G400Max or AMDK6-3 - Which to upgrade?

[RichL]

I'm running a G400Max with an AMDK6-3 based system and I'm getting a 3dMark2000 score of 1758. More importantly, my FPS running Half-Life or UT Fortress really suck! When the action gets hot, you dont want to be dropping to 22fps at 800x600!

Seeing some of the other posts around here, it looks like my CPU could be holding back my G400, so my question is -
Would upgrading my CPU/Mobo be more effective than swapping my G400 for a NVidia GEForce MX card? I really dont want to bin my G400, but I'm on a tight budget at the moment and a new graphics card is a lot cheaper than a CPU/Mobo upgrade.

My system spec is - AMDK6-3/475, TMC TVGF Mobo with 2mb L3 Cache, 160mb PC100 ram, IBM 10gb 7200rpm HDD, and SBLive, running Win98SE, DirectX8 and Powerdesk 6.10.

Rich L
PS - sorry if this is the wrong forum, but I only discovered this site yesterday :-)

[Drizzt]

It depends on the game you play and the use you do of your PC.

I have a K6-III, too (at 450 MHZ), and I think I will upgrade to a Duron before end of year.

This because:
1) I know that my G400 is not the actual bottleneck, so I want to use it at its maximum before thinking to change.

2) The cost of a Duron + a Mobo on a bid is really low.

3) I think there is something more to see in G400, and I want to see if big M does it...

------------------
Italian Guy, Bad English

D'ya want an Italian version?

[Raptor^]

That system should run HL ok, but UT is very CPU intensive. I'd go with a CPU upgrade before upgrading your gfx card

------------------
Unreal Fortress developer

[Electric Amish]

I'd go for the CPU as well. You can get a nice Thunderbird 900mhz and a motherboard for ~$300usd.

I'm using my G400 vanilla on my Athlon classic 700@900 and it plays EVERYTHING just fine. I still think that the G400 is the best card currently on the market.

amish

[diuby]

I think it would be better going to a cpu\mobo upgrade because the min frame rate in games is due to the slow cpu\mobo you have.
With geforce videocard you will go better only with certain opengl game like QuakeIII that can not use hardware T&L but in the others the bottleneck is not the G400max.
Only if you want to play at high resolution over 1024x768 the g400max can be the bottleneck.
But remember with your system minimum frame rate is due to weak FPU!!!

[diuby]

Sorry:
---------
....QuakeIII that can not use hardware T&L
-------
WRONG

-------
...Quake III that can use hardware T&L
-------

RIGHT

[diuby]

Sorry:
---------
....QuakeIII that can not use hardware T&L
-------
WRONG

-------
...Quake III that can use hardware T&L
-------

RIGHT

[hella356]

For about $175 you can get a Duron 650/Epox mobo with mult./HSF and run it at 800+. That will increase your MAX's performance dramatically. If you don't want to go that drastic you might want to try a K6-3+ 450 if it will work in your mobo. You might get it to 616 or so. That would help you out a bit.

[LrngToFly]

You definitely want to upgrade your CPU/mboard!

[RAB]

Tigerdirect still has K6 3+ 450's for $50. One of these will easily do 550. Like Hella says, your motherboard needs to support it. It has to be able to run at 2.1 volts and the bios needs to support it. If it will, this is a cheap upgrade. It got my G400 vanilla up to about 2200 in 3dMark2k.

RAB

[dsp]

Rich L,

I'm going to cast my vote in here now, I recently upgraded from a K6-2 500 to my Duron and that alone has changed my framerate for UT from 20-30FPS average to 60FPS average, with it never going below 30 or so FPS at 800*600@32bpp. The CPU/Motherboard is about the same price as most Higher end Video cards right now. So you could upgrade the CPU and perhaps save a few bucks. (It'll also be better than buying a higher priced video card that will be held back by the CPU). It's what I did and I have no regreats. Hope I wasn't rambling.

dsp

------------------
AMD Duron 650@918MHz
128MB Generic PC-133 RAM @ 135 CAS 2
ABIT KT7-RAID
13.6GB Maxtor 7200RPM Hard Drive
8.4GB Quantum CR
20 GB Quantum LM
Toshiba SD-M1212 6X DVD ROM
ACER 2X/2X/6X CD-RW
SB Live X-Gamer 5.1
Matrox G400 32MB Dualhead Vanilla @ 155/207/155
15" Daytek 1531D
PD 6.1
Win 98SE
10/100 Ethernet card (D-Link)
Cable @Home
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer

[Wombat]

If you're concerned about framerates, the solution is not to hop from one K6 to another. I loved my K6-2/350(@400 ), but its time has passed (as a gaming rig), and it's no longer in my machine. The K6 has a slow FPU at any speed. Go duron!


------------------
MSI-6167 w/ Athlon 500@750 (thx Greebe!), 128MB Crucial PC133, G400MAX,SBLive!-MP3,Pioneer 10x DVD, Plextor 12/10/32A, a hard drive or two, and a Sony 420GS. Running RH7.0 (2.4.0-test8), and Win98 (when I have to).

[RichL]

Thanks everyone, especially DSP for the framerate info on UT.
Time to put in my order for an AbitKT7-Raid and a Duron700 :-)

RichL

[Drizzt]

RichL: a lot of Murcers will blame me for this but...

I'd buy a Biostar. It's really stable. And it cost an half, so you can take a Duron 800.
At least, until someone tell me that with Biostar is impossible to overclock.

Another good motherboard (but I've never verified) seem to be the Azza.

[wilmac]

Skip the RAID and just go straight for the plain KT7 unless you actually have multiple identical IDE drives that you can chain together. Since you're on a tight budget, the KT7 vanilla will save you about $25.