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Overclocking X3 720 Black Edition: To start off the overclocking, we are going to use the X3 720. Just like the X4 940, we will focus on overclocking via the unlocked CPU multipliers. Overclocks for both chips were tested using Large FFTs in Prime95. Testing on the X3 was done on the following system:
Just like our Phenom II 940 test, we will be using the Asus M3A78-T motherboard. Not only is it one of the boards recommended by AMD, it has been a very stable platform so far, and I expect it to do just as well with the X3. The board recognized the AM3 CPU without having the flash the BIOS, an encouraging sign.
Looking at the specs of the X3 720 Black Edition, it differs from the Phenom II 940 in a few different ways. Of course, the main difference is the fact that the X3 has a disabled core. Besides that, the X3 runs at 200MHz less, and with an increased HT Link speed of 2GHz. With one less core to deal with, the hope is that the potential overclocking headroom is increased.
Comparing the X3 720 to the X4 940, the X3 consistently required less voltage across the board, and even got us an extra 100MHz of clock speed. Even though all testing was done under water, I am convinced high clocks can be achieved with air cooling, considering that maximum load temps only reached 30C. X4 810: Now that we got the easy stuff out of the way, it's time to tackle the X4 810. Because the 810's multipliers are locked at 13x, overclocking becomes a more complicated affair. In this case, the motherboard plays a significantly larger role in the overclocking process. As it just so happens, I have a brand new Sapphire 790GX motherboard that I would love to put through its paces (expect a full review soon).
As you can see from the above screenshot, the X4 has a max multiplier of 13x, and a clock speed of 2.6GHz. HT Link speed is 2GHz. Compared to the X4 940, the 810 also has a reduced cache size of 4MB. Now, about the overclocking. There are a few tips that will help overclockers out there find the potential max out of their chip:
Once you are done, you might see some results like above. At 1.55V, we were able to ramp up the clock speed to 3.51GHz, which requires 270MHz of HTT lovin'. At this speed, we have the HTT Link and Memory Controller multipliers at 7x, giving us 1.89GHz. RAM is using the DDR2-800 divider, which comes to DDR2-1080 of actual speed. Temps at this speed under our water cooling is about 25C for Idle and 45C for load. Now, to have ourselves a look-see about performance.
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