bit-tech.net | Asus refines AMD core unlocking

proxess 21st October 2009, 11:33

Truly, truly, awesome! Whoever gets all 4 cores up and running, stable, please tell us which CPU you have!!

Gremlin 21st October 2009, 11:56

****! That is awesome!

As a Phenom II X2 550 owner I only wish I had of bought an ASUS mobo instead of going for a Gigabyte 790X-UD4P and its core unlocking since my chip refuses to run as a quad no matter what I do (increase voltage, decrease clock speed/HT speed etc)

I can only hope Gigabyte and other manufacturers do something similar!

simonw 21st October 2009, 12:02

Nice idea by Asus.

Jack_Pepsi 21st October 2009, 12:06

Bloody brilliant!

\m/

-VK- 21st October 2009, 12:20

*beams*

Hustler 21st October 2009, 12:38

"Asus' advantage is that if you have just one bad core, you can specify the BIOS to unlock a single, specific core to give you a free triple core that's far more likely to be stable and overclockable. Plus, it's a completely free update: what's not to like!"

But ive been doing that on my budget Gigabyte 720-US3 for the last 3mths.......its pretty easy.

Whats the big deal.?

[USRF]Obiwan 21st October 2009, 12:53

will it blend?

perplekks45 21st October 2009, 13:01

That might open the door to a new AMD system for me.
Well done, ASUS, for inviting me to the dark side... or the light side, depending on who you speak to.

Gremlin 21st October 2009, 13:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hustler
"Asus' advantage is that if you have just one bad core, you can specify the BIOS to unlock a single, specific core to give you a free triple core that's far more likely to be stable and overclockable. Plus, it's a completely free update: what's not to like!"

But ive been doing that on my budget Gigabyte 720-US3 for the last 3mths.......its pretty easy.

Whats the big deal.?

How have you been managing to do that?

Hustler 21st October 2009, 13:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gremlin
How have you been managing to do that?

Easy, just reset Cmos, go into ACC/NCC, set to 'Per Core', turn on which cores you want with +2%, leave the 'bad' core turned off..IE..

Core 0 +2%
Core 1 +2%
Core 2 +2%
Core 3 0

Or

Core 0 +2%
Core 1 +2%
Core 2 0
Core 3 +2%

Reboot.......there, you now have just turned your 550 into a Phenom II 720x3 BE

More often than not, its Core 3 that needs to be left off.

Works for me just fine....

proxess 21st October 2009, 16:06

Have you tried enabling Core 2 and Core 3?

Tulatin 21st October 2009, 17:19

Pretty neat idea of theirs, but it overlooks one thing - why bother trying to unlock a "free" core, if the board for it will cost more than the difference in price of a cheaper board, and a real triple/quad core?

Also, I can see this being used by a few shady PC shops to make magic three core rigs.

thehippoz 21st October 2009, 18:04

I like magic cores

buttercup 21st October 2009, 20:01

Quote:

Asus has revealed a new BIOS update for no less than 17 of it's AMD motherboards

ITS (no apostrophe)
Also, do you really need the "no less than"?

Quote:

This is a massive benefit for Phenom II X2, X3 and even Sempron 140 owners that have hidden cores because AMD uses one standard Agena die for its quad, triple and dual Phenom IIs

This is a bit misleading as, as far as I'm aware, the new AM3 Sempron(s) is/are based on the Athlon II Regor die, which is native dual core.

Quote:

All AMD motherboards are supported that include ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) on the SB710 or SB750 southbridge

I'm just nitpicking now but that would sound better as:

All AMD motherboards that include ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) on the SB710 or SB750 southbridge are supported

confusis 21st October 2009, 20:05

here in nz you're paying a difference of $30 for the unlocking board vs a similar non capable board, vs a difference of $140 for the quad core phenom II instead of the dual core. worth it if it works... even a price difference of $60 for a tricore!
eg:

Phenom II X2 545, 3.0GHz, Socket AM3, 32/64-Bit, Retail pack with fan $165.77
Phenom II X3 720, 2.8GHz, Socket AM3, 32/64-Bit, Retail pack with fan $228.38 (on special)
Phenom II X4 945, 3.0GHz, Socket AM3, 32/64-Bit, Retail pack with fan $305.61

Sapphire PE-AM2RS740G Motherboard $131.00
Asus M4A785-M Motherboard $160.68

l3v1ck 21st October 2009, 20:51

This sort of thing takes me back to the early issues of CPC when they used to unlock extra shaders on graphics cards.

frontline 21st October 2009, 23:28

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!. Oh, i bought a quad core. Still, great news! :)

Gremlin 22nd October 2009, 09:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hustler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gremlin
How have you been managing to do that?

Easy, just reset Cmos, go into ACC/NCC, set to 'Per Core', turn on which cores you want with +2%, leave the 'bad' core turned off..IE..

Core 0 +2%
Core 1 +2%
Core 2 +2%
Core 3 0

Or

Core 0 +2%
Core 1 +2%
Core 2 0
Core 3 +2%

Reboot.......there, you now have just turned your 550 into a Phenom II 720x3 BE

More often than not, its Core 3 that needs to be left off.

Works for me just fine....

Doesnt work for me at all sadly

Roca_05 28th October 2009, 19:23

I'm sorry to be the one that brings bad news to you article readers but what Richard is saying in this article might not be true. I did my homework and looked for the bios on the ASUS web site and there are 4 BIOS listed there but not the specific BIOS that Richard says has the unleashing mode. I even called tech support and they told me that they couldn't confirm that what Richard is saying in this article is true. Now I only did this for my specific motherboard which is an ASUS M4A785-M. So readers please check up on your motherboard and tell us if you are experiencing this problem as well. I really got discuraged when I saw that there was no BIOS 0308 for my motherboard which means I won't be able to unlock the third core on my cpu if it doesn't boot as a quad core.

Crazy Buddhist 20th November 2009, 19:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roca_05
I'm sorry to be the one that brings bad news to you article readers but what Richard is saying in this article might not be true. I did my homework and looked for the bios on the ASUS web site and there are 4 BIOS listed there but not the specific BIOS that Richard says has the unleashing mode. I even called tech support and they told me that they couldn't confirm that what Richard is saying in this article is true. Now I only did this for my specific motherboard which is an ASUS M4A785-M. So readers please check up on your motherboard and tell us if you are experiencing this problem as well. I really got discuraged when I saw that there was no BIOS 0308 for my motherboard which means I won't be able to unlock the third core on my cpu if it doesn't boot as a quad core.

This is kind of odd because other ASUS boards with the 710 Southbridge DO have this new BIOS revsion listed on the ASUS website:

"M3A79-T Deluxe BIOS 1203
01. Support ACC "Unleashing Mode".

Maybe when it went in the wild they found the 308 had issues?

I see no other reason why yours hasn't. .. also as I understand it you *should* be able to unleash your cores with the existing BIOS as it has ACC control built in. If you are having trouble unlocking cores ... it could be that you are one of the rare few who actually got a dud core as opposed to one that was merely disabled for marketing reasons.

Matthew

Bindibadgi 21st November 2009, 12:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roca_05
I'm sorry to be the one that brings bad news to you article readers but what Richard is saying in this article might not be true. I did my homework and looked for the bios on the ASUS web site and there are 4 BIOS listed there but not the specific BIOS that Richard says has the unleashing mode. I even called tech support and they told me that they couldn't confirm that what Richard is saying in this article is true. Now I only did this for my specific motherboard which is an ASUS M4A785-M. So readers please check up on your motherboard and tell us if you are experiencing this problem as well. I really got discuraged when I saw that there was no BIOS 0308 for my motherboard which means I won't be able to unlock the third core on my cpu if it doesn't boot as a quad core.

I checked this with Asus because there's no "0308" (or whatever) specifically, and it's any BIOS THAT IS THAT NUMBER AND BEYOND all support this function. It was an internal document I was allowed to publish bits of, so within Asus they understood what it meant - I should have conveyed this better had I known.

The people I know in Asus insist that it does work, and I really trust they know what they are talking about.

I cant check because we sent a load of Asus boards back recently, but I'll see what the other publications have to check one of their boards on the list myself, when I come back to AM3 in the next few weeks.

Crazy Buddhist 21st November 2009, 17:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
I checked this with Asus because there's no "0308" (or whatever) specifically, and it's any BIOS THAT IS THAT NUMBER AND BEYOND all support this function. It was an internal document I was allowed to publish bits of, so within Asus they understood what it meant - I should have conveyed this better had I known.

This specific board nowhere in the changelog is the change mentioned.

Do you have documents that show for sure later BIOS versions listed for that board support the function even though the change remains unlisted?

I guess we have someone who can try ....

Matthew

welshdude1980 5th December 2009, 15:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hustler
Easy, just reset Cmos, go into ACC/NCC, set to 'Per Core', turn on which cores you want with +2%, leave the 'bad' core turned off..IE..

Core 0 +2%
Core 1 +2%
Core 2 +2%
Core 3 0

Or

Core 0 +2%
Core 1 +2%
Core 2 0
Core 3 +2%

Reboot.......there, you now have just turned your 550 into a Phenom II 720x3 BE

More often than not, its Core 3 that needs to be left off.

Works for me just fine....

That isnt turning a core of.
That 12-/12+ is acc OC amount. IE 2% Over clock pr core

MSI 785/710 series mobos come with the same princible. In fact theirs come first.
I was running a B50 @ X3 @ 3.5ghz stable - 12hr prime95.

Its more likey youll get 3 cores running stable than getting all 4.
But motherboard-Bios are the biggest factor. Like! MSI 770T-C45 only as the ability to unlock all or none. Running a 2-/+ OC can make it even more unstable.

You need to actualy see, Core disabled, or like this 1/2/4 active

Bindibadgi 5th December 2009, 17:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazy Buddhist
This specific board nowhere in the changelog is the change mentioned.

Do you have documents that show for sure later BIOS versions listed for that board support the function even though the change remains unlisted?

I guess we have someone who can try ....

Matthew

The ones published are all I have - everything after those listed in the news article should support the feature. It's not like they should remove it - no reason.

shadow 9th December 2009, 17:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gremlin
****! That is awesome!

As a Phenom II X2 550 owner I only wish I had of bought an ASUS mobo instead of going for a Gigabyte 790X-UD4P and its core unlocking since my chip refuses to run as a quad no matter what I do (increase voltage, decrease clock speed/HT speed etc)

I can only hope Gigabyte and other manufacturers do something similar!

good news m8 ;)
i've found that your mobo (and NOT ONLY this model of gigabyte) also supports such method of unlocking, check this link

flibblesan 18th December 2009, 06:18

The M4A785TD-M EVO board that I got has a BIOS update which improves the ACC function. It now has a prompt on bootup to press 4 to enable ACC. Version 0910 which was released on the 9th December (I'm slow)

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Asus refines AMD core unlocking

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