Overclocking Trials Push AMD Phenom(TM) II Processors to the Limit

Team London Sets the Pace at First European Speed Trial on "Dragon" platform technology from AMD LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire - May 19, 2009) - Editors Note: There is a video associated with this Press Release. PC speed-freaks from across Europe will be pushing their processors to the limit in a series of extreme overclocking trials over the next month. The trials, which have been organised by AMD (NYSE: AMD), will see forum users from 19 leading technology forums from across the continent compete in a series of pedal-to-the-metal contests where they will attempt to push AMD platform technology, codenamed "Dragon," to the fastest speed possible. During the trials, the contestants will try to clock up the highest scores in categories such as 3D Mark performance, calculation speed and highest CPU clock speed.(i) The first of these events was held in London on Thursday 23rd April 2009, where sparks flew, literally! In this special event, eight teams of daredevil journalists went head to head in an attempt to break through the sonic wall in 3D Mark05 and CPU clock speeds. Things got so fast and so furious that sparks actually flew from one of the team's "Dragon" rigs!(i) It was a closely fought battle, but two winners emerged victorious. Clive Webster from Custom PC won the 3D Mark05 competition with a score of 24,689, while Tim Smally & Rich Swinburne from Bit-Tech won the CPU clock frequency competition with a speed of 4,211MHz. For this special opening event, both winning teams won a prize of $1000 each. The Custom PC donated their winnings to the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice and the Bit-Tech team gave their winnings to the Myton Hamlet Hospice. Link to overclocking event in London, April 23rd http://links.amd.com/OCUK Once the remaining trials have taken place between forums and forum users across Europe, the winner of each competition will receive a special, limited edition AMD Phenom II CPU and each participant will be invited to keep the AMD Phenom(TM) II 940 processor used in the trials. The "Dragon" kits being used will include an AMD Phenom II X4 940 processor, an Asus M4A79 Mainboard with AMD 790FX chipset as well as an Asus Radeon(TM) HD 4870 X2 graphics card. Forums taking part in the trials: 1. Hardwarearena-Turkey: http://site.hardwarena.com/AMD-Overclock-Yarismasi-Sonuclandi.html 2. Overclockers.at-Austria: http://www.overclockers.at/amd_processors/amd_overclocking_contest_205627 3. Ocaholic-Switzerland: http://www.ocaholic.ch/forum/index.php?page=Board&boardID=198 4. Planet3dnow-Germany: http://www.planet3dnow.de/vbulletin/blog.php?b=52 5. Driverheaven-UK: http://www.driverheaven.net/overclocking-modding/181925-amd-dragon-kit-has-come-awesome.html 6. Bit-tech-UK: Activity starting soon! 7. Muropaketti-Finland: http://keskustelu.plaza.fi/muropaketti/bbs/t577516 8. Hardware-test.dk-Denmark: http://hwt.dk/forumthread.aspx?ThreadID=266346 9. TechSweden-Sweden: http://www.techsweden.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=220199&p=243846 - p243846 10. Jmax-hardware-France: http://www.jmax-hardware.com/forum/index.php/topic,4374.0.html 11. Matbe-France: http://www.overclocking-masters.com/forum/-OCM-Concours-EMEA-by-AMD-ATI,t12234-p1.htm 12. Hispazone-Spain: http://foro.hispazone.com/dragon 13. Topmods-Russia: http://forum.topmods.net/index.php?showtopic=2949&st=0&p=39620 14. Overclockers.ru-Russia: http://www.overclockers.ru/lab/32882.shtml 15. IXBT.com-Russia: Activity starting soon! 16. PCTuner-Italy: www.pctuner.net/forum/amd-overclock-competition-unleash-dragon/113432-amd-overclock-competition-unleash-dragon.html 17. XtremPC-Romania: http://www.xtrempc.ro/modules.php?name=Articole&skin=0&tip=hard&subtip=Articol&id_articol=13604 18. Pc World-Bulgaria: www.pcworld.bg 19. PC Ekspert Croatia-Croatia: www.pcekspert.com "We are tremendously excited to be running these events, as our engagement with the overclocking community is very important to us. Events such as these offer a great opportunity for AMD to meet and receive feedback from experts and enthusiasts in our field," said Sami Makinen, Technical Marketing Manager, Consumer Software at AMD. "They also increase awareness in the community of the huge overclocking potential of the AMD Phenom II processor." 3DMark06 world record was achieved at an event in Finland earlier this year, using liquid nitrogen to drop CPU temperatures to -190 degrees Celsius. "Team Finland" -overclocking team managed to take the AMD Phenom II processor to 6.2GHz. You can check out the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwkzY8a8aFs. Overclocking explained: Overclocking is the process of running a computer component at a higher clock rate (more clock cycles per second) than it was designed for or was specified by the manufacturer. Users who overclock their components mainly focus their efforts on processors, video cards, motherboard chipsets, and system memory. It is done through manipulating the CPU multiplier and the motherboard's reference clock speed until a maximum stable operating frequency is reached.(i) A blog on overclocking by Ian McNaughton, Senior Manager, Advanced Marketing, AMD can be viewed here: http://links.amd.com/X4955 Overclocking of AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition: Video featuring the work and accomplishments of overclocker chew(i) with stock AMD Phenom II X4 955 processors on Dragon Technology. http://links.amd.com/PROVINGGROUNDS Company Information: Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is an innovative technology company dedicated to collaborating with customers and technology partners to ignite the next generation of computing and graphics solutions at work, at home and at play. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com. RSS Feed for Company: http://feeds.amd.com/amdpressreleases AMD Friend Feed: http://friendfeed.com/amdunprocessed AMD Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/AMD-Unprocessed/15452699102 AMD Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=AMDUnprocessed&p=r AMD Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amd_unprocessed/ (i) AMD warranty does not cover damage caused by overclocking, even when enabled via AMD OverDrive(TM) software. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, ATI, the ATI logo, AMD OverDrive, AMD Phenom, Radeon, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Contacts: AMD Friederike Gonzalez Social Media PR Manager EMEA friederike.gonzalez@amd.com AMD Press office +44(0)20 8834 3411 amdemea_consumer@bitepr.com. This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.