Friday, April 16th 2010
Phenom II X4 960T ''Zosma'' Unlock to Phenom II X6
AMD's upcoming series of Phenom II X4 900T series that supports AMD Turbo Core technology, and which are based on the "Zosma" die, have been confirmed to be able to unlock both its manufacturer-disabled cores to work as a six-core processor. Zosma is a "cut-down" version of AMD's Thuban six-core die, where two of its cores are disabled. With the remaining four cores, two can function with increased clock-speeds in boost-state as Turbo cores (3/6 could on the X6 chip).
The core unlocking is said to have been done on an AMD 890GX chipset based motherboard, in the same way disabled cores on Phenom II X3 and X2 chips are unlocked. One of the first models based on Zosma are the Phenom II X4 960T and X4 940T, which operate at 3.30 GHz and 3.00 GHz, respectively. Their Turbo Core speeds are up to 500 MHz over clock speeds, depending on the model. The X4 T-series could form AMD's mainstream processor in the sub-$200 range.
Source:
OCWorkbench
The core unlocking is said to have been done on an AMD 890GX chipset based motherboard, in the same way disabled cores on Phenom II X3 and X2 chips are unlocked. One of the first models based on Zosma are the Phenom II X4 960T and X4 940T, which operate at 3.30 GHz and 3.00 GHz, respectively. Their Turbo Core speeds are up to 500 MHz over clock speeds, depending on the model. The X4 T-series could form AMD's mainstream processor in the sub-$200 range.
120 Comments on Phenom II X4 960T ''Zosma'' Unlock to Phenom II X6
890FX is better for overclocking.
By the way, assuming CPU is 3ghz turbo will net you a 16.5% increase not 50%.
I'd like to explore how that works, so this chip is very interesting to me. So much so..I'll give you 965BE for it.
So really, I don't REALLY want it ...playing with it might be fun. But it might be NOT fun too...:laugh:..the chip might NOT unlock.
I pretty much run stock 24/7 because of my environment, and temps(using stock cooler, even). Seems Crossfire needs an OC, but really, I think that's asinine. I think i might be making a change in Intel very soon...only thing holding me back ATM is my 4x2gb mem...cost too much for me to buy another set for 1366. Problably won't be able to find another set of hypers.
I'm also interested in how Turbo, at stock, might affect Crossfire performance.
Once colder, sure, 1.275v, no problem, but need to keep load under 48c.
:banghead:
Hence me willing to play with other chips...what I've got now is absolute crap, in my house.
Thanks for the advice, but trust me...I definately know what to do when it comes to overclocking. Probably moreso than most, given my "skills" in memory tweaking. I can't even got 3500mhz outta this chip on the stock cooler, and stock volts. It being a 965BE really has no reflection on how good the chip might be.
Must suck to have such a crappy chip, I'd have gotten rid of it by now.
Overclocking is something I lost interest in some time ago. Unfortunately, testing shows that 965BE @ stock is not sufficient to push 5870 Crossfire, but learning that was well worth any "crappyness" that this chip may have.
And sry, you posted OT, just to try to give advice, to someone that doesn't need it. I'm not bragging, just stating a fact. Anyone that spends some decent time tweaking can do that same, hence the quotations aorund "skill"..I do not see it as any skill. It's really not hard to change a setting, and test the effects. you may think it's me bragging, when really, any "skill" in overclocking, to me, is a joke.
But in the end, yes, because this cpu isn't a "stellar" chip, my interest in 960T remains fairly high. I don't think it will offer the performacne the rest of my system needs...and unfortunately, it seems no AMD chip, at stock, will meet the needs of 5870 Crossfire.
I have 1090T here, have for many months now...still waiting for the CH4Extreme, as I mentioned earlier...maybe that might be better...but...I'd much rather have the direct compare of a Deneb vs Thuban, @ natural 4core. Also, the compare of how disabled cores affects performacne, might be interesting too.
Seems kinda odd that they have named it 960T, given the clockspeeds, too...IMHO should be called 940T.
ya gotta wonder about the binning process too...is it downbinned for bad cores...or maybe bad IMC...or NB? Quite an interesting chip, to me.
Any guides on this?
Probably going to get the microcenter motherboard today since it's close by.
I don't want to do anything that can possibly damage the CPU at all though.
I have a couple people interested in it and I don't see the need to keep it unless it's actually capable of unlocking to 6 cores (or 5 even like you said)
edit: probably getting this, since it's 15 minutes away
www.frys.com/product/6250080?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
MSI 870A-G54 AMD 870 AM3 Motherboard
$90 after rebate
"OC Genie and Unlock CPU Core"
"stable core unlock function, overclocking capability"
should do the trick, yeah?
not sure if it supports turbo or not etc etc tho