[TPU] Phenom II X4 800 Series Can Address Full 6 MB L3 Cache

1846 Views 25 Replies 18 Participants Last post by arekieh, Mar 10, 2009

Aaroman

Discussion Starter · Mar 9, 2009

Quote:

While AMD played smart in diverting all its engineering resources in designing only one core: the Deneb / Shanghai, and then carving out umpteen SKUs out of them based on disabling cores, and/or setting L3 cache amounts, its implementation seems to be shoddy, to the least. Weeks ago, a Korean enthusiast found an easy way to unlock the factory-disabled fourth core on some Phenom II X3 (Heka) processors. A fresh report suggests that it is possible to enable the complete L3 cache on the Phenom II X4 800 series processors.

The series is AMD's line of Deneb-based 45 nm quad-core processors with 2 MB of L3 cache disabled, leaving 4 MB that can be addressed by the processor. An enthusiast found the Phenom II X4 810 processor to be spontaneously able to address 6 MB of L3 cache, when used on an ASRock AOD790GX /128M motherboard. The most likely cause of this could be "poorly-coded" motherboard BIOS that is able to see the Deneb core "as is". The motherboard was using BIOS version 1.40, that adds Phenom II support. The additional cache was found to have a positive impact on system performance. Beyond that, the enthusiast did not provide an explanation. After clearing the CMOS of the motherboard, it was able to correctly detect the processor with its intended specifications.

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Pao

· #2 · Mar 9, 2009

I think they are doing this on purpose

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yabo

· #3 · Mar 9, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pao

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I think they are doing this on purpose

OOPS! Don't buy those (teehee) "basic" chips! They're slower!

Any performance gains are purely coincidental, and not reflective of all processors sold.

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arkheii

· #4 · Mar 9, 2009

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Originally Posted by Pao

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I think they are doing this on purpose

I like where this is going

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Aaroman

Discussion Starter · #5 · Mar 9, 2009

I did good?

Reactions: 1

gerikoh

· #6 · Mar 9, 2009

cool! another bonus for amd enthusiasts

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Korben

· #7 · Mar 9, 2009

AMD hiding little gifts in there CPUs.

sizeak

· #8 · Mar 9, 2009

With this kind of thing going on, I'd be stupid not to go amd on my next upgrade

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Kamikaze127

· #9 · Mar 9, 2009

Quote:

ASRock AOD790GX /128M motherboard. The most likely cause of this could be "poorly-coded" motherboard BIOS

I found humor in this...

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CAHOP240

· #10 · Mar 9, 2009

Next...AMD will start putting golden tickets in "select" 945 retail boxes....

Aaroman

Discussion Starter · #11 · Mar 9, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Korben

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AMD hiding little gifts in there CPUs.

I'm asking Santa for more L3 cache and another core for Christmas

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Aaroman

Discussion Starter · #12 · Mar 9, 2009

bump because someone reposted

PCMAN123

· #13 · Mar 9, 2009

Thats Awesome, I think they are screwing up on purpose to get the Tech Lovers to buy in.

dizzy4

· #14 · Mar 9, 2009

Hey! I have an old SB600 motherboard with an old bios.... I wonder if mine would do the same thing... It's a gigabyte 790FX-DQ6

Diabolical999

· #15 · Mar 9, 2009

It's pointless buying the X4 810 if you don't plan DDR3, when the X4 920 is the same price. Besides, you'd need to buy an ASrock board to pull this extra cache off :::cringe:::

elito

· #16 · Mar 9, 2009

and i just ordered a 720..motherfuder..sigh*

Aaroman

Discussion Starter · #17 · Mar 9, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by elito

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and i just ordered a 720..motherfuder..sigh*

You can't unlock a core on that one?

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NikeySunfire

· #18 · Mar 9, 2009

i guess it's only posible on a ASrock or a Biostar....

sizeak

· #19 · Mar 9, 2009

Is there any major diff between AM3 and AM2 apart from DDR3?

Cheetos316

· #20 · Mar 9, 2009

Performance wise? Not really according to TechReport and XbitLabs. My plan is to wait for the dual-core versions and then unlocking both the extra cores and extra cache! I can't help but wonder if it actually is done on purpose to attract more publicity since they've had X4s and X3s on 65nm and never ran into unlocking issues and here we see core and cache unlocking. Either that or someone is really napping at their desk at AMD.... Either way, we get the better end of the bargain, even though at AMD's expense.

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