Anyone know what CPU will cap a 9700 pro?

vermis

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2002
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I currently have a XP 1700 with 2 X 512 crucial pc2100 on a Epox 8RDA Nforce II board, an ATI 9700 pro, 40 gig 7200 RPM HD, TB Santa Cruz sound card, in a cheap enermax case with only 300 watt PS.

I had this system on a heavy OC to around XP 2100 speed, but my current game World of Warcraft dosen't like the overclock, which seems to be a common issue with this game. I took it back to default, but now the game is somewhat choppy in areas with below a 15 FPS in some spots.

I know my CPU is a bottleneck as the game was much smoother when it did work with the overclock, so I figured it is time for a cheap upgrade. What I want to do is keep my 9700 pro and my hard drive since very few games seem to access the hard drive anyways with a gig of ram. I want to get a new motherboard that will support an athlon 64, a gig of cheap pc3200 DDR and dump my old Turtle Beach and run off the motherboard sound, thus I am strongly leaning towards a decent Nforce MB. Also might get a better case if I can find something in the sub $50 range on newegg.

My main question is, how far should I go on the CPU with a 9700 pro? I can't seem to find any tests or charts showing anything from a 9800 pro and lower running on AMD 64s to see where the possible bottleneck is. I can get a AMD 64 2800 dirt cheap, but would be willing to pay an extra $100 for a 3500+ if there would be any noticable benefit. I do not plan on over clocking this time around at all since WoW dosent seem to be OC friendly at all.

I'd also get a new vid card if I needed to, but WoW seems to pretty much run just fine with a 9700 pro on max settings and that is the only game I plan to play seriously for quite a long time. Without worrying about a new vid card, I can keep my upgrade under $250 and should be high enough in FPSs to effectively be capped to the human eye in WoW, which is all I really care about for the next year+.

Anyways, any advice, links or information anyone may have would be helpful.
 

cleeve

Illustrious
The question is not really which CPU will cap a 9700 PRO, it's which games will cap out based on either the videocard or the CPU.

To explain, every game is different and taxes separate parts of your system differently. Some games will show a huge boost going from a Radeon 8500 to 9700 PRO on an Athlon 1200; other programs will show no difference between a Radeon 8500 to 9700 PRO on an AthlonXP 3200+. Why? Because not all apps are created equal.

The 9700 PRO is still nothing to sniff at, and it'll be quite usefull on even the newest Athlon64's. Sure, it's not the fastest card out there, but it's still a solid gaming card for even today's newest titles.

having said that, your biggest dilemma is that when you upgrade your platform, you'll have to limit yourself to AGP and not PCI-ex in order to use your old videocard. Although this isn't a big deal, AGP cards will be around for a couple years more yet, but it's something to consider all the same.
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<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>
 

dhlucke

Polypheme
It's really tough to tell someone with a 9500P or above that they need a new videocard unless they're playing at really high resolutions and/or want every setting maxed out.

</font color=red><i><font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS </font color=blue><font color=red>AMERICA