The AM3 Club

[EastCoasthandle]

I wanted to create a thread that will discuss:
-best CPU overclocks
-inform users of what ram offers the best performance
-best featured, overclocking motherboards
-best cooling solutions be it air or otherwise
and overall a place were folk can discuss their AM3 experiences that would help others to:
-how to achieve stability
-post bios settings to show others how to overclock
-etc

When posting your Bios Setup use the format below or similar format applicable to your bios: (wording may differ from one make/model to another)

MB Make and Model:
Name of CPU:

CPU Clock Ratio:
CPU NorthBridge Freq:
CPU Host Clock Control:
CPU Frequency (MHz):
PCIE Clock (MHZ):
HT Link Freq:
Set Memory Clock:
Drame Configuration:
System Voltage Control:
DDR3 Voltage Control:
NB Voltage Control:
SB/HT Voltage Control:
NB/PCIe/PLL Voltage Control:
CPU NB VID Control:
CPU Voltage Control:
Normal CPU Vcore:
CPU Host Clock Control:


Memory Clock:
DDR3 Timing:
1T/2T Command Timing

Virtualization (Enabled, Disabled)
AMD K8 Cool&Quiet Control (Enabled, Disabled)

Time Frame:
Phenom II X4 910 2.6GHz 8MB Deneb AM3 Feb, 2009
Phenom II X4 925 2.8GHz 8MB Deneb AM3 Feb, 2009
Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz 8MB Deneb AM3 Apr, 2009

 

[PaulieG]

I wanted to create a thread that will discuss:
-best CPU overclocks
-inform users of what ram offers the best performance
-best featured, overclocking motherboards
-best cooling solutions be it air or otherwise
and overall a place were folk can discuss their AM3 experiences that would help others to:
-how to achieve stability
-post bios settings to show others how to overclock
-etc

When posting your Bios Setup use the format below or similar format applicable to your bios: (wording may differ from one make/model to another)



Time Frame:
Phenom II X4 910 2.6GHz 8MB Deneb AM3 Feb, 2009
Phenom II X4 925 2.8GHz 8MB Deneb AM3 Feb, 2009
Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz 8MB Deneb AM3 Apr, 2009

Hey man. Have you seem that Gigabyte board anywhere yet? The Asus board supports AM3, but it is NOT DDR3. It is currently available.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

They actually have it up on their website complete with manual download, etc. IMO, it's only a matter of time before it's made available.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Taking a quick peep at the manual I was pleasantly surprised that Jetway did their own benchmark review and posted the results. If you want to see all of them you will have to download the manual. However here are the gaming results.

AMD PhenomⅡ 940
DRAM: DDR II 1066 1GB*2
VGA Card: onboard(HD3300)
OS: winxp+sp3 (en)
UT2003 Benchmark (flyby/botmatch) 19.496958/134.963776/251.091202/135.045868
Quake3 DEMO1 /DEMO2 FPS 619.4/62.07
DOOM 3 FPS 95.0
Super Pi (1M) Second 22.96s
CPUZ System / CPU Clock 3000.3MHZ


CPU: AMD AM3 925
DRAM: DDR III 1333 1GB*2
VGA Card: onboard(HD3300)
OS: winxp+sp3 (en)
UT2003 Benchmark (flyby/botmatch) 28.933/131.817/244.0370/131.8953
Quake3 DEMO1 /DEMO2 FPS 616.6/608.0
DOOM 3 FPS 98.6
Super Pi (1M) Second 24.360
CPUZ System / CPU Clock 2800.4MHZ

 

[hooj]

I'm raring to go AM3 !

 

[Silverel]

Any idea which model of the DDR3 procs will be the BE?

 

[KBD]

good idea. even though i dont own an AMD CPU right now but i'm an AMD supporter and most likely will be going AM3 on my next upgrade during the 2nd half of this year.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Any idea which model of the DDR3 procs will be the BE?

Hmm, I haven't come across anything yet. I would guess it would be either the 945 or 950 unless they have something else planned.

 

[Super XP]

The Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz 8MB Deneb AM3 looks impressive.
Here is the Asus M4A79 Deluxe based on the Socket AM2+. So Asus is releasing both AM3 and AM2+ based mobo's.
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=021337&cid=MB.350

Asus M4A79 Deluxe
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=149&l3=789&l4=0&model=2764&modelmenu=2

 

[1Kurgan1]

Taking a quick peep at the manual I was pleasantly surprised that Jetway did their own benchmark review and posted the results. If you want to see all of them you will have to download the manual. However here are the gaming results.

AMD PhenomⅡ 940
DRAM: DDR II 1066 1GB*2
VGA Card: onboard(HD3300)
OS: winxp+sp3 (en)
UT2003 Benchmark (flyby/botmatch) 19.496958/134.963776/251.091202/135.045868
Quake3 DEMO1 /DEMO2 FPS 619.4/62.07
DOOM 3 FPS 95.0
Super Pi (1M) Second 22.96s
CPUZ System / CPU Clock 3000.3MHZ


CPU: AMD AM3 925
DRAM: DDR III 1333 1GB*2
VGA Card: onboard(HD3300)
OS: winxp+sp3 (en)
UT2003 Benchmark (flyby/botmatch) 28.933/131.817/244.0370/131.8953
Quake3 DEMO1 /DEMO2 FPS 616.6/608.0
DOOM 3 FPS 98.6
Super Pi (1M) Second 24.360
CPUZ System / CPU Clock 2800.4MHZ

That is useless info. They are running the Proc's at different speeds and the memory too... Would be nice to see the processors at the same speed and the memory both sitting at 1066.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

That is useless info. They are running the Proc's at different speeds and the memory too... Would be nice to see the processors at the same speed and the memory both sitting at 1066.

I didn't find this useless at all.
-This is not a full bloom review
-The speed between processors are fine. We are talking about 2 different CPUs here. One that can use DDR2 & DDR3 and one that can only use DDR2. Therefore, even if speeds were the same that would be useless when comparing DDR2 and DDR3 based setups.

It will be interesting to see what the results are once a full bloom review is released for public view.

 

[Super XP]

I didn't find this useless at all.
-This is not a full bloom review
-The speed between processors are fine. We are talking about 2 different CPUs here. One that can use DDR2 & DDR3 and one that can only use DDR2. Therefore, even if speeds were the same that would be useless when comparing DDR2 and DDR3 based setups.

It will be interesting to see what the results are once a full bloom review is released for public view.

Benching identical systems with 2 x Phenom II's at the same speed w/ one running 4GB of DDR2-1066 and 4GB of DDR3-1333 is probably the best way to determine whether jumping to DDR3 is worth the time and money right now. I think CPU's need to be the same speed. Ram on the other hand is a different story.

 

[Darknova]

I'm waiting on the X3 720BE release. It's already advertised on a UK website at £130, hopefully I'll be able to afford one by then

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Benching identical systems with 2 x Phenom II's at the same speed w/ one running 4GB of DDR2-1066 and 4GB of DDR3-1333 is probably the best way to determine whether jumping to DDR3 is worth the time and money right now. I think CPU's need to be the same speed. Ram on the other hand is a different story.

I disagree. It's better to:
1st obtain results from it's standard clock.
2nd obtain results from it's safest OC on Air.

We are benchmarking platforms not CPUs. Now if you could use a PII 940 with DDR3 1600 ram, that's another story. The PII 925 would have to use DDR2 and compare it to the PII 940 at the same clock rate not the other way around.

If I am not mistaken, this is what the PII DDR3 capable CPUs are:
AMD Phenom II X4 925 is 2.8GHz, 8MB Cache
AMD Phenom II X4 910 is 2.6GHz, 8MB Cache
AMD Phenom II X4 810 is 2.6GHz, 6MB Cache
AMD Phenom II X4 805 is 2.5GHz, 6MB Cache
AMD Phenom II X3 720 is 2.8GHz, 7.5MB Cache
AMD Phenom II X3 710 is 2.6GHz, 7.5MB Cache

The PII DDR2 only CPUs are:
Phenom II X4 920........................2.8 GHz.....4x 512 KB.....6 MB.....1.8 GHz.....14x.....0.875 - 1.5 V.....125 W
Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition.......3.0 GHz.....4x 512 KB.....6 MB.....1.8 GHz.....15x.....0.875 - 1.5 V.....125 W

 

[Super XP]

I understand your point but this is why CPU's should be benched with identical speeds. Whether one needs to be OC’ed to match the other of visa versa.

The same applies when benching the Phenom II vs. the new Core i7 or the older Core 2, they should be benched at the same speed.

But for RAM we have no choice because DDR2 runs tighter latencies where as DDR3 runs faster overall raw speed with higher latencies. I am not sure if either one compensates each other in order to get almost identical platforms but in my opinion this is fair benchmarking.

Just a note:
New AM3 based CPU’s have Dual-IMC’s DDR2-1066 and DDR3-1333 and run at 2,000MHz Hyper Transport Speed. So the AM3 CPU should be a little faster than the AM2+ CPU on a AM2+ based platform.

 

[Darknova]

I agree with both of you heh.

To get an idea on whether DDR3 is better than DDR2 you need to use the same CPU clocked to the same speed, so any performance gain will be solely based on the RAM.

To get an idea which chip is better, run at stock, then highest OC.

 

[Super XP]

I agree with both of you heh.

To get an idea on whether DDR3 is better than DDR2 you need to use the same CPU clocked to the same speed, so any performance gain will be solely based on the RAM.

To get an idea which chip is better, run at stock, then highest OC.

I clearly wanted to take the CPU speed out of the equation.
That is what I was trying to explain, thanks. Though I do think the overall system platform as a whole will benefit in overall performance with faster memory but higher latencies vs. lower latencies and slower ram speed. I can see the Phenom II scaling very well with DDR3-1600 to DDR3-2000 vs. DDR2’s max 1200MHz though you will have to manually adjust the bios to make sure the ram is running at that high speed and compensating to make sure the Phenom II does not because it’s not supported.

I’ve run 4GB of DDR2-800 vs. DDR2-1000 vs. DDR2-1066 vs. DDR2-1200 on my earlier Phenom X4 9850 OC’ed to 2.75 GHz. I’ve had to adjust the HTT and NB speed to make sure the Phenom ran stable.

After doing a series of CPU, Ram and Hard Drive Benchmarks via Sis Sandra Soft 2008 sp1 I’ve notices that I did not get that much of a Ram performance increase but the CPU performance increase was really great. It just seems to me Phenom I & II’s scale very well with higher speed ram for better overall system performance.

And this is what I think EastCoasthandle meant. I think?

 

[EastCoasthandle]

The problem is you can never have a pure CPU test. AM3 CPUs use a DDR3 memory controller while the other doesn't. AM3 offer more cache, the other doesn't. There are way to many disparities to expect any tangible meaning when comparing AM2+ to AM3 at the same clock speed. What you are doing is testing platforms not CPUs which can be interpreted incorrectly as CPU results.

That's why it's more important to gather data 1st:
1. Get the results at stock speed
2. Get the best overclock and obtain results
3. When using AM3 get the highest ram possible, using the lowest latency possible
4. etc

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I agree with both of you heh.

To get an idea on whether DDR3 is better than DDR2 you need to use the same CPU clocked to the same speed, so any performance gain will be solely based on the RAM.

To get an idea which chip is better, run at stock, then highest OC.

This pretty much wraps up what I was saying. You can't view running the same clock speeds between CPUs as a test between CPUs but a test between platforms. Again, if you want to know what a PII 925 does against a PII 940 at the same clock speed both would need to use AM2+ platforms. Not the other way around.

 

[Marineborn]

that asus board shall be mine!!! *clenches fist and screamz* man i cant wait to get some screaming dast ddr3

 

[EastCoasthandle]

AM3 motherboards are rumored to be out tomorrow. Not sure how true that is but we will see in less then 24 hours.

 

[Super XP]

This pretty much wraps up what I was saying. You can't view running the same clock speeds between CPUs as a test between CPUs but a test between platforms. Again, if you want to know what a PII 925 does against a PII 940 at the same clock speed both would need to use AM2+ platforms. Not the other way around.

I agree that we should be testing platforms. But we both know once the CPU's in those platforms have different speeds it will indead sway the benchmarks. The same thing applies with graphics, the faster the CPU core clock the better graphics cards scale in performance.

 

[Super XP]

More AM3 with DDR3 to come in April
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11880&Itemid=35

Slow DDR3 performance with the newer AM3 based CPU's and chipset combos. I think AMD might delay a little longer just so they can tweak the AM3 platform.

 

[MilkyWay]

I'm waiting on the X3 720BE release. It's already advertised on a UK website at £130, hopefully I'll be able to afford one by then

thats what i was gonna do plus i dont really need a board with crossfire or sli but i might get a board that can do that hybrid sli coz i have a gtx260 save a lot of power that way

although if the amd boards are better, damn im confused

if i get the x3 ill be able to afford a board and cpu for under £200 which is a nice upgrade
everything else can stay in my pc

 

[Super XP]

Nvidia will have a hard time beating AMD's uncoming Dragon based chipset. I think Nvidia is too involved with building there own x86 CPU even though they will never get a licence from Intel to acually be able to sell it to anybody.