VR World » deneb

New Everest utility supports OpenGL 3.0

Theo Valich — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:47:00 +0000

Early this morning, I received word from Tamas Miklos, author of EVEREST. This popular system benchmark and utility just got a major upgrade, supporting several new and useful tests. In fact, this is the very first benchmark that checks your compliance with OpenGL 3.0 API, but it doesn’t stop there. GPGPU devices information is also added, supporting both ATI Stream and Nvidia CUDA APIs. Given the speed of development, we might even get GPU-independent GPGPU benchmark, who knows.

New benchmark/system utility offers plethora of information...

New feature is also Alert – sensor monitoring utility that triggers audio visual alert on overheating, voltage drop, overvoltage or cooling fan failure. This might prove quite useful in checking is your power supply good enough. Standard features include support for the latest processors and chipsets, such as Core i7, Atom, Phenom II and others. Support for OpenAL and High Definition Audio were also added. UI also underwent some changes – Windows 7 users should be happy, and if you use Vista Sidebar, you should like the newly designed information “widget”.

Everest 5.0 is available now at www.lavalys.com.

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45nm Phenoms to offer excellent overclocking capabilities

Theo Valich — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:59:05 +0000

Behind the scenes of Analyst Day 2008 (held on November 13), AMD decided to execute hard and unpopular political decision. The company decided to help the bottom line by leaving the Q4 desktop and notebook market to Intel, and focus on server/workstation markets.
AMD decided to postpone 45nm desktop chip (Deneb, e.g. Phenom II) for hard launch on January 8, 2009 – first day of CES 2009. This way, complete 45nm production in 2008 will be branded as Opterons and target higher ASPs.
But don’t think for a second that AMD decided to drop the towel on desktop market: Deneb and Deneb FX are turning to be something really special. Unlike current batch of 65nm processors, Phenom II will come to market with 50% overclocking headroom, if you obey the essential rules of overclocking. In fact, Phenom II will probably be the most overclockable processor AMD released to market in the past eight years.

According to our information, Phenom lineup will consist of following:
January 8, 2009:
Phenom II X4 920 – 2.8 GHz, 4-Core, 2MB L2+6MB L3
Phenom II X4 940 Black – 3.0 GHz Unlocked, 4-Core, 2MB L2+6MB L3
February 13, 2009:
Phenom II X3 710 – 2.6 GHz, 3-Core, 1.5MB L2+6MB L3
Phenom II X3 720 Black – 2.8 GHz Unlocked, 3-Core, 1.5MB L2+6MB L3
Phenom II X4 805 – 2.5 GHz, 4-Core, 2MB L2+4MB L3
Phenom II X4 810 – 2.6 GHz, 4-Core, 2MB L2+4MB L3
Phenom II X4 910 – 2.6 GHz, 4-Core, 2MB L2+6MB L3
Phenom II X4 925 – 2.8 GHz, 4-Core, 2MB L2+6MB L3

Quad-Core processors are known under codename Deneb (Black Edition Parts are
The difference between January and February parts also lies in the processor socket. Phenom II 920 and 940 are the last exclusive AM2+ parts, while all processors launched from February onwards will support AM2+ and new AM3 socket. The difference between the two is very simple: AM2+ works with DDR2-1066 memory, while AM3 introduces DDR3-1333 and begins AMD’s migration to DDR3 memory standard.

But two processors that will sit nicely with enthusiasts are Phenom II 720 Black and 940 Black. First one is unlocked 3-Core processor, while 940 is the quad-core beast. Both should be easily overclockable to 4.0 GHz using nothing else but premium air-coolers, while select CPUs will see more than 4.5 GHz when using water-cooling. This brings out memories of legendary Celeron 300A, who was overclocked by 50% (to 450 MHz) with no questions asked
According to our sources, AMD worked with some selected enthusiasts to enable LN2 cooling as well and the CPUs should not suffer from “cold bug”. Does this means we’ll start seeing 5GHz+ clocks on AMD processors as well? Only time will tell.
For now, all that we can do is wait and see can AMD get back in the game or not. Judging by our sources, ATI guys are making great changes inside the company and changing the product line-up in ways that old AMD would never think of.
“Spider” platform will be replaced with Dragon, introducing AM3 and DDR3-1333 support. Of course, you can expect that DDR3-1333 is only “on paper” support, since we have received information about DDR3-1600 and even DDR3-1866 working on prototype motherboards from a very-well known AMD partner.

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Deneb set to launch end of November, again in Channel

Theo Valich — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:00:03 +0000

Roughly a year after the debut of AMD’s Spider platform, 45nm processors are coming in the frame. Under codename Deneb (Phenom) and Shanghai (Opteron), these babies are starting to appear from thin air.
We’ve received word that the new Phenom is again repeating the history of original Phenom, and that is launching too late for major system design wins from the likes such as Dell, HP and others.
So, AMD is going to launch Deneb in channel first, and you can expect those Black Edition processors appearing out of thin air. Overclocking results are really promising, and on 790 boards with SB750 Southbridge, you can expect 3.4-3.6 GHz on air. All in all, quite good – but still, too late to challenge Intel for performance crown.
I expect that Deneb will beat Core 2 Quad, but the product is coming to market six months later than original announcement (45nm was supposed to debut in summer of 2008, according to statements made by Dirk Meyer and Hector Ruiz in their previous conference calls), and it is coming after Intel released its Core i7 machinery.
But still, I expect good performance boost for AMD.

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