Aces Hardware: 2004 Gamers' Hardware Upgrade Guide

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Aces Hardware: [link=http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000301]2004 Gamers' Hardware Upgrade Guide[/link]

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It's that time of year again, time for our annual [link=http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000301]Gamers'; Hardware Upgrade Guide[/link], and this year is no exception. This time around, we bring you an in-depth look at the Athlon 64 3400+ as a candidate for gamers looking to upgrade their systems. We start with a base system consisting of an Athlon XP 2100+, DDR266, and a GeForce 4 Ti4200 and then compare the performance increases associated with upgrades to the CPU, memory, and video card.

Our benchmark suite includes:

* Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons
* Blitzkrieg
* Civilization III
* Comanche 4
* Grand Prix 4
* Halo
* Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
* X² - The Threat

We've also included some other application benchmarks like 3D Studio Max, CineBench 2003, and our plasma fusion benchmark. If you've been considering an upgrade to your gaming PC, but are unsure of how to get the most bang from your gaming dollar, this is the article for you: [link=http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000301]Click here to read 2004 Gamers' Hardware Upgrade Guide[/link]
[/blockquote]

Upgrades Tested Include: Athlon XP 3200+, Athlon 64 3200+, 3400+, Athlon 64 FX-51 & the P4 C 3.2gHz

Omega65

[link=http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000307]pg5[/link]

With the exception of Halo and X², most of the benchmarked software shows speedups from 80 to 110%. The 2.2 GHz Athlon 64 3400+ is a lot faster than the 1.73 GHz Athlon XP, much more than both the PR rating and the clockspeeds numbers indicate.

The Athlon 64 platform offers much more than excellent performance figures:

* Cool'n'Quiet helps to minimize fan noise and power consumption, and not only when you are typing in Word or browsing the web. Watching DVDs and MPEG-4 encoded movies, listening to MP3 music, it can all happen cool and quiet
* You don't have to worry about a broken or a poorly attached heatsink killing your CPU
* With the information we have right now, Socket 754 owners should be able to upgrade to 90 nm Athlon 64 CPUs

Therefore there is little incentive to invest money in the cheaper but clearly inferior Athlon XP platform. Of course, the Pentium 4 still makes a good alternative, especially if you are into 3D rendering and media encoding. But we will investigate that alternative in more detail somewhere around February the second...

The decision to upgrade either your CPU or your video card depends upon your gaming profile. If you prefer first person shooters with the latest DirectX 9 eye candy, your videocard is definitely the first priority. If not, the Athlon 64 has proven to offer a lot of extra CPU power over our Athlon XP.

Enverex

With the information we have right now, Socket 754 owners should be able to upgrade to 90 nm Athlon 64 CPUs

Right, I am off to buy an Athlon64 3200+. That was really the only thing holding me back. Plus, as I am using an AXP 1800+ right now the increase should be huge.

Omega65

Good Luck!