Upgrading to Phenom II X2 550

[jhonrox]

Hello guys,

I was just wondering if its worth upgrading to a Phenom II X2 550 3.10GHz Black edition, from an Athlon II X2 250 3GHz? I don't think 0.10GHz would make much difference, but what about cache size? I think the Athlon has 1MB L2 cache while the Phenom comes with 1MB L2 and 6MB L3 cache?

Or should I wait and upgrade to a quad core sometime later? What do you think? All comments/suggestion welcome!

Thanks!

 

[dark666apoc]

the 550 would be an upgrade in benchmarks it performs quite a bit more admirably than the regor cores though the regors have 1mb per core
that 6mb l3 cache does make a large difference in certain games

though in real world performance other than gaming i don think youd see a SUPER huge jump in performance

 

[StrangleHold]

Thats a 50/50 one. Most stuff you could not tell the difference. Any Program/Game that likes L3 cache the 550 would do better, plus the 550 is a Black/unlocked X. There is a chance the 550 could unlock to a quad if you have the right board, with atleast a SB 710 with ACC.

If you didnt have either one, the 550 no question. But since you aleady have the 250, I dont know. Find somebody to buy the 250, get some of your money back, then it would be a good deal.

 

[jhonrox]

Thanks for the replies guys!

though the regors have 1mb per core
that 6mb l3 cache does make a large difference in certain games

I had a feeling cache would be a pretty big factor!

There is a chance the 550 could unlock to a quad if you have the right board, with atleast a SB 710 with ACC.

Yeah I read about unlocking it to quad core somewhere, but wasn't sure if it was possible for this. After taking a look at CPU Z though, my board (Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3) has SB700 so I guess unlocking is not possible? What's ACC by the way?


EDIT: Just found this on AMD Game Forums:
"Phenom II has ACC hard baked into the chip. Meaning, ACC is already enabled and ready to go on-chip. You do not need a BIOS which supports it, just as long as the motherboard and BIOS support a Phenom II."

 

[StrangleHold]

EDIT: Just found this on AMD Game Forums:
"Phenom II has ACC hard baked into the chip. Meaning, ACC is already enabled and ready to go on-chip. You do not need a BIOS which supports it, just as long as the motherboard and BIOS support a Phenom II."

That has nothing to do with unlocking the cores. ACC ( Advanced Clock Calibration) was meant for the Phenom I to help with overclocking. They say the Phenom II doesnt need to to overclock well. It just so happen with some board, think starting with Biostar that enabling ACC with it set to auto or all cores it would unlock the disabled cores. So most other boards makers started adding the bios code that would unlock them.

 

[jhonrox]

Thanks for the reply, StrangleHold!

Ok, so how would I know if my board (GA-MA770-UD3) has ACC? Even if the board does, I won't be able to unlock the 550 to a quad, would I, as the board has SB700?

Thanks again for the comments everyone!

 

[StrangleHold]

Rev. 1.0 has a SB 700, no ACC
Rev. 2.0 has a SB 710 it does have ACC

 

[jhonrox]

Rev. 1.0 has a SB 700, no ACC
Rev. 2.0 has a SB 710 it does have ACC

Well I guess that means upgrading is pretty much pointless! Thanks for the info, I'll keep such things in mind if/when I get my next board!

And thanks for the comments everyone,
you've all been very helpfull!