Optimizing Your Phenom II Overclock For Efficiency
Table of contents
- 1. Chasing Down The Perfect Clock Speed For AMD's Phenom II X4
- 2. AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition (BE)
- 3. The Platform: Jetway HA07 Ultra With AMD's 790GX Chipset
- 4. Settings: 2.8, 3.0, And 3.2 GHz
- 5. Settings: 3.4, 3.6, And 3.8 GHz
- 6. Speed And Voltage Table, Test Setup And Components
- 7. Performance Results: Games
Overclocking is and has been the number one tool for enthusiasts to increase system performance without incurring additional cost. Ever since motherboard manufacturers (and even the processor vendors themselves) started taking this market segment seriously, there have been features and products that allow all types of users--be they beginners or hardcore folks--to overclock their processors comfortably.
But how far should you go? Efficiency has become almost equally important to performance, and it is no secret that power consumption skyrockets at highly overclocked speeds when you start turning up voltage in the name of stability.
Phenom Versus Core 2
Difficult times began for AMD when Intel launched the Core 2 processor family in 2006. The Core 2 Duo was far superior to the Athlon 64 X2, and the Phenom quad-core CPU, which was launched in late 2007, could not beat the four-core, Core 2 Quad despite its theoretically superior architecture based on a monolithic design. We spent some time on a core-by-core analysis of all popular AMD models and found that the Phenom's Stars architecture was indeed an important step forward, though by no means a leap. AMD added Phenom X3 triple-core processors in early 2008, which helped the firm to stay competitive in the mainstream through price cuts. The portfolio was good, and AMD made sure that all products kept providing a nice bang for the buck, but Intel simply happened to be better in performance and efficiency.
AMD’s Phenom II Comeback
The Phenom II is AMD’s current top-of-the-line product, which finally moved AMD into a competitive position, thanks to the modern 45 nm DSL SOI manufacturing process. Idle power came way down and clock speeds could be increased up to a level that puts the Phenom II almost head-to-head with Intel’s Core 2 Quad processors. Unfortunately, Intel had already moved on to its next-generation, the Core i7, and has maintained the performance and efficiency crown since. Still, Phenom II typically offers similar performance at comparable price points, and the Socket AM2+ or AM3 platforms (DDR2 or DDR3) are usually more affordable than Intel’s 4-series chipset flotilla.
Which Is The Perfect Clock Speed for Phenom?
We used the current flagchip Phenom II X4 940 and ran it at various clock speeds, both underclocked and overclocked, to determine the clock speed at which the architecture delivers the best ratio between performance and power consumption.
hmm not quite what I had expected from the article but still it gives a good insight of what the phenom II can do.
What I expected or rather would have like to see is the way that delivers the most performance, the multiplier oc or high memory bus speed oc etc. Or if a combination of those will deliver the highest oc ratings.
for the rest its a good article which can be used for those who value good performance at an acceptible power usage.
I think that would be a very good follow up article, maybe using the 3.6Ghz speed in different ways ie, overclocking the bus compared to multiplier
Wouldn't go that far. For servers and clusters the advantage was and still is, almost always in AMD's favour what with simplified and more efficient memory controllers, together with lower latencies.
Plus, in some tests the speed difference between the A64 and Core 2 architecture is not that great (with a few tests really showing what the A64 can do). Plus, when Core 2 came out and people were looking for stable, fast chipsets with onboard features..where were they? AMD was streets ahead. AMD is now competing on price, and can more than make up for what is looses in core performance, by offering products are very good prices. In terms of overclocking I got a 2.1GHz AMD part that will do 2.8GHz on a stock cooler and a little bit more voltage..not bad for an 'inferior' product
I think that would be a very good follow up article, maybe using the 3.6Ghz speed in different ways ie, overclocking the bus compared to multiplier
I'd like to see that test incorporate some heavy-multi-tasking as well..really load down all the four cores, as well as the bus as much as possible. Then compare it to the non-native Quad from Intel. Maybe some supplemental information on the way AMD processors work, for people who aren't familiar with them, ie
- base frequency/bus speed
- HT links: CPUCPU, and CPUNB, NBSB
- HT width
- Memory speeds
..how these things relate to each other and whether it's worth clocking some or all of them to see a measurable return in your overclock. Even for experience Intel users this must appear as double-Dutch if they've never used it before.
I like these overclocking results, they look fairly linear, upto a point. Thanks for doing the groundwork so the rest of us can build cheap GTAIV rigs
it is good to see AMD being back into the game. there 45nm parts and new strategy seem to make alot of diffrence. according to fudzilla amd had some changes at the top http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php? [...] &Itemid=66 John Byrne who is known for the succes of the radeon 4k series is now vice president of both GPU and CPU bussiness this might be a good step towards profitability. and you can actualy call the phenom 920 and 940 amds radeon 4850 and 4870 for the cpu market if you like. i have no doubt we can compare the future models such as the 955 part with 3.2ghz of clockspeed to the radeon 4890 in marketing strategy. fudzilla also claimed amd might boost its market share to 30% in Q2 of this year. this is good news indeed and lets hope they finaly break even. I my self might build an amd system soon phenom 920 seems a good choice for its price since i cannot afford a core i7 setup togheter with a radeon 4890 this should be near perfect
i know 4890 might seem a bit more expansive then 4870 but at the place i plan to buy it it isnt even 30 euro diffence with 4870 512mb version. 4890 is known to be considerably faster then 4870 512mb. here are some benchmarks btw http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php? [...] mitstart=1