AMD Athlon 850

As we mentioned in our Athlon Overclocking Guide, overclocking the Athlon can be accomplished via one of two different ways: by increasing the FSB on a motherboard that supports overclocked FSB settings or by adjusting the clock multiplier using an overclocking card such as the ones we reviewed in our roundup. 

Coupled with the improved yields on the Athlons, the newer 0.18-micron K75 core, as we mentioned earlier, is creating quite a stir in the overclocking community.  There have been numerous success stories of people taking their 0.25-micron 500 and 550MHz Athlons to 700MHz and beyond as well as reports of hitting 900MHz+ on the newer 0.18-micron cores. 

Our Athlon 850 sample was no different, we were able to hit 950MHz at the default voltage setting of 1.70v without any problems at all.  Increasing the clock multiplier to 10.0x resulted in being able to POST at 1000MHz (1GHz) as well as enter Windows at this landmark speed.  We managed to run a couple of trials of Winstone, but the system wasn’t stable enough at 1.70v.  Bumping up the core voltage to 1.80v increased the stability, but the system still wasn’t rock solid. 

The limiting factors here could have been the L2 cache speed, which was 400MHz, or heat since the CPU was being air-cooled.  The important thing to keep in mind here isn’t that the 850 failed to reliably overclock to 1000MHz using very little tweaking, the important thing is that the potential to reach 1000MHz using conventional overclocking methods is there with currently available Athlon CPUs.  Using Swiftech’s MC1000 cooler and a slightly higher core voltage settings (1.85v or 1.90v) it wouldn’t be surprising to see the setup run flawlessly at 1000MHz. 

Comparing this $800+ chip to the $2500+ Kryotech setup that accomplishes the same using their vapor phase refrigeration technology, it is obvious that the yields on the Athlon are improving.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see air-cooled clock speeds in the 1GHz+ range before the end of this year from AMD, it is all dependent on whether or not the market demands such a solution.