Radeon 3850 AGP Plus Single-Core CPU
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Page 1:AGP Analysis 2008, Part 1: Single Core CPU
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Page 2:Powercolor’s Radeon 3850 AGP: Specifications, Features, Installation
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Page 3:Test System and Configuration
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Page 4:Game Benchmarks
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Page 5:Game Benchmarks, Continued.
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Page 6:Video Decoding Benchmarks
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Page 7:Overclocking Attempts
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Page 8:Conclusion
The last time we wrote up an AGP analysis in early 2007, the most demanding game title available was Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Game developers had not yet really taken advantage of multiple-core CPUs, and the single-core Athlon 64 was quite capable of delivering excellent gaming performance when paired with a fast enough graphics card; the CPU was rarely the bottleneck. Our testing showed that even the 8x AGP bus didn’t slow gaming down one iota compared to PCI Express. While the older Athlon XP 2500+ slowed things down a bit, everything was still quite playable as long as your video card was fast enough.
How quickly times have changed — we’re now well into 2008, and we have new demanding game titles like Crysis and Supreme Commander. What we also have from our friends at ATI is a relatively new card for the aging AGP bus: the Radeon 3850 AGP. Powercolor and Sapphire are the only companies to offer the 3850 on the AGP bus, and today we will be checking out Powercolor’s offering.
While the old Athlon XP won’t cut it anymore, we’ll be testing the AGP 3850 with one of the faster single core CPUs available: the Athlon 64 3400+. This model should be quite representative of what a lot of older systems are sporting at the moment, and will even deliver similar performance to newer single-core Sempron and Celeron CPUs.
In Part 2 of this series we will be upping the ante with a dual-core CPU representative of many older Socket 939 systems: the Athlon X2 3800+. After this series is completed, we should have a very good idea what kind of performance an AGP 3850 will provide in a variety of AGP systems, both single and dual core.
AGP isn't dead yet. I still use a 7600GS 512MB on P4 @ 3.6Ghz, it's just fine for most games, and will play anything with the "right settings".
What part of the story are we not telling?
Look at the system specs, we had to use 3 types of old DDR RAM to get to 2GB, some of it was very cheap - not even 400 MHz stuff. It doesn't matter how much of a pro I am, you can't squeeze more performance out by raising the CPU clock and lowering the memory clock into the basement to get it to work.
I managed to scrounge up some better stuff for part 2, and it looks like we'll be using XP instead of Vista which will open up some videocard overclocking options. So hold on there sport, overclocking is on the way.
What part of the story are we not telling?
Look at the system specs, we had to use 3 types of old DDR RAM to get to 2GB, some of it was very cheap - not even 400 MHz stuff. It doesn't matter how much of a pro I am, you can't squeeze more performance out by raising the CPU clock and lowering the memory clock into the basement to get it to work.
I managed to scrounge up some better stuff for part 2, and it looks like we'll be using XP instead of Vista which will open up some videocard overclocking options. So hold on there sport, overclocking is on the way.
shame that you ran the memory in single channel mode though.
The 3800+ x2 S939 is also a good overclocker. Even if the board doesn't offer OC features in the bios, you can compromise by using some Windows-based tools.
To really ramp the memory speed you could always run the system in single-channel mode, using that Patriot stick offering CL 2.0; that looks like a very nice bit of memory.
For the record, I run a S939 retail Venice 3200+ (2.0GHz), at 2.5 on stock and can hit 2.7 with a bit more Vcore. I use Clockgen and CrystalCPUID to get many options not available in the BIOS (Abit NF-95). Works like a charm. With good cooling you can really ramp the Venice core right up.
using dual 3870, a 2.8ghz dual core, and 2GB 2-2-3-5 1T ram.
I would send you my rig if you needed any of the above..
I, for one, so not feel the need to go drop $1000+ on a new rig, although I do want good performance from what I have - which is an Atholon 64 4200+ on my socket 939 mobo (MSI Neo2) with a 3850AGP and 2 gig of PC3200 on XP Pro. People always say it's so old and outdated, but I feel it does the job well and am always looking for ideas to get every ounce out of it possible. I mostly play LotRO and swith
Thanks for the great article and I look forward to part II with the dual cores.
heh heh.
We have been tossing around advice to this end in a few threads lately.
Good to see your on the ball !!
Well done.
22" acer screen 1680x1050 run all games fine crysis demo 27fps avg whith high but sound on low object on med. when i found clock gen and over clocked it the cpu by %10 it gave me 7 more fps on avg, and all other newer games over 50 fps and much higher
Guess it's time to save for a Quad Core Intel and an 8800GT OC'ed. For great Windows gaming and OS X as a hackintosh plus HDCP compliance.