14 DAY TRIAL // Prior to the release of AMD's latest 45nm Phenom processors, the Sunnyvale, California-based chip maker made some demonstrations of its latest generation Phenom CPUs. The company wanted to demo the overclocking capabilities of its new Phenom processors and the performance they can achieve by implementing support for DDR3 memory modules. In one of the demonstrations, where a Phenom II X4 940 processor model was used to break the 6.5GHz core speed, the CPU was benchmarked using Futermark's 3DMark 05, where it scored 45474 points.
Back then, the Phenom II X4 was claimed to have set a new 3DMark record, a claim that was somewhat debatable, as a higher score was achieved (apparently prior to the overclocking event at CES) using an overclocked version of a Core i7 processor. However, the insatiable thirst for higher levels of clock frequencies seems to be driving AMD's fans towards setting new standards, using the company's latest 45nm Phenom processors.
As it turns out, breaking the 6.5GHz barrier isn't enough for some guys, who are always on the lookout for better ways to improve their score and push these processors to higher levels of performance. A team of Finnish overclocking enthusiasts managed to get their hands on an engineering sample of one of AMD's Phenom II X4 AM3 processors, which was basically what they required to start a new test and see what levels of performance they can achieve by using DDR3 memory.
The guys were able to push the core frequency close to 6GHz, allowing them to score 34,255 points in 3DMark 06, which was lated pushed to 35,273, just 300 points short of the record set by a system based on a Intel Core i7 965 Extreme processor.
A later attempt, allowed the team to push the core clock of the Phenom II to an impressive 6,665Mhz, which allowed the CPU to record 10,733 seconds in some SuperPI benchmarking. The question that remains is how much further can the 45nm Phenom II processors be pushed, in terms of overclocking?