FX-6300 Or Phenom II x4 965 BE Or Phenom II x6 1045T

It depends on the reviews. In some reviews the FX6300 is faster than a Phenom II X6 1100T for file compression and decompression and in others a bit slower. In video encoding the FX6300 it is the same,but the FX series have much better support for newer extensions though. For music related stuff,the FX series is better overall than a Phenom II from what I can see and also for image editing.

The thing is though I just see the FX6300 being easier to hit a higher clockspeed than the multiplier locked Phenom II X6,IMHO.

I would probably just keep your current CPU and get a better graphics card,although funnily enough one game which shows a huge improvement with Vishera is DiRT3!

It seems Bulldozer was bugged in some way which really depreciated performance in this game.

BTW,overclock you HD6850 1GB too.

So Phenom vs FX = pretty much equal? Where the FX has the edge to overclock better.

I am much more leaning towards the FX now :P it makes more sense.

Also, how much difference would support for newer extensions make?

Both the phenom and FX CPUs share the same AM3+ Architecture so it's compatible. Just make a bios update for the motherboard or get one that's compatible. Another thing is to look at the chipset. If the chipset is model 990FX, it will work far better with FX chips than the old phenoms.

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Originally Posted by mikeo01

... how much difference would support for newer extensions make?

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None, unless you are regularly using programs that have been compiled to take advantage of them! The new instructions allow the chip to processes complex operations faster, but software has to be specially written to use them so in most instances the latest instructions don't help much because the software simply isn't using them.

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Originally Posted by Dottorrent

... If the chipset is model 990FX, it will work far better with FX chips than the old phenoms.

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Erm, not really. The 990FX is just a rebadged 890FX, which was specifically released to improve performance and overclocking on Phenom II chips. Anyway, the OP has already pointed out that they have a 970 chipset motherboard. Whilst this is a cheaper board, it's a good brand and should be pretty capable for overclocking any of those chips.

mike, it seems to me like you are going to be happier with the FX-6300 - it'll be easier to overclock and you'll almost certainly get a higher maximum clock speed. Increasing your max overclock seems to be your key concern. As CAT has said, a 6300 should go to around 4.5GHz, maybe higher. It will be very difficult to get even as much as 4GHz out of the Phenom II (you'd need to run the motherboard at close to 300MHz, up from the default of 200Mhz: i.e. a 50% FSB overclock)

It's hard to say what clock levels will give the same performance between a Phenom II X6 and the FX 6300 because they are very different architectures with different strengths. The key thing is that they will both have plenty of performance for the uses you want to put them to, so you don't have to worry that you'll not be getting a good enough CPU.

Thanks for the help everyone really appreciate it. Sounds like the FX-6300 is the winner the, and if its a big improvement (architecturally) over the previous series I should be able to clock it quite highly.

Yeah also I don't need a 990 series chipset yet, I doubt I would ever go to crossfire or even use the other PCI-E lane. My board may be able to go to 300FSB, but I didn't know it causes that much stress on the motherboard, so best for me to be on the safe side :P

And it was mentioned the power consumption, so although I am not overly concerned on its power consumption it is a nice touch that its slightly lower.

I suppose I may not even get close to 4Ghz with the Phenom, so seems like the FX would show some nice performance boosts from an overclock.

Thank you once again everyone I appreciate the input greatly! :P FX-6300 it is!

Just a quick question on my current RAM, on this site it mentions running RAM at 1600mhz by tweaking the CAS timings, is it saying this RAM can run at 1600mhz? :
http://www.eudar.com.tw/about/produc...9&item=198#198

Going to try it, but just wondering if that means that, I never overclock RAM, I don't see any need to, but if it can run at this wheres the harm in that?

Well set the speed rating of the RAM to 1600mhz and set CAS write timing to 9 as suggested on their site, and been running prime for hour now, with my overclock, so not sure what is going on? Why can a 1333mhz rated RAM run at 1600mhz?

If you are running prime, I don't think you are excercising much of the ram. Try memtest86 instead.

OK I will give that a wurl :P It has been running just over an hour now, what would you guys consider a stable OC to be? Heat wise its nice, topping at 51c and average of 48c.

I will get memtest going and see what happens.

Would I need to get some of those cheap heatsinks you can get for RAM? Would it make much difference? I have a front fan pushing air into that area.

It appears Dabs is the cheapest for the FX6300 if you include postage:

http://www.dabs.com/products/amd-fx6...%206300&src=16

You can also get cashback too:

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/dabs/

http://www.quidco.com/dabs-com/

Thanks CAT! :P that would make the FX-6300 only £102, bargain!

Hi again, I am thinking still about this and have a different idea. Considering the Fx-6300 is cheap and would overclock better, within a years time when Steamroller will be mentioned I will want to go for that chip :P

I may as well experience the Phenoms while its at a low cost. The 1090T does well against the FX-6300 in a lot of reviews and benchmarks, so wondering whether I should go with x4 BE at 125w or play with the FSB with the 95w 1045T? There will never be another Phenom chip again :(

Yeah I think I will try out the Phenoms, within a years time I will end up wanting Steamroller, then Excavator. Prices for the previous generations will drop, so be nice to try out some old-ish hardware and then go back to FX once prices have dropped.

So yeah, what Phenom you think would be the most fun to use? In terms of pure performance and overclocking :D fun but capable.

Just so you know I know the FX-6300 would be better, but may as well get some experience with the old Phenoms to play around with until I end up with a serious daily chip in the future if that makes sense.

IMHO. Total waste of money. Your money tho so go for it if you want.

Butuz

I've got my FX-6100 up for sale though, not going to purchase it straight out.

EDIT:
Basically what I am getting at is the Phenoms are now cheaper, the x4 beats my fx-6100, the x6 is near the FX-8120. So what I am saying is what Phenom to mess around with, seen as Phenoms are good and capable, and will be some time until AMD comes out with a decent upgrade (Steamroller, Excavator). Because my Bulldozer is on the lower end.

So wondering if its worth PII x4 or x6 for a good piece of hardware that'll last years until AMD comes up with something that is good improvement over them.

Came to the conclusion, going for the 1045T :) FX line ups can wait till they improve by a lot.

I should be able to get this thing clocked to 1100T performance.

Now just to sell the FX chip

FX-6100 now gone, 1045T ordered so fingers crossed it'll be here tomorrow.

I purely bought it to replace my FX-6100, because it walks all over it, plus its cheap. I will keep this chip as a daily chip until something worth upgrading to pops up.

I will probably clock it to 1100T speeds for daily use and if I can get a better overclock out of it I will give that a go.

Is Thuban voltage rating 1.4 or 1.475? CPU NB is 1.1750 according to AMD. Obviously I want to keep under the max rating voltage because heat definitely will be an issue :P

In terms of TurboCore, how does this work on a non-BE edition? I thought the multiplier was locked, if that's the case shouldn't turbocore be able to raise the multiplier higher? Not sure how locked processors work with turbocore. My last CPU was an Athlon II X3