Phenom II X4 @ +6 GHz by Team Finland

[Sampsa]

Update:

Cold bug information:

I have now confirmed from AMD that when running Phenom II X4 with LN2 HyperTransport link has to be in HT 1.0 mode (running 1 GHz) to prevent CPU cold bugging. AMD suggested us using this setting in Chicago event and we had no problems hitting +6 GHz.

---

Hi everyone, I got back home from Chicago last night where AMD organized Dragon platform preview event.

First of all huge thanks to AMD (Macci, Simon, Pete and everyone) for inviting Team Finland (Sampsa & SF3D) to the Dragon event. It sure was a nice opportunity to run some first tests with Phenom II X4 and LN2 cooling.



Me pouring LN2, no need to fine tune temps



Chilly system running full steam



Gigabyte's 790GX retail board



Kingpin's F1 EE full of LN2, this was so sweet



Typical Vcore we used



Macci playing around with Dragon EVO pot



SF3D: "WTF?!"



Here is a CPU-Z shot after some minutes of testing

Quick summary:

- All the Phenom II X4 CPUs me and SF3D tested had no cold bug at all
- All the chips we tested could do +6,1 GHz CPU-Z
- We tested with AMD's 790GX reference board and Gigabyte's retail 790GX
- Both mobos worked fine under cold, +6 GHz and +1,95V vcore
- Vcore ~1,95V was optimal for +6 GHz clocks
- 3DMark05 & 06 CPU-tests were ok @ 6 GHz
- We were able to run Crysis @ 6,1 GHz (2 loops CPU-test)
- Max CPU-Z screenshot and validation we got with 4 cores was 6280 MHz (no dirty tricks)
- With air cooling (Cooler Master Z600) highest we got Crysis stable was @ 4,13 GHz (1,58 V)

We tested couple different revisions (ES and newer ones) but lets see how it turns out when retail chips will be launched.

I don't want to make any promises but I encourage everyone to go ahead and test yourself.

These results were definitely not maximum numbers possible to achieve.. and there might be some extremely cool (literally) numbers coming soon

More pics, ss and video coming soon

If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer (no peformance numbers because of NDA).

[massman]

What's up with the HT link at only 1007MHz?

[TiTON]

Wow!! Very very nice. I wish I could have been there Thanks for all the info and details on your benches. It will be very handy. To get the 1.95vCore.. was the board vModded? You mentioned reference motherboards, so i am just curious.

Ton

[Sampsa]

What's up with the HT link at only 1007MHz?

We were just aiming for high CPU clocks, AMD had used that setting previously so we just left it there. We only had couple of hours to spend so unfortunately we couldn't focus on everything. We have CPUs now back home so we can start tuning for best performance

[tictac]

We were just aiming for high CPU clocks, AMD had used that setting previously so we just left it there. We only had couple of hours to spend so unfortunately we couldn't focus on everything. We have CPUs now back home so we can start tuning for best performance

Nice... Can it take more than 2V?

congrats

[Newblar]

very nice but why 790GX?
is the gigabyte 790GX the DS4H? you guys got a very special bios for it?

[Sampsa]

Wow!! Very very nice. I wish I could have been there Thanks for all the info and details on your benches. It will be very handy. To get the 1.95vCore.. was the board vModded? You mentioned reference motherboards, so i am just curious.

Ton

Hi, AMD's reference board had vcore mod but Gigabyte's board was retail without mods. We adjusted vcore straight from BIOS and it was good to go

[Sampsa]

Nice... Can it take more than 2V?

congrats

Yes it can, but we didn't see better scaling after 1,95V.. maybe more cold will help

[Sampsa]

very nice but why 790GX?
is the gigabyte 790GX the DS4H? you guys got a very special bios for it?

Why not? Board worked great Yes it was GA-MA790GP-DS4H with BIOS supporting Deneb. This board costs $200 in Finland.

[Newblar]

Why not? Board worked great Yes it was GA-MA790GP-DS4H with BIOS supporting Deneb. This board costs $200 in Finland.

wouldnt the 790FX do a bit better?
i was just wondering about the board, because i bought the same mobo about a week ago for $135 u.s ^^

[ilkkahy]

Thats pretty amazing. Its really nice to see that amd gets back to challenge intel with cpus. Good overclockability is a good symptom indeed.

It would be great to know some benchmark results, but i suppose thats out of the question so far?

[Sampsa]

wouldnt the 790FX do a bit better?
i was just wondering about the board, because i bought the same mobo about a week ago for $135 u.s ^^

Yes 790FX + SB750 is probably the best platform for Phenom II X4 especially Asus M3A79-T Deluxe since it has 6 layer PCB. I have this back home so I'll try it next.

[Sampsa]

You'll see benchmark results when Phenom II X4 is officially launched.

[rdrash]

WOW! Nice, very nice. I want .....

Great job and thanks so much for sharing!

[YukonTrooper]

1.58V on 45nm is way too much for 24/7 use, is it not? What were highest clocks with reasonable volts?

[TheBlueChanell]

It was an awesome event and you guys did a really good job. It was pretty intense watching the 3Dmark run through and not knowing if it was gonna finish.

I'd like to clear something up though, there's been some mixed thoughts on the whole 790GX/FX ordeal. 790FX/SB750 = 65nm and 790GX/SB750 = 55nm or are they both built on the 55nn?

[Sampsa]

I'd like to clear something up though, there's been some mixed thoughts on the whole 790GX/FX ordeal. 790FX/SB750 = 65nm and 790GX/SB750 = 55nm or are they both built on the 55nn?

AFAIK 790FX = 65 nm and 790GX = 55 nm.

[donitsi]

Nice job guys

In the near future 7ghz is possible with one core

[massman]

Did you test for HTT freq. overclocking? Any idea of the NB frequency?

[YukonTrooper]

1.58V on 45nm is way too much for 24/7 use, is it not? What were highest clocks with reasonable volts?

Bump.

[massman]

Define reasonable volts.

[YukonTrooper]

24/7 volts.

[Sampsa]

24/7 volts.

We were not focusing on 24/7 clocks/voltages, this thread is about Phenom II X4 extreme-overclocking.

[tictac]

If it is fully tune... cpu speed, memory clock and timing... + GPU oc....

Is it it capable blowing any 3D WR?

[Deanzo]

- 3DMark05 & 06 CPU-tests were ok @ 6 GHz
- We were able to run Crysis @ 6,1 GHz (2 loops CPU-test)
- Max CPU-Z screenshot and validation we got with 4 cores was 6280 MHz (no dirty tricks)

Unreal guys

When is the NDA end, and we can see the numbers ?