I have an Intel P4 2.4ghz/512kb L2/533mhzFSB. If I were to upgrade my cpu, COULD I go to a higher L2 cache? Such as 1mb or more. Will it make much of a differance?
TomIf your motherboard supports the specific CPU you want, then yes, you will be able to.
L2 cache can make a large difference in some apps, and none in others.How can I tell if my motherboard is compatible for more cpu L2 cache? This PC is 6 yrs old Gateway E-4000 with intel D845GRG board and 845G chipset ICH4. The bios has limited CONFIGURATION settings. I done put 1G of memory from 265mb works pretty fast with that but I get some hangups on apps. and stuttering FPS on high end games. I also upgraded to a Geforce PCI 256mb video card which blows away the integrated 64mb grafics. Think if I would get a faster running cpu it would run the games better.
Below is a link to my board specs. if anyone would like to check them out.


http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d845grg/Looks like the best CPU you can get for that board is a Pentium 4 2.8GHz, with 512KB of L2 cache and a 533MHz FSB, which wouldn't give much of an improvement.
I think the problem here is more likely your video card, there aren't any high performance PCI gaming cards and even if you had the best one available, it's still more likely to be the cause of slow performance than your CPU.Ok. I had seen that on the PROCESSOR compatibilty page for my board. But I also found more info that my chipset would support Hyper Threading. I found a P4 3.06ghz cpu with the same speeds and L2 with HT, 478 socket that I was TOLD would work. But not sure of the info source. If Intel themselves, the manufacturer of both the board and the CPUs you're looking at, say it won't work, then I'd be inclined to just stay with that.
A faster CPU may well work, but if it doesn't then it's wasted money.