Phenom II x3 gets extra core with BIOS hack

dont know if i would want to try that.... but thats good stuff man! i read some reviews on newegg about it but isnt that core shutdown dfor a reason? :D
 
I was reading something on that about the X3´s , and it sounds more likely.
I can´t imagine AMD deliberately disabling one good core,whether it be X3 or AM3.

Geez if I hav´nt been looking all day for prices on that combo of MB and CPU in your rig .
 
Mr soft said:
I was reading something on that about the X3´s , and it sounds more likely.
I can´t imagine AMD deliberately disabling one good core,whether it be X3 or AM3.

Geez if I hav´nt been looking all day for prices on that combo of MB and CPU in your rig .
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i think they would to get more profits. at the x4 price only y number of people will buy it. then at x3 price another z number of people that couldnt afford the x4 will buy it. more sales for the same chip.
 
bebopin64 said:
i think they would to get more profits. at the x4 price only y number of people will buy it. then at x3 price another z number of people that couldnt afford the x4 will buy it. more sales for the same chip.
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this would be true, if they didnt take a loss for every X3 that they made. they are technically making X4's, which cost say, $200, and selling them at $85 with one core disabled.
 
ya but they cant cost that much to make. everyone that can afford to buy an x4 is gonna buy one theyre not gonna run out. then everyone else gets the x3. if the x3 wasnt available they would have to get something even cheaper with a smaller profit margin.

if they could im sure they would have x4's at regular price and then the same x4's cheaper for people that would have passed to something else because of money. but obviously they cant do that because everyone would buy the cheaper one. so instead they take the cheaper x4's and disable a core. econ 101
 
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why is that core shut off anyway? i would have though AMD would have done something more to stop people unlocking that hidden/dead core to stop modders using it.
 
Some probably have bad cores and some are probably disabled for demand. But I have heard that the Phenom II X3 are disabled by the bios when its picked up as a X3. Not like the First Phenom X3 that were done on the hardware level.

I think AMD yields are alot better on the X4 then people think to have enough bad cores to fill the demand for X3, so alot of them probably have a 4th core thats just fine.
 
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My understanding is that the 3 core processors are simply 4 core processors that had one of the core's fail quality control. Re-enabling it wouldn't make any sense to me.
 
Didnt you just read post 12. Some do, some dont. If you can enable it and it doesnt work just redisable it. If its does work it makes really good sence. Would you not think so?
 
I find that funny that Advanced Micro Devices would simply disable a core on a Quad-Core because of the demand for the Phenom II Tri-Core processors.

The price is good for a Phenom II 710 Tri-Core. Only $129 at NewEgg.com presently.
 
2048Megabytes said:
I find that funny that Advanced Micro Devices would simply disable a core on a Quad-Core because of the demand for the Phenom II Tri-Core processors.

The price is good for a Phenom II 710 Tri-Core. Only $129 at NewEgg.com presently.
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its not so much because of demand for tri cores. its to put out a product to capture demand for people that cant or wont spend enough for quad cores.
 
StrangleHold said:
Didnt you just read post 12. Some do, some dont. If you can enable it and it doesnt work just redisable it. If its does work it makes really good sence. Would you not think so?
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No, I wouldn't think so. It isn't a question of working. It is a question of reliability. It would have been a 4 core if it had passed the tests. It didn't pass the tests.
 
2048Megabytes said:
I find that funny that Advanced Micro Devices would simply disable a core on a Quad-Core because of the demand for the Phenom II Tri-Core processors.
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If you have a 4 core come out of the manufacturing process with one core that doesn't meet specs, doesn't it make more sense to diable that core and sell it as a 3 core rather than put it in the trash? The reason for the demand is the price. If you have something that didn't pass quality control but can pass it by disabling one core, you have a product you can sell at any price and do better than throwing it away. Pretty basic business.
 
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