Ask AMD

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A few of you have asked whether we should get a petition together or something to protest AMD’s apparent locking of multipliers.

I’m generally against petitions because they usually get discounted by those receiving the petition. It’s very easy to get a lot of names on a petition.

Additionally, neither Intel nor AMD have ever really wanted to do anything that would make the general public more aware of overclocking. Actually, that would even be bad for overclockers in the long run.
If everybody overclocked, the CPU manufacturers would just jack up prices to make the same money they do now.

So what we need to do is:

1. Send individual letters, and those letters should
2. Request specific information, not yell at AMD. We can always yell at AMD later if we get bad news.

AMD doesn’t really have a lot of places where you can write. In the past, petitions and the like have been directed towards Investor Relations. Even I’ve done that in the past.

This is probably not a good idea, because all you’re likely to get is a PR “answer.”

Looking around the AMD website a bit, I noticed that it says that “For product inquiries, use the technical support addresses listed above.”

I suspect we have a better chance at getting a real answer from the technical support people than from Investor Relations.

So this is what I would like you to do:

1. Send an email to the appropriate AMD support address. For the U.S. and Canada, this is the email address.
2. For Europe, Asia and Africa, here’s where it goes.
3. If you are Spanish speaking, the email goes here.
4. Cut-and-paste the letter below. If you have a minute or two, change the words around a bit so they all don’t seem like form letters.
5. This is a request for information, not open season for rage. The quickest way to alienate somebody who gets tons of these letters a day is to start screaming and yelling. Don’t threaten boycotts unless you’re the president of Compaq or Gateway. Don’t appoint yourself head of the Overclockers Union, either, they might check. 🙂
6. Besides, we don’t even know for sure if there is anything to get mad about yet. That’s what we’re trying to find out. Find out first, get mad later.:)

7. After you are finished with the letter, send it. When and if you get an answer back, send it to me.. I’ll compile the answers, and some of the better (and worst) letters (say in the email to me whether it’s OK to use your name, otherwise I won’t).

I’m hoping we can get a good answer this way. But please, don’t get mad now!

Sample email:

Dear AMD,

I am very interested in your new Socket A processors, and had been planning on buying one of them in the near future.

Unfortunately, there have been contradictory messages from what looks to be your public relations division which make it unlikely I will do so unless a certain matter is cleared up.

I understand that the Thunderbird and Duron processors are designed to begin and display the rated speed to discourage remarking. It was also my understanding from your datasheets that after this initial period, the multiplier of the CPU could be changed by motherboards with circuitry to enable this.

There have been several socket A motherboards announced, such as the Asus A7V and the Abit KT7, which claim to have this feature.

Recent comments sent to computer hardware websites such as www.tomshardware.com could lead one to believe that you have made a last-minute change which would render this feature inoperable.

However, the comments are so vague and contradictory that they may only represent a restatement of the original AMD policy: a default initial multiplier lock that could be overridden by hardware such as a motherboard.

This is a feature I find important given the lack of effective FSB range in Athlon motherboards. This will determine whether I buy from you or your major competitor, who, while they also have a multiplier lock, also have chipsets which allow for a much broader range of FSB speeds.

So my question to you is:

Can someone with a motherboard such as the ones mentioned above change the multiplier settings on Durons and Thunderbirds after initial start-up. Has AMD revised, or will AMD revise the CPUs to make this impossible?

My purchasing decision awaits your answer.

Sincerely,

This should be interesting. 🙂

Email Ed