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AMD releases OverDrive 3.0 system-tweaking utility; including Windows 7 support

by Tarinder Sandhu on 24 April 2009, 14:01

Tags: OverDrive 3.0, AMD (NYSE:AMD)

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AMD's Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU was launched yesterday. Ostensibly a speed-bump to the present architecture, to 3.20GHz, the new chip perform closer to a range of Intel Core 2 Quads, and it looks like a good buy for the power user spending some £200 on a processor.

To coincide with the release of the fastest-ever Phenom II chip, AMD's updated its system-wide tweaking utility, OverDrive, to version 3.0. We had a play with a beta version and it did what it said on the tin. Notable upgrades include support for Black Edition Memory Profiles (BEMP) and Smart Profiles.

AMD's now rolled them into the official release of v3.0 and you can find the download link here.  We note that Windows 7 is supported too.

Here's an excerpt from the release notes:

Custom performance for novice and enthusiast users

Overclocking* made easy
Novice and beginner users need not be intimidated. AMD OverDrive™ provides a simple performance slider and even a single-click performance tuning option.
Take command of performance
Get ultimate control at your fingertips. AMD OverDrive™ exposes all controls so enthusiast PC users can monitor and modify performance settings to achieve extreme performance.

Integrated system test and monitoring

Insight to monitor your system settings
Keep up with what is happening in your PC. AMD OverDrive™ lets you monitor all your performance settings including clock memory, voltage and memory timing.
Advanced stability tests to ensure your PC runs smoothly
Monitoring system stability has never been easier. AMD OverDrive™ utilizes multi threaded CPU tests to ensure overall system stability so you can focus on your game.
Go have a play and see what you think.

AMD OverDrive 3.0    


HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Posted by stevie lee - Fri 24 Apr 2009 15:06
seems pretty easy to use - maybe too easy. after 5 minutes of general ‘ooh what does that button do’ I had my processor up to 3.5GHZ a nice 700MHZ overclock, the DDR2 800 memory running at 950ish. the memory was maybe a litle high, it locked up on entering one of my games, i'll try again later after defragging hard drives, they're a mess :p
Posted by cheesemp - Sat 25 Apr 2009 00:32
I was under the impression this utility allowed all modern AMD CPU and GPUs to overclocked regardless of the chipset - but not according to the release notes. In case I'm not the only one here is supported list from the release note:

'This version of AMD OverDrive™ Utility supports systems with the AMD RD890/RD790/RS780/RX780/RS780D/RS880 serials boards.'
Posted by Steve - Sat 25 Apr 2009 10:05
stevie lee;1683790
seems pretty easy to use - maybe too easy. after 5 minutes of general ‘ooh what does that button do’ I had my processor up to 3.5GHZ a nice 700MHZ overclock, the DDR2 800 memory running at 950ish. the memory was maybe a litle high, it locked up on entering one of my games, i'll try again later after defragging hard drives, they're a mess :p
Remember not to defrag with a dubious overclock in place. You don't want to corrupt all that data you're moving around :)
Posted by stevie lee - Sat 25 Apr 2009 14:18
did that ‘back in the day’ - knackered up 2 hard drives with dodgy defrags + overclocks, cancelling defrags then installing updates to OS and defragging again. I don't know what i'm doing half the time :)

hard drives defragged ok - except the C drive, theres some ghost files and system restore stuff that refuses to defrag. and i put everything back at stock settings first.

more attempts at tweaking will commence once i've read up on some more things :p