AMD Stepping FAQ

[Micutzu]

There may be small topology adjustemnts (how different 'logical' parts , units , are placed inside the core) , or just improving manufacturing process (temperatures used for example). Also slight changes in the materials composition (the level of impurification of the SI) or the copper traces from the core to the pins .
All these are suppositions , we can't really know what changes from one stepping to another , since AMD won't tell that and we can't really "pop the chip open and find out" .

[ExtremeAMD]

/me pops his die cover off

IT LOOKS THE SAME TO ME BOYS!!! ;)

[xMagusx]

LMAO @ EAMD :D :lol

[Pathway]

Originally posted by micutzu20

Athlon Thoroughbred :
1700 - 1900 AIRCA < AIRGA < RIRGA < RIWGA < AIUGA < AJUGA
2200 AIRDA < AIRGA


Let me see...so i have a XP2200+
I should hava an AIRGA then? .. or AIRDA?

[twiggy]

Originally posted by Pathway


Let me see...so i have a XP2200+
I should hava an AIRGA then? .. or AIRDA?

You would have to look on the cpu. Could be either of them.

[Micutzu]

Yeah AFAIK the 2200+ are only AIRGA or AIRDA .

[Pathway]

But wich one of them should it be to have most oc-capabilities?

[Micutzu]

Well AIRDA < AIRGA , as it says there , so AIRGA should be the best .

[Pathway]

Thank u...im a bit slow today :)

[Pathway]

Yeah...mine its called AIRGA

i suppose thats great

[Micutzu]

Yeah , that's the good one .

[jmalin72207]

AGKFA < AGKGA < ARKGA < AGLHA < AGNGA < AGOGA < AGOIA < AROIA < AROGA
9 < 4 < K < F < Y
is the 9<4<k<f<y< the first initial at the bottom of the core? here is mine. I was aksing cause mines a Z

AMD Athlon
AX1811DMT3C
AGOIA 0228BPCW
Z1662160151

[Micutzu]

Very rare one , it should be around the 'K' or the '9'as performance , need to look around more . Please keep me posted on how it does .

[ExtremeAMD]

Just picked up an AGOIA Z XP1600

[Micutzu]

It seems that the Z is the newest one :D , it keeps coming up lately , so it should oc the best . All you 'Z' owners keep me posted on how those chips oc .

[drunksquirrels]

how do you know which stepping is better?

any one else own a 1800+ RIRGA?

[MarMacMan]

What kind of board would you recommend for an Athlon XP 2000+?
AGOIA0206TPHW
Y7756130672

[Nasdaq]

Originally posted by drunksquirrels
how do you know which stepping is better?

any one else own a 1800+ RIRGA?

yes.

i´ve a 1800+ RIRGA @ 10 * 170 @ 1,62 vcore.

(sry, my english is not very good :D)

I´ll try to adjust the vcore and see if i can get higher.

TT Volcano 9 @ 40 deg. idle

[ExtremeAMD]

Originally posted by micutzu20
It seems that the Z is the newest one :D , it keeps coming up lately , so it should oc the best . All you 'Z' owners keep me posted on how those chips oc .

Will do dude. Hopefully it goes high. :)

[drunksquirrels]

:( i couldnt even get 170 x 9.5 on mine :(

[Benur]

sorry but im kinda n00b @ overclocking, i just checked the stepping of my xp1800 0.13 and it's a AJUGA. Does that mean my processor is more overclockable than a RIWGA for exemple or it's something else :confused:

Thanks

[Micutzu]

Yes that's what it means .

[|2eCoiL]

Maybe its already been answered in this thread but....

What are steppings? And why you need to know them?

And what would the steppings for a 2100+ be?

And whatever that is, how high is it's max overclock in relation to FSB without unlocking it?

[JoeP]

when they refine the way a cpu is made, so that the cpu is faster and more reliable, they give this cpu a stepping. whenever they revise the processor design, a new stepping is made. get it?

better steppings result in better overclocks.

Most 2100+'s (i think all of htem still are) palominos. This means that they are .18 micron Athlon XP's.

Finally, steppings have very little to do with how high your fsb can overclock. It's usually limited by the motherboard or the ram. Only thing that is greatly affected by stepping is the CPU frequency.

[ExtremeAMD]

My AGOIA Z is doing 1.73 100% stable at default vcore... Need a better mobo to test it out on now. :)

[Micutzu]

Originally posted by JoeP
... steppings have very little to do with how high your fsb can overclock ...

Well they have SOMETHING to do with it - i've had a Duron that wouldn't stay stable at 150Mhz FSB , even if any other CPU in the same rig and with the same settings is rock stable . Also i've had in my hands a Tbird that wouldn't stay stable not even at it's default speed , if i would increase the FSB over 140Mhz (and lower the multi) . At a lower clock speed it would be rock stable though ...

ExtremeAMD :same does my AROIA 9 .. 1730 rock stable with 1.7V .

[NeXuS]

uhh...can someone tell me the stepping of my atholn tbird from this sisoft sandra data.

revision/stepping...............................4/2(0)
stepping mask...................................A4..A8

[dykz34]

You have to look at the letters on the actual CPU, no program can tell you what stepping you have.

[NeXuS]

oh, ok.

[dykz34]

BTW, your compare link to the ORB is wrong. ;)

[OsiViper]

How Fast do you think i can get this?

AX2100PMT3C
AGOIA 0214TPOW
9421202063

[Micutzu]

I'd say around 1.9G , but with some voltage...

[xMagusx]

:whailin i still can't believe i didn't get an OCer badge for taking my 1700+ fully stable to like 2004 mhz :( i dunno maybe they didn
't notice :(:whailin

[OsiViper]

i got my 1700 to 2100, but all it could do is POST wouldnt load windows :P

[punkrkr52]

hey, how can you tell what kind of core you have? i have an amd xp 2200+. and another question, how do you change the multiplier for the cpu? if it matters i have a gigabyte GA-7VAX MBoard with the kt 400 chipset. i would appreciate the help. i'm kinda new to this oc thing.

[Bigc1000]

Duron Spitfire:
600-800: AKAA < AKCA < AKBA
800-950: AKCA < ALCA < AMCA = ANCA < ANDA

Duron Morgan:
AHHAA < AHLCA < AHLDA
9 < Z < Y

Athlon Thunderbird :
AXHA = ALUM < AQGA = AGGA = ASHHA < ADFA < AJFA = ARGA < AXIA = BXIA = AVIA = AXIAR < AVHA = BVHA < AYHJA = EYHJA < AYHJAR
9 < K < Y

Athlon Palomino:
AGKFA < AGKGA < ARKGA < AGLHA < AGNGA < AGOGA < AGOIA < AROIA < AROGA
9 < 4 < K < F < Y

Athlon Thoroughbred :
1700 - 1900 AIRCA < AIRGA < RIRGA < RIWGA < AIUGA < AJUGA
2200 AIRDA < AIRGA
over 2400 AIUAB < AIUCB < AIUGB < AIUHB


what does all of these letters stand for? I got a amd t-bird 1.3

[mikedick6969]

Where does this fall??? I'm sure its not a good one.....
D800AUT1B
AKCA0112RPAW
Z8908150512

800MHZ DURON

[Micutzu]

Originally posted by Bigc1000

what does all of these letters stand for? I got a amd t-bird 1.3

Those letter are just some writings on the CPU . Read carefully the whole thread again and you'll understand .

Mikedick6969 , that is one of the worst steppings for the Duron 800 .

[Teora]

Hi, I've got an XP1700 AGOGA A?

The third line on the chip says "AX1700.."
I see you don't have that in the steppings micutzu20. Where does an "A" fall in ? Or did I make a mistake ? Could it be a 4 ?

[MarMacMan]

Teora

The AGOGA is the stepping and it isn't that bad.
With good cooling you should be able to get to 1700 MHz...maybe.

[Stalka]

i had a 1700+ AGKGA and i got 1.65ghz 3dmark stable (@1.95vcore), this was with a Tt Volcano 6cu+ (which is a crappy hsf)

[InfoManiac]

I´ll buy a 1700+ Tbred B, and I heard in some forums that the ones with A in the first letter clock better. But here I found out that the JXXXX clock better....
What´s the better?

[Micutzu]

First of all , welcome to the forum ! From the info gathered until now , the J's clock better than the a's , as you can see in my ranking .

[|2eCoiL]

that doesn't make sense if the a's are suppose to be the high end TbredBs and the j's the low end.

I'm going off of what i found here
http://www.overclockers.com/tips00173/

[dykz34]

Thats just one persons opinion... a lot of people have been taking it as the word of God himself ;) hehe

[|2eCoiL]

Great....

I wanna get the better stepping but no one has them.....

[Micutzu]

Originally posted by |2eCoiL
that doesn't make sense if the a's are suppose to be the high end TbredBs and the j's the low end.

I'm going off of what i found here
http://www.overclockers.com/tips00173/


The guy over there probably wants to say that the A's are the 2200+ and above , and the 2100+ or lower are generally J's (low end) . Here we are talking about overclockability , there he talks about the default speed .

[InfoManiac]

Thanks for your friendly welcome!
Well, reading the link |2eCoiL posted....i think that there aren´t any 1700+ TbredB wit Axxxx stepping.
ALL of the 2100+ i saw, for instance, are Axxxx, and i haven´t seen any 1700+ TbredB Axxxx.
J Tbred´s are 2400+ that were unstable at default vcore, they´re better overclockers than the bess TBred´s A, but usually need more vcore.
After I saw one guy here using a JIUGB at 1,9GHz with generic air cooling (the cooler costs less than U$10 using a A7S333, LOL), I can´t believe in any other better than this (except JIUHB)

[InfoManiac]

Originally posted by micutzu20
The guy over there probably wants to say that the A's are the 2200+ and above , and the 2100+ or lower are generally J's (low end) . Here we are talking about overclockability , there he talks about the default speed .

2100+ still use the Axxxx stepping
So, shouldn´t you edit your ranking? Divide it in Low-end and High-end processors?

[Micutzu]

Well ok maybe the 2100+ are in the 'high-end' category ... well i suppose i should edit the ranking ... like for each CPU separately ... but i don't hav enough data yet :D .
Anyways 1700+ with AXXXX there have been , the first steppings that came out and the samples sent to reviewers were A's ... J's came out later .