Some positive AMD news for a change

[Stuka87]

In my experience, boosting CPU-NB is almost a requirement when clocking AMD's. I have mine at 2400 with my CPU at 4018 (Stock bus, multi at 20x). Oh, and I have my CPU-NB at stock voltage. Core Voltage is at 1.432.

I am happy with it. Runs everything I have thrown at it just fine. Now to upgrade my video card

A Thuban is going to act a bit different.

 

[blckgrffn]

PM me on what you want for that quad, man

I have an AM2 board looking for some love...

 

[formulav8]

The main benefits of NB ocing it that the memory controller speeds up reducing latency, and the L3 cache speeds up as well. I've done some fairly decent tests on cacheless nb ocing and a 600mhz? or so NB oc reduced mc latency about 6% or so and increased overall bandwidth as much. Up to 6%-8% increase in performance in a few applications. Games especially liked the faster memory controller.

You have the potential to increase performance further if you have a cpu with l3 cache. I never did in-depth testing on cache ocing but others report good gains. Just be careful not to go to high because you may get wore performance if the l3 cache is reporting errors to the cpu before it actually gets to the point of crashing. I think I read that somewhere but I don't have a clue where. :\

 

[ElFenix]

stupid 95 watt board D:

makes getting a 6 core expensive

 

[Mloot]

stupid 95 watt board D:

makes getting a 6 core expensive

I was lucky enough to get in on the MC deal a month or two ago where I scored a Phenom II 840 (Athlon, in truth) and motherboard combo for $48 after rebate. Add 4gb ddr3 for $20, and it made a nice, cheap upgrade from my Ph I 9650, which will be used to upgrade the kids/backup pc.

I was so happy to get the deal that I did not research what kind of motherboard I was getting (it was basically free, after all). Turns out it is also a 95w limited board. The 840 is humming along nicely at 3.7 at stock voltages. However, at times I find myself perusing the FS/FT forum, or scanning Slickdeals for a good deal on an X6. That would speed up the video encoding I do a fair bit. Then I have to remind myself that I would not get nearly the ROI that I got with the 840, and would likely end up with buyer's remorse.

 

[thilanliyan]

stupid 95 watt board D:

makes getting a 6 core expensive

What about the 95w 1055t?

 

[ElFenix]

What about the 95w 1055t?

the 95 watt x6's have been hard to come by if your name isn't HP

 

[hdfxst]

the 95 watt x6's have been hard to come by if your name isn't HP

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...f564705cafd1a4 125 dollars isn't bad

 

[jacktesterson]

Why change your board/Ram for DDR3?

Folks, DDR2-800 to DDR3-1600 only gives about a 5% boost in performance. Is that really worth a new motherboard/Ram?

Save your cash.

 

[aigomorla]

WoW didnt i say a X6 upgrade would make AMD people happier then bulldozer upgrade?

:\

Even i have to admit, i pop'd the X6 in my friends system and gave it a slight boost, and she was estatic at how much faster her multi threaded apps were running vs the old X4.

The X6 is a SOLID CPU with an outstanding value... you'll never hear me say different about that cpu.

Id call it the hybrid SUV of cpu's.... its not a race car like intel's, but it wont break your wallet, and give u excellent mpg!

 

[SlowSpyder]

This is likely to be my final OC on this chip. Cores 1,2,3,4 and 6 happily churn at 4.2GHz. Core 5 errors out as it approaches 4.1GHz, so that's my weak spot. Oh well. I might still tweak the NB/L3 as I think I am leaving some performance on the table there. But I'm content here, and I am pushing the ram a bit at 866MHz as it stands, so I'll see how brave I feel another day.

Anyway, here's my likely final OC:

 

[aigomorla]

This is likely to be my final OC on this chip. Cores 1,2,3,4 and 6 happily churn at 4.2GHz.

great OC!

how does it do on CB?

 

[SlowSpyder]

Why change your board/Ram for DDR3?

Folks, DDR2-800 to DDR3-1600 only gives about a 5% boost in performance. Is that really worth a new motherboard/Ram?

Save your cash.

Yea, I know I can get more performance out of a newer setup, my point of this thread was that I feel I got a great value for a drop in replacement. After I sell my PhII 940 this will be a ~$75 upgrade.

If I were going to buy an entirely new system I'd be going with Intel anyway. But as a drop in CPU, I have to say I got my mileage out of this AM2+ board. It's seen a PhI 9850 @ a measly 2.7GHz, a PhII 940 @ 2.4/3.6GHz, and now a PhII 1090T @ 2.6/4.030GHz.

 

[SlowSpyder]

great OC!

how does it do on CB?

Tell me what CB is and I'll let you know.

*edit - Figured it out, Cinebench. Downloading now...

 

[SlowSpyder]

I don't know if this is good or bad, but here is my Cinebench score:

 

[hdfxst]

for reference my 955@3.9 gets 4.54,so i'd say 6.92 is pretty damn good

 

[BD231]

Gulftown status, I keep wanting Sandy Bridge then I keep realizing who needs it with a chip like this? Been on mine for over a year now which I aquired dirt cheap through a trade. Great cpu!

Bull Dozer sucks, end story. Might buy one when its priced accordingly for overclocking and updated memory controller but chance's are BD is not touching this system till its second incarnation.

 

[podspi]

Man, all these X6 OCing threads are really making me tempted to revisit my 1055t OC. Right now it's at stock (updated the BIOS and all my settings vanished) but I've only ever managed to get it to 3.3ghz before things start falling apart. I've also managed to get 3.8ghz w/ 3 cores disabled, but what is the fun in that?

 

[aigomorla]

I don't know if this is good or bad, but here is my Cinebench score:

any score that gives you over a 1:1 ratio in cores vs scores is a good score!

You can see your almost hitting 7 on that cpu on 6 cores, which i call a great score for a cpu which costs sub 200.

Gulftown status, I keep wanting Sandy Bridge then I keep realizing who needs it with a chip like this?

lulz.. the gulftown ive been using already can clock to 2600k speeds with 6 cores.
You see why im holding off on SB-E.

Im actually going to skip a intel generation... :\

 

[Bacstar]

Is it worth upgrading from a PhII 965 BE OC to 3.8ghz to a PhII X6 and if it is, what would be the best version?

I've had the urge to upgrade and was waiting for BD. However, I think, I'll just do a simple CPU upgrade since the performance delta isn't worth a complete platform update...plus it'll be quite a bit cheaper.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Probably not worth it unless you know you need the extra cores. For me it was to try and get a few extra MHz (not enough to justify the money, but I knew I could do better than what I had) and to scratch the upgrade bug more or less.

 

[Bacstar]

Yeah...I looked at some reviews and noticed that it most probably isn't worth it. I'll just have to wait for BD2 and see how that goes. I may have to finally switch over to intel.