Phenom II: Unlocking Cores, Cache, And A Free Lunch

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I don't know much about cpu things and unlocking cores, but it looks as if a x3 with a disfunctional fourth core works better than a x4 with four perfectly good cores. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But good article.
 
[citation][nom]bustapr[/nom]I don't know much about cpu things and unlocking cores, but it looks as if a x3 with a disfunctional fourth core works better than a x4 with four perfectly good cores. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But good article.[/citation]
That is not the case.
810 is clocked at 2.6ghz per core, and 720 is clocked at 2.8ghz default. Thus if you use the same number of cores on both cpus the 720 will come out on top.
 
[citation][nom]neiroatopelcc[/nom]That is not the case. 810 is clocked at 2.6ghz per core, and 720 is clocked at 2.8ghz default. Thus if you use the same number of cores on both cpus the 720 will come out on top.[/citation]
Yes I would agree with on that, but you have to remember that its not just the same amount of cores, but one authentic quad core and one triple core with a disfunctional fourth core. The logic would be the that the part of it being disfunctional should have been able to change it all.
 
[citation][nom]bmuell[/nom]Good article guys! Doesn't even need to be conclusive. Was a nice read. More like this![/citation]

Glad you enjoyed it!
 
[citation][nom]bustapr[/nom]I don't know much about cpu things and unlocking cores, but it looks as if a x3 with a disfunctional fourth core works better than a x4 with four perfectly good cores. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But good article.[/citation]

In apps affected most by clock speed, the faster triple core will outperform the quad. WinZIP is a perfect example, being a single-threaded piece of software.
 
[citation][nom]glawk[/nom]Does this article mention anywhere that the 4th core may very well be disabled because it is defective or not up to spec? I didn't see it. Isn't this how the X3 came about in the first place? Because the manufacturing process for the X4 wasn't all that great to begin with.While it's true that AMD may have have improved their process and these might be 'ok', don't you think that's atleast worth mentioning to people who are considering modding their cpu to do this?[/citation]

There's an entire section on this ;-) The easiest way to test is through overclocking and checking to see if the enabled core buckles before the others (which it can/does in this case).
 
[citation][nom]apache_lives[/nom]its called sales - if your $100 processor was the same as your $500 processor why would you buy the $500 processor?[/citation]
Becase most people don't know, and don't want to know.

See Apple customers.
 
So, one of the rare unlocks available for a CPU since...what? the T-Birds? Great to see things like this pop up from time to time. You know, I really enjoyed OCing during those days (BSEL mods, volt mods,etc). Now days, pretty much any one can OC with just a little reading and a decent board. lol.
 
Though touched on in the article, it is worth emphasizing that even ATTEMPTING a CPU overclock or unlock of any kind will immediately void your warranty with AMD.
 
[citation][nom]haricotvert[/nom]Though touched on in the article, it is worth emphasizing that even ATTEMPTING a CPU overclock or unlock of any kind will immediately void your warranty with AMD.[/citation]

Heh and they can tell how? 😉
 
[citation][nom]Shadow703793[/nom]So, one of the rare unlocks available for a CPU since...what? the T-Birds? Great to see things like this pop up from time to time. You know, I really enjoyed OCing during those days (BSEL mods, volt mods,etc). Now days, pretty much any one can OC with just a little reading and a decent board. lol.[/citation]

The thing was, while using a pencil on you're old duron to increase performance was fun. It's a lot less dodgey to use a bios tweak.
 
An hour, four-threads, FFTs before moving on. That's no guarantee of absolute stability, but it was "good enough" for getting the unlocks to fail.
 
People want cheap tricores, so if AMD has to turn off a perfectly good 4th core to satiate the demand, they do it to be able to sell more of their product.

Economics 101.
 
COME ON THG! Where the hell is the Special video with Techno music? I only expect a 50 meg video of this hack. Like the good old days?

I expect Download links tomorrow morning:

Old Timer ^_^
 
If anyone else finds it funny that the only 2 board manufactures that know this trick, are the only 2 low cost- yet trustworthy companies who supply boards, unlike ECS. AMD is doing that because people who don't want to spend a lot of money will by the cheap boards and there "special" chips with unlocking potential, where as just they would have purchased something different. AMD like any good company in the eyes of shareholders, have told those 2 companies to boost there sales, but the secret is still under lock and key, to keep away there customers of other AMD processors.
 
It's good to settle the issue that yes, some of the tri-cores do have a defective 4th core. I remember all kinds of speculation about whether they did or didn't have defective cores in one thread a while back. Same with the lobotomized cache on the low-cost quads.
I also think it's a neat trick of the CPU industry that they can turn defective products into perfectly good, but lesser-performing, ones.
 
[citation][nom]pace[/nom]omg you replied to me... i'm so honoured but yes, i agree... but if you had crossfire gpus, this would make a difference. but then again, i think you'd have the money to buy the real thing (phenom II 920)[/citation]
i dont understand what's your point...? we're talking bout cpu here... not bout gpu...

i remember seeing an old video comparing heat issues between Amd cpu and intel's... the one where they took off the fan from the cpu while running games... i believe it was tom hardware's video since there were web addy written on the video... that video kinda give me a mighty bad impression about AMD... in that video, amd's cpu temp went thru the roof and even to the point that it burns... not explode or anything but it was unusable after that... then intel's survived... my point is... i wonder why now tom's seems like rooting for amd/ati... i mean not in a bad way... i only started visiting this site again this year.. so i dunno what happen in between... well.. i think this is a good article... clears out some rumors... good job man..
 
I'm shocked, an actually informative useful article on Toms?
Of course then in the meat of the article you say that enabling the 4th core yields better results than an overclock and then in the conclusion you say that you'd rather overclock an X3 than turn it into an X4...
 
[citation][nom]andybird123[/nom]I'm shocked, an actually informative useful article on Toms?Of course then in the meat of the article you say that enabling the 4th core yields better results than an overclock and then in the conclusion you say that you'd rather overclock an X3 than turn it into an X4...[/citation]

Actually, in the benchmark section of the story, we demonstrate applications that benefit from the fourth core unlocked (or an extra 2MB of L3) and then follow up with a caveat: if your application is able to take better advantage of clock speed, the higher overclock could be better--and unlocked a fourth core could hamper that overclock.

But neither point is as important as the fact that you can't hand-pick a sample that unlocks reliably for sure, so it's best to buy the CPU you need rather than counting on a sure thing that isn't sure at all.
 
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