Pentium4 1.8GHz - Low end?

[pascal]

CPU scalling is always nice if possible. It helps to see if a new card will have any effect or not, and to decide what and how to upgrade the CPU or the GPU with tight budget. The fraps graphs with different CPUs are very informative.

57% of all half-life gamers have less than 1GHz CPUs ( http://valve.speakeasy.net/ ) . Your P3-733 is in the middle of the first gaussian distribution. Some questions people may have:
-Buy only the new GPU?
-Buy the GPU and a minor CPU upgrade (from 700 to +1GHz, or from 1.5 to 2Ghz)?
-Buy the GPU and a entire new CPU/Mobo/Mem/PSU/Case?
-Upgrade the CPU now and the GPU later?

 

[PSarge]

I am still using a P3-750 at home

Well if we're gonna get into that. I'm using a two P2-350's at work (one underclocked to 300, the motherboard doesn't go any higher), and I've got a K7-650 at home.

Suffice to say I don't think a 1.8GHz P4 is low-end

 

[At The Gates]

My PC is a PIII700@1Ghz, 512Mb CAS3 SDRAM and a Radeon 8500 (which i only bothered upgrading to because my Voodoo5 broke).

I keep on meaning to upgrade, but why bother? There's bugger all games out now worth upgrading for. Maybe for Doom III, Unreal II etc, but only if they're good games and not just more yawnariffic tech demos with a game 'bolted' on.

Personally i really wish reviewers would also test new graphics cards on systems of my spec too (although i appreciate how long it takes to do a review even on one system!).

I dont know anyone who has a PC with a spec anywhere near what most reviewers use. Even the most ardent PC upgraders i know haven't bothered upgrading there PIII's - for the same reason i haven't.

 

[Nagorak]

I dont know anyone who has a PC with a spec anywhere near what most reviewers use. Even the most ardent PC upgraders i know haven't bothered upgrading there PIII's - for the same reason i haven't.

No offense but they aren't very "ardent PC upgraders" if they still have a P3. I guess it's all in relative since they're "who you know", but I only know a single person with a processor under 1.4 GHz and he's not exactly an "ardent PC upgrader". Personally I haven't had less than 1 GHz in over two years.

 

[BRiT]

I think a P4-1.8Ghz CPU is low end for Intel systems, considering that a P4-2Ghz Dell Desktop is $439 shipped after a $100 rebate. A P4-2.26Ghz Dell Desktop is $549 shipped after a $100 rebate.

Consider that the high-end enthusiast crowd has P4's clocked at 3Ghz. My friend has his P4-1.6A clocked to 2.53Ghz.

I'd put the P4-1.8Ghz cpu about on par with the AMD Tbird 1.4Ghz or XP-1600. My 16 month old system has an AMD TBird running at 1.6Ghz. A year is a long-long time when it comes to hardware upgrades.

If you want real low-end, stick with the P3-733Mhz cpu. Its easy to upgrade for the cheap to a 1.1Ghz+ Celeron-2 (non-Tulatine) cpu. So if you want to stick with yesteryears technology {PC133 memory and slot1/socket-370} but have a bit more performance, then drop in one of those cpus.

Of course, what I say is biased from being a hardware-enthusiast livin in the USA where everything is cheap. 8)


--|BRiT|

BTW: My current lust is for a dual AMD-Hammer system. Shame that single systems wont be out til 2K3.


Stolen from TechBargains.com:

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Hot Tip8 will show you how much faster this level of CPU performance is than your current rig.

Dimension 4500 desktop P4-2Ghz w/512k cache 128MB DDR/20GB 48x CD XP Home $589 - $50 instant discount - $100 rebate = $439 shipped free. Buy a CDRW drive and Nic from one of the weekend specials coming up.

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Dimension 4500 P4-2.26Ghz/533Mhz bus version costs $649 - $100 rebate = $549.

Select Desktops, Choose Dimension, Customize it on 4500, 2.26Ghz/XP Home/Basic Audio, 128MB/1yr/Works/No monitor/32MB ATI Video/20GB/No speaker.

Interesting option: 15" Non Dell Flat panel for $350 and a $100 rebate.

 

[BRiT]

57% of all half-life gamers have less than 1GHz CPUs ( http://valve.speakeasy.net/ ) . Your P3-733 is in the middle of the first gaussian distribution. Some questions people may have:
-Buy only the new GPU?
-Buy the GPU and a minor CPU upgrade (from 700 to +1GHz, or from 1.5 to 2Ghz)?
-Buy the GPU and a entire new CPU/Mobo/Mem/PSU/Case?
-Upgrade the CPU now and the GPU later?

I've seen that HalfLife poll being posted all over the place for the last two years. Does anyone know when they wipe their data records? I mean come on, if you start a poll and leave in the data from last year, it's bound to be skewed towards the lower end.

Also, no offense to the game, but HalfLife is not demanding at all. Perhaps a better poll is to ask what the specs of people who play Q3/NWN/WC3 are. Perhaps not the most widely played game, but they at least come out more than 2 years ago.

--|BRiT|

 

[At The Gates]

I dont know anyone who has a PC with a spec anywhere near what most reviewers use. Even the most ardent PC upgraders i know haven't bothered upgrading there PIII's - for the same reason i haven't.

No offense but they aren't very "ardent PC upgraders" if they still have a P3. I guess it's all in relative since they're "who you know", but I only know a single person with a processor under 1.4 GHz and he's not exactly an "ardent PC upgrader". Personally I haven't had less than 1 GHz in over two years.

Sorry. I really meant people who once would upgrade at the mere whiff of an extra 1FPS. People who would upgrade every 486, Pentium, PII etc. Now i dont know anyone who bothers. I guess when some decent PC games come out it will change, but not until then. The highest spec PC i know of that a friend owns is a dual PIII 1Ghz, and he only has that to speed up compiling.

My PC is fine at the moment, i can run every game at 1024x768 with full aniso and full details and they run fine. Whats the point spending £500 upgrading a PC, then £400 on an R300? Just so i can run 4XFSAA?