Phenom II X2 550 BE, can you unlock to make quad core?

O

omglol

New Member
I was going to buy the x4 940 cpu, but i saw this one (x2 550 BE) and the reviews were saying you can unlock two more cores to make it a quad core.

Is this possible?

if so,how do you do this? and do you need a certain mobo? I believe the reviewers said they had the gigabyte MA790XT UD4P / FXT UD5P

Thanks!
 
Bodaggit23

Bodaggit23

Active Member
omglol said:
I was going to buy the x4 940 cpu, but i saw this one (x2 550 BE) and the reviews were saying you can unlock two more cores to make it a quad core.

Is this possible?

if so,how do you do this? and do you need a certain mobo? I believe the reviewers said they had the gigabyte MA790XT UD4P / FXT UD5P

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Even if you could, and I don't know if you can, the 940 would still smoke that 550.
 
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
omglol said:
I was going to buy the x4 940 cpu, but i saw this one (x2 550 BE) and the reviews were saying you can unlock two more cores to make it a quad core.

Is this possible?

if so,how do you do this? and do you need a certain mobo? I believe the reviewers said they had the gigabyte MA790XT UD4P / FXT UD5P

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You need to have a good enough chip to unlock and the right mobo. No guarantees whether you can unlock or not though...
 
StrangleHold

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
omglol said:
I was going to buy the x4 940 cpu, but i saw this one (x2 550 BE) and the reviews were saying you can unlock two more cores to make it a quad core.

Is this possible?

if so,how do you do this? and do you need a certain mobo? I believe the reviewers said they had the gigabyte MA790XT UD4P / FXT UD5P


Thanks!
Click to expand...

Both the X and XT UD4P and 5 will unlock them if you set the ACC to Hybird then put the settings to Auto.

This is the problem, I have my core enabled, but I purchased mine in the first week of release. When AM3 were first released they put more out with a working core as a X3 to fill the demand. As time went on less and less of the X3 had a working core. Well if you move down to the X2 with two disabled cores, your chances of getting one without atleast one bad core is pretty slim. As in these are problaly in the worse yields cores to disable two cores. Not saying it wont, just saying your chances are alot less slim.

Bodaggit23 said:
Even if you could, and I don't know if you can, the 940 would still smoke that 550.
Click to expand...

No it would not, other than having two disabled cores, they are exactly the same. The 550 has the full 6mb. of L3. If they did enable it would run exactly as a X4 would at the same ghz.

Mine has the same performance as a X4 955 running at 3.5ghz.
 
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bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
Bodaggit23 said:
We'll have to take your word for it I guess.
Click to expand...

They are the same, if you disabled two cores on a phenom II 955 it would perform the same. Only thing is they wont overclock as well as the actual quads(hence the reason they are Phenom X2's to begin with). And thats only if you get one that will unlock...
 
StrangleHold

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
Its kinda simple. AMD wanted people to believe that they were hardware disabled, I think even at one point they even said it. But it turns out, they are disabled by the CPU code through the bios. When the SB750 came out with the ACC fuction some Bios programmer at, I think Biostar. By mistake when they added the ACC they forgot about the X3. So when you set ACC to auto it would bypass the CPU code and enable the turned off core. Then other board makers ran with it.

Then AMD got bummed out because alot of the first batches of X3 were just fine. Then they were fine with it, and then not. Then they just kinda left it. I guess as time goes on they knew less and less of them would be good cores, hoping it would kinda just go away on its own. Or down the road they are really going to hardware disable them.
 
StrangleHold

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
bomberboysk said:
They are the same, if you disabled two cores on a phenom II 955 it would perform the same. Only thing is they wont overclock as well as the actual quads(hence the reason they are Phenom X2's to begin with). And thats only if you get one that will unlock...
Click to expand...

Exactly. Really with the X2, to go as far as killing two cores something has to be not up to snuff with it. All the cores might be just fine and it just takes to much voltage to get it in the envelope of being a X3/4 keeping the watts at 125. Or more than likely, that something is just flat out wrong with one or more of the cores or could even be the L2 on them. I would say they are the ones stacked on the shelves and had them wondering, what the hell am I going to do with them. Oh, maybe a X2;)

The reason I say that about the X2 is, it cant be good enconomics to disable 2 cores of a quad just to have a 45nm. X2. It would be far cheaper to run a few wafers of X2 cores. Especially with the Athlon II with out the L3, you could almost double you core count on a wafer.
 
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
StrangleHold said:
Exactly. Really with the X2, to go as far as killing two cores something has to be not up to snuff with it. All the cores might be just fine and it just takes to much voltage to get it in the envelope of being a X3/4 keeping the watts at 125. Or more than likely, that something is just flat out wrong with one or more of the cores or could even be the L2 on them. I would say they are the ones stacked on the shelves and had them wondering, what the hell am I going to do with them. Oh, maybe a X2;)

The reason I say that about the X2 is, it cant be good enconomics to disable 2 cores of a quad just to have a 45nm. X2. It would be far cheaper to run a few wafers of X2 cores. Especially with the Athlon II with out the L3, you could almost double you core count on a wafer.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i hope amd gets around to making TRUE dual cores, as they would be cheaper produce and thenceforth cheaper to the consumer.
 
StrangleHold

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
Well I think I am wrong about the Athlon II X2, think it is a true dual core.

This is native dual-core CPU

Regor is made in advanced 45nm manufacturing process and it wasn’t made by cutting defecting Daneb cores.
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/147497,amd-denies-locking-down-cores.aspx

As Athlon II X2 is a pure dual-core die, there is no chance of "unlocking" hidden cores as there aren't any hidden in there at all.
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/147497,amd-denies-locking-down-cores.aspx


These chips will not simply be disabled Deneb dies either. They are designed from the ground up without L3 cache to reduce manufacturing costs and offer consumers a less expensive alternative to the cache-laden Phenom II brand
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=323&Itemid=63

athlonIIdie.jpg
 
bomberboysk

bomberboysk

Active Member
Just like AMD denied that phenom II tri cores were hardware disabled... Who knows,Either its just PR talking, or maybe it is a true dual core(in which case it should be cheaper than what it already is...).
 
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