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The AMD Phenom 955 X4 Black Edition

The Phenom 955 is the latest processor from AMD, it is their latest flagship model and the at the forefront of their new “Dragon” platform. The 955 runs at 3.2ghz when at stock frequencies and apparently boasts great overclocking potential. The 955 is backwards compatible with AM2+ motherboards as it is basically the same pin layout as AM2 and AM2+ processors just with 2 pins removed. This means that the AM3 socket is only 938 pins whereas the AM2 and AM2+ sockets have 940 pins. This means that AM2+ CPUs cannot be used in AM3 sockets, and no the 2 extra pins cannot be snapped off.

This is what allows for the backwards compatibility but don’t get your hopes up too much as even though this CPU has a DDR3 and a DDR2 memory controller, when used in an AM2+ motherboard only DDR2 memory can be used and likewise for AM3 boards only DDR3 can be used until a “hybrid board” is created. DDR3 currently doesn’t look to be the way to go though with its benefits over DDR2 still not shining through. DDR3 still has some pretty loose timings which until they are tightened up rule it out for me.

The 955 has a few more benefits over its AM2+ counterparts, first and foremost being a vastly increased total cache size, with the 955 having a total 8mb cache size.

AMD Overdrive 3

AMD Overdrive 3 is the latest version of AMD’s overclocking platform. It allows users to easily overclock their system by using it’s built in Performance Control feature. Using these features users can change voltages frequencies multipliers etc, provided the motherboard has a supported AMD chipset.

Another feature of Overdrive is that it allows the user to create smart profiles for different programs. These are basically program specific overclocking settings for when more or less performance is needed. For example when a user is typing a document in word they will not need such high performance as they would playing Crysis. This means that the user can switch quickly between settings enhancing performance and prolonging hardware longevity.

Related posts:

1. New Core 2 and Celeron Mobile CPU’s

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