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Anyone ever intentionally disable Thuban cores?

4K views 46 replies 15 participants last post by  Heavy MG 
#1 ·
I was playing around in BIOS and AMD Overdrive trying to see which cores had the most headroom. I discovered my CPU temps drop 20C if I disable two of the six cores...perhaps a viable solution for summertime overclocking
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#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by razr m3;13407812
Why would you buy a hexa-core processor just to disable 33% of them?
This
I'd sacrifice a bit of quietness in order to maintain performance, underclock stuff, or just buy slower components to be silent. This coming from someone who always has a 30c+ ambient temp
 
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#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by razr m3;13407812
Why would you buy a hexa-core processor just to disable 33% of them?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Starbomba;13407830
This
I'd sacrifice a bit of quietness in order to maintain performance, underclock stuff, or just buy slower components to be silent. This coming from someone who always has a 30c+ ambient temp
Because I can?
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Funny thing is I actually paid about the same for this Ph2 1090T ($185) than I did for my Ph2 955 ($180), both new off the egg. I sold that Ph2 955 rig to a co-worker and turned right around and bought the 1090T a few months ago.

Anyways back on topic, I don't have any games that actually utilize all 6 cores, but could utilize higher clock speed.

As Gulf Coast weather has started to heat up, I approached my thermal limits, and have had to throttle clocks back. It's been a fight for clocks versus temperatures, and I've done everything from change fan configurations, heatsink orientations, and thermal paste arts and crafts
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Now after seeing how much my TDP was reduced by disabling some cores, I can see why they have this Turbo Boost feature on the Thubans. Turbo Boost in itself is kind of worthless IMO, but making a profile in the BIOS for running as a quad-core seems to have netted me about 500 MHZ and the difference between Prime 95 at 65C and 45C
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#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by damric;13407999
Because I can?
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Funny thing is I actually paid about the same for this Ph2 1090T ($185) than I did for my Ph2 955 ($180), both new off the egg. I sold that Ph2 955 rig to a co-worker and turned right around and bought the 1090T a few months ago.

Anyways back on topic, I don't have any games that actually utilize all 6 cores, but could utilize higher clock speed.

As Gulf Coast weather has started to heat up, I approached my thermal limits, and have had to throttle clocks back. It's been a fight for clocks versus temperatures, and I've done everything from change fan configurations, heatsink orientations, and thermal paste arts and crafts
tongue.gif


Now after seeing how much my TDP was reduced by disabling some cores, I can see why they have this Turbo Boost feature on the Thubans. Turbo Boost in itself is kind of worthless IMO, but making a profile in the BIOS for running as a quad-core seems to have netted me about 500 MHZ and the difference between Prime 95 at 65C and 45C
biggrin.gif
I tried the same thing. Heat went way down. My Thuban OC to 4.1 GHz with NB at 2800MHz.

Some may argue that disabling 2 cores is a waste but most of my applications only use 4 cores or less AND Thubans OC much better than regular quad-cores with MUCH less heat. I don't have the best cooler, so this was the way to go!
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#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by listen to remix;13408192
It only gives us more headroom because we do not have a silver arrow or DF14.
Not true. Even with a good cooler, removing a theoretical 33% of the gross heat produced by the CPU makes a huge difference. Cooling 6 cores at 1.5 vCore is a tall order, and very difficult to do unless it's on water.
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by sub50hz;13408179
Lower temps allow you to apply more voltage.
... what if you already have low temps and already applied massive amounts of voltage?

Disabling cores doesn't change how well the rest of the cores will overclock.

But this is definitely good for hardcore gamers. Step down to a fast quad or even dual would be better than a hot, underused hexacore.

Makes sense OP
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#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by doritos93;13408138
How does disabling cores give you more OC headroom?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sub50hz;13408179
Lower temps allow you to apply more voltage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by listen to remix;13408192
It only gives us more headroom because we do not have a silver arrow or DF14.
Well, yeah.

With these ambient temps my 212+ is just saturated with 6 cores and a high OC. I was thinking my heat sink wasn't seated, or perhaps a bad TIM application, but it is working the absolute best it can. Been contemplating a Silver Arrow. Would that fit in a HAF 912? Also considering a water loop.
 
#14 ·
Ok so now the question is:

Which two cores would be best to disable? What I mean is, how is the chip laid out exactly, if anyone knows? There is probably an ideal way to do this thermally, depending on how the cores are adjacent, right?
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by doritos93;13408388
amd_Phenom_II_x6_die_clear.jpg


How do you know which core is which though?
I was hoping you had a picture that was numbered for me
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#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by damric;13408357
Ok so now the question is:

Which two cores would be best to disable? What I mean is, how is the chip laid out exactly, if anyone knows? There is probably an ideal way to do this thermally, depending on how the cores are adjacent, right?
I think you're just gonna have to play the guessing game.
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#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by doritos93;13408138
How does disabling cores give you more OC headroom?
All cores do not OC the same. When you OC your CPU with all cores enabled and find your maximum OC you are actually finding your maximum OC for the weakest core in the bunch. If you were to go through and enable 1 core at a time and then achieve a maximum OC on each individual core, come back disable the 2 lowest OCing cores. Then you'd be able to get a higher OC on 4 cores vs 6. You just gotta know your "weak" cores.
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by listen to remix;13408427
No idea which core is which but I think we should disable the middle column.
I agree. I'll buy hookers and beer for anyone who can figure this one out
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iinversion;13408479
All cores do not OC the same. When you OC your CPU with all cores enabled and find your maximum OC you are actually finding your maximum OC for the weakest core in the bunch. If you were to go through and enable 1 core at a time and then achieve a maximum OC on each individual core, come back disable the 2 lowest OCing cores. Then you'd be able to get a higher OC on 4 cores vs 6. You just gotta know your "weak" cores.
That's what I was trying to do to begin with, but then figured out that it also runs super cool with a couple disabled
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#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by listen to remix;13408509
Dang core #0 is my weakest core and I can't disable that one
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It is the only one that fails prime at 4.2GHz.
Quote:
Originally Posted by iinversion;13408520
You can't disable core #0?..
Same problem here, but I think it's designed that way so you don't disable all the cores, lol. But yeah it sucks cuz #0 is also the weakest link on mine.
 
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