AMD Athlon II X3 435 PCSTATS Review - Triple-Core Overclocking

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AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9 GHz Socket AM3 Triple-Core Processor Review

AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9 GHz Socket AM3 Triple-Core Processor Review - PCSTATS

Enter the AMD Athlon II X3 435 processor, the focus of this PCSTATS review. It's a 2.9GHz triple-core socket AM3 CPU built on the Propus die. So is it better to get a dual core CPU, a triple-core CPU or a quad-core CPU?
74% Rating:

Table of Contents

Filed under: CPU / Processors		Published:	Author:
External Mfg. Website: AMD		Oct 21 2009	J. Apong

Home > Reviews > CPU / Processors > AMD Athlon II X3 435

Triple-Core Overclocking

Overclocking Results:

stock max. oc

processor speed: 2.9 ghz
3.48 ghz

multiplier / bus speed: 14.5x 200mhz
14.5x 240mhz

if you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers:
Overclocking the CPU and Memory
Overclocking the Videocard

AMD's 2.9GHz triple-core 45nm Athlon II X3 435 processor is based on the 'Propus' architecture which has been a mixed bag when it comes to overclocking. It's a budget chip which is unlikely to see much overclocking action, but that doesn't mean PCSTATS won't do our best to overclock the silicon out if it!

First thing's first: in order to not hold the processor back the Corsair DDR3-1066 CM3X2G1600C9DHX memory was set to run in DDR3-800 MHz mode. The CPU clock multiplier was kept at its default of 14.5x and from there the bus speed on the Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT motherboard was increased from 200MHz on up.

Overclocking in 25 MHz increments, the Athlon II X3 435 CPU was rapidly brought up from 200MHz to 225MHz... then 250... and then... surprisingly the system showed signs of instability and crashed. What the heck? Bus speed had to be reduced to 240MHz, giving an effective overclock of 3.48GHz.... Not bad, but we'd certainly hoped for higher overclocking results. Sadly, nothing more could be coaxed out of this little triple-core chip.

Ultimately, the AMD Athlon II X3 435 processor overclocked from 2.9GHz to a modest 3.48GHz on standard air cooling. Not the best overclock PCSTATS has seen from the Athlon II family, but then again the triple-core chips are always more challenging to overclock.

Prelude to Benchmarks

For this review PCSTATS is running the benchmark suite in both Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows 7 operating systems. Hopefully this will help you make an informed decision in the coming months as Windows 7 adoption firms up. For the most part, benchmark results are not significantly different between the two operating systems, although certain tests do see advantages under Win 7.

Over the following page we'll be running AMD's 2.9GHz Athlon II X3 435 processor though PCSTATS standard set of gaming, productivity, and multi-threaded processor benchmarks. There are a wide variety of gaming and synthetic benchmarks here to illustrate what kind of performance boost users can expect from the latest triple-core socket AM3 AMD processor. Please take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations before moving on to the individual benchmark results on the next several pages.

PCSTATS Test System Configurations

test system reference system #1 reference system #2 reference system #3

processor: amd Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition
AMD Athlon II X4 620
AMD Athlon II X3 435
AMD Athlon II X2 250
AMD Athlon II X2 240e
Intel Core i5 750
Intel Core i7 920 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

CPU Process Technology: 45nm 45nm 45nm 45nm

Socket: Socket AM3 Socket LGA1156 Socket LGA1366 Socket LGA775

Clock Speed:
17x 200MHz = 3.4 GHz (965 BE)
16x 200MHz = 3.2 GHz(955 BE)
14 x 200 MHz = 2.8 GHz (720 BE)
15.5x 200MHz = 3.1 GHz (550BE)
13x 200MHz = 2.6 GHz (AIIX4 620)
14.5x 200MHz = 2.9 GHz (AIIX3 435)
15x 200MHz = 3.0 GHz (AIIX2 250)
14x 200 MHz = 2.8 GHz (AIIX2 240e)
20x 133MHz = 2.66 GHz 20 x 133 MHz = 2.67 GHz 9.5 x 333 MHz = 3.16GHz (E8500)
9 x 333 MHz = 3.0 GHz< BR > (E8500)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (AMD 790FX) Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 (Intel P55)
MSI X58 Platinum (X58 Express)
MSI X48 Platinum (X48 Express)

Videocard: ASUS ENGTS250 DK
(Geforce GTS250) ASUS ENGTS250 DK
(Geforce GTS250) ASUS ENGTS250 DK
(Geforce GTS 250) MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E
(Geforce 8800GTS)

Memory:
2x2GB Corsair XMS3-1600C9 DDR3
2x1GB Patriot PDC32G1600LLK DDR3
2x2GB Corsair XMS3-1600C8 DDR3 3x2GB Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D DDR3
2x1GB Patriot PDC32G1600LLK DDR3

Hard Drive:
74GB Western Digital Raptor WD 740

Optical Drive:
ASUS BC-1205PT-BD

Power Supply:
PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 750W

Heatsink:
Athlon64 K8 Reference Heatsink
Intel Reference 1156 Heatsink Intel Reference 1366 Heatsink Intel Reference 775 Heatsink

Software Setup:
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
AMD Catalyst 9.8
nVIDIA Forceware 190.62

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Intel 9.1.1.1019
nVIDIA Forceware 190.62

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Intel INF 9.1.0.1012
nVIDIA Forceware 182.08

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Intel INF 9.0.0.1008
nVIDIA Forceware 169.25

Benchmarks:

System Benchmarks:
SYSmark 2007
PCMark Vantage
SiSoft Sandra 2009
Calculation B/M:
Super Pi 1.5
wPrime 2.0
ScienceMark 2.3
WinRAR 3.8
Bibble 5

Rendering B/M:
Cinebench R10
POV-Ray 3.7
SPECviewPerf 10

Gaming B/M:
3DMark06
3DMark Vantage
Cyrsis
FEAR

Contents of Article: AMD Athlon II X3 435

Pg 1. AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9 GHz Socket AM3 Triple-Core Processor Review
Pg 2. Processor Power Draw, Core-by-Core
Pg 3. — Triple-Core Overclocking
Pg 4. 32-bit CPU System Benchmarks: Sysmark 2007
Pg 5. 32-bit CPU System Benchmarks: PCMark Vantage
Pg 6. 32-Bit CPU Synthetic Benchmarks: Sandra 2009 Processor / Memory
Pg 7. 32-Bit CPU Synthetic Benchmarks: Sandra 2009 Memory
Pg 8. 32-Bit CPU Calculation Benchmarks: Super Pi
Pg 9. 32-Bit CPU Calculation Benchmarks: wPrime2.0
Pg 10. 32-Bit CPU Calculation Benchmarks: ScienceMark2.3, WinRAR
Pg 11. 32-Bit CPU Rendering Benchmarks: Cinebench R10, Bibble 5
Pg 12. 32-Bit CPU Rendering Benchmarks: POV-Ray, 3.7, SPECviewPerf 10
Pg 13. 32-Bit CPU Synthetic Gaming Benchmarks: 3DMark Vantage, 3DMark06
Pg 14. 32-Bit CPU Gaming Benchmarks: Crysis
Pg 15. 32-Bit CPU Gaming Benchmarks: FEAR
Pg 16. Bargain Basement or Triprocessor To Avoid?

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