FX-60 and GTX 260 is good!

This is for people like me, who wanted to know if it's possible to still use old school tech with new school shizzle. I've been debating for some time if I should upgrade my rig as a whole or just some components. Since the rise of gas prices and milk, upgrading the whole rig was shot out the window. Now it was a matter of which component (or components) should I upgrade. I've consulted friends, colleagues, co-workers, and the internet. I happened to come across dmlk's thread on this site http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] x60-system (<not sure if that worked) and after reading it (and checking my bankroll) decided to actually see if old school tech CAN play with the new school kids. The basics of what I got in my current rig:

Motherboard: A832-SLi Deluxe
Memory: 3GB Corsair 3500LLPRO
CPU: AMD FX-60
GPU: BFG 8800GTS (640MB version) OCE (in SLi)/BFG GTX 260 OCX x1
HDD: 320GB Western Digital WD3200KS
OS: XP Pro
PSU: 850W Cooler Master Real Power Pro
Monitor: Dell 2707WFP

CONCLUSION:
Performance wise, the FX-60 at stock speeds will cap out when SLi is applied (no major difference between running 1 card or 2). As shown by myself, gerard, and soon dmlk, the AMD FX-60 can and does run well with the new school kids, even though it's 3 years old. As pointed out with the link bf2gameplaya been spreading thoughout the threads, older CPU's are still worth the investment.

When did that processor get released? And when did the Q6600 get released? And the Q6600 easily OC to 3.3, very much more powerful in capabilty than that old chip.

I think that will tell you. Benchmarks that no one will care about..... Did you see the price of that chip currently...if you can even find it? When MUCH faster ones are $150+ cheaper.

Have fun.

I hope you are overclocking your cpu to about 3.0 ghz. Even with an overclock there will definitely be a bottleneck. I had the exact same set up except with an opteron 185 overclocked to 3.0 ghz and I noticed a bottle neck with anything more powerful than a 8800gt. I'm curious, where did you find another set of the 3500ll pro. That set is the best ram I have ever owned.

Wow, you think he went out and bought this FX-60 new? Its his exsiting system. Hes dropping shiney new vid cards into it.

Cant wait to see the results, got an Opty165@2.9 and I have an itch to upgrade. (running SLI 8800GT) Be nice to see if its really necessary.

Hey ragsters, I was gonna get em on e-bay, but CRAP, all sold up. Is okay, cuz I have 2 512 sticks in standby mode. 3GB > 2GB is what I say!

Get the facts of CPU scaling in games:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/cpu- [...] ocessors/1

Hi bviperz,

So you are getting 2x 260GTX.. Nice. I will like to see the outcome of your findings are. I deciede to get 2x 9800 GTX+ to run in SLI as I wanted to stick with my SLI mboard.

I think it roughly works out at:
£300 - 2x 9800 GTX
£400 - 2x 260 GTX

Thought I would save £100 for my next rig.

Whats your experience with the BFG cards any problems? I might be getting BFGs for 9800.
I reckon the FX-60 will last me for another 1 1/2 year at least!?

Nice to see the article posted by bf2gameplaya (thanks) relate to real world user results. As shown in the updates (check the first post) my FX-60 rig is not ready for retirement.

Hi bviperz,

Looking good so far for the FX60. It will be interesting to see by how much your 260 SLI beats my SLI 9800 GTX+ by.

I'm using the same casing too. Good to know that you are not having heating issues. I know what you mean as the case is huge! Whats the fan noise like from those cards of yours?

Where did you get your 260s from?

Hey guys with the 9800 sli gtx and the gtx 260sli CAN you post your scores for a crysis benchmark ,and compare to mine.
3D marks not worth anything.

Crysis is the benchmark to run,I bet either one of your set ups CAN NOT beat my 1920x1080 benchmark,lol.

The only reason you can not is because of my hard drives and cooling.Fanless on one card only,stock pic of 8800 GT






Here is a reminder of post above

LOL thats funny,cool I love to see what ya get.
Just read the last pic,tells you all the information.
Awaiting you benchmark.I love it.

EDIT:Click on pic twice to show 1920x1080 to read it

This is my rig,all I can say is beat it,thats all,Prove me wrong


FX 60 AMD
8800 GT SLI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Link_Interface
ASN32 SLI Deluxe
2GB-Corsair XMS-3500LL at 2-3-2 -6-1T
Logitech Z-5500 Speakers Hooked up to 4x200 watt (front&rear)1 100 watt center channel
2x 160 GB WD Raptors Raid 0

Yes I do know,I just put them there since noone ever heard of the kind of raptors I have.I am just having some fun.
This is not my main computer ,its just a folding computer,but still plays games ok on almost 3 year old CPU

Nope, I tried, but @ 1920x1200 (closest i can get to 1080) I barely made 35 FPS, and its set to "high" (very high was shaded out). The FX is capped, performance wise, at 1 GTX 260, SLi didn't make a difference, maybe if I overclock. Here's the pic:



Did you overclock your cpu gerard? Maybe the 9800's SLi are perfect for the FX-60. In any light, we have proven the point, 3 year old CPU's can still run well with newer gen gear. Even at stock speeds. Now I"m off to order current gen gear, can't let gtx 260 SLi setup go to waste!

Hi guys

I have not got my 2x 9800 GTX+. They will be arriving on Friday!! Darn...
So cannot post anything for a week. At the moe I cannot order my new 24" screen so stuck with my old 19" for the time being. So cannot match your res which you are running.

Does the crysis game let you run that test in a higher res without your monitor supporting that res? well.. I have had crysis sat on my desk for 6mths!!! haa hahahhaa until I get my 2 new 9800s I will be be able to play it... I guess one more week would not hurt.. hahahahaha
I hated trying to play the game in crappy gfx mode...

I find it great to know that the FX60 is mixing it with the current crop.

Hey bviperz,
Does that mean you are going to upgrade the rest of the PC then?
h eh ehehehehee

Hey gerardfraser
What did you over clock your CPU and 8800s too??

Could you send me a link to that benchmark tool by Mad Borris?
Cheers

(wipes drool, checks jealousy meter) Hey gerard, whats the system setup of your main computer?

If you play the game:

Options> system settings> Advance. Setting everything to high would be your GPU's nightmare. . o O (actually turning up the AA will make things harder)

Edit:

On that benmark thingy, just changing everything on high will produce the same thing.

Setting the 'Overall Quality' sets all the setting to the same. The choices I have are low/medium/high/very high/custom.

It also starts off with the current setting I have set in the game.

Not sure why your not seeing the 'very high' setting.

Hacked very high isn't quite the same though - DX10 is a complete overhaul of directx, which is why it requires Vista.

Doing benchmarking with crysis is kinda.. weird. My LCD 22" max resolution is 1680x1050

When you run the actual benchmark (GPU .bat file) within the game, which I have a choice for 32bit and 64bit folders. Choosing to see what the 32bit side does, I get different results with basically the same settings.

This is what the original batch file reports:

And this is what the other benchmark thingy tells:

One difference is the batch file runs it 4 times, while the other is set to 3. One other thing I noticed on the screen when the demo is actually running for the manual batch file, it says DX10 rather then DX9 like it listed. . o O (I'm... confused)

LOL I love my Rig
DX9 Very High mod

[#001ce2][#000ef0]HERES HOW TO GET VERY HIGH SETTINGS FOR XP.ITS JUST ANOTHER MOD LIKE THE REST.I JUST BENCHMARKED EVERY THING WITH THE SAME BENCHMARK AND THE SAME MODDING .DO NOT MEAN TO CAUSE CONFUSION[/#001ce2][/#00718d]

Go to Bin32 and find CryRenderD3D9.dll and CryRenderD3D10.dll . Move CryRenderD3D10.dll somewhere and rename CryRenderD3D9.dll to CryRenderD3D10.dll . After that create a shortcut of Crysis.exe and add the -DX10 to command line :
..\Crysis\Bin32\Crysis.exe -DX10