Phenom II at 6+ GHz: How AMD May Have Done It

[btarunr]

A couple of weeks ago, at the AMD Austin Tech Day event, the company stunned the computer enthusiast community, by presenting to the press, the overclocking capabilities of the upcoming Phenom II X4 processor. The enginners managed to boot the machine at CPU speeds in excess of 6 GHz, 6.213 GHz to be precise. A close-up snap of a portion of the CPU-Z window showing the overclock, made its way to AMD's own photostream at Flickr, among other pictures related to the event.

The picture reveals the clock speed at 6213.6 MHz, bus speed at 200 MHz, FSB multiplier at an unreal 31.0x and resulting HyperTransport link speed at 1002.2 MHz. This would mean that they may have dropped down the HT link multiplier (normally 200 x 10.0 for the Phenom II X4 940) to 5x. We already know from previous reports that the vCore was set around 1.90 Volts, and that a copper pot with liquid nitrogen was used to cool the chip. The motherboard used, from the pictures, appears to be Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H, which is based on the AMD 790GX + SB750 chipset. For more pictures, browse through the photostream. More pictures could be added to the stream once the NDA lifts on December 14.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

Many Thanks to HTC for submitting this.

 

[HTC]

Many Thanks to HTC for submitting this.

You're welcome!

Though this high speed doesn't have, yet, a CPU-ID validation, this other one, @ 4.4GHz does:

http://valid.canardpc.com/records.php

Check the AMD K10 CPU frequency record.

 

[szulmizan]

yeah.. AMD starting their engine..
enthusiast will love this cpu.. Will wait 4 AM3 cpu..

 

[HTC]

IMO, the reason no higher then 4.4 GHz has a CPU-Z validation is obvious: they want to keep it under wraps, much like the R770 was before it was launched.

If they managed to get that pic of CPU-Z, they entered windows and, even if it wasn't stable @ that speed, just reducing it to say ... 5.5 GHz should have given it enough stability to do so, no?

 

[LiveOrDie]

what the big deal on this benches or what, not ever person has watercooling or dry ice lol

 

[btarunr]

what the big deal on this benches or what, not ever person has watercooling or dry ice lol

You can do ~4 GHz with air-cooling.

 

[HTC]

what the big deal on this benches or what, not ever person has watercooling or dry ice lol

It's to put pressure on Intel: they have to be wondering how a 6 GHz CPU from AMD will perform and if AMD is getting ready to do a R770 part 2, so to speak.

Just because it reaches 6 GHz, doesn't mean that it will perform as good as i7 @ 6 GHz: i need to see some benches of that before i draw any conclusions.

 

[laszlo]

You can do ~4 GHz with air-cooling.

and blast c2c...

 

[sno.lcn]

Thanks, this answered at least a few questions I had.

I'm definitely looking forward to freezing one of these

 

[WarEagleAU]

Wow awesome, even more so for that mulitplier. I cannot wait for this to drop!

 

[cool_recep]

Notice that only the frequency part of the CPU-Z is shown... But I am sure AMD is coming tough!

 

[LiveOrDie]

You can do ~4 GHz with air-cooling.

i guess its big for amd because of there run and the past cpu dont oc that well, im glad i got a x58 board mite get a ati video next, i wanna see what come out on top

 

[REVHEAD]

i guess its big for amd because of there run and the past cpu dont oc that well, im glad i got a x58 board mite get a ati video next, i wanna see what come out on top

Get some water cooling and rip in

 

[johnnyfiive]

Man, I'm so giddy for Deneb. What a BADASS feat!

 

[mdm-adph]

It's damn amazing to do that with an AMD chip. And all on a board that only costs $140. Kudos, guys.

 

[CDdude55]

This makes me want to go get a AMD mobo, yet i am still happy with my QX6700.

I only game no benchies for me.

 

[CyberDruid]

I just might have to build an AMD rig next year...it's all about OCing for me...I like to punish the silicon.

 

[HTC]

I just might have to build an AMD rig next year...it's all about OCing for me...I like to punish the silicon.

You sadistic b@st@rd, you ...

 

[LiveOrDie]

im going to wait and see pictures are just pictures, could be running at 6ghz but could be slower than a i7 at 5Ghz lol

 

[MarcusTaz]

This makes me want to go get a AMD mobo, yet i am still happy with my QX6700.

I only game no benchies for me.

If it is just gaming you do, like myself I doubt you will see any performance increases... I say, save your money, but if you have it to burn then go for it. I think we will see real performance boosts when all the software developers start writing their code to take advantage of all the multi cores procs.

This is great news for us? Rock on AMD this should give Intel a run for their money, hopefully force them to cut their prices and not gouge us... Yea for free market!!!

 

[Oohway]

Wow, 6Ghz. Very impressive. Now let's see Intel's counterback

 

[PCpraiser100]

Hmmm, I'm getting this mobo once Phenom II gets its awards...

6GHz, wow, looks like Intel won't be too happy if Phenom II gets the performance crown for next year.

 

[lemonadesoda]

meh

6Ghz. WOW. Impressive.

BUT, TBH, I really dont know what all the fuss is over Liquid Nitrogen cooled, multipler hacked, one-minute-only computing.

I can get an old Ford pickup, stick an aviation rocket engine in the back, and pull a hell of a stunt... for about 10 seconds before the thing disintegrates.

REAL WORLD computing performance is what wins in my books. Anything else is teenage wet fantasy.

And until AMD can get a CPU on air (or water) in a normal case to beat an i7 on air (or water) in a normal case, then Intel remains The King.

 

[btarunr]

Well, that's the fun with overclocking. It's like drag-racing. You're at that zomg speed only for minutes, enough to run some bench or grab a few screenshots.