Gathering all informationOkay, let's sum up. If you want more performance, this list will give you a guideline for what to focus on first:
- CPU frequency
- IMC frequency
- Memory frequency
- HT Link frequency
- HTT frequency
In other words, you will see the biggest performance gain from overclocking the processor frequency, which is actually pretty straight-forward. In contrary to this list, I would suggest a different approach in the actual overclocking attempt: finding limits is much easier if you know the size of the playing field. In more hardware-related terms, it's important to know the limits of the HTT frequency and, preferably, the memory frequency as well. Only when you know the maximum HTT frequency, you are able to squeeze those last few MHz's as the higher the HTT, the lower the multiplier will be. The lower the multiplier, the smaller the steps you'll be able to take when overclocking (using the HTT frequency method).
Conclusive thoughtsThe people who often visit this website will probably already have noticed that I've been playing with this Phenom II technology for quite some time now. Actually, even before I started conducting the tests for this article, I have been pushing the limits of the technology and, as I announced in my Phenom I performance scaling article, it's indeed possible to hit over 6GHz with the Phenom II processor, be it on LN2 though. However, the actual absolute frequency has very little significance, what's really important is that we can finally
play with an AMD again. In addition, the relative frequency (obtained frequency weighed against the stock frequencies) is again something that can be spoken positively about: Stock frequency is 3Ghz, but this time it can be pushed beyond 4GHz on air cooling, beyond 5GHz on single stage cooling and beyond 6GHz on LN2. The Phenom I only offered 2.6GHz stock, 3.2GHz air cooled, 3.5GHz single stage and ... no LN2.
I've heard rumors that AMD is still improving the production process of the Phenom II technology, which means that the AM3 products might even be able to overclock even better! We received our first DDR3 motherboard a few days ago, so we will have a look at the new processor series soon. In any case, there will be a Phenom II X4 955, which will be clocked at 3.2GHz at only 1.25v!
Any hardware enthusiast and overclocker should at least give the Phenom II a shot, certainly when you get chance to cool it down below zero. It's just so much fun, not having to watch the temperatures as there's absolutely no coldbug!
I hope you enjoyed reading this OC report, until next time, click the logo below to read up on our previous overclocking endeavors: