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 Testing Methodology: For the purposes of our testing, we will be using the below setup:
Just like with all of the other AMD testing we have done, we will be tackling a complete suite of CPU benchmarks in order to really get a feel as to where the X2 550 sits in the marketplace. Overclocking: Overclocking the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition was obviously much like overclocking the X4 955 BE; simply raise the multiplier, stress test, then add more voltage if you are unstable. As with any of these incremental releases, its interesting to see if any real overclocking headroom is achieved. AMD has claimed that they are seeing better results on average compared to the 955, however, your mileage may vary. For this review, we used the XT-1264 heatsink as our cooling apparatus. I would have very much liked to use water cooling on this rig, unfortunately, a shipping delay has meant critical components would not arrive until after the NDA drop, so we are stuck with air for now. Like the 955, we primarily used the excellent BIOS of the Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard. So how far did we get on the 965? Did we get any further headway over the 955? Actually, the results were virtually identical. Just like our 955, the 965 reached 3.8GHz at 1.475V. Any further attempts to raise voltage to hit any higher speeds were met with futility. Coincidence? Is this a limitation from some other component in the system? Perhaps. As usual, I would recommend everyone to aggregate results from multiple sources to determine a consensus about any actual headroom that may be available on this chip.
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