Unlocking Cores

[Harvey616]

Hello all,

I was just wondering how to unlock cores on AMD Phenom II processors.

I was looking at getting a Phenom II X2 555 processor and unlocking it into a quad core.

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[sja360]

this pretty much explains it
http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/535501-amd-phenom-ii-core-unlocking-guide.html

 

[Harvey616]

Thank you.

Would it provide better performance than say an Athlon II x4 635?

 

[Redmint]

If you're lucky and you can unlock both cores on the 555 then yes it'd be faster than the Athlon II chips. If you can only unlock 1 extra core then it would still be faster in some applications due to the L3 cache.

 

[Harvey616]

Okay, and it has a higher clock speed, so would it be faster in games that aren't heavily multi threaded?

 

[Redmint]

Yep. A Phenom II X2 chip will do pretty well in most games which are optimised for dual cores.

 

[Harvey616]

Thank you very much for your help

 

[buttkinz]

Phenoms are much quicker in games than the athlons

 

[Michael_10]

Managed to unlock the two cores on a 550, hope you can do the same!!

 

[thingemajib]

Managed to unlock the two cores on a 550, hope you can do the same!!

same here but with a 555. i have a hunch that most of the bad (ie, un-unlockable) chips go to OEMs and the like