[poroporo]

Hi there, sorry about the perfs-related question.

I've got this setup as of now :

Bfg GS-550W psu
Asus P5KPL-CM
2x2Gb Rendition 667 (@800)
9600GSO (@770gpu/1000mem/1900s)
E1200 @2ghz

Planning to get rid of that cpu, upgrading to either E5200 or E7400 (7400 being about the max for my budget). Problem is, with that motherboard you can't set the memory freqs to stay where they are as you overclock, so I can do a 20% OC maximum, whatever chip I use, except if I'd upgrade to 1066ram or a different board.

Anyway, I could get 3ghz out of the E5200, and around 3.36ghz out of the E7400. Is the difference worth it, considering I'll be playing KH/KH2 and maybe FFXII in low res ?

Right now KH2 is kinda playable (60fps in the woods, 35fps in the city) but I really need another processor anyway

 

[toyopsp]

if you have the dough go for the e7400, way better than e5200. I'm an e7400 user too and its awesome @ 3.3g, you wont regret it

 

[poroporo]

Thanks for the advice, sounds promising

Do you get okay framerates with your build ? 9600GT better than my 9600GSO, but might give me a pretty good idea

 

[Princess Garnet]

I haven't seen any proof yet, but another user here claims the extra cache can help immensely in some situations.

It may be better to go with the cheaper one (the E5200) and replace that RAM with some good 800MHz RAM that will do 900MHz+ though. You'll get a higher overclock, and that'll likely help more than the extra cache. I haven't checked the prices of those two processors, nor what the price of RAM would be like for you, but consider it at the least.

Otherwise, I'd say go for the E7400.

P.S. The fact that it's low resolution doesn't matter all too much to the CPU. That's up to the GPU.

 

[poroporo]

I think I'll go with the e7400 and then upgrade ram later on, so I can get a better overclock out of it.

I'll just find a family member/friend that needs a ram upgrade to get rid of the rendition
Already surprised that some cheapo ram can O/C to 800...

 

[Mad]

If i may hijack your post...

I currently have a X2 3800+ @2.0ghz (stock speed).
Im thinking in getting either a E5200 or a E7300, depending on my budget.

My question is, the E5200 is a worth upgrade?
I dont plan to OC is very high, maybe 3Ghz.
Ill only have to buy new Mobo and CPU.

 

[poroporo]

Sorry to revive this thread from the dead, got my E5200 (had an even tighter budget so I didn't have the choice), OC'ed this bad boy to 3.7ghz on the first try, stock cooler/voltages. I've got a R0 stepping, and my cheap ram is the limiting factor now.

It's a great investment, now all my games (Ar Tonelico, Dark cloud 2, KH2, FFXII, etc) run @ 60fps with some rare drops in speed, but overall it's excellent.

I'm pretty sure you can buy any R0 e5200 (well, YMMV) and push it up to at least 3/3.5 without worries, it's rock stable here and I've made no adjustments at all.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Are you sure you didn't leave the voltages on "AUTO". That's not the same as stock. People think "not changing settings manually equals it's stock" but that's not the case. If it really is doing that at stock values, then that's not that bad. The R0 stepping is a new one to me though (haven't payed attention to things much lately), so I don't know what it's capable of.

 

[poroporo]

Intel specs state 1.3625V, CPU-Z tells me it's at 1.328. Now this could vary a bit.

AFAIK the P5KPL-CM doesn't have any cpu voltage control. It's that cheap (sigh).
I'd probably be able to get it to 4ghz easy, with a nicer board and some good ram.

 

[Princess Garnet]

1.3625V is what Intel calls the maximum safe voltage. That's well over stock. I'm surprised that board runs it at that by default (but if it's within the safe limits, I don't see why not, I suppose), so I suppose that's stock in your case, but the box should list the VID of the chip itself, which is what I'd say is the closest to what I'd consider the actual "stock" voltage.

If I remember right, 4GHz isn't unheard of on those chips, but due to the very high multiplier, among other things, it tends to run very warm and/or need more voltage than, say, an E8400 at 4GHz or so. If that board truly has no voltage control, the fact that you even got it to 3.7GHz is good (well, still, with the board using such "high" voltage, it's not a surprise really). Have you tried higher? My chip (with an older stepping) does 4GHz at ~1.2V if I remember right.

 

[poroporo]

Unfortunately I can't, until I buy some new ram. Check the memory speed...

CPU-Z Validator 3.0

I ordered some heat spreaders because it must be getting hot (valueram...) but I'll switch for some ocz reaper in the next month.
It's linked and there's no option to unlink it, so it goes up with the fsb at that ratio.

Anyway, as long as I can play decently, it's ok.. bad setup of mine

 

[Princess Garnet]

Ah, right, it's not the voltage holding you back. It's because the RAM can't go higher. That's not the RAM's fault in this case though. Another board I played around with (Gigabyte G31) was a decent overclocker, but had the same issue of linking the RAM and FSB from where they both would be at stock. This means if you buy RAM that starts at a high speed, you'll actually stand a bigger chance of getting less further than you would with RAM that runs 1:1 with it (unless you get very good RAM, but not many would pair high end RAM with a budget motherboard and CPU for a permanent solution). Unfortunately, good RAM at those speeds that go further from stock to limit than yours did are rare. They exist, but would cost more than it's be worth. I'd actually advise you not to get new RAM for that reason. You may get better RAM and actually end up with lower results. It's not the RAM or CPU's fault. It's the motherboard. I advise you look into replacing that if higher results are what you want.

P.S. That RAM must actually be quite good (not compared to actual good stuff obviously, but for budget RAM). PC2-5300 is 667MHz RAM. It's doing 982MHz for you. My 800MHz RAM hits it's limit at ~960MHz (~480MHz), maybe a tad higher. That's slightly lower than yours, and yet it starts out higher. That's sad. Hold on to that RAM for now. Get a new motherboard first. That RAM shouldn't bottleneck that CPU even on the new board unless you go with a low multiplier and high FSB setup on the new board, so unless you're interested in going with a high FSB or just tweaking RAM, that RAM should actually be good (although perhaps you should replace it when/if you get a new board just to go with 4GB, since it's so cheap for it now, but won't be that way for long).