AMD K6, Celeron, PIII ??? For N3/4

Hi, I'm getting ready to buy a new computer. My main goals are Nascar Racing 3, 4, etc.. With all the different processors on the market today, I don't know which type to buy. Any suggestions? Also, what is an acceptable MHz to get? Thanks for any opinions! Sincerely, Mick

Buy ALL the processor you can afford...Don't scrimp in this area. dave henrie Mick wrote: > > Hi, > I'm getting ready to buy a new computer. My main goals are Nascar > Racing 3, 4, etc.. With all the different processors on the market > today, I don't know which type to buy. Any suggestions? Also, what is an > acceptable MHz to get? Thanks for any opinions! Sincerely, Mick

Just for fun, head over to Cnet and choose the gamecenter. There is a direct comparison of the Athlon 800 & PIII 800. Similar systems, but the PIII had Rambus memory. With TNT's the systems were very close. But with GeForces, the PIII pulled ahead significantly. Doesn't mean squat without realworld benchmarks, but the Athlon isn't the saving grace everyone thinks it is... Having said that...if you have a PII 450 or less, you CAN'T go wrong with either chip. dave henrie Richard Walker wrote:

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> > In message <[email hidden]> > Mick <[email hidden]> wrote: > > > I'm getting ready to buy a new computer. My main goals are Nascar Racing > > 3, 4, etc.. With all the different processors on the market today, I > > don't know which type to buy. Any suggestions? Also, what is an > > acceptable MHz to get? Thanks for any opinions! Sincerely, Mick > > If you are after a fast computer, i.e. something above Celeron-level > performance, you simply have to choose the AMD Athlon and not the Intel > Pentium III. The Athlon is *faster* and *cheaper*! > > If you can, wait until the summer, when AMD will introduce their new range. > At the very least, this will make Athlon prices fall. > > If I were buying now, it would be an ABIT motherboard, with an Athlon 750, > and a SB Live! (128MB RAM, big hard disc.... obviously) > > As for graphics, well, it depends which games you want to run. If they are > Direct3D, an NVidia card will be wonderful. If you want to run Glide > software (e.g. GPL) then a Voodoo card is a better plan. > > -- > Richard. > > "Cellophane flowers of yellow and green. Towering over your head."

In message <[email hidden]> Mick <[email hidden]> wrote: > I'm getting ready to buy a new computer. My main goals are Nascar Racing > 3, 4, etc.. With all the different processors on the market today, I > don't know which type to buy. Any suggestions? Also, what is an > acceptable MHz to get? Thanks for any opinions! Sincerely, Mick If you are after a fast computer, i.e. something above Celeron-level performance, you simply have to choose the AMD Athlon and not the Intel Pentium III. The Athlon is *faster* and *cheaper*! If you can, wait until the summer, when AMD will introduce their new range. At the very least, this will make Athlon prices fall. If I were buying now, it would be an ABIT motherboard, with an Athlon 750, and a SB Live! (128MB RAM, big hard disc.... obviously) As for graphics, well, it depends which games you want to run. If they are Direct3D, an NVidia card will be wonderful. If you want to run Glide software (e.g. GPL) then a Voodoo card is a better plan. -- Richard. "Cellophane flowers of yellow and green. Towering over your head."

Nascar 4 will have the GPL physics, which means it will need some serious hardware, even more so than GPL, since Nascar features a 40-car field. I would think an Athlon/Pentium 3 of around 600-700 Mhz with a fast video card would do the trick. Basically, it all comes down to your budget...

And CNET is partly owned by Intel. I'd take ANYTHING I see there with a large grain of salt. I do this with ANY website, based on the hack jobs I've seen done on video card reviews over the last several years. I haven't seen any review with the Athlon getting smoked like it did on that review. I can find a more typical review over at firingsquad.com http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/chipset2/default.asp ) that shows the Athlon @ 750 beating or just *barely* behind the 750E Coppermine in the same Q3A tests with a GeForce. One big thing - CNET was using the old revision of the AMD chipset - any AMD 750 motherboard you get today should work just fine with a GeForce and 2x AGP, and enable Super Bypass mode that speeds things up about 5%. The newer KX133 chipset allows 4x AGP, and 133MHz memory access. That they used a crippled Athlon testbed (compared to what can be purchased today) shows bias in that CNET review, IMHO. That said, I don't think you can go far wrong with either an Athlon or Pentium III. For sims, it seems that Athlon actually comes out doing better with it's better floating-point unit, and is usually cheaper MHz-to-MHz. -- Ken's Sig 3.01 "Who is the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi-Wan Kenobi volksy(at)yahoo(dot)com Go #43 and #44! "Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Just for fun, head over to Cnet and choose the gamecenter. There is a > direct comparison of the Athlon 800 & PIII 800. Similar systems, but > the PIII had Rambus memory. With TNT's the systems were very close. > But with GeForces, the PIII pulled ahead significantly. Doesn't mean > squat without realworld benchmarks, but the Athlon isn't the saving > grace everyone thinks it is... > Having said that...if you have a PII 450 or less, you CAN'T go wrong > with either chip. > dave henrie > > Richard Walker wrote: > > > > In message <[email hidden]> > > Mick <[email hidden]> wrote: > > > > > I'm getting ready to buy a new computer. My main goals are Nascar Racing > > > 3, 4, etc.. With all the different processors on the market today, I > > > don't know which type to buy. Any suggestions? Also, what is an > > > acceptable MHz to get? Thanks for any opinions! Sincerely, Mick > > > > If you are after a fast computer, i.e. something above Celeron-level > > performance, you simply have to choose the AMD Athlon and not the Intel > > Pentium III. The Athlon is *faster* and *cheaper*! > > > > If you can, wait until the summer, when AMD will introduce their new range. > > At the very least, this will make Athlon prices fall. > > > > If I were buying now, it would be an ABIT motherboard, with an Athlon 750, > > and a SB Live! (128MB RAM, big hard disc.... obviously) > > > > As for graphics, well, it depends which games you want to run. If they are > > Direct3D, an NVidia card will be wonderful. If you want to run Glide > > software (e.g. GPL) then a Voodoo card is a better plan. > > > > -- > > Richard. > > > > "Cellophane flowers of yellow and green. Towering over your head."

Asus P3V4X mobo, Intel P3 600E overclocked to 800 (133 FSB), V3 3000 (until the 5500 drops in price) and 128 mb PC100 ram (mobo allows 133 FSB and 100 ram). This is a ~$650 combo that will run anything you want pretty damn fast. All for less than the cost of a P3 800 processor. -- Joe Marques Mick <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Hi, > I'm getting ready to buy a new computer. My main goals are Nascar > Racing 3, 4, etc.. With all the different processors on the market > today, I don't know which type to buy. Any suggestions? Also, what is an > acceptable MHz to get? Thanks for any opinions! Sincerely, Mick

http://dirkwagner.de/english/english.html has a bundle of benchmarks relating to GPL, so expect similar for the Nascar 4 thingy. Phil Mick wrote: > > Hi, > I'm getting ready to buy a new computer. My main goals are Nascar > Racing 3, 4, etc.. With all the different processors on the market > today, I don't know which type to buy. Any suggestions? Also, what is an > acceptable MHz to get? Thanks for any opinions! Sincerely, Mick

The solution is simple. Get a GeForce2 card and as much CPU as you can possibly afford. Be sure you can afford a P3/600 (or AMD800) or better. Oh yeah, 128mb of memory wouldn't hurt either. In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

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> > http://dirkwagner.de/english/english.html > > has a bundle of benchmarks relating to GPL, so expect similar for the > Nascar 4 thingy. > > Phil > > > Mick wrote: > > > > Hi, > > I'm getting ready to buy a new computer. My main goals are Nascar > > Racing 3, 4, etc.. With all the different processors on the market > > today, I don't know which type to buy. Any suggestions? Also, what is an > > acceptable MHz to get? Thanks for any opinions! Sincerely, Mick >

-- ========================================================= Redneck Techno-Biker (Zerex12) http://www.members.home.net/jms1/index.html Barbarian Diecast Collector (420+ cars and counting) http://members.home.net/jsimm/diecast_index.html DeMONS Scheduler for N3 and NL http://www.paddedwall.org/demons If you want to send me email, go to the first URL shown above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame. =========================================================

In message <[email hidden]> Dave Henrie <[email hidden]> wrote: > Just for fun, head over to Cnet and choose the gamecenter. There is a > direct comparison of the Athlon 800 & PIII 800. Similar systems, but the > PIII had Rambus memory. With TNT's the systems were very close. But with > GeForces, the PIII pulled ahead significantly. Mmmnnn... I don't understand that! Mind you, isn't Rambus a bit expensive? How did the pricing compare? > Doesn't mean squat without realworld benchmarks, Ah! That explains it. Benchmarks - you simply cannot take *any* notice. > but the Athlon isn't the saving grace everyone thinks it is... I think it is better, but maybe not, 'saving grace'! :-) -- Richard. "Got to be good looking, cos it's so hard to please."

In article <[email hidden]>, Dave Henrie <[email hidden]> writes:

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>Buy ALL the processor you can afford...Don't scrimp in this area. >dave henrie > >Mick wrote: >> >> Hi, >> I'm getting ready to buy a new computer. My main goals are Nascar >> Racing 3, 4, etc.. With all the different processors on the market >> today, I don't know which type to buy. Any suggestions? Also, what is an >> acceptable MHz to get? Thanks for any opinions! Sincerely, Mick

Yeah, what he said...<g> Eldred -- Tiger Stadium R.I.P. 1912-1999 Own Grand Prix Legends? Goto http://gpl.gamestats.com/vroc Never argue with an idiot. He brings you down to his level, then beats you with experience... Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

In article <d767a5bb49%[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

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> In message <[email hidden]> > Dave Henrie <[email hidden]> wrote: > > > Just for fun, head over to Cnet and choose the gamecenter. There is a > > direct comparison of the Athlon 800 & PIII 800. Similar systems, but the > > PIII had Rambus memory. With TNT's the systems were very close. But with > > GeForces, the PIII pulled ahead significantly. > > Mmmnnn... I don't understand that! > > Mind you, isn't Rambus a bit expensive? How did the pricing compare? > > > Doesn't mean squat without realworld benchmarks, > > Ah! That explains it. Benchmarks - you simply cannot take *any* notice. > > > but the Athlon isn't the saving grace everyone thinks it is... > > I think it is better, but maybe not, 'saving grace'! :-) >

The reason for the speed difference is that the current athlon's don't have an on-die cache. Their true saving grace is that you can snag an Athlon 950 for the price of a P3/650 and still have enough money left over for 128mb of PC133 RAM... -- ========================================================= Redneck Techno-Biker (Zerex12) http://www.members.home.net/jms1/index.html Barbarian Diecast Collector (420+ cars and counting) http://members.home.net/jsimm/diecast_index.html DeMONS Scheduler for N3 and NL http://www.paddedwall.org/demons If you want to send me email, go to the first URL shown above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame. =========================================================

The 566 is based on coppermine P3, SSE and FCPGA just like coppermine pentium albeit smaller cache (128K ). The best thing is that it's running on 66 Mhz fsb with 8.5 x multiplier ( locked ). Upping the fsb to 100 gives you 850 Mhz. I compares well to the same clock Pentium 3 although it does lag behind a little. But the $$$ saving is enormous thus enabling you to get a Geforce DDR ( going cheap with the intro of Voodoo 5 and Geforce 2 ).

In article <d767a5bb49%[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

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> In message <[email hidden]> > Dave Henrie <[email hidden]> wrote: > > > Just for fun, head over to Cnet and choose the gamecenter. There is a > > direct comparison of the Athlon 800 & PIII 800. Similar systems, but the > > PIII had Rambus memory. With TNT's the systems were very close. But with > > GeForces, the PIII pulled ahead significantly. > > Mmmnnn... I don't understand that! > > Mind you, isn't Rambus a bit expensive? How did the pricing compare? > > > Doesn't mean squat without realworld benchmarks, > > Ah! That explains it. Benchmarks - you simply cannot take *any* notice. > > > but the Athlon isn't the saving grace everyone thinks it is... > > I think it is better, but maybe not, 'saving grace'! :-) >

The reason for the speed difference is that the current athlon's don't have an on-die cache. Their true saving grace is that you can snag an Athlon 950 for the price of a P3/650 and still have enough money left over for 128mb of PC133 RAM... -- ========================================================= Redneck Techno-Biker (Zerex12) http://www.members.home.net/jms1/index.html Barbarian Diecast Collector (420+ cars and counting) http://members.home.net/jsimm/diecast_index.html DeMONS Scheduler for N3 and NL http://www.paddedwall.org/demons If you want to send me email, go to the first URL shown above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame. =========================================================

[email hidden] (Dave Henrie) wrote in <[email hidden]>:

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> Just for fun, head over to Cnet and choose the gamecenter. There is a >direct comparison of the Athlon 800 & PIII 800. Similar systems, but >the PIII had Rambus memory. With TNT's the systems were very close. >But with GeForces, the PIII pulled ahead significantly. Doesn't mean >squat without realworld benchmarks, but the Athlon isn't the saving >grace everyone thinks it is... > Having said that...if you have a PII 450 or less, you CAN'T go wrong >with either chip. >dave henrie

The Athlons had generally performed better than the Katmai Pentium III's. The Coppermine variety of PIII's coupled with RDRAM have been out for a while now and they generally seem to outperform the Athlon systems (I thinjk one test had W-NT OpenGL professional stuff when run on GeForce cards coming out much in the Athlon systems favor though), at least once you get into the >700Mhz sort of speed range- their cache keeps up better at the fastest processor speeds. I think the SSE instruction set has proved to be superior than the Athlon's 3Now, so for sim stuff that might give more edge to the PIII's and may have wider support- although the FPU unit seems to be better in the Athlon and eventually video card-T&L games will narrow such an advantage. Putting together your own system with RAMBUS ram is really expensive though. It doesn't really make sense. If you buy pre- built, from Dell or such, then RAMBUS PIII systems aren't as much of a premium though. However, I think that there may be motherboard DDR ram systems coming out in a few months. If you build your own system, that would seem to be a much better way to go than RDRAM. In addition, at least according to one set of benchmarks I saw, the DDR systems will be better overall anyway. One of the new upcoming Athlons plus a DDR ram motherboard might be the best deal. I'm not sure if DDR motherboards will be out in his time frame though.