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AMD gets Phenom II to 6.3GHz

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AMD gets Phenom II to 6.3GHz
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By David Hollingworth, Nick Farrell
Nov 24, 2008 | 15 Comments
Tags: AMD | Phenom | II | overclocking

Overclocking power is back on AMD's roadmap.

AMD showed off its upcoming 45-nanometer Deneb desktop chips for reviewers in Texas on Thursday, and overclocked it to what some observers said was 6.3GHz.

The Deneb chips, which are going to be the Phenom II's, were cooled by liquid nitrogen but other hacks said that it hit 4GHz with air cooling and 5GHz with dry ice cooling. We've also heard reports that the new processor is free of any coldbug, and just keeps on keeping on under the most extreme of conditions.

The top Phenom II chip, due out sometime in the first quarter of 2009, will reportedly list as 3.0GHz off the shelf. Intel's top Core i7 processor has been overclocked to 4.5GHz on air cooling alone and some claim to have taken it to 5.7GHz using liquid nitrogen.

AMD said that the Phenom II demos were done on what the chip maker is calling its 'Dragon' platform, which is a quad-core Phenom II processor. It also had an ATI Radeon 4800 series discrete graphics and an AMD 790 chipset. AMD said the extra level of 'headroom' towards dramatic overclocking capacities on the Phenom II parts is due to a combination of architectural improvements over the original Phenoms first released late in 2007.

A spokesman said it was about high-speed path optimisations, memory pre-fetch, how it does branch predictions and the larger cache.

The result has been modest improvements on instruction per clock but much better clock frequency.

We're in constant contact with AMD about release dates and details, so watch this space for more Phenom news.

 

theinquirer.net (c) 2009 Incisive Media
 
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15 Comments
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Shikimaru
Nov 24, 2008 10:11 AM
 how interesting... i wonder how it translates to performance?
index680i
Nov 24, 2008 12:19 PM
 I am worried about the performance over the new Intels as well. If AMD seem to be better again, then what the hell, AMD it is for my next computer.
Hawkeye
Nov 24, 2008 12:35 PM
 We've been chatting with some AMD types about Deneb, and they really are sounding VERY optimistic about the new chip.

As an AMD fan from way back, I'd love to see the company make the market competitive again!

- DH
Felipe
Nov 24, 2008 1:08 PM
 That's Phenom-enal!!

:P

FX.
MagnumXY
Nov 24, 2008 4:44 PM
 Any ideas on the price? I heard that the new AM3 socket processors will work on AM2+ mobos is that true?
Hawkeye
Nov 24, 2008 5:25 PM
 No word yet on price (we wish!), and I seem to remember hearing something like that too... let me get back to you!

- DH
nesquick
Nov 24, 2008 6:49 PM
 I think AM3 is backwards compatible with am2+ and also knowing AMD's latest take on competitive pricing in the graphics market expect it to carry over to the cpu market to combat chipzilla.
MagnumXY
Nov 25, 2008 7:00 AM
 So you think it'll be like 2 Phenom's > 1 i7 just like 2 4870's> 1 280GTX!
MrPodgy
Nov 25, 2008 11:50 AM
 ohhh siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiik is all i can say i knew amd were working on something good i havent upgraded since my last one from 1500+ to a 4000+ 64 bit AMD 939. im going to be liking the phenom 3 series .... overclocking ahoy
MrPodgy
Nov 25, 2008 12:05 PM
 correction series 2
moloko
Nov 25, 2008 2:02 PM
 MagnumXY: The price will be very competitive but is currently under NDA with potential revision before the launch in January – the main demo and launch will be at CES.

AM3 is backwards compatible with AM2+ and will support DDR2 memory in an AM2+ system and DDR3 memory in an AM3 system.

The demo systems in Austin were running 3.9GHz on air, 4.4GHz on water (little CoolIT Freezone system), 4.9GHz on a Vapo PE and excess of 5GHz under LN2 - no dry ice demonstrations were shown.

The general scope for a 24/7 stable i7 under air is looking to be 3.8-4.0GHz and the guys hitting higher than 4GHz either have a stellar chip or just suicide runs and benching, i.e. not stable.

In terms of i7 and LN2 overclocks, the Intel platforms are having problems scaling on mass. While there are a number of people benching at 5+GHz, the larger majority of benchers are stuck shy of the 5GHz barrier.

The fastest publically shown so far is ~5.4GHz (5.2GHz benchable) but there is one faster known chip and results are currently being gained for it. None have hit 5.7GHz; this is still Yorkfield territory for Intel platforms.

More info on the AMD Austin Tech Day can be found here: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=731996

And some additional comments here: http://i4memory.com/f56/amd-austin-tech-day-information-inside-11713/

Enjoy.
SceptreCore
Nov 25, 2008 2:10 PM
 Well this is an article from the inquirer so don't get too excited just yet! But the interweb is buzzing with excitement over it... and they all have the exact same words so no idea who's they are originally.

The really interesting news is what John Taylor from AMD said: "Phenom II’s used were also not hand-picked engineering samples, indicating they were simply high-binning selections." So consumers can expect results like this when they get them!

And for those who are confused about the compatibility of AM3 and AM2+. AM3 cpu's will work in AM2+ boards with SB750, and perhaps even some select others.

However AM2/+ cpu's will not work in AM3 boards due to the DDR3 DIMMS for which they have no support.
Hawkeye
Nov 25, 2008 4:16 PM
 Ladies and gentlemen... JOSH COLLINS!!!!

(moloko, not SceptreCore)

- DH
^Faldo^
Nov 25, 2008 4:16 PM
 John Taylor's a champ, and so are his crew.

Last time I met up with them in San Francisco we smoked cigars and discussed the build quality of old Cray systems.
nesquick
Nov 26, 2008 8:42 AM
 there wont be a 3 series as this is just a stop gap till bulldozer comes out in q2-q3 2009.
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