AMD's Phenom Unveiled: A Somber Farewell to K8
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 19, 2007 1:25 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Overclocking
Given the launch frequencies, you can expect that Phenom isn't a tremendously overclockable chip.
While we were able to run our 2.4GHz chip at 3.0GHz, we couldn't get it stable. Even 2.8GHz wasn't entirely stable, but 2.6GHz was attainable for benchmarks.
AMD's OverDrive Utility, note that it reads the memory controller as single channel because Phenom actually has two independent 64-bit memory controllers instead of a single 128-bit one. Current BIOSes and the AMD utility incorrectly report this as being single-channel.
All of our overclocking was done using AMD's nifty new OverDrive utility, which is a Windows utility that can control virtually every single BIOS option from within your OS. You can overclock individual cores, change memory timings, voltages and most importantly: it all works.
The application is a little slow to respond when making changes and it would be nice if there was a hotkey to bypass the application loading its last settings, but it's truly a beauty to work with and one of the best aspects of today's launch.
The Test
| CPU: | AMD Phenom 9900 (2.6GHz) AMD Phenom 9700 (2.4GHz) AMD Phenom 9600 (2.3GHz) AMD Phenom 9500 (2.2GHz) Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 (2.66GHz/1333MHz) Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 (2.66GHz/1066MHz) Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.40GHz/1066MHz) |
| Motherboard: | ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (X38) MSI K9A2 Platinum (790FX) |
| Chipset: | Intel X38 AMD 790FX |
| Chipset Drivers: | Intel 8.1.1.1010 (Intel) AMD 790FX Launch Drivers |
| Hard Disk: | Western Digital Raptor 150GB |
| Memory: | Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 (1GB x 2) Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1066 7-7-7-20 (1GB x 2) |
| Video Card: | NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA ForceWare 169.09 |
| Desktop Resolution: | 1920 x 1200 |
| OS: | Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit |
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eye smite - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link
Who cares what this goofball said in his review, or all you other haters. AMD is following their roadmap as they've laid it out, they released early samples cause of the noisy minority screaming for a new chip and it didn't turn out right. You think actual production chips will have these issues or not mature over the next few weeks? Good God there's alot of you people out there with unrealistic expectations and some severe perception issues. If you can't say anything worthwhile about the phenom launch, why don't you just quit typing and spare some of us that look forward to seeing this chip actually release and mature and give us a quad core that isn't the intel p3 based quad core.feelingshorter - Monday, November 19, 2007 - link
Thats how all AMD fans feels. I was hoping at the VERY least that AMD cpus would have a lower idle/max power usage. That would of been a sell point even if Intel CPUs are faster. Too bad AMD's processors are lacking all across the board. But as a college student, if they price it REALLY cheap, i'd be willing to stick with AMD.Regs - Monday, November 19, 2007 - link
I was hoping they would of offered 2.4 GHz at around 200 dollars. This...this...is just horrible. Now I have no excuses left to not upgrade to a Intel Q.elfy6x - Monday, November 19, 2007 - link
This was a very sobering article. On a slightly brighter note, Toms Hardware was able to get their Phenom to 3.0Ghz stable using air cooling, so perhaps there is some hope just yet. The nice thing is that AM2 motherboards can use this processor so the upgrade ability is theoretically friendlier than some of Intel's boards. As long as AMD prices it accordingly, I think it will do alright. It will be nice when AMD really gets going *someday* and we have another successor with a similar bang that the K8 had at its introduction.erwos - Monday, November 19, 2007 - link
Hint: the samples they send to reviewers tend to be hand-picked for overclocking. The fact that Tom got a good OC out of it probably means nothing.DrMrLordX - Monday, November 19, 2007 - link
Tom got the same overclock Anand did. Anand ran a comprehensive suite of stability tests which forced him to step the overclock back to 2.6ghz for stability. Tom ran 3dMark06 once and did not/could not/was not allowed to test for stability.This is what happens when you drink the Kool-Aid. And yes, I'm looking at you Tom's Hardware.
calyth - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - link
"This is what happens when you drink the Kool-Aid. And yes, I'm looking at you Tom's Hardware."Really. What's this Intel Resource Center doing on Anandtech?
IMO it's nothing terribly wrong that review sites getting a bit cosier with manufacturers. Stuff don't comes free. I still read Toms and I still read Anandtech, but I try to make up my own mind.
retrospooty - Monday, November 19, 2007 - link
"This is what happens when you drink the Kool-Aid. And yes, I'm looking at you Tom's Hardware."Funny, a decade later and still nothings changed. I stopped soiling my browser with Tom's 10 years ago. LOL
flyck - Monday, November 19, 2007 - link
the bug that forced amd to withdraw the higher clocked phenoms is present when the cpu is clocked higher. Thats why stability with the bug on higher clocked phenoms is low.3GHz with stock voltage is not that bad imo. if the bug is removed and it woul run stable i would say it is rather good.
Performance is indeed a bit low. Amd doesn't seem to get alot bennifit out the 128SSE2. wonder how that comes.
DrMrLordX - Monday, November 19, 2007 - link
That's what the B3 stepping is supposedly intended to fix (among other things). Word is it will be available in January. More waiting!