Friday, July 10th 2009
AMD Staring at 140W Barrier with Phenom II X4 965?
Two of AMD's biggest setbacks with the 65 nm Phenom X4 series were 1. the TLB erratum fiasco with the B2 revision of the chip, and 2. the virtual TDP wall it hit with the 2.60 GHz Phenom X4 9950, at 140W. At that wattage, several motherboards were rendered incompatible with the processor because they lacked the power circuitry that could handle it. The company eventually worked out a lower-wattage 125W variant of the said chip, and went on to never release a higher-clocked processor based on the core.
MSI published the complete CPU support list of its a new BIOS for the 790GX-G65 motherboard a little early, revealing quite some about unreleased AMD processors. At the bottom of the list its the Phenom II X4 965. This 3.40 GHz quad-core chip will succeed the Phenom II X4 955 as AMD next flagship desktop offering. Its TDP is an alarming 140W. Alarming, because this is a chip with a mere 2 unit bus multiplier increment over the Phenom II X4 940, the launch-vehicle for AMD's 45 nm client processor lineup. There are, however, two things to cheer about. RB-C2 is not going to be the only revision of this core, future revisions could bring TDP down, or at least make sure clock-speeds of future models keep escalating, while respecting the 140W mark. A future variant of Phenom II 965 could come with a reduced TDP rating. The list interestingly also goes on to reveal that AMD will have a 95W version of the 3.00 GHz Phenom II X4 945.
Source:
HardwareLuxx.de
MSI published the complete CPU support list of its a new BIOS for the 790GX-G65 motherboard a little early, revealing quite some about unreleased AMD processors. At the bottom of the list its the Phenom II X4 965. This 3.40 GHz quad-core chip will succeed the Phenom II X4 955 as AMD next flagship desktop offering. Its TDP is an alarming 140W. Alarming, because this is a chip with a mere 2 unit bus multiplier increment over the Phenom II X4 940, the launch-vehicle for AMD's 45 nm client processor lineup. There are, however, two things to cheer about. RB-C2 is not going to be the only revision of this core, future revisions could bring TDP down, or at least make sure clock-speeds of future models keep escalating, while respecting the 140W mark. A future variant of Phenom II 965 could come with a reduced TDP rating. The list interestingly also goes on to reveal that AMD will have a 95W version of the 3.00 GHz Phenom II X4 945.
184 Comments on AMD Staring at 140W Barrier with Phenom II X4 965?
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Cheapest i7 combo
www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.213702
Almost $200 difference.
I only have one... :cry:
CPU.... ;)
$18 cheaper, faster.
I like overclocking, but tend to have more fun when undervolting a system making it run as efficiently as it possibly can while using as close to no energy as possible. I wonder what the stable voltage is for an Intel quad in comparison to their stock voltage. For sure they can go lower, but how low I wonder without having to slow the system down or risk instability.
I really think I can get the AMD X2 4050e system I just built for my sister to run almost no voltage at all and still be stable. It should be fun to try out. I'm still working on the X2 7750 setup I just put together for a friend to see if we can get the voltage lower. With my old 9850 Phenom I was able to get down to 1.088v @ 2.7Ghz still using all four cores so I hope maybe with only using those 2 cores we can get lower on the 7750 since it's also a Phenom I family member. :)
Kei
If you bin a Deneb right, you should be able to wiggle down to 125W TDP @ 4Ghz.
3 cores could get 4.3-4.35
2 cores could get 4.5..
1 core should get 5.0
They cant just release chips that work at EXACTLY the needed voltage to save power and heat, without knocking out their biggest buyers.
oh noes i7 runs warm you remember the athlonXP days? before barton, they were hot as hell - intel have got die shrinks and i5 due real soon just like AMD had barton. intel have 32nm chips very close to release, while on the AMD side... they have 140W chips close to release.
AMD fanboys just need to realise that this isnt the P4 days - Intel are ahead.
Remember, my PII is at 3.4Ghz and only kicking out a TDP of about 95-100W
Disabling part of the CPU to remain within TDP is not a viable option with a high end part.