AMD's Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 23, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
AMD Black Edition Memory Profiles: One Click Memory Overclocking
There’s another little overclocking improvement that AMD implemented in software: Black Edition Memory Profiles (BEMP).
My Corsair memory can run at DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24, AMD's database knows this
If you have a motherboard with an AOD3 compatible BIOS (yes, there is such a thing) and you have a DDR3 memory module that has an AMD Black Edition Memory Profile, you can click one button and your system will overclock its memory to the settings that AMD and the memory vendor guarantee their platform at.
The memory/participating vendors list is as follows:
| Manufacturer | Memory Module(s) |
| Corsair | CM3X2G1600C9DHX |
| Kingston | KHX11000D3LLK2/2G KHX12800D3K2/2G |
| Mushkin | 991629 |
| OCZ | OCZ3AMD18002G |
Yep, it’s not very long. But the effect is pretty neat. The AOD3 utility connects to AMD’s online database and finds your memory. It retrieves what settings AMD and the memory vendor agree will work and then applies them to your system. A simple reboot later and you have an overclocked un-core and DDR3 memory. The table below shows you what will happen:
| Rated DDR3 Speed | 1333MHz | 1600MHz |
| NB Frequency | 2200MHz | 2400MHz |
| NB Voltage | 1.200V | 1.300V |
The memory timings and voltages are also properly set. Unfortunately with my Gigabyte 790FX board there’s a bug where instead of setting the BEMP compliant Corsair memory to 1.75V it sets it to 1.70V which isn’t stable. AMD is clearly still working out bugs in the system, but thankfully it’s software so those bugs can be worked out.
These Corsair modules support BEMP
Additionally, you can always create your own profiles to avoid mishaps like this one. What sort of performance boost can a single click yield? The graph below shows you:
The average increase in performance was only 1.3%, mostly due to the fact that some numbers went down. The problem is that DDR3-1333 (my default speed) at CL7 is lower latency than DDR3-1600 at CL9; applications that can’t use the added bandwidth are penalized by the longer memory access latency. That being said, some applications did show performance boosts from 1 - 5%. Is it enough for me to specifically buy memory that has a Black Edition Memory Profile? No, but it’s a nice convenience if you happen to have some.
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dragonsphere - Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - link
I read articles like this all the time for multiple websites. I am a professional application performance tester and I can tell you that most of these articles are junk just to stir up the masses. Most of their statistics are based on averages. This means that 51% of the time they are wrong. Have you noticed that none of them show confidence tests to prove that their data is accurate? Also they don't use 90th percentiles. I think this is due to the lack of the tools that they are using to generate these sub-standard statistics. Until the software they are using is more precise I would consider these tests to be junk science.cal954 - Saturday, May 2, 2009 - link
Thanks for all the information. I used this model to build my first computer, although no matter what I try to do, my CPU-Z never shows me the multiplier being anything but 4.0 and I can't get my core speed above 800 even w/ CnQ disabled.Hamlet2000 - Saturday, May 9, 2009 - link
You need to update your bios on your motherboard. I had the exact same thing with my new Phenom II 955 build on a Gigabyte board. Once you update, go into your bios and set the clock at 200 x 16. You'll notice the speed difference right away - it's a smoking fast CPU!Edgemeal - Monday, April 27, 2009 - link
Geez, some of you people make it sound like AMD has to have the fastest CPU in the market or they just aren't any good or something!AMD knows what their chip/PC parts are worth in the market place and their price/performance fits in very nicely. I applaud AMD, without them you'd be reading about the new $900 2GHz P4s right about now LOL!
swapnadip - Friday, April 24, 2009 - link
Either AnandTech is Intel fan or Intel pays them hefty Loyalty.If not, then why every other reviewieng site shows AMD PHENOM 2 X4 955 BE defeating Core i7 940 on evey computing prospects.
On some instances it has bashed on Core i7 965 extreme.
This is pretty much biased and helping INTEL play their MONOPOLOY in this sector. In today's market, no two rivals can have their top of line product bearing differences of Day and Night like shown in this review.
Thanks
swapnadip - Friday, April 24, 2009 - link
Either AnandTech is Intel fan or Intel pays them hefty Loyalty.If not, then why every other reviewieng site shows AMD PHENOM 2 X4 955 BE defeating Core i7 940 on evey computing prospects.
On some instances it has bashed on Core i7 965 extreme.
This is pretty much biased and helping INTEL play their MONOPOLOY in this sector. In today's market, no two rivals can have their top of line product bearing differences of Day and Night like shown in this review.
Thanks
swapnadip - Friday, April 24, 2009 - link
Either AnandTech is Intel fan or Intel pays them hefty Loyalty.If not, then why every other reviewieng site shows AMD PHENOM 2 X4 955 BE defeating Core i7 940 on evey computing prospects.
On some instances it has bashed on Core i7 965 extreme.
This is pretty much biased and helping INTEL play their MONOPOLOY in this sector. In today's market, no two rivals can have their top of line product bearing differences of Day and Night like shown in this review.
Thanks
iFX - Friday, April 24, 2009 - link
PII 940 BE = $189.99 on Newegg right now and for the last week+PII 940 BE = $189.99 on Newegg right now and for the last week+
PII 940 BE = $189.99 on Newegg right now and for the last week+
PII 940 BE = $189.99 on Newegg right now and for the last week+
PII 940 BE = $189.99 on Newegg right now and for the last week+
PII 940 BE = $189.99 on Newegg right now and for the last week+
PII 940 BE = $189.99 on Newegg right now and for the last week+
----
Why is it every AMD article on this site has errors?
wowo - Friday, April 24, 2009 - link
how x264?x264 benchmark 2.0 is very old .it is 819,but new x264 is 1139.intel is better for 1139 a lot.
please test wirh new x264.
ultrageek1111 - Friday, April 24, 2009 - link
you know what they say about black processors...