[SOLVED] Why is my am3+ processor working in an am3 mobo?

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banders2319

Jan 12, 2019
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I bought a prebuilt computer about five years ago with an AMD FX4350 processor, which is built for an am3+ socket. While working on my computer, however,
I noticed my mobo is am3.

The 4350 doesn't have the extra am3+ pin and therefore fits in the am3 socket. Am I missing something here?

Was I sold a bogus processor, or do some am3+ processors work in an am3 socket?
 
Solution
Karadjgne
It's not the # of pins. It's the size. AM3+ pins are 0.51mm, AM3 pins are 0.45mm. This allows for greater power delivery in AM3+ (145A vrs 110A), so AM3+ cpus can handle 125w better than AM3. The sockets are almost the same, the AM3 being white, the AM3b being black, but some manufacturers have used sockets that will fit either pin size, whereas some didn't. This allows for all AM3 cpus to be used on AM3+ mobo's, but doesn't allow AM3+ to be used on AM3 as the pins are physically too large to fit the socket holes.

If you have the black socket and a bios to support the FX 8 series cpus, you are good. If you have a white socket, you are SOL.

In an effort to cut costs, all the fx Cpus are the same, as the nodes are linked to individual...
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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It's not the # of pins. It's the size. AM3+ pins are 0.51mm, AM3 pins are 0.45mm. This allows for greater power delivery in AM3+ (145A vrs 110A), so AM3+ cpus can handle 125w better than AM3. The sockets are almost the same, the AM3 being white, the AM3b being black, but some manufacturers have used sockets that will fit either pin size, whereas some didn't. This allows for all AM3 cpus to be used on AM3+ mobo's, but doesn't allow AM3+ to be used on AM3 as the pins are physically too large to fit the socket holes.

If you have the black socket and a bios to support the FX 8 series cpus, you are good. If you have a white socket, you are SOL.

In an effort to cut costs, all the fx Cpus are the same, as the nodes are linked to individual Lcache. Difference is in the hard code and the number of nodes made redundant by the factory. If you could crack AMD's coding, you could ostensibly turn a FX4320 into an FX8370 by unlocking all 4 nodes and changing the internal voltages. Normally, there's at least 1 failed node, 2x cores, so amd turned that cpu into FX6 or FX4 instead.
 
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