| ||
| by lemonlime | July 26, 2009 | ||
| AMD Deneb Core Unlocking AMD Deneb Core Unlocking AMD didn’t just stop at making unlocked multipliers available to enthusiasts in their “Black Edition” processors, but also “accidentally” – please note the quotations there – allowed the disabled cores of the X3 and X2 Phenom II processors to be enabled using a special combination of BIOS settings. Having the ability to unlock the disabled cores can drastically increase the CPU power on-tap; potentially much more so than overclocking alone. Unlocking a Phenom II X2 or X3 processor requires three things: An unlockable CPU, disabled cores that can operate with stability and last but not least, a motherboard and BIOS that supports it. We should definitely note up front that core unlocking is luck-of-the-draw. Not all Phenom II X2 and X3 CPUs can be unlocked as various steppings produced at varying times will have varying results. Just like getting a CPU that overclocks well, finding an unlockable one is luck of the draw. One thing that is very controllable however is selecting a motherboard that allows core unlocking. Thankfully, most enthusiast grade – and quite a few value offerings – include support for this undocumented feature. Some support this right out of the box, and others may require a BIOS flash to work. We just so happen to have an “unlockable” Phenom II X2 550 in our possession with the popular 0922APMW stepping code. Not only has this processor tested to be a very decent overclocker, but also fully stable with all four cores unlocked. We’ll be putting the MSI 790FX-GD70 through its paces to see just how it fairs with our 550 sample. Unlocking the X2 550
Our board shipped with BIOS revision 1.0, which appeared to be a stable and fully functional BIOS revision. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any luck getting the cores unlocked. Although the “ACC” feature could be enabled and set to “Auto” or various values, none succeeded in unlocking the processor. The most recent – at the time of writing – official 1.3 BIOS revision also didn’t allow core unlocking. We then moved on to some of MSI’s unreleased beta BIOS revisions and finally came across one that worked dubbed 1.4b3 or 1.43 Beta.   Click on image to enlarge A new option was added to the BIOS called “ECC Firmware”. Along with setting the ACC or “Advanced Clock Calibration” to “Auto”, the “ECC Firmware” mode had to be changed from “Normal” to “Special”. We had no issues booting into windows with all four cores enabled, but unfortunately couldn’t get the system stable. Whenever any heavy load was placed on the system – such as Prime95 for example – it would hardlock and had to be restarted.  Click on image to enlarge Thankfully, a new beta BIOS dubbed 1.5b1 was released only a few days ago that corrected this issue. The only outstanding issue that we could find with it was that HTT frequency had to be kept a bit low to ensure that the system didn’t suffer cold-boot problems. Usually the HTT frequency and NB frequency are both set to 2000MHz. Dropping the HTT multiplier and reducing HTT to 1600MHz seemed to correct the cold-boot issue. Given that the GD70 is targeted squarely at enthusiasts, it seems unfortunate that buyers of Gigabyte, DFI, Biostar and even ASRock boards have been able to enjoy unlocked X3 and X4 chips while the high end GD70 couldn’t until only days ago. Better late to the party than never we suppose. Word on the street is that an official 1.5 BIOS release will hit the web in the not too distant future, providing unlocking capability to the masses. Overclocking the “new” Phenom II X4 B50  Click on image to enlarge Our 0922APMW processor is certainly no slouch, and it doesn’t appear that the extra disabled cores have held the overclock back much at all. We were able to hit an impressive 3.8GHz without much effort at about 1.55V. Talk about extra value. Who wouldn’t love to get four cores at 3.8GHz instead of two at 3.1GHz. Given the X2 550’s price tag of only around $120, you certainly can’t beat that bang for the buck. | ||
| |
| Latest Reviews in Motherboards | |||||||||
|
