Does a 790fx motherboard support core unlocker?

[kraut_aa]

I have Gigabyte's GA-790FXTA-UD5 motherboard. Does it support core unlocker?

 

[jimishtar]

yes it does. if u cannot unlock, make sure u have he latest bios.

 

[ahthurungnone]

790 relates to the Northbridge chipset and doesn't necessarily mean the board has the ability to unlock cores. This is an additional bios feature that the mobo mfg adds to sell the product. If such a feature is not listed in the bios, then you don't have this ability.

However, be very cautious unlocking cores. Most of the time when you attempt to unlock cores that were turned off by the mfg it is due to instability reasons (not just because they needed to sell more dual cores versus quad cores). You will most likely experience a black screen right after you turn it on and your computer will do nothing. You will have to reset your bios and forget about those extra cores. (Not to discourage you, but I speak from experience.)

 

[jimishtar]

I have Gigabyte's GA-790FXTA-UD5 motherboard. Does it support core unlocker?

u might also need to press ctr+f1 or something like that while in bios, so that the extra options show up.

 

[kraut_aa]

Yup. That's what I was afraid of. I was thinking that the cons will be bigger if it's going to get unstable. By the way, I have a phenom II X2 550 3.7ghz. I'm into high end gaming, photoshop and gonna try video editing. Is my x2 enough already and kind of at least future proof? Is it practical for me to upgrade it to an x4, x6 or wait til the bulldozer comes out? Just want to clarify in case if the core unlocking is a failure. Thanks!

 

[jimishtar]

x2 should give a year or so of good use. i went from E8400 to Q9400 and I dont see a big difference in gaming, only in multitasking and so. at his point, higher core clocks are more important than # of cores. good luck unlocking.

 

[kraut_aa]

x2 should give a year or so of good use. i went from E8400 to Q9400 and I dont see a big difference in gaming, only in multitasking and so. at his point, higher core clocks are more important than # of cores. good luck unlocking.

Thanks! Yup. I can even play any current games on max settings @ 1920x1080. Most games now are just using dual cores but they're gpu hungry. I'm not that into multitasking but I tried it once while playing games. I'll try core unlocking soon. If it fails then I'll wait for the next gen cpu(s)..

 

[ahthurungnone]

Yes, the speed of a dual is far more important than multiple cores unless you're building a server.

 

[kraut_aa]

Oh yeah. I get it. So, By the way, there's just going to be minimum or moderate bottleneck even if a 5970 or an SLI GTX 480 is coupled with a dual core?

 

[jimishtar]

throw in phenom II 550 and there is nothing to worry about.

 

[kraut_aa]

throw in phenom II 550 and there is nothing to worry about.

That's nice! So, no need to worry about the early upgrade I'll just wait for the X6 to get cheaper maybe next year or wait for the bulldozer. I forgot to mention about the future ATI HD 6000 series. Wouldn't it be a bottleneck on my 550 too?

 

[jimishtar]

phenom 550(555) can be easily Oclocked to ~3,8 or even more on your board. With a lot of luck, maybe even unlock to quad ) for 6xxx bottleneck is still early to tell, need to see what king of games will come out next year.

 

[ahthurungnone]

The new AthalonII X4 outperforms the Phenom IIx2 or PhenomIIx3. Just FYI.

 

[kraut_aa]

phenom 550(555) can be easily Oclocked to ~3,8 or even more on your board. With a lot of luck, maybe even unlock to quad ) for 6xxx bottleneck is still early to tell, need to see what king of games will come out next year.

Yeah. I did also try overclocking it from 3.8 up to 4.0 ghz. It did run stable. but some of my friends told me and in some reviews that it will shorten a processor's 550's lifespan. Is it really true? I'll just let my friend a retailer to unlock my 550 soon to quadcore. Hehe! And yeah. I bet most games next year would be as realistic as compared this days. Crysis 2 is gonna be delayed til march next year. Waiting for ghost recon and spec ops..

 

[kraut_aa]

The new AthalonII X4 outperforms the Phenom IIx2 or PhenomIIx3. Just FYI.

Yeah. Iv'e read some reviews of it. That's nice and also cheap for a quadcore. I think it's got price like of phenom II X2. I should've bought the athlon during my pc build. The Athlon II X4 was outperformed by Phenom II X2 in games with just 3%-20% on 1920x1080 and it's better in video editing. It's almost like the Phenom II X4.. Is the Athlon II X4 good for overclocking too?

 

[jimishtar]

Yeah. Iv'e read some reviews of it. That's nice and also cheap for a quadcore. I think it's got price like of phenom II X2. I should've bought the athlon during my pc build. The Athlon II X4 was outperformed by Phenom II X2 in games with just 3%-20% on 1920x1080 and it's better in video editing. It's almost like the Phenom II X4.. Is the Athlon II X4 good for overclocking too?

with your board, it should go up to 3,5 maybe even more.

 

[kraut_aa]

with your board, it should go up to 3,5 maybe even more.

Yeah. I should've bought THE Athlon II X4 630. If my 550 fails on the core unlocking, maybe I'll wait for the x6 1075t to be sold maybe next month or even better wait for the christmas sale. Hehe! And wait for the southern islands to be available. Hope it's cheaper and not that power hungry compared to my 5770 xfire..

 

[Avro Arrow]

Core-unlocking is a function of the southbridge, not the northbridge. Therefore, having a 790FX chipset does not guarantee or eliminate the possibility of core-unlocking. I have an MSI K9A2 Platinum which has the 790FX chipset but only has an SB600 southbridge. You need an SB750 or better to unlock dormant AMD cores.

 

[kraut_aa]

Core-unlocking is a function of the southbridge, not the northbridge. Therefore, having a 790FX chipset does not guarantee or eliminate the possibility of core-unlocking. I have an MSI K9A2 Platinum which has the 790FX chipset but only has an SB600 southbridge. You need an SB750 or better to unlock dormant AMD cores.

Thanks! Yup. My mobo has an SB750 chipset. The unlocking still failed. So, I'd upgraded my x2 550 to an PII X4 955 just last week. My retailer told me to add $100 for the upgrade with free overclocking..