AM3, HT and performance???

[mikeo01]

Have been posting about my AM3 CPU and why it does not overclock properly.

My specs:
1 x HDD SATA 3GB/s
1 x ATI HD 4870 512MB
1 x Optical Drive SATA 3GB/s
1 x Sound Blaster X-FI XtremeGamer

Athlon II x3 AM3

Current HT 1.0 (due to old chipset).

What type of performance hit am I expecting with an AM3 chip on a HT 1.0 board?

If I upgrade to HT 3.0 what differences should I expect? Could this sort out sound issues with my Sound Blaster?

Would I get better performance in gaming due to more bandwidth for both CPU and GPU.

Main uses:
Gaming


I need to know whether upgrading JUST for HT 3.0 is worth it.

Resolution: 1440 x 900

I can run Crysis Max (GPU - Single and Multiplayer maps), and able to run ARMA II max (CPU - Multiplayer maps). So just need to know whether it is worth HT 3.0 for both a GPU boost and CPU boost.


ALSO keeping the CPU at stock voltages, what sort of TDP raise could I expect to see with an overclock? Max TDP 95W CPU on a 95W TDP board?

[scaryjim]

The HT1.0 isn't likely to be much of a limit: the only issue you might have is that the HT link bandwidth is actually less than the bandwidth for a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot: however various tests have shown that any performance difference between PCIe x16 and PCIe x8, and even PCIe x4, is minimal.

Your overclocking is likely to be limited by your motherboard's power delivery and overclocking prowess - your board has an entry level integrated graphics chipset which isn't really designed for overclocking.

In rough terms, CPU power draw rises linearly with clock speed (i.e. double the clock speed = double the TDP) but with the square of voltage (i.e. double the voltage = 4x the TDP), so sticking to stock volts will help keep the TDP down. On the other hand, as I've already said, the chipset on your motherboard really isn't designed with overclocking in mind.

If you are having issues with other peripherals (e.g. sound card) it's likely because your motherboard doesn't have separate clock domains for the various peripheral busses - i.e. when you overclock the CPU you also overclock the PCIe slots and sata ports etc. A lot of peripherals will react badly to that.

Short story? The difference between HT1 and HT3 probably won't make much difference, but getting a board that is better designed for overclocking will probably help a lot...