3DMark06 is the latest version of 3DMark franchise, measuring Shader 3.0 (i.e., DirectX 9.0c) performance. We run this software on its default configuration (1280x1024 resolution with no image quality settings enabled), checking the CPU batch results for comparison.

To be honest, 3D performance nowadays depends much more on the video card used than on the system CPU. Even then the 3D overall performance of Athlon 64 X2 4600+ was 14.53% higher than the one achieved by Athlon 64 3800+. Athlon 64 FX-60 achieved a result similar to Athlon 64 X2 4600+.

When comparing the results for the CPU tests alone, the big surprise: Athlon 64 X2 4600+ was 92.41% faster than Athlon 64 3800+ and Athlon 64 FX-60 was 7.72% faster than Athlon 64 X2 4600+ and 107.27% faster than Athlon 64 3800+. Once again, this shows how the improvement on CPU performance won’t probably reflect on a higher 3D performance.