256L2 vs 512L2 Cache big difference?

[Guest]

Hello all, I have a Dell 8200 2ghz 1 Gig RDRam GeForce 3 T200 64meg card with 28.32 drivers, and I get 11 frames per second at SFO with sliders almost maxed, and 9-13 frames in most dense airports. I have the GTU max and have been tweeking the video card. I have no virus detected on the machine and everything in good working order. I checked the Bios and saw in the CPU info section a bus of 100mhz and cache 256kb L2. I called Dell and they said it should say 100 in the bus area (4x 100=400mhz bus speed) and claimed I ordered a machine with 256k (looking for origional docs I swear it was 512k). I am wondering if anybody could direct me to previous posts (have not found anything) or let me know where my bottleneck may be. I have a buddy who said the difference in Cache would be a big boost is this true?I guess I expected my machine to run much better.Thanks too much,Philip

[brucek 38]

Hi Philip,I can't add too much to this topi c for lack of knowledge. However, I'm currently puting together a P4 system, and as I'm sure that Dell uses exclusively Pentium CPU's, I assume your's is too.My P4 (1.8GHz) has a 512 cache on-board. Wouldn't your's be the same? I know there was a break point in Pentium development around the 2G mark, and I thought that all at and above 2G had this feature. Maybe not....Good luck, I hope you sort this out. BTW- what machine did you have before, and what was the fps in similar areas? My current (soon to be old) PIII-700 goes to a slide show at SFO (Win XP, 768M PC133 RAM).Did you get the DDR RAM, or the SDRAM?Bruce.

[Guest]

Hey Bruce,Yup, Dell uses the Pentium chip...I inquired but got a tech who had no idea (I called after hours). I will check with Dell tomorrow and see, but my BIOS says 256K and my 7 year old Dell Pentium 333 has 512k!!! My old 333 would have maybe 2-4 fps at SFO with Windows 98 SE and 128mb SDRAM. My new 2ghz system has RDRam with I hope a 400mhz bus...BIOS shows 100mhz (the unqualified rep checked her online help manual and gave me a song and dance about it being 4x100 saying that my BIOS is showing correct. When I talk to Dell I will let you know what they say.Thanks a bunch,Philip

[brucek 38]

Yes, I'll be interested in what the real story is :)As one becomes more knowledgable about computers, it's apparent that tech support isn't always the correct answer- but to theit credit, I know they are expected by us users to know everything about our area of interest.Once again, good luck with this issue.Bruce.

[wsieffert 0]

Visit the www.intel.com website http://developer.intel.com/design/pentium4/datashts/ . I believe you have the Pentium 4 2GHz, 478pin package with 256KB L2 cache. Your external bus speed is probably 100MHz that is quad clocked internally to the CPU and the RDram.The other Pentium 4 with 512KB L2 cache runs from 2GHz to 2.53GHz.I would find the original order you made with Dell and persue it from there if you can prove you asked for the upgraded chip.As you have found, Dell's technical support is quickly fading!!

[Guest]

Mr. Sieffert: I concur. An easy test is the date purchased vs. the date of Northwood release.Cheers,

[Guest]

Thanks Gentlemen for all the valuable input. I purchased my system around December 2001, so I must have just missed the better chip. It looks like I have the 423 pin 256kb L2 cache chip instead of the 478 pin 512kb L2 chip. Dell was out of the 2 GHz systems (due to demand) in November so they must have just built what they had and then shipped. I have learned a valuable lesson, when you spend 2800.00 for a computer make sure you know what you are buying down to the last detail and make sure you get ALL specs in print. It hurts when a buddy of mine gets better frames rates with everything maxed on his AMD 1.4 Ghz system that he could have built for me at the time for around $500.00!Thanks again guys,Philip

[Guest Kurt]

Philip,Not all of the 478 pin chips have 512kb, the early (non Northwood) 478 pin chips only had 256k. The 512kb Northwoods did not come out til late Dec 01/early Jan02.http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/02q1/020107/p42200-03.htmlsome Intel links for further info.http://developer.intel.com/design/Pentium4/datashts/http://processorfinder.intel.com/scripts/l...ALL&PkgType=ALLhttp://developer.intel.com/support/processors/Pentium4/http://developer.intel.com/support/processors/sspec/p4p.htmKurt

[Guest]

Thanks Kurt, looks like that is my chip, the pre Northwood chip, and I may have just missed it by maybe 1 month. My next step is to find out if I can get this chip from Dell hopefully without having to also change out my motherboard. I have no choice but to stick with Dell if I want to keep my warranty......boy how we learn!!!