Posts tagged with Dragon
What’s a good title for a Quakecon blog?
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 1:39 PM
(33 votes, average: 4.48 out of 5)
Loading ...It has to be about the “Future”…
“Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn’t take Lorraine out that he’d melt my brain”. – George McFly
PMS Clan and a future gaming superstar on our Quakecon booth
Well, its day 2 at Quakecon 2009 and my brain hasn’t melted, but I have seen a Darth Vader or two… In thinking about the ‘right’ title for my blog, “The Future” was an obvious choice seeing as how we have packed up #Area64 and transported it all the way to Dallas.
What is #Area64 you ask, well, it’s the secret place in Austin where AMD has all of its unreleased products, engineering secrets and where we keep the flux capacitor. As one can imagine, we need to keep such a place heavily guarded and hard to find, so, what do a bunch of AMD gamers do, we packed it up and rebuilt it in the Gaylord Hotel for Quakecon. I am currently writing this blog from the heart of our mobile #area64, the sounds of next generation technology humming away behind me!
Pete and Chris from AMD showcasing our Quakecon shirts...
Wait a minute, Doc. Ah… Are you telling me that you built a time machine… out of a DeLorean? – Marty McFly
No, we didn’t bring our time machine but I am not going to comment on if AMD has built a time machine, that’s a completely different blog. But, we did bring what we expect will revolutionize the way you play games on PC’s in the future.
How does one gain access into #area64 and who gets access, great questions, here is what you have to do:
AMD will be limiting access to #Area64 to 100 almost random gamers, meaning anyone and everyone has a fair shot at “Seeing the Future”, just follow these AMD’ers on Twitter;
@IanMcNaughton – @Tweetoe – @Catalystmaker - @AMD_Unprocessed & @Caseygotcher
We will be tweeting hints and actions during Quakecon, it could be as simple as “The first 5 gamers who meet us at XX, gain access” or “Make a short video about Why you need or should have access to #Area64 and post to Youtube, gain access”.
Or, you could simply track us down and ask for an “on the spot action for access”.
Here are the shirts we are giving away, they are unique and numbered from 1-100, if you see anyone wearing them in the halls or BYOC, you know they have “SEEN THE FUTURE”!
The Future is Awesome!
As a special treat to all the readers of my blog, via this blog, you will be the first to download the latest ATI Catalyst 9.8 driver here:
XP
Vista and Win7
[Update: Official ATI Catalyst 9.8 Drivers are available here]
Enjoy!
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.
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.
Water Cooling – Are you nuts?
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 12:27 PM
Does the CoolIT Domino make the grade?
When the guys from CoolIT approached me for a quote for their Domino press release, my immediate reaction was, “Let’s get it in the lab and send me a review unit to test”…
Here at AMD we have a full scientific test lab for thermal devices. We all know that a properly built PC is a careful dance of core temp, ambient temp, chassis temp – all at idle, mid and full load. We like to test for real-world conditions, especially for those lazy Sundays when the air-conditioning breaks and your PC whizzes away stuffed in a cabinet under a desk collecting large deposits of dust. It’s our business to make sure our products run under the most grueling and sometimes strange environments.
Our lab guys were impressed with the Domino coolers they received. It was once thought that cost effective water cooling was impossible. Unfortunately I cannot share any of the details from those tests as they are all still very cloak and dagger (considered as internal trade secrets), but to say the least, I was impressed that they – our thermal fellows – were impressed. Now before I would ever give a “nod” to any product, I have to use and experience it first.
My hands on time with the Domino consisted of building out a new system based on AMD “Dragon” platform technology:
- Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P Motherboard
- ATI RadeonTM HD 4890 discrete graphics
- Corsair DDR3 Ram 8G
- AMD PhenomTM II X4 955 3.2GHz processor
- 3x Western Digital HDD Totaling 1 Terabyte
- Corsair HX1000W PSU
- Coolermaster Cosmos 1000
- CoolIT Domino A.L.C
Domino installed in my Dragon System
The setup was surprisingly easy; I fiddled with the brackets and little bolts until I got it right. It took just as long to install a Domino cooler as it did to fully install a PSU.
Once it was fully installed, I checked for leaks, cracks, breaks and/or other signs of water in my system prior to plugging it in and firing it up!
Water flowing through your PC is absolutely foreign to many and frankly most PC users. Why would anyone in their right mind want to have a water contraption in their PC, the answer is quite simple, superior cooling!
Water cooling has always been very expensive, labour intensive and a little dodgy at times. Horror stories of broken piping, reservoirs cracking and water leaking that swiftly destroys your entire PC have been whispered everywhere in the enthusiast community. A costly breakdown to say the least!
The old adage was “Cost effective water cooling is impossible”, well, until now.
The Domino made a tremendous difference in the hot air being expelled from the back of my chassis, it’s no longer “hot”, it’s simply a mild warm. This helps in a room full of PC’s and 2 giant monitors, trust me, personal comfort becomes paramount.
Domino's operations screen
When I did a play test, I used CoD WaW and saw the Domino report a temp of 99degrees, 2079 rpm fan speed and 3123rpm pump speed on medium.
I switched it to the high setting and saw a decrease in temp, but an increase in ambient noise. The Domino reported a temp of 94degrees, 2824rpm fan speed and 3105prm pump speed.
The increase in noise levelled off to something more than bearable, but regardless, I game with headphones so the increase in ambient noise doesn’t bother me. I really liked the “beep” feature, it audibly lets you know when something has been changed or goes wrong.
The Domino does not seem to be intended for a DIY’er who makes lots of changes to her/his PC on a regular basis. It seems better suited for the gamer or enthusiast who builds and uses their PC in that config for awhile. How often do you really upgrade your mobo and CPU anyway, every 6months? 9months? 12months?
As I am not a reviewer, nor do I claim to be, I almost completely rely on the reviewer community to recommend or not recommend a product, here is what they have to say:
Maximum PC gave it a 9/10 in its June issue.
Almost unanimously reviewed positively and recommended.
If you are a gamer looking to add “H2O” to your system, the Cool-IT Domino is a good option.
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.
CES 09 Flashback: What made the Cabrtosr Cool List
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 2:18 AM
For anyone who hasn’t figured it out yet, I officially have the best job in the IT world. For those of you still unconvinced, just read this post.
Walked the floor with none other than Charlie from The Inq…
After I spent 4 solid days locked in a 10×10ft white room briefing journalists and analysts and after a grueling panel discussion @Digital Hollywood, I was finally freed to walk the show floor…
It just so happened that the infamous Charlie D notoriously known as the slayer of “Corporate Pirates”, the destroyer of “Marketing Fluff” and the wearer of “the coolest t-shirts” from The Inquirer was in the AMD press area and agreed to accompany me on my technology pilgrimage.
Set forth young men and wander…
First stop The Sands Convention Centre:
Charlie wearing a stylish pair of Vuzix 3D Glasses
We stopped by the Vuzix booth and took a look at their “3D glasses for gaming” to experience the difference between their glasses and the other 3D glasses at the show, I have to admit, playing CRYSIS with these glasses rocked…You feel like you are in the game, you are able to play games and watch movies at 16:9 widescreen aspect ratios. The model we tried was only 4ozs and had an amazing 11hr battery life. I think these products have a future with the gaming community.
Before we left The Sands, I ran into an old friend, I took a quick pic of him lazing away watching a movie in 3D.
Tarindar from Hexus.net chill’in @CES09
Next stop North Hall:
Had a quick stop @ Dolby and saw some really cool technology, they really know how to max out the audio experience, more on that in a separate blog.
Moving on we came across D-Box and saw some very cool racing simulators. I jumped in one of these and took it for a spin, wow what a heart pounding racing sim experience.
d-box D-Box and it’s "true to life" racecar cockpit
Side view of the Cockpit awesomeness
After our brush with greatness on the virtual track, we headed off to hunt down Thermaltake’s booth.
Thermaltake had an amazing amount of hardware and peripherals on display, I had to narrow down the really cool tech as they had so much, here are the two top products (IMO):
Dual slot external HDD
Thermaltake SpinQ – Mix between Art and Design
This SpinQ cooler is practically silent and it does have uniqueness about it in terms of design. Notice the shiny award behind it, the SpinQ won a covenanted innovations award for Design & Engineering, Congrats TT.
The next stop was iZ3D:
3D Monitors in all their glory
Now these guys are hardcore 3D gamers…I had no choice but to sit-down and experience MSFT FlightSim (RIP) in all its 3D glory.
Yes, your immediate assumptions is correct, I tried to crash the plane, but MSFT does not allow that anymore
Check out these guys, they have some interesting technology, both with glasses and in monitor. I had a blast playing FlightSim in 3D to be honest. No worries, these 3D monitors are regular monitors as well; just exit 3D mode and take off the cool shades and you are back in “normal” everyday business.
When we were @iZ3D there was a loud brouhaha happening right outside so Charlie and I had to check it out…to our amazement.
Welcome to Race Car Sim heaven - $40,000 of pure bliss
The guys next door were Simcraft they are the proud makers of REAL <not for us gamers> full-motion simulators. Three monitors, multiple hydraulics a lifelike roll cage and 100% adrenaline fed gaming bliss.
Neither Charlie nor I had the nerve to jump in this badboy (mostly because the line stretched on for 400ft) so we didn’t actually try it out, but based on the sheer massive amount of people in line to do a few laps I am convinced this is a winner.
Oh, did I mention they are priced around $40,000 USD and professional race car drivers practice in them?
Moving along:
Over @ the Creative booth, I ran into my old (me not him) pal Fata1ty showing off his new Creative usb headset for gaming, gotta get me one of those.
Also, I noticed a few outliers in their booth check these out:
"Wetter is Better" goes the tagline - The World's first desktop personal computer cooled by patented total liquid submersion - ReactorTM
“
This beast is a fully submerged PC, yes, fully submerged in LIQUID, patented LIQUID, but still liquid, imagine.
The TEAM ATI guys did this back in 2004 @ a LAN party in Dallas, but their chassis was a fishtank and the liquid was mineral oil, who knew it would be commercialized. Wow.
Also, in the creative booth, we saw this:
NEC CRVD-42WX Curved Display
As they say – A picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case, 10,000 words
AMD Dragon Platform was everywhere
The show was a success for us @ AMD, here are some highlights in case you missed all the media during the show:
- ATI RadeonTM Mobility 4-series GPUs
- Dragon platform and Phenom II
- Watch the Phenom II X4 940 set the world record 6.5GHz overclock using liquid helium!
- You say you want even more overclocking vids?
Watch Team Finland break 3DMark06 records with the Phenom II X4 overclocked on liquid nitrogen.
- HP Pavilion dv2 (which won Best Laptop of CES – Laptop Magazine)
- AMD’s CEO Dirk Meyer and Satjiv S. Chahil of HP introduce the New HP Pavilion dv2 Ultra Thin Notebook
- Tremendously successful keynote with CEO Dirk Meyer
See you next year!
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.
Hitting the Overclocking Stratosphere in Austin!
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 2:00 AM
Have you ever wondered just how much performance you can get from your current PC? Or, how much do you need to spend on a CPU vs. GPU? Or, do large containers of Liquid Nitrogen spewing vapour make your neighbours nervous?
At AMD HQ in Austin, TX in November we invited some of the top press in the world to preview our newest DT CPU, AMD Phenom™ II processor in a “Dragon Platform Technology Techday Event”. Here are the ingredients to a fantastic overclocking event:
- Lots of Tier 1 press from all over the world -- Check
- Cool Surroundings -- Check
- Lots of hardware -- Check
- Design engineers -- Check
- Massive containers of Liquid Nitrogen -- hehe -- Check
- Food, Food, Food -- Check
- A few pairs of welding mitts and safely glasses -- Check, Check, Check
And with this you have the makings of an overclocking smorgasbord!
Patrick Moorhead (AMD Veep of cool stuff) setting the stage before we unleashed our AMD Phenom II Processor overclocked to 6+GHz
Most gamers are satisfied with their stock CPU frequency, but there is the occasion, if just for pride or ego, a gamer wants to strut their stuff and showoff the headroom of their PC. At AMD we are no different; we wanted to showcase to the WW press the massive overclockability of our new Phenom II CPU.
Some of the most interesting conversations are had when a company allows their top talent engineers to converse directly with tech journalists, no marketing, no spinning, no positioning, just honest answers to questions and some crazy idea generation let me assure you!
left to right: Sanjiv Lakenpaul (AMD Senior Platform Engineer), ME, John Bruno (AMD Engineering Roadmap Strategist), Jeremy Laird (Tech Radar), Tarinder Sandhu (Hexus)
We were discussing the demo behind me - our competitor’s 3.2G i7 processor vs. our 3.0G AMD Phenom II processor playing CRYSIS and how a balanced platform is the right choice. Just considering CPU performance in a CPU centric synthetic benchmark is no longer relevant. A gamer has to consider their chipset, CPU and GPU as a holistic platform, in a lot of cases, investing more in the GPU and a little less in the CPU will deliver a better gaming experience. (I smell a future video blog)
On with the show! But first our own Sami Makkinen addressed the safety concerns around the demo and laid out the exact configuration and what to expect (little did he know, they would even surpass his world champion overclocking expectations)
Sami Makkinen (AMD Professional Overclocker and creator of AMD Overdrive)
“Have CPU, will Overclock” was the motto of the day, and overclock they did! Sami and team started with just an air cooler and achieved a monstrous 4+GHz overclock booting and playing CRYSIS.
But that was just the beginning, “Please stand back folks…6GHz is no barrier”
...add the Liquid Nitrogen and the 6GHz barrier was smashed!
A little fine tuning by Sanjiv and team prior to the final attempt
And in the end, everyone was able to witness a stunning 6.2GHz overclock of the AMD Phenom II processor playing CRYSIS and a further 100MHz to 6.3GHz booting…Just amazing.
This event was so successful we decided to take it on the road, we asked Sami to invite two of the world’s top overclockers to the US to personally take the AMD Phenom II processor through its overclocking paces and the result was awesome.
See the whole event …well worth experiencing!
…or watch it on Mogulus
We then took it even another quantum leap forward and participated in an overclocking event in Las Vegas going HEAD TO HEAD vs. INTEL, yes, INTEL! I won’t ruin the fairytale ending, but watch this video to see AMD Phenom II Processor break records and establish itself as THE KING OF OVERCLOCKERS!! If that wasn’t enough to quench your thirst for Phenom overclocking madness, AMD traveled to Finland to break even more records.
Moral of the story: invest in your PC wisely, don’t be fooled by the “$1000 CPU hype”, in most cases a good sub $300 CPU coupled with a ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series gfx card is all any gamer needs to achieve the best gaming experience, and when the few times to need to “drag race your friends” or “show off to the new, cute neighbourhood girl” you can use AMD Overdrive and overclock your AMD Phenom II to processor massive frequencies, all with a few clicks and a wise purchase decision.
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.