AMD Phenom II X4 810 & X3 720 Processors Reviewed @ EOC!

[Jason]

EXTREME Overclocking has just posted a review on the AMD Phenom II X4 810 & X3 720 Processors.

A month ago we saw the launch of the Phenom II X4 940 & 920 processors. Today AMD is launching FIVE new chips to add to their Phenom II lineup. We are finally seeing the socket AM3 (DDR3) design that has been talked about for many months. The two chips we will be taking a look at specifically are the Phenom II X4 810 and X3 720 Black Edition.

Read The Full Review @ EXTREME Overclocking

[megaclocker]

Those new cpu are pretty nice. A nice little upgrade. I wonder if DDR3 will help even more.

[levathar]

I wonder when will this chips be available?
I have looked thoroughly in the online stores but did not see anything yet.
Wonder if this will push another price drop?

Either the X3 or the X4 here reviewed will be a nice replacement for my 939 x2 +3200.
My big wonder is the effect that cache have on scientific work, I have some machines using BOINC wich is just CPU calculations, maybe will end up with the X3 because of the bigger cache.

[Troglodyte]

Thanks for another great and thorough review!

That X3 BE seems like a very good deal at its price.

[Scubar]

Look like some respectable CPUs, Only a little bit behind the Core2Quads in performance but with a lower price should make them alot more tempting for people on a budget, Plus they overclock pretty decently aswell.

[Fr0sty]

so the X3 with more cache is just a X4 with one core disabled but with the same amount of cache as the X4 ?

spec wise it resemble the 910 X4

[ConfuciusMax]

Yeah, from what I've read its the same exact die, same size and all, the X3s are essentially a way to get more yield out of a crop of processors when a core goes bad, but in this case the X3 is fantastic from what I've read. Its either a disabled or bad core or a core that doesn't quite reach the right clock, all sorts of reasons. The 720BE looks to be an awesome budget chip for a gaming rig.

[Jason]

Yes, like the X2 7750 we reviewed a while back, that is the same die as the Phenom X3 & X4's (the 65nm). Eventually all X2, X3, and X4 chips will be based on the same Phenom II 45nm AM3 single die. The difference will just be the amount of cache & enabled cores. Essentially when testing the chips if certain parts of the cache fail or a CPU core fails, they bin it accordingly, so you have less waste. The downside is the dual core and tri-core chips are still the same size so you are not producing as many per wafer as you could if you had a chip that specifically only had 2 or 3 cores and whatever cache.

The 720 BE is a pretty sweet chip, 9 times out of 10 it will be out a dual-core simply because the extra core gives you a significant boost in multithreaded apps. Also since there are only 3 cores it's not as hard to OC it higher than a quad core so that makes up some difference.

I didn't get to go in-depth as much as I would have liked because of some personal issues that prevented me from getting some work done for a couple weeks. But I did (by accident) OC the memory controller pretty high and it never crashed until I noticed it so I'm going to be looking at that a little more in the next few days. Seems kind of promising, but I don't know if there will be any performance gain from it.

AMD seems to price their chips about $20 apart from each other, so it can be a little daunting on deciding which chip to get because one keeps saying, "well, it's only $20 more..." It just really depends on what you budget is.

As for AM3/DDR3 boards. Right now like I said they are working bugs out to get the systems stable and running as fast as existing DDR2 boards. I'm sure it will be quite some time before we start to see any advantage with these boards & memory. If you are buying something new I would recommend just going with DDR2.

[MrObvious]

AMD is counting on the $20 theory to pay off. I hope it works. One thing that AMD needs to do is release something to play with i7. But I got the feeling that will take a while.

[danthompsett]

I like my 940BE just fine sitting pretty at 3.7ghz although once again getting it stable ment an increase in vcore no real issue, but adjusting individual cores to get it stable is a little bother some.

Core 1 205x18.0=3690 @ 1.38Volts
Core 2 205x12.5=2563
Core 3 205x15.5=3178
Core 4 205x17.0=3485

HT 1845x2=3690

Im goner wait for the big GUNS to arrive 950BE AM3 or better, and nvidia three-way sli motherboards, currently to update the review AM3 ATi Crossfire boards are deffinately available, dont know about sli boards ive yet to see them in the shops.

I dont think AMD will catch up with intel they have pulled a head to much but AMD is still the cheaper option, so despite not living up to the K6 II/K6 III days im still sticking with AMD

[capriceman]

will that x3 720 work in a am2 board? Im looking for an upgrade in my server and that Ph II x3 looks like a winner. the mother board is the original Asus Crosshair. I now its AM2+compatible but not sure on the am3. thanks.

[ysith]

The newer phenom II's are not yet supported on the Asus Crosshair, but Asus do tend to update their BIOS's quite often.

[capriceman]

Originally Posted by ysith

The newer phenom II's are not yet supported on the Asus Crosshair, but Asus do tend to update their BIOS's quite often.

Thanks. hopefully soon. I'm rather flexible between AMD and Intel but i have leaned more Intel lately and i want to give a sale to AMD.

[danthompsett]

Originally Posted by ysith

The newer phenom II's are not yet supported on the Asus Crosshair, but Asus do tend to update their BIOS's quite often.

Reguarding M3N-HT Deluxe

Not often enough for me, the 1701 bios is just purely for getting Phenom II support i haven't seen an updated bios since then to improve the Phenom II capabilitys, plus the board doesn't seem to be able to drop the ddr2 to 800 so you can up the FSB, without streching memory way to fast.

I take that back 1901 bios update takes the new AM3 cpu's

[Jason]

I posted in another thread, ASUS has a list on their website their motherboards that will support 45nm/AM3 CPUs (in AM2+ motherboards). So I would watch that list or your MB for a BIOS update. If your board is an AM2+ (not plain AM2), then it *should* support the new chips.