AMD Overclocking Guide

Discussion in 'Processors and motherboards AMD' started by Psychlone, Jul 18, 2008.

  1. adren022

    adren022 Member Guru

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    4GHZ on air cooled CM212+ ??is that possible ?...i will be hopeful of reaching 3.7ghz(max) without any voltmods

    this current setup at 3.3ghz has 3Dmark vantage cpu score of 16556
    partivle bench 2488ms
     
  2. northy84

    northy84 Master Guru

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    thats a good score for 3.3 heres my score with 940 @ 3.5GHz http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1418455 just over 12k. for comparison here is my 930 @2.8GHz http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=2441604. i think your on the right track but get that sucker closer to 4.0GHz temperature permitting.

    i have no idea how good or not good that cooler is. but as long as your staying at apropriate temperatures and running stable you should be fine. just dont throw a lot of voltage at it. (my brother is looking at upgrading so i am perticularly interested to see how far you can push it on stock voltage.)
     
  3. adren022

    adren022 Member Guru

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    i will take my time but surely i will push it higher...and let you know,im little afraid of doing anything drastic

    3D mark score
    [​IMG]
     
  4. adren022

    adren022 Member Guru

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    i have problem with the BIOS settings its not allowing me to set NB above 2GHZ
    but when its automated OC as it is now its set to 2400mhz
    RAM,DRam freq at 800mhz
    i want them to stay the same.

    and not change when i increase HTref from 240(now) to 250


    any advice ??
     

  5. Psychlone

    Psychlone Ancient Guru

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    You don't want to set your NB higher than 2GHz for 1 reason - when you increase your FSB, your NB and HT will both increase by the same amount.
    The NB and HT are bound to the FSB by multipliers (10X is default, so 10X * 200FSB = 2000MHz... and 10X * 240FSB = 2400MHz, which is what you're running now. See how increasing your FSB also increased the speed of the NB?)

    The HT and NB are 2 places where your overclock will fail first. Since you've proven your NB to be stable at 2400MHz, you can safely drop it down to 9X and increase the FSB a little more to compensate (remember, NB Multi * FSB = NB Freq)

    You're definitely on the right track!

    Now, on your power cut-off problem, I'd be for purchasing a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply or commonly known as a battery backup) - they're worth their weight in gold because when the power fluctuates, the line-conditioner in the unit always delivers a non-fluctuating current, so nothing is in harm's way.
    And, in a blackout, your rig can safely do a normal shutdown before losing power altogether, preventing the 'hard-off' that damages HDDs and other components.

    Check into a UPS (battery backup) - APC and CyberPower are 2 of the best there are, and considering they're not much more expensive than the better 'surge protectors', but do a Helluva better job, they're totally worth every penny!!

    Good luck!

    Psychlone
     
  6. Renegade8100

    Renegade8100 Ancient Guru

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    you are the man for keeping your sticky updated. It bugs me watchin the stickies get outdated
     
  7. Pill Monster

    Pill Monster Banned

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    It won't let you raise the HT above the NB speed. You'll need to change the HT divider to manual and drop it so it stays under 2Ghz

    The HT div.(called K8-NB) in my BIOS is in the Chipset menu
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2010
  8. adren022

    adren022 Member Guru

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    i do own a APC UPS it gives me back up with the monitor on only for 20mins
    and (i am student im away from my computer 12hrs a day)

    i changed the multiplier to 9x in overdrive,but when the system restarts its set back to 10x...same problem with TURBO CORE i uncheck enable TURBO CORE after restart its enabled again

    thanks a lot for your help..
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2010
  9. adren022

    adren022 Member Guru

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    what about keeping the DRAM freq to 800mhz ?how to do that?

    i limited the RAM to DDR3 1600mhz in the bios but when i increased the HTref to 250 RAm freq changed to 833


    i found that the FSB to DRAM ratio in CPU-Z is 3:10 if i change it i must be able to underclock RAM for higher HTref but there is no such option in my BIOS

    IS THERE A SOFTWARE TO CHANGE THE RATIO ?
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2010
  10. Pill Monster

    Pill Monster Banned

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    I have the exact same problem - if I use 9x NB multi my system hangs.

    Did u find the multi for your HT link?
     

  11. adren022

    adren022 Member Guru

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    my system doesn't hang,the settings continue to be applied till the system restarts after that the HT multiplier is back to 10x

    and no i dint find the multi
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2010
  12. northy84

    northy84 Master Guru

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    you have to set the ht link multiplier in BIOs for it to retain its value afaik.
     
  13. Psychlone

    Psychlone Ancient Guru

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    BIOS is where you should be making all these changes - AOD does nothing much for you.
    I use AOD only for testing specific settings and then running a quick bench to see any difference (not the AOD bench, but make a small change in AOD and then test with SuperPi or wPrime, etc. real quick) - THEN I make the changes in BIOS.

    AOD is really only good for, well, nothing but testing in my opinion. It's ability to save an overclock via registry settings and the HAL is absurd, even though it's been done since the days of Systool... you *REALLY* need to be making any overclocking changes via BIOS and nowhere else. (this is why when you change your HT or NB multi in AOD it resets to default after a reboot...)


    Anyway, back on topic:

    You say that you "limited your DRAM to 1600"... does that mean you used "LIMIT" or "MANUAL" for that option?
    The difference is that LIMIT forces the speed that you set, where MANUAL forces that setting but allows FSB to increase it.

    Try setting your DRAM to LIMIT, then at 1600MHz. Then increasing the FSB shouldn't change the RAM frequency...otherwise, any FSB adjustment is also going to change the RAM's freq.

    Something that probably should be said here, even though it's in the guide at the beginning of this thread, is how everything is linked.

    The FSB controls everything that you need to adjust...and everything is linked directly to the FSB speed.

    Your CPU has it's own MULTIPLIER. Increasing it from 10X to 11X really does just this: increases the FRONT SIDE BUS speed by 10 times to 11 times (i.e. 10X * 200FSB = 2000MHz or 11X * 200FSB = 2200MHz)

    Your RAM has it's own DIVIDER. We are given the option of running the RAM at slower frequencies to compensate for an increase to the FSB since everything is linked directly to the FSB. (i.e. you RAM may not be stable at 1700MHz, so you can drop your RAM to the next lower frequency (which is a divider - i.e. "to run at a fraction of it's default rated speed") and then increase your FSB to bring that speed back up)

    Your Northbridge (NB) has it's own multiplier that's also linked to the FSB. As you increase the FSB, you're also increasing the NB speed, so dropping it a notch can increase how far you can raise the FSB. Dropping it yet another notch will allow you to increase your FSB again, etc. until your motherboard's FSB limit has been reached.

    Your HyperTransport (HT) also has it's own multiplier directly linked to the FSB - but often the HT's multi isn't shown - most often the HT is shown as a frequency (i.e. 2000MHz) BUT, it's still a multiple of the FSB just like the NB (i.e. 10X HT * 200FSB = 2000MHz HT)
    Changing the HT to a lower value is one of the first things a person needs to take into account when going for a FSB overclock since the HT speeds cannot be higher than the NB speeds, and is usually the first component to fail in overclocking.
    Dropping the HT to 1800MHz is really like putting it on a 9X multiplier...this allows you to increase your FSB a little further than you were previously able to.

    So, just in case you missed the math at the beginning of my guide, I'll go through it here for you:

    (CPU Multi) * (FSB) = (CPU Freq)
    (CPU Multi) / (RAM Divider) = (Divisor Ratio)
    (CPU Freq) / (Divisor Ratio) = (RAM MHz) * 2 = (DDR MHz)
    (NB Multi) * (FSB) = (NB Freq)
    (HT Multi) * (FSB) = (HT Freq)

    You can clearly see that when you raise the FSB, everything else increases with it because of all their linked multipliers and the RAM's divider.

    Let's do a quick and easy example...This is a 3GHz processor running a 15X multi, 1066MHz RAM and 10X on the NB and HT: (refer to the math key above to see what numbers refer to what component)

    15X * 200 = 3000MHz
    15X / 2.66666 = 5.625
    3000 / 5.625 = 533.33 * 2 = 1066.66
    10X NB * 200 = 2000MHz NB
    10X HT * 200 = 2000MHz HT

    Now lets increase the FSB by 20 and see what happens:

    15X * 220 = 3300MHz <This increased by 300MHz
    15X / 2.66666 = 5.625 <This stays the same because it's the same RAM speed or "divider"
    3300 / 5.625 = 586.66 * 2 = 1173.33 <This increased by 106.67MHz
    10X NB * 220 = 2200MHz NB <This increased by 200MHz
    10X HT * 220 = 2200MHz HT <This increased by 200MHz

    So, even a small FSB increase of 200MHz put the DDR2 1066MHz RAM out of spec and more than likely won't run at that speed without some serious fine-tuning.
    The NB and HT, however, would probably run fine at that frequency - all boards are different; some will struggle to be stable at 2200MHz and some will easily do 2800MHz.



    OK, so we've covered your RAM speed (and it's magic increase), and we've covered your NB/HT multi changing back to default because the setting wasn't done in BIOS.

    I'm glad you have a UPS - even though you may not be home when the power goes out, at least you can set your PC to shut itself down when running on a predetermined battery percentage and not get any 'hard-offs' that can cause hardware failures.

    Good luck man, you're on the right track, I think you just need to go through my guide and read a little more...I know it's a TON of information, but I've left very little to the imagination and the overclocking guide is very in depth and doesn't leave anything out.

    Come back after giving the guide a read and ask more questions...after all, that's how we all learn, right? ;)


    @Renegade: Thanks Bro. I have a little more tweaking here and there still to do - mostly to revise how it's read, not changes to any of the overclocking parts.
    I really wish there was a way to insert a couple empty posts just below the first couple so that I could spread it out a little better and organize it a little differently...but hey, I think like this myself - and Hell, look at the post I just wrote! It's a ton of information all at once and probably looks a little daunting to a new overclocker!!
    Just how I am I suppose...

    :D


    Psychlone
     
  14. adren022

    adren022 Member Guru

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    i used LIMIT and set it to DDR3 1333MHZ...but when i increased HTref to 250mhz again the DRAM freq increased from 800 to 833mhz

    and i reduced the HTlink speed by setting it to 9x in AOD but after restart its set back to default 10x...i checked the P-States in the BIO, but no luck i could limit only the CPU multiplier 2x---14x range there was nothing i could do about NB freq there was something called NB FID i set it to 2ghz but CPU-z still showed NB freq at 2550mhz

    im hearing my friend that my current BIOSTAR board is not good enough for overclocking and there will be problem with the mosfets if i OC above 3.5ghz :((

    THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT..

    PS:i went through the whole guide posted in the first page also :)
     
  15. adren022

    adren022 Member Guru

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    GPU:
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    so far what i have done is...

    selected manual overclocking in BIOS
    1]set HTref = 250mhz
    2]HTlink = 2ghz
    3]RAM limit = 1333mhz
    4]NB FID = 2ghz
    5]have turned of CORE performance boost(turbo core) in the BIOS

    i saw the post about the multipliers i just want the RAM and NB freq limited ,
    watched videos on you-tube all their motherboards have option for the HTlink and RAM multipliers,mine doesn't i understand how multipliers work i know DRAM and NB change with respect to HTref but there is no option from which i can decrease the NB:FSB or DRAM:FSB multiplier in my BIOS..

    i will try posting screen shots of the BIOS(need a good camera first)
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2010

  16. northy84

    northy84 Master Guru

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    you really neeed to stop using AOD. i would also bet that your fsb is 255 if you set you ht link to 2000 because thats a multi of 10x ie 255*10 what you should do is set it lower like 1600 or 1800 (cant remember how low you can actually set it.) that would then give you a multi of 9x or 8x which would be 2295MHz or 2040MHz.

    and stop using AOD!
     
  17. adren022

    adren022 Member Guru

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    the FSB was 250 i don exactly remember the NB frequency ;)

    if not use AOD tell me a better program please...bcoz these settings not available in my BIOS
     
  18. northy84

    northy84 Master Guru

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    that in itself is the problem. software is not the answer. i know its tough to hear but you should think about upgrading your motherboard for higher overclocks. at very least you need to check for newest BIOS on the manufacturers website. also some BIOS you need to press like ctrl+F1 or somthing of to unlock advanced settings. read your manual to see about anything like that. i had a crappy asrock board many years ago that had that.

    i know its a pain but if you cant get these settings its hard to push the cpu to its max when other parts of the system ie memory controller and northbridge are stressed beyond their limits.
     
  19. adren022

    adren022 Member Guru

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    when i have enough money again i will go buy a 890GX chipset...by the way there is a feature called BIO-Unlocking don't know what it does,have to try it out
     
  20. northy84

    northy84 Master Guru

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    try googling it. lol.

    i have no idea but if it helps you set some different multipliers then perfect.
     

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