# AMD Phenom 960T unlocking



## Rahul01 (Nov 28, 2012)

Today i unlock my 960T into a pentacore cpu (with six core its not restarting), its running nice, no hang or restarts but i have few questions:

1) Now its TDP reached upto 161W, what does it mean(earlier it was 103W)
2) Does it consume more electricity
3) Am i feel gain in processing power with 5 cores, my purpose is Gaming & Photoshop works
4) Does it harm processor or warranty
5) Does it overheat 

Thanks.


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## topgear (Nov 29, 2012)

1. TDP increase means your cpu will produce more heat and the cpu cooler needs to dissipate it.
2. Yes
3. For PS it may be useful ( depends on the version and filter type ) but for gaming 4 core is still enough.
4. theoretically yes but practically there's no way to find out ( if you know what i mean )
5. May be or may be not - you have to check it for yourself.


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## Rahul01 (Nov 29, 2012)

thanks for reply, is there any way to lower down TDP without disabling 5th core.


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## doomgiver (Nov 29, 2012)

naah. extra cores MEAN extra heat.
think of it like this.

you have a maruti. you manage to stuff in 2 more engines into it... the temps will rise, no? due to extra heat coming from the engines?
same concept here.


and cool, bro, unlocking your extra cores 

i wish i knew this when i was buying MY pc


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## Rahul01 (Nov 29, 2012)

ya well explained, but i don't curious about heating (with quad core idle 38-40 degree and 50% load while gaming maximum it goes 57 degree and now with pentacore idle same temp as quad core and while same game total CPU usage is only 30% and 55-56 degree). I am using stock CPU cooler.
I am curious about electricity bill.
Should i leave it as pentacore or invert back to quad core.


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## doomgiver (Nov 29, 2012)

leave it penta core.
also, shouldnt you be able to unlock one more core?

the power savings are not too great if you turn off those cores. they only add up to less than 100 bucks a year. doable.


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## topgear (Nov 30, 2012)

Rahul01 said:


> ya well explained, but i don't curious about heating (with quad core idle 38-40 degree and 50% load while gaming maximum it goes 57 degree and now with pentacore idle same temp as quad core and while same game total CPU usage is only 30% and 55-56 degree). I am using stock CPU cooler.
> I am curious about electricity bill.
> Should i leave it as pentacore or invert back to quad core.



just play BFBC2 and see the difference - run HWinfo in background to log the highest temp and cpu core usage.


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## Rahul01 (Dec 1, 2012)

i played half an hour for BFBC2. here are my observations:
with stock quad core
CPU temp 55
MBD temp 44
total CPU usage 91%
core 0 usage 99%
core 1 usage 96%
core 2 usage 85%
core 3 usage 88%
Max fan speed 2616 RPM


with pentacore
CPU temp 60
MBD temp 48
total CPU usage 93%
core 0 usage 99%
core 1 usage 97%
core 2 usage 96%
core 3 usage 96%
core 4 usage 95%
Max fan speed 3110 RPM

A/C to my personal view i should use it as quad core, as pentacore it not worth because its TDP goes to 161W, means a single core benefit means 54W TDP.
What do u think, please reply your opinion...



doomgiver said:


> leave it penta core.
> also, shouldnt you be able to unlock one more core?
> 
> the power savings are not too great if you turn off those cores. they only add up to less than 100 bucks a year. doable.



is my motherboard health fine with pentacore..


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## topgear (Dec 2, 2012)

you better stick with quad core - for games and day to day apps it's more than enough but if are into video transcoding/apps which needs all the possible processing power of the cpu better use the unlocked cpu with a good after market cooler.


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## Cilus (Dec 2, 2012)

Based on the temperature you posted, I think you can go with the fifth Core enabled. BTW, what Motherboard do you have? Since the TDP of the CPU has been increased, your motherboard should be strong enough to handle that TDP and mild overclocking.


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## Rahul01 (Dec 2, 2012)

@cilus, i have  asus M5A88-M, is it fine.


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## sukesh1090 (Dec 2, 2012)

^^
seems to be fine.mobo supports up to 140w.because that mobo supports phenom II X6.so it should support this 5 cores. after all they are same processors where 960-t is just locked to 4 cores.
it should not increase current consumption drastically and i think what cpu-z showing is not correct.when you unlocked the core it just went mad.even the 161 TDP doesn't mean that it consume 160 w it may consume more or less according to the situation.the current consumption may be at maximum 10W-15W more than quad cores when all the cores( 5 ) are working.


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## Rahul01 (Dec 8, 2012)

is it ok that BFBC2 max cpu usage is 98-99% with five cores, whereas NFS series max cpu usage is only 38-40%. i googled it & found that many users have same situation. Is it ok.


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## topgear (Dec 9, 2012)

completely OK and wait till you try out MP3 or L4D2 with everything ( graphical settings ) maxed out.


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