AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition CPU Review – Page 4

Overclocking? Yes You Can!

Well I hear you can. Even with the excellent amounts of headroom afforded to me in the CPU voltage, I couldn’t get the Phenom II 965 to overclock to any significant level. Sure I could get it to 3.8GHz with little modification to CPU or Northbridge voltage, but beyond that lay dragons. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the Phenom II X4 965 to boot at 4GHz. I’ve seen a few other testers get the CPU to 4GHz and even 4.2GHz (though the latter was admittedly unstable), but I couldn’t get mine to boot at 4GHz.

This seemed odd as we were able to get the Phenom II 955 to a stable 4GHz at Fragapalooza, but that was using some pretty aggressive voltage settings and a very large CoolIT Systems Boreas liquid cooler which has the ability to cool to below ambient. This basically illustrates two points for us: (1) even the most unlocked of processors is still subject to the luck of the draw when it comes to overclockability, and (2) the Phenom II Deneb core seems to be reaching the end of the line. Luckily AMD does have a new core in the pipe and we hope it comes out soon as Intel’s new Core i5 is only a couple weeks away from official launch.

As with all overclocking endeavours, your mileage may vary…a lot in some cases.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

On that bombshell of a conclusion to the overclocking results, one has to wonder where to start with the overall summary of the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition CPU. I guess we should start with performance, since that’s what people are most concerned with.

On that front I can safely say that the Phenom II 965 is the fastest performing processor released by AMD to date. It posted numbers that scaled with the increase in clock speed, and managed to maintain a competitive standing with Intel’s Core 2 Quad line of CPUs. Still there’s the question of overclocking, and the overall longevity of the current core used for the Phenom II 965.

While this is a Black Edition processor and therefore is completely multiplier unlocked, I still wasn’t able to overclock it very far. Your mileage may vary of course. The one saving grace is the fact the this CPU is unlocked, which should entice many enthusiasts who want to see how far they can push their CPUs with some even more aggressive cooling.

Is the Phenom II X4 965 worth it? Especially considering on launch this CPU is priced the same as the 955 when it was first launched (and is now only $199 US), it comes down to the question of whether you want a guaranteed 3.4GHz, or try your hard at overclocking to save $50. When you take into consideration the price of a good motherboard, the AMD combo is still cheaper than any comparable Intel package. Once AMD revises the core on the Phenom II, things should get much more interesting and interesting they shall get with Intel’s Core i5 on the way.

In the end, the release of the Phenom II X4 965 is a good thing for AMD. It shows that they are able to push their silicon pretty far to put out a decent performing product. The price of that product also deserves praise, as many budget minded games will be looking towards AMD for their gaming systems.

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