I went from a P3 1GHz with a GF3 and 512MB PC133 RAM to a P4 1.6GHz and 512MB RDRAM (all the other components stayed the same).

The speed increase is very noticable actually It's definately a worthwhile thing to do.

But then my upgrade was a freebie Shhhh!

Games are much smoother, and I can run in much higher resolutions than I used to.

The machine is going to get another upgrade very shortly, but only a small one to either a 1.7 or 1.8GHz P4.

If there's anything else in particular that you want to know, just ask.

IMO, After 1ghz the processor speed is not as important as the chipset/ram speed in 2D apps today.

Going from a Dual P3 1ghz to an Athlon 1.6ghz I was suprised at the big jump in speed. It wasn't due to the processor speed but the "behind the scenes" operation of the chipset/memory. I still don't like the way this single processor multitasks tho and yearn for 2 on 1 action yet again!

Here's to hoping I get my second computer up and going again. Plans are for it to be my ol' Dual P31ghz but I'll likely make it a dual Athlon MP.

well

i can say i got a PIII 933 - i know is not 1g, but i got a 1.8 @ home

i do virtually the same thing on both computers, and there is a LARGE increase in everything! that is for sure.

it would be worth the upgrade for sure if it is an option.

P.S - i have ocerclocked this 933 to 1.060 or something close.

Oh and both system use PC133 - again - DAM SONY!

also @ home i got a g4 4600 128 card. - here at work i got a TNT2 32mb card.

Nope, no overclocking for me. One of the banes of free upgrades is that I get little say in the components. This typically means I get Intel mobos. Whilst they're generally rock solid, they don't have the performance options that other motherboards have.

Still, I'm not complaining. I'd rather have my PC running at stock speeds and doing it without crashing than trying to squeeze out the last few MHz and suffering crashes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against clocking at all, my AMD machine is clocked. But it took a fair amount of trial and error to find the sweet spot between where the machine ran happily without crashing, and where it would fall over if you pushed it too hard.

With the performance leaps that have been made recently (both in terms of CPU and GPU power), I think the appeal of overclocking has waned slightly. Yes there will always be people who want to be the first to push their P4 to 3GHz (or whatever the next highest speed will be), but for general use, there isn't a huge amount of point anymore.

But that's going slightly O/T

the p4's will get better and better as more software developers utilize the new arcitecture

When i first got my p4 1.4 back in toronto, with an asus P4B266 board (think it was).

i put in the cpu, and said, hell (after i formated) lets try over clocking.

i jumped RIGHT up to 1.7 - stock fan, ran it hard for 3 days!!!

temperature went up like 5 degree's and everything ran fine!!


it was a used chip from a friend, i think he had O/C'd it as well. so may have been why it could take the speed. But also the FSB of a 1.4 was only 100, and i had pc266 memory and mobo, that helped.