Thread: AMD phenom quad cores....

Current Phenoms suck horribly and are all affected by the TLB (transition lookaside buffer) erratum.

You can look up further details on this, but basically they are all buggy (most CPUs have erratum, or instances under which the CPU will not behave normally). What's different about this one is that it's not incredibly obscure, like slowdowns when performing a specific instruction set right after another specific instrction set within a particular application environment, and so AMD has released a BIOS-level workaround to basically throttle down the CPU to avoid the erratum. That means you lose a fair bit of speed on top of the poor overclocking performance.

This erratum is addressed in the new steppings of Phenom, according to AMD, but all currently available CPUs are affected.

For more info, including what the TLB erratum actually is and the performance impact you get from the workaround, look

http://techreport.com/articles.x/13741 http://www.nordichardware.com/news,7104.html

Exactly.

Now, this is a general statement that I usually tell everyone.

Yes, clock for clock, a Phenom will beat a Core 2 proc. But when you have people doing 100%+ overclocks on budget binned chips, you have to wonder.

For instance, E2140 taken to 3ghz from 1.6ghz. $80 proc.

Like I said, I have an AMD from when they were on top, but let's face it. Fanboyism is the downfall of everything fair and well in this world.

BigDog, I think some of the people behind you are tools. No offense, and I mean you know how to build a computer, but so does my 7yo sister. I just think that sometimes your fanboyism gets in the way of true bang for your buck. I think that people should solely buy a motherboard that they can overclock with (Intel X38/P35 anyone?) and overclock the hell out of anything they buy. If you are going to overclock, chances are you won't NEED the processor for 10 years and then some.

*sigh*

Bleh i just posted a response to the last couple of threads.

Ill sum it all up. The phenom had problems that have been solved and current production are bug free.
Lots of products have had bugs along those lines and get blown up when a bored website needs something to post to get some hits.

I belive that big dog was pointing out that the phenom was a good buy.
Some people OC some dont. Not my thing As an administrator for a data center that procs 8 million customers bills a night...
OC means nothing to me. But I really like reading articles by people who do overclock. As they are pushing the limits that chip makers must cater too or be left behind on the geeks sites.

quick question what do you all think about the e8500 from intel. I sorta like it.

The new e8*** series chips are amazing.. smaller architecture less power and less heat? and they scale like crazy .. just look at the speeds people are getting out of them.. note how many are on just air cooling
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...splay.php?f=56

The E8xxx series is amazing, not uncommon for 4.5+ghz on air. I'll be building new this summer so I can't wait for AMD to bring something out and spank Intel like the old days!!!

With all this talk about over clocking, what do i need to do to mine to get the most out of it? I have a p35 MOBO also. Stock fan cooler. What would be a good limit on the voltage for this as well?

heh.. your not even running at 3.0ghz which is your stock speed for that cpu. You are at 2.0ghz 333x6 = 1998 which is roughly 2.0ghz ... your multi should be 9 not 6 ... 6x333 = 2997 mhz.. up your multi for starters to get your cpu to what it should be stock.

Its probably Intels speed stepping kicking it.. Look for that and disable it in your bios. Then we can go from there. Then read through this
http://www.blazingpc.com/forum/showt...985/index.html

Thank your SFG you beat me to the punch. That is a GREAT FAQ which will not lead you astray.

Basics:

Upping your FSB which controls EVERYTHING. You up your FSB, your mem and CPU goes up, which usually requires dropping the memory onto a divider.

I would post my 3dmarks but they are shit. I bomb on the processor test and i do not know why. I am close to the lowestr score for same rig built and it drives me nuts to not know why it does this.

I have an e6850 3.0, nvidia 8600gt that is slightly OC, 3 gigs of ballistics ddr2 800mhz ram, 650 w power supply, p35 gigabyte MoBo with windows vista home 64. I get shit for scores in 3dmark but i can play crysis, 2142, world in conflict, cod4, whatever i throw at it, it can play with all settings on high with high FPS and no jaggies or particals.

I have however noticed recently after playing 2142 for about 2 or more hrs that the ground and some buildings will turn yellow. Hard to explain but i think it is due to over heating the gpu, which this only happens every once in awhile. I turned off the lighting inhanced option in 2142 and it seemed to fix it. Sometimes also the screen tends to get a little darker than normal and sometimes LOS gets a little less than what it was when i first stated playing that night.