It seems that the current batch of AM3 X3 tri core processors has a surprise for many. With a simple setting in most AMI based boards, the Phenom II AM3 X3 710 processor's disabled 4th core can be enabled.

It seems that it is a cheap way to take advantage of more speed especially for multi core applications.

Below are some before and after shots of the X3 710 and X3 720 running on a ASRock board ASRock M3A790GXH/128M. The trick to enable the 4th core is rather simple - just enable ACC in the BIOS.

Cinebench 10 in default configuration (tri core) with Phenom II X3 720

If you notice from the screen shot, the task manager now shows 3 core in the first screen shot vs 4 core in the second screen shot. The CPU speed remains contstant but CPU-Z detects 3 cores in the first and detects 4 cores in the 2nd screen shot.

In Cinebench 10, the score was 6530CB-CPU. With the 4th core enabled, it becomes 8829CB-CPU. There is an improvement of 35%.

Cinebench 10 in Quad Core (ACC on)

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