The weirdest Athlon

[cebalrai]

Definitely the Athlon II X4 631.

It's a Llano APU with the GPU side either turned off or more likely defective. It's an odd duck in a lot of ways, largely because it only works in FM1 boards. It's also got twice the L2 cache of every other Athlon.

I'm curious about some possible upside with this chip in terms of value though. It's clocked at a modest 2.7 ghz, however it's manufactured on a 32 nm process where half the chip isn't generating heat. Could this be the most overclockable Athlon ever? Assuming FM1 boards continue to drop in price is there some serious value potential here?

Anyone ever see one of these in action?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103945

 

[mosox]

Looks like it's not a Llano CPU, could it be a 32nm Athlon II for the Llano socket?

http://lenzfire.com/2011/08/a-glimp...00-athlon-ii-x4-631-desktop-processors-32978/

- review (glad somebody bothers to review the FM1 CPUs):

http://en.expreview.com/2011/08/26/athlon-ii-x4-631-worth-for-choice-or-not/18910.html

AMD seems to always start at lower core speeds, if this CPU can gain 1GHz+ with OC imagine what a 3.0 GHz FM1 Athlon will do.

Also Black Edition Llano APU soon

http://lenzfire.com/2011/09/amd-socket-fm1-llano-a8-3870k-black-edition-listed-11943/

Probably the FM1 will have Black edition Phenoms as well. Very interesting socket, too bad it's being ignored by many reviewers.

 

[RobertPters77]

FM1 will be dead in a few months when trinity is released.

Rumors are that trinity will require FM2 socket and may or may not be backwards compatible with FM1.

 

[mosox]

You mean FM1 will be like any Intel socket out there, 1156, 1366, etc?

 

[RU482]

100W...wtf?

 

[namegame]

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-Athlon%20II%20X4%20631%20-%20AD631XWNZ43GX%20(AD631XWNGXBOX).html

 

[Arachnotronic]

1366 lasted 3 years, and got a 6 core CPU added later on in life.

 

[sangyup81]

Reference clocks haven't been going over 145-150MHz on FM1 boards and usually lose functionality anyways when they get higher.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

It generally beats athlon 640, which is 3ghz. Not bad... So IPC of 631 compared to 640 is about 4-7% better. But I still do not understand where 100W TDP is coming from.

 

[sm625]

That is AMD overprovisioning. I bet this chip would make a great budget gaming system. For those who want no integrated gpu and also dont want the power hungry igp on the AM3.

I'm sure it will undervolt and overclock to match an i3 in power and general performance.

 

[zlejedi]

You mean FM1 will be like any Intel socket out there, 1156, 1366, etc?

More like socket 754 (isn't it interesting AMD fanboys always forget about this one ? )

 

[nemesismk2]

More like socket 754 (isn't it interesting AMD fanboys always forget about this one ? )

don't remind me about socket 754 because I got caught

 

[mosox]

More like socket 754 (isn't it interesting AMD fanboys always forget about this one ? )

Wow, straight to "fanboy"? I wouldn't know about 754, I was running Intel. Now I'm running a Ph II 555 unlocked into a quad if you ever purchased a better bang for the buck Intel CPU I will buy you a new PC.

Even today with Sandy Bridge and all, take a look at this

http://paulisageek.com/compare/cpu/

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html

 

[sangyup81]

More like socket 754 (isn't it interesting AMD fanboys always forget about this one ? )

Don't hate on the Socket 754. AMD quietly released mobile CPUs like the Turion 64 on the Socket 754 so my old Socket 754 mobo made for an excellent low power setup which is something you couldn't get on the socket 939 or 478 at the time.

 

[pantsaregood]

Socket 754 didn't get abandoned in the same way Intel tends to abandon platforms. It received 90nm CPUs despite the fact it was phased out by the time they came along.

 

[cebalrai]

That is AMD overprovisioning. I bet this chip would make a great budget gaming system. For those who want no integrated gpu and also dont want the power hungry igp on the AM3.

I'm sure it will undervolt and overclock to match an i3 in power and general performance.

This is what I was thinking too. Might build one.

 

[Medikit]

Hey guys, you don't need to identify with your CPU company. Your computer doesn't represent you or the person you're talking to on the internet. It's just one of the tools you are presently using to communicate.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Hey guys, you don't need to identify with your CPU company. Your computer doesn't represent you or the person you're talking to on the internet. It's just one of the tools you are presently using to communicate.

way to spoil their fun !

 

[sangyup81]

Hey guys, you don't need to identify with your CPU company. Your computer doesn't represent you or the person you're talking to on the internet. It's just one of the tools you are presently using to communicate.

It does represent your experience in cpu technology. The worst thing about fanboys is the way they act like they know all about using the other company's products when it's totally obvious they've never used anything but the products of the company they are fanboying for.

 

[Tikerz]

Hey guys, you don't need to identify with your CPU company. Your computer doesn't represent you or the person you're talking to on the internet. It's just one of the tools you are presently using to communicate.

LOL

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

It's a Llano APU with the IGP portion of the die disabled. It's not a 32nm die shrink of the Propus die.

 

[Concillian]

That is AMD overprovisioning. I bet this chip would make a great budget gaming system. For those who want no integrated gpu and also dont want the power hungry igp on the AM3.

I'm sure it will undervolt and overclock to match an i3 in power and general performance.

How is FM1 overclocking? I thought the platform had some issues with OCs.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

How is FM1 overclocking? I thought the platform had some issues with OCs.

The APUs, yes. The CPUs, we don't know. The problem with overclocking is the same as Sandy Bridge without Turbo: everything is very tightly integrated, making OCing a mess. That's not the case for the new Llano CPUs since the IGP portion is disabled, so we'll see. In any case, $90 for this Quad-Core and $60-70 for a cheap FM1 motherboard isn't a bad deal if you need a CPU for multi-threaded workloads that aren't too extensive.

 

[SonicIce]

754 reporting in

 

[tweakboy]

Very educational thread. I wonder what that will OC too, or will FM1 limit,,, thx gl