AMD Phenom II X6 | Turbo CORE 101

[64NOMIS]

Six-core Phenom II to feature Turbo Core tech, high frequencies
by Scott Wasson — 11:00 PM on April 7, 2010

Looks like the rumor mill was right to be buzzing about AMD incorporating a dynamic clock speed boosting mechanism similar to Intel's Turbo Boost into its upcoming six-core processors. AMD has confirmed to us that the chip code-named Thuban does indeed include such a feature, dubbed Turbo Core technology.

[Dumo]

Hope I don't need to use DThermomtr to bench it

[ridney]

noice! can't wait for these beasts to come out

[haylui]

noice! can't wait for these beasts to come out

Release the Kraken!

[dinos22]

would be nice to have one to test these new boards from AMD i have here hehehe

I am getting some good feeback from the channel and media about 6core CPUs and 890 boards. It looks as though it might be a popular bundle in our market. Let's see how it works out with pricing and performance.

[FlanK3r]

Simon, how it is with turbo and AM2+? Its not only for AM3 board active? Thx. O.C. AM2+ and Thuban is nothing good for me , waiting for 890FX Giga, but most users maybe upgrade with AM2+ board at Thuban 1035/1055

[64NOMIS]

Simon, how it is with turbo and AM2+? Its not only for AM3 board active? Thx. O.C. AM2+ and Thuban is nothing good for me , waiting for 890FX Giga, but most users maybe upgrade with AM2+ board at Thuban 1035/1055

Fine with proper bios support which we should have in all of the enthusiast boards.

[Serpentarius]

The processor becomes eligible to enter the "boost" state when three or fewer cores are heavily occupied with work. This boost state is a simple, binary condition. When the CPU enters this state, the peak clock speed for the three affected cores will jump by as much as 500MHz above the baseline, improving performance

is that means that the 3 cores itself are capable to jump up 150+Mhz each (totalling 500Mhz)?
without the even raising the multiplier?

so if someone somehow can unlock the 6 cores to jump up to 1000Mhz? without increasing the multiplier
i'm pretty sure the cores fabricated are identical ...

or have i gotten it wrong?

[64NOMIS]

is that means that the 3 cores itself are capable to jump up 150+Mhz each (totalling 500Mhz)?
without the even raising the multiplier?

so if someone somehow can unlock the 6 cores to jump up to 1000Mhz? without increasing the multiplier
i'm pretty sure the cores fabricated are identical ...

or have i gotten it wrong?

Turbo CORE provides a higher top frequency each of the three cores of up to 500MHz (depending on which CPU model only). Turbo CORE works automatically, maintaining TDP while dynamically selecting which cores are in Turbo, or if all six cores are online at nominal frequencies.

CNQ works as always, so each core has independent frequency. Turbo CORE simply raises the top frequency limit for three cores, again by up to 500MHz.

Which of the three cores are in Turbo is dynamic and shifts rapidly. Moving in and out of Turbo happens extremely quickly.

[FlanK3r]

and launch day its 23.4.(friday) or 26.4.(monday)? I heard this two termines

[ajaidev]

Very goooood article answered all question i had about TC....

These are the important quotes:

"Thuban does not include the ability to gate off power entirely to an idle core like Intel's Nehalem-derived CPUs"

and

"500MHz from going into a boost state, which means effective clock speeds with lightly multithreaded applications could approach or exceed 4GHz."

Why the the other one imp well because when a PhII is OCed around 4Ghz the performance in most games equal that of a i7 @ 4Ghz so in effect a 3.2Ghz 1095T which has a 500mhz boost will kick some serious arse in games performance in which not more than 3 cores are used.

This is a very calculated move by AMD because its not that intensive as Turbo nor as unpredictable and it basically gives you 3 cores @ stock+500mhz or gives you 6 cores @ stock. AMD most likely will use a similar approach with the BD also but add in other things like power gate's, etc.

[ajaidev]

"Last month Intel introduced its first desktop 6-core CPU, the 32nm Gulftown Core i7 980X. Running at 3.33GHz we loved the fact that it’s quite possibly the first Extreme Edition part that is able to justify its price. For $999 you get six cores and better performance all in the same power envelope as the current high end quad-core i7s."

http://anandtech.com/show/3641/amd-d...o-core-enabled

Ooooooo

[Hornet331]

Why the the other one imp well because when a PhII is OCed around 4Ghz the performance in most games equal that of a i7 @ 4Ghz so in effect a 3.2Ghz 1095T which has a 500mhz boost will kick some serious arse in games performance in which not more than 3 cores are used.

Because you run into the gpu limit...

Anyway, i wana see banchmarks.

[zalbard]

Would be cool to be able to configure these states by ourselves.
Pretty smart implementation either way!

[ajaidev]

This is how i see it the simplest way to represent AMD's turbo core

I like Intel's turbo also but i thing the all core at higher freq as a unfair and unrepresentable determinant. Imagine you go and buy a i7 980x and it says it runs at 3.33GHz on the box the only thing is it never really does.

Hell everyone can OC a i7 980x and get the same effect of all cores at a higher freq plane.

[onethreehill]

AMD Phenom II X6 processor surfaces at UK retail
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=24143

[dinos22]

it's annoying when these sites put up the info knowing they have not bloody stock

[kl0012]

I like Intel's turbo also but i thing the all core at higher freq as a unfair and unrepresentable determinant. Imagine you go and buy a i7 980x and it says it runs at 3.33GHz on the box the only thing is it never really does.

What is unfair exactly? It will run at higher freq if a power/temperature conditions will allove it. Otherwise 3.33GHz always guaranteed (throttling excluded).

Hell everyone can OC a i7 980x and get the same effect of all cores at a higher freq plane.

Everyone can overclock every x86 cpu. What is the point?

[Chrono Detector]

These 6 core AMD CPU's sounds very exciting. I really want one, though I'll wait for reviews and benchmarks before deciding.

[tool_462]

I like Intel's turbo also but i thing the all core at higher freq as a unfair and unrepresentable determinant. Imagine you go and buy a i7 980x and it says it runs at 3.33GHz on the box the only thing is it never really does.

Not quite sure what you are saying here, but 980x is advertised as 3.33Ghz when it runs 3.46Ghz stock with Turbo enabled.

[FatAlbert]

what about Cold bug 64NOMIS?

[Dresdenboy]

If someone is interested, I wrote about these news in my latest blog entry to combine all important information available.

It seems, some article authors think, that the idle and loaded cores will have different voltages, but according to AT this is not the case and it still works.

Is the relation between the least significant digit "0" or "5" in the model number and the frequency boost already known here?

[Hornet331]

I like Intel's turbo also but i thing the all core at higher freq as a unfair and unrepresentable determinant. Imagine you go and buy a i7 980x and it says it runs at 3.33GHz on the box the only thing is it never really does.

Hell everyone can OC a i7 980x and get the same effect of all cores at a higher freq plane.

Last time i checked stock frequenzy of the 980x was 3.33ghz and with turbo 3.46 on all cores and 3,60 for singel (dual?) core load. And intel didn't sold it as 3,46ghz.

[informal]

Most interesting info in AT article(also confirmed by Simon in this thread ):

The switch to turbo up cores apparently happens fast enough to deal with Windows moving threads around from core to core.

[ajaidev]

What is unfair exactly? It will run at higher freq if a power/temperature conditions will allove it. Otherwise 3.33GHz always guaranteed (throttling excluded).


Everyone can overclock every x86 cpu. What is the point?

Its marked as 3.33Ghz stock speed, yes but with turbo this speed is never kept is it its always around 3.46Ghz. In essence stock speed is never really used for anything is it?

The point is that when turbo overclock all cores its not fair, turbo should overclock when the core count is less than total cores like the 3.6ghz for 2 cores is acceptable.

Not quite sure what you are saying here, but 980x is advertised as 3.33Ghz when it runs 3.46Ghz stock with Turbo enabled.

Yes thats exactly what i am trying to say it never really suns at 3.33Ghz and is advertised as a 3.33Ghz cpu.

Among all the ES's i had time to spent i9 aka i7 980x was one of the best but at the same time the i had a horrible time with Lynnfield cpu's and it was all because of Intel's turbo implementation. I dont want to go in detail but the fact is Turbo soon will not hold as much importance that it does today.

Last time i checked stock frequenzy of the 980x was 3.33ghz and with turbo 3.46 on all cores and 3,60 for singel (dual?) core load. And intel didn't sold it as 3,46ghz.

See the above responses and to add to it how do you predict Turbo i mean how do you know when it should start/stop/etc. Intel has taken a very grainy road on this and i dont like it one bit.

The Turbo speed can flex "specially in all cores mode" when ever the cpu wants it to based on the environment. This gives one benefit that is when the environment has not warmed enough or is still in the process the speed of the cpu will work at 3.46Ghz but once the environment is hot enough the speed drops to stock.

Also the power consumed and TDP change with stock freq. on all cores and the turbo freq. on all cores take out a wall meter and check for yourself.