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Earlier this February, AMD presented a press update for Q1 2016 highlighting the new processors, thermal solutions, motherboards, etc. to their desktop lineup. The first slide (seen below) shows these updates starting with 3 new processors -- two new APUs (A10-7860K, A6-7470k) and the Athlon X4 845 CPU.
On the second side you will note that the Athlon X4 845 CPU uses “Evacuator” Cores with a base frequency of 3.5 GHz and a Turbo mode clock of 3.8 GHZ, but the PCI Express 3.0 support is limited to x8. Then on the third slide we learn more about some features of the ‘Evacuator” core: its improved caches, better branch prediction, new instruction support and support for modern standby low power modes (for longer battery life).
Referring back to the first slide, one of the items listed is the new AMD thermal solutions for the A10, A8 and Athlon X4 processor lineups. Note that the thermal solution shown in the slide is the Wraith cooler, and is not part of the new Athlon X4 845 CPU (at the time of the original printing it only came with the FX 8370). The 845 CPU comes with one of two new "near-silent" 95W thermal solutions, distinguished by a red-colored 70mm fan.
Today I am going to test the Athlon X4 845 CPU, on an Gigabyte F2A88X-UP4 motherboard, against two other new CPUs – the Athlon X4 880K and the A10-7890K APU with a set of DDR3 RAM at 2133 MHz. The comparison CPUs are both multiplier unlocked and have higher base and turbo speeds as default, plus they both leverage a 125 W cooler. All of these factors will give the newer CPUs a definitive advantage so I don’t expect the Athlon X4 845 to perform better, just consistent with its speed and design.
Packaging:
The Athlon X4 845 processor and its near-silent cooler are packaged in a 4.5” x 4.5" x 2.75" box covered with a matte dark gray background color. This small package only allows minimal information about the processor on the front panel. The back panel summarizes various recent AMD processor models.
Folding over the very top is the packaging seal with additional processor information including the serial number with accompanying bar code, UPC and QR image. The two side panels are simple with a small viewing window and AMD logo on one side and the logo/URL on the other.
After removing the Athlon X4 845 from the box, we find the inner cardboard packaging for the cooler and red-colored fan.
Next we find various product documents including warranty information and installation instructions.
The Athlon X4 845 processor itself is inside a protective package with an emblem to place on your system case or monitor.
Specifications:
|
CPU Socket Fabrication Process Micro-architecture Processor Core Unlocked Thermal Solution Maximum Thermal Temps Number of CPU Cores Base Clock Speed Turbo Core Speed Total L1 Cache
Total L2 Cache L3 Cache Memory Interface Memory Channels Memory Frequency Warranty |
AMD X4 845 FM2+ 28 nm Excavator Carrizo No Near-Silent 95W 71.30° C 4 3.5 GHz 3.8 GHz 2 x 96 KB 3-way set associative shared instruction caches 4 x 32 KB 8-way set associative data caches 2 x 1 MB 16-way set associative shared caches None DDR3 2 2133 MHz 3 years |
Information courtesy of AMD http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/processors/desktop/athlon-cpu
Closer Look:
The following slide describes the two versions of the new AMD 95W thermal solution for use with new and updated processors.
The particular version of the cooler that comes with the Athlon X4 845 CPU does not feature heat pipes, but does use a red nine-bladed 70mm fan. As seen from the bottom, the fan offers clear air flow down the fins and over the aluminum thermal contact surface.
The next four photos show the four-wire power lead and screw mounting for the fan. Also note the typical mounting clip for use with the current AMD mounting design.
The footprint of this 95W thermal solution offers good clearance for accessing your motherboard RAM slots and connecting power leads.
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While I had my RAM running at around 2350MHz, at 1.6V, for 1600MHz RAM at 1.5V, I was a bit uncomfortable with that, despite it being 100% stable. Maybe I'll push it again later. My RAM is running at just over 2000MHz at 1.53V.
CPU ID has my BCLK running always over 1.07, with jump over 1.08. The motherboard monitor says it jumps up over 115MHz, but I think that's gotta be a bug or something. My CPU is always running at just under 3.8GHz. In my UEFI, my BCLK is set at 1.06, but always shows higher in Windows. I can usually run 1.07 completely stable, but I'll get an occassional blue screen when booting into Windows 10. It'll boot fine the second time, and there's zero stability problems when it does boot fine. I'm guessing the SATA controller doesn't like the increased BCLK all the much. Almost makes me want to put Windows 10 on a USB key that has about 100MB/sec reads, and see if I can push the BCLK even higher.
I've got my northbridge speed set at 1300MHz, 1.450V as the voltage. Interesting you got your multiplier up... I might have to screw around and see if I can get mine up from 35.
I've got XMP enabled, was the only way I could get 1600MHz+ on my board, The multiplier was adjusted first, to get it around 2350MHz, and then I eventually dropped it to it's current 2000MHz level.
I did notice on your second BIOS screen that you do have some settings enabled that are generally bad for overclocking. All core performance boost options should be disabled. Cool&Quiet should be disabled. cTDP, I don't believe it's adjustable, but I run it at 65W anyways. C6 Mode should be disabled, as should APM. CPU Core Control can remain Automatic.
Let me check if I have SVM in my UEFI. I'll reboot and report back shortly.
But all the turbo and power management stuff, they're all known to lower your ability to overclock.
I did enable the turbo modes, and did end up getting 38 multiplier, but the system would reboot, despite both the CPU and system being at acceptable temperatures. So it does appear that turbo can affect your overclocking speeds.
CPU-ID has my BCLK at 107.4 to 108MHz, stable, while running the benchmark test in CPU ID. Temperature on the CPU and the system remains in the 40ish degree range. If you want to try for some higher overclocks, you might want to try disable Turbo Modes.