Athlon 64 processors

[Rankenphile]

I just bought a Athlon 64 3000+ processor, as it is an upgrade from my old plain-old 2800+ non-64 version. Quick question or two - what, exactly is the difference, performance-wise or otherwise, between the old-style processors and the 64-bit versions? Also, does WinXP benefit from the 64-bit upgrade a lot, or do I need to upgrade to the 64-bit OS, also, to get the most benefit from this processor?

(as a side note, I also upgraded from my old Geforce 5900 to a 6800GS. Gotta get ready for Oblivion, donchaknow.)

I really don't follow processor technology as much as I wish I did, so any help is a huge plus. Thanks.

[public_eyesore]

no real advantages as of now except that its just good

[Malatory]

Right now all your going to get is some extra speed as you gone from one chip set to the next as well as the base proc speed.

Going to a 64bit windows will just give you a small boost in speed and its hard to find drivers for some things.

Nice jump on the video card... i went from a 5200 to SLI 6600GT's and will soon have a 7900GT (I would have it today but came in broken - Cap came off in the package) Didn't even open it as I know it wont work.

[public_eyesore]

^^^that sucks, im waiting til after the summer to get a new vid card, that way i can get vista and a new card/psu at the same time(money from a summer job). Right now im running a 5200 pci

[Rankenphile]

Just got another stick of ram, bringing me up to 2GB. I'm not going to be able to afford a new computer, so I might as well make sure this one will last me for the next couple years.

Was just looking at CPU-Z and my order, and I may have made a mistake - my current processor is Socket A, and the processor I ordered is Socket 754. This ain't gunna work, is it?

Argh... I could have sworn I checked that before my order...

[Omega]

well, either resell the new CPU or get a new mobo, yo.

i'm running S754, with my 3200+ AMD64, and honestly, even with a 3200+ and a RadeonX800SE, i don't need to upgrade that much. i can play just about anything (on low or med), and it doesn't get too hot.

also, OC'ing gets no real signifigant gain. howver, you can say "I am overclocked."

[Escobar999]

also, OC'ing gets no real signifigant gain. howver, you can say "I am overclocked."

thats so wrong.... its like saying get a 3000+ or a 3500+ it would make no difference...

its not a big difference but there sure is a noticable 1

[Omega]

thats so wrong.... its like saying get a 3000+ or a 3500+ it would make no difference...

its not a big difference but there sure is a noticable 1

uh, have you done your homework recently? i see you have a F in your overclocking class.


the CPU, unless you run in SLi mode, is not a bottleneck. instead things like IDE drives, GPU's, RAM etc are bottlenecks. so for a much more signifigant gain, you either want to use higher RPM HDDs, SATA, faster RAM with a lower CAS latency, overclock your AGP or PCIe bus, and your GPU; as opposed to the CPU. now, for the record, a 3000+ versus a 3500+, first, you must have similar cores. you can't compare a 3k+ newcastle to a 3500+ venice, because the newcastle has 1mb of L2 cache, as opposed to the venice's 512kb. and yes, this makes a difference. once you have the same core, the difference is a mere 200MHz, which, in reality, is not that much. however, overclocking by a mere 200MHz will neither increase your performance drastically, or damage your CPU. it will, however, save you a few bucks, and earn you the right to say "i am overclocked". now, if you oc said 3k+ to say, 4k+ or 4.4k+ spec, then there is a much more noticeable gain, plus, a greater risk of burning out, exploding, etc.

once agian, though, the CPU is hardly a bottleneck. overclocking a 700MHz CPU to 1GHz will yeild much more performance than OC'ing a 2.0 to 2.3GHz.

-Omega

I just bought a Athlon 64 3000+ processor, as it is an upgrade from my old plain-old 2800+ non-64 version. Quick question or two - what, exactly is the difference, performance-wise or otherwise, between the old-style processors and the 64-bit versions? Also, does WinXP benefit from the 64-bit upgrade a lot, or do I need to upgrade to the 64-bit OS, also, to get the most benefit from this processor?

First, there isn't that much of a difference, excpet you can now run 64 bit OSes and programs. second, don't bother with a 64-bit OS until vista, as the XP x64 edition has horrible driver support. trust me, i know. third, the most benefit would be from using a 64 bit os, but as i said, hold of for vist or use Ubuntu64 (which i don't think you can game on)

[DaveW]

Plus, on the 64 bit chips you get a built in memory controller, and a (comparativley) massive amount of cache.You'll notice this before the clock speed; i'm moving from a 2.4Ghz Socket A to a 1.8Ghz 939 and trust me when i say that the 939 is a hellovalot faster, from a performance point of view. Measure the FLOPS, not the clock, right?

-Dave

[public_eyesore]

omega, forgive Escobar999 he is a benchmark junkie lol