Asus refines AMD core unlocking

NoobyDoo

Senior member
Nov 13, 2006
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Asus has revealed a new BIOS update for no less than 17 of it's AMD motherboards that will have Phenom II X2 owners falling over themselves to get at it. The update will allow AMD Phenom II dual cores to allow the choice of not only unlocking an extra one or two cores, but also which core will be unlocked ... Often unlocking BOTH of these hidden cores will cause instability if everything isn't 100 per cent working ... Asus' advantage is that if you have just one bad core, you can specify the BIOS to unlock a single, specific core to give you a free triple core that's far more likely to be stable and overclockable.
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
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The fact that ASUS is intentionally releasing this BIOS and that core-unlocking has been possible now for months and months without AMD rectifying the situation tells me this is essentially a sanctioned program by AMD.

Otherwise you could bet AMD's lawyers would be sending cease and desist letters to ASUS left and right or they'd have implemented a more difficult-to-defeat core locking mechanism by now.

The only shoe left to fall here is for AMD to actually include this core-unlocking functionality in their Overdrive application. Barring that, letting ASUS do what they are doing is about as sanctioned as sanctioned can get.
 

crisium

Platinum Member
Aug 19, 2001
2,643
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Awesome, my board is supported. Perhaps in the future I will upgrade to an X2 550 BE. Even dual core it's faster than my X4 9750 in most games (anything except GTA IV, and even then it's close). But for general use I would not like to go back to dual cores. But if I could get just 3 cores I'd be pretty happy. Hmm, I don't have the budget to upgrade now but this is a cool thing to know.

Although I do know that ASUS boards are terrible at unlocking cores, which I learned from someone demonstrating on my exact board on a website and youtube. Hopefully this helps the success rate.
 

SlowSpyder

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
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Originally posted by: Idontcare
The fact that ASUS is intentionally releasing this BIOS and that core-unlocking has been possible now for months and months without AMD rectifying the situation tells me this is essentially a sanctioned program by AMD.

Otherwise you could bet AMD's lawyers would be sending cease and desist letters to ASUS left and right or they'd have implemented a more difficult-to-defeat core locking mechanism by now.

The only shoe left to fall here is for AMD to actually include this core-unlocking functionality in their Overdrive application. Barring that, letting ASUS do what they are doing is about as sanctioned as sanctioned can get.

Yea, this has been going on for a quite a while, I guess AMD feels that the benefits of having people buy their x2 and x3's outwieghs the potential lost revenue of those same people skipping over an x4 for those x2/x3's. I guess once you get into that $200+ range these days, most enthusiasts are looking at Intel anyway. I wonder what percentage of people who buy an x2/x3 are doing so to unlock it vs. the number they sell in HP, Dell, etc. systems? It would be my guess that it's not a huge percentage, and that might have something to do with AMD not actively working to shut this unlocking business down. Now if only they'd let Radeon 5850's unlock to 5870's... :)
 

sonofsanta

Junior Member
Oct 21, 2009
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Bah, stupid work proxy blocks the images on the bittech article! Can anyone type out the list, or - at least - let me know if the M4A79XTD is on there? It's the board I'm contemplating for an imminent build with an x3, would be very nice to get the unlock and would help assuage some of the i5 envy I have :D

EDT: checked at home and yes it is. Awesomesauce.
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
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Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Yea, this has been going on for a quite a while, I guess AMD feels that the benefits of having people buy their x2 and x3's outwieghs the potential lost revenue of those same people skipping over an x4 for those x2/x3's. I guess once you get into that $200+ range these days, most enthusiasts are looking at Intel anyway. I wonder what percentage of people who buy an x2/x3 are doing so to unlock it vs. the number they sell in HP, Dell, etc. systems? It would be my guess that it's not a huge percentage, and that might have something to do with AMD not actively working to shut this unlocking business down.

I'd be willing to bet you are absolutely right...the DIY channel versus the business channel for these chips is probably waaaaaay to small from a total revenue aspect to justify the expenditure AMD would incur to field a task force as needed to redo the core locking mechanism at the engineering level.

That only leaves administrative controls, which the BIOS unlocking negates. But that doesn't mean AMD is without follow-up administrative tools (legal dept) to enforce their administrative controls for preventing BIOS unlocks like this (as do both companies when it comes to BIOSes that enable overclocking, etc).

This is why I feel more inclined to believe that AMD is not simply helpless here but rather is actually behind-the-scenes sanctioning this. Meaning ASUS probably sought out a verbal "OK" at a minimum from AMD before releasing (or even developing) the BIOS with this feature, why go to all the trouble if you aren't positive there won't be any fallout from it?

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
Now if only they'd let Radeon 5850's unlock to 5870's... :)

I wonder if this has more to do with the AIB's themselves not wanting their lower-ASP offerings to cannibalize their higher-ASP offerings than AMD being concerned about this happening with some 1-5% of the 5850's out there.

Imagine if ASUS did not sell JUST the mobo, but rather all they sold were mobo/cpu/ram combo packs...now ask yourself would they be so quick to release a BIOS that allowed their lower-ASP X2/X3 combo packs unlock cores so fewer DIYers would be inclined to buy their higher-ASP X4 equipped combo pack? I think they would be inclined to not release such a BIOS in that situation since the downsides to it would be to their sales and not someone else's.
 

dmens

Platinum Member
Mar 18, 2005
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why go to all the trouble if you aren't positive there won't be any fallout from it?

That's what I don't get. Are these cores rejects or merely disabled? I personally find it hard to understand why AMD would sanction the activation of rejected cores. Sure they can just say, you're on your own with this hack, but mixing reject cores with overclocking is a certain path to stealth corruption.
 

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
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Link

Multiple boards have had this option for a while now so I'm not quite sure how this is news. ACC was a tool for the original Phenom was it not? AMD was responsible for getting the ACC feature implemented in the first place with the original Phenom, so they had to know what they were doing.

With advanced acc, cores show up ranging from core 0 to 3, each with its own set of alterable values (minus or plus). I still say ACC is not that valuable, unlocking cores is a very mixed bag and I think AMD is aware of this.
 

richierich1212

Platinum Member
Jul 5, 2002
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Originally posted by: BD231
Link

Multiple boards have had this option for a while now so I'm not quite sure how this is news. ACC was a tool for the original Phenom was it not? AMD was responsible for getting the ACC feature implemented in the first place with the original Phenom, so they had to know what they were doing.

With advanced acc, cores show up ranging from core 0 to 3, each with its own set of alterable values (minus or plus). I still say ACC is not that valuable, unlocking cores is a very mixed bag and I think AMD is aware of this.

OP says "The update will allow AMD Phenom II dual cores to allow the choice of not only unlocking an extra one or two cores, but also which core will be unlocked"

ACC on other boards do not allow this.
 

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
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I don't see how that tech differs from the options I posted, my MSI bios allows independent manipulation of each core also. I doubt a phenom II dual core in my setup would remove this option from my bios.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
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How does someone test "unlocked cores" to find out if they were merely disabled or in fact "rejected or bad" cores.

 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,118
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Originally posted by: Just learning
How does someone test "unlocked cores" to find out if they were merely disabled or in fact "rejected or bad" cores.

Unlock the core and go do some online banking! What's the worse that could happen?
 

Eeqmcsq

Senior member
Jan 6, 2009
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It's certainly nice to be able to pick the core you want to keep enabled out of 2 disabled cores. The problem is that according to techreport, the Phenom II X2s are going away, and the Athlon II X2s are their own die, so there won't be CPUs with 2 disabled cores for much longer.
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
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That might be part of the reason AMD doesn't care to prevent this from happening. Soon it will be a non-issue.
 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
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Originally posted by: Eeqmcsq
It's certainly nice to be able to pick the core you want to keep enabled out of 2 disabled cores. The problem is that according to techreport, the Phenom II X2s are going away, and the Athlon II X2s are their own die, so there won't be CPUs with 2 disabled cores for much longer.

better pick up that disabled deneb 5000+ x2 while you can!
 
Apr 20, 2008
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This is incredible. A great feature to say the least.

I am resisting picking up an X2 P2 550 as much as I can. These deals are getting out of hand. AMD certainly is bringing competition back to the table.
 

manimal

Lifer
Mar 30, 2007
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I picked up 4 805 P IIs when they went on clearance at frys. All of them unlocked on my asus in sig. Only two of them unlocked on the 790FX board. Sadly the two 550BEs I build up last month for a friend didnt boot at all on either of my boards with the cores enabled so as always its hit or miss. AMD is using this to clear out less diserable chips and incur some goodwill with the enthusiast crowd. How many of us bought lesser chips on the hope of getting something for nothing? Some less scrupulous types do buy and return-just ask frys how many 720BEs were bought and returned when this stuff came out. I remember seeing quite a few of them in a locked case at my local frys.