Was thinking of an AMD CPU upgrade now...

[AlNom]

Now that the prices have just dropped like a rock, I was thinking of an upgrade. Right now I've got a 3500+ (2.2Ghz) Athlon 64. Do you guys think it'd be worth ~$215CDN for the X2 4200+? Or should I wait for more price drops? Or should I even consider going for the X2 3800+? (~$175CDN)

I'm more concerned about multi-tasking, but I do play games. Also, I've heard of some weird issues with dual cores and gaming. Could you summarize the issues and possible fixes, please?

edit: these prices are from a local warehouse, so no shipping cost!

edit2: Oh wait... how do I find out if it's the lower power consuming "edition"

Thanks for reading

 

[hey69]

i have an athlon 3000+ barton (socket A) and I can do everything with my pc
it depends what you want and what you need if something is worth money

btw, what kind of videocard do you have? if you play games alot, maybe it ismuch wiser to invest in a gfx card.
so what is it that needs speed with your intrests?

 

[digitalwanderer]

I'm just waiting for a cheap 3800x2 to find its way to one of my fave online retailers...

 

[trinibwoy]

I'm just waiting for a cheap 3800x2 to find its way to one of my fave online retailers...

Ditto. Price is slated to be around $150. In a couple months it should be even lower. Throw a little overclock on that and you're set for a good while. I plan to get one to replace my quite-competent-but-single-core-so-old-fashioned 2.4Ghz 3000+.

 

[kyniskos]

It did here (Norway) already, but then I found a 4400+ (2 MB L2 cache) for roughly (haven't checked the exchange-rate) 300 $ (2050 NKr)and bit the bait. FYI I'm running a Opteron 144 oc to 2420 GHz. In games there will be a slight improvement overall due to the fact that one core will do OS while the other will do the game. Then of course there are the games with dualcore-optimizations, but thats still sketchy. Will need to wait a while to see how it all fallst. D3-engined games should get a nice rise though, Sourcepowered games likewise. Other new games are trying to implement, if not from release, then in a patch. For gaming it's the way to go. For other application (office, zipping and of course the allways popular mediastuff) it's already clearly the best.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Snipe just mentioned over at Elite Bastards that Newegg has the 3800x2 for $169us RIGHT NOW!

EDITED BITS: Got unlazy and added the link to Newegg.

 

[kyniskos]

No edit

Forgot to answer some questions

Difference from 3800 to 4200 in performance will be roughly 5-10% dependent upon rest of systemspecs + tasks performed etc...(this is VERY ca.) I'd go with the 3800 and overclock it myself.
The rest of your system are likely to hold you back before the proc' will make any difference (unless you are upgrading with great system specs otherwise, since you would know the answers to these questions if you did, I will assume you don't). This is only for the OC, if not OC, then 5-10%.

The lowest powerconsumers will be marked ADOxxxx while the normal ones will be marked ADAxxxx
For reference, se: http://forums.amd.com/lofiversion/index.php/t46662.html
I might add that the low powerconsuming ones will have another mark; a significantly HIGHER pricetag.....

 

[AlNom]

i have an athlon 3000+ barton (socket A) and I can do everything with my pc
it depends what you want and what you need if something is worth money

btw, what kind of videocard do you have? if you play games alot, maybe it ismuch wiser to invest in a gfx card.
so what is it that needs speed with your intrests?

Mostly right now, I'm trying to save money for grad tuition fees. I don't even have a car yet either.

I would kind of just like to be able to run/load/launch all the programs that I do without waiting. Like, if I just launch one by one, no problem. Everything is fast, but I just tend to do a bunch of things i.e. 30 tabs per browser in FF is typical, plus music, and msn, with the occasional pause in music to load up some video clip in HD. And then I'll load up a game just for a quick runthrough of a level to load off some steam. I guess I just want that responsiveness. But it's not like the 3500+ is a total slouch. In my case, it would just be nice to have a dual core, but it's not critical. Thus I don't really want to spend too much.

And of course, there's antivirus in the background plus the keyboard software (logitech wireless stuff) and the wireless pci card software (linksys) all kind of taking there little share of the CPU timeslices.

Oh, and I have 7800GT (450/1100) from XFX. It gets the job done for me most of the time. I have no real complaints with that.

edit: 2GB system memory

Thanks for the power-consumption info kyniskos. I'll look into it at the store. Those are supposed to come down in price now too, right?

green love for everyone! Thanks for the replies

 

[Bobbler]

The lowest powerconsumers will be marked ADOxxxx while the normal ones will be marked ADAxxxx
For reference, se: http://forums.amd.com/lofiversion/index.php/t46662.html
I might add that the low powerconsuming ones will have another mark; a significantly HIGHER pricetag.....

The low power ones are supposed to come down in price too... at least the 3800+X2 low power -- that should be ~$20 more expensive than the normal 3800+X2 according to AMDs new price list. The 35 watt ultra low power one will likely be quite a bit more though.

 

[kyniskos]

I would kind of just like to be able to run/load/launch all the programs that I do without waiting. Like, if I just launch one by one, no problem. Everything is fast, but I just tend to do a bunch of things i.e. 30 tabs per browser in FF is typical, plus music, and msn, with the occasional pause in music to load up some video clip in HD. And then I'll load up a game just for a quick runthrough of a level to load off some steam. I guess I just want that responsiveness. But it's not like the 3500+ is a total slouch. In my case, it would just be nice to have a dual core, but it's not critical. Thus I don't really want to spend too much.

And of course, there's antivirus in the background plus the keyboard software (logitech wireless stuff) and the wireless pci card software (linksys) all kind of taking there little share of the CPU timeslices.

For this kind of use, doublecore will improve considerably.

edit: 2GB system memory

Means you're set fine for double core. Incidentley, what set up of 2 GB? 4x512 or 2x1?
The 3800 that digitalwanderer linked to is a Rev E4 core. If I remember correctly it will downclock your FSB to 133 MHz automatically with a 4x512. A Rev E6-core don't have this problem(going out on a limb with my memory, you better do a search).

Thanks for the power-consumption info kyniskos. I'll look into it at the store. Those are supposed to come down in price now too, right?

Don't think so, those are targeted specifically at business-users, who will pay extra. Sort of like Opterons. Haven't seen any mention of them going down in price, more likely to go out of production altogether.

 

[digitalwanderer]

The 3800 that digitalwanderer linked to is a Rev E4 core. If I remember correctly it will downclock your FSB to 133 MHz automatically with a 4x512. A Rev E6-core don't have this problem(going out on a limb with my memory, you better do a search).

I had no clue about that, thank you Kyniskos!

Methinks me has some homework to do before I buy...

 

[kyniskos]

I had no clue about that, thank you Kyniskos!

Methinks me has some homework to do before I buy...

So have I.... http://forums.amd.com/lofiversion/index.php/t53935.html

Now if there only was a spanking icon I would spank myself. It was 166 MHz by the way. And the old revision was E3. I don't know how to link to a tread, but on this site, the forum for beta beyond3d articles thread about 1GB vs. 2 GB memory there is some facts (and some people to ask who would know better.. ).

 

[skilzygw]

Mwave has them for a little less.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/Viewproducts.hmx?PID=CPU-A64X2&Updepts=CPU&Dname=<b>Processors+-+CPU</b>

 

[MulciberXP]

Mwave has them for a little less.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/Viewproducts.hmx?PID=CPU-A64X2&Updepts=CPU&Dname=<b>Processors+-+CPU</b>

thank you
just had to do it
X2 4600+ $260 w/ arctic silver, 2nd day shipping

 

[AlNom]

Means you're set fine for double core. Incidentley, what set up of 2 GB? 4x512 or 2x1?
The 3800 that digitalwanderer linked to is a Rev E4 core. If I remember correctly it will downclock your FSB to 133 MHz automatically with a 4x512. A Rev E6-core don't have this problem(going out on a limb with my memory, you better do a search).

Ah...interesting.. I think I remember reading that somewhere a ways back. I have 2x1GB.

 

[IgnorancePersonified]

I'm just waiting for a cheap 3800x2 to find its way to one of my fave online retailers...

I got an early 3800x2 - doesn't oc that well. Goes further with a better board(ati 3200? can't remeber the brand and model) than the Asrock dual pci-agp thingo I have and 2x1gb of ram. A mates opeteron 165 is a much better chip. I have 4x512mb mixed so would require quite an expensive upgrade to get it to fast enough.

My one doesn't downclock the bus either. We here in Oz get product after every where else so I probably missed the really early ones. Are they still around??


Great chip but. Best I have owned for quite awhile.

 

[hoom]

Well I went the devils path & ordered a 2.4ghz conroe +mobo+ram+graphics card

To be honest, I got carried away & forgot to wait till Monday to see the new AMD pricing, might have still gone AMD at the new prices
Price/performance is still in favour of the Conroe though (dependant primarily on mobo cost), only thing that I have a real issue with is its my first intel since that 286

 

[Skrying]

Even with the 3800+ X2 being so cheap, I think I'm gonna go for the Core 2 6300 at $180. Just seems a better upgrade path and more preformance for my buck, plus possibly better OC'ing, but we'll see.

 

[KimB]

I'm more concerned about multi-tasking, but I do play games. Also, I've heard of some weird issues with dual cores and gaming. Could you summarize the issues and possible fixes, please?

As near as I can tell, the vast majority of these have been fixed. The primary issue with some games was that they would randomly crash. Some others would experience horrendous performance. These issues would be fixed by either setting the applications' affinity to just one of the two cores, or by disabling multithreading in the drivers.

But I haven't experienced any of these issues in many months, so I don't think it's a concern any longer. Dual core is pervasive enough now that the bugs have pretty much been worked out, though there is always the off-chance that you'll find some old game that doesn't like to run.

 

[IgnorancePersonified]

Have you applied teh new AMD driver update Chalnoth? It came out about the time of the "Reverse Hyper Threading" hype and was mistaken for it. I had one demo Black and white, I think, that would run the cut scenes at a ridiculous rate but haven't tested it out. No other games or demo's have given me a problem.