AGP 8x Vs 4X

[CaesaR]

Is there really THAT much of a difference ? i've got a;

Single p3 Xeon 866
256mb of RDRAM
Geforce 4 MX 460
AGP4x

and im only getting about 3500 in 3dmark2001

[CaesaR]

Originally Posted by CaesaR

Is there really THAT much of a difference ? i've got a;

Single p3 Xeon 866
256mb of RDRAM
Geforce 4 MX 460
AGP4x

and im only getting about 3500 in 3dmark2001

Also, would i notice a big difference if i got a Radeon 9600 ?

[SteveI]

The MX won't benefit from 8x.... and the 866 P3 won't either.

With the same 866, your score should triple with the 9600... Even more if you were running a faster CPU that could do something with the better memory... AFAIK, P3 cores don't take advantage of DDR or RDR... only operating slightly better than with SDR.

[Aedan]

As Steve said, a faster CPU and faster graphics card will make much more of a difference than moving from 4x to 8x.

A 9600 will be able to perform it's work faster than your current CPU can hand work to it, so you'd end up with your graphics card being held back by the CPU.

[CaesaR]

Originally Posted by Áedán

As Steve said, a faster CPU and faster graphics card will make much more of a difference than moving from 4x to 8x.

A 9600 will be able to perform it's work faster than your current CPU can hand work to it, so you'd end up with your graphics card being held back by the CPU.

would i notice a significant difference if i got 2x 933 xeons ?

[SteveI]

Originally Posted by CaesaR

would i notice a significant difference if i got 2x 933 xeons ?

ONly in apps and games that are optimized for dual CPUs. For the most part, it will feel a little faster, but in terms of memory bandwidth, you will still be limited by the old SDR FSB of P3's. The os should take advantage of the dual cores a bit... Overall, I wouldn't expect a big difference.