Chip Speed
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Microsoft leak reveals hotfix for underperforming Bulldozers
AMD's Bulldozer silicon is enormously powerful, but most software isn't configured to schedule threads for the faux-16 core design. Windows can only see the chip as a quad-core CPU and will randomly assign threads, which ruins the point of Bulldozer's "Turbo Core" design. Microsoft inadvertently revealed it had teamed up with the chipmaker to fix the problem when it prematurely released a hotfix for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Initial tests showed that it could improve performance by up to seven percent, before it was pulled -- Microsoft conceding that it wasn't quite ready for prime-time.
Bulldozer world record re-broken by Andre Yang with a 8.58GHz victory lap
There you have it, folks. Floating over this text is the CPU-Z record that proves it: four days after Andre Yang broke the chip speed overclocking record with AMD's Bulldozer, he's done it again. The chip maker was eerily prescient when it said it expected others to beat the record and that unnatural confidence in the silicon has paid off. Last time, Yang managed to push only 30MHz over the previous record, this time he's found a further 123.3MHz -- making the total chip speed 8.58GHz. The secret to his success was in increasing his chip voltage (2.076v compared to 1.992 last time) and over-liberal use of liquid nitrogen. Maybe he could convince Sunnyvale to loan him a massive vat of liquid helium to get ever closer to the goal of 9GHz -- just make sure you don't pick up the check for the shipping and handling, okay?
AMD Bulldozer breaks own world record, overclocked to 8.46GHz
Advanced Micro Devices is probably feeling a bit silly right about now. To show off how powerful the Bulldozer chip really is, it drafted in the world's most elite overclockers, set them up in a room with whatever was required (including a vat of liquid helium) and broke the chip-speed world record. With a verified speed of 8.429GHz, the company collected its Guinness world record and sat back, thinking that no one could ever best it. Less than two months later and Andre Yang (who we can assume does not have his own military complex to run his experiments in) managed to get his Bulldozer running at 8.46GHz, 30MHz faster than the chip's own parent could manage. We wouldn't dare suggest that anyone stand outside AMD's Sunnyvale HQ whilst playing the sad trombone -- but if anyone deserves that chance, it'd certainly be Mr. Yang. Update: AMD got in touch to say that it's expecting others to beat the record and is excited to see how many records the chips are gonna set. So what are you waiting for?
