|
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition |
|
|
|
Written by Fedja Drndarski
|
|
Sunday, 27 September 2009 |
|
Page 1 of 4   This time AMD decided to show us limits if its 45nm manufacturing process by presenting Phenom II X4 965 CPU. This model has highest ever (default) frequency of all CPUs that were manufactured in AMD factories. It is based on highly successful Deneb core with 6MB of L3 cache and support for DDR2 and DDR3 memory standard. Compared to previously tested AMD Phenom II X4 955 model there aren’t too many differences, so you could say that this new CPU is identical to the old one, except few differences in voltage specifications.
So, did we reach, again, thermal dissipation of 140W? No, since AMD Phenom II X4 965 is not that much “hotter” than 955 model: just 12W more. However, AMD decided to increase nominal voltage and restrict maximal voltage for 965 model. As a result, we got Phenom II that operates at significantly higher voltage of 1.4V and has maximum thermal dissipation level at 140W (this thermal dissipation level can be reached only with serious overclock). Compared to Phenom II 955, under these settings thermal dissipation is higher for 10-15W.
If you overclock this CPU at 3.8GHz only 1.43V will be enough for 24/7 stability. For 955 model you would use risky 1.48-1.5V to achieve such frequencies. Therefore, reaching frequencies near 4GHz is possible but good CPU cooler, or even water-cooling system, should be used. If water-cooling system is used, stable 4GHz can be reached. Nevertheless, don’t expect that these result can be reached on low-budget AM2 motherboards with price tags from 50 to 60€. If you plan to seriously overclock AMD Phenom II X4 966 you will need to obtain motherboards will better power unit that don’t come that cheap.
|
