Core Unlocker/Turbo Unlocker on ASUS board

[GTGaming]

Hello Overclockers,

So this is my first real post on this forum, and all in all you seem like a great community. I have a lot of experience putting computers, not so much in overclocking though. I'm putting together a new gaming system and I am looking to overclock it eventually. Right now, I'm not comfortable doing it until I get a better PSU, and though I've read a lot on here and other places, I'd like to increase my knowledge base a bit more before I just dive right in.

ANYWAYS, I have an ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB 3 with a Phenom II X6 BE. The board has a turbo unlocker and core unlocker feature. I read about the Turbo Unlocker and someone from this forum suggested to use it if you don't plan on overclocking, but if you do, then don't.

Also, I've read people talking about how extra cores can be unlocked on certain CPUs. From searching on this forum, I'm a bit unclear on it.

So my questions are:

1) Why would you not want to use the turbo unlocker feature if you're overclocking? Would it not just make it faster overall anyway or would it cause it to become to unstable?

2) Does that CPU have extra cores to unlock or should I just leave that alone?

Thanks!

 

[saint19]

1- If you use overclock with turbo unclocker, you will get an unstable rig since the settings that you set in BIOS will not work for turbo settings.
2- No, the X6 doesn't have "extra" or hidden cores to unlock.

 

[trents]

1- If you use overclock with turbo unclocker, you will get an unstable rig since the settings that you set in BIOS will not work for turbo settings.
2- No, the X6 doesn't have "extra" or hidden cores to unlock.

It probably won't make it unstable but it will disable your ability to monitor core temps.

 

[QuietIce]

to OCF!

1) Why would you not want to use the turbo unlocker feature if you're overclocking? Would it not just make it faster overall anyway or would it cause it to become to unstable?

There may be two different things being discussed here. Phenom II X6's have a built-in Turbo Boost that raises the speed of 1-3 cores if only 1-3 cores are being stressed. Some people have been very lucky to find a stable overclock that will still let the AMD feature be used. In most cases, however, the additional vCore supplied to those cores isn't sufficient to cover the added speed when the cores are already overclocked. If you can get the processor to run that way then you're doing very well. There's nothing wrong with using that built-in feature as long as you're careful to check that the Turbo vCore isn't too high.


If you're talking about ASUS' Turbo Unlocker or TurboV/CPU Level Up! features those are just overclocking programs written by ASUS and seldom do as good a job as manual overclocking and testing will. When you have the system ready for OC'ing you can certainly give those features a try but I think you'll find with manual settings you can achieve better results.

 

[trents]

Yeah, I was keying off the words "Core Unlocker" in the subject line wihich as QI pointed ot a different feature than Turbo Boost.