"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message ...
On 05/01/2012 4:10 PM, SC Tom wrote:
"DK" wrote in message
...
In article , Paul wrote:
This CPU driver is for WinXP. I would expect Vista or Win7 to
already have this driver as a hidden built-in. It took a
number of steps on the AMD driver download page to find this.
It wasn't that easy.
http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/dyna...08-1432-4756-a
afa-4d9dc646342f&ItemID=173&lang=us
Thanks, Paul!
I did install something called "CPU driver" off Asus DVD. Will go back
and see what happens if I don't install it or install an updated version.
AMD Phenom II X4 840 3,735 (Passmark)
AMD Sempron 2200+ 336 (Passmark)
So according to that, the ratio is supposed to be 10x.
And for that to be true, the benchmark would have to
be able to run on multiple cores.
Yeah, that's the numbers I was looking at when planning an update.
Sounds like this is exactly what I would see if I get my 2.5-3X boost
for a single core and multiply it by 3-4X. But then, at work
I have Core i7 950 and its Passmark is value 6,365. I just tested
DivX encoding on it using the same test as done for my Phenom
home system. At home I was getting ~ 40 FPS (versus around 15 with
the Sempron), while at work it is around 125 FPS - considerably
more than what the 1.7X difference in Passmark scores would
suggest.
As the other reply points out, I guess I simply did not appreciate the
fact that CPU clock frequency in modern processors seems to have hit
a wall and that the main inroads into increasing computing speed is
now in SMP scaling.
I also haven't realized that Cool'n'Quiet can get in the way of things -
will investigate this further. Does it work on a per core basis or does
it look at the whole chip?
I was following this since I upgraded from an Athlon 64 x2 4800+
(2.5GHz) on an Asus M2NPV-VM MB (4GB RAM) to a Phenom II x2 555 Black
Edition (3.2 GHz) on a M4N68T-M V2 (4GB RAM). I have noticed quite a
difference in speed, and when I used the Asus unlocker to open two more
cores, I noticed a real difference in most applications I use (some, no
change at all, but that's mostly older small-footprint apps that weren't
too slow anyhow). Windows now has it listed as a Phenom II x4 B55. In
Device Manger, open each core and update the driver. Let it go to the MS
site to get it.
You were indeed lucky to be able to unlock not just one, but two whole cores on your X2. I had a Phenom X3 prior to
this one (X6), and when I used the Asus unlocker to get just a single additional core, it locked up. It was indeed a
bad core and not just a core locked out for marketing purposes, it could not be unlocked.
The link that Paul provided points to a driver for XP
SP2, and is dated 2009. I'm afraid that driver would be
counterproductive on a XP SP3 system with a processor manufactured after
2009. I may be wrong, but I got better results with the MS driver (which
I normally don't use for driver updates). The "CPU driver" on the MB DVD
is nothing more than Cool 'n Quiet. If you run the setup again, it will
ask if you're sure you want to uninstall it? I left it on mine. I don't
find that it interferes with what I do.
When you use the Core Unlocker (i.e. Unleashed mode) it's been suggested that you should not use CnQ in combination of
Unleashing. You should also disable Turbo Core (if available on your processor), and C1E support, while unleashed.
Yousuf Khan
As it turns out, I'm not running the software, but it is enabled in BIOS. Seems to work just fine that way. I don't have
Turbo mode enabled- I figure it's not going to give me that much of a boost for what I run anyway.
I haven't seen too many failures on the Phenom II x2 CPU's. I believe there were more instances of non-working extra
cores on the x4's. If I have a problem with any of them, I can always turn one or two cores off. Until that time, I'll
enjoy what I have. I'm glad I upgraded my PSU a while back since the 4 cores double the power requirement.
--
SC Tom