Upgrading processors. AMD Quad Core. Why buy 965? Is 940 a better choice?

[Apokalipse]

AMD has such high yields that there's usually hardly any difference between most of their processors using the same die.
It's the same reason most X2's will successfully unlock.

I think AMD probably has even better yields than Intel (they actually produce wafers with 100% working dies sometimes) - Although that may be because they have to really; they don't have nearly as many fabs as Intel, so they make the most of what they have.

Anyway, the 940 is AM2+ only, and only comes in C2 stepping.
The 955 and 965 are AM3/AM2+ and come in C2 and C3 stepping (C2 chips have an I in the model, C3 chips have an M in the model)
C3 chips tend to overclock about 200MHz more than C2 chips at the same volts.

 

[RichM499]

Thanks for the info. I almost forgot about this thread. I decided to go with the AMD Phenom II x6 1055t instead.

 

[iPROTechman]

Thanks for the info. I almost forgot about this thread. I decided to go with the AMD Phenom II x6 1055t instead.

Good choice, did you overclock it?

 

[RichM499]

Good choice, did you overclock it?

I don't get it until tomorrow. I'll make a thread and post some results.

 

[Apokalipse]

What motherboard and RAM do you have?
You would at least need a good motherboard if you want to get the 1055T over 4GHz - one which can reach high HTT speeds.
The 1090T is the only Thuban chip with an unlocked multiplier so far.

 

[RichM499]

I have an ASRock n68-s UCC motherboard. It's a budget board, and I don't expect an extreme overclock. However, I hope to see a decent result. I'll find out tomorrow. Luckily I am off work and the chip should arrive somewhere around 1 or 2pm, so I'll have plenty of time to play with it and post some results.

The memory is Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 4-4-4-12. I hope to push it to around DDR2 950 (475mhz) 4-4-4-12, or DDR2 1150 (575mhz) 5-5-5-15. Again, I'm not expecting a huge overclock but I'll find out tomorrow.

As for the 1090t being the only Thuban with an unlocked multi; I know. I am going to push the HTT as high as possible.

Just for reference, I have pushed 300mhz HTT on this board with 12 multi on an Athlon II x2 240. So I know the board can handle a high HTT, it's the ability of the board to supply enough power to this new 6-core that has me worried. Also, my voltage is limited to 1.55v, so that might be a limiting factor as well.

 

[Apokalipse]

I was looking for the power regulation for the CPU, and it looks rather absent. 3 chokes total for the NB/HTT, CPU and IGP?
I think it would struggle to even provide enough power if you want to run at >4GHz let alone have stable enough regulation.

 

[RichM499]

Apokalipse is right. I'm not going to get much out of this motherboard.
I've been having problems left and right. Even at 3.6~ghz.
I'm pretty sure it's a power issue. I'll try and get a new motherboard next week.

Can you recommend a decent and inexpensive motherboard?

 

[RichM499]

I am at 3.4GHz currently, and I'm seeing some good results. I'm going to take it an inch at a time until I get my max stable OC on this board, but I do not expect 4ghz, or even close to it to be honest.

I had to open a game to get CPU-z to report correctly. I guess I should have marked over my name to hide my identity, but I'm not terribly worried about it.
This is an impressive result for 3.4ghz! 18 seconds @ 3.4 means that unless I hit some sort of crazy performance wall, I should have no problems getting a top 3 spot with this thing.

Time will tell. Will I be able to take top 3 in AMD super pi with less than 4ghz? That would definitely be impressive, but only time will tell.

Back to the BIOS for me! Tweak time!

EDIT:

Played around with my memory timings a bit, and I shaved off a bit of time in Spi.

17.886s @ 3.4ghz. That's not bad at all. If you look at the Official Tech-Forums Super Pi top list, everything around this time in AMD is 3.9ghz+

I wonder if my memory settings are the reason I'm getting decent times in Spi. Isn't this a little odd that at 3.4ghz this chip is running like the quads at 3.9?
Could it be my memory? Or perhaps this is the 6-core thing living up to its name?

Maybe I'm just trippin'.. I'll tweak more later. Time for food.


Update:

Even at stock settings I notice a huge difference in the responsiveness of my system going from that PII dual core to this PII hexa core.
I can't comment on the performance differences between this thing and the i7s, but I can say that with my 4870 and this chip, everything is smooth as silk maxed out.
Starcraft 2 would begin lagging (by lagging I mean <30fps) with my PII x2, and I haven't noticed any slowdowns with this one. Even when the screen is full of units exploding it's smooth.
This is with everything at ultra + 4xaa 16xaf 1600x1200 FYI.

I'm pleased Now if I could just get this ****** motherboard to supply it some power long enough to run a few benchmarks I'll be happy.

 

[redfish]

I have a 1055T on an ASUS M4A88TD-V Evo/USB3 mobo that I have successfully OC'd to 4.2 GHz with the ASUS TurboV Evo software that came with the mobo. I was running it with the stock HSF and saw idle temps of ~35 degrees. My CPU voltage is set at 1.275V, CPU frequency 249 MHz and Core multiplier was at 16. I am currently running the same setup but with a lower multiplier.