AMD Athlon X2 6000+ Overclocking

[allenk09]

I'm having a problem with my AMD Athlon X2 6000, I know it's an older processor and way dated but I'm low income and just got this setup. I have 4GB of Mushkin Blackline DDR2-6400 4-4-4-12 2.1v RAM, an Asus M4A78-Pro motherboard, and my cooler keeps temperatures under 40C even on a burn in test.

When I go to overclock the processor it doesn't do anything other than raise the clock speed. I get it from 3.0 to 3.5Ghz, but it only slows the processor down. When I do benchmarks I actually get higher scores with it not overclocked. I overclock the ram as well. I know 3.0 to 3.5Ghz isn't really that much, but shouldn't it do just a little bit?

I don't know, maybe it's a common misconception im falling into.

 

[Bman123]

what benchmarks are you using

 

[allenk09]

what benchmarks are you using

PerformanceTest

 

[IonusX]

wow an athlon 64 x2 +6000.. that takes me back...
i would have just flashed your mobo bios to altest revision. and if it supported an athlon II x2 gone that way up the chain.
basic athlon II's beat the 6000 senseless

 

[Smartazz]

Your CPU might be throttling when overclocking. What are your temps like using Coretemp.

 

[SonicIce]

use cpu-z to make sure the memory isnt being divided
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

 

[allenk09]

Your CPU might be throttling when overclocking. What are your temps like using Coretemp.

Never goes above 40C on a burn in or SETI@home

use cpu-z to make sure the memory isnt being divided
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Yeah the memory raises in frequency when I up the voltage, it sits at 325Mhz when it's at 1.9, when I bring it up to 2.1 it changes to like 450Mhz or so.

 

[Arkaign]

IIRC, the K8 architecture kind of hit a wall around 3ghz, where there was a significant diminishing returns issue until they replaced it with Phenom and especially Phenom II. I don't know if it was HyperTransport, something with the CPU to memory, what, but it was definitely there.

IIRC P4 had the same thing happen, where beyond 3ghz seemed to deliver a much less than linear increase in corresponding benchmark performance.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2Plus/M4A78_PRO/

Says there your mobo can run a PhII or Athlon II. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts you'd be able to sell the X2-6000+ to someone for about enough $$ to get an Athlon II X2 or better to replace it. The X2-6000+ was nearly the fastest strict AM2 CPU ever made (I think there was also a 6400+), so someone without AM2+ or AM3 would want one. Eg; I have a spare Dimension E521 at work that only takes Athlon X2 cpus, Athlon II / Ph / PhII won't work.

In our own FS/FT forums right now, I see an Athlon II X4 620 for $45 shipped, and a Phenom II X3 for $55 shipped, both are great and much better than Athlon X2.

 

[allenk09]

IIRC, the K8 architecture kind of hit a wall around 3ghz, where there was a significant diminishing returns issue until they replaced it with Phenom and especially Phenom II. I don't know if it was HyperTransport, something with the CPU to memory, what, but it was definitely there.

IIRC P4 had the same thing happen, where beyond 3ghz seemed to deliver a much less than linear increase in corresponding benchmark performance.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2Plus/M4A78_PRO/

Says there your mobo can run a PhII or Athlon II. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts you'd be able to sell the X2-6000+ to someone for about enough $$ to get an Athlon II X2 or better to replace it. The X2-6000+ was nearly the fastest strict AM2 CPU ever made (I think there was also a 6400+), so someone without AM2+ or AM3 would want one. Eg; I have a spare Dimension E521 at work that only takes Athlon X2 cpus, Athlon II / Ph / PhII won't work.

In our own FS/FT forums right now, I see an Athlon II X4 620 for $45 shipped, and a Phenom II X3 for $55 shipped, both are great and much better than Athlon X2.

Thanks! I just bought this processor for $65 on ebay, I guess I could try to sell it on ebay again and get a Phenom X4 or something.

 

[VirtualLarry]

In our own FS/FT forums right now, I see an Athlon II X4 620 for $45 shipped, and a Phenom II X3 for $55 shipped, both are great and much better than Athlon X2.

Thanks! I just bought this processor for $65 on ebay, I guess I could try to sell it on ebay again and get a Phenom X4 or something.

WAT? Phenom X4? Nooooo. Stay away from Phenom I chips, if your board can take Athlon II/Phenom II.

Why do you keep wanting to buy older, slower, limited, CPUs?

Jump on the Athlon II X4 620, it's a great CPU, and $45 shipped is a great price. It would be WAY faster than the X2 6000+, that's for sure. It might also run cooler.

 

[IonusX]

WAT? Phenom X4? Nooooo. Stay away from Phenom I chips, if your board can take Athlon II/Phenom II.

Why do you keep wanting to buy older, slower, limited, CPUs?

Jump on the Athlon II X4 620, it's a great CPU, and $45 shipped is a great price. It would be WAY faster than the X2 6000+, that's for sure. It might also run cooler.

phenom I x4 wasnt all bad. just horribly priced. heck if i had an am2+ boardf and no am3 cpu's for sale under 60 bucks gently used. id jump ship on one at that price bracket.

 

[allenk09]

WAT? Phenom X4? Nooooo. Stay away from Phenom I chips, if your board can take Athlon II/Phenom II.

Why do you keep wanting to buy older, slower, limited, CPUs?

Jump on the Athlon II X4 620, it's a great CPU, and $45 shipped is a great price. It would be WAY faster than the X2 6000+, that's for sure. It might also run cooler.

Yeah sorry that's what I meant, a Phenom II X4

 

[Arkaign]

Sounds like a plan, and as noted, you shouldn't have any trouble offloading that X2-6000 for a decent price. Plenty of systems out there with AM2 boards that won't take anything Phenom or Athlon II.

It's just how the top end chips for each socket play out, look at Opteron 185 prices on ebay. An Opty 185 is slower than your X2-6000, but just due to being about the best Socket 939 chip ever made, they still command a pretty hefty price for something so many years old. On a similar note, the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Socket 478 processors also bring good cash on ebay. There are enough people who want to upgrade a system to the max or close to it that prices for those things usually stay pretty high even after notably faster chips are available for less money on newer sockets.

A PhII X4 will be a monster upgrade from an Athlon X2. Even an Athlon II X2 is a fairly big upgrade.

 

[allenk09]

Sounds like a plan, and as noted, you shouldn't have any trouble offloading that X2-6000 for a decent price. Plenty of systems out there with AM2 boards that won't take anything Phenom or Athlon II.

It's just how the top end chips for each socket play out, look at Opteron 185 prices on ebay. An Opty 185 is slower than your X2-6000, but just due to being about the best Socket 939 chip ever made, they still command a pretty hefty price for something so many years old. On a similar note, the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Socket 478 processors also bring good cash on ebay. There are enough people who want to upgrade a system to the max or close to it that prices for those things usually stay pretty high even after notably faster chips are available for less money on newer sockets.

A PhII X4 will be a monster upgrade from an Athlon X2. Even an Athlon II X2 is a fairly big upgrade.

Hmm wont that Phenom II X4 be quite limited by the DDR2 800? I found myself a Phenom II X4 B35 for free from someone I know, going to get it most likely by next week and throw that in the M4A78-Pro.

 

[formulav8]

Don't worry about your ram bandwidth. Its MORE than enough to feed the beast.

 

[allenk09]

Ok so I got this Athlon II X3 435 and once again, overclocking seems to do absolutely nothing but make it worse. I get lower frame rates in benchmarks even if I go from 2.9 to 3.0Ghz it's worse on all benchmarks. Are these AMD's just not designed to be overclocked and perform best when running stock?

 

[nanaki333]

AMD overclocks really well, especially the athlon/phenom II series. i read almost the whole thread and scimmed the rest, so forgive me if this has been answered. i'll edit my post accordingly when i skim again if nobody responds by then.

can you tell us every single thing you're changing? every option in the bios (you are doing it in the bios and not with a windows app right?)?

sometimes x3's can sometimes unlock to an x4 btw

 

[allenk09]

AMD overclocks really well, especially the athlon/phenom II series. i read almost the whole thread and scimmed the rest, so forgive me if this has been answered. i'll edit my post accordingly when i skim again if nobody responds by then.

can you tell us every single thing you're changing? every option in the bios (you are doing it in the bios and not with a windows app right?)?

sometimes x3's can sometimes unlock to an x4 btw

I am using the windows turbo V with Asus....should I not be? O_O

Usually I increase frequency to about 230 from 200, voltage from 1.300 to 1.3625 and the multiplier is always 14.5.

Edit, went into bios changed frequency to 256, gave me 3.7Ghz. I put in 1.425V for processor voltage, but then I open up CPUZ an it's only 1.35V....then it crashes. I'm down to 233 frequency on 1.425V, showing 1.35V in cpuz.

Edit again: Ran prime 95 on 233, crashed. Down to 228.

All of this prime 95 is making me cringe like I'm going to blow the processor right out of the socket. Temps are stable at 30C on prime 95.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Bump your FSB to 225 and leave vcore voltage at stock and see what P95 gives you.

http://www.overclockers.com/step-guide-overclock-amd-phenom/

 

[pantsaregood]

I'd like to point out that an Athlon II X2 isn't necessarily worlds better than an Athlon 64 X2 6000+, nor is Phenom II significantly better than Phenom.

K10 is very similar to K8; it simply adds SSE4A, allows for L3 cache, and allows for the memory controller speed to function asynchronously.

Phenom II was essentially a die-shrink of Phenom. Phenom only "sucked" because it was very bad at clocking high. Phenom II fixed that and threw on some extra cache.

 

[allenk09]

It's stable and I get a decent performance increase now...now on to video card issues!

3.19Ghz, 1.325V, x14.5, 220Mhz Bus Speed, HT Link 1540Mhz

Everything good? I might go up to 221 just to make it that even 3.2Ghz because it's really annoying me that it's 3.19

 

[sm625]

Can you post your new PerformanceTest score with the Athlon II X3 435, and what your best score was with your old X2-6000 chip?

 

[Joseph F]

phenom I x4 wasnt all bad. just horribly priced. heck if i had an am2+ boardf and no am3 cpu's for sale under 60 bucks gently used. id jump ship on one at that price bracket.

No, as a former owner of a Phenom x4 9600 BE, I can definitely say that they were garbage.

1. Hotter than hell
2. Slower than 65nm C2Q clock-for clock
3. Slower than 65nm C2Q in terms of frequency
4. Will not OC at all (Mine wouldn't OC by 50MHZ without extra voltage)
5. Buggy, The TLB was broken in the first retail stepping of these CPUs

 

[nanaki333]

No, as a former owner of a Phenom x4 9600 BE, I can definitely say that they were garbage.

1. Hotter than hell
2. Slower than 65nm C2Q clock-for clock
3. Slower than 65nm C2Q in terms of frequency
4. Will not OC at all (Mine wouldn't OC by 50MHZ without extra voltage)
5. Buggy, The TLB was broken in the first retail stepping of these CPUs

agreed. they're junk. i had a 9500 as well and in some motherboards, you had to underclock it 100mhz for it to work. friend put it in his server to replace an athlon 2 x3 and it took him like 6 hours to encode a video just to test it. i told him he'd be better off with the x3

 

[allenk09]

Can you post your new PerformanceTest score with the Athlon II X3 435, and what your best score was with your old X2-6000 chip?

Athlon X2 6000+ was 2150,
Athlon II X3 (no 4th core unlock) @ 2.8ghz was 3000
Athlon II X3 (no 4th core unlock) @ 3.2Ghz was 3200