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AMD Overclocks New Phenom II X4 To 7 GHz
CWmike writes "Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday introduced the latest member of its Phenom II X4 family of high-performance quad-core CPUs, which the No. 2 chip maker said it had run as fast as 7 GHz in extreme overclocking tests. Out of the box, the new X4 955 Black Edition, which is aimed at gamers and hobbyists, runs at 3.2 GHz, giving it similar performance to Intel's fastest desktop chips at lower cost, AMD says. The company was able to more than double the CPU's speed during its tests using extreme cooling technology that is not safe at home, said Brent Barry, an AMD product manager. The Web site Ripping.org notes that hobbyists with early access to the X4 955 chip have been able to clock it at up to 6.7 GHz. AMD said the chip was safe with fan cooling at up to 3.8 GHz."
Uh, was it just me that felt a bit embarrased when reading this blurb? :-/ That AMD is still stuck trying to convince people about "MHz Are Super-important", when Intel gave up on that idea quite a while ago? Maybe it can still sway some amateur users that see a "7 GHz" number and start drooling, but for an IT professional like me, this sounds more like they're out of the loop, and I doubt that's the message they're trying to convey. :-(
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
But unless you are running benchmarks, can you really feel a 5% increase? Personally, I don't see any results unless the speed increases by at least 50% more.
Unless you have hard real-time dependencies (such as video or certain games). But in those cases, you usually either have extra cpu cycles to burn, or you need more than a mere 5% to do any good.