Strange as it may sound, motherboard manufacturers and AMD are now giving us the ability to unlock unused processor cores for free. Technically, we have had people doing this since early 2008 but those first motherboards were specialized enthusiast systems and their abilities could not be easily reproduced on a home computer system. Now, ASUS is offering these abilities on its AMD 890GX series of motherboards with much more consistent results.
How Can I Unlock My AMD AM3 Processor With The M4A89GTD?
We have two ways of unlocking those precious, hidden, CPU Cores with this motherboard: A physical Core Unlocker switch and ASUS Core Unlocker in the bios. For the old school hardware guru, you can simply flip a switch on your motherboard called Core Unlocker or CORE_UNLOCKER in the instruction manual. The modern BIOS tweaker can use Advanced menu with the ASUS Core Unlocker setting. Either way you go, one simple reboot will tell you instantly whether your processor will unlock. Remember, the operation is dependent on the stability of the silicone on the die itself.
What Do You Get If You Unlock A Sempron 140 Processor?
If you can unlock your AMD Sepron 140 AM3 processor you will get a...
AMD Athlon II X2 440
Now of course the processor is still missing a ton of cache which will become painfully evident when executing multiple memory calls. As a result we are left with a cpu that cannot multitask memory intensive applications like those found in POV-Ray 3.7. In core unlocking, you still get what you paid for.
You can see what I got from this processor here in its official CPU-Z report: http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1195450
Take note of the Rated FSB which is actually the Hyper Transport speed. To make my system do this, all I had to do was Enable the ASUS Core Unlocker form the the BIOS of my ASUS M4A89GTD motherboard. To my surprise, the BIOS also unlocked the CPU Bus Speed which is why you see higher core speeds at the provided link. The memory has also been automatically overclocked to 876 Mhz which was part of the nice performance boost I received.
Performance Testing
Before you shell out the dollars to purchase a high-end ASUS motherboard, you want to know that unlocking these processors is going to get you the most bang for your buck. To get the maximum performance out the new unlocked AMD Athlon II X2 440 processor, I used the ASUS M4A89GTD PRO Motherboard, a Corsair CMX8GX3M4A1600C9 XMS3 8 GB PC3-12800 Core i5 Memory Kit and a set of Samsung 500 GB HD502HJ SATA II Hard Drives.
Super Pi V1.1 Results
Super Pi is an application that extrapolates the specified digits of PI into a text file. Processors with large on-die cache sizes and high memory bus speeds tend to do better in this benchmark. The problem is the calculation is single threaded in this version so you only see the performance of one processor. The test results are quite impressive for this processor. The Intel 3.2Ghz 512Kb Pentium 4 was only able to do complete this benchmark in 1 minute 17 seconds.
Here are the results of three runs at 1,000,000 digits of PI at Core Speed 2700 Mhz, Bus Speed 200 Mhz, DRAM Frequency 669Mhz:
27 seconds
Here are the results of three runs at 1,000,000 digits of PI at Core Speed 3521 Mhz, Bus Speed 260 Mhz with a dual core unlocked AMD Phenom 140 processor:
23 seconds
We can see that the real gains in computing power were realized with the increase in CPU Core Speed but I was also surprised to find that this only resulted in a 4 second savings. The lack of Level 3 Cache on the AMD Athlon II X2 440 processor is causing the system to have to execute more memory calls.
POV-Ray 3.7 Beta Results
A new version of the freeware 3D animation utility has been released that offers SSE2 enhanced processing extensions. POV -Ray stresses the floating point unit and memory bandwidth of the processor to render stunning 2D images. As comparison, the AMD (ADA4000DAA5BN) Athlon 64 4000+, 2.4 GHz processor completed this test in 26 minutes 2 seconds at stock clock speed.
Using the benchmark.pov file at 512x384 NO AA, I ran the following traces:
13 minutes 11 seconds; Core Speed 2700 Mhz, Bus Speed 200 Mhz, DRAM Frequency 669Mhz, Single core
6 minutes 1 seconds; Core Speed 3521 Mhz, Bus Speed 260 Mhz with a dual core unlocked AMD Phenom 140 processor.
Temperature Of An Unlocked AMD Sempron 140 Processor
One of my biggest fears about unlocking my Sempron 140 processor was overheating. I thought that the stock processor heatsink would just get to hot. However, my fears were quickly put to rest when the system could barely get above 116 degrees Fahrenheit with both cores unlocked and set to 3.521 Ghz.
DISCLAIMER
I am only reporting my results.
No one can verify you will have the same results with every AMD Sempron 140 processor.
If you do not get the same results with your processor, it is not my fault.
Which Motherboards Have Core Unlocking For AMD AM3 Processors?
To help you find the right motherboard for your overclocking and core unlocking needs, I am providing this list which was pulled from the ASUS website:
Crosshair III Formula AMD 790FX+SB750
M4A79T Deluxe AMD 790FX+SB750
M4A79 Deluxe AMD 790FX+SB750
M4A79XTD EVO AMD 790X+SB750
M4A78T-E AMD 790GX+SB750
M4A78-E AMD 790GX+SB750
M4A785T-M AMD 785G+SB710
M4A785-M AMD 785G+SB710
M4A785TD-V EVO AMD 785G+SB710
M4A785TD-M EVO AMD 785G+SB710
M4A785D-M PRO AMD 785G+SB710
M4A78-AM AMD 780G+SB710
M4A78-EM/1394 AMD 780G+SB710
M4A77TD PRO AMD 770+SB710
M4A77TD AMD 770+SB710
M4A77T AMD 770+SB710
M4A77D AMD 770+SB710
M4A77 AMD 770+SB710
M4A78L-M LE AMD 760G+SB710
M4A78L-M AMD 760G+SB710
M4A78LT-M AMD 760G+SB710
M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G+SB710
M4N82 Deluxe NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI
M4N72-E NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI
M4N78 PRO NVIDIA GeForce 8300
M4N98TD EVO NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI
M4N75TD NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI
M4N68T PRO NVIDIA nForce 630a
M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AMD 890GX+SB850
M4A79T Deluxe/U3S6 AMD 790FX+SB750
M4A785TD-V EVO/U3S6 AMD 785G+SB710
M4A77TD PRO/U3S6 AMD 770+SB710
If you know of any other motherboards that do this, please leave a comment below.
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