If this is true then it is very interesting:
http://www.techpowerup.com/86100/Phe...om_II_X4?.html
If this is true then it is very interesting:
http://www.techpowerup.com/86100/Phe...om_II_X4?.html
It would be very dumb to do so - the reason one of the cores is disabled is because IT DOESN'T WORK PROPERLY. It will have been a quad-core chip where there were defects in one of the cores that didn't pass QA, and thus will have had one of the cores disabled. It's called die harvesting - maximise the number of parts you can sell from your die, even if some of them have faults.
It does seem too easy, doesn't it? Change a single BIOS setting to "Auto" and it unlocks an extra core? Can whatever magic AMD pumped into SB750 really tell whether a core is usable within a certain tolerance and reenable it if so? There are far too many questions about how this works for me to ever be confident about using it...
Still, it's not exactly surprising that some X3-binned parts might have only very minor defects that allow the core to run as designed in most circumstances. I suppose AMD will have to X3-bin any part that cannot be guaranteed to work as an X4 in all situations. There must be some flaws that make little to no difference in day-to-day computing...
Its true and there is also a chance they work like the 9500 mod.
It is possible that the yield rates for the x4 is very high in which case they would use perfectly good x4 cores to fill the demand for x3 orders.
seen a guy on OC get the forth core working @ 1ghz
I have to say I wondered this myself when I heard the X3 was the same as the X4 equivelant just with 1 core disabled. Wouldn't surprise me if it was possible. Still not worth the risk if it fried your mobo...you never know
Its also a great way of selling dud quads
From what I have read around on this subject it is potentially limited to a single batch from when they were first released. So don't buy an X3 thinking that you are going to be able to open up the other core the likelihood is that you will not be able to. See this article/news item for a bit more detail http://www.techpowerup.com/86200/Mot...ck_Needed.html
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)