AMD Socket AM3 Processors Arrive - X3 720 BE & X4 810
Last month during the Consumer Electronics Show, AMD announced their new 45nm desktop processors with the launch of the Phenom II series. The series consisted of Phenom II X4 940 and Phenom II X4 920 processors. In our review of the Phenom II X4 940 processor we saw that the new 45nm processors looked much improved from both a performance and overclocking stand point. AMD cannot pose a threat to the Intel Core i7 processor series with Phenom II, but they can compete with them when it comes to the price of the processor and the overall final price of the platform in its entirety.
AMD is announcing five new Socket AM3 processors that many enthusiasts have been waiting months for. These processors are based off the same 45nm 'Deneb' core that the previous Phenom II processors use, but with a few tweaks and a new memory controller. This new memory controller allows the processor to run both DDR2 and DDR3 memory kits, which is good news for AMD as up to a 5% performance boost can be seen when running DDR3 memory on Phenom II processors. What is even better news is that AM3 processors are 100% backwards compatible with motherboards using AM2+ sockets, which means you do not have to run out and buy a brand new Socket AM3 motherboard and a DDR3 memory kit to upgrade to one of these processors.
Right about know you are more than likely thinking that
other than a memory controller change not much else happened. AMD
actually made a package change and removed two of the 940 pins that
are found on Socket AM2 and AM2+ processors, so the new Socket AM3
processors have just 938 pins! So, if you want to invest in an AMD
processor that supports DDR3 memory to give you an upgrade path down the
road you can breathe a sigh of relief as AMD officially announced the
immediate availability of the following five new AM3-packaged Phenom II
processors:
- AMD Phenom II X4 810 Available in PIB at AMD's suggested 1KU price of $175
- AMD Phenom II X4 910 Available in tray only
- AMD Phenom II X4 805 Available in tray only
- AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition in PIB at AMD's suggested 1KU price of $145
- AMD Phenom II X3 710 Available in PIB at AMD's suggested 1KU price of $125
Phenom II X4 810 and Phenom II X3 720 BE
Not too much hype is around triple-core processors these days, but AMD has high hopes that the Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition processor is about to change all that. AMD is positioning the triple-core $145 X3 720 BE against Intel's $165 dual-core E8400. AMD feels that the $20 lower price will offer consumers a better value since the processor has an additional core. Sadly, the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor that we reviewed yesterday can be had for $169 and might as well be in the same price category. AMD still has a lower price tag, but no longer has a core advantage. What is interesting to us is the fact that this processor should have a ton of overclocking headroom due to being unlocked. If that holds true this processor might be a budget overclocker that will stand out from the crowd and win the hearts of enthusiasts.
The Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition processor operates at 2.8GHz and features the full 6 MB of L3 cache, which makes this processor have the same amount of cache as the quad cores! Since the cache is shared, AMD can have three cores running and not have to lose any of the Level 3 cache, which means each core now has more cache than even the more expensive quad-core processors! Each individual core still features 64 KB of L1 Data cache, 64 KB of L1 Instruction cache, and 512 KB of L2 cache. Another bonus of having just three active cores is the fact that this is a 95 Watt TDP part, which is lower than the 125 Watt TDP Phenom II X4 processors.
The other processor that is under the spot light is the
AMD Phenom II X4 810. This processor will be retailing for $175 and is
set to do battle with Intel's $169 Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor
in the mainstream quad-core market. This processor is a quad-core
part, but there is a catch that might make you scratch your head for a
few seconds. AMD reduced the L3 cache from 6MB down to just 4MB!
The AMD Phenom II X4 810 processor operates at 2.6GHz and features just 4MB of shared L3 cache. If each core is under equal load the most L3 cache each can have is 1MB. The Phenom II X4 720 Black Edition, on the other hand, has 6MB of shared L3 cache between three cores, which means it has 2MB of cache per core if the loads are equal. With half the amount of L3 cache available to each core it will be interesting to see how the Phenom II X4 810 does in terms of both performance and sales. Luckily, each individual core still features 64 KB of L1 Data cache, 64 KB of L1 Instruction cache, and 512 KB of L2 cache. AMD also informed us that due to the lower clock speed and reduced L3 cache size that they were able to qualify this processor as another 95 Watt TDP part and that all current Socket AM3 processors are 95W TDP. The AMD Phenom II X4 810 processor is not a black edition part, which means that it is multiplier locked. Increasing the bus speed will be the only way to overclock this processor and that is likely to deter many enthusiasts and overclockers.
Common Socket AM3 Processor Specifications:
- L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor)
- L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor for X4s / 1.5MB total L2 per processor for X3s)
- L3 Cache Size: 4MB or 6MB (shared)
- Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller
- Memory Controller Speed: Up to 2.0GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management (all current AM3 processors)
- Types of Memory Supported: Support for unregistered DIMMs up to DDR2 1066MHz -AND- DDR3 1333MHz
- HyperTransport 3.0 Link: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 4.0GHz full duplex (2.0GHz x2)
- Total Processor Bandwidth: Up to 33.1 GB/s total bandwidth
- Packaging: Socket AM3 938-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA)
- Fab location: Fab 36 wafer fabrication facilities in Dresden, Germany
- Process Technology: 45-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
- Approximate Transistor count: ~ 758 million (45nm)
- Approximate Die Size: 258 mm2 (45nm)
- Max Ambient Case Temp / X4 CPUs: 71 Celsius
- Max Ambient Case Temp / X3 CPUs: 73 Celsius
- Nominal Voltage: 0.875-1.425V
- Max TDP: 95 Watts (all current AM3 processors)
The Test System
Before we look at the numbers, here is a brief glance at the test system that was used. It should be noted that all Phenom II testing for this article was done on the MSI DKA790GX Platinum motherboard, which is an AMD Socket AM2+ platform. We will do an AM2+ versus AM3 article in the days to come that shows DDR2 versus DDR3 performance. The focus of this article is the performance results against more than 20 other leading processors.
Memory Settings:
- Core i7 920, 940, 965 - 1600MHz @ 8-8-8-24 (DDR3)
- QX9775 - 800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (FB-DIMM)
- QX9770 - 1600MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
- Q9300 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
- Q8200 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
- QX6850 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
- Q6600 - 1066MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
- E8500 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
- E7200 - 1066MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
- E6750 - 1333MHz @ 7-7-7-20 (DDR3)
- Phenom II X4 940 - 1066MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
- Phenom II X4 920 - 1066MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
- Phenom II X4 810 - 1066MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
- Phenom II X3 720 - 1066MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
- Phenom X4 9950 - 800MHz @ 4-4-4-12 (DDR2)
- Phenom X4 9850 - 800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
- Phenom X4 9600 - 800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
- Phenom X4 9350e - 800MHz @ 4-4-4-12 (DDR2)
- Phenom X3 8750 - 800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 (DDR2)
- Athlon 64 X2 5000+ - 800MHz @ 4-4-4-12 (DDR2)
| Intel Test Platform | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Component |
Brand/Model |
||||
Processor |
See Above | ||||
Motherboard |
ASUS P6T Deluxe
|
||||
Memory |
6GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz
|
||||
Video Card |
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 |
||||
Hard Drive |
Western Digital RaptorX 150GB |
||||
Cooling |
Thermaltake BigWater 760i |
||||
Power Supply |
Corsair HX1000W |
||||
Operating System |
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit |
||||
Here is the Intel LGA 775 Test platform:
| Intel Test Platform | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Component |
Brand/Model |
||||
Processor |
See Above | ||||
Motherboard |
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe
|
||||
Memory |
4GB Corsair DDR3 1800C7
|
||||
Video Card |
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 |
||||
Hard Drive |
Western Digital RaptorX 150GB |
||||
Cooling |
Corsair Nautilus 500 |
||||
Power Supply |
PC Power and Cooling 1KW |
||||
Operating System |
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit |
||||
Here is the Intel Skulltrail Test platform:
| Skulltrail Test Platform | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Component |
Brand/Model |
||||
Processor |
2x Intel Core 2 QX9775 |
||||
Motherboard |
Intel D5400XS
|
||||
Memory |
4GB Micron 800MHz FB-DIMM
|
||||
Video Card |
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 |
||||
Hard Drive |
Western Digital RaptorX 150GB |
||||
Cooling |
Zalman AT Fan/Heatsink |
||||
Power Supply |
PC Power and Cooling 1KW |
||||
Operating System |
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit |
||||
Here is the AMD Phenom Test platform:
| AMD Test Platform | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Component |
Brand/Model |
||||
Processor |
All AM2 and AM2+ and AM3 CPUs |
||||
Motherboard |
MSI DKA790GX Platinum
|
||||
Memory |
4GB Corsair PC2-9136C5
|
||||
Video Card |
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 |
||||
Hard Drive |
Western Digital RaptorX 150GB |
||||
Cooling |
Corsair Nautilus 500 |
||||
Power Supply |
PC Power and Cooling 1KW |
||||
Operating System |
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit |
||||
Sandra 2009 Memory Bandwidth
Sisoft; Sandra 2009:
Results: All of the AMD Phenom II
processors were benchmarked with a 4GB kit of Corsair DOMINATOR
PC2-9136C5 running at 1066MHz with CL5 timings and for some reason
Sandra 2009 SP2 showed that both the Socket AM3 processors performed
better than the Socket AM2+ processors. It looks like whatever AMD did
to the memory controller didn't hurt DDR2 performance at all!
Photodex ProShow Gold 3.2
Benchmark Results:
Photodex Proshow software showed that the Phenom II X4 810 and Phenom
II X3 720 performed well, but they are mixed in tightly with other
processors by Intel.
Cinebench R10
MAXON; CINEBENCH R10:
Results: Running Cinebench R10 in 64-bit mode showed a significant improvement in performance on all of the processors and the results were in-line with what we expected from running Cinebench R9.5! The AMD Phenom II X4 810 beat out the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor in this benchmark.
POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 25
Benchmark Results: Looking at the
POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 25 benchmark results found that the AMD Phenom II X4
810 once again beat out the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 and AMD Phenom X3
720 smoked the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500!
POV-Ray Real-Time Raytracing
This experimental software by POV-Ray was a welcomed
addition to our testing and was able to spread the work load across all
the cores in even our eight core test system as seen above.
Results: POV-Ray Real-Time
Raytracing is a great benchmark that we love to use on Legit Reviews and
it does a great job at showing how performance scales with CPU cores.
The AMD Phenom II X4 810 was again able to perform better than the Intel
Core 2 Quad Q8200.
Futuremark 3DMark06
Benchmark Results: The 3DMark
2006 CPU test showed that the AMD Phenom II X4 810 scored higher than
the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 in both the overall and CPU benchmarks.
Power Consumption
Results: When
it came to power consumption the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200S uses 30W less
power at load than the AMD Phenom II X4 810 processor that it is priced
against. The AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition wasn't really more
energy efficient that the Phenom II X4 810 since it has more cache and a
higher clock frequency. At an idle state all the Phenom II processors
that we have looked at have roughly the same idle speed, so nothing
significant to report back on that as they all have 45nm Deneb cores
inside.
Overclocking AMD PHENOM II X4 810
I won't be overclocking the AMD Phenom II X3 720 today
as I have something special cooling planned for the processor. I put
off overclocking till the very end of testing, so if something blows up
all the benchmarks are completed. By doing that I wasn't ready for dry
ice till the weekend and my local supplier of dry ice happens to be
closed on weekends. To hold you guys over till I get everything ready
for some 'real' overclocking I did some overclocking on the AMD Phenom
II X4 820, which is a locked non-black edition processor.
The AMD Phenom II X4 810 is an interesting processor in
that it is locked and has a multiplier of 13x with a default HT clock
frequency (bus speed) of 200MHz. With multiplier options ending at 13x I
figured I'd just see how high I could crank up the bus speed till the
processor needed more voltage.
By doing this and increasing the voltage a CPU frequency of 3.58GHz was reached by increasing the CPU voltage to 1.41V.
Wanting even more, we tossed on the ASUS Triton 81 CPU Cooler
and cranked up the CPU Voltage to 1.47V and was able to reach 3.84GHz.
This overclock would error on Prime95 after a couple hours, but it ws
pretty close to being stable. With a few more hours of voltage tweaking
this processor could likely hit the 4GHz mark on air cooling! By
overclocking the CPU frequency was increased by 1,235MHz, which is an
overclock of 46%!
As you can see benchmarking the overclock shows that it
knocked 32 seconds off the ProShow Gold benchmark, which is an
improvement of 26.2%.
Overclocking AMD PHENOM II X3 720
For the next attempt we reset the motherboard reference clock back to 200MHz and changed the CPU multiplier from 14x to 15x, then set about increasing the Bus speed once more. Without much effort the motherboard was once again running at 245MHz, resulting in an overclocked speed of 3.7GHz for the AM3 Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (default is 2.8GHz). That's a 900 MHz overclock on the Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition CPU!
The multi-threaded Cinebench performance for the 720 Black Edition is as
we expected - it splits the dual and quad core Intel CPUs. Four cores
top, three second, two at the bottom, however the difference between
Q6600 and 720 Black Edition is 23 percent, compared to just 18 percent
to the E7500. The green blob on the graph above is below the line then,
but not by much, and dropping the platform cost just £10 will see it
into a positive value.
Crysis performance for the 720 Black Edition is very good,
slightly exceeding that of both the E7500 at 4.2GHz (which is 500MHz
faster), as well as the Q6600 at 3.5GHz which has an extra core. When it
comes to platform value above, we can see the AMD CPU is above the
average trend line, meaning it offers better value for money compared to
its Intel rivals in this game.
Phenom II x4 810 Unlocking Cores - Secrets
Phenom II X4 810 is a quad core processor. There are no cores to unlock b/c there is no disabled cores.
Phenom II x3 720 Unlocking Cores - Secrets Detail
Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition is a Unlocked multiplier processor. The Phenom II x3 720 has one disabled / faulty core or the fourth core.
Not much I can say about them except in pure lines, Heka is truely a
Tri-core in pure form while Deneb is a Quad-core and results show there
are less Heka 720s than Deneb and when you unlock the 4th core
"successfully", it turns your Heka into Deneb. The good thing is that
each 720BE processor has a disabled 4th core which can be unlocked.
After unlocking you can verify in CPU-Z, under specification tab it will show AMD Phenom II X4 20 Processor as against AMD Phenom II X3 720 Processor. Another interesting thing of this 720BE is if you view it in CPU-Z, under Code Name it will either appear as HEKA or DENEB.
You can go from this,
to this !!!
to this !!!
But certain things to worry about :-
Only certain 720BEs's can actually run this enabled 4th core.
Only certain 720BEs's can actually run this enabled 4th core.
- The 4th core might get enabled on many motherboards but only some of them carries the ability to actually enable/use it and run the system as normal. Either on some motherboards it may get unlocked but the system wont boot (no display or might hang on bios screen). On some it may unlock and boot normally to windows & further but the system cannot be OCed.
- Only some handful of motherboards are able to unlock the 4th core and run it at stable stock speeds or at stable OCed speeds.
Unlocking the 4th core sounds exciting and yes why not. Lets see it how -
To enable the 4th core -
In your motherboard BIOS, check for ACC-Advanced Clock Calibration control option and set it to "Auto" and then reboot and see whether the 4th core has been unleashed. It may happen you get the 4th core unlocked and running but it wont get recognize in Task manager, AOD, Everest, CPUZ, etc.
ACC option is available in different BIOS options & categories & depends on make/model of the board and BIOS version. Apparently you may try using AOD AMD utility to enable ACC. It has been found that currently only 790 chipset motherboards can unlock the 4th core.
Lets have a closer look further -
In Biostar, ACC can be accessed under T-Series section in BIOS.
Biostar boards that unlocks the 4th core
- TA790GX3 A2+
- TA790GX 128M
- TA790GX 128M AM2+
- TA790GX XE
- TA790GX XE AM2+ (BIOS A78CM113.BST)
- TA790GX A3+
If you cant find ACC, then press 'Control + F1' keys on the MAIN Page after entering BIOS, the screen will flash, then go into the various sections to look for hidden settings. This trick only works on certain Gigabyte BIOS version like the F2D BIOS. Also, you may try updating your BIOS if none of the options work.
Gigabyte boards that unlocks the 4th core :
- GA-MA790GP-DS4H
- GA-MA770T-UD3P (F2C BIOS)
- GA-MA790GP-UD4
- GA-MA790X-UD4 (F2A BIOS)
- GA-MA790GP-UD4H (F1 BIOS)
- GA-MA790X-UD4P (F5/F5a BIOS)
- GA-MA790XT-UD4P
- GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (F3B BIOS)
DFI LP DK 790FXB-M2RS
ASRock boards :
AOD 790GX 128M AM2+
ASRock M3A790GXH 128 AM3
Asus boards:
Asus M4A79DX
Asus M3A78-T (on BIOS ver. 'M3A78T-0023a.rom')
and this one by far the greatest achievement :
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Tags:
AMD Phenom II X4 810 3.84 ghz vs Phenom II X3 720 4.1 ghz vs Phenom II X3 720 6.0ghz vs Phenom II X4 940 vs Phenom II X4 920 vs Phenom X4 9950 2.99 ghz vs Phenom X4 9850 2.97 ghz vs Phenom X4 9600 vs Phenom X4 9350e vs Phenom X3 8750 2.7 ghz vs Phenom X3 8750 2.9 ghz vs Intel Core i7 965 3.99 ghz vs Intel Core i7 940 vs Intel Core i7 920 vs 2x Intel qx9775 vs Intel core 2 quad q9300 3.5 ghz vs Intel core 2 quad q9300 3.37 ghz vs Intel core 2 quad q8200 3.3 ghz vs Intel core 2 quad q6600 vs Intel qx9770 vs Intel qx6850 vs Intel core 2 duo e8500 3.16 ghz vs Intel core 2 duo e7200 3.16 ghz vs Intel core 2 duo e7200 2.5 ghz vs Intel core 2 duo e6750, comparison, microarchitechture, multicore, Instruction sets sse3 sse4a, desktop, northbrigde hypertransport, power management, Gaming Overclocking benchmarks score rating unlocking core.
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