First Time OCer... 3.79GHz!!! Tips??

[Gopher Love]

K so guy.. I'm new to OCing... This is the THIRD OC forum I have posted on looking for some advice... noone is replying back on the other two... kinda annoying. Hope you guys can help me out.

 

So heres my specs real quick...

 

Thermaltake Xaser VI case with 4 140mm fans and 2 120mm fans

MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3 DDR3 MB

AMD Phenom II 955 AM3 C2 stock @ 3.2GHz

Zalman CNPS9900 NT cooler (120mm fan all copper)

Sapphire Radeon HD 4770 GPU

Crucial Ballistix DDR3 1333MHz mem (2 X 1GB)

Antec Earthwatts 750 Watt PSU

 

I'm still working on tweaking it but I seem to have hit the point were I get BSOD after EVERYTHING...

Base Clock - 205MHz

Multiplier - 18.5 X

Core Voltage - 1.3750 V

Core Speed - 3792.5MHz

Idle temps around 32C

Load temps around 46-47C

Ambient temp in case around 23-25C

Ambient temp in room around 22C

 

I have had the voltage set to 1.4 and tried going up but that didn't work either..

 

Anyone wanna help me make her scream just a LiTTLe MoRE??

[JBags]

hey, Welcome to OCC!!

 

nice rig!

 

Phenom II's have a max voltage of 1.55v according to AMD, so you can push her up to that, she may need more than 1.4v to go 3.8+ghz..

 

alternatively, this has helped me in the past with stability, but you could also try raising the CPU-NB speed. default for AM3 systems is 2000mhz, you might want to up the multi on that to 22oomhz or 2400mhz, but also keep in mind you'd likely have to up the cpu-nb voltage too...

 

 

hope this helps.

 

you may also want to check out Dolk's Guide on Techreaction. it's a good read and should be even more helpful.

[Gopher Love]

Yup I got her up to 3895 now (19x 205 bus) with 1.4375V... I just didn't wanna go up that high cuz like I said this is my first time doing this and I have been OBSESIVELY watching my core temps... I'm at 34-35 idle right now and 47-48 load...

 

What temps should I be worried about under high load??? I found 68C as the max operatable temp for my specific phenom II cpu... but I was under the impression that low to mid 50s on the CPU and low to mid 60s for the GPU under load....

 

EDIT: Also, CPU-NB multiplier upped from auto to 11X to make it 2255MHz.... Gonna up that and voltage and try to get the bus speed a litte higher now..

 

I'm shooting for 4.1-4.2 on air... probably unrealistic but I CAN HOPE!!!! Getting water cooling later on though so then i'll be able to go higher.

Edited December 7, 2009 by Gopher Love

[Bandrew]

Your 4770 is rated for temps up to ~100C, any thing below than and you should be fine.

 

Oh, and you were right about the mid to low 50s on the CPU, you probably don't want your temps any higher than 55C.

Edited December 7, 2009 by Bandrew

[Gopher Love]

Yup, I saw that.. Just read Dolks guide that fearspartan117 posted... Good guide, Let me know a little more about the CPU-NB and HT importance in overclocking... I wasn't to informed about that stuff before.

 

I'm gonna go back and spend another night tweeking... I wanna hit 4.0-4.2 TONIGHT!!!

 

It's cold, I have a window, I have some extra PC fans and a floor fan! I WANT MORE!!!

 

LOL I just got this system like 4 days ago and this is my first OC and i'm completely addicted to the speed. I also wanna hit 10,000 in 3DMark Vantage (I know thats VERY ihibited by my GPU but.. still.. I want it.)

 

So back to the grind. Thanks for the help guys.

 

OH and what about OCing my GPU??? Anyone got any good complete guides on that??

Edited December 7, 2009 by Gopher Love

[sack_patrol]

You gotta take it easy there. You do know that cpu's don't overclock to infinity...when you reach the end...thats it. So look out and when you do reach it...just be happy with what you have. I wanna add a reference to Dolk's Guide..it is in fact a very informative guide although not perfect.

 

Overclocking the GPU could be considered easier by some...harder by others. For me it's easier...though without volt modding don't expect high overclocks like a CPU.

You need software like AMD GPU Clock Tool or ATITool to be able to access the core and mem clocks. Then you use the programs to make changes +10, then after each increase you stress it with OCCT. After you find the highest overclock that is stable for at least 1 hour in OCCT, you will need to flash the bios so that the overclock becomes permanent...and thats when you can call it a true overclock, not just by using the software.

You will need to extract the current bios using GPU-Z, and edit it with a bios editing program like Radeon Bios Editor. You will fill in the speeds where needed. Make sure you type in everything the same way because if you don't, after the flash you might get heart beat changes to the clocks as I did once which would cause crashes (I though it was the CPU so I was really worried that my oc didn't work but then I saw that in my gpu-z, every second one of the speeds was shifting from 700 to 750 or something like that) In short...just put in the same values everywhere despite the different modes n stuff. After you edit the bios it will get saved as a file with no extension. You add this + a back up of the previous bios on a flash drive or a DOS floppy, and you will also want to add the flashing utility which is called "atiflash". You restart the PC, plug the device and type: atiflash -p 0 biosname -f After that is done it will flash the bios and you restart the PC with the restart button and your done.

I couldn't overclock my gpu for some reason...as it would give me flickers to even the slightest oc and artifacts to the slightest oc. I guess I just got a bad gpu...or maybe it's the cooler....maybe I could oc it if I volt mod it but I don't have the tools, and I forgot how it was done. Anyway, this is how you oc a gpu in short.

[Gopher Love]

You gotta take it easy there. You do know that cpu's don't overclock to infinity...when you reach the end...thats it. So look out and when you do reach it...just be happy with what you have. I wanna add a reference to Dolk's Guide..it is in fact a very informative guide although not perfect.

 

Yea I know.. I guess I sounded like i'm crazy and i'm gonna push it too far.. I understand there is a limit and this was explained alot more from Dolks guide :-)... I monitor temps constantly and I've been doing tests with AMD Overdrives stability test, 3DMark Vantage, SuperPI, Cinebench, and Prime95. Throughout I always watch CPU and the motherboard temps I get... I've been recording EVERY change i've made and the results and temps and i only change things in very small increments. I can't afford to ruin this brand new system.

 

But yes, like you said, It has a limit and I may have about reached that (with air cooling...) right now.. about 3900MHz in the end.. unless I can tweak more (my voltage was only at 1.45) but I am new to this and i'm keeping EVERYTHING in very safe limits and making sure every change is very small.

 

As for the GPU OCing... If it's not much of an increase I really dont care then.. I'll just go CrossFire or just up it to a 5800 series once they GET BACK ON THE SHELVES!!! Everyone is out of them... But for now I can deal with this cuz it's a big increase from my last GPU (stupid little 8600GTS... switched to ATI baby)

 

But the point of this is dont worry, I know theres a max and I think I know my danger zones. Thanks for the info on the GPU though, didn't catch that part in Dolks guide (I didn't read further than the end of the 3.0GHz section..)

 

Anyone know why I can load my CPU 100% on ATI Overdrives stability tests and get like 47-48 C load temps but then when I run Prime95 after like 5 min my temps are hitting 50C and above??? I'm afraid to run a 12-24 hour run with it because of where the temps might end up... Anyone got any explanations?

 

By the way, Thank you SO SO SO Much for all the help guys... Like I said I went to two other forums and after 2 days still have no replies... Thanks guys.

Edited December 7, 2009 by Gopher Love

[sack_patrol]

OCC is the best community you'll find!

 

To answer your question about the Overdrive and Prime95... Prime95 I guess is simply a more stressful program than the other one. Which is a good thing since the more stress means that if it passes then you've done an excellent job and the cpu is as stable as it would be on stock speeds. If the stress is little...like for example if someone says "hey I overclocked my cpu and ran FarCry 2 for 2 hours and it didn't crash" <- bad stress test as it doesn't push anything to the limit.

 

I see that you are worried about damaging your new system so I will try to explain that it's not that dangerous. Basically damaging a PC is hard unless you do it intentionally. If something doesn't go right...the PC won't simply stop working...or explode, it will simply BSOD (blue screen of death) which is a crash when there is something wrong. This will allow it to turn it's self off (not completely but enough as to save it's self before damage is done) and you can then modify it. As far as temps go, if the manufacturer says that it can sustain a certain temp, then that is it...sometimes it could even be pushed more. Same for the voltage. What I mean is that you shouldn't worry about messing up the hardware since you obviously know what you're doing so this way even if you push it harder...it won't go bad...simply show symptoms of a bad overclock.

 

For the gpu overclock: Now as it is true that a gpu might not yield an overclock with 800Ghz like a CPU, it still might be able to get a nice oc depending on things like your cooling but also if you got lucky to get a good chip. An overclock of 300mhz for a gpu on both clocks...I would consider a super overclock....even 200 if you will. So you could always see how far your gpu will go, and decide for yourself. Just don't think that if your gpu doesn't achieve 5890 clocks it's bad. Like I said...even +200mhz is worth it.

 

If you have any more questions, I'd be glad to help.

[Gopher Love]

Wow, thanks alot Ballist1x.

 

So if AMD says the max sustainable temp for my CPU is 68C then I could technically run it for hours on end at say 60C?? I should be to worried that my CPU is hitting just about 50C with Prime95?

 

I know I sound crazy but this is my first time (I know computers and learn fast and have read up on OCing though so i'm not dumb.. totally) so i'm real worried about what temps my computer can sustain. I know that if I set something to high it will shut itself off but I also know that it can overheat and there is no auto-shutoff for that... As long as it's running with no errors I can overheat it which is why I was worried.

 

I'll contact AMD for my CPUs actual max temp just so I know it's not someone on the internet saying it... I guess I was just being a little worry wart about how Prime95 got my temps up.

Also I guess I just figured since with both programs it pushed all 4 cores to 100% they were both stressing the same amount, I guess I can see how one would stress more even if both max out the cores.

 

Also, how hot is to hot for my NB and other motherboard components?

[sack_patrol]

You shouldn't be worried about the high temps on any program as long as they don't go above what is recommended.

 

There is actually auto shut off for high temps which is set in the bios. When it reaches that temp it shuts down or starts to ring or something.

 

You don't really need to contact AMD for your CPU, in the AMD web site there are all the cpus and you just find yours and there you'll see all the specs. Or type the name in google and it will surely guide you to the amd page of the cpu.

 

How hot is hot for the nb...well it's quite a bit I'll tell you that. Mine is at around 50 and thats normal. I guess around 70...

GPUs are meant to run very hot some even up to 100C. So no worries there.

RAM...you can only tell the ram temp with a real thermometer. Though slight voltage and timing increases won't increase temps a lot.

[Gopher Love]

Well yea I guess I more meant go to the AMD website and look it up rather than call them or whatever.. just meant get a real number from them and not from a secondary source... So 50C on my NB isn't that bad huh....

 

Well dude I cannot thank you enough, you have helped me ALOT so far and i'll deffinetly be talking to you again for some advice. I still haven't got higher than 3900MHz... I think i'm basically maxed out here... or else i'm just not good enough to squeeze that extra 100MHz outa this guy... I can get it there but it's not stable... at all....

 

Oh, and so there is an auto shut off for high temps??? i'll look around in my BIOS for it but I never ran across it so I didn't think there was one.

Edited December 8, 2009 by Gopher Love

[OCFreak]

I had my 4770 running at 905MHz Core and 1055MHz Memory. The memory is actually rated for 1000MHz so going at least that high, even without extra cooling is just fine. I used the stock cooler, in combination with an old CPU fan I modded to fit on top of the card. I saw performance increases of about 35% which is just sick if you ask me! Crossfiring two those would be a great setup for the money.

 

As far as OCing the CPU ... squeezing an extra 100MHz is going to do absolutely nothing for performance in everyday usage. You should be trying to accomplish a stable OC with what you have. They may be 3.7GHz and that may be 3.5 ... or 4.0. Just watching your temps is not good enough, because although it is important to tend to them, sometimes you will just not be able to push any higher. Regardless of temps, voltage, multipliers or how many times you pray to God to make it happen.