ok... Please Help one more time (CPU)

[LOT737 6]

I want to decide finally..Athlon64, athlon64 FX, or P4EEI'm thinking about fx or ee, but do I really need it? Will I get much better fps then on athlon 64?I can get athlon64 for around $400.. fx and ee costs about $800-900..:-eek For video card, I will go for radeon9800.I currently have athlonxp2100, geforce4ti4600..ThanksJacek

[Guest outtatimeiii]

As of right now, I think you should get an Athlon 64 or wait till P5. If you decide on the P4 Emergency Edition, keep in mind you will not be able to upgrade it much in the future, because all P4's will be phased out soon. Athlon 64 will have quite a while to mature and will be easy in the future to upgrade.Those non-FX Athlon 64's are number crunchers, seems like anything that requires heavy CPU use is where they excel, in a lot of places, better than top P4's. Seems a lot of people underestimate that Athlon 64 because of the 2.0GHz clock speed. I really wouldn't get the Athlon 64 FX, because the cost.In short, if you want performance right now at a expense of upgradibility, get the P4 EE. If you want a very capable chip that can be upgraded in the future, get Athlon 64 or P5 when it comes out.

[michal 44]

>I can get athlon64 for around $400.. fx and ee costs about>$800-900..You got to have plenty of $$ to even consider now these CPUs - very low performance increase (according to tomshardware benchmarks) for significant price. Would you pay $500 to see fps in FS9 jump by 2 ? I would not but maybe you would.If I were you I would wait for simhq site to come up with precise benchmarks and then decide what's the cost effective solution. And I would agree - I would rather wait for P5 and skip both athlon64 and EE.Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

[LOT737 6]

I will wait for some benchmarks. P5? nope.. waiting another few months?I'm cosidering athlon64, can someone who have it tell me how fs9 perform on it?Jacek

[1mikel151 71]

I agree, until everything else catchs up to 64 bit, you won't be able to take full advantage of it at all. You are better off, just getting a 3200, overclocking it a bit and get the new vid card as you won't see that much of a performance boost, at least not for awhile and the price for that small of a boost is not worth it.Obviously money is not an object, so go here and get a system! LOLhttp://www.go-l.com/desktops/index.htmRegards, MichaelKDFWhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpgCalVirAir International VAwww.calvirair.comCougar Mountain Helicopters & Aviationwww.cgrmtnhelos.com

[Guest seev_39]

Hi Jacek, If this will help you. PCWorld, Nov 2003, gave the Athlon64-FX51 2.2 GHz the highest score, much better than IntelP4 3.2 GHz("inside" ... your pocket). Don't buy what Intel say about their 800 MHz frontside bus compared to 400 MHz for the AMD - it is just a selling point to charge you the extra $$The Athlon64-FX51 CPU is probably the best solution for the time being - no point in waiting for the 1st quarter of 2004 - whatever comes out by then will cost a fortune - demand for CPU's is rising. I myself decided on this CPU for my comming upgrade. As for video card, I don't think it will make a big difference once you have a strong CPU. Generally, ATI cards are far behind with drivers. I prefare the GeForce cards, was never disappointed with drivers.Have funSeevGigabyte Socket A Processor Motherboard GA-7VTX-HAMD XP 1700 Processor786 MB DDR MemoryAsus GeForce FX 5200 - 128 MB video cardMaxtor 40 GB 7200 HDDMaxtor 120 GB 7200 HDDHercules Fortissimo III sound card

[michal 44]

>If this will help you. PCWorld, Nov 2003, gave the>Athlon64-FX51 2.2 GHz the highest score, much better than>IntelP4 3.2 GHz("inside" ... your pocket).I would pay attention to how PCWorld graded this hardware if I used my PC for variety of different games (and other appls.) but if someone buys strictly for FS9 then both tomshardware and simhq benchmarks show very little (2 fps) difference with Athlon 64. Again, it all depends how much this 2 fps is worth to you in $. Frankly neither Intel EE nor Athlon 64 present cost effective solution for a FS9 user - P4 3.0 gives you the biggest bung for the buck at this moment.Michael J.

[Guest seev_39]

Michael,You are right, for 2 fps it is even not worth going out and shop. So maybe before considering an upgrade better "keep your house clean" - what I mean go out and buy a Norton SystemWorks (or something similar) and organize your O/S and disk. This alone will give you a boost of 7-8 fps.On the other hand, at some point you want to see continious flight at 24 fps and more - even in crowded sceneries with high percentage of AI traffic and most sliders up. So what do you do? - if you have the extra cash, you go out and buy an upgrade. Only question is what.I think, better buy a little cheaper and replace you system every two years (AMD and not Intel) and keep up with technology instead of doing so every three or four years. And If thats what you wish to do, then there is no point in waiting for a new product to arrive (here you are right again Michael).But, my friends, its not pure science. A lot depends on feelings. No two people will give you the same answer. Just look at the different systems simmers have.Seev

[LOT737 6]

Thanks guys..EE and FX are too expensive for me. So I'm thinking about athlon64.. but today I heard that athlon64 3400+ (2.2ghz) will be available in a few days, and it will cost $500-$600.. So now I have to decide, get A64 3200 now or wait for A64 3400...Jacek

[scott967 62]

What's interesting about the Athlon64 is the integrated memory controller. That makes VIA more viable as a chipset. It might also help with some of the memory problems people report having.scott s..

[Tabs 2,790]

The FX is nothing but an Opteron server processor running at a higher clock speed. Keep in mind too if you buy an FX-51 you're probably looking at a new motherboard to upgrade in the future because they're changing the pin count after the 51 I believe. The P4EE is a joke, far too expensive and non-upgradable with not enough of a performance gain to justify buying. Just like the FX, it's a high clock speed server CPU (Xeon). Personally, I'm going to get the Athlon 64 - the benchmarks look really good - it outperforms the P4s across the board and destroys the old Athlon XPs. Don't let the fact that 64bit OS and apps aren't out yet let you think the A64 isn't going to perform well, it's much faster in 32bit than the Athlon XP 3200.Ryan

[Guest cwra6]

I'd go over to Tom's Hardware guide and do some research before making the decision. Their reviews are unbiased and thorough.