phenom 9850 review

[cdawall]

http://www.lostcircuits.com/cpu/amd_phenom9850/

AND FINALLY WITH AN OC on the 9850!

it equals a yorkie 9650 also @ 3.2ghz!

The initial samples we had of the Phenom, that is, the (never released) 9900 and the 9600 Black Edition had some halfway decent headroom but, at least the specimens that found their way into our lab were somewhat unwilling to break the 3 GHz barrier. There is no need to stress any of this, samples are samples and every CPU, especially when it comes to early samples, behaves somewhat differently. The X4 9850 clocked... and clocked .. and clocked.. not always stable but we managed to POST at 3.4GHz using the stock cooler and increasing the core voltage to 1.4V. At 3.3GHz we got into Windows, albeit there was not enough stability to get through all stress tests.

At 3.2 GHz, the X4 9850 was genuinely stable, finishing any stress test we threw at it, from rendering to 3DMark'06 and that is what we want to show as the final figure in this article. No... no need to worry, we won't bother with another CPU-Z screenshot, instead we have the CPU score of 3DMark'06 achieved with the standard air cooler and running at 1.4V core voltage at 3.2 GHz.

i must say it holds its own @ 2.5ghz and hauls ass @ 3.2ghz

 

[jbunch07]

thanks man this is a really in depth review!
looks like ill be gettin one : )

 

[nflesher87]

any idea on price yet? I have a contact for a 9750 B3 if anyone's interested

 

[ShadowFold]

They're 230$ on newegg.

 

[zaqwsx]

They got all of them on newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...Subcategory=343&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

 

[eidairaman1]

lets just hope with every Stepping the CPUs get better and better, i want to see what a Tricore with B3 stepping or higher can do

 

[cdawall]

the tricores are B2 stepping chips so i'm not that sure they will do all that well...

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Hmmm.... interesting stuff. Good t'see a high-end Phenom finally. I'll be looking out for other reviews and comparisons just so I can compare and contrast stuff.

 

[jbunch07]

i wanna see a review with this thing oc'ed to like 3.0ghz or above

 

[trog100]

its all about max clock speed.. i have seen other reviews showing them maxing out about 2.9 gig or less.. but they are getting better..

trog

 

[jbunch07]

its all about max clock speed.. i have seen other reviews showing them maxing out about 2.9 gig or less.. but they are getting better..

trog

troy from extremesystems got his at 3.2 i believe

 

[cdawall]

they need to release a native 3ghz chip

 

[jbunch07]

they need to release a native 3ghz chip

i agree!

 

[cdawall]

i agree!

i give it 2-3months and we will see some 3.2ghz+ chips released

 

[jbunch07]

i give it 2-3months and we will see some 3.2ghz+ chips released

that be so nice!
then i could get one to go with a 4870X2

 

[eidairaman1]

they need to release a native 3ghz chip

what they need to do is go back to the day that Clock speed isnt everything

 

[WarEagleAU]

They have, thats why they havent really busted out many 3.0ghz + chips. I mean you got the x2 6400 and such, but they arent trying to compete with intel with top clocks. They go more on a clock per clock deal. I tell you, a 3.0ghz quad will shut alot of you and other naysayers up (not naming any names mind you ). Personally, Id like them to change up the architecture some. Take what they know they do well, throw out what doesnt and add some new things. IF intel can do it, surely AMD Can.

 

[cdawall]

they must have changed something with the B3 phenoms becaus the review said @ 3.2ghz it was dead even with a 3.2ghz C2Q

 

[gOJDO]

The B3 Phenoms are better for OC-ing than the B2's, but not enough good to make me wish one. Anyway it is good when things are getting better for AMD. I wish their 45nm to arrive sooner and I hope they improve something on K10. Else there would be no cheap Nehalem for me.

i give it 2-3years and we will see some 3.2ghz+ chips released

Fixed the typo for you

 

[cdawall]

i doubt it will take anywhere near that long if they are already clocking that high on multis alone which would mean AMD just needs to rebin the chips

 

[WarEagleAU]

Yeah, rebin and then with the 45 nm, new architecture

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

aha! but its too late! muahhahahahahaha

 

[gOJDO]

i doubt it will take anywhere near that long if they are already clocking that high on multis alone which would mean AMD just needs to rebin the chips

Sorry, but the highest clocked Phenom for this year on the AMD roadmap is the 9950 2.6GHz 140W TDP. It should be released at the end of the year.

Anyway I wonder why are you so sure that AMD can magically release 3.2GHz+ quads over night?
After the release of the first 90nm SOI2 K8(Winchester) in 2004, AMD needed 3 years to release a 3.2GHz 90nm CPU(Windsor 6400+) in 2007.
AMD are producing 65nm CPUs for 1.5 years and so far we have seen only 2.6GHz K8. Why should we expect much higher frequencies from a CPU with 3 times more complex logic?

AMD needed half year to push the frequencies of Phenom from 2.3GHz to 2.5GHz. Why should we expect them to boost the frequency for more than 700MHz for 2 months? By the statistics and by the "law of diminishing results", the further frequency improvement will take more time and will result with lower clock bumps. Such dramatic clock bump(over 30%) for a relatively very short period of time has never happened in the whole semiconductor history. Why should we expect Phenom and 65nm IBM/AMD SOI3 to change that?

On the other hand, you can't forget the fact that Phenom at 2.4GHz is really really hot chip and is causing a lot of difficulties to many boards. Only high-end boards can run Phenom 9850. The power consumption/heat dissipation of a +3.2GHz Phenom will be at least 30% higher if the vCPU is the same as of 9850.

And there are tens(if not hundreds) more reasons why we should stop dreaming about uber-clocked Phenom. On the first AMD roadmaps for 2007, there was a 2.9GHz Phenom. AMD changed their roadmaps for reason and currently on their roadmap the highest clocked Phenom is 2.6GHz. Let's hope that it will OC better and that AMD will deliver it on time.

 

[eidairaman1]

dude SOI is Silicon on Insulator, also there are certain Boards with the NF5 chipset that can run the Phenoms,

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=149

http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_type.php?fMTYPE=Socket+AM2

I believe a few gigabyte models are the same too

 

[suraswami]

They have, thats why they havent really busted out many 3.0ghz + chips. I mean you got the x2 6400 and such, but they arent trying to compete with intel with top clocks. They go more on a clock per clock deal. I tell you, a 3.0ghz quad will shut alot of you and other naysayers up (not naming any names mind you ). Personally, Id like them to change up the architecture some. Take what they know they do well, throw out what doesnt and add some new things. IF intel can do it, surely AMD Can.

Well said Eagle. Good