I tried some newer drivers 81.98 fixes the problem but I am stuck at 75fps. Also 3dmark2000 is now working with no artifacts, but low score, about 10,000 3dmarks when I think it should be ~13,000. Not sure if it’s CPU which causes the low score. I get similar issue in 3dm01, about 10,000 points

CPU update - I’ve officially called time of death on the 2800+ Barton. I found chips on the edge of the die and the die also looks quite pitted. Comparing to the photos on the original eBay listing, these issues are all present so I am fairly convinced that the chip was already dead before it was shipped to me

My pic

Original pic from ad

I’ve just purchased a 2600+ Barton so I can try again. This one should be unlocked too - build week 11 of 2003 according to the sticker.

That's a real shame. These exposed dies were quite vulnerable to damage. Also I think AMD CPUs of this era had no thermal protection, so could very easily cook themselves if heatsink is incorrectly mounted.

That 2800+ Barton had die in a terrible state, I wouldn't buy it no matter what seller says. People need to stop looking for the lowest price but buy the best die for reasonable price.

Yep there is no doubt it’s in very poor condition. The 2600+ looks a lot better as far as I can tell.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-12-02, 05:28:

That's a real shame. These exposed dies were quite vulnerable to damage. Also I think AMD CPUs of this era had no thermal protection, so could very easily cook themselves if heatsink is incorrectly mounted.

Yes, they’ll fry themselves in no time if the cooler is removed! I remember seeing someone doing it for a video many years ago.

More tests with different drivers on the FX5900XT. I did the 45.23 inf mod to get the 5900XT to install on that driver version, and I’m getting much better 3dmark results now, and no artifacts or vsync issues in 3dm99 😬

3dm99 12140
2000 - 10085
2001SE - 9961

This is still with the 2000+ running stock speed. 2600+ should arrive tomorrow. Got a full refund on the 2800+, didn’t even have to return it!

I’m hoping to play some actual games this weekend 🤣

That 2800+ looked horrible so it made no sence to request return. If it makes no sence to return then I usually request destruction of the item to make it irreparable. With CPU with pins it's as easy as stepping on it.

With 5900XT you can play at 1600x1200, but old games usually do not scale user interface well. My PIII 900 with FX5600 is enough for games up to 2002.

The 2600+ arrived today. Die in perfect condition. Fitted it and got machine to POST no problem! BIOS just says “unknown CPU” but it seems to be fully working and seems fully unlocked! 😬

I’ve set the multiplier to 12.5 for now. I will need to remove the motherboard to pin-mod the cpu socket to enable higher multipliers

Some initial clock for clock comparisons with the Palomino 2000+

3dm99 12140 vs 12905 (133x12.5)
3dm99 12863 vs 13561 (141x12.5)

That extra cache seems to make a big difference in the low end stuff. 2MB texture rendering speed increased from 1562 to 1955 FPS for example.

It’s probably already proven elsewhere but I guess the cache compensates for the SD-RAM a bit; I think the performance between the CPUs would be closer if there was DDR memory on this board

Pin mod done, bios very unhappy though. I thought I’d done something bad and damaged the board or cpu as it would not post for ages. But I have figured out a procedure that works reliably to get it to post, as tedious as it is:

Turn off power on back of PSU
Remove cmos battery
Refit cmos battery
Set jumper on motherboard to auto configure the multipliers
Turn on power at back of PSU
Power on -> wait a min -> power off (no post)
Set the jumper for multipliers to manual
Power on. Hey presto. It works, and I can soft reboot. But power off and I have to do it all again.

So far I’ve got it running at 2133MHz and once it lets me post, it seems stable at stock 1.65V, 52C running prime95

New benchmark results at 2133MHz

3dm99 14489
2000: 12626
2001se: 11363