Phenom II X4 940 BE @ 6.5GHz on Liquid Helium

From Las Vegas XS OC Event, below is a link to the video of the world record setting overclock of 6.5GHz for Phenom II 940 BE using liquid helium. They also set the world record for 3DMark performance at the same event.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB0JodKgZ0A

This 7-minutes Dragon Platform/AMD Phenom™ II video on YouTube, has received over 250,000 hits since it was posted a week ago, on January 22, 2009.

More pictures here at XtremeSystems Forum.

Happy Chinese New Year

May I personally wish all of you a healthy and smooth year ahead in the year of Ox...

GONG XI FA CAI!

Zhou Yu Min's New Year message can be seen here : http://v.sohu.com/20090124/n261940102.shtml

Fusion for Gaming version 1.0

Four months after making its beta debut, AMD's Fusion for Gaming utility has now reached version 1.0 and is available for download. Working on systems equipped with AMD CPUs, Fusion for Gaming will temporarily shut down background processes and intensify processor performance in order to increase overall gaming performance.  

To download Fusion for Gaming 1.0, click on the link below:

http://www2.ati.com/misc/fusion/AMDFusion.exe

AMD Releases DRAGON platform and Phenom II

Empowering consumers to get elite-level computing performance for under $900 U.S. dollars, AMD today launched “Dragon” platform technology for desktop PCs featuring the new AMD Phenom™ II X4 processor. Even the most demanding users such as enthusiasts and high-end gamers desire affordable systems capable of delivering HD entertainment, graphic-intensive game play at the highest settings their monitors can handle, as well as quick and easy transfer of video entertainment to and from mobile devices.

The processors launching today from AMD are the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition and Phenom II X4 920. The major change in Phenom II is that it is built using a 45nm immersion lithography manufacturing process which, "enables higher frequencies, tighter tolerances and lower current leakage." The other major change is the L3 cache which is now three times as large at 6MB over 2MB of Phenom and the L3 cache is also 2-cycles faster. There are a number of other improvements as well, ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration) is now apparently baked into the silicon so a SB750 chipset is not required to get more overclocking headroom out of the Phenom II. Another thing to note is the HT bus on these new processors runs at 1.8GHz instead of 2GHz of the 9950 due to a trade off in priorities to get the chip ready to market. The bus isn't even close to being saturated with anything but servers so this isn't a major loss.

Major feature enhancements for 45nm AMD Phenom II:

Enhanced Total Cache: 8MB (L2 + L3)
Cool'n'Quiet 3.0 Technology: Additional power states, significantly (~40%) lower idle power and lower power consumption under moderate loads
Increased frequency: AMD Phenom II 940 3.0GHz @ 125W TDP
Massive headroom using extreme and experimental cooling techniques

Initial pricing Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition will be at $275 and the Phenom II X4 920 at $235.


"Dragon" is a synthesis of power, strength, and wisdom. Specifically, it is the fusion of the AMD Phenom™ II processor, ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series graphics, AMD 7-series chipsets and AMD software that puts you in control. It's the PC platform designed for high-definition gaming, video processing and entertainment at an affordable price. The AMD Phenom II processor at the heart of Dragon platform technology is AMD's highest performing processor ever with superior efficiency.

The media reports:
AMDZone
Tech Report
AnandTech
CRN
Neo Seeker
GameWare
Guru3D
X-Bit Labs

AMD Athlon Neo for Ultrathin Notebooks

AMD today announced the availability of the AMD platform for ultrathin notebooks, enabling exceedingly thin and light OEM designs with rich entertainment capabilities at an affordable price. Previously codenamed “Yukon,” the platform is based on the new AMD Athlon™ Neo processor, ATI Radeon X1250 integrated graphics and optional ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3410 discrete graphics and brings true HD entertainment to a new category of stylish notebook PCs.

The first Athlon Neo processor is the MV-40 and it's clocked at today's standard, 1.6GHz. The CPU uses a 1,600MHz Hypertransport bus, has 512k of cache and supports 32 and 64-bit operating systems. As this is a 65nm SOI part, it's not as power efficient as Intel's Atom processor, but it's still quite reasonable with a TDP of 15W. But remember the Neo has more cache, an integrated memory controller and importantly - out of order execution for much improved performance.

The chipset of choice is the M690T which is getting fairly old by now as it only features ATI's Radeon X1250 graphics which isn't exactly cutting edge, even for integrated graphics. It can use Sideband memory and the chipset also supports HDMI and DVI. The platform will support the Mobility Radeon HD 3410 discrete graphics solution which will allow the platform to play back 1080p video and maybe even some casual gaming. The Mobility Radeon HD 3410 support DDR2 memory, although it seems to be limited to 64MB. The memory clocks should be around 700MHz with the GPU clocked as high as 500MHz.

The AMD Yukon platform debuts within the HP Pavilion dv2 Entertainment Notebook PC ultrathin notebook, which measures less than one-inch thick and weighs less than four pounds. The HP Pavilion dv2 also comes equipped with a 12.1-inch diagonal LED BrightView display, nearly full-size keyboard, and optional external optical disc drive with Blu-ray capability.

HP is the first manufacturer to launch an AMD Neo based machine, the sleek 12-inch Pavillion dv2. The dv2 is powered by an Athlon Neo at 1.6GHz (TDP 15W), uses Radeon HD3410 graphics and offers up to 500GB of storage. It weighs 1.7kg and it's 2.3cm thick, a bit more than the MacBook Air or Lenovo X301, which are both 13.3-inch units. Nothing spectacular, but not bad either. You could say it's half way between a netbook and an ultraportable.



You can view the video here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gJC9jLClHg

Anyway, here's the good part - the entry level SKU will retail at $699 (€520/£475) ex VAT, while better spec'd iterations will sell for $899 (€669/£610), and it looks nice too. The only downside is that the 12.1-inch LED backlit screen has a native resolution of 1,280x800 pixels which isn't exactly full HD resolution for those that want to watch Blu-ray movies on it via the optional external Blu-ray drive.

In introducing the AMD ultrathin notebook platform, AMD enables balanced PC performance, including the option of advanced graphics and video for true HD entertainment, all in an affordable, ultrathin notebook, bringing consumers uncompromised mobility.

AMD is expected to follow up Yukon with the Congo platform in Q2 this year and by then the chipset will be changed to a 780G derived solution which should allow for much better base performance.



For more info about YUKON and AMD Athlon Neo, read here:
Official Press Release
Bit-Tech.Net
PC World
Ars Technica
Notebook Review

News:
DetikInet

Fujitsu Siemens Amilo SA3650 Review

Notebook Check has reviewed the FSC Amilo SA3650 using the integrated video and also the XGP with a Radeon 3870.

Notebook specifications:
Processor AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-86 2.4 GHz
Mainboard AMD M780G
Memory 4096 MB, 2x 2048 DDR2 PC-6400 Samsung 6-6-6-18-24
Graphics adapter ATI Radeon HD3200
Display 13.3 Zoll 16:10, 1280x800 pixel, BrilliantView, Glossy
Harddisk Fujitsu MHZ2320BH G2, 320GB 5400rpm SATA-II
Soundcard Realtek ALC888

Connections:
1 Express Card 54mm, 5 USB, 1 Firewire, 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, 1 Kensington Lock, 1 eSata, Audio Connections: Headphones (SPDIF), Microphone, Line-In, Card Reader: 15-in-1 Cardreader, Webcam, XGP Port (Graphic Booster)

Networking:
Realtek RTL8168C/8111C Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC , Atheros AR5008X Wireless Network Adapter , V2.1 Bluetooth

Optical drive Optiarc DVD RW AD-7640S
Size height x width x depth (in mm): 42 x 317 x 235
Weight 2.25 kg Power Supply: 0.45 kg
Battery Lithium-Ion, 6 cell Sanyo 2.6A
Price 1250 Euro
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32 Bit
Additional features Graphic Booster (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 - 512 MB, Core: 648 MHz, Memory: 999 MHz, GDDR3), 24 Months Warranty

Verdict:
The fastest 13.3 inch notebook currently available. This is certainly the basic statement of the preceding test of the FSC Amio SA3650 notebook. The notebook itself is only to a small extent responsible for the immense power thrust. This is primarily due to the external Amilo Graphic Booster which provides the average equipped notebook with a high performance graphic card of the type ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870.

Merry Christmas

A Christmas e-card from AMD, click the Fusion Stamp to open

or click here:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/DigitalMedia/holidaymessage.html


Below is a Christmas Tree made by Vic's fans:

AMD and XFX Announce Technology Partnership

XFX, known for its high-performance NVIDIA™-based products, is pleased to announce the addition of AMD/ATI as a new technology partner. A world leader in graphics cards, motherboards and computer accessories, is now an official AMD technology partner, joining the elite group of successful AMD add-in-board (AIB) partners. XFX plans to provide new products based on the award-winning ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 series GPUs to consumers, beginning in early 2009.

“With the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 4000 series, AMD redefined the graphics market and delivered graphics cards for gamers in every segment,” said Michael Chiu, Chairman and CEO, Pine Technologies Holdings, makers of XFX graphics cards. “It wasn’t just AMD gaming prowess that caught our attention; the company’s technology leadership in multimedia performance, including video transcoding, HD content playback and surround sound audio, made it clear that AMD was and continues to be a great fit for users everywhere. We are excited by this partnership as it allows us to incorporate current and future ATI graphics technology into our graphics card designs, enabling our R&D teams to develop an even wider range of XFX graphics products for consumers in every region and every segment.”

About XFX

XFX is a global presence in the world of electronic gaming. With its focus on taking gaming to the extreme, XFX has developed an exciting array of video cards and accessories that are designed to maximize the entire entertainment experience. A division of PINE Technologies, XFX operates its own manufacturing facility and maintains an R&D team that features some of the industry’s most renowned talents. Learn more about XFX at http://www.xfxforce.com/

Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition "KUMA"

Most of the news out of AMD lately has been out of ATI with their video cards lately and most new attention is focused on Phenom II which should be coming out very soon from AMD. But AMD is also launching a new CPU series codenamed Kuma.

AMD today announced the Athlon X2 7750 – a STARS-based processor that is a brand new dual-core processor based on the Kuma core. Since this processor is based off the Phenom core it has L3 cache, this should make it competitive in terms of both price and performance to the $82.99 Intel E5200 dual-core processor. The AMD Athlon X2 7750 is launching today with a $79 price tag.

The AMD Athlon X2 7750 is a dual-core processor with a 2.7GHz clock frequency. This is a Black Edition processor, which means that even though it comes set at 200MHz x 13.5, it has an unlocked multiplier that you can change for improved overclocking. The Athlon X2 7750 has 2 x 512MB of L2 Cache and 2MB shared of L3 Cache. The Athlon X2 7750 uses the same HyperTransport 3.0 bus that Phenom processors used. The Athlon X2 7750 has the HT set to run at 1800MHz an will work just fine in any socket AM2+ motherboard. The X2 7750 features a maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 95 Watts, which means that it should be able to work in nearly any motherboard with the proper socket.

Some Reviews:
AMDZone
TweakTown
Legit Reviews
Guru3D
Hexus
Overclockers Club
X-Bit Labs

Getting To See Phenom II Before It Launches

After AMD showed off the new Phenom II processors and the Dragon platform to the media they went one step further and did a private showing to select forum members that were able to come to a scheduled showing in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.

Legit Reviews put an alert out to forum members about the event and XstollieX jumped at the chance and made it to the Chicago event (December 9th). By going to the event he was able to get a sneak peak at Phenom II a month before it launches and will be getting one when they launch next month.

The first thing he saw were two large displays. Each one was connected to the new Dragon platform set up in the new Antec Skeleton cases. Each machine was running the Phenom II X4 940, a Gigabyte 790GX motherboard, and an ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card. To show off what these machines could do they had the game Race Driver: Grid set up with the full Logitech driving seat, wheel and pedals. The games were set at the highest resolution and ran flawlessly. They had Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Company of Heroes, and last but not least Crysis.

Then he found table with two more computers set up on it, both were connected to 50 inch displays, and both playing Crysis. The computer on the left was AMD’s new Dragon Platform, and the computer on the right was the new Intel Core i7 @3.2GHz. Both machines were running the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card. The two computers side by side ran great on the highest settings.



The last area was more of a spectator event. This was the overclocking demo/contest. For this there were two teams. The first was from AMD and the second team was from Finland. The contest was done in two parts. The first part was air-cooling and the second was done using Liquid Nitrogen. Each team was randomly given Five of the Phenom II X4 940 chips cooled by a Cooler Master Z600 in a push-pull configuration. The goal of this was to achieve the highest stable overclock. Stability was tested with two loops of the Crysis CPU test. Each team worked side by side with only 30 minutes to achieve their highest stable clock. Both teams were using the Gigabyte 790GX motherboard and the 4870 X2 graphics card. The result was astonishing. Team AMD achieved a 3.94GHz clock speed and Team Finland fell just short with a 3.9GHz.

After a short break for the overclockers, the fun began. Liquid Nitrogen was used to cool the CPU. Using liquid nitrogen they were able to bring the temperature of the chip’s close to -180 degrees. Using the new AMD Dragon platform Team Finland won this round achieving a core clock of 6.0GHz. Team AMD fell just short at about 5.9GHz. After they ran the Crysis CPU for two loops they ran 3DMark05. It scored ~35,000 3dmarks when all was said and done.