AMD Phenom II and Dragon Preview Event - Invite Only

[LC_Nab]

If the chip runs cool like chew says , then im pretty sure you can hit that mark .

[chew*]

i was hoping for 4Ghz on air, but the on air oc record in chicago was 3.8Ghz. the heatsink they use was huge. do you know the name of that heatsink? i never use watercooling and probably will never use it, so i'm aiming for 3.8-40Gzh on good air cooling. i think it'll be doable.

Macci did no air results as he was flying solo tonight and trying to run 2 systems at once on LN2.

I easily managed 3.7 on stock cooler air with quakewars running @ 1.45v. I'm quite sure had I had axcess to the bios I could have gotten more and would have been able to Tweak for performance however that was not an option.

I forget what brand cooler they had on the bench next to macci, he even said what it was , I know it wasn't the TRUE 120.

Me personally I will be dusting off all 3 of my phase units and ordering socket adapters for my 2 machs I will use my -50c liquid frostbyte chiller for video because they ( vid cards ) still unfortunately bug out and i have more control of temps with it.

[EnJoY]

First and foremost, it was great meeting those of you who attended the event tonight. Chew and I both spent some time overclocking a couple of Phenom II systems using overdrive and I have to say I was fairly impressed. One system we had did 3.7 with less than 1.5v on stock cooler...and as he said, temps were very low (around 45c under load).

Chew did a great job recapping the event already, so I won't ramble and repeat what he said, but a couple things. AMD seems very very serious this time around in regards to regaining the enthusiast thrown from Intel. Their mission is not only to offer fun, highly overclockable systems with very comparable performance to Core i7, but all at a fraction of the cost.

Macci did a great job at the show and was awesome to finally meet in person and have a conversation with. We discussed many of the minute details about Phenom II and reminisced about old times with S939.

Matt and Michelle from AMD marketing were both extremely helpful and also great to talk to. Both had clearly been involved with Phenom/Phenom II since the conception and had a lot of great inside stories for me regarding it's development process. One such story was about the discovery that the cold bug had been abolished by one of their lab engineers. The excitement and relief were both palpable in Matt's tone when he described the moment when he first heard this; again illustrating the serious effort AMD had been putting into Phenom II to improve it from it's successor.

Chew and I both did a small video interview individually (I guess you'd call it that) that you may see clips from at some point in the near future. It was simply regarding our thoughts on the presentation as a whole. Both of us were impressed and our comments certainly reflected this.

Lastly, it's important to mention that in the Core i7 965 system vs Phenom II 940 BE Crysis comparison, I was able to verify that both systems were running the exact same graphical settings, with the same cards. Phenom II had 4GB of ram, dual channel while the Core i7 had 3GB in triple channel on an X58 Intel reference board. The Phenom II had higher frame rates throughout the majority of the gameplay.

All in all, awesome night with some great swag given away by AMD. Thanks so much for having us guys.

[Halk]

Thanks for the updates folks and I'm glad you enjoyed yourselves.

Chew and I both did a small video interview individually (I guess you'd call it that) that you may see clips from at some point in the near future.

I don't think I'll watch that. In my head chew is a cartoon character (see his avatar) so I don't think I want reality to shatter that.

[chew*]

Haha that avatar is a dutch power cow getting owned by xs in a crunching event

[ubuntu83]

Lastly, it's important to mention that in the Core i7 965 system vs Phenom II 940 BE Crysis comparison, I was able to verify that both systems were running the exact same graphical settings, with the same cards. Phenom II had 4GB of ram, dual channel while the Core i7 had 3GB in triple channel on an X58 Intel reference board. The Phenom II had higher frame rates throughout the majority of the gameplay.

Thanks for the info you and chew provided specially this piece of info about performance.

[tictac]

First and foremost, it was great meeting those of you who attended the event tonight. Chew and I both spent some time overclocking a couple of Phenom II systems using overdrive and I have to say I was fairly impressed. One system we had did 3.7 with less than 1.5v on stock cooler...and as he said, temps were very low (around 45c under load).

Chew did a great job recapping the event already, so I won't ramble and repeat what he said, but a couple things. AMD seems very very serious this time around in regards to regaining the enthusiast thrown from Intel. Their mission is not only to offer fun, highly overclockable systems with very comparable performance to Core i7, but all at a fraction of the cost.

Macci did a great job at the show and was awesome to finally meet in person and have a conversation with. We discussed many of the minute details about Phenom II and reminisced about old times with S939.

Matt and Michelle from AMD marketing were both extremely helpful and also great to talk to. Both had clearly been involved with Phenom/Phenom II since the conception and had a lot of great inside stories for me regarding it's development process. One such story was about the discovery that the cold bug had been abolished by one of their lab engineers. The excitement and relief were both palpable in Matt's tone when he described the moment when he first heard this; again illustrating the serious effort AMD had been putting into Phenom II to improve it from it's successor.

Chew and I both did a small video interview individually (I guess you'd call it that) that you may see clips from at some point in the near future. It was simply regarding our thoughts on the presentation as a whole. Both of us were impressed and our comments certainly reflected this.

Lastly, it's important to mention that in the Core i7 965 system vs Phenom II 940 BE Crysis comparison, I was able to verify that both systems were running the exact same graphical settings, with the same cards. Phenom II had 4GB of ram, dual channel while the Core i7 had 3GB in triple channel on an X58 Intel reference board. The Phenom II had higher frame rates throughout the majority of the gameplay.

All in all, awesome night with some great swag given away by AMD. Thanks so much for having us guys.

If they used to said Phenom I is a failure...

then...

Phenom II is the madness...

[Lightman]

Many thanks for info guys!!

I can't wait for new PhII to hit the shops!

BTW, EnJoY can you tell at what resolutions Crysis comparison was ran? Thanks!

[Gautam]

Nice to meet everyone and kudos to macci for running two LN2-cooled rigs simultaneously. (Not that it was terribly difficult, just dump a thermos into each container once every ten minutes and sit back)

This event certainly shows AMD's seriousness about the enthusiast community, and Intel has a thing or two to learn in that regard at least.

Two chips were sitting there at 6 GHz for screenshots at the same time. The LN2 overclocking on these will be an absolute blast and a real treat for AMD aficionados.

I wish I could've hung around at the end to talk shop, but unfortunately I was a second away from puking for some reason so had to see myself out a little early.

Wonderful job done again by all the guys from AMD that made this possible.

[TheBlueChanell]

Nice to meet everyone and kudos to macci for running two LN2-cooled rigs simultaneously. (Not that it was terribly difficult, just dump a thermos into each container once every ten minutes and sit back)

This event certainly shows AMD's seriousness about the enthusiast community, and Intel has a thing or two to learn in that regard at least.

Two chips were sitting there at 6 GHz for screenshots at the same time. The LN2 overclocking on these will be an absolute blast and a real treat for AMD aficionados.

I wish I could've hung around at the end to talk shop, but unfortunately I was a second away from puking for some reason so had to see myself out a little early.

Wonderful job done again by all the guys from AMD that made this possible.

Somebody had 1 too many black dragons.

[Gautam]

No, I actually had nothing to drink actually. (I drove) and yet it felt like a hangover coming stupidly enough.

[chew*]

Oh forgot to mention they kept the ln2 flowing for a little while on the setup running crysis at 5.6 or 5.7 can't remember and then procedded to let people play so it was more than just demo stable.

Enjoy and i had a good time and we finally met after living so close and knowing each other in the forums for over 3 years, we also talked about joining forces for some OC sessions so you may see some insane stuff in the near future.

[bldegle2]

the heatsinks they used for air are CoolerMaster heatpipe, double 120mm fanned monsters....

DFI already has a beta bios out for the 790fx-M2R crowd dated 12/1/2009 (i snagged and installed already), i am sure that the M2RS flavor is there too, gots the 45nm microcode, works fine with my 6400+ @3.5/3.6.....can't wait, saw a screenie on a rig with a SB600 @4gig+, so 45nm 4 core goodness for just the price of the cpu and a bios update at first,,,,,,,

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

laterzzzz..............

[N19h7m4r3]

If the 940 BE will also work in future AM3 boards, it's even better, because it saves you having to buy a new cpu later down the road

[Halk]

If the 940 BE will also work in future AM3 boards, it's even better, because it saves you having to buy a new cpu later down the road

My understanding was that it wouldnt, and it'd need to be the 945.

Edit : To be crystal clear on my understanding...

All AM3 Phenom II CPUs will also work in AM2+ slots. To enable this they will come with the standard memory controller they need for DDR3 in AM3, but also a DDR2 controller for AM2+.

The first 2 Phenom IIs will be AM2+ CPUs, and will not come with DDR3 controllers, or work in AM3 boards.

[Halk]

Haha that avatar is a dutch power cow getting owned by xs in a crunching event

Well, in my head it's you. And your teeth are damaged because you've been chewing things, like your spanners for arms and legs.

[charged3800z24]

My understanding was that it wouldnt, and it'd need to be the 945.

Edit : To be crystal clear on my understanding...

All AM3 Phenom II CPUs will also work in AM2+ slots. To enable this they will come with the standard memory controller they need for DDR3 in AM3, but also a DDR2 controller for AM2+.

The first 2 Phenom IIs will be AM2+ CPUs, and will not come with DDR3 controllers, or work in AM3 boards.

My bet is, the AM2+ have the DDR3 controllers, but since they are pinned differently and will not fit in the AM3 sockets, they will not be able to use the DDR3.

[informal]

My bet is, the AM2+ have the DDR3 controllers, but since they are pinned differently and will not fit in the AM3 sockets, they will not be able to use the DDR3.

Folks,just search chew*'s last posts on the am2+/am3 topic and you will see he was told that am2+ chips indeed have a "combo" IMC,so they should work in am3 board later on.The difference between am2+ and am3 Phenoms seems to be in other respects,ie. lower power draw,better OCing potential,higher northbridge clocks(which should make it a bit faster per clock than am2+).

[EnJoY]

Many thanks for info guys!!

I can't wait for new PhII to hit the shops!

BTW, EnJoY can you tell at what resolutions Crysis comparison was ran? Thanks!

1900x1080 on a (40"?) LCD TV. One per system, side by side. 8x AA. 4870 1GB cards in both systems.

Btw, chew...any idea where the pictures and videos are going to be posted from the event?

[chew*]

1900x1080 on a (40"?) LCD TV. One per system, side by side. 8x AA. 4870 1GB cards in both systems.

Btw, chew...any idea where the pictures and videos are going to be posted from the event?

I think they were going to update it here but its the weekend and these guys are probably pooped from traveling all week.

http://www.mogulus.com/amdunprocessed

[Halk]

Folks,just search chew*'s last posts on the am2+/am3 topic and you will see he was told that am2+ chips indeed have a "combo" IMC,so they should work in am3 board later on.The difference between am2+ and am3 Phenoms seems to be in other respects,ie. lower power draw,better OCing potential,higher northbridge clocks(which should make it a bit faster per clock than am2+).

In that case I wish I'd bought cheaper RAM :P

Seriously though that means a fantastic upgrade path for people.

Take out A64 x2, throw it away. Plug in Phenom II.

Take out Phenom II. Throw away old ram from A64 x2 days, and motherboard from A64 x2 days. Plug Phenom II into spanky new AM3 board, with new ram.

Take out Phenom II and plug in whatever AMD come out with later.

A nice partial upgrade path rather than the new board every two weeks it feels like we've had.

[Jazzman]

the heatsinks they used for air are CoolerMaster heatpipe, double 120mm fanned monsters....

I think the Austin event used a Cooler Master Hyper Z600 for the air runs. SOURCE

[Nedjo]

Folks,just search chew*'s last posts on the am2+/am3 topic and you will see he was told that am2+ chips indeed have a "combo" IMC,so they should work in am3 board later on.

I doubt that...

[informal]

I doubt that...

You may be right since chew* said that it was the impression he got from the talk with AMD's reps.It is very possible they misunderstood his question for am3 cpu -> am2+ socket .We need to wait for a while ,but if you have some juicy details(like you hinted ),then we may as well conclude it won't work like posted.

[Voodoo²]

How many pins are going to have the AM3 chips? 938? 936? If am2+ deneb have all 940 pins... well there is the answer. If AM3 sockets get all 940 holes it will be posible to fit this special am2+ denebs AND ALL AM2 chips too! i don´t think so! So AM3 will have less holes and AM3 chips will have less pins, that way they can fit in AM2+ boards but not the other way. Of course someone can try to cut those pins in AM2+ Deneb and see what happens.