AMD speeds and gaming requirements..???

[SmackDaddy]

I'm trying to decide what AMD Athlon processor to upgrade to at the moment (I'm stuck with socket A and a board that will accept up to an XP 3000+, and have NO PLANS to upgrade the board-this is a small form factor Shuttle XPC). I currently have a 1.8ghz Duron, 512mb ram, GeForce 6200 128mb.

Obviously the faster the better, but I do have a budget. I built the PC with dvd/cd burning in mind, so a Duron suited me just fine. But, now that I finally have broadband (after years of waiting for it to be available) I am back into online gaming. I just recently added the 6200.

My quesition is this: Since AMD's actual clock speed and speed ratings are different, would a game requiring say 2.1ghz processor speed work with a speed rated Athlon XP 2500+(1.83ghz actual)??? Socket A processors are getting a bit scarce, so I figure I would upgrade to what I can right now.

I mostly play older games (Wolfenstein: ET, Unreal games etc..) and a couple of recent ones (F.E.A.R. runs decently)but would like to somewhat extend the life of this PC for a while longer as far as gaming compatabiltiy.

[X]

If you can only do up to an XP 3000+ you should check out the Mobile 2400+ if you can find it at a good price. You can push it to faster than a 3000+ if your motherboard allows overclocking. It's rated at 1.8GHz, I'm running mine at 2.3GHz which is over the 3000+'s standard rating of 2.16GHz.

There are also mobile versions of higher numbered CPUs but they weren't cost effective the last time I looked (a long time ago).

[kms_md]

x makes a great suggestion. the mobile bartons were great chips (both the 2400+ and the 2500+) and great overclockers.

[SmackDaddy]

If my boards supports regular XP's will it support the mobile athlons?

What about the rated vs. actual speeds for game requirements?

[kms_md]

Originally Posted by SmackDaddy

If my boards supports regular XP's will it support the mobile athlons?

What about the rated vs. actual speeds for game requirements?

IIRC, the mobile bartons were the same chips just with lower power consumption and the ability to be "throttled down" by the mobo to conserve battery power in laptops. for the most part, they are great overclockers and should work well in a socket A mobo.

[X]

Originally Posted by SmackDaddy

If my boards supports regular XP's will it support the mobile athlons?

Maybe.

They run at lower voltages, so if you're running them at standard Athlon voltages you'll need very good cooling. And they have different clock/FSB speeds so you want those to be user-selectable in the BIOS. Due to being mobile with power-savings capabilities they're unlocked so you get to play with lots of combinations.

You may not need to be able to adjust the voltage because if you can adjust those clock rates you may end up needing to use the normal Athlon voltage to allow the mobile chip to overclock anyway.

[wmansir]

Originally Posted by SmackDaddy

What about the rated vs. actual speeds for game requirements?

You should be fine if the "rated" speed meets the specs. Clock speeds are really a crap shoot when it comes to game specs anyway. As long as you are in the ballpark it should play fine. Unless specified I always assume they are referring to P4 speeds, which the "PR rating" is unofficially intended to equate to.

[SmackDaddy]

Thanks for the help everyone. I ended up with a 2400+ and another 512mb of memory (now a total of 1gig). I think I should be ok for a bit longer.