Enabling the Fourth Core on Phenom II X3s

IvanV · Feb 28, 2009, 10:26 AM

First of all, I'm sorry if this has already been discussed somewhere as I've been seeing it around the web for a couple of days, but in that case I've missed it.

For those that haven't heard the news, the word is that if you have a Phenom II X3 with the right date and the right motherboard, the fourth CPU core can be enabled in BIOS without any special hacking.

More specifically, the CPUs manufactured in the fourth week of this year (marked 0904XXXX) can be unlocked, those manufactured in the 49th week of 2008 cannot and there have been some reports of success with CPUs from the very end of last year.

The motherboard has to have a 790 series chipset with SB750. There have been reports of success on AsRock's, Biostar's, DFI's and Gigabyte's boards. For some reason, it doesn't seem to work on ASUS. The exact models of the boards people have reported success on, that I know of, are: Asrock AOD790GX/128MB, Biostar 790GX XE, Biostar TA790GX 128M, Biostar TA790A GX2 and Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H. It didn't work on: Asus M3A78-T, Asus M3A78-T and Jetway HA07.

The unlocking procedure is very simple, the Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) in BIOS should be set to Auto and that's it, with a little luck, one is now in possession of a quad-core processor.

I'd like to hear from other DH members who have heared of this, because I'm very curious about the success rate.

Also, can the number that tells when the processor has been manufactured be seen on the packaging or is it only printed on the heat spreader?

Mac Daddy · Feb 28, 2009, 12:21 PM

I don't think this has been posted on DH yet Ivan but have been reading a bit about it myself. My buddy I got my AMD board from was originally going to grab a Phenom II X3 but he waited and saved up for the Phenom II 940 BE and is happy with it (He is running dual 4850's in crossfire).

Anyway I will be following along on this topic as well and hope some DH members have a chance to try this out. As for a date of manufacture on the box I don't see one on the box for my 5200+ just a serial number and OPN and assume it would be the same for the Phenom II X3.

IvanV · Feb 28, 2009, 12:41 PM

I've been looking around the web and I realized that the boxes actually have a window which shows the CPU and the information the about production date of the chip is right there.

If you take a look at the picture in the header of this DH review (link), there are three rows of letters and digits on the CPU heat spreader under the name AMD Phenom II (it's the 810, but it doesn't matter for this). The second of those three rows ends with the following string: 0849CPAW. The numbers at the beginning of the string mean that the processor was manufactured during the 49th week of 2008. That's a "bad" batch and those 710s and 720s reportedly can't work stably with the fourth core enabled.

Mac Daddy · Feb 28, 2009, 12:51 PM

Damn your right on the box Ivan I didn't notice that because the CPU isn't in the box anymore ... DUH lol

EDIT: Thats the 810 X4 I wonder if any of the X3's in the review were in that date category?

Al_Vampyre · Feb 28, 2009, 12:52 PM

From what I've seen it is possible BUT what you have to remember is that these are probably all quads that have been speed-binned to triples after testing, so even if you do get the 4th core working chances are its not going to be stable, especially in an overclocked rig, to get it stable you may have to put a lot of volts through it.

At the end of the day, unless you're very lucky, its probably not worth it...

Mac Daddy · Feb 28, 2009, 12:56 PM

Good point !!

Judas · Feb 28, 2009, 04:43 PM

....if i purchased a 2.2ghz triple core cpu... and then enabled the 4th core and set the speed to 2.0ghz to remain stable..... i would be more then happy even at that speed....

Mac Daddy · Mar 1, 2009, 04:18 AM

Another good point !!

Al_Vampyre · Mar 1, 2009, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

....if i purchased a 2.2ghz triple core cpu... and then enabled the 4th core and set the speed to 2.0ghz to remain stable..... i would be more then happy even at that speed....

Fair point, but for most people once you've got over the hike in user experience made from going from one core to two the difference in the quality of your user experience going from three cores to four is minimal.

IvanV · Mar 1, 2009, 09:54 AM

True to a great extent, especially since most users have more CPU power at their disposal than they ever use, but, as the reviews show, the performance difference is noticeable, on a faster CPU demanding tasks finish quicker, some games have smaller framerate drops, a quad core probably will keep the user happy fore a little while longer... And besides, isn't the prospect of getting a quad core with unlocked multiplier at that price almost irresistible?

EDIT: From what I've read, the fourth core is generally either just fine or broken. That is, people for whom it works at the default frequency can usually even overclock, but for those whose CPUs don't work at 2.8GHz, no lowering of frequency helps.

*CyberpowerUK* · Mar 2, 2009, 12:01 PM

I've seen this working here on our DDR3 test board. It was totally unstable though.

I;ve only seen 1 chip though so might not be indicative of all results. Also this board was an Alpha-silicon M4A79-H and has a lot of internal test options so that might have had something to do with it

It makes sense though, since this way only one production line is needed. It would be too expensive to produce a true X3 alongside a 4-core product when they can both be made on the same line effectively and then binned for performance according to demand.

Mike

Feb 28, 2009, 10:26 AM	#1
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,919 Rep Power: 336 System Specs	Enabling the Fourth Core on Phenom II X3s First of all, I'm sorry if this has already been discussed somewhere as I've been seeing it around the web for a couple of days, but in that case I've missed it. For those that haven't heard the news, the word is that if you have a Phenom II X3 with the right date and the right motherboard, the fourth CPU core can be enabled in BIOS without any special hacking. More specifically, the CPUs manufactured in the fourth week of this year (marked 0904XXXX) can be unlocked, those manufactured in the 49th week of 2008 cannot and there have been some reports of success with CPUs from the very end of last year. The motherboard has to have a 790 series chipset with SB750. There have been reports of success on AsRock's, Biostar's, DFI's and Gigabyte's boards. For some reason, it doesn't seem to work on ASUS. The exact models of the boards people have reported success on, that I know of, are: Asrock AOD790GX/128MB, Biostar 790GX XE, Biostar TA790GX 128M, Biostar TA790A GX2 and Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H. It didn't work on: Asus M3A78-T, Asus M3A78-T and Jetway HA07. The unlocking procedure is very simple, the Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) in BIOS should be set to Auto and that's it, with a little luck, one is now in possession of a quad-core processor. I'd like to hear from other DH members who have heared of this, because I'm very curious about the success rate. Also, can the number that tells when the processor has been manufactured be seen on the packaging or is it only printed on the heat spreader? __________________ If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

Feb 28, 2009, 12:21 PM	#2
Mac Daddy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 7,950 Rep Power: 80 System Specs	Re: Enabling the Fourth Core on Phenom II X3s I don't think this has been posted on DH yet Ivan but have been reading a bit about it myself. My buddy I got my AMD board from was originally going to grab a Phenom II X3 but he waited and saved up for the Phenom II 940 BE and is happy with it (He is running dual 4850's in crossfire). Anyway I will be following along on this topic as well and hope some DH members have a chance to try this out. As for a date of manufacture on the box I don't see one on the box for my 5200+ just a serial number and OPN and assume it would be the same for the Phenom II X3. __________________ "My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

Feb 28, 2009, 12:41 PM	Thread Starter #3
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,919 Rep Power: 336 System Specs	Re: Enabling the Fourth Core on Phenom II X3s I've been looking around the web and I realized that the boxes actually have a window which shows the CPU and the information the about production date of the chip is right there. If you take a look at the picture in the header of this DH review (link), there are three rows of letters and digits on the CPU heat spreader under the name AMD Phenom II (it's the 810, but it doesn't matter for this). The second of those three rows ends with the following string: 0849CPAW. The numbers at the beginning of the string mean that the processor was manufactured during the 49th week of 2008. That's a "bad" batch and those 710s and 720s reportedly can't work stably with the fourth core enabled. __________________ If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

Feb 28, 2009, 12:51 PM	#4
Mac Daddy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 7,950 Rep Power: 80 System Specs	Re: Enabling the Fourth Core on Phenom II X3s Damn your right on the box Ivan I didn't notice that because the CPU isn't in the box anymore ... DUH lol EDIT: Thats the 810 X4 I wonder if any of the X3's in the review were in that date category? __________________ "My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

Feb 28, 2009, 12:52 PM	#5
Al_Vampyre HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Scotland Posts: 1,532 Rep Power: 72 System Specs	Re: Enabling the Fourth Core on Phenom II X3s From what I've seen it is possible BUT what you have to remember is that these are probably all quads that have been speed-binned to triples after testing, so even if you do get the 4th core working chances are its not going to be stable, especially in an overclocked rig, to get it stable you may have to put a lot of volts through it. At the end of the day, unless you're very lucky, its probably not worth it...

Feb 28, 2009, 12:56 PM	#6
Mac Daddy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 7,950 Rep Power: 80 System Specs	Re: Enabling the Fourth Core on Phenom II X3s Good point !! __________________ "My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

Mar 1, 2009, 04:18 AM	#8
Mac Daddy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 7,950 Rep Power: 80 System Specs	Re: Enabling the Fourth Core on Phenom II X3s Another good point !! __________________ "My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

Mar 1, 2009, 09:54 AM	Thread Starter #10
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,919 Rep Power: 336 System Specs	Re: Enabling the Fourth Core on Phenom II X3s True to a great extent, especially since most users have more CPU power at their disposal than they ever use, but, as the reviews show, the performance difference is noticeable, on a faster CPU demanding tasks finish quicker, some games have smaller framerate drops, a quad core probably will keep the user happy fore a little while longer... And besides, isn't the prospect of getting a quad core with unlocked multiplier at that price almost irresistible? EDIT: From what I've read, the fourth core is generally either just fine or broken. That is, people for whom it works at the default frequency can usually even overclock, but for those whose CPUs don't work at 2.8GHz, no lowering of frequency helps. __________________ If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever). Last edited by IvanV; Mar 1, 2009 at 10:05 AM.

Mar 2, 2009, 12:01 PM	#11
CyberpowerUK DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: The Toon Posts: 81 Rep Power: 25 System Specs	Re: Enabling the Fourth Core on Phenom II X3s I've seen this working here on our DDR3 test board. It was totally unstable though. I;ve only seen 1 chip though so might not be indicative of all results. Also this board was an Alpha-silicon M4A79-H and has a lot of internal test options so that might have had something to do with it It makes sense though, since this way only one production line is needed. It would be too expensive to produce a true X3 alongside a 4-core product when they can both be made on the same line effectively and then binned for performance according to demand. Mike