Sempron for gaming?

[pinkbandit1]

My friend is planning to get a video card soon, probably an Nvidia 6800gs or a 7600gt. Then thing is he has an AMD Sempron. Would it effect the performance at all? is it worth buying a video card with that processor. it's an AMD 2800 or 3200, i forget.

 

[MikeReiner]

Semprons will put up OK performance.. but it will bottleneck that video card horribly. What socket does your friend's motherboard have? also, is it PCI-E or what? (for the record, the 7600GT is a much better video card than the 6800GS)

 

[pinkbandit1]

he has a pci-e slot, and i think a socket 939. yeah, he's switching between a 6800gs and a 7600gt, he doesnt now if he can afford the 7 series card. but how badly would it bottlneck it?

 

[GenoXide]

First off, a Sempron is perfectly fine. It's just a lower Athlon 64 is all. It's not an ideal 'gaming' processor, however, coupled with a 7600GT, he'll do just fine, so long as the frequency of the CPU is meeting the recommended specifications.

 

[Half Evil]

Sure, video card will be bottle necked, but not horribly, and definetly if its OCed a little.

 

[MikeReiner]

well by horribly, I mean that video card is sure not going to shine like it could. Maybe if over clocked a little it could help out.. but yeah, tell your friend to have no fear with that sempron. if it's 939 then hes got some room to upgrade down the road someday. Hopefully he can get his hands on the 7600GT.. since it basically owns the 6800GS.

 

[Logan1]

look around, i think the 6800GS and 7600GT are pretty much the same price. found a 7600 for cheaper somewhere but i'm too lazy to find the link again...

 

[GenoXide]

The Sempron won't be as big of a bottleneck as you'd think. It's still a processor, so long as it has other hardware to back it up, mainly the Hard Drives and the Video Card, then you'll experience the performance you'd want to experience. I myself as considering the 7600GT, so I would like to know what your friend has to say about it, wether it's good/bad or just another Video Card.

 

[Logan1]

7600GT cheaper than 6800GS

ok i realized that i have no life and nothing else to do.....so i found a link.

 

[lhuser]

Somprons don't bottleneck. The thing he will use is the Sempron 64, which is athlon 64 but with a lower cache. It will do fine.

Wait, you said S939? Sempron and Sempron 64 are for S754 only. He WILL need to buy an Athlon 64.