Wait - so there's 2 Phenom 9950 SKU's now?

[SunnyD]

The new "125w" 9950 SKU

Old "140w" 9950 SKU

Maybe a little more overclocking headroom? Or is AMD's process getting better?

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: SunnyD
The new "125w" 9950 SKU

Old "140w" 9950 SKU

Maybe a little more overclocking headroom? Or is AMD's process getting better?

I'm about to find out. I just ordered a 125w 9950 and a 790GX motherboard.

 

[Idontcare]

http://products.amd.com/en-us/...ide.aspx?id=447&id=476

Yep.

It could mean the process is getting better, meaning the average of the TDP distribution for the 2.6GHz SKU has been decreasing enough that they are comfortable throwing away all the 2.6GHz parts that hit >125W TDP.

It could also mean the distribution is the same but they've got more than enough wafers flowing thru the fab producing more than enough 2.6GHz parts to satisify demand such that if they throw away the chips that burn more than 125W then they still have plenty to ship.

Remember that TDP does not mean every chip at that clockspeed is going to burn that much power under the same operating conditions. It just means the most power-hungry (leaky, high resistance, high Vcore, etc) chips at that speedbin will not exceed the TDP under the operating conditions used to define TDP by the supplier.

So even before AMD released this new 125W TDP X4 9950 there were 9950 chips out there from the 140W TDP SKU that only burned 125W (or even less). But it is nice to know you can buy ones now which are "pre-binned" for you to be guaranteed to be in that <125W TDP bin.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
http://products.amd.com/en-us/...ide.aspx?id=447&id=476

Yep.

It could mean the process is getting better, meaning the average of the TDP distribution for the 2.6GHz SKU has been decreasing enough that they are comfortable throwing away all the 2.6GHz parts that hit >125W TDP.

It could also mean the distribution is the same but they've got more than enough wafers flowing thru the fab producing more than enough 2.6GHz parts to satisify demand such that if they throw away the chips that burn more than 125W then they still have plenty to ship.

Remember that TDP does not mean every chip at that clockspeed is going to burn that much power under the same operating conditions. It just means the most power-hungry (leaky, high resistance, high Vcore, etc) chips at that speedbin will not exceed the TDP under the operating conditions used to define TDP by the supplier.

So even before AMD released this new 125W TDP X4 9950 there were 9950 chips out there from the 140W TDP SKU that only burned 125W (or even less). But it is nice to know you can buy ones now which are "pre-binned" for you to be guaranteed to be in that <125W TDP bin.

i doubt they throw away the ones that can't do it at 125 watts.

the only difference between 140 and 125 watt parts is voltage.

its likely they are just selling those "duds" as lower clocked units like 9750s.

 

[CurseTheSky]

It's too bad they couldn't have rolled these out from the beginning. Phenom would have had a bit more hype if they could. The snowball effect from that may have been enough to make Phenom a decent seller.

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: CurseTheSky
It's too bad they couldn't have rolled these out from the beginning. Phenom would have had a bit more hype if they could. The snowball effect from that may have been enough to make Phenom a decent seller.

I seriously doubt if it would've made much difference whether the 9950BE was 125W or 140W to begin with. To this day its biggest stumbling block to market 'acceptance' has been competition from the Q6600, which I'm convinced Intel is keeping on the market soley to spite AMD and hurt their ASPs.

 

[eternalone]

I have the 9950 140 watts and this thing flies I got it for $139 at frys so this new version came a little late for me but you will love this cpu either way. Although I would like to see if there is any performance loss or overclocking ability because of the lower watts, but im sure someone will compare them soon.