Better gaming performance?

[m3lisk]

I was looking at these two CPUs:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103774

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819105016

I've looked around, and found mixed results for these two CPUs. Does the 2x 1mb L2 cache make the Opteron a better choice, or does it not make a major difference?

 

[HellasVagabond]

1) Cache makes difference when it comes to applications MOSTLY....It will make a difference but not much when it comes to games.
2) Generally Opterons Overclock Better.

 

[Urbklr]

It does make a difference but not much i believe. Ether CPU would work great. If you like to overclock then both maybe good for it. The 4000+ Brisbane should OC great. And i know Opy's OC great to......but i dont know about that one.
BTW the extra 100MHz may just make up for the lower amount of L2.

 

[m3lisk]

Well, I guess I will go with the Opteron then... It will probably just run a little hotter than the Brisbane. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda just looking for whatever one will give me more FPS in games.

 

[Wile E]

My 4000+ Brisbane clocks to 3Ghz, but it takes a decent board to get it there. I don't know anything about your board, tho.

Also, I don't know that the current generation of Opterons are interchangable on AM2 desktop boards. I haven't seen any reports of anyone trying it.

 

[m3lisk]

Yeah... I guess it only supports the 1.8ghz and 2.6ghz Opterons... I'll just go with the cheaper Brisbane cuz I plan on upgrading to a Core 2 Duo at the end of the summer. The rest of my money is gonna go to an 8800GTS.

 

[Sovereign]

My 4000+ Brisbane clocks to 3Ghz, but it takes a decent board to get it there. I don't know anything about your board, tho.

Also, I don't know that the current generation of Opterons are interchangable on AM2 desktop boards. I haven't seen any reports of anyone trying it.

Sorry to semi thread-jack here but thats a nice brisbane! I just wish my board had better bios options cause I've been trying like heck to get my windsor to 3Ghz, stable of course, but the lack of overall BIOS settings are holding it back. The one big concern is memory voltage. If you have high end memory that needs 2.1v or higher, your pretty screwed because it will only allow you to go up to 2.1v total so overclocking it is pretty much out of the question. I guess I'm being a bit too hard because the board is a micro ATX board after all.

Yeah... I guess it only supports the 1.8ghz and 2.6ghz Opterons... I'll just go with the cheaper Brisbane cuz I plan on upgrading to a Core 2 Duo at the end of the summer. The rest of my money is gonna go to an 8800GTS.

Why move to a C2D at the end of the summer? Your dual core AM2 rig will hold up pretty well for most of this year and the Barcelona/Phenom AM2+ chip isn't too far off in the distance!

Barcelona will come first, scheduled for a "mid-2007" introduction with systems becoming available over the remainder of the year and into next year. The Phenom processors are scheduled for the second half of the year.

 

[m3lisk]

Why move to a C2D at the end of the summer? Your dual core AM2 rig will hold up pretty well for most of this year and the Barcelona/Phenom AM2+ chip isn't too far off in the distance!

I'm gonna have another n00b-of-the-year moment here. What the hell are those? I do live under a rock ya know. I have never heard of those. Hmm... but I guess if they are worth waiting for, I might go for like a $150 range X2. I was looking at this one: Athlon X2 5200+ Windsor core

 

[hat]

Get the Opteron. Being server class processors, they can take 60-70C safely for hours on end. They also have great overclocking potential.

 

[hat]

m3lisk:
C2D = Core 2 Duo, Intel's new processors that are dominating the market.
AM2 is AMD's current processor socket.
Barcelona and Phenom are both core names for AMD's future processors. I believe Barcelona will be dual core and Phenom will be quad core.

 

[Wile E]

m3lisk:
C2D = Core 2 Duo, Intel's new processors that are dominating the market.
AM2 is AMD's current processor socket.
Barcelona and Phenom are both core names for AMD's future processors. I believe Barcelona will be dual core and Phenom will be quad core.

Nope. Barcelona is their quad core server cpu.

Phenom are their desktop cpus. Both dual and quad.

 

[Garb3]

i have got that procy and i have clocked it at 3Ghz stable and all my games work fine(5200+)

 

[m3lisk]

Ok hat, I'm not that dumb, lol. I just didn't know if any specifics were out. Yeah Optys may be able to take a beating but is their in game performance just as good?

 

[Wile E]

I say just save some money and go with a Brisbane. Most of them overclock like champs, assuming your board overclocks, of course.

I would also flash to the latest BIOS for your board before you get a Brisbane (if you do decide to get one). Sometimes it's needed for the board to POST with the newer cpus.

 

[m3lisk]

I say just save some money and go with a Brisbane. Most of them overclock like champs, assuming your board overclocks, of course.

Meh, I want a 2x 1mb L2 cache. An X2 5200+ will hold over until the new AM2 CPUs come out, and then I will wait a few months to let the prices go down.

 

[Sovereign]

I say just save some money and go with a Brisbane. Most of them overclock like champs, assuming your board overclocks, of course.

Meh, I want a 2x 1mb L2 cache. An X2 5200+ will hold over until the new AM2 CPUs come out, and then I will wait a few months to let the prices go down.

I'm not sure the L2 cache makes a big difference, to a certain degree, in the AM2 series. Otherwise AMD would have made more AM2 X2s with a full 1MB per core instead of the standard 512kb that we see. I don't think the production cost by adding an extra 512k L2 per core was the deciding factor in why most of the chips feature just 1MB L2 cache per chip instead of per core.

Then again I could be waaaay off base here...

 

[m3lisk]

I'm not sure the L2 cache makes a big difference, to a certain degree, in the AM2 series. Otherwise AMD would have made more AM2 X2s with a full 1MB per core instead of the standard 512kb that we see. I don't think the production cost by adding an extra 512k L2 per core was the deciding factor in why most of the chips feature just 1MB L2 cache per chip instead of per core.

Then again I could be waaaay off base here...

I was looking at reviews between 2x 512kb and 2x 1mb L2 caches, and there was about a 10fps difference in games like Oblivion and FEAR, where every FPS counts.

 

[Sovereign]

I was looking at reviews between 2x 512kb and 2x 1mb L2 caches, and there was about a 10fps difference in games like Oblivion and FEAR, where every FPS counts.

I guess I need to get myself a 65w X2 5200+ then!

EDIT * Just checked prices and the 65w model is a bit more expensive than the normal 5200+!!! It's more expensive than a normal X2 5600+! Usualy it's only a few dollars price difference between the 65w and 89w Windsors but for this one... daaaang!

 

[m3lisk]

Impatient Bastard

I am an impatient bastard, so instead of waiting and buying an 8800GTS and a Core 2 Duo a few months down the road and living with shitty performance in the mean time, I'm going with this:

When it gets to the point my system can't keep up with current games, I'll get like an 8800Ultra and one of those new AMD CPUs coming out, but until then, this will run nicely.

 

[Wile E]

Not bad, but you should've gone for a dual channel memory kit, imo.

 

[hat]

He's probably getting 2 ;o
edit: m3lisk, don't try to run that off your POWMAX 350watt

 

[m3lisk]

Fox34 is giving me a 450watt for my x600xt and $5.

And yeah, I already have 1gig of that RAM, so I'll run it in dual.

 

[hat]

lol $5
I don't know if it will run an 8800GTS with anything overclocked. but it should be fine with the x1950 and 5200+

 

[m3lisk]

Yeah, next year around this time I'll upgrade again. I figure if I upgrade once a year I should be good. My money will be in my PayPal TOMMOROW!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!! The best PC I personally have ever used was with an x1600xt, and an Athlon 2.4ghz... this is gonna be SOOO AWESOME!!!

*sits in corner twitching*

 

[hat]

The best PC I ever used was this:
Pentium D 3.4
2GB DDR800
Biostar 7950GT