AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE Power Consumption

nelson217 · Oct 8, 2014

My Processer is AMD Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition (NOT OVERCLOCKED)
it says that its power consumption is 125w...
my question
Is the power consumption always 125w???
cause i have a board (Asrock 960 gc-gs fx) that i will use temporarily for 3-4 months and my board is up to 95w only, so i will limit my loads so that i will not overpower my board

MeteorsRaining · Oct 8, 2014

You read it a bit wrong, it supports upto 95W 'AM3+' CPUs, meaning the FX. And for AM3, on which Phenom II is based, the support is full for 125W CPUs, you're good to go

nelson217 · Oct 8, 2014

sir i appreciate your help very much
but are you 100% sure that the 95w limit is for am3+ cpus only???
because if you look at the support list of my board none of it exceeds 95w

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/960GC-GS%20FX/?cat=CPU

maddogfargo · Oct 8, 2014

nelson217 :

It's actually not 125w power consumption. It's 125w TDP...Thermal Design Power.

I know it's misleading. But it has as much to do with heat as it does current. Here's some more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_design_power

Now, if you have a CPU rated at 125w on a 95w board, yes you want to limit your loads.

If you want to fix this and you have good DDR3 RAM, a good replacement motherboard would be this:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4717#ov

It is good for your current CPU, and can go up to an FX 8350 if you upgrade in the future. It is a solid 970 series overclocking board as well. It will also support a single high end GPU if you need to upgrade that. But it won't do SLI or Crossfire well, so stick to a single GPU with this board.

MeteorsRaining · Oct 8, 2014

According to the list, it doesn't support the specified CPU, HDZ955FBGM. So you're out of luck.

maddogfargo · Oct 8, 2014

MeteorsRaining :

You're talking about his current board, not the recommended replacement I added, right?

nelson217 · Oct 8, 2014

i have tried to use it with the board and playe games for a few minutes.. but as soon as i notice that my board is up to 125w i immediately remove it and put my old 65w processor,
is it okay if i use it for like a 2-3 months until i have the money to buy a new board??

MeteorsRaining · Oct 8, 2014

maddogfargo :

Yep current board.

OP, its not recommended to use a higher TDP CPU on a lower TDP MoBo, its not designed to handle a CPU like that, the thermals and power phases are not great, only 3. You can't do much with that.

nelson217 · Oct 8, 2014

maddogfargo :

nelson217 :

It's actually not 125w power consumption. It's 125w TDP...Thermal Design Power.

I know it's misleading. But it has as much to do with heat as it does current. Here's some more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_design_power

Now, if you have a CPU rated at 125w on a 95w board, yes you want to limit your loads.

If you want to fix this and you have good DDR3 RAM, a good replacement motherboard would be this:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4717#ov

It is good for your current CPU, and can go up to an FX 8350 if you upgrade in the future. It is a solid 970 series overclocking board as well. It will also support a single high end GPU if you need to upgrade that. But it won't do SLI or Crossfire well, so stick to a single GPU with this board.

nelson217 · Oct 8, 2014

ahm so what you mean is the TDP is not my processors actual wattage???
if it is not then what is my processors actual wattage??
btw as much as possible i dont want to buy a new mobo because i need to buy so many other parts

maddogfargo · Oct 8, 2014

nelson217 :

*IF* your motherboard will let you make adjustments, you want to consider underclocking/undervolting your 955be a little.

Some more info for you...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/undervolt-cpu-phenom,2348-4.html

Tom's just undervolted it a little and left it at stock speeds. Based on my reading. 1.2-1.25v is a more common setting when undervolting these CPUs.

If you are not comfortable doing this, leave the old CPU in until you can update the motherboard.

MeteorsRaining · Oct 8, 2014

I understand, but the The thermal design power is the amount of heat the fan needs to be able to dissipate. Regarding wattage, each motherboard should have the power supply requirements which includes the diagnose of how much wattage he is going to need with a basic system configuration and since the processor is part of the system configuration, the motherboards manufacturers already take into consideration the power consumption of the processor/fan. And sadly, your current MoBo doesn't fall in the required criteria for 125W TDP CPUs.

nelson217 · Oct 8, 2014

but as ive said i have already tried to use it in the board
is it okay if i temporarily use my board for like 2-3 months???

and about the unvervolting will it decrease my wattage and my core speed?? if yes then what will be my full load watt and core speed?

bmacsys · Oct 8, 2014

MeteorsRaining :

In your earlier reply you said he could use the 955BE a 125 watt cpu because it wasn't an "AM3+" processor. Which is wrong of course. Why should he listen to you now? lol!

bmacsys · Oct 8, 2014

MeteorsRaining :

nelson217 :

If your board has advanced clock calibration support. "ACC" in your bios what you could do is disable one core. That would bring you down to the 95 watt TDP.

MeteorsRaining · Oct 8, 2014

bmacsys :

MeteorsRaining :

In your earlier reply you said he could use the 955BE a 125 watt cpu because it wasn't an "AM3+" processor. Which is wrong of course. Why should he listen to you now? lol!

Well that was a mistake, and I accept it.

nelson217 · Oct 8, 2014

but its like lowering the perfromance of the processor
ive read to some forums that tdp is not actually the power consumption it may be close or less than it, now my question is if it is okay to use it temporarily until i buy a new mobo?

MeteorsRaining · Oct 8, 2014

I'm not in support of undervolting or disabling cores, as it won't be wonderful if the CPU gets damaged, you'll definately have compromised performance too. Doesn't mean you can't do that, you may take in opinions from others, but I'm against using this CPU on this MoBo.

nelson217 · Oct 8, 2014

is my processors max watt is really 125w??? or its just the tdp?

MeteorsRaining · Oct 8, 2014

125W is the TDP, usually the wattage is more.

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