Biostar mobo enables fourth core on Phenom X3

Robert Hallock (Thrax)

February 23, 2009 11:26 AM ET in News, , ,

amd_logoIt has long been known that AMD’s tri-core Phenom X3 series contained a fourth processing core that was, for whatever reason, disabled at the factory. What enthusiasts have not been privy to, however, is just how “disabled” that core really is. Apparently the answer is “not very.”

Overseas tech site Playwares has discovered that one Biostar motherboard is capable of breathing life into that fourth core with the adjustment of an innocent BIOS setting.

This is the modern day equivalent of Athlon XP bridge manipulation. Something tells us that motherboard manufacturers are about to go ballistic with this “feature” before AMD heads them off at the pass.

9 Comments

  1. 23 Feb '09, 4:28 pm Gargoyle

    Awesome. I wonder how reliable those fourth cores will prove to be, or if they hamper overclocks?

  2. 23 Feb '09, 4:36 pm Thrax

    Who knows! Bold unknowns in the name of SCIENCE.

  3. 23 Feb '09, 4:41 pm Buddy J

    I thought the disabled core was physically removed from the equation by laser cutting or some other form of technomagic.

  4. 23 Feb '09, 4:42 pm MiracleManS

    Apparently their technomagic wasn't black enough.

  5. 23 Feb '09, 4:44 pm pseudonym

    This may just accelerate my new system build!

  6. 23 Feb '09, 4:58 pm mertesn

    Well, they say BIOS setting. You're really just drawing a fourth core with a pencil.

  7. 23 Feb '09, 10:40 pm lemonlime
    Quoting mertesn

    Well, they say BIOS setting. You're really just drawing a fourth core with a pencil.

    Exactly my thought. I'd be surprised if the 'fourth' core is anything but a BIOS bug. I doubt it could ever be used. In my conversations with AMD last year when the X3 first launched, they told me the core is disabled completely. My understanding is that it doesn't even receive any electrical current. It'd take one heck of a bug to somehow undo all of that.

  8. 24 Feb '09, 1:22 pm Asif

    Hi,
    I would be extremely interested to find out whether this actually works and is true.
    If someone has tried it can you please e-mail me: ajaved1@hotmail.com

  9. 26 Feb '09, 12:36 am Your Amish Daddy

    No, the 4th core is really there. As in, if you got an electron microscope and looked at the die, it's there.

Troll-free since 2003 ®