Rudso

I know i posted this before but i still didnt get it :(... i need a better processor mostly for gaming... i was thinking of Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz and then i saw this other one... Athlon 64 3200, 2.0Ghz... now i have a 2.0 right now sooo i dont get wat do i get cuz the Athlon and the Pentium 4 are the same price but different in Ghz? Help

Volt-Schwibe

the 2.hgz athlon will perform more like a 2.8 pentium.

which is why it seems like the old slow athlon is priced as high as the new fast p4....

they do the same amount of work.

my signature explains it in other terms.

Rudso

oh i get it so the athlon takes its time with the food but has big bites and the pentium eats fast with small bites. So then which one would be good for gaming? and i have a Pentium 4 Dell right now but its 2.0Ghz

Volt-Schwibe

i just noticed you listed it as the 3200 athlon.

this means its performance index would be closer to a 3.2 ghz intel.

however, i cannot absolutely tell you which is going to be best.

i can say this much, if you can wait to buy the 64 bit processor for a while, you will be very happy, as the prices drop fast when new things come out, and new things are on the horizon.

i myself, am an AMD advocate.

the makers of everquest seem to think that an intel processor is best, while many other game makers say that AMD is, or that they aren't comparable that way.

which ever it is, make sure it absolutely matches the board you are sticking it in, and then the rest shouldn't be a problem.


but, based on the athlon having the 3200 label, and the p4 having the 3.0 label, it tells me that the athlon would benchmark higher.

batty_professor

IMO Intel produces the faster processor first on the market, and AMD usually follows, and for less $$$$. So at any given time, you have $XX.XX to spend, you'll likely get more for it with AMD. And as Waltsaid, be sure it's compatible with your motherboard. Check your manual for supported processors, or bios updates to accomodate newer processors. Since it's Dell, you probably should just check at their website. Be sure to use your service tag number for accurate information. You will also want to upgrade the software to take advantage of the 64 bit technology.

Rudso

Well the processor isnt the only thing im upgrading... im also upgrading my grahpic card and RAM AND my motherboard so wat mother board do you guys think will be good if i get a Pentium 4 3.2Ghz and a GeForce 6800GT?

Volt-Schwibe

i don't really have many recommendations about p4 boards.

however, the asus ones seem to be a bit "unfriendly" to some people.

might be a good idea to see what boards you can get, and then type the model number of each into google and see what sorts of issues people be havin with 'em.

batty_professor

Seems a lot to bite off at one time. And for the money, you're probably not much shy of buying a whole 'nother computer, with new PS, and hard drive, etc. And you have the satisfaction of some sort of guarantee if something goes wrong. It's evident you pretty well know what you're looking for, so shop for the computer as a complete unit. Then when you see what looks promising, look at what it includes, brand names and such, and see what the components cost when bought seperately. You'll likely find the M.B., RAM, Processor and heat sink, and Graphics card aren't far from the cost of a ready built unit, with all those things in even the O/S perhaps. Then you could sell what you have now and recoup some of the difference?

Volt-Schwibe

am i to understand correctly that you are suggesting this user go and buy a prebuilt peice of crap?

like a dell, or a gateway?

wow.

never, i repeat never, will i ever buy a pc that is already assembled.

(just a note: parts used in pre-built machines carry no warranty by the original manufacturer. meaning if you buy a dell, and it comes with a western digital hard disk, western digital doesn't want to hear about it if the hard disk dies, as you are not one of their customers. this would leave you nothing but dell's own warranty, which may or may be worth having Dell is only being used as an example here.)

let alone the fact that you almost never get a real windows cd, even though you paid for one.

along with 100's of other complaints about pre-built pc's.

mgoldb2

General rule Athlon 64 better for gamming
pentium better for most anything else.

If you dont believe me look at any in game benchmark and it will show you this is true.

Why
A) athlon 64 has on-die memory controller
B)athlon 64 users HT instead of fsb. HT is full-duplex, fsb is not.
c)it already been explain why a lower speed athlon performs as well as the higher speed penitum

If you making this mainly for gamming definally go with a athlon 64

And on the other subject if you are willing(some people are not) I would definally build it your self.
why
A) If you look around for good deals you usually can save money from buying it prebuilt. The higherend the system the more money you will save.
B) You know exactly what going into your computer. You have the power to hand pick all your componets.
C) easier to upgrade. alot of time pre built machine on purpose make it difficult to upgrade.

I priced my current system prebuilt. I saved close to 1000 dollars by building it my self.

I would really consider the athlon 64 since this for gaming. The geforce 6800GT is a great card you picked well there. How much money you willing to spend on the 3 things? I will be able to make a better recomendation on the motherboard once I know that but generally you want either a nforce 3/nforce 3 ultra or nforce4/nforce 4 ultra or nforce 4 sli(these are for if you go amd and choose a socket 939 athlon 64). which ever which one of these choose it should be by a decent manufactor(asus, msi, gigbyte, dfi, abit).

crazijoe

I just upgraded one of my machines with an Intel D925XCV, P4 3.2, 1GB DDR2 memory. Very pleased with this board.
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/cv/index.htm

Rudso

So if i get a Athlon 64 3200 2.0Ghz it will perform better then the Penitum 4 3.2Ghz in gameing? Cuz it just seems weird that i have a Pentium 4 2.0Ghz right now and im going to get a different processor but the same ... 2.0Ghz and it will run much better?

ivanmmj

It should run quite a bit faster. It doesn't matter how fast your CPU is if it only does so much per each one of those cycles.
My Athlon XP (much less powerful than the Athlon64) runs at 2Ghz, but I can guarantee you that it will outperform your Pentium 4 2Ghz in EVERY test you put it in. Think outside the box. The A64 will be the best buy. As pointed out, the builtin memory controller helps a LOT.

C0B01

At the end of the day AMD will be faster than pentiums for gaming. The reason for this is their design;

Pentiums build better CPUs by 'making them smaller', imagine a pin hole in one strand oh human hair, and something 20,000X smaller than that pin hole is the tracking distance in the CPU. Pentiums are also designed to add, subtract, multiply, and devide.

So why are AMDs better for gaming? Because AMDs advance by making their hard wired CPU better in design. They also CAN NOT multiply and devide, instead they add and subtract only. Graphics for games invloves moving pixels coordinates on a screen, AMD with their entheasis on add and subtract make it the perfect choice for gamers (and anything highly graphical really)

C.

mgoldb2

While I agree with the conclusion that athlon 64 is better for gamming what you said above sounds like alot of BS. I challenge you to find me one reliable source that says what you have above.

ivanmmj

Umm... who told you that they couldn't multiply and divide? Do you realize what kind of performance hit a CPU would take if it couldn't do those?

The biggest difference that doesn't require deep thought (like the architechture, for example) is that Athlon's can process more instructions at a time than their Intel counterparts.

Intel's whole campaign revolves around making their chips faster at all costs. That's why the P3 will outperform a P4 of the same speed. They get their performance from their raw speeds. AMD on the other hand revolves themselves around making it as efficient as possible.

Volt-Schwibe

ok, let's not think of it in terms of mhz/ghz....

the last 10 years have taught us that mhz is all, and it's not.

amd has proven this, getting more and more performance from not much more mhz/ghz.

it's about cycles per mhz/ghz.

kinda like when you shift into a higher gear in your car, each spin of the engine moves you further than it did in the last gear.

so, think of the amd as being a big slow bigblock, turning at a slow rpm, and the intel as a small imported engine, spinning at a high rpm, yet after the gearing, they move the vehicles at the same speed.

so it's really isn't about clock speeds anymore.

bottom line, the 3200 athlon 64 performs very high, even running at a lowly 2.0 ghz. and is nearly equal in every way to the p4 at 3.2.

Volt-Schwibe

from what i have read, this is exactly the situation, amd cpu's do no multiply or divide inside the actual core.

for this they use an external math coprocessor, saving precious cpu core time.

and since multiplication and division aren't needed all that often in gaming, this works great for gaming.

batty_professor

Did I mention any names? Yeah, though my idea was to shop for this as an assembled system, Dell and the like hadn't came to mind. It hadn't crossed my mind that Dell would offer the AMD processor, nor the GeForce graphics card.. It suprises they would have such available. I was thinking more the direction of catalog stores, bare-bones system, maybe even with an ASUS or similar MB. I figure if it's bought pre assembled and tested, he's less likely to have trouble.

C0B01

My source for that 'Bull ****' as I think you were refering to it as, was told to me by a professor of computer science at the University of Wales Bangor, Informatics Science Division.

Newb.