Does that seem right to you guys? cause i got a stock 3dmark06 score of 5400. Then i OC'd my FX-55 only 200mhz and got over 800 more points. What do you think is wrong?

An FX-55 will bottleneck 3dMArk06, but it won't bottleneck gaming much as long as you're running games at high resolutions.

wait, you overclocked your cpu and got more points in a benchmark, no ****.

Look at it this way:

At the resolution 3DMark06 runs at (default at 1280x1024) your CPU will not be able to keep up with the amount of rendered frames the GPU is cranking out.

Ex.

@1280x1024: GPU is putting out 100FPS - CPU only allows 70FPS - That's a 30% loss.

@1920x1200: GPU puts out 60 FPS - the CPU allows 55 FPS - Only a 9% loss.

So at a higher res, your CPU will be less of a bottleneck. At least, this is the way I understand it... Hopefully I didn't confuse you.

Anyways, a faster CPU or an overclock should always net you a few more frames from your GPU.

Oh thanks strangestranger for making me feel welcome with my first post. Anyways to those of you who are being helpful, thank you for answering. So a score of ~6200 3Dmark06 points with a 3850 sounds right to you guys? it just seems like all of the reviews i've seen it has scored 8000 to 10,000 depending on the setup. So I'm guessing the Core2's are rocking my FX-55 as bad as it looks? haha thanks!

^Even a E2180 can pwn the FX-55. once the E2180 is OCed in most cases.
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Wow ok well thanks for your input. I'm guessing i need a larger heatsink to OC my FX-55 to the max for the time being, because a college student has trouble finding the money to get the HD3850, let alone a whole new build. Thanks to all who helped.

gegt_canad ian, I had an FX-55 that was bottlenecking my 2900 XT severely. I had it OC'ed all the way to 3.2 ghz and it still did not help much. Do yourself a big favor, upgrade to dual or quad care. When I changed, my avg frames in CSS went up by 70. I play all games at 1600x1200.

BTW welcome to the froums and apologies for some rude ppl.

yea ive been looking into it a lil bit, but an upgrade for me wont happen for a while, due to having pretty much no cash ...but thanks for your input, and what processor did u upgrade to from the FX-55, dirty_harry2?

Do not judge your system by using 3dMark06 and other bencmarks. It only shows you how fast your system using that benchmark. It does not accurately shows how your system will handle specific peformance and games. Dual core would help, quad core will be pushing it since most games and application still don't fully use quad core chips.

A dual core would be a good improvement on your system. So I think you're good to go with just getting a new cpu and motherboard to go with the rest of your system now.

Listen to chuck on this one.Your taking about a 1,200 point hit on 3d06 just because you have a single core proc(which is bullcrap).In the real world of FPS in games at good resolution,IMO,that 3850 is good match for your FX-55.

I've felt that there should be a reliable listing of the CPU's that bottleneck specific cards at low resolution. I've been gaming with an Athlon X2 4600+ and a 7600GS at 1024 x 768 or 1280 x 1024, so no bottleneck, but I'm upgrading to a 3870 once income tax refunds arrive.

Because of the low res bottlenecking issues, I've also decided that I can justify a nice Viewsonic 20" LCD to replace the 17" Viewsonic CRT. That way, the CPU should be less of an issue. So, let's lobby for a Tom's Hardware CPU/GPU Bottleneck interactive chart!

I upgraded to an AMD 6400+ gegt_canadian, hell of bang for the buck.

Yeah, just search for a 939 dual core and then you'll be fine!

ONce again: the FX55 will be bottlenecked in 3dMark.

In an actual game, at 1600x1200 or above, it's not going to matter much - if at all. The graphics card becomes the bottleneck.

your welcome OP however, i am away to go on a mad axe murdering spree to release the rage that is building up over the use of that word(one day i'll get it banned, moohaha).

look, my point is that your cpu is fine, do not listen to most of the people posting, they have a very odd condition of not thinking about real world conditions and onlty about numbers of graphs, an