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AMD overclocks new Phenom II X4 to 7 GHz

Final8y

Final8y

Final8y

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Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday introduced the latest member of its Phenom II X4 family of high-performance quad-core CPUs, which the No. 2 chip maker said it had run as fast as 7 GHz in extreme overclocking tests.

Out of the box, the new X4 955 Black Edition, which is aimed at gamers and hobbyists, runs at 3.2 GHz, giving it similar performance to Intel's fastest desktop chips at lower cost, AMD says.

However, AMD was able to more than double the CPU's speed during its tests, said Brent Barry, an AMD product manager.

The Web site Ripping.org notes that hobbyists with early access to the X4 955 chip have been able to clock it at up to 6.7 GHz.

At the International CES in January, AMD demonstrated its then top-of-the-line X4 940 running at 6.5 GHz. (Watch the YouTube video.)

Key to achieving such speeds is the use of exotic cooling materials, primarily liquid nitrogen and liquid helium.

Barry said liquid nitrogen can help bring PC systems down to about -140 degrees Celsius. Liquid helium is even more potent, able to bring systems down to about -240 degrees Celsius, which starts to approach absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius).

Liquid helium, however, is much trickier -- and more dangerous -- to work with than liquid nitrogen and other more conventional coolants used by home overclockers, including water or air, said Davis.

The amount of helium required is huge. To cool a PC for 90 minutes requires 250 liters of liquid helium inside a aluminum vat the "size of a VW Beetle," Davis said. The helium is kept under such high pressure that a leak has the potential to push all of the other gases out of the room and asphyxiate anyone inside.

"This is fairly insane, science experiment stuff," Davis said.

Technically, AMD's warranties don't cover chips damaged by overclocking. But AMD offers software such as its OverDrive application to make it easier for their chips to be safely overclocked. And the company says that the 3.2-GHz X4 955 should be able to easily operate at up to 3.8 GHz using conventional fan cooling.
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http://www.computerworld.com/action...rticleId=9131994&taxonomyId=162&intsrc=kc_top
 
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Why all this when its most likely on average no one in the conventional home has access to Liquid Nitrogen/Helium what a waste to be honest, y not spend the money or resources on making better coolers the EVERYONE can use.
 
Basically its showing off and for the extreme overclockers that do use such cooling and it helps gain mind share.
 
7GHz is insane for an overclock...Lets just wait and see the day that 7GHz becomes the stock speed for a CPU you can overclock it to about 10GHz across 8 seperate cores...or even 16 cores :D
 
Leezy said:
Why all this when its most likely on average no one in the conventional home has access to Liquid Nitrogen/Helium what a waste to be honest, y not spend the money or resources on making better coolers the EVERYONE can use.
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Because they can ;)

A lot of people are also interested in extreme cooling, DICE, Phase etc have been used by quite a few people I know

Not sure how much more you can improve an air cooler either, they are only getting bigger and bigger to dissipate more heat (v8,v10 for example)
 
It does suggest that there is significant head room in the technology, hopefully this means that the next die shrink will allow stock speeds of at least 4Ghz maybe 5Ghz.

Could be 4Ghz stock maybe possible on the current 45nm after they refine the process a bit more. I am sceptical about their ability to bring it out before Intels next tick or tock (which ever is next) though.
 
PaulyD said:
Because they can ;)

A lot of people are also interested in extreme cooling, DICE, Phase etc have been used by quite a few people I know

Not sure how much more you can improve an air cooler either, they are only getting bigger and bigger to dissipate more heat (v8,v10 for example)
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Yeah, I reckon when they realise that air cooling has reached it's limits, they'll get on to developing new methods.
 
D D Danneh said:
Yeah, I reckon when they realise that air cooling has reached it's limits, they'll get on to developing new methods.
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nah they will go the other way with more energy efficient CPUs that need less cooling, remember 95% of current PCs if not more are run at stock and have no need for the cooling that we use, there will always be a hobbiest market that likes to build there own, but even now you can buy an off the shelf CPU that will blast through anything you can throw at it for £200. lets face it if your buying I7 there no "need" to overclock to get good performance as it comes as standard.

as for 7Ghz under lab conditions, bah it means nothing will be interested if they got it on air or water.
 
Sayso said:
nah they will go the other way with more energy efficient CPUs that need less cooling, remember 95% of current PCs if not more are run at stock and have no need for the cooling that we use, there will always be a hobbiest market that likes to build there own, but even now you can buy an off the shelf CPU that will blast through anything you can throw at it for £200. lets face it if your buying I7 there no "need" to overclock to get good performance as it comes as standard.
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Intel and AMD will get on with more efficient CPU's, but the cooler manufacturers will probably start producing better coolers too. Also, as CPU's get more efficient, performance is usually increased too, so temps stay around the same. Look at i7. Performance compared to Pentium 4 is phenomenal (heehee, phenom), but temps aren't exactly rock bottom.
 
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Good point Danneh - I think in general they'll go for as much performance as they can fit into current thermal specifications. That way it can still be run on air for 95% of people, and for those of us who want something a little better they'll have the capability for much higher speeds at the same efficiency.

I can't see water becoming mainstream anytime soon, it's just too far against the mindset "Don't mix water and electricity" and too high a risk of blowing the system up. When an enthusiast does it they know to empty it before moving it in case they blow up their £1500 of hardware. For an average consumer's £400 box under warranty (which it would have to be if supplied with water cooling) they may have no such concerns.

Can you imagine how many returns under warranty there'd be? It'd be ridiculous.
 
More and more people are opt'ing for water cooling though, as more "kits" are coming availiable and are a cheap introduction into watercooling. Though for most people once you start you end up going for more and more (like me!) :D
 
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