100mhz vs 133mhz

[Ready69]

Here is a question for ya....
I am going to upgrade my computer. Should I buy a pentium800 with a 100 mhz bus or with a 133mhz bus. Reason I ask is this. The comp is almost entirely gaming. Now with a 133mhz bus the agp slot goes down to 1/2 or about 66mhz. so I lose my 4x agp? will my graphic suffer by going with 133 bus? what about ram? should I get 133 ram? do i need 133 with 133 processors? or do I need 100 with 100mhz processors?????????

[bwkaz]

Well as far as I know, the AGP bus is 66MHz regardless of AGP-whatever-x. AGP 4x just transfers data on the rising and falling edges of the clock, along with the level states in between transitions. AGP2x transfers data on the rising and falling edges, and AGP1x is either rising edge or falling (don't remember which), not both.

If you were to get a 100MHz processor, the AGP bus would be multiplied by 2/3, down to 66MHz anyway. So either way it will be 66MHz. No, you do not lose your AGP 4x (unless your motherboard AGP slot can't handle it, but that's not a function of bus speed).

Real-world graphics shouldn't suffer at all from 133MHz bus, because the vast majority of the time all your textures are stored in the videocard memory anyway (200, 333, or 400MHz, depending on the video card), it only goes to system memory (and only uses AGP) when the onboard memory is gone. Most games never hit this limit.

Now, having said that, the 100MHz bus processor would probably be better if you wanted to overclock. There <u>are</u> a few motherboards that can set bus speeds higher than 133MHz, but not many. And I don't know of any (other than Rambus or DDR boards) that go higher than 150MHz. If, you have a 100MHz processor (with a multipler locked at x8), you could get the bus speed up to maybe 120MHz, or maybe even all the way to 133 (still x8) and have a processor running at 960 or 1066MHz. Or you could get a 133MHzx6 processore and get it up to a maximum of 150x6, or only 900MHz. Obviously the 100MHz processor can overclock to a higher speed.

But your memory needs to handle the higher bus speed, too. GET PC133!!!! It will work at 66MHz, 100MHz, 133MHz, and anything in between. If it's high enough quality, it might even work at 150MHz. If you start with a 100MHz processor and PC133 memory (and run it all at 100MHz), then overclock to 115 or 120 or even 133, the memory won't care at all, because it was <u>built</u> to run at the higher speed.

If you get a 133MHz processor, you can use PC100 memory, but you should probably not run it at the full 133MHz. Depending on the quality of the SDRAM, you may be able to get it up to 120MHz or so, but then you won't be running the processor at its full speed. If you get a 100MHz processor, you can underclock PC133 RAM to 100MHz, and then overclock the processor.

If you do overclock, cool the processor well.

So in summary, I'd say a 100MHzx8 processor if you want to overclock. Otherwise a 133x6 will run at a better overall speed. Get PC133 memory regardless.

Hope this helps,

Bryan

[golfcart]

Great explanation Bryan http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif