apps but likes to fool with some higher end games once in a while.

 

[cleeve]

Using "two" sticks only helps if you have a dual-channel AthlonXP setup... you have to have an Nforce2 ultra board for that.

[edit] Your NF7-S v. 2 IS an Nforce2-ultra motherboard... so yeah, you can use dual channel memory. But it's iffy, it doesn't work with all memory sticks... and it provides a relatively small bump in performance.

I have an Nforce2 ultra board, and 2 sticks of DDR400, but my RAM isn't good enough for Dual Channel... so the board crashes if I try to use it in that mode. Good dual-channel compatible RAM is expensive, not worth the slight performance bump (5% maybe).

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[pauldh]

It seems to me you may mean that 2-256MB is faster than 1-512MB, which is true. That is where dual channel comes in. As Cleeve said, the gains in going to Dual channel for the Athlon XP are real, but not as big a deal as like on the memory bandwidth starved Pentium 4's. IMO you are better off buying 1-512MB PC3200 stick if you can't afford 2 right now. Then buy a matched stick later for 1GB Dual channel. Buying 512MB Dual Channel Kits (2*256MB) really limits the use for that memory down the road and to me is not a great investment now. 2*512MB is the standard benchmarking config for almost all sites now as it does help in some games/aps.

Anyway, I see the mobiles as not just cheaper, but also as prime AXP chips because they are specially picked to run at lower voltages. The fact that they are unlocked as Cleeve said, is a big bonus. For one, you could run a 266 or 333 bus and keep your current memory, just upping the multiplier. But also as was said, with the XP3200+ you have to increase FSB, which brings mobo/ram into consideration. With the mobile XP, if you want to go quicker, just up the multiplier to 11.5(2.3GHz), 12(2.4GHz), 12.5(2.5GHz), etc. and you can still run your memory/fsb at 400.

The downside of the mobile XP's are that they are offen just recognized as an unknown processor @ x.xxGhz. Since this is your system, no big deal if the bios says that. When you build it for a customer, they may freak at that and much rather have it say Athlon XP3200+. But they peform identical, while the mobile chips give you more options and cost less.

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[endyen]

Hi Paul
You seem to be forgetting about my favorite part of nforce2 dual channel. He can get 2 X 256 for dual channel now, and when he has more cash, he can twin those, and put the 512 in, so he still has dual channel. I did that with my NF7-S board, using samsung oem ram.

 

[pauldh]

Yup, was totally forgetting that as I have never tried that myself on a NF2, nor have I tried 4 sticks DC in an i865pe. I just feel buying sticks of 512MB is a better investment as not all mobos/chipsets will allow you to keep using it like you do. That's why for me persoanlly it's 2*512MB kits minimum from now on, no more 2*256MB kits.

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