Asus enables TurboCore on all AMD BE cpus

[Final8y]

Works with one to six cores
by Lars-Göran Nilsson

April 16, 2010

LAST WEEK WE reported about AMD's Turbo Core, which is a feature of the upcoming Thuban based processors that allows half of the cores to go into idle mode while the remaining cores are overclocked to boost the performance for poorly threaded applications. It now appears that Asus isn't satisfied with the performance boost on offer, nor the fact that it's limited to Thuban CPU's, so Asus has gone and done its own version called Turbo Unlocker.

We found a few leaked Asus slides over at Donanimhaber that covers it all fairly briefly, but we’re going to try to get hold of Asus for a better explanation as to how it all works. Turbo Unlocker is part of Asus’ TurboV EVO software and Asus claims that it works with all Phenom II Black Edition CPU’s, no matter the core count, as well as the upcoming Thuban based Phenom II X6 processors. Judging by the slides, Asus isn’t limited to three or six cores, as Turbo Unlocker appears to work with a single active core all the way up to the full six cores.

Asus claims overclocking speeds of 500MHz+ in single core mode, 400MHz+ in two to four core mode and 200MHz+ with all six cores enabled. Asus also promises to stay within the TDP for any given CPU. Performance boosts for a dual core Phenom II X2 555 BE is claimed to be somewhere between 10-12 percent in one of the slides, where with a 6-core CPU the performance gain is a bit more modest with all cores enabled, at somewhere between two and eight percent depending on the application.

Turbo Unlocker works with all of Asus’ 890GX, 890FX, 880G and 870 based motherboards, although many of the models in the list have yet to launch and the 890GX motherboards will require a BIOS upgrade before it works. With Core Unlocker it seems like Asus might very well have a winner on its hands here, at least for those who don’t want to mess around with overclocking. Maybe AMD should have a chat with some of Asus’ engineers and see if they can’t implement a better version of Turbo Core in its CPUs.S|A

SemiAccurate

 

[Ritsugamesh]

Interesting stuff, cheers for posting mate.

Can't imagine this will benefit the average o/cer, but a very good way to boost performance and still keep good appeal with multi-core solutions on older apps.

Lets hope AMD do indeed get in touch with Asus!

 

[DavieJG]

yeah, these r nice features for your average user but most ppl turn this sort of stuff off on here and just go for a 24/7 OC.

Wud be good for my office machine tho.

 

[Big.Wayne]

• works with all Phenom II Black Edition CPU’s
  
• work with a single active core all the way up to the full six cores.
  
• Performance boosts for a dual core Phenom II X2 555 BE is claimed to be somewhere between 10-12 percent
  
• Turbo Unlocker works with all of Asus’ 890GX, 890FX, 880G and 870 based motherboards

Thanks for posting Final8y!

Turbo Unlocker seems like a nice little touch for people that prefere not to overclock themselves, I'm sure this will help nudge the "stock" Phenom II system benchmarks up the charts a little bit! . . . . I can also see this swaying some people towards purchasing an ASUS 8xxx series chipset!

Nothing not to like here, just a little touch that improves performance a tad . . . . I am wondering if it will be possible to combine a "manual" overclock with this Turbo feature?

 

[kieves1]

Looks good

 

[gareth170]

i can't see how it'll work because how would it know what voltage it needs, as even chip is different

 

[zoomee]

Asus M4A89GTD-PRO's have these already. Based on 890GX chipset - Nothing new being reported here - had this feature for a month now. All it does is takes a multi step up with the BE chips - nothing earth shattering.

Needless to say even the average overclocker can do better with disabling this feature and just jumping up a an extra cpu multi to achieve double the overclock.

Two features on the new Asus 890 boards are this TurboUnlocker and the Coreunlocker feature - I'm assuming this report confirms X6 support for unlocking cores which is a good thing. To be honest either features are not something I would use but hey, its there anyways (Looking at getting the 1090T when it his our shores)

 

[Muel]

I'm very very torn, the sensible thing if I'm going for a 1090T or 1095T is to get an 890X motherboard aswell, but in reality my computer is easily fast enough, and I'm probably better off waiting until 2011/2012 and doing an entire new build. Hmm decisions...

 

[Troezar]

I'm very very torn, the sensible thing if I'm going for a 1090T or 1095T is to get an 890X motherboard aswell, but in reality my computer is easily fast enough, and I'm probably better off waiting until 2011/2012 and doing an entire new build. Hmm decisions...

If I was you I'd wait for bulldozer which I'd prefer to do. However my current pc is getting temperamental so I don't think I can wait much longer...

 

[Rofflay]

its still great to see asus taking the bull by the horn though and doing some really cool stuff.


asus 5870 are the best around with voltage tweak as well, and they are unlocking cores with the new phenom x6 so u can unlock the 2 disabled cores and have 6!


they really changed thier image from boring old asus to probably the best there is atm imo

 

[drunkenmaster]

Voltage tweak is a stock option, though admittedly it was an option on their own versions on previous generations of cards, though they weren't the only guys or the first to do it.

Likewise, unlocking cores was a stock feature of the old chipsets and with ACC removed(not to prevent unlocking, AM3 chips just have no need for it in any way) and its just a feature Asus kept, not sure if Gigabyte will add it to bioses or have some boards with it, afaik their 890GX doesn't do it, or isn't advertised heavily as doing so, Asus, Msi, Asrock all do and most 890FX boards will do it.

Asus have been a pretty "overclocking" brand for many many years, theres not a huge amount of difference between brands in the features offered, biggest differences seem to be in heatsink design and colour schemes.

You can take pretty much any AM3 mobo and get very similar overclocks, memory speeds, core unlocks etc, etc. The majority of overclocking these days is controlled and based on the cores capability, because the chipsets do almost smeg all these days.

Personally I don't like Asus's Crosshair type solutions which basically pretend to be uber, by spending £3 more on the heatsinks and charge a massive massive premium for boards that won't be any better than any others.

You'll get the same overclocks and performance out of a Crosshair 890fx at £170, as the Asus 890gx at £100, or an Asrock at £80.

 

[zoomee]

now thats reassuring to know dude

 

[OrphanBoy]

How are they going to guarantee stability too? AMD certified their CPUs to run at a given voltage (including these new turbo modes on the X6 models) yet there's no such information for non-X6 models. Will they just up the voltage a touch?