Sunday, September 18th 2011

AMD's Bulldozer 8.4GHz+ OC Achievement: Cooled to Near-Absolute Zero

AMD's Bulldozer 8.4 GHz+ OC Achievement: Cooled to Near-Absolute Zero

TechPowerUp recently brought you news on AMDs fantastic overclocking achievement with their new processors. Now we can tell you how it was done: cherry-picking the chips and slapping on some water cooling isn't quite enough. AMDs new processors can operate at much lower temperatures without displaying the "cold bug" - where it just gives up and goes home - and performance scales very well at super-low temperatures. The problem is that the cold affects lots of things such as timing, but more importantly, power circuits, which stop switching and just fry everything in sight - surely one to avoid. AMD senior manager of social media, Simon Solotko explains in detail how it was all done, using both liquid helium and liquid nitrogen to make the poor processor really cold. The new processor had these great qualities, according to Solotko:
It was able to take a lot of voltage, extremely low temperatures, extremely high frequencies," he said. "It was very durable under extreme overclocking. So that was awesome. So it worked well, it scaled well, it responded to cold well - all the right variables.
This overclock is an impressive feat and it will be interesting to see if Intel can match it.
Source: The Register
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116 Comments on AMD's Bulldozer 8.4GHz+ OC Achievement: Cooled to Near-Absolute Zero

#101
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
Whole thing is, we see wut the 1st gen Bulldozer is capable of, now we shall see how Bulldozer-E is next year
Steven Bi don't think anyone said bulldozer wouldn't OC well, a 4.8ghz or so turbo(i am unsure of the actual turbo number but i think it was 4.8 or 4.4ghz) shows that a CPU can do 4.8 or 4.4*ghz under manufacturer specs means its going to OC very high, and AMD not really having issues with cold means that you can expect some very high frequencies.

I just hope that these can bench at 7ghz consistently(also AMD later batches tend to be better than ES, just because the processing tech gets better(llano for example)), and hopefully be able to beat a 6ghz SB-E, if AMD can pull that off, 1ghz higher, same core numbers or even higher. If they can pull that off, average joes will buy them up and OC them to hell and not spend a fraction of what they would spend on a SB-E system. that is just the truth, AMD has beaten Intel before, if anyone here is old enough to remember the P4 days, AMD rocked, Then Intel gained room. I left the OC sense when Intel sucked, and my P4 561 held its own WR(still does), i come back and Intel is way ahead, now maybe the tides will turn. From what I have seen ambient temps and so Intel is far ahead, even with bulldozer, but this gives AMD a chance to win over the extreme overclockers.
Posted on Reply
#102
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
lashtonConsidering you are correcting everyone else, this was done on LN2 AND LHe, you may want to read the original article again!
no the final overclock was done on LHe there was no LN2 in the pot during the final clock. LN2 is used to bring the initial temps down so there isn't as much of a drastic drop leading to cracks fatigue etc. roughly the pot was brought down ~ -180C using LN2 and then the LHe is added to drop temps down to ~ -240C. do you have any other things you think i said incorrectly or would you just prefer i was more specific in my next posts?
Posted on Reply
#103
Super XP
Aren't these Bulldozer CPU's being tested the B0 stepping, the very first CPU's? The B1 or newer is probably the versions AMD is going to release sometime in Oct. 2011...
Posted on Reply
#104
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
Bulldozer-E is on a new socket totally which AMD will stick with for sometime. I suspect early Models of Bulldozer-E will be AM3+ but at that time the second set will be soley on the new socket (supposedly FM2)
Posted on Reply
#105
Super XP
eidairaman1Bulldozer-E is on a new socket totally which AMD will stick with for sometime. I suspect early Models of Bulldozer-E will be AM3+ but at that time the second set will be soley on the new socket (supposedly FM2)
So in that case do we wait for Bulldozer-E with the new socket and chipset or we dive into Bulldozer once it gets released this Oct. 2011?
Posted on Reply
#106
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
I say its optional but if the numbers do show its an improvement over PH2 n the turbo core function is higher why not upgrade. My Bros machine will get the upgrade once the final AM3+ Bulldozer Hits the shevles n is discontinued n that machine will then have 32GB ram if they ever release 8 GB DDR3 Modules
Posted on Reply
#107
heky
Super XPSo in that case do we wait for Bulldozer-E
Sure, but the way things are going for AMD, you will wait till 2015.:laugh:
Posted on Reply
#108
xenocide
hekySure, but the way things are going for AMD, you will wait till 2019
Fixed that for you.
Posted on Reply
#109
Imsochobo
tricksonMine was on a Intel CPU . In-fact the one I have now . I could not break 4.0GHz with any of my AMD chips . :shadedshu
I was able to break 4ghz on a phenom 9850 with WATER! ;)

My phenom II 940 CRAPPY non cherry picked edition did 4.1 ghz, a friend of mine did 4.3
Posted on Reply
#110
xenocide
ImsochoboI was able to break 4ghz on a phenom 9850 with WATER! ;)

My phenom II 940 CRAPPY non cherry picked edition did 4.1 ghz, a friend of mine did 4.3
The previous record of 8.3Ghz~ was on a Netburst Celeron.
Posted on Reply
#111
Imsochobo
xenocideThe previous record of 8.3Ghz~ was on a Netburst Celeron.
this was on air.

ehm, even athlon 64's is able to do 4ghz with dry ice.
Phenom II does 5.5 ghz with ease on dry ice.

Netburst chips is like, 6 ghz, thats nothing. I guess bulldozer will be the same, but they are made by nature to allow latencies and such.
I've heard IPC and real life speed per mhz is increased however not on par with intel, but they will be having very high clocks, I think they're gonna be rather competetive for the first time in decades, lets hope things happen quicker in the cpu world onwards.
Posted on Reply
#112
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
netburst is all, OMG MHz followed by OH CRAP SOLITAIRE, LAAGGGGGG
Posted on Reply
#113
Completely Bonkers
Netburst is good for Health and Safety. That lag is by design: Work a bit, lag, so get up, walk around, have a coffee, take a short break. ;-P
Posted on Reply
#114
xenocide
ImsochoboI've heard IPC and real life speed per mhz is increased however not on par with intel, but they will be having very high clocks, I think they're gonna be rather competetive for the first time in decades
Decades? They were competitive in terms of performance as recently as 6 years ago...
Posted on Reply
#115
Super XP
Netburst was a pile of garbage and greatly lacked innovation. To help hide the bottlenecks, you jacked up the speed. Bulldozer has nothing to do with Netburst regardless of the length of the pipes.
Posted on Reply
#116
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
xenocideDecades? They were competitive in terms of performance as recently as 6 years ago...
AMD dominated with K8 Till Intel got their act together with Core 2, AMD was hampered by first Gen K10 but fixed it but was too late with K10 Rev 2.
Posted on Reply
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