CPU or GFX Limited?

I bought a new low end PC to help with testing.

Sempron 3200+ Processor (timed at about 1.56 Ghz), 256 MB RAM, ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Integrated Graphics Chip

It runs about 1/2 the framerate of:

Athlon 64 2800+ Processor (timed at about 1.80 Ghz, 512 MB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600XT AGP Card

Is this a graphics card limitation or a CPU limitation. The new PC runs Doom 3 fairly well with only a slight difference between shadows on and off (CPU calculated). This new PC also has a PCI Express slot so I'm tempted to try it out but I don't want to invest if the processor is the bottleneck.

Graphics card limitation.

Here's a comparrison of the xpress v's X700 (ati's competitor to the 6600 series.

http://3dgpu.com/archives/2004/11/08/ati-radeon-xpress-200g-review/4/

Doom 3 1024x768 medium quality



On a budget I'd stick a 6600GT in there which can be gotten for about $140 that should at least double the performance of the 9600XT in most cases

Don't get a non 6600GT as you lose about half your performance.





http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=93&page=2

I'd have said graphics immediately and that graph (lol) kinda says it all lol again.

Definately Graphic card limited. And it makes it worse is that its integrated :S

I sure hope it's the GFX card and not the CPU ... though I guess I could replace that as well. It seems like you can combine the integrated solution with a PCI Express add on for even more performance. Should be interesting.

Ok, after doing some tests with Nebula Wars I think it's definitely the GFX card as everyone suggested. I think the processor is actually faster than my Athlon 64 2800+ because the 64 begins to slow down earlier with tons of bullets flying in Nebula Wars than the 3200+ Sempron. Kind of surprising considering the Athlon is 64 bit and has a higher clock speed. I guess those new numbers in front of the processor names actually mean something.

The 'numbers in front of the processor names' are comparing the chip's speed with the original 1GHz Athlon (I forgot which build), and are completely unrelated to the actual speed in MHz.

So yes, in general raw processing power a 3200+ 'low end' chip will beat a 2800+ 'high end' chip, 64 bit or not.

Depending on the core the *actual* MHz the chip is running on can vary greatly, but different optimizations and such can still lead to similar ratings.

You will find in programs optimized to run on 64bit platforms (on your 2800 64) will run faster/close to the same program optimized for 32 bit on your 3200.

Actually found in a couple of ambitious blitz3D projects that A64's don't run blitz as well as you would expect, to the point that there may actually be a problem.

In commercial games the A64's usualy out perform older athlong by some margin, but in blitz we have seen speeds at least 25% lower than expected, sometimes as much as 50%.