Phenom II X4 955 O/C Performance And Efficiency
| AMD Phenom II X4 Test Settings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Default Settings | Overclock Settings |
| CPU | AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2 GHz | 3.86 GHz, (19x 203 MHz), 1.45V |
| RAM | DDR3-1333 CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V | DDR3-1624 CAS 6-6-5-18, 1.65V |
| Motherboard | MSI 790FX-GD70 Socket AM3, 790FX/SB750, BIOS 1.3 (04/27/2009) | |
| Graphics | Zotac GeForce GTX260² | |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital VelociRaptor WD30000HLFS | |
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio | |
| Networking | Integrated Gigabit LAN | |
Software | ||
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 | |
| Graphics | GeForce 182.08 Desktop | |
The X4 955’s 21% overclock probably isn't going to bowl anyone over, but its 3.86 GHz final speed is still well above average for an air-cooled Phenom II system, thanks to the good performance of Rosewill’s Fort 120 cooler.
Sandra shows a 19% improvement in Arithmetic and 20% improvement in Multimedia extensions performance.
Though memory data rate and timings were altered significantly, its performance improved by only 1%. The X4 955 has better base bandwidth than the X2, but apparently less room for improvement.
Power consumption increased by 31%, mostly because of the higher voltage required to reach this high clock speed.
An average CPU performance increase of 20% and an average power increase of 31% caused the overclocked Phenom II X4 to lose around 8% of its original efficiency. Once again, it would likely have been possible to actually increase efficiency by overclocking at or near stock voltage, but the maximum speed increase would have been much smaller. For more on increasing the efficiency of your Phenom II overclock, check out this piece.
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Using top end motherboards isn't really budget overclocking, a cheap p43 board is sufficient for e5200 overclocking, additionally a q9400 is only 25% more than a q8200 and overclocks to 3.5Ghz with ease
..or allows, considering different models often come off the same wafer xD
Still, I doubt the AMD-basher's will let that one rest..
I like it. I like to see how far we can push this technology as well as how to keep the idle TDP as low as possible. I think the phenom II 955 suits me the best. AMD overdrive allows you to set both preformance settings as well as the idle settings. Something were i7 failt for me.
I would like to keep cool and quiet on at all times because i dont would want a high power bill and because my computer is on for a few days in a row. So my challenge would be how can i keep the voltage and clocks very low at idle but maintain a resonable desktop preformance. However for gaming i can use some extra headroom. i like to fine tune it well.
Why the hell did you choose an 8200? That makes no sense at all, its poor overclocking performance is widely documented.
Better would be to choose something else, then have a side note saying 'do not buy this part to OC'.
if you want a cheap stable intel overclockable intel quad core look for a Q6600 or if you really want a challenge look for a Q6700, both are very good OCers but are EOLed
Strange to think its Intel that got an unfair bashing this time around. Using top-end mobos in a budget OC session is a major no-no. Using a Q8200 instead of something closer to the X4-955BE's price tag, like the Q9300, is just plain stupid.
To be honest, switching to budget mobos wouldn't have affected the outcome that much; from what reviews I've heard the MSI 770-C45 is a perfectly decent AM3 budget OC board going for a pittance and there are a few MSI and Gigabyte P35/P43 mobos in the same price range on the Intel side of things.
I need to get out of my closet and start reading these forums way more.
Thanks for a very interesting thread
(Even if criticed by some)
e5200 oc at fsb 1066 (no voltage increasing)
What would be the lifespan of the processor.