Faster processor = faster gaming?

[black9]

my computer currently is
2.0 ghz p4 (its either 400 or 533 mhz fsb)
gig of ram running at 333 mhz
256 video card x8
I score like a 2130 or so on the 3dmark program do you think if i get a 3.0 ghz procceser ( that will incress the 3d graphics capability of my computer? or could something else on my computer be the weak link in this chain?

And what does everyone else have and whats your 3dMark score?

 

[Tedster]

depends on a lot of things, not just your cpu. Memory speed, graphics cards, etc...

 

[Samstoned]

more likly front side bus and adding memory with higher mhz ,newer memory that is ddr2
and a graphics card that works in a pci-x slot
can your board take it?

 

[black9]

more likly front side bus and adding memory with higher mhz ,newer memory that is ddr2
and a graphics card that works in a pci-x slot
can your board take it?

I have 5 pci slots but the small sheet thingie i have doesn't say anything about pci-x. and when looking for a pci graphics card what numbers am I looking for that usally mean faster? besides memory size. I bot my 256 video card for about 100 dollars so I figered it could very well be that.

I can run one stick at 400mhz thats what they are both suppost to run but for some reason they don't run that together. but when i ran 512 at 400mhz my speed did not incress much if at all on my 3d performance. and my mother board does not support anything over 400mhz

thank you for the help

oh ya and of course my computer rips on grafics when im playing americas army on linux

 

[Tedster]

if your motherboard doesn't have PCI-E, then you don't have it. It's a relatively new technology.

 

[black9]

im guessing it doesn't. happen to know of hand anyprograms that will tell you if it is? thats fine if you don't just figered i would ask if you know of the top of your head.

 

[vnf4ultra]

The important things to run games are the video card, the cpu speed, and the ram speed. If you have agp get an agp card. If you only have pci, then look at 5700le pci cards. I have a computer with a 1.8ghz p4 and a 6200 agp. I overclocked my cpu to 2.4-2.6(usually run at 2.4, but 2.6 seems stable). It makes games run faster. If it's an oem system(dell, hp, emachine) then it probably can't oc. The thing that will increase your perfomance most is a good video card. So what slots do you have?

Everest home may give you more info.

 

[Rick]

Bus speed is pretty irrelevant overall. I'm surprised to see so many people suggest your 400 / 533MHz FSB as a major problem.

If you want real gaming performance, get a faster CPU and a faster video card.

Games will fly afterwards, regardless of your FSB speed.

 

[black9]

The important things to run games are the video card, the cpu speed, and the ram speed. If you have agp get an agp card. If you only have pci, then look at 5700le pci cards. I have a computer with a 1.8ghz p4 and a 6200 agp. I overclocked my cpu to 2.4-2.6(usually run at 2.4, but 2.6 seems stable). It makes games run faster. If it's an oem system(dell, hp, emachine) then it probably can't oc. The thing that will increase your perfomance most is a good video card. So what slots do you have?

Everest home may give you more info.

ok im going to be going with agp

ok if i want to get a faster graphics card what number am I looking for that = speed and when you say "6200 agp" whats the 6200 refering to?

i currently have GeForce FX 5700LE (agp slot) are nvidia cards good?

 

[Punkymom]

link to program that will tell you what you have

im guessing it doesn't. happen to know of hand anyprograms that will tell you if it is? thats fine if you don't just figered i would ask if you know of the top of your head.

Hi, I am new here and just found this link posted under another section.
http://www.lavalys.com/ This will give you the free program download Everest home. It will pull up all the information about your computer. That is what I used to fix my problems. Here is an example of the info from my computer that showed in the one section.
I hope this will help you locate the info you need.

CPU Properties:
CPU Type Intel Pentium IIIE
CPU Alias Coppermine, CuMine, A80526
CPU Stepping cD0
CPUID Revision 0000068Ah

CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 599.94 MHz (original: 1000 MHz)
CPU Multiplier 7.5x
CPU FSB 79.99 MHz (original: 133 MHz)

CPU Cache:
L1 Code Cache 16 KB
L1 Data Cache 16 KB
L2 Cache 256 KB (On-Die, ATC, Full-Speed)

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 04/24/2001-VT694Z-CUV4X
Motherboard Name Asus CUV4X (1 ISA, 5 PCI, 1 AGP Pro, 1 AMR, 3 DIMM, Audio)

Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8604/5/6 ProSavage PL133/PM133/PN133
Memory Timings 2-2-2-5 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)

SPD Memory Modules:
DIMM1 512 MB PC133 SDRAM (3.0-3-3-6 @ 133 MHz) (2.0-2-2-5 @ 100 MHz)

BIOS Properties:
System BIOS Date 04/24/01
Video BIOS Date 06/13/01
Award BIOS Type Award Modular BIOS v6.0
Award BIOS Message ASUS CUV4X ACPI BIOS Revision 1009
DMI BIOS Version ASUS CUV4X ACPI BIOS Revision 1009

Graphics Processor Properties:
Video Adapter nVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200
GPU Code Name NV11 (AGP 4x 10DE / 0111, Rev B2)
GPU Clock 175 MHz
Memory Clock 150 MHz

 

[vnf4ultra]

I got a 6200 agp, which is the lowest nvidia model now. I didn't want to spend too much, and the model I got is actually a 6600 that is partially disabled. I re-enabled the disabled part, so effectively, I got a 6600 for the 6200 price. I got the leadtek a6200td from newegg, which they seem to have stopped carrying now.

It depends on your budget,
-a 6200 is about $110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125183
-a 6600 is about $145
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121196
-a 6600gt is about $170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122206
-a 6800 is about $230
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130202
-a 6800gt is about $330
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130203
-a 6800 ultra is about $420
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122196

Here's a benchmark of most of the cards I listed(except 6800). The cards in the bench are pci-e, but they are the same model and should perform similarly. You can compare the framerates of the cards to see how they compare.
http://www7.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041222/vga_charts-07.html

Here's another chart, it has agp and pci-e cards, but not all that I listed above.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/2004-27gpu2_8.html

A 6600 pci-e will perform similarly to a 6600agp. Sometimes the agp version is a little bit slower, but not very much.


Of those, the 6600gt is a good deal for the performance(+ a rebate).
Hope this helps.
Vnf4ultra

 

[LNCPapa]

Before we can tell you what's going to affect your gaming performance more heavily we need to know what games you are playing. Some games are more CPU limited while others are GPU bound. Lots of opengl games simply need a faster nVidia card behind them to boost performance significantly. I say nVidia because we all know they do opengl better than ATI does. When it comes to D3D you probably want a balanced system all around - CPU, GPU, Mem, Bus, etc. to get "good" performance. Also, telling us you have a 256 video card isn't really saying anything. There are crappy 256 Meg video cards and there are excellent ones. Details say it all. You could always fill in your profile to avoid having to go though this everytime.

 

[black9]

Before we can tell you what's going to affect your gaming performance more heavily we need to know what games you are playing. Some games are more CPU limited while others are GPU bound. Lots of opengl games simply need a faster nVidia card behind them to boost performance significantly. I say nVidia because we all know they do opengl better than ATI does. When it comes to D3D you probably want a balanced system all around - CPU, GPU, Mem, Bus, etc. to get "good" performance. Also, telling us you have a 256 video card isn't really saying anything. There are crappy 256 Meg video cards and there are excellent ones. Details say it all. You could always fill in your profile to avoid having to go though this everytime.

GeForce FX 5700LE

and mostly battlefield 1942, america's army, and medal of honer aa

 

[Justin]

more likly front side bus and adding memory with higher mhz ,newer memory that is ddr2
and a graphics card that works in a pci-x slot
can your board take it?

DDR2 memory cannot be placed into DDR slots/motherboards.

 

[black9]

so graphics cards are like proccessers theres no number or clocking speed that means thats how fast it goes? just kinda depends on the brand and how well it uses what its got?

 

[Baby Huey]

Basic Upgrade

Cost versus value.

With the games you are playing, an upgrade to the video card would help the most (IMO). I would suggest a 6600 as a minimum upgrade. But the processor upgrade would help in other areas also. I would suggest a middle of the road upgrade. Find a happy medium and get a 3.0 GHZ processor and whatever you can afford video card wise. You shouldn't be disappointed.

 

[Tedster]

so graphics cards are like proccessers theres no number or clocking speed that means thats how fast it goes? just kinda depends on the brand and how well it uses what its got?

There are a lot more factors on graphics cards than on CPUs. GPUs depend on local memory, pipelining, and motherboard infrastructure.

GHz as a measure of performance on CPUs / GPUs is now becoming meaningless. Basically, chip manufactuers have hit a thermal wall of about 4ghz on silicon, single processor chips. You will start to see more and more of multi-die chips. You will notice that the clock speed on the newer chips is lower as well. Heat kills. The interesting fact is we are starting to move in the direction towards neural-network type chips. Multi-die chips are the start.

 

[black9]

Hi, I am new here and just found this link posted under another section.
http://www.lavalys.com/ This will give you the free program download Everest home. It will pull up all the information about your computer. That is what I used to fix my problems. Here is an example of the info from my computer that showed in the one section.
I hope this will help you locate the info you need.

CPU Properties:
CPU Type Intel Pentium IIIE
CPU Alias Coppermine, CuMine, A80526
CPU Stepping cD0
CPUID Revision 0000068Ah

CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 599.94 MHz (original: 1000 MHz)
CPU Multiplier 7.5x
CPU FSB 79.99 MHz (original: 133 MHz)

CPU Cache:
L1 Code Cache 16 KB
L1 Data Cache 16 KB
L2 Cache 256 KB (On-Die, ATC, Full-Speed)

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 04/24/2001-VT694Z-CUV4X
Motherboard Name Asus CUV4X (1 ISA, 5 PCI, 1 AGP Pro, 1 AMR, 3 DIMM, Audio)

Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8604/5/6 ProSavage PL133/PM133/PN133
Memory Timings 2-2-2-5 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)

SPD Memory Modules:
DIMM1 512 MB PC133 SDRAM (3.0-3-3-6 @ 133 MHz) (2.0-2-2-5 @ 100 MHz)

BIOS Properties:
System BIOS Date 04/24/01
Video BIOS Date 06/13/01
Award BIOS Type Award Modular BIOS v6.0
Award BIOS Message ASUS CUV4X ACPI BIOS Revision 1009
DMI BIOS Version ASUS CUV4X ACPI BIOS Revision 1009

Graphics Processor Properties:
Video Adapter nVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200
GPU Code Name NV11 (AGP 4x 10DE / 0111, Rev B2)
GPU Clock 175 MHz
Memory Clock 150 MHz

i ran that program and it said

ouch does that mean my processor is 100 mhz front side bus?

 

[black9]

if it is 100 i would think that would effect the gaming a decent amount even maybe more then the graphics card. right?

 

[Punkymom]

i ran that program and it said

ouch does that mean my processor is 100 mhz front side bus?

That does mean you are running 100 mhz. FSB/CPU speed. You may want to upgrade your processor, that IF your mother board will handle it. Mine will only take 100 or 133.
And yes, it will effect the gaming a lot. We replaced the motherboard on another computer that ran 100 to the 133 and noticed a difference. With the new computers running at much higher, You can really see the difference.

 

[vnf4ultra]

It's sort of like a 100fsb. Intel bus speeds are "quad pumped", so you multiply the fsb x 4 to get the final bus speed. So you have a 400 fsb. Fsb doesn't matter as much as actual cpu speed, the biggest thing the fsb affects is your memory speed, IIRC, 400fsb means your memory runs at pc2100(ddr266), and if it's 533fsb, pc2700 (ddr333), and 800fsb, pc3200(ddr400). My old computer (p4 1.8ghz) is overclocked from 100fsb(x4=400) to 142(568fsb), which makes it run at 2.55ghz and also makes the ram run at faster speeds(ddr350). I think your graphics card is your primary bottleneck, followed by your slower ram, followed by cpu speed. Although the only way to speed up the ram is to get a 800fsb cpu(if your ram is actually pc3200 and is underclocking to pc2100).

I don't think bus speed makes a difference if the cpu speeds are the same.
Example, you could have a 400fsb 3ghz cpu (100x30)
533fsb 3ghz cpu (133x23)
800fsb 3ghz cpu (200x15)
All three are 3ghz and should perform very closely. The difference would be the speeds that they support ram at, and also some models have Hyperthreading, so they perform somewhat better.

 

[Didou]

That's not true, between multiple P4s running at the same speed, the one with the "faster" FSB will be a lot faster. It is noticeable as memory transfers & I/O access in general will have a lot more bandwidth.

 

[black9]

That does mean you are running 100 mhz. FSB/CPU speed. You may want to upgrade your processor, that IF your mother board will handle it. Mine will only take 100 or 133.
And yes, it will effect the gaming a lot. We replaced the motherboard on another computer that ran 100 to the 133 and noticed a difference. With the new computers running at much higher, You can really see the difference.

ha ha ha well thanks i know what i need to upgrade now wow who would have thought 100 fsb ha ha ha ouch

 

[Justin]

It's sort of like a 100fsb. Intel bus speeds are "quad pumped", so you multiply the fsb x 4 to get the final bus speed. So you have a 400 fsb. Fsb doesn't matter as much as actual cpu speed, the biggest thing the fsb affects is your memory speed, IIRC, 400fsb means your memory runs at pc2100(ddr266), and if it's 533fsb, pc2700 (ddr333), and 800fsb, pc3200(ddr400). My old computer (p4 1.8ghz) is overclocked from 100fsb(x4=400) to 142(568fsb), which makes it run at 2.55ghz and also makes the ram run at faster speeds(ddr350). I think your graphics card is your primary bottleneck, followed by your slower ram, followed by cpu speed. Although the only way to speed up the ram is to get a 800fsb cpu(if your ram is actually pc3200 and is underclocking to pc2100).

I don't think bus speed makes a difference if the cpu speeds are the same.
Example, you could have a 400fsb 3ghz cpu (100x30)
533fsb 3ghz cpu (133x23)
800fsb 3ghz cpu (200x15)
All three are 3ghz and should perform very closely. The difference would be the speeds that they support ram at, and also some models have Hyperthreading, so they perform somewhat better.

Front Side Bus is very important and has a large impact in performance, a far greater impact than CPU speed does. It doesn't matter if your cpu is running at 10 billion GHZ, if you are using a slow FSB, your entire system is going to suffer from it.

Bus speed makes a huge difference for CPUs of the same type and speed. It is better to take a lower speed processor with a much higher FSB than a faster CPU with a slower FSB. You need to study up a bit more on how the CPU communicates ram and the motherboard.

 

[black9]

It's sort of like a 100fsb. Intel bus speeds are "quad pumped", so you multiply the fsb x 4 to get the final bus speed. So you have a 400 fsb. Fsb doesn't matter as much as actual cpu speed, the biggest thing the fsb affects is your memory speed, IIRC, 400fsb means your memory runs at pc2100(ddr266), and if it's 533fsb, pc2700 (ddr333), and 800fsb, pc3200(ddr400). My old computer (p4 1.8ghz) is overclocked from 100fsb(x4=400) to 142(568fsb), which makes it run at 2.55ghz and also makes the ram run at faster speeds(ddr350). I think your graphics card is your primary bottleneck, followed by your slower ram, followed by cpu speed. Although the only way to speed up the ram is to get a 800fsb cpu(if your ram is actually pc3200 and is underclocking to pc2100).

I don't think bus speed makes a difference if the cpu speeds are the same.
Example, you could have a 400fsb 3ghz cpu (100x30)
533fsb 3ghz cpu (133x23)
800fsb 3ghz cpu (200x15)
All three are 3ghz and should perform very closely. The difference would be the speeds that they support ram at, and also some models have Hyperthreading, so they perform somewhat better.

thank you that makes so much more sence and i was wondering why my computer crashes alot if its clocked at 400 mhz for the ram good thing to know for sure