unlocked 550

dark666apoc

dark666apoc

New Member
ok so i currently have a 9850 and will be getting a 550 soon

now im wondering if i unlock the 3rd and 4th cores what processor will it be competing with as far as performance

amd and intel

cause every benchmark ive seen the 9850 still wins over the 550

i basically want something around a q6600 or an e8400 2 of my favorite processors
if i cant reach the q6600 i wont be crushed xD
 
The 550 when unlocked is the same as the 955 cpu but you will have to bump the multplyer up. I would not buy the 550 thinking it will unlock the other two cores and be stable. I have tried it and mine is not stable it is a gamble. I would buy the 955 for $190 and you'll know what you'll be getting. I am not sure what the AMD cpu is compared to Intel.

As far as a dual core the 550 is the most potent that AMD makes. It will score higher in some areas than the 9850 but not in multitasking since it is a quad.

In my opinion I would get the 720 triple core it should meet your expectations for $15 more.
 
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well im not banking on it unlocking and i dont plan to until future games start lagging cause of cpu bottleneck i jsut need to cut down on the power bill and this 9850 is a beast lol i saw a review its wattage was up to about 210 at load i think lol (dont quote me i have a horrible memory)

but if itll compare and wont drop my framerates below 30 with my 8800 than im happy :)
 
yeah i plan to upgrad to a ga ma785g in the future to do so but i have to upgrade my power supply first for the 8 pin cpu

but im on sb710 anyways just havent seen anyone do it on this particular board dont plan on trying with this power supply either ahha
 
the 9850 is 125w without overclocking
the 550 is 80 w without overclocking
and the 720 is 95w without overclocking

if your planning on gaming than the 550 would do fine but the 720 would be a bit better.

AMD also has a line of cpu's the propus which is a quad at 95w but it does not have L3 cache so it will hinder it's performance abit on gaming.

I am going to get the 955 even though it is 125w but it is a beast.

Also cool and quiet throddle down the cpu so uses less wattage when not needed. I am not sure the 9850 has that?
 
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as much as id love to have those i already feel bad enough gettin the 550 lol its a birthday present form my gf :) and its frankly the most expensive thing ive ever gotten so i already feel rude lol shes getting me that and this keyboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109069i think its a gorgeous board

and than for christmas shes getting my dream case the haf 932 ;) and a new power supply than valentines day she wants to get me a new mobo :)

yeah shes pretty ****ing awesomeand i was looking at the techspot review and saw that the 550 keeps up and surpasses 9950 in a LOT of programs and is pretty sturdy for multi core based games :) which makes me happy and uses not even the same idle power as the 9950 when the 550 is overclocked to 3.9 xD

sorry if that didnt make complete sense im sick
 
I have the 550 and have it overclocked to 3.8 and it perfroms very well. i does a good job playing games but when my anti-virus kicks I can tell it hurts gaameplay. That is where the 710 or 720 comes in as you would not notice the hit since it has 3 cores. But yeah the 550 is nice but I have started getting into video editing and it take this processor between 30-40 min to transcode. That is why a I am planning on the 955 here in the next couple months. I am planning on selling mine locally for about $60-$70 without heatsink or I might get a combo deal with my 955 to get a OCZ 92mm heatsink then sell it for $80-$90.
 
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3.8ghz seems to be the sweet spot 19x 1.45vore it passes cpu test @3.9 but when gaming for an hour or so it BSOD. I do not want to raise vcore any higher so I do not think it is worth the 100 or 200mhz.

i still would not expect this to be stable when unlocked to a quad, only with the first batches was it almost guaranteed.
 
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imjsut hessitant on going to a 710 since i went to the blackedition :/ i spend a couple days overclocking lol so far im the fastest phenom 1 user on super pi at 3.2 (was as far as i could go on air)

i want to try and do the same with the phenom 2 lol im an overclock junkie xD just to see what i can push

is the jump between performance in the 710 and 720 jsut form the 200 mhz clockspeed?
 
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I do believe the Phenom II 720 Black Edition has an unlocked multiplier making it better for overclocking. The Phenom II 710 does not have an unlocked multiplier.
 
2048Megabytes said:
I do believe the Phenom II 720 Black Edition has an unlocked multiplier making it better for overclocking. The Phenom II 710 does not have an unlocked multiplier.
Click to expand...

You also have a chance of unlocking the extra core on the 720. I don't think you can do that on the 710.
 
i do not think the 720 clocks as high as the 550 but your are getting an extra core and that makes more of a difference.
 
from the reviews i jsut went through the 550 still seems liek it has more performance boosts in the areas i like to play around in namely crysis and video encoding xD
the rendering isnt quiet as well off in some apps but i really dont care about 3 fps when im getting about 150 every game i play pretty much i limit to 60 fps

though that may jsut be because of the higher clock speed of the 550 does anyone know of a review that runs its tests with the 550 and 720 both overclocked?
 
2048Megabytes said:
The Phenom II 710 Tri-Core is only $7 more than the Phenom II 550 Dual-Core processor. More processing power for only $7 more. The extra core is worth it for only $7 more.

Phenom II 710 Tri-Core Processor - $109
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103648
Click to expand...

The 710 only overclocks to ~3.1-3.2 ghz or so. For gaming, a dual core at 3.8 is better than a tricore at 3.2ghz. The third core typically does nothing.

jasonn20 said:
I have the 550 and have it overclocked to 3.8 and it perfroms very well. i does a good job playing games but when my anti-virus kicks I can tell it hurts gaameplay. That is where the 710 or 720 comes in as you would not notice the hit since it has 3 cores. But yeah the 550 is nice but I have started getting into video editing and it take this processor between 30-40 min to transcode. That is why a I am planning on the 955 here in the next couple months. I am planning on selling mine locally for about $60-$70 without heatsink or I might get a combo deal with my 955 to get a OCZ 92mm heatsink then sell it for $80-$90.
Click to expand...

Wrong, my old 710 resides in my mom's PC. With her Norton, I could underclock my 550 to 2ghz and my PC would run faster than her's. Antivirus KILLS performance no matter how many cores you have.

Fatback said:
You also have a chance of unlocking the extra core on the 720. I don't think you can do that on the 710.
Click to expand...

The 710 can also unlock to a quad. The 710 is just an 810 with 1 core deactivated.
 
To the OP, just go for the 550. There is NO current game, if you have a good enough GPU, that you won't be able to play with the Phenom II 550 at 3.8ghz.
 
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