Most 760G boards have a regular BIOS. There are exceptions tough. I have an X6 1055t witch I use in my living room PC. Frankly it's a bit too new for retro stuff, but it will run winXP perfectly. Thing is, they are usually low-clocked, and most winxp games only take advantage of 2 cores, so a fast Phenom II or Core 2 Duo would make a better choice.

The 1055T runs most modern games perfectly. My living room PC handles stuff like GTA V and Fallout 4 perfectly (RX 470 video card), so I'd say it's more suited for modern games witch prefer more cores over clock rate.

Oh yeah - the phenom X6 has 6 floating point units, unlike the FX 8xxx series witch only has 4, or the FX 6xxx series witch only have 3 - as such it's quite a bit faster clock-per clock then these in modern games.

The X6 phenoms are also pretty good overclockers, most being able to reach 3.6 GHz or more on air as long as you have a motherboard with strong VRMs.

AT this point spending money on Phenom II or AMD FX for a modern system is pointless, either buy Intel or wait for AM4/Zen this spring

kanecvr wrote:

Most 760G boards have a regular BIOS. There are exceptions tough. I have an X6 1055t witch I use in my living room PC. Frankly i […]
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Most 760G boards have a regular BIOS. There are exceptions tough. I have an X6 1055t witch I use in my living room PC. Frankly it's a bit too new for retro stuff, but it will run winXP perfectly. Thing is, they are usually low-clocked, and most winxp games only take advantage of 2 cores, so a fast Phenom II or Core 2 Duo would make a better choice.

The 1055T runs most modern games perfectly. My living room PC handles stuff like GTA V and Fallout 4 perfectly (RX 470 video card), so I'd say it's more suited for modern games witch prefer more cores over clock rate.

Oh yeah - the phenom X6 has 6 floating point units, unlike the FX 8xxx series witch only has 4, or the FX 6xxx series witch only have 3 - as such it's quite a bit faster clock-per clock then these in modern games.

The X6 phenoms are also pretty good overclockers, most being able to reach 3.6 GHz or more on air as long as you have a motherboard with strong VRMs.

Thanks for the info as usual! 😀
One of the mobo I've seen should be this Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 but I see now that as 16MB Flash rom, I see from the manual it should have old bios style.

candle_86 wrote:

AT this point spending money on Phenom II or AMD FX for a modern system is pointless, either buy Intel or wait for AM4/Zen this spring

I thought about it but I like alternative old platforms.. 😁

I wouldn't bother spending much money on something like this unless it was very cheap and you had a specific reason for using an old 6 core CPU. Most modern games still prefer higher per-thread performance over multiple slow cores. This is what allowed the Pentium G3258 (an unlocked dual core Haswell) to outperform any 4-8 core CPU AMD had to offer once overclocked... in most games anyway.

The 760G is an extremely outdated chipset these days too. I think it's 9 years old now.

You'd get better overall performance from a 2nd gen (or newer) i3... and it'll be significantly more efficient.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

I wouldn't bother spending much money on something like this unless it was very cheap and you had a specific reason for using an old 6 core CPU. Most modern games still prefer higher per-thread performance over multiple slow cores. This is what allowed the Pentium G3258 (an unlocked dual core Haswell) to outperform any 4-8 core CPU AMD had to offer once overclocked... in most games anyway.

The 760G is an extremely outdated chipset these days too. I think it's 9 years old now.

You'd get better overall performance from a 2nd gen (or newer) i3... and it'll be significantly more efficient.

Yeah, you're right I know. But I'm so into retro hardware that I'm happier when older hardware can do modern tasks even when they do it slowly. Actually using a Barton 3200+ as fastest built pc and it's funny to see that if you're used to old os, you just don't need ultra smooth milliseconds transitions an still 2gb of ram is enough (when the os don't load 1gb itself just to boot...). Obviously I don't work with 3dstudio, autocad or similar high-end stuff. 😉

For cost side, well it's absurd nowdays to see old hardware that even when not rare cost more than modern one. The xp built I'm using cost me like a modern pc probably.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

I wouldn't bother spending much money on something like this unless it was very cheap and you had a specific reason for using an old 6 core CPU. Most modern games still prefer higher per-thread performance over multiple slow cores. This is what allowed the Pentium G3258 (an unlocked dual core Haswell) to outperform any 4-8 core CPU AMD had to offer once overclocked... in most games anyway.

The 760G is an extremely outdated chipset these days too. I think it's 9 years old now.

You'd get better overall performance from a 2nd gen (or newer) i3... and it'll be significantly more efficient.

That depends, BF3/BF4/Civ5 at least will actually preform better on a Core 2 Quad than a PEntium Dual core, tested it myself 2 years ago

candle_86 wrote:

Ozzuneoj wrote:

I wouldn't bother spending much money on something like this unless it was very cheap and you had a specific reason for using an old 6 core CPU. Most modern games still prefer higher per-thread performance over multiple slow cores. This is what allowed the Pentium G3258 (an unlocked dual core Haswell) to outperform any 4-8 core CPU AMD had to offer once overclocked... in most games anyway.

The 760G is an extremely outdated chipset these days too. I think it's 9 years old now.

You'd get better overall performance from a 2nd gen (or newer) i3... and it'll be significantly more efficient.

That depends, BF3/BF4/Civ5 at least will actually preform better on a Core 2 Quad than a PEntium Dual core, tested it myself 2 years ago

Yeah, some games really benefit from more cores, but it still depends on the CPU. I'd be surprised if the example you gave involved anything but a high end (Q9550 or better) Core2 Quad and an older (pre Haswell) Pentium dual core. I certainly don't recommend using only a dual core these days, but a 4.5+ GHz G3258 will run most games faster than older quad and six core CPUs.

Anyway, nothing against the OP. I've done weirder stuff than this, so if you like running older hardware for modern purposes, a PII X6 is the last competitive CPU AMD put out before moving to the bulldozer architecture... it should work okay for modern games, just don't be surprised if it can't always keep up, despite all the cores.

candle_86 wrote:

AT this point spending money on Phenom II or AMD FX for a modern system is pointless, either buy Intel or wait for AM4/Zen this spring

It's OK if you need it as a cheap secondary PC. An equivalent in performance would be an i7 920, but boards for those are rare and considerably more expensive. For example, prices in romania:

- Phenom II X6 ~ 37-60$ depending on model (the BE models are rare and expensive - up to 100$ in fact)
- Good AM3 board - 15-30$
------------------------------
Total 52 to 90$

- i7 920 - 20$
- x58 board - 115-180$
---------------------
Total 135-200$

- i5 2400 - 100$
- decent lga 1155 board - 50-70$
-----------------------
150-170$

So the thing is a Phenom X6 can make a decent secondary machine if you find a CPU for cheap. The 1366 i7 is simply not worth it because boards are so expensive here - for that kind of scratch you're better off building a faster LGA 1155 rig.

I used to have a Phenom 2 x4 rig back in the day and it is pretty strong compared to most Core 2 builds, for retroish modern builds Phenom 2 X4/x6 is a solid choice when 1156/1155 and 1366 boards are too difficult or expensive to source. My only complaint about AMD builds is finding the Good boards that can handle overclocking well without having vrm issues.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

Yeah, some games really benefit from more cores, but it still depends on the CPU. I'd be surprised if the example you gave involved anything but a high end (Q9550 or better) Core2 Quad and an older (pre Haswell) Pentium dual core.

The PII X6 wrecks the Q9550. Even more when both are overclocked. While the 9550 might be slightly faster in single threaded stuff (when both are overclocked), the phenom is way faster in multi-threaded apps (and modern games witch are designed for the low-clocked 8 core AMD Jaguar found in the xbox one and ps4). The Q9550 would be as fast as the X6 in some older XP and Vista era games, but the X6 has a clear advantage in modern games. Not to mention the X6 uses a modern platform with fast DDR3 support (up to DDR3 2400 depending on chipset) and has faster I/O options.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

I certainly don't recommend using only a dual core these days, but a 4.5+ GHz G3258 will run most games faster than older quad and six core CPUs.

If you play stuff like CS:GO, DOTA or World of Tanks, then yes, the G3258 is faster. But it's a silly CPU - for that money you can easily get a second hand non-k i5 for the same socket. As for recent games, like I mentioned before, they will run a lot better on more cores. GTA 5 and Fallout 4 are good examples of games who love 4 or more physical cores - in these the X6 and it's older PCI-E 2.0 interface destroys the G3258 at any speed. I tested this myself not long ago.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

Anyway, nothing against the OP. I've done weirder stuff than this, so if you like running older hardware for modern purposes, a PII X6 is the last competitive CPU AMD put out before moving to the bulldozer architecture... it should work okay for modern games, just don't be surprised if it can't always keep up, despite all the cores.

It keeps up just fine. In fact in fallout 4 the X6 @ 3.6 GHz is about 10% faster then a i5 2500k @ 3.6 GHz. In World of tanks the X6 is about 20% slower - but WoT uses like 2 cores tops.

Of course an x6 is faster than a Q9550... I never said it wasn't. Also, the P45 (and similar age) Core 2 chipsets also support DDR3. I also said I wouldn't recommend a G3258 these days... I was merely using that as an example of why core count isn't everything. I would totally recommend a used i3 or i5... I'd even just buy a refurbished i5 system for $250-$300 and throw in a video card.

CPUs like the x6 are completely dependent on multithreading... As you mentioned, if there is a situation that heavily loads one or two cores(like wot), an x6 is going to choke just like a Core2 or PII x4 would.

I still run a 2500k at 4.2Ghz and wouldn't trade any per-thread performance for more cores.

If a good x6 can be bought cheaply, they are solid CPUs for many things, but I wouldn't say that it is the best choice unless it's price is far lower than other more modern chips that perform better.

Cool so I am not the only one here who plays world of tanks 😲
I love smashing scrubs and hapless padders in my Bias-6. 😈

nforce4max wrote:

Cool so I am not the only one here who plays world of tanks 😲
I love smashing scrubs and hapless padders in my Bias-6. 😈

I really miss the T18 as a TD. One or two shot literally anyone, was fast, and had stupid good front armor.

ODwilly wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

Cool so I am not the only one here who plays world of tanks 😲
I love smashing scrubs and hapless padders in my Bias-6. 😈

I really miss the T18 as a TD. One or two shot literally anyone, was fast, and had stupid good front armor.

T18 was cancer and it hurt the population growth pretty hard for several years but the camo sniping meta made it certain that people gave up by the time they got to tier 4. I miss my old KV1S though and it taught people that sitting in front of heavy wasn't a good idea much the same way the KV2 and Japanese boxes do now. When you get to bully a bunch of mediums in a T28 Prot you know that people are too passive. I look forward to playing the Mauschen as it even power creeps the Bias-3. 🤣

My personal favorite people are top tier heavies that sit back in the worst locations on the map and try to snipe.

ODwilly wrote:

My personal favorite people are top tier heavies that sit back in the worst locations on the map and try to snipe.

Hardly a day that doesn't go by that I don't rage in some way or another about that elsewhere, same goes for the chai sniping mediums and TDs that sit in corners until the very end of the battle especially on prok where they sit doing nothing for minutes at a time. NA used to be a good server until it was ruined and from what I read here and there EU has the same problems. Teams of useless cowardly passives and XVM cunts that put their hands up their asses the moment they load in with a low % chance to win. It used to be that people just played but those days are gone. 😢