The Phenom II X4 810 & X3 720: AMD Gets DDR3 But Doesn't Need It

The DDR3 question is easily answered: wait. While DDR2 isn't an option for Core i7, on all other platforms it just makes sense simply because of the high cost of DDR3 right now. By the end of the year we won't be having this debate as DDR2/DDR3 will be at the same price, but if you're building today don't even bother looking at DDR3 unless you're building Core i7. The performance benefits aren't worth it for Phenom II, so while AM3 sounds cool, it's not necessary today. Thankfully AM3 CPUs will work in AM2+ motherboards, so you aren't forced into a relationship with DDR3 if you're not ready.

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genetic said:

The thing is, you'll always be waiting in the IT world. There's always going to be something better or faster. If you wait you'll never buy.
I'm waiting, but I'm waiting for more cash for a bigger system!

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killadoob said:

Yup so basically the am3 chips will bring no performance gain to amd and i7 is now confirmed as kicking amd's new cpu's in the balls.

Atleast if your on a budget you got better choices now .

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Can be enabled in BIOS?

According to the post at Korean website Playwares.com, the fourth core which is disabled isn't locked and can be enabled in BIOS, thus making it a quad-core CPU.

Screenshots look quite real, and we can't think of any reason why they shouldn't be, but you still might want to take this one with a grain of salt as this might be an isolated case, or some weird kind of Photoshop prank.

Guys tried this with Biostar's TA790GX motherboard, but according to the post, the same thing can be done with any other 790GX + SB700 motherboard. According to the screenshots, all you have to do is to modify "Advanced Clock Calibration" to Auto and your tri-core should become a quad-core. Guys at Playwares.com tried it with AMD's Phenom II X3 710 processors, that has for some weird reason became the AMD Phenom II X4 10 processor, at least according to BIOS post screen.

CPU-Z and Windows both recognized the fourth core, and these guys even managed to do a Prime95 and 3DMark06 CPU tests. The fourth core brings additional 1000 points in 3DMark06 CPU test which is a really nice score considering that you only payed for a tri-core CPU.

The only problem is that this might not be possible on all AMD's X3 processors as in some cases it might not be so stable. After all, AMD does make these X3's by disabling one core that is unstable.

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Users confirm, rejoice

Yesterday's big news was that the disabled fourth core on AMD's X3 processor can be easily enabled in BIOS. The hack has been tried out by many users around the net and they managed to confirm it works, at least in some cases.

As previously noted, all you have to do is set the ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) in BIOS to Auto and if you are one of the lucky ones, the X3 could become a X4 CPU. According to some info around the net, some of the X3's aren't stable when working with all four cores, but apparently AMD did deliberately cut some good X4's into X3's so it's a lottery.

One of our readers, Steve, has sent us an email claiming that it worked for him, and he was using Biostar's TA790GX A2+ motherboard and AMD's X3 720 BE CPU. We can wish him good luck with his new, budget quad-core CPU, and we will surely keep an eye out for additional details on this situation.

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Newegg has the goods

AMD keeps saying it's pitting its three-core Phenoms against Intel's dual-cores, and this PR talk is finally starting to make sense, at least following the recent Heka launch.

It's top three-core CPU, the multiplier-unlocked Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition, clocked at 2.8GHz, now costs just $144, and this is a pretty good deal. Mind you, unlike the old 65nm parts, the new 45nm Hekas are very overclockable, and even a good motherboard which will let you play around with it comes quite cheap. Phenom II X3 720 can overclock to over 4GHz and you can even enable the forth core with a touch of a bios.

For about the same cash you can get an Intel E7500 clocked at 2.93GHz. Sure, it's faster and has a lower TDP, but it also has one core less, and to get the most out of it you need a pricier board and memory.

You can find the listing here.

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killadoob said:

Yup so basically the am3 chips will bring no performance gain to amd and i7 is now confirmed as kicking amd's new cpu's in the balls.

Atleast if your on a budget you got better choices now .

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killadoob said:

As previously noted, all you have to do is set the ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) in BIOS to Auto and if you are one of the lucky ones, the X3 could become a X4 CPU.

that comment plus fudzilla being the dodgiest place on the net i think it's all BS

So if it does not work you are not lucky and did not get the LUCKY chip lawl.
That setting is set to auto by default as well as far as i have read, so you would not need to change it.

I'm calling BS on this one

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