Posts tagged with Black Edition
ATI Radeon HD 5970 – The World’s Fastest Graphics Card
Posted by Devon Nekechuk in 12:17 PM
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ATI Radeon HD5790
We recently announced the ATI Radeon™ HD 5970, the fastest graphics card on the planet1. It’s been an exciting few months with our launch of the first DirectX 11 capable graphics cards, still the only cards in the world to support gaming over three monitors enabled with ATI Eyefinity Technology. This time around, we’re spicing up ultrahigh-end PC gaming with a massive jump in raw performance.
It has really been a huge privilege to be the product manager for the ATI Radeon HD 5970 since we get to work with some of the best hardware and software engineers in the industry and everyone’s been enthusiastically working around the clock to get this product out to you guys. One of the unique facets of this project was that we weren’t necessarily designing towards a strict product definition, but instead had the freedom to go a little wild in overdesigning and over-engineering this board to create something that can overclock like crazy.2 Why did we do this? Let me give you a little glimpse of this monster in the making…
When we were first designing the ATI Radeon HD 5970, we came to a crossroads surrounding the board’s power consumption. We had two major options available to us. On one hand, we could cap ourselves at 300W and stay within the PCI Express specification. In doing so, we would stay compatible with the majority of the high-end power supplies in the market with 6-pin and 8-pin power connectors. On the other hand, we had the potential to fill a 400W power budget with performance, so we were considering using two 8-pin connectors and pushing this thing to its limits.
Ultimately, we went with a hybrid approach. We decided to appeal to the broader market and use a 6-pin + 8-pin power connector, but use the components from the 400W board design. We squeezed as much performance as we could out of the 300W, and left all the rest of the headroom as overclocking potential for you guys. It’s kind of like our Black Edition CPUs, where the premium chips are picked and shipped with unlocked multipliers so that you guys can overclock the @#$* out of them.
To give you an idea of some of the stuff that we’ve purposely over-engineered, here’s a few examples of some of the components we added purely for overclocking:
- The GPUs themselves were picked with three main criteria in mind:
- 1600 stream processors for full performance
- High-speed-capable for extra overclocking headroom
- Low leakage for better power characteristics
- Digital Volterra Regulators that are capable of delivering far more current than the board draws at default settings
- Japanese 47 μF pure ceramic capacitors for ultra-clean power delivery to the GPUs
- High-speed 5.0 Gbps-rated GDDR5
- Massive vapor-chamber capable of pulling up to 400W worth of heat away from the GPUs
- External discrete SMSC fan controller to monitor multiple temperatures and optimize fan performance and acoustics
We’ve built all of this headroom into the board itself, and we’re also doing some special stuff in the software as well. The bar in the ATI Overdrive™ utility goes higher than ever before, and we’re working with some of our AIB partners on software that will unlock even more overclocking potential through voltage tweaking applications.
Note: AMD’s product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking, even when overclocking is enabled via AMD Software. As well, unlike previous generations of ATI Radeon graphics cards, the overclocking potential of the ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics card has been left uncapped. You control the amount of overclocking to which you subject your card. Please use discretion and caution when overclocking.
1. As of November 18, 2009, the ATI Radeon™ HD 5790 scores X12011.1 in 3DMark Vantage Extreme preset, which is the highest recorded single-card score. System configuration: Intel Core i7 965 processor @ 3.33GHz, Gigabyte EX58-UD5 motherboard, Corsair XMS 6GB memory (3×2GB) at 1600MHz (8-8-8-24 timings), Windows 7 RTM x64, ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 1GB GDDR5, Drivers: ATI Catalyst™ 9.10 Beta (8.663.1) / NVIDIA ForceWare 191.07WHQL
Devon Nekechuk is a Product Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Wolfenstein and Quakecon 2009
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 2:00 PM
(14 votes, average: 3.93 out of 5)The game that started the FPS phenomenon!
Back in the early nineties, there was a game that truly defined all video games that followed, do you remember? Well, for those readers who were not born yet, the game was called Wolfenstein 3D and its introduction was a defining moment. Some believe that Wolfenstein 3D defined the FPS as we know it. I would have to completely agree!
If you were a Doom player then you can thank Wolf 3D for blazing the trail for what was, is, and continues to be an amazing gaming franchise. Fast forward to August 2009 and transport yourself to Dallas, Texas and you can relive those original Wolf 3D experiences with AMD at Quakecon 2009.
id Software has teamed up with Raven Studios to develop a new game called “Wolfenstein”. In the new game you play the original character William B.J Blazkowicz who just happens to be a super metalled out member of the Office of Secret Actions (OSA). Come on, how cool would that business card be?
Ian McNaughton
AMD
Office of Secret Actions
Will need to print some of those up for Quakecon!
The new Wolfenstein looks fantastic, I was able to score an early copy to hone my skillz in preparation for this weekend’s festivities and the game is awesome so far…
AMD will be showcasing Wolfenstein on our booth as well as in #area64.
We will also be providing live updates via Twitter and vlogs via blogs.amd.com.
#Area64 will be exclusive access only, meaning, you can try to find it, but its hidden and being kept secret. AMD will be showcasing what we lovingly refer to as “The Future”, if you want to see the future, follow me as well as @AMD_Unprocessed , @Catalystmaker, @caseygotcher and @Tweetoe for ways to get invited.
Strap in and hold on, Quakecon 2009 is about to begin!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
AREA 64 Presents: The TWKR…
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 11:29 AM
When fast just isn’t fast enough!
What do you get when you cross extreme engineering with extreme overclockability?
You get an AMD TWKR CPU.
**WARNING: Extreme overclocking is an activity that should be carried out only by experts, using expert tools in a safe and secure environment. Use of extreme cooling methods and materials, including but not limited to liquid nitrogen, can be extremely hazardous. Extreme overclocking is not for everyone – AMD urges caution and disclaims all liability for any damages, of any type or character (including without limitation, system damage, loss of data or personal injury) caused as a result of or while engaged in engaging in extreme overclocking activities.
AMD’s product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking, even when enabled via AMD software.
As they say, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
Matt Davis aka @dattymavis
@dattymavis and I ventured over to AMD’s “AREA 64″ with a newly minted AMD TWKR CPU to give it a testdrive under some extreme Ln2, and what ensued was pure overclocking awesomeness!
First, let me introduce to you the AMD TWKR:
AMD created a small number of limited edition AMD PhenomTM II TWKR Black Edition processors expressly for the purpose of commemorating the record performance feats with the AMD platform technology codenamed “Dragon” and AMD PhenomTM II processors. These processors are designed to reach the utmost performance barriers of the AMD Phenom II processor and operate beyond the specifications of typical production level processors.
Called the AMD PhenomTM II X4 42 Black Edition TWKR processor, it is not currently for sale, and not covered by AMD’s product warranty. This processor is provided “as is” and AMD disclaims any and all liable for any damages, of any type or character (including without limitation, system damage, loss of data or personal injury), caused as a result of or in connection with the use of this processor.
These processors demonstrate the sound engineering and superior process technology that is in each AMD Phenom II processor.
With our TWKR in hand and a solid warning from our buildings management staff, we headed across Austin to AMD’s Secret Lab – AREA 64.
The lab is fully stocked with all the hardware an overclocker could ever imagine or dream of, shopping made easy! Did I mention the 9,000 gallon Liquid Nitrogen tank outside with direct piping into the AREA 64 lab, yup, doesn’t get much better than that!
The motherboard of choice was a Gigabyte 790X.
4G of Corsair memory,
An ATI RadeonTM HD 4870 X2 GPU.
And a TWKR CPU.
Hmmm, why is it not posting???
After 20 minutes of no posting at all, we finally realized that the DIMMS had been previously whacked and were no good… Step 1: Always make sure you have working hardware!
Once we had working hardware, we fired it up and started the “slow pour” of Ln2.
The steps we followed are detailed in this blog.
Ln2 engaged! First thermos of Ln2 got us to -120C, time for thermos #2. The second pour brought us down to -139C! Time for more!
The third thermos of Ln2 brought our TWKR part down to -186.6C – Ah, overclocking bliss!
At this point in time, I let @dattymavis take over as he is the obvious safer one between the two of us…
@dattymavis jokingly dons full protective gear and looks like something out of an alien movie…
Now time to see what this badboy can do! We pushed the proc to a single core overclock of 6.42Ghz at a voltage of 1.725volts. This was accomplished just having Windows at idle. We will leave it up to the professional overclockers to push the proc’s with a heavy workload.
As for a 4-core OC, we achieved 6.2Ghz at 1.8 volts. Again, this was at a temp of -182F with a light workload.
All in all, we achieved significant frequency for a couple of hacks with unlimited Ln2.
The TWKR is not currently for sale, but is designed to make a statement to the OC community: Thank you to each and every enthusiast who continues to support AMD and fights the good fight!
Ah, the sweat smell of Ln2...
If I’m lucky, I may be able to give away some of the TWKR processors via Twitter in the coming weeks. I’m not making any promises, but follow me if you are on Twitter and you just might be lucky enough to become a proud owner of a TWKR yourself someday.
Also follow @AMDDesktop…they have some goodies for the community too!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Finding the processor that fits you – maybe dual core is jusssttt riiight
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 2:38 PM
Look carefully at these 2 processors before buying anything else!
The mainstream CPU market is awfully crowded these days, a full line-up of model numbers from AMD and a further full line-up of confusing model numbers from Intel. Is the C2D E8600 better than a C2Q 8200, what about an i7920, is a 920 better or worse than a X4955? Is it about frequency, cores, memory channels or controllers, DDR2 or DDR3??? #$%^&*()_#$%^&* WHICH CPU SHOULD I BUY?
This blog hopes to help answer that question.
At AMD we have tried to make things very simple – we started with graphics and moved that model numbering system into CPUs. The bigger the number, the more performance you will get! Simple. Clean. Easy.
On June 2, 2009 we launched the newest addition to our mainstream CPU line-up, the AMD PhenomTM II X2 550 Black Edition and the AMD AthlonTM II X2 250 processors.
The press release reads as such:
“AMD AthlonTM II processor delivers new native dual-core architecture, efficient 45nm technology and 3 GHz performance at an affordable price –
AMD PhenomTM II X2 Black Edition processor combines value and unlocked potential for gamers and tuners on a budget”
Very well stated I must say! This sums up the benefit of each processor and now I will endeavor to take it one step further.
When a shiny new toy, like a quad core CPU, enters the market people tend to mentally move on and forget about past products, like the once dominant dual core. Historically, enthusiasts are the first to clamor for the latest and greatest, often regardless of cost. But let’s keep this ‘bleeding edge’ in perspective, currently only a small proportion of shipping CPU’s are quad core, the rest are made up of triple-, dual- and single-core processors. Usage and computing continue to evolve to take advantage of multicore processors but dual core processors still have a big piece of the pie.
Let’s bring this all back to the two little gems we launched on June 2. The AMD PhenomTM II X2 550 Black Edition is the single fastest dual-core client CPU we have ever engineered and brought to market. Incredibly, you can buy it at Newegg today for only $102.00 with free shipping.
That is just short of astounding! And this processor is built off the same die as the acclaimed AMD PhenomTM II quad-core processors.
The AMD AthlonTM II X2 250 is another product we launched on June 2, 2009 in Taipei; it’s simply an incredible little performance monster. Currently priced at $87.00 on Newegg with free shipping, this processor is born from its own die, meaning its half the size of its sibling mentioned above and does not share the same wafer.
How does that impact you, the consumer? Lower cost, lower power consumption.
This processor has a maximum design spec of 65W; average daily use can often fall well below even that..
Both processors feature the AM3 socket, which means they’re compatible with AM3 motherboards using DDR3 memory, OR they can be dropped into an AM2+ motherboard with DDR2 memory (which can further help reduce your overall system price).
Which one should you buy?
Well, here is my quick swag at generalizing which processor I think you should buy:
| Gaming | Gaming+Video | Video + TV | Photo+Music | Heavy Video Editing | Overclocking | ||
| Dual Core | Quad Core | Triple Core | Dual Core | Quad Core | Quad Core |
Like with any recommendation, take it with a grain of salt, it all comes down to your budget and expected longevity of your system.
It’s always tough for a corporate spinner like me to write about our own products. I try not to prop AMD products unless I have used them or I am extremely passionate and knowledgeable about them, in this case, I am all three: A user of an AMD Phenom II X4 550 processor in my system at home, absolutely passionate about the tremendous value these parts offer a consumer and a bit of an expert as I was part of the product management team who helped birth these products to see the light of day on our roadmaps.
It’s confusing to know what to purchase, I can honestly say, I don’t think you can go wrong with choosing either of these processors. But as always in my blogs, please, don’t take my word for it, check out what the reviewers have been saying:
“With the Athlon II X2 250 and the Phenom II X2 550 AMD has released two very competitive dual-core parts. They both perform and overclock well and are easily competitive with Intel’s Pentium E6300…I’ve really got no complaints here. AMD has done very well in both the pricing and execution of its first 45nm dual-core products.”
“Zipping along at 3.0GHz, the Athlon II X2 250 will take its place as the fastest Athlon processor in AMD’s lineup. Other vitals include a 45nm manufacturing processor, 65W TDP, and an AM3 package allowing it to support both DDR2 and DDR3 memory. Perhaps best of all, the new chip is being priced at a budget-friendly $87.”
Lost Circuit’s Michael Schuette on the AMD Athlon II X2 250, “Overall, well done, AMD, this little gem might be poised to capture even more market share.”
“If you are looking for great performing processors at an even greater price, you would be a fool not to consider the Phenom II X2 550 BE or the Athlon II X2 250. Their price to performance ratio is unmatched, and will not leave you hanging.”
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Overclocking 101 with the AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 9:05 PM
Breaking it down with Pete Hardman in our secret lab
Does your PC have overclock potential? Our new AMD PhenomTM II processors certainly do, and to showcase this I ventured over to our super secret lab buried deep inside the bowels of our Austin campus to prove the point!
Picture long hallways of unmarked doors, the hum of machinery, people milling about eyeing you up and down, wondering who you are and why you’re there. Now imagine a dream job for an enthusiast, one where you have almost limitless access to silicon, hardware and time to hone your craft. This is the life of Pete Hardman, one of AMD’s in-house overclocking gurus!
Pete comes into work every day, passes through the “MI6″ type security barriers, enters his lab and proceeds to break records the world may never ever know about (at least that’s what he tells us)! All in a day’s work I say!
You may have seen some of the insane things we’ve done with Dragon platform technology and liquid helium, both at CES and with our friends in Finland. But for this blog we’re going to keep it simple and break down a ‘tried and true’ method for getting more performance out of your AMD Phenom II processor.
Check out his classy nameplate
Pete's work desk - a little unorthodox to say the least
Pete and I took the new AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor and walked it through a proper overclocking methodology using AMD OverDriveTM software*. Here are the steps we went through in detail:
Overclocking 101
Step 1 – Figure out your goals, small increase or one shot big gain? Power efficiency, is it important? Going for a full system max overclcok? Find the limits?
Step 2 – Procure the right hardware and software.
Our test system:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition quad-core processor
ASUS M4879T Deluxe DDR3 Motherboard
4G Corsair DDR3 Memory
ATI RadeonTM HD4870 X2 GPU
Thermalrite Ultra 120 Extreme “TRUE”
2 – 120mm high volume fans
Software add-ons:
Step 3 – Prep system – thermal paste the CPU, mount your air cooling solution as per guidelines. Keep the thermal paste to a nice thin amount; this will be beneficial once the heatsink is applied and pressure is added.
Step 4 – Power on system and boot to the OS – Install AMD OverDrive software*
Step 5 – Change frequency; make small incremental changes to the systems multiplier.
Once you have made your frequency multiplier changes, run a benchmark like Cinebench or 3DMark® to check for stability. Adjust frequency using stock voltage first before increasing voltage.
Step 6 – Increase multiplier and redo step 5 until the benchmark does not complete.
Step 7 – Once you have established the ‘ceiling’ in terms of frequency at stock voltage, do a cold reset/reboot.
Step 8 – Now increase voltage; this should also be done incrementally. You need to know how the voltage scales with frequency. As you increase voltage, frequency should increase, but there is a limit where too much voltage will start to reduce frequency; this is the “Sweet Spot” – find it!
Step 9 – Make a small 50mv increase, now retry the benchmark at the same frequency you previously failed at.
Step 10 – Continue to increase frequency at the new voltage until you find a fail case (meaning your computer hangs or blue screens).
Step 11 – Once you have a fail case at the new frequency, increase the voltage another 50mv and redo Step 10
Step 12 – Once you have established a threshold on voltage and frequency, we now move to the Northbridge and we make those changes via BIOS
Step 13 – Restart and enter BIOS
Step 14 – Click on CPU/NB Frequency and make an increase; we went from 2G to 2.4G which is a large jump and ended up at 2.8Ghz.
Step 15 – Continue to make incremental increases until you have a fail.
Step 16 – Take the results from steps 5, 8 and 12 and put them all together into a total system overclock. CPU cores, Voltage and North Bridge frequency all overclocked to establish a high performing PC experience
Overclocking can be a lot of fun; I personally like to do a moderate overclock and leave my system at that performance level. Pete, on the other hand, is pushing the boundaries of silicon every day. Chances are you are wondering what frequency we ended at, well, the results may vary, and what Pete and I achieved may not be representative of what everyone can do. With that caveat clearly stated, our final frequency was 4.2G on air without overclocking the memory. Not bad considering we did not spend a lot of time tweaking, we simply followed the steps above that delivered a good 1 Ghz OC.
*And remember kids, AMD’s product warranty does not cover damage caused by overclocking, even when enabled via AMD OverDriveTM software.
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
An Enthusiasts Dream Machine
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 3:29 PM
Simply blissful gaming!
Twist my arm, unreleased GPU meets, unreleased CPU meets unreleased Microsoft OS! When I was asked to build out a totally “unreleased product” PC and experience/blog on the tremendous gaming capabilities of such a system, I was all over it!
First things first, collect all the necessary components; as you can imagine this is a very easy task at AMD.
Components – CHECK
Chassis – Antec Skeleton (as this is easy to do quick uninstalls and reinstalls)
Birthplace – yes, we are human, even though we work and live in grey cubes
Lifting the veil!
Motherboard – Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P (AM3)
Memory – 8G Corsair XMS3 DHX DDR3 1333
CPU – Unreleased AMD Phenom™ II Quad Core (3.2Ghz)
GPU – ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 OC (unreleased at the time, available today)
OS – A super secret version of Windows 7
CPU is an AMD Phenom II X4 quad core running at a stock frequency of 3.2Ghz, this CPU is scheduled to be available sometime in Q2.
The GPU is a third generation DirectX10.1 graphics card that is powered by the most powerful gaming GPU under $2601.. Availability of this GPU is April 2nd worldwide (today) and I was excited to test it early!
Some of the specs to the GPU are:
Compute Power – 1.36 TFLOPS
Core Clock Speed – 900 Mhz
Memory – GDDR5
Frame Buffer – 1G
Memory Bandwidth – 124.8 GB/s
Transistors – 959 million
Stream Processors – 800
On to the gaming experience.
Home office and test area – Yes, that is Tweetdeck open, yes that is an HP dv2 on the left and yes that is an Optimun Prime helmet beside my Master Chief helmet! Me=Geek
Just for clarity, I installed a really mature version of Windows 7 as the OS to go with the ATI Catalyst™ 9.3 software driver that we just released. This excluded me from using AMD Overdrive™ for overclocking2 or Fusion Gaming Utility3 as I did not have time to fully test these apps on Win7 (rest assured we’ll get to those in other blogs). Not to mention, I really wanted to give you a sense of the coolest gaming PC build possible!!!
If you have read any of my previous posts, you will quickly come to realize that I love Call of Duty 4: World at War, Left 4 Dead and F.E.A.R.2. These were my games of choice. As you can clearly see above, I hooked them up to one of my 30” DELL monitors and cranked all the game settings to the max. It was simply beautiful, truly cinematic HD gaming.
L4D, killing zombies on a 22” screen is boring, killing zombies while rendering with an HD4890 on a 30” screen was scary!! I have never been so stressed out while gaming (minus my first time playing DOOM).
Did I mention the system was almost silent, it was cool and quiet!
F.E.A.R. 2, can’t say I’m tired of playing the first few levels of this game, especially on such a massive screen with so much horsepower!Between the CPU and GPU, F.E.A.R 2 purred along at 2560×1600 without a hitch, flicker or anomaly! It was the way the game was meant to be played! (no pun intended here)
Did I mention the system was almost silent, it was cool and quiet!
The experience of CoD4 WaW was awe-inspiring! Nothing like running into a fox hole – gun a’blazin’ (or in this case, flame thrower a’flamin’) without the distraction of load times or annoying interruptions from hitches and flickers!
Did I mention the system was almost silent, it was cool and quiet!
If you are a hard core gamer looking for the best GPU value in the market – and when I say value I do not mean cheap or thrifty, I mean hardnosed best product for the money – the ATI Radeon HD 4890 needs to be a consideration! Market leading performance, exceptional price AND actual availability on launch day! No PR gimmicks here folks, no paper launches, no “ball and cup” games, just innovative product, with industry leading features built by gamers for gamers!
Don’t take my word for it; here are some very reputable 3rd party review sites to verify my experience!
“Editor’s choice Enthusiast Gold Award”
Mark Warner, Brent Justice, HardOCP
“Bon” Award (performance 4/5, features 4/5)
“It is hardly known if the GTX 275 will be available in volume or at the price promised”
Clubic.com (France)
“It is not a completely new design, but the Radeon HD 4890 is an exciting product nonetheless. To put it simply, the Radeon HD 4890 is the fastest, single-GPU powered graphics card AMD has ever produced. And its competitive pricing and overclocking headroom should further its appeal amongst enthusiasts.”
“HotHardware Recommended Award”
Marco Chiappetta, HotHardware.com
Now, I need to get back to gaming on this beautiful piece of engineering…until next blog!
(BTW: I respond to most all comments personally, catch me here or on Twitter)
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
1 Internal calculations show that the ATI Radeon HD 4890 delivers 1.36 TFLOPs of raw compute power. Third-party testing shows that the fastest competing GPU, the GeForce GTX 280 graphics processor, delivers 1.06 TFLOPs of raw compute power. http://www.gpureview.com/GeForce-GTX-285-card-605.html.
2 AMD product warranty does not cover damage caused by performance tuning, even when enabled using AMD software.
3 THIS UTILITY MAY DISABLE SECURITY / ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE, OR ADVERSELY AFFECT YOUR SYSTEM. REVIEW ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
The PC Enthusiast’s $145 “Tri-fecta”…
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 4:34 AM
Test driving the new AM3-compatible AMD Phenom™ II Triple-core Processor One of the perks of my job is I get to use PC hardware long before it’s ever launched (yes I know, some might be jealous of such a perk). With the launch of our AM3 parts, it was no exception. One of our faithful PR spinners dropped off a triplecore, specifically the AMD Phenom™ II X3 720 Black Edition (2.8GHz) to my desk, the idea was that I would build a system from scratch and then write a blog on the experience. Being a team player and loving the idea of a whole day in thermal grease up to my elbows, I had to accept the task…here we go: The system I chose to build was:
- AMD Phenom™ II X3 720 Black Edition (2.8GHz)
- Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H (AMD 790GX-based mobo)
- ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 X2 (single card without ATI CrossFireX™ technology enabled)
- 4G Corsair Memory DDR2
- 150G WD HDD
- Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit
The test system
WEI and 3DMark System Specs
After the install and boot up was complete, I did what ALL gamers should do (on a monthly basis) and updated my ATI CatalystTM GPU software drivers… The idea of triple core was a novel approach for CPUs, normally, or better, historically we (the industry) went from 1…2…4… etc, always in multiples of 2x. AMD broke this trend as we had the world’s first native quad-core processor for desktop PCs which allowed us to offer the market a triple-core processor. The significance of this is that now consumers had more choice, OEMs and the channel had more differentiation and AMD offered a product that its competitor could not replicate. But I digress, moving on to gameplay. The FarCry 2 play test:
DELL 30" monitor displaying FC2
I loaded a fresh copy of FarCy 2 and proceeded to crank the settings: 2560×1600, AA 4x, DirectX10 (would have elected DirectX10.1 if available) all other settings were on High or Ultra High. The load time was quick; the game play was smooth, no hitches, no visible issues, a solid great experience. The GPU did not have ATI CrossfireXTM technology enabled as I wanted to play the game with the equivalent of a performance mainstream card such as the ATI Radeon HD 4870. The picture above does not do the experience justice but it looked beautiful, 30 inches of monitor in all its splendor powered by a $145 CPU, unbelievable. But, it’s not a magic trick; I played a few more games to make sure this experience was not an anomaly.
Crysis - Advanced settings on HIGH, 1600x1200 AA 4x - picture taken right before I died
The AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition was a champ, the game experiences were awesome, and why is that you ask? The answer is quite simple, the system I built was a balanced system, I invested more in graphics, which allowed me to have the ultimate gaming experience while not having to invest in a $1000 CPU. Oh, did I mention that these processors are DDR3 AND DDR2 capable, meaning you can use them in your existing AM2+ socket motherboard as an upgrade OR in our new AM3 DDR3 socket motherboards. One of the things I give AMD huge credit for is their continued support of past generation infrastructure, this means cheaper alternatives for consumers and gives YOU the gamer the choice when you want to upgrade.
Enemy Territory-Quake Wars, All settings on HIGH, Shader Lvl Ultra and AA 8x
The old school belief was that to get the best PC experience, one must invest as much as possible in the CPU; this is now a myth, tales of long ago, fallacy, make believe! Don’t believe the Blue hype in the market, you can have a brilliant multi-core gaming experience with overclockability for less than $145. This little triple-core processor is proof of that!1 The GPU and the chipset have become vital decisions when building a PC, the old adage of “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” holds true in PCs today. I was thoroughly impressed with this product, especially when you take into account its price point, its headroom and the market leading chipsets it gets slotted into. Harness a system like this with the AMD Fusion for Gaming utility2 and the AMD OverDrive software and you have the makings of a fantastic mainstream gaming system. Check out these 3rd party reviews to see for yourself: Bjorn 3D: “Phenom 2 X4 940 BE, X4 810 & X3 720 BE
”
- AWARD: “Seal of Approval”
HardOCP: “Phenom II Gets Affordable with DDR3 & AM3 ”
- AWARD: “Editors Choice Gold Award”
Firing Squad: AMD’s AM3 CPUs: Phenom II X4 810 and Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Hot Hardware: AMD Phenom II X4 810 and X3 720 BE Processors Also check out this video and these photos.
1AMD warranty does not cover damage caused by overclocking, even when using AMD OverDrive™ software.
2 THIS UTILITY MAY DISABLE SECURITY / ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE, OR ADVERSELY AFFECT YOUR SYSTEM. REVIEW ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.