The best card for AMD Athlon X2 64 4000+

Ilija Radojkovic

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Jan 3, 2014
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Hi, i want to upgrade my comp. I have Athlon X2 64 4000+, and i'm wondering what's the best graphic card i can pair with this outdated CPU so it can run for some time, without having any bottleneck. PS: I have MSI K9N Neo V2 mobo.
 
Solution
Alas not so, a 7870 would easily be bottlenecked by a 4000+. I've benchmarked this extensively using
a 6000+. A 4000+ couldn't even properly exploit an 8800GT, never mind something as recent as a 7870.
See my results:

http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/sgi.html#PC

Honestly, don't put in anything stronger than a GTX 460 because it'd be wasted on a CPU
of that era, and I only mention the GTX 460 because they're available so cheaply on eBay
these days (even I have a whole bunch to sell off).

I used to have a 6000+ 3GHz with an 8800GT. I added a 2nd for SLI. Later I moved the two
cards onto a newer mbd/CPU (i7 870), performance doubled compared to using the same cards
with the 6000+. Ordinarily one might say look out for a Phenom II, but alas...

batmanbob

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Jun 27, 2013
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A nice 7770 or possibly a 7870 but you would have a bit of a bottleneck there... I would throw at least a Phenom x4 in that board

*Actually you wouldn't have a bottleneck with the 7870 in most games, only games that would be an issue would be more CPU intensive games like GTA but I dont see you having any major problems
 

mapesdhs

Distinguished
Alas not so, a 7870 would easily be bottlenecked by a 4000+. I've benchmarked this extensively using
a 6000+. A 4000+ couldn't even properly exploit an 8800GT, never mind something as recent as a 7870.
See my results:

http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/sgi.html#PC

Honestly, don't put in anything stronger than a GTX 460 because it'd be wasted on a CPU
of that era, and I only mention the GTX 460 because they're available so cheaply on eBay
these days (even I have a whole bunch to sell off).

I used to have a 6000+ 3GHz with an 8800GT. I added a 2nd for SLI. Later I moved the two
cards onto a newer mbd/CPU (i7 870), performance doubled compared to using the same cards
with the 6000+. Ordinarily one might say look out for a Phenom II, but alas your board does
not support any Phenom/Phenom II CPUs (batmanbob, msi.com shows no Ph/Ph2 in the CPU
support list for the Neo V2).

I notice the 4000+ has a pretty low clock aswell (2 or 2.1GHz depending on whether it's a
Windsor or Brisbane), so oc'ing it would help a bit, though not much really overall.

TBH, it'd be much more productive to just upgrade the whole platform. If you don't
want to buy new, there are plenty of used bargains, right across the performance
scale. Compared to what you have atm, an M3N with a used Ph2 965 and a couple
of 460s or 560s SLI would be a huge speedup, or a single used GTX 580 1.5GB
would be about the same cost as a couple of 560s. Performance would be
quicker with an Intel build, but such parts tend to cost a bit more on the used
market, eg. i5/i7 CPUs, though strangely one can get P67 mbds for low amounts
now, or even Z68. If you really want to step up the scale but still without blowing
your bank balance, get a used Z68 board & i5 2500K, with 8GB DDR3/1600. That'll
be leaps & bounds ahead of the Neo V2 and far more able to exploit the power of
something like a 7870 if you wanted to go that route, or even just with older cards
SLI/CF.

Note that I've been researching these issues for a couple of years now, investigating
bottlenecks in system upgrades. Beyond a certain point, upgrading an older board
isn't worth it. Plus, in some cases, the best CPU for an older board may actually be
surprisingly expensive because it might have unexpected value in the commercial
world for obscure reasons, or there can be demand from collectors, etc. The best
Barton Athlon XP is one such example.

batmanbob is correct in that the degree of bottleneck varies greatly from one
game to another (eg. enormous for X3TC to not much at all in Call of Juarez,
with titles like Stalker somewhere inbetween), but a 4000+ is too low down
the scale IMO to be worth pairing with anything newer than an 8800GT. As I
say, I only mention the GTX 460 instead precisely because they're so cheap.

Ian.

PS. Same applies to PSUs, cases, etc. I keep bagging Thermaltake Toughpower 750W
(or better) when I can, along with Antec 300 cases, TRUE coolers (perfect for oc'ing
any CPU on the cheap), RAM kits, etc. One can do a lot with a small budget now.
Indeed, one of the toms editors agreed with me in a PM that to some extent buying
new when the 2500K is still such a potent offering doesn't really make any sense.


 
Solution

mapesdhs

Distinguished
Most welcome! 8)

Where are you in the world? I had a quick peek on eBay UK, there are numerous cards, though
most seem to be listed as shipping to he UK only.

As mentioned, I actually have some 1GBs 460s for sale if you're interested. :D I bought loads
of them last year for a mad benchmarking thing I was doing (obtained more than a dozen,
almost all in their original boxes, etc.), so I have plenty spare. PM for details. If you're outside
the UK though, it might be cheaper to source locally (depends if you wanted the original packaging).

Or as I say even an 8800 GT would be quite good, eg. item 301080544117 on eBay UK is typical
of what's on offer these days, though again that particular auction shows postage is for UK only
(Brits do seem to be somewhat reticent about shipping abroad; grud knows why, I ship stuff all
over the world).


Hmm, I just had a thought. My old AMD PC is still functional; it's a 6000+ with DDR2/800 RAM,
GTX 460, etc. I could use it to simulate your system by lowering the CPU multiplier, etc. What
GPU do you have at the moment? What games do you play or want to play? And what
resolution is your monitor? I have PCIe cards going back to the X1950 Pro, and I can
simulate older cards with an AGP 6000+ system using cards dating from the 6200 up to
the X1950Pro and 3850.

Ian.

PS. Can you obtain CPU-Z and GPU-Z submission URLs? That would show full details of your
CPU and GPU. Download here:

http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/cpu-z/1.68-setup-en.exe
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2329/techpowerup-gpu-z-v0-7-6/mirrors