Athlon 64 x2 6000 Upgrade

I think yes.

I went from the X2 6000 and a 9800 GT to a phenom 2 X3 (OC'd) and a 460GTX. It handles games much better now and was pretty cheap to do. Actually I added the Card, CPU, and 4GB of RAM (went from 2 to 6) for under $250. I have a simlir MB too. ASUS M2N SLI Deluxe.

I guess the main question is do you have a reason to have 2 PCs for gaming. If so then the inexpensive upgrade you mention is probably worthwhile.

I concur, I did this also with my second machine. Went from 6400+ with onboard to X-3 with a GT 220 (which was not really a good choice), then I put my old 8800 GTS in and bam! The girlfriend is now playing Crysis with me online.

I am happy.

Yeah, that is a worthwhile upgrade to breath life into the old rig, I think.

It depends how much you want to spend the money. I'm certainly not finding my 6000+ bottlenecking a HD6850 much.

On Crysis @ 1080p, with medium to high settings and fps around 40, my GPU load is 80-90%, indicating the CPU is pretty much keeping up with the GPU. It would only hold back a 560 a little more. On IL2:CloD the GPU is bottlenecking things, but then that title doesn't have very optimised graphics.

If you do comparisons on 3dMark11, you'll find that relative to a phenom x3 or x4 you are only looking at a 10-20% reduction in fps on the graphics tests with a mid-range GPU. Of course the physics score is *horrible*. So it would depend how much a small increase in fps is worth to you.

I had a 4800+ X2 clocked @3ghz running an 8800GTS G92 512mb OC card. Would get around 10000 in 3Dmark 06
I upgraded to a 965 BE and 3Dmark 06 was 14000. 3DMark is sensitive to adding cores I know, and the result is a slightly inflated benchmark that is not realized quite so much in real life, but I still thought the upgrade was worth it, the system was just faster and smoother overall. If he is going to put something like a 560 in there as well, the CPU upgrade I feel would really be justified, if you can find a 965BE worth the money, which by the way, I have and would let go if anyone would offer me a reasonable amount, as well as a 920 AM2+ Phenom, and the 8800GTS, and a GA-MA790x-UD4P with 4 gig of 1066mhz DDR2 on it.
Anyhow...
The 6000+ will not push a 560 to its potential, and if you upgraded your old 6000 you may just be impressed how that 6850 reacts. Not saying that it does not do a pretty good job right now, yet I think you might be a little surprised with a fast quad running it.

Thanks all for the input. I am going for it.

I would say you will be wasting your money if you want the upgrade mostly for Crysis - this is not a CPU-limited game. Of course the PC will run better for windows apps.

Number pulled off 3dMark11 (ignore 3dMark06, it is almost purely CPU-limited, very light rendering load)


965@3.8+560 6000@3.0+560 6000@3.15+6850
3DMark11 3924 2640 2607
GT1 18.42 17.83 15.46
GT2 18.71 18.13 15.69
GT3 24.23 23.77 20.52
GT4 11.8 10.97 9.39
Phsyics 12.46 4.58 5.34
Combined 17.89 6.16 7.37

(sorry about the layout)

Typical 965+560 is around 3800 but the search won't let you go below the one above. For Crysis I would assume the graphics test scores are most representative - as I said, on my PC (3rd column) the game is balanced nicely between CPU and GPU.

As you can see, my PC is still slightly GPU-bound on the graphics tests, a 560 gives higher frames.

Also remember if you are running am AM2 mobo, the HT link is throttled back from 5200MT/s to 2000MT/s - the phenom X4 will not be able to stretch its legs.

Your choice but I'd say better save your money for a full upgrade later, as I intend to.