Efficiency: Optimizing The Clock Rate Of AMD's Phenom II X6
AMD’s six-core CPU is affordable (at least, compared to Intel's Core i7-980X). We're overclocking the Thuban design to see if its efficiency improves from faster clock rates. Comparisons to other quad- and hexa-core processors provide some perspective.
Overclocking With AMD’s OverDrive Utility
The OverDrive utility is a handy and convenient alternative to the more long-winded BIOS settings you have to flip through in an effort to fine-tune your desired overclocking settings. With OverDrive, you can take care of all settings directly in Windows, and you don’t even have to restart to try a new set of operating parameters.
OverDrive Main Screen
The main screen provides a comprehensive overview of clock speeds and voltage settings. You can play with the HyperTransport base clock and multiplier, the processor multiplier maximum, Turbo CORE options, and the all-important voltage settings.
Turbo CORE Selection
It’s possible to tell the system how many cores should be accelerated by the Turbo CORE feature. Keep in mind that a large selection will limit the effectiveness of this function because there will be little thermal headroom to increase clock speeds on multiple cores.
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