AMD QuadFX Platform & FX-70 Series Processors

Name: AMD QuadFX Platform & FX-70 Series Processors - Page 4
Brand: AMD

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 10:00 PM EDT

Before we began benchmarking the QuadFX platform, we fired up CPU-Z to see if there was anything interesting to report with regard to the default CPU, motherboard, and memory configurations. We then took some notes regarding temperatures and overclocking.

CPU-Z: Athlon 64 FX-74 & Asus L1N64-SLI WS

Other than the Athlon 64 FX-74's clock speed, nothing much has changed since we last looked at the Socket AM2 Athlon 64 FX-62 a few months back. As you can see, the FX-74 processor is built using AMD's .09-micron manufacturing process and is clocked at 3.0GHz (15x200MHz) with 1MB of L2 cache per core. The other new members in the FX-70 series are all similarly configured, but with lower multipliers (14 for the FX-72, 13 for the FX-70). You'll notice in the screenshots above that CPU-Z can't properly identify any of the components used in the QuadFX platform currently, but the actual specifications listed regarding clock speeds and caches are all correct.

Athlon 64 FX-74 Overclocked to 3.2GHz

We also spent some time overclocking the QuadFX FX-74 platform and had some very interesting results. To overclock the processors, we used the stock AMD copper / aluminum heatsink and fan combo pictured on the previous page. We bumped the CPU voltage up by .15v and set the memory voltage to 2.2v. Then we raised the processors' multipliers and HT speed until the test system was no longer stable. In the case of the FX-74, because the CPUs are unlocked, we raised the multiplier first before cranking up the HT speed.

Ultimately, we were able to take the new FX-74 up to 3.215GHz, a 215MHz (7.1%) increase, raising the multiplier to 16 and the HT link to 202MHz. It seems AMD is getting close to hitting the virtual clock speed wall with their 90nm SOI manufacturing process.

Through all of our preliminary tests, we also monitored processor temperatures via the system BIOS. While idling at stock speeds, we found that the FX-74 processors' core temperatures hovered around 46^oC. And under load temperatures peaked at around 67^oC. Overclocking didn't drastically effect temperatures, but we did see a max of about 70^oC at one point, at least according to the Asus L1N64-SLI WS' BIOS.

Tags: AMD, Processors, processor, CES, Platform, process, fx, pro, IE, SSO, PLA, AM

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com