It’s over. All AMD CPUs except for the expensive FX will be multiplier locked.

[felinusz]

LOL

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I think it basically means that they are going to take a little while in answering... 229397 questions? They must be busy!

Johan851 - I think that your six-month board counts as an "older" one, although I guess we really have to look at Northbridge steppings to know for sure

Mine is about a half month old from eXcalibur PC in a trade, and I think that it is a "newer" one - although I should check my Northbridge stepping too . Thanks for the heads-up - I won't waste time trying the CAT 10's now

On another note, I know that Voodoo 5 5500 cards (if not others) needed some registry fixes to be used with AMD processors and certain drivers made by 3rd parties for Windows XP/2000, and which still supported D3D, and Glide (unlike the ones which come with Windows). And my old Voodoo 5 5500 was a PCI video card, it wasn't AGP, interesting (if it is even related).

 

[vidgion]

I see no reason to purchase another AMD chip if it doesn't offer some form of flexibility.


locked 2500 barton not very flexible even with nforce2 chipset

locked amd64 3000 hammer not flexible at all even with nforce3 chipset

amd64 fx 51 very flexible, but let's face it, if i had the money to spend 700 bucks on a microprocessor alone, 1) i wouldnt know enough about computers to build my own and prevent myself from spending crazy amounts on a PC 2) i can think of more exiting ways to spend 700 bucks on besides a piece hardware that will be outdated and considered molasses in a matter of months 3) theres too many chips on the market that can be purchased for less than a third of the price of the "flexible" amd64 fx and thats not coming from AMD either

These people have lost their minds thinking these chips are worth all that cash, both intel and amd.

If they were not releasing chips on top of chips all through the year, maybe these chips would be worth the investment.

You buy the fastest chip today and in 6 months it's the cheese in between the low-end&high-end sandwich at a significantly lower cost.

Both companies are out to make money, lots of it, but AMD is in such a rut, they are locking chips now which means they are fishing for bass instead of salmon.(bad analogy)

They should focus more on business users and not the end users like Intel does.overclockers are a very small portion of their market, trust me.

Its that very fact that companies like Dell Compaq HP stay in business and make great profits and those very companies dont move amd based PCs like intel based PCs.

Im sorta glad intel decided to go IA-64 sooner than later,this will seperate the men from the boys, and if AMD think that focusing on the overclocker portion of their market a year and a half from now is so important to their end of year fiscal revenues,they'll be unlocking chips left and right, you just watch.

And if they don't, they'll be forced to close fabs and get bought out or take the crumb eating status of Apple's microprocessor division.


Basically AMD needs to work on their marketing divsion and stop worrying about the little fish(overclockers) and figure out how to push more OEMs in the future.

 

[johan851]

AMD needs to remember though - the kind of people who want unlocked multpliers are also the type of people who build computers for themselves and for friends. It could be a larger portion of the market than they think. And we're back to "one bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Or something...

 

[c627627]

Well here's something that may change everything:
Socket 754 Athlon64s can be multiplier unlocked through software (huh?),

"The Socket 754 chips are apparently top-locked, but clever programmers have found ways to choose lower multipliers."
http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1937&p=8

 

[felinusz]

O.K. - that is just bizarre. So we cannot unlock them physically, but we can unlock them with software hacks?

Using a 9.0 multiplier, we were able to boot in Windows XP and run a few basic tests at a setting of 9x239. It is too early to draw hard conclusions about the overclocking ability of the 3000+, but these results, compared to our testing of the 3200+, are pretty impressive.

And ... ... ... ... they don't elaborate as to how exactly they managed to achieve this at all. They don't mention stability with the "hacked" multiplier, or even go into any detail about it.

I really hope this is a viable solution - and that it (or something similar) can work with Locked Barton's as well. It would be really great if this is as good as having a true-unlocked processor, and is stable, and easy to do.

Keep your fingers crossed!

BTW c627627 - how on earth do you find out about this stuff before anyone else?

 

[johan851]

Wow, that is weird. Almost like the softmod on Radeon 9500's...I wonder if it's a feature that could be integrated into BIOSes?

And if they could unlock those with software, perhaps you could unlock other chips with software too?

 

[Movax]

This may be (probably is) a dead end, but there may be something here:

http://www.cpuheat.wz.cz/html/AXP_multiplier/AXP_Multiplier.htm

Of course:

"Some of newer CPUs have different packaging system where bridges seems not to be connected to CPU core. On such processors it may be impossible to create mobile part out of desktop one. That would also prevent P-State transitions to work."

It also looks like a PITA to accomplish..anyone want to try it?

 

[Hookj5]

I have some friends that work for AMD in Austin, and If you met them you would be scared. AMD, as far as I've heardfrom them is the only major company that does NOT drug test it's employees. AMD is the be all and do all company for many, many stoners, potheads, and general social rejects, so say my friends. I love my 2500+ chip very much. and my NF2 chipset MoBo, but when it comes time to get a new computer, I will do just what I did with this one, shop around for the best components with the best prices. I mean, I get 2.1 GHz out of my cpu on a stock fan and heatsink for like $80 U.S. The potental of my cpu for the money spent is huge. If intel or anybody else for that matter, did that i would be running their product. I am not so loyal that I would throw money away to show that loyalty. If you are that kind of person, then the unlocked 2500+ in my sig is for sale or trade for something that goes 3.0GHz. This is just my opinon.

 

[bulk88]

VIA BABY!!!!
If Via had a brain they would create a socketed C3/Eden/Nemiah or whatever they call their latest processor. They haven't had a socketed/removable proc since the Ezra-T core (like 2 years ago). I know the processors suck (performance wise) but since they are $20 you can buy 4 of them and have a Quad Proc MB. 4 processors should be competative with a single Athlon or P4. And don't BS to me about lack of multithreading. All HT optimized programs (which their are alot of due to the huge hand of Intel) can use multiple processors because they are multithreaded. The GTL/AGTL bus can have many procs on the same bus, without each having a seperate link to the northbridge like the EV6 (athlon) bus, similar to PCI cards. Via's proc are based off of the ppro/p2/p3 bus. This is all of course if Via doesn't lock their CPU's multis or if they do its with bridges or you need a software unlock. Remember the Via cpus are laptop friendly so they have software multipliers. I doubt Via would do this and would first lock their proc to get some more money or not **** off Intel/AMD. But if VIA plays their cards right they could easily kill AMD/Intel microarchitectures. Via could take their 7 watts 1 GHZ procs and created a Octo proc die and reach only 56 watts, much less then AMD/Intel. Or they could just have Octo proc MBs but the single die thing is cheaper. Also this would make cell processor technology mainstream.

 

[bulk88]

i will use AMD locked or unlocked i dont like intel one bit and i never will lets hope AMD dont lose to much money hu!

Only reason I HAVE to use AMD is because the Intel messed up something in the intruction decoder that kills the efficency of the P4. I need that code to run fast because it is used in all the processing cores for the DC project distributed.net that I donate my farm to. This problem didn't exist in the P6 series or Pentium or any other x86 proc. So you guys know how bad the speed problem is the 2.6 ghz P4 is as slow as a 1.2 ghz Athlon or 1.6 ghz p3. So I have to use AMD because Intel discontinued the P3 and Athlon is the only route to the future. The AMD64 procs don't have this problem either. I see a grim expensive future with Athlon FXs being pushed down my throat or super high speed expensive ram to compensate for the locked multi. I bet the RMA manufacturers are REALLY happy with AMDs descision.

 

[psyshack]

AMD needs to remember though - the kind of people who want unlocked multpliers are also the type of people who build computers for themselves and for friends. It could be a larger portion of the market than they think. And we're back to "one bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Or something...

They dont care what we think!!! They care what joe six pack thinks. AMD and Intel could care less about what we think. More over if they think anything about us its not good. And we are the reason or part of the reason why they are locking down there stuff. It dosent take a college degree to figure out the ins and outs of this simple matter.... lmao. I love my oc'ed machines. But look at my sig. I screwed the hell out of amd and intel and have been doing it for years. So for them to take actions basicly twords me is ok. There going broke and have to do something. As for high dollar cpus. Most of this crowd hasnt been at this very long I bet. I remember paying 600 bucks for my 1st. dx2 66 cpu, it got oc'ed to 80 mhz. The top of the line cost money so get use to it. The breaks that ocing gives us in the money dept sometimes dont last as long as we like. At times beating the money curve can get hard. This will happen at a point when platforms change. AMD is in the middle of a change. And its a big change.

 

[bulk88]

Seriously Pikachu, you need to keep it down. My board primes fine at 220fsb, and most easily get 230+ fsb. Sounds to me like you've just got a messed up setup. I don't like to flame either, but you can't base everyone's AMD success on your own apparently unreliable platform.

I don't get why people herald locked AMD's as the end of the world. P4's have always been locked...this just means we need to find a new way to overclock. I'm fine with that. Multipliers are cool, but they're definitely not the only reason I chose AMD.

ANd how many perminently obsolite socket 423, FSB 400 and FSB 533 MBs are there? The locked multi is better for everyone except the end user. MB companys sell more MBS everytime because people can't lift the multi to compensate for low FSB. and RAM companies sell more expensive ram.
EDIT changed "it" to "is"