Power Consumption and Overclocking
Testing the power consumption of processors usually leads us to interesting information and with the Phenom X4 9850 that was definitely the case.
Interestingly, the Phenom processors are actually quite power hungry. Under a full load the new X4 9850 processor uses the most power; more than the aging X2 6000+ and even more than the QX9650 processor from Intel that is a much faster part. Intel has been able to tweak their process in both 65nm and 45nm fabs without a big push for time since AMD’s processors haven’t been competing in performance; that extra time spent with the process tech is showing benefits for Intel here.
Overclocking the B3 Phenom X4 9850
With a new stepping and revision, we were very curious to see how far we could push the new silicon. Since the X4 9850 is completely multiplier unlocked, this turned out to be a pretty easy experiment as just flipping a switch in the BIOS or in the AMD Overdrive software is all it takes.
Overclocking the B3 Phenom X4 9850
With a new stepping and revision, we were very curious to see how far we could push the new silicon. Since the X4 9850 is completely multiplier unlocked, this turned out to be a pretty easy experiment as just flipping a switch in the BIOS or in the AMD Overdrive software is all it takes.
I was able to move the multiplier up from 12.5x to 14x to run the CPU at 2.80 GHz without a problem and only a minor adjustment in voltage: up to 1.33v. Stability was great at this speed though moving up to 2.9 GHz and a 14.5 multiplier quickly gave me blue screens and lock ups. I am pretty sure that performance could be tweaked even further by increasing the HT clock rate or memory clock speed if your BIOS allows it.
Overall, a 2.8 GHz clock rate is much better than the 2.5 GHz we peaked at with the retail Phenom 9500 Black Edition, but still not high enough to give me hope of seeing AMD pushing up the clocks dramatically any time soon. We might really be waiting for 45nm processors from AMD to see high-end competition again…
Overall, a 2.8 GHz clock rate is much better than the 2.5 GHz we peaked at with the retail Phenom 9500 Black Edition, but still not high enough to give me hope of seeing AMD pushing up the clocks dramatically any time soon. We might really be waiting for 45nm processors from AMD to see high-end competition again…
