Turn that X3 720 into a X4 945 BE

the OP has a video linked on the first post...check it out...it doesn't look fake to me now...but he did'nt do any stress testing to show if the fourth core can stand some pressure
 
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...


i dont think amd minds.. since there was obviously a reason the core was disabled.. they are going to use this to laugh at users that enable the core and then bitch about why the system isnt stable any more.. good for them.. let them support it.. in the end it may hurt them or get them more money from people killing their x3's from doing this then thinking they can overclock the system just like the normal x4's can be overclocked too..
 
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...

LOL. Do you have any idea how intelligent hardware engineers are? Especially the ones that work for AAA companies like AMD...

Even though its not the engineers planning things like this, companies like AMD don't just go to your local community college looking for marketing strategists.
 
\Edit, Aww i just read that people trying this seems to have problems having it 100% prime/ibt stable :*(

Well no shit... there's a REASON they disabled one of the cores guys: better yield by disabling a defective core of a quad and selling it as a tri. I doubt any of them will have long-term stability.
 

I have a Biostar and it works, I've even posted a PCMARK Vantage desktop screenshot with my CPU @ 3 GHz and undervolted to 2.5vcore. Its even supposed to work with the X3 710's although I haven't seen anything about 65nm chips working yet.

Cool-N-Quiet is disabled with the 4th core enabled (January BIOS) and CPU-z is confused as to what it is, calling it an "X4 20 Processor".

Forget about the good old days of the Celeron 300a overclocking to 450 MHz. That's doggy doodoo compared to what AMD has given us today!
 
Well, with 4 cores the BIOS doesn't see it as a 7 series, but the CPU doesn't report itself to be an 8 or 9 series, thus it kind of makes sense that the first digit drops. Pretty sweet trick.
 
I love seeing these kinds of chips pop up and have had quite a few over the years. Good luck to everyone who gambles on this. i'm quite sure it's a flat out lottery 'cause some percentage of the triple cores are chips w/ a damaged 4th core and the rest are crippled spec quad cores to meet demand at the lower price point.

Almost all state of the art fab processes work this way with vertically integrated manufacturing processes so that you can just fab the wafers and sort out the best at the end (e.g. in video cards they spec out the GPU's then pair them with the ram sizes/speeds before the final assembly). Since it takes as long as 60-90 days to fab a processor :eek: companies can't just pump out more of the midrange spec chips to meet high demand. Inventory is basically useless because of the rapid decrease in prices of uber-high-end chips so If they are getting better than anticipated yields of the "high end" chips then they'll cripple some of them in software or hardware and get the money NOW. Tough business decisions which can cost millions if you misjudge fab yields, market trends, etc.

I'm quite sure that companies are aware of the positive press/street cred this kind of stuff gets them in the enthusiast crowd. I also think they are finally understanding how important that is since it's the enthusiasts everyone asks "what kind of computer/computer part should I get?".
 
The guys over at OCN are having a pretty lengthy discussion about this, and why it may work BETTER in the future.

Since the current fabs use defective quad cores to produce tri cores, once the fab process matures, there will be less and less defective processors, BUT there will continue to be demand for tri/dual cores, meaning they will disable perfectly working quads into tri's or duals, to continue making money, since it is virtually the same price to create a tri core as it is a quad core.
 
Forget about the good old days of the Celeron 300a overclocking to 450 MHz. That's doggy doodoo compared to what AMD has given us today!

That sir, is a ballzy assertion.

The 50% OC as often as 300A's did vs hit and miss 4th core abilities.... Hell, the 1ghz to 1400Mhz Thunderbird OC's were more impressive than this. This is more like the geforcefx 5900 to 5950 softmod of 2004. ie, the product is the lesser than the competition anyway, and the mod is less than 50% successfully stable. Maybe it will become common place as the yields improve. Maybe not.

Maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic since I found my old BP6 the other day, stored in my closet.

Either way, If I had one, I'd be unlocking it.
 
How many cases so far that is unsuccessful? As in a weak 4th core?

Just out of curiosity.
 
The guys over at OCN are having a pretty lengthy discussion about this, and why it may work BETTER in the future.

Since the current fabs use defective quad cores to produce tri cores, once the fab process matures, there will be less and less defective processors, BUT there will continue to be demand for tri/dual cores, meaning they will disable perfectly working quads into tri's or duals, to continue making money, since it is virtually the same price to create a tri core as it is a quad core.

Lol i love how you are greated by a I7 Fail Avatar.
 
So I can assume that this for sb7xx and not the sb600? I have a 790fx with the sb600 and i doubt this will work on those.
 
Kuma core is PH1 B3 core and maybe is laser cur, IDK, but I know that when I had ACC set on both Auto and 4 cores I only had 2 cores running, but I will try it again tommorrow using the 4 core setting and all the percentage ACC values in ACC. It doesn't/won't work I bet, and if it did work on the PH1 B3 cores then why hasn't anyone stumbled across this amongst all the owners of Tri Core PH1's, and the answer is that enabling ACC for all cores doesn't work on PH1 B3 or B2 cores.

PS: I was going to do this earlier but I had to eat and am now defragging my very fragmented HD and also me own HD known as me little brain:D:rolleyes:, IOTW, I am going to catch a few ZZZZ's and then go to work and then I will try it for you and myself.
 
Kuma core is PH1 B3 core and maybe is laser cur, IDK, but I know that when I had ACC set on both Auto and 4 cores I only had 2 cores running, but I will try it again tommorrow using the 4 core setting and all the percentage ACC values in ACC. It doesn't/won't work I bet, and if it did work on the PH1 B3 cores then why hasn't anyone stumbled across this amongst all the owners of Tri Core PH1's, and the answer is that enabling ACC for all cores doesn't work on PH1 B3 or B2 cores.

PS: I was going to do this earlier but I had to eat and am now defragging my very fragmented HD and also me own HD known as me little brain:D:rolleyes:, IOTW, I am going to catch a few ZZZZ's and then go to work and then I will try it for you and myself.


because the phenom I's are hardware disabled when it comes to the defective/extra core where as the phenom II x3 is software disabled when it comes to the defective/extra core.. aka its cheaper to disable it with software then it is to forcefully disable the core like in the case of the phenom I's
 
for anyone else who needs more info, on the OCN page, there is a post from a guy who did this with a few different 790fx motherboards.

he said this:
Tested & works on:

- ASRock AOD790GX/128M
- BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M

Tested and doesn't work on:

- Any Asus mobo due to heavy BIOS customisation (personaly tested on ASUS M4A79T Deluxe, M3A78-T, M3A78 Pro, works on none of them, that's were my BIOS assumption comes from)

Would like to know about :

- MSI K9A2 Platinum
 
That sir, is a ballzy assertion.

The 50% OC as often as 300A's did vs hit and miss 4th core abilities.... Hell, the 1ghz to 1400Mhz Thunderbird OC's were more impressive than this. This is more like the geforcefx 5900 to 5950 softmod of 2004. ie, the product is the lesser than the competition anyway, and the mod is less than 50% successfully stable. Maybe it will become common place as the yields improve. Maybe not.

Maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic since I found my old BP6 the other day, stored in my closet.

Either way, If I had one, I'd be unlocking it.

I'd have to put Q6600 G0 in that same category considering it matched the Celeron 300A toe to toe for overclocking, hitting the 50% mark without missing a beat. But then many Core i7's are hitting 50% OCs on air as well.

I'd agree with you though, adding an extra core like this doesn't mean as much as a 50% OC in any way. It's a nice trick and equals the old Athlon pencil trick in my mind, but doesn't quite equal the Celeron 300A/Q6600 OC tricks.
 
im in. i was eying the 720 before i found out about the chance of unlocking a 4th core. that just sweetens the deal even more! this should be a fun chip to play with fellas.
 
could you not clock cores 1 2 and 3 @ 3.8ghz while clocking core 4 @ 2ghz to compensate for the core not being up to par?
 
That sir, is a ballzy assertion.

The 50% OC as often as 300A's did vs hit and miss 4th core abilities.... Hell, the 1ghz to 1400Mhz Thunderbird OC's were more impressive than this. This is more like the geforcefx 5900 to 5950 softmod of 2004. ie, the product is the lesser than the competition anyway, and the mod is less than 50% successfully stable. Maybe it will become common place as the yields improve. Maybe not.

Maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic since I found my old BP6 the other day, stored in my closet.

Either way, If I had one, I'd be unlocking it.

haha I still have my old BP6 dual proc board as well. With two 300A's on it no less, I just cant bring myself to throw it away! :)
 
I've heard this 'find' only works on Biostar boards. I've ordered one, however I do not have a 790 chipset on my MATX.
 
From what I have read many boards work. There are many forum threads out here that verify this.
 
Interesting mod, but isn't there a reason as to why AMD shut that CPU off? Chances are it didn't pass QA testing. Just a thought though.
 
This is amazing!

If this ends up working and we get a little more info about it, I'm on board!
 
Interesting mod, but isn't there a reason as to why AMD shut that CPU off? Chances are it didn't pass QA testing. Just a thought though.

to create another market for itself ?

obviously the X2 athlons can't really compete with core 2 duos, the X4 Phenom 2s are too expensive to compete with core 2 duos,

so they position a chip they can sell more quantities of

say it costs them $100 to produce / market / ship the an PI X4 925
selling 4 X3 chips @ $150 is better then selling a single X4 chip @ $200
even if it means disabling a core and shipping it off to consumers
(Some chips might be defective, it's rare to get 100% yield :p if not impossible but that doesn't mean all tri cores are defective quads)

I wouldn't be surprised of AMD sent the defective X4 rebaged as X3s to the OEM market will saturating the Retail market with the working quads reduced into x3s
 
If AMD was really smart, what they would do is make a true black box processor (completely untested, shipped as a fully unlocked quad with at least 2 cores working at 1 ghz, then it is up to the user to test stability of the cores and max speed - if they could sell these for $100 to $125 range enthusiasts would gobble them up as long as the yields weren't too terrible - they would have to have a no return policy though.
 
If AMD was really smart, what they would do is make a true black box processor (completely untested, shipped as a fully unlocked quad with at least 2 cores working at 1 ghz, then it is up to the user to test stability of the cores and max speed - if they could sell these for $100 to $125 range enthusiasts would gobble them up as long as the yields weren't too terrible - they would have to have a no return policy though.

that sounds like alot of problems right there......

i'm not even gunna get into it.
 
Wow what a neat little trick :) This will def. make sales pick up even more.

I was reading on techreport.com that it is only certain X3 720 with a lot number 0904?

Shit i almost want to buy an X3 720 just to mess around with...I just dont wanna deal with my TRUE 120 and taking the bastard off.
 
Is there no one with a Kuma and a 780GX board around here?!

I know there is at least two with the mATX DFI 780GX + 750SB board with Kumas here.

At the store I work at a coworked built a system with a foxconn 780GX and a kuma 2.7 and I asked him and he said he messed around with those settings when he was trying to overclock it.

Not only was the kuma he used a horrible overclocker (wouldn't post majority of the time), those settings never enabled any extra cores for him.
 
The guys over at OCN are having a pretty lengthy discussion about this, and why it may work BETTER in the future.

Since the current fabs use defective quad cores to produce tri cores, once the fab process matures, there will be less and less defective processors, BUT there will continue to be demand for tri/dual cores, meaning they will disable perfectly working quads into tri's or duals, to continue making money, since it is virtually the same price to create a tri core as it is a quad core.
As yield increases, prices will decrease (less waste) and so they might eliminate the need for tri-core processors.
 
I hope AMD doesn't kill this off. This is quite fun... except for the return rates where people buy 5 and send back the worst 4. I suppose that's what restocking fees are for.
The disabled core is pretty much going to be defective. Question is how lucky you are in the "just how defective" department.

Lucky means that the defect core simply would not work right at the stock vcore. So if you're increasing vcore anyway to overclock it might be enough for it meet yield and work correctly.

Or you could get a core that really is horked. No amount of vcore is going to fix bad wafer.

I had an AGP GeForce 6800 non-ultra that was like this. Originally unlocking the full 16pixel 6vertex was checkerboard city. But with an additional voltage mod those then worked flawlessly.

A later AGP 6800GS i tried unlocking the extra pixel shaders on would not work correctly even with much more voltage. I'm guessing on that die those pixel units really were malformed and broken.
 
Does this mean a good supply of opened box tri cores at the egg?

If people are going to try and unlock the 4th core, can't, and sent the CPU back. Those of us that are fine with a 3 core system might get some cheap opened box parts.
 
Is there no one with a Kuma and a 780GX board around here?!

I know there is at least two with the mATX DFI 780GX + 750SB board with Kumas here.

I tried it just for kicks like I said I would, but I already knew it wouldn't work because the Kuma is a PH1 B3 core CPU, and it didn't work.

However, I have gotten the Kuma up to 3.3124MHz, 16x Multi., 1,475v Vid, and consequently Vcore in this case, 207MHz Bus, and fiddling with the DRAM timings a lot to around 5-5-7-7-20-32-2T etc. on an Asus M3A78T mobo, and it was stable in Orthos Gromacs Core CPU Test but not stable in other Orthos tests and particularily those using more memory and didn't complete 3DMark06 and failed in the Red Valley CPU tets and didn't make it through 3DMark05 either if I remember right, but it did make it through 05 and 06 3DMark at 3.307GHz and 3.3xxGHz, and the scores are at Futuremark and strangely listed under the Dual Core Opteron section (with HD 4670 as the video card).

So, no luck with a tri or quad from the X2 7750. I am itching to grab a X3 720 from the Egg because the price is down to $145 but without free shipping. Maybe I'll just wait a bit as some people here seem to think, and they may be right, that as yields of silicon get better then the chances of getting a X3 720 that will spontaneously generate into an X4 will get higher and higher, unless AMD gets nasty and really zaps the disabled 4th core with mean mojo voodo zapping disabling hex into the void of disabled oblivion (VOODOO).
:eek::rolleyes::mad:
 
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