AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE: Same Speed, Less Power

[WheelsOfConfusion]

Is AMD planning to move to this stepping for more of their processors? I remember reading something about the PhII X3's getting downed from 95 watts, despite the rumor of their line's impending demise.

 

[megamanx00]

Yay, new stepping. Good to see that there mighnt be more overclocking headroom with this new stepping. Still wish AMD would finally add that 4th instruction decoder to each core though.

 

[fulle]

@Buzz
Yeah, the i7 edges it out in the last benchmark on a game with min FPS scores well over 100. Who cares? The other benchmarks show pretty much identical performance.

 

[Guest]

4.1GHz at stock voltage?

I'm not in the market for a new rig just yet but no matter how you look at it that's pretty kickass.

 

[masterasia]

How did this article imply the i5 750 to be better than the 955? Yes, there is the CF and SLI advantage of the chipset itself, but does that make the i5 itself superior to the 965?

There was a link back to this article http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i5,2410-10.html
that showed the i5 750 beating out the x4 965 BE in almost every category on stock speeds.

 

[tpb]

The problem I see, is that motherboard makers don't bother to make an updated BIOS available for their previous generation of motherboards when the new AMD cpu's come out.
So it really doesn't make any difference if the new CPU physically fits the socket.
By the way both of my computers are AMD.

 

[masterasia]

Tom

Edit: I don't know how this got posted?

 

[masterasia]

According to this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-lynnfield,2379.html the i5 750 still killed the PII X4 with X8 X8 PCI-E

 

[carlt2]

Is OverDrive 3.1 available yet? I also encounter BSODs using 3.02, but I'm on an ECS motherboard. 3.02 is a bug-ridden piece of junk with numerous bugs.

 

[tester24]

Well good thing I'm not like "most people". I see that yes the Intel allegedly "killed" the AMD but looks like they used the crappier GX board and not the FX board. I buy AMD because unlike Intel they stand behind their products. I have never seen a manufacturer that makes it so hard to upgrade without changing sockets and then ram so that makes you have to rebuild your entire system all over again.

I've learned that if you buy a better MB usually the top of the line you won't have the problem of not being able to upgrade to the latest chip. But then again it depends on your manufacturer. Have yet to have this problem with ASUS.

 

[tester24]

Funny thing from those benchmarks AMD shows steady across the board when you put in AA and AF.

 

[royaldutchtweaker]

and nowadays who want's sli? if u crossfire now your CPU will probalby be the bottleneck, with sli your computer will just suck.

 

[ljbade]

Wonder when the C3 revision will hit the other Phenom 2's (considering that they must now be binning these C3 chips at lower speeds)

 

[superhighperf]

where is this overdrive version 3.1?

 

[bodinejcs]

i5 is 149.00 at microcenter , i7 is 199.00 , why bother with AMD anymore ..
As for the socket changes , AMD has left me out to dry a couple of times too .

 

[rambo117]

are all phenom II's eventually gonna get this new core revision? if so, damnit, recently got my x3 720

 

[HalfHuman]

using a 1200w psu is quite not apropriate. if you ask me a 1200w psu is an idiotic device and appeals to same kind of people that buy cars with 3, 4 or 5 litter engines just to go to work and back home. i know that american culture promotes "big" and not so much "efficient" but this site is read by people that come from other countries.

do not mean to be obsessive about this big shit PSUs but if you want to measure efficiency you use a proper PSU. if you want to measure a car's efficiency you just don't fill it up with a ton of junk and then go for tests (unless it's a truck). if somebody buys a system like you assembled won't use a crazy 1200w psu like yours.

please people be more sensitive about getting the correct testing environement when you go for power usage testing.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]HalfHuman[/nom]Please people be more sensitive about getting the correct testing environement when you go for power usage testing.[/citation]

I've said it before, on page 2 of the comments: We're looking for the delta between the old and new stepping. That's it.

In this case, the PSU is completely irrelevant.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Well, Tom's hardware does not have a crystal ball. I'd offer mine but unfortunately it is cracked resulting in numerous false prognostications.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Well, as usual AMD has a difficult time dealing high end enthusiast level cpu's. On the other hand the 32nm dies they are working on seems to indicate they are serious about energy efficiency.

 

[grimjester]

[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]I've said it before, on page 2 of the comments: We're looking for the delta between the old and new stepping. That's it.In this case, the PSU is completely irrelevant.[/citation]
To add some facts, the difference in efficiency between 20 and 50% draw on the PSU is only around 3%, which would give a 0.3W error in the measurement. The article had 15 and 15.8% draw. There's no way the PSU introduces more than a hundredth of a watt error in the measurements.

Here's the 80plus report on the PSU.

 

[jj463rd]

[citation][nom]WheelsOfConfusion[/nom]Is AMD planning to move to this stepping for more of their processors? I remember reading something about the PhII X3's getting downed from 95 watts, despite the rumor of their line's impending demise.[/citation]
What rumor? Many of the Phenom II X3's including the 720 BE are not even listed at AMD's website under their pricing guidelines.The only one listed as still being available is the lower TDP 2.5 Ghz Phenom II 705e
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_609,00.html?redir=CPPR01

 

[doron]

Ummm guys... Maybe I'm not up-to-date, but didn't this chip just went past the "4ghz brick wall" all these amd cpus had with a x64 os?

 

[HalfHuman]

[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]I've said it before, on page 2 of the comments: We're looking for the delta between the old and new stepping. That's it.In this case, the PSU is completely irrelevant.[/citation]

i've been reading thg for years now and i find it very informative. i apreciate your work and i like to think that you contributed a lot at my it culture. however using a humongus psu to measure power usage for such a low power system is wrong. i've seen this done on thg before and i think you should use a more apropriate psu. i know the delta is interesting but i may be interested to see how much watts it would use in a tipical system. these cpus compete in a cutthroat efficiency environement. the 1200w psu makes a mokery about their power efficency. i may be annoying with this and i'll keep rambling about this sort of approach to measuring power usage until you make it right.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]HalfHuman[/nom]the 1200w psu makes a mokery about their power efficency. i may be annoying with this and i'll keep rambling about this sort of approach to measuring power usage until you make it right.[/citation]

I disagree that the 1200w PSU makes a mockery of power efficiency, since it is an 80+ efficiency CPU. What data do you base your assumption on?

You can be as annoying as you like, but unless you have data proving that there's a notable amount of difference between PSUs of different wattage but similar efficiency - and I don't believe there is - I will probably ignore your concern.