Is Athlon 64 good for SL?

I've been trawling through pricing for an imminent PC upgrade, and have discovered that my intended setup would cost exactly the same whether based around a 3GHz Pentium or an Athlon 64 3000+ . I'm tempted by the Athlon 64 as it appears more future-proof.

I don't know anything about the Athlon 64 - are there any cons at the moment, or should I go for it? Are there any downsides or "issues", either using Windows or Second Life?

Thanks, Freya.

Oh dear. I think I've just answered my own question

http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040112/index.html

My intended setup of 1 GB RAM in the form of 2 memory modules is definitely not recommended for most A64 motherboards....

I'm currently running an Atlon 64 system with no trouble what so ever. here's my spec

Athlon 64 3000
sis 755 based motherboard
512 Mb 3200 DDR Ram
geforce FX5900 g-card

runs nice and fast with little or no slow down.

The only real technical issue: AMD 64 - it's a 64bit processor. SL is a 32bit application( so is winXP - There is a 64bit winXP beta that you can try) Most software and games only take advantage of 32bit processors. Untill they start using "64bit programming" you won't see the super possibilities.

As with anyting tech, the longer you wait the better it gets. If you wait for 64bit technology to become more standard, Intel/AMD may have a cheaper or better option and you won't have to suffer the bottle-neck for the time being.

Personally, If you are going to make your own computer I would consider a pentium of the same price as the AMD for now and A mobo that supports Dual Channel DDR (that's basicly writing to two identical memory modules at the same time) That is, if you cannot wait. Shopping on PriceGrabber.com wisely can net you all the parts you need cheaply. And just vamp the old parts you allready have .

AMD 64s do rock solid, though there are memory problems... I think the 1600mhz memory bus more than makes up for it. So unless you are hardcore about hardware... you'll be happy with any decent setup.

I have a P4 2.4c (Was overclocked to 2.9 til I blew the cheap powersupply that came with the case) with 512mb dual ddr and an ATI Radion 9800 pro. If I only had 2 SATA harddrives I'd be in SL heaven. But I still get awesome performance. I can even have winamp/ photoshop/ browser on at the same time!

If you can wait until later this year (June/Julyish), do. Lovers of the speedy computer expect a few technologies which are sneaking into retail:

PCI-Express to bump up your bus speed and eliminate that notorious bottleneck.

Socket 939 for AMD processors. Mmm-mm, good.

NVidia 6800/ATI x800: next-generation video cards, twice as fast as anything currently on the market. Okay, so SL is more processor dependent. Fast graphics! Ruh uh uh uh!

I haven't upgraded for two years and have been waiting for all of these for months. My wallet is getting so itchy that I had to go out and buy a new case just to feel like I've upgraded.

I am in the early planning stages for a system overhaul as well.

Since the last time I educated myself for my upgrade two years ago, some things have changed.

I'm planning to go with an Athlon 64 on an Asus motherboard.

Is dual-channel memory worth the trouble? What practical amount of improvment is shown by it?

Do you need special memory modules for dual-channel use, or is it just the same memory type you'd use otherwise?

Does the Athlon64 have any known compatibility problems with running 32 bit applications?

Thanks =)

The real difference with the new AMD 64 processors is the hypertransport motherboards, make a considerable difference ( or so I'm informed) all I know is my AMD64 3000 system boots up windows 2000 in under 30 secs!!!! which in my opinion is fast.....

you cannot go wrong with the AMD 64 bit offerings across the board, UNLESS you plan on running some multi-proc system, which clearly you're not interested in. There are no significant memory issues any longer for all reasonable intents and purposes...timing and OCing notwithstanding. There are also NO compatibility issues , with AMD absolutely backward 32 bit compatible, and NOT emulated either....don't even bother thinking about it....

....that having been said, and as long as you're in planning mode, I'd wait for 939 to come out en masse. PCI express...lol...yeah, we'll see

I run both intel and amd systems and game on both. AMD slightly takes price/performance at the upper end right now, and blows doors on intel at the low-midrange, hands down.

Intel "extreme" edition? ...cynical...

<<My wallet is getting so itchy>>

Me too! I found SL in February, and I've been using the same laptop (Dell D600, only 32MB graphics RAM) since then. I've never played PC games before, so SL is the one and only focus of the impending upgrade of my old tower machine. I really hope I can wait a couple of months for all the new stuff, but I fear I'll just get drunk (well that bit's fine...) AND order something ASAP

Oh and Leonn, why does 2 drives help for SL? That affects my choice of motherboard, potentially.

If I wake up tomorrow and buy a P4/3.0, 1GB RAM, and a 5900XT, will anyone call me stupid?

Thanks, F.

No one could call you stupid for ordering that combo, so long as you've got the extra dough for enough QUALITY ram and significant(and whip ass fast) storage capacity...


that combo you chose is gonna be upper midrange in a few months, technically speaking, but you won't be behind the curve by anyone's stretch of the imagination.

If you're a video whore like me, and seriously I'M just the WORST early adopter, you might want to crank that video down to like, a 5700 Ultra, and save about $120 bucks toward Nvidia's next release which should be here shortly...

...the solid midrange right now is pretty tight. It'll do most anything you ask of it...and SL, for all it's unique and resource hogging tendencies, is easily handled in this range. That being the case I'd look more toward the AMD based system. Price/performance in this range can't be beat by Intel.

good luck!

OK, a couple of questions then...

Why does fast storage matter, and...

Is there an actual release date for 6800 cards? They look fun...

OS Boot isn't a good indicator of Computer Performance.

this much I know, just compared to my older AMD XP 1600 machine, even at best took 4 - 6 times as long to load. I haven't got round to testing using the 3dmark01 on it yet and 3dmark03 doesn't run on my old box. but I'll wager the scores are mighty different.

Fast Storage doesn't matter as much in everyday gaming/computing but SL is speacial since it's constantly using the Harddrive to cache data.

If you have a RAID 0 set up (2 Serial ATA hard drives that are written to at the same time at 150MB per second each) then SL can cache the textures and information really fast. But if you only have a standard ATA100 or 130 your getting less than half of that speed.

BTW... Per GB, SATA drives can be more expensive. The idea is to buy 2 identical sized smaller ones. like 2 30GB drives totaling 60GB.

Dual channel memory is worth it because it sorta works like RAID 0 doubling the speed at which data is written to memory. But the maximum Pentium Mobo Memory Bus speed is 800mhz... the AMD A64 compatable Mobo Buss speed is 1600. Now It should work as well in theory, but there are no DDR1600mhz modules... they go up to about DDR800. So for now Dual Channel is Cheaper/Faster but it'll change when the memory speeds go up.

You only need 2 identical pairs of DDR memory to make it work. Buy 2 of the same brand and everything. You may wanna check your mobo manual to make sure that the brand you choose is tested and compatible. But it's usually rare for memory to not be compatible.

I think the Athalon64 has all the same registers and functions as any AMD 32bit proc. so there should be no problem with 32 bit apps.

*Nevermind this post...*

Freya, you'd want the zippier storage because SL's caching scheme is more taxing than you'd find in other titles, online or not...

..that and there are a bunch of slooooow HDD bargains out there right now which might tempt you, but I'd stay away from them.

..as for the 6800....components are shipped, so maybe toward the end of May for some retail cards?