ASRock — the budget-conscious offshoot of Asus — has confirmed the oft-rumored Phenom II X4 965 by dropping it into the list of CPUs certified for their range of AM2+ and AM3 motherboards.
As can be seen in the following table, the 965 is a 3.4GHz Black Edition part which means unlocked multipliers abound.
The 3.4GHz Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
Ed Bott recently touched upon a growing concern that many modern Intel CPUs will not support the highly-touted Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 as a seemingly random assortment of Intel’s current offerings do not carry hardware virtualization, a requirement of XPM. AMD processors also contain hardware virtualization in a form known as AMD-V. We’ve moved to assemble a list of modern AMD processors that can and cannot run Windows 7’s upcoming virtualized Windows XP.
Click the jump to check the table, and verify your CPU’s support by taking a look at the circled elements in CPU-Z.
This G2-stepping Brisbane Athlon 64 X2 supports AMD-V
In early March we reported that it was possible to enable the fourth core of a Phenom II X3 by enabling the “advanced clock calibration” feature present in the BIOS of select motherboards. Word is now coming forward that the two dormant cores on the upcoming Athlon X2 6500/7000-series can also be activated in the same fashion.
The newest version of the Athlon X2 is based on the Kuma core, a member in the architectural family that also hosts the original Phenom X4 (Agena) and Phenom I X3 (Toliman). Athlon X2 parts are a dual-core solution fabricated from the same dies used in production of the Agena and should start hitting the market relatively soon.
As was initially the case with the Phenom II X3, many were of the belief that the Athlon X2’s dormant cores would be mechanically disabled with no hope of activation. It now appears, however, that the Phenom II X3 and the Athlon X2 are similar in that the cores can be activated with the adjustment of certain BIOS settings.
While AMD has never come forward to issue official word on this process, it is no longer believed that the inactive cores have been disabled due to faulty fabrication. A sufficiently large sampling of people have effectively proven that the cores have been deactivated only to fill the market’s demand for cheaper chips.
Though the Phenom I-based Athlon X2 units were expected in December of last year, they have thus far remained fairly elusive. Any user looking to try their hand at this procedure are advised to be on the lookout for any one Kuma-cored Athlon X2.
Correction: The original edition of this piece indicated that the Athlon X2 was cut from the same fabric as the Phenom II X3 (Heka) and the Phenom II x4 (Deneb). This is obviously incorrect. The Athlon X2 is based on the first edition of AMD’s K10 architecture which produced the Phenom (Agena) and the Phenom X3 (Toliman). This update has been corrected to reflect the accurate information.
The rumor goes that yields on the Phenom II X4 950 have been better than expected. Rather than rolling with the 950, AMD has reportedly decided to out the X4 955 at 3.2GHz. The rumor also goes that a vCore bump to 1.45v and a dash of air cooling has topped the 4GHz barrier.
This copy of CPU-Z has no idea what is going on.
Discuss.
Although it has only been a few weeks since the launch of the capable Phenom II processor, AMD is back with an exciting new revision. This time, we’re not looking at quite the same Phenom II, but rather the DDR3-compatible socket AM3 Phenom II.
Although AM3 may sound like a completely new socket and architecture, AMD has graciously added a dose of backwards compatibility. Not only can these new AM3 processors be used in DDR3-compatible boards, but they work just as well in today’s wide variety of socket AM2+ motherboards. If Intel is not already taking note, we suggest they do so. This is one very good way to keep customers.
Although manufacturers are still working on AM3 motherboards, AMD was kind enough to provide two of their new AM3 processors for a preview of how they operate on today’s assortment of DDR2-based 790GX motherboards. Readers interested in DDR3 performance will have to wait for the availability of AM3 mainboards, but you can be sure that you’ll find those tests here when that time comes.
Without further ado, let’s have a look at these two new processors.
Our datamining on Newegg has revealed that the price of both the Phenom II X4 920 and Phenom II X4 940 have been cut by $40 USD. Checking Newegg shows that their prices are now $195 and $235 respectively.
We didn’t have much time to spend with our shiny new Phenom II X4 940 processor and really wanted to do some more serious overclocking with it. As you have undoubtedly heard, the Phenom II loves the cold, loves voltage and has significant frequency headroom. Though we definitely confirmed that last point, achieving an impressive 3.8GHz on higher-end air cooling, we wanted to push it farther.
Back in 2006, we reviewed Asetek’s very impressive Vapochill LS phase-change cooling system. Able to hold the evaporator head’s temperature as low as -60°C in idle, it is in a league all of its own. Admittedly, the Vapochill LS was designed with single core processors in mind, but it is still the most powerful, mass-produced, and commercially available cooling system around. As Asetek was kind enough to send us an AM2 mounting kit, we set out to see how the Phenom II does under the Vapochill LS!
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Our meeting with CoolIT went well. Despite setbacks in getting there (registration and the shuttle bus ride can be a bitch), we met with Geoff Lyon who showed us the Domino ALC self-contained water cooling unit. It’s a sweet little setup that we should get to test soon. Initial info says that it gives performance that’s on par with the TRUE, and for the same price, but you don’t have to buy extra fans or lap the base etc.
CoolIT is really pushing water cooling as their main thing. They’re moving away from TECs, in a sense.
As part of their push for water cooling, individual CoolIT brand components will be sold within the next two weeks. That means you can get replacement parts, or build your own sealed unit using their high-quality bits. It’ll be neat to see where this goes.
On display, they had a bunch of Phenom II systems assembled by all the high-end system makers, each using their liquid cooling systems on the CPU and video cards (which use sweet thin waterblocks).
It’s been a little over a year since the original launch of the AMD Phenom processor. We really do wish that we can say “It took the market by storm” when it was released back in November of 2007, but unfortunately, we can’t. The original Phenom launch was quite a mess to be frank. AMD wasn’t able to get clock speeds to surpass 2.5GHz for the launch and to make matters worse, a TLB bug and performance impeding BIOS patches were released at the last minute.
However bleak the picture appeared at launch, we were very pleased to see some significant improvements made to the Phenom die in AMD’s B3 revision four months after the launch. The TLB issue was fixed, clock speeds were increased and AMD managed to keep pricing competitive with Intel’s entry level quad core processors. AMD also made a rather bold move against Intel’s very potent E series dual core processors with the release of the world’s first triple core CPU; the Phenom X3.
MadShrimps pushes the Phenom to see how it scales.
While technology is often the cheapest in the states, it’s rare that we see any of it first. Case in point, an Australian price-indexing service has managed to capture listings for AMD’s upcoming Phenom II CPU based on the refreshed Deneb core.
Phenom-powered Alienware at Best Buy. How the mighty have fallen.
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