Turn that X3 720 into a X4 945 BE

uss enterprise said:
Success with a GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H. Currently running 3.2 x4 cores. Have not run prime yet, but seems stable so far.

Got a 2nd board and proc here as well, will build that one once i've confirmed stability on this one. Hope it's as easy as this one's turning out to be.

Edit: Oh yeah, 0904 EPMW proc
Click to expand...


Finally verified stability at 4x 3.26 ghz with prime95 in Vista ultimate 64. Ran for a few hours, no errors. Stock volts, 26c under load on an OCZ Vanquisher.
Nice. I'l be able to push this baby far. Gonna try to hit 3.6-3.8 stably tomorrow.
 
velusip said:
There's a reason they are set to 3 cores-- 'cause one of the 4 didn't perform so well.

Lots of chip manufacturers market their chips based on the tested outcome. e.g. the 780V, 780G, and 790GX are all the same, just performed poorly, well, or "to spec".

Expect to see more of this kind of marketting in the future along with a "9 burnt core or more replacement policy" in play. :D
Click to expand...


for the most part, yes this is true. there are times when a product has passed and is relabeled and sold as a "lesser" component because a manufacturer must meet shipment obligations. the exact percentage is unknown to me, but i can clearly remember the days of Slot A K-7's. when i popped the plastic off to attach a heatsink and gold finger to OC it, the core was labeled 750mHz. i bought a 500mHz and it ended up running quite happily at 1gHz.

i am NOT saying this is the case, it is possible. yields are the biggest issue, but it has been known to happen to meet sales and bring in cash.

oh yeah, would be a good idea to have a running thread to document the core steppings, MoBo's, BIOS, RAM and stress tests et al for those who wanna give this a go :confused:
 
xxGriff said:
for the most part, yes this is true. there are times when a product has passed and is relabeled and sold as a "lesser" component because a manufacturer must meet shipment obligations. the exact percentage is unknown to me, but i can clearly remember the days of Slot A K-7's. when i popped the plastic off to attach a heatsink and gold finger to OC it, the core was labeled 750mHz. i bought a 500mHz and it ended up running quite happily at 1gHz.

i am NOT saying this is the case, it is possible. yields are the biggest issue, but it has been known to happen to meet sales and bring in cash.

oh yeah, would be a good idea to have a running thread to document the core steppings, MoBo's, BIOS, RAM and stress tests et al for those who wanna give this a go :confused:
Click to expand...

Wow! Talk about a blast from the past. K7 overclocking was incredible fun. I'm a little surprised that you made it to 1Ghz from a 500 considering even the best week chips usually only made a 50% OC at best. I didn't start seeing OC's make it to 1Ghz until the 700's actually came out and were core labeled as 900mhz chips.

I reviewed a GFD during that time, in my opinion what was the BEST GFD you could get: Outsideloop Afterburner
 
Seems as if some of these 720's need a good bit of voltage to get higher speeds. Some i've read get 3.6 on stock, others need a big increase to get even that.

Currently, I got to 3.31 on stock voltage, had to go up to 1.360 to get windows to boot at 3.41.

3.51 was not stable on 1.360, don't really want to up voltage higher.
So I dropped back to 3.41 (17x mulit) and am working on bus now.

Currently at 3.42 x 4 cores (17x multi and 201 FSB) at 1.360 28c under load on air and prime stable. Will let prime run overnight to be sure, and if still stable will step up the bus a little more tomorrow. It's fast though, I may just stop soon and be happy.

Wish me luck!
 
I have 3 720's, the 2 0904 EPMW chips unlock the 4th fine, the 0904 EPAW chip I have will unlock, but not stable at all even at stock speeds.

Have not messed with the EPAW all that much for this reason, but thought the info may be useful.
 
It varies depending on the chip. On some chips the 4th core is disabled because it's defecive, but sometimes they disable a working core to meet market demands(720 seems to be a very popular chip)
 
So is there a good chance of getting a good working condition 4th core as of today or do you need a special batch version of the chip?
(0904 I think are what most people talked about in this topic)

Also, would DDR2 1066 memory or DDR3 whatever work better with this chip for overclocking? Was looking at the:

BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138130

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166
 
X3 720 BE 4th core unlocked and clocked @ 3.6 Prime95 @ 8 HOURS! :)

cpuzjk.jpg


Memory G.Skill DDR1066 8GB @ 932

memt.jpg


Motherboard Biostar T-Force

92831458.jpg
 
Last edited:
Damn, nice Wenty. :)

I really want to buy one too and unlock the 4th core, but I think at this point I might have missed the boat... :(
 
kirbyrj said:
I don't think AMD is supporting this at all. They aren't smart enough to do a guerilla marketing type of thing like this. I wish they were, but...
Click to expand...

And I'm sure you're smarter than an entire corporation with a marketing department at its disposal :rolleyes:
 
Dumb newbie question. Will enabling the 4th core increase heat and wattage? Also, if you overclock something but keep the voltage the wattage still increase?
 
silverwolf0 said:
Dumb newbie question. Will enabling the 4th core increase heat and wattage? Also, if you overclock something but keep the voltage the wattage still increase?
Click to expand...

Heat and power, yes, absolutely.
If you overclock something but keep the voltage the same, power usage does increase. But increasing the voltage uses additional power as well.
 
I currently have an x2 3800+ with manchester core. I think it was rated 96watts or something and is over three years old. Will I see a decrease in heat if I upgrade to a phenom 720? Mainly concerned with how toasty my room gets on simple day to day computer operations. And also a followup question to the one above. Does the x3 720 with 4th core enabled use the same amount of power as a x4 920? The 720 is just a poor yield version of the 920 right?

I see the 920 and 940 for the same price at the egg, !89.99. Must be something special today...
 
Last edited:
silverwolf0 said:
I currently have an x2 3800+ with manchester core. I think it was rated 96watts or something and is over three years old. Will I see a decrease in heat if I upgrade to a phenom 720? Mainly concerned with how toasty my room gets on simple day to day computer operations. And also a followup question to the one above. Does the x3 720 with 4th core enabled use the same amount of power as a x4 920? The 720 is just a poor yield version of the 920 right?

I see the 920 and 940 for the same price at the egg, !89.99. Must be something special today...
Click to expand...

Barely. This is a 95 watt TDP CPU.. it'll produce a good amount of heat.

Second Question: Yeah, it'll be a 125 watt TDP CPU with the core unlocked.
 
You guys, by doing this, you're stealing from AMD. Do you really want to bite the hand that feeds you?
 
By your logic, overclocking also equates to theft right? Because we could pay for the higher end processor that has the same clock we're gunning for, we're just stealing instead!
 
My 710 unlocks the 4th core and posts properly. Problem is that once I get into Windows, there's some issues with some graphical bugs as well as performance issues. I'm guessing that the 4th core is a dud?

The specific problem is that there is some graphical 'tearing' in XP. The temps are fine, so I'm wondering if there is anything else I can try? Maybe up the voltage a tad?

Unlocked with the Biostar TA790GX board.
 
Last edited:
I turned on ACC and mine showed up as a dual core. AOD showed it as a phenom 2 x2 20....... not 920 or 720.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top