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Piledriver FX-6300 on Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3

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Bucic

Registered
Joined
Jul 19, 2014
Location
Poland
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I've replaced my APU Llano config with the new CPU + MOBO.
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 (rev. 5.0), latest bios, non-graphical
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4602#ov
http://www.overclock.net/t/946407/amd-motherboards-vrm-info-database
AMD FX-6300
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldozer/AMD-FX-Series FX-6300.html
Kingston HyperX 2x4GB DDR3-1600 Dual Chanel Kit Non-ECC CL9 Black KHX16C9B1BK2/8

From what I've read generally the workflow is:
0. Set preliminary BIOS options (CnQ, C6, APM etc. disabled, Thermal management Enabled, AHCI->IDE...)
1. Find the base CPU overclock i.e. overclock without touching voltage
a) using CPU Frequency (FSB?)
or
b) using multiplier
2. Increase voltages in steps
3. Smaller adjustments
4. Overclock memory
5. Final adjustments

I have followed this guide JayzTwoCents - Beginners Guide: How to overclock AMD Processors FX-8350 Piledriver which, unlike most of the other guides, doesn't fail to say what is general workflow it goes by (see the points above). It uses the 1,a) approach.

BIOS photos I took.
I tried to place the cursor at a most significant parameter I'm about to test next. If I stepped down with something it means my system failed to boot or failed to work stable.
http://1drv.ms/1psEgdB

Ad.1. My base OC.
It turned out to be FSB=245, 245x17.5~4280
FSB=250 seemed to be a no-go even with slightly increased VCORE.

Notes:
*I've set PCI freq to constant 100 MHz
*I kept CPU NorthBridge Frequency=HT Link Frequency and close to the default 2000; anything lower than 2000 always led to boot failure so I always had to choose something greater than 2000.


Ad. 2. Voltage
I've increased both Vcore and NB voltage slightly, step-by-step, along with FSB which brought me to my current 4410 at FSB=245 X Multiplier=19. CPU temperature is reaching only 55 deg C in stress.


Questions:
1. What did I do wrong up to this point?
2. How should I proceed further?
3. Multiplier OC is much easier obviously. Are there any benefits to CPU Bus frequency / NB OC with Piledriver CPUs?

I'm perfectly aware of the limitations of my hardware.

Attached image shows default parameters of my BIOS but set to manual instead of a
 

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First question, why are you overclocking with the FSB instead of the CPU multi?

It is very easy to introduce instability in the system with the FSB, as you're overclocking multiple components at the same time.
 
First question, why are you overclocking with the FSB instead of the CPU multi?

It is very easy to introduce instability in the system with the FSB, as you're overclocking multiple components at the same time.
Actually it is my question, namely question no 3 from my OP and I would appreciate an answer too :)

As for my motives, I went with CPU Bus same as the author of the guide I followed. I saw some folks mentioning higher performance gains from the same CPU overclock with the FSB method. I don't know whether it's applicable to Piledriver.

EDIT:
I've just tried altering just the multiplier from the last setup to 19 which resulted in ~4600MHz CPU speed. It was not stable.
 
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I would imagine it's your memory causing problems. With the FSB at 245 it really overclock the ram. Check it's frequency and make sure it's at stock or below with proper timings and addabout .05v to the base voltage.
You never mentioned your temps for the socket and core. I see one at 55c but there are two and both have signifigance.
 
I would imagine it's your memory causing problems. With the FSB at 245 it really overclock the ram. Check it's frequency and make sure it's at stock or below with proper timings and addabout .05v to the base voltage.
You never mentioned your temps for the socket and core. I see one at 55c but there are two and both have signifigance.
If you could take a look at my photos on OneDrive, my memory is at 1632 currently and IIRC I manually kept it as close to its stock 1600 as possible.

Also, it's worth noting that my memory is awesome. At stock BIOS settings I can just crank it up from 1600 to over 2000 and it will work without fiddling with any timings or voltage.

My max temps are:
TMPIN0 30 deg C
TMPIN1 40 deg C
TMPIN2 55 deg C
CPU - Package 40 deg C
 
Well at 4.5 that is a typical plateau in the FX where the voltage increasesfor the next 100Mhz really starts to climb. It might be a good time for you to post some pics of HWmonitor under load with P95 plus your CPUz main, memory and spd tabs so we can have a look at what's going on in there.
 
Well at 4.5 that is a typical plateau in the FX where the voltage increasesfor the next 100Mhz really starts to climb. It might be a good time for you to post some pics of HWmonitor under load with P95 plus your CPUz main, memory and spd tabs so we can have a look at what's going on in there.
Here are the grabs, under load.
 

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Looks good, you should at some point run Prime Blend for 2 hours to establish a stable OC before you try pushing further. It's a lot more helpful to have one when really putting your foot on it, especially when Ocing with the FSB.
 
Manually configure your RAM to 9-9-9-27-36 2T and use like 1.55v - 1.65v should be good for more Mhz then. If you start getting a little high on the mhz and get some blue screens, drop the memory divider (or speed in bios) and that should leave some more head room. Or you can try slightly looser timings, my Mushkins always like 9-10-9-27-36 at around 1000mhz effective

You've got rooom for more Cpu-z voltage according to your temps. It'll go more.

edit, put a fan on the VRM section of that motherboard if you haven't already. Works wonders.
 
What cpu cooler do you have? How high you can go depends on your cooler.

I have the same setup but with the 212 evo cooler. I needed 1.35v under load for 4.4ghz. Now at 4.69ghz at 1.45/1.46 under load. My ram is at 2136. 4.69ghz is not 100% stable for me but it's stable enough for my purposes. It needs more voltage to be stable but gets to hot and therefor cannot be stable with my cooler. Check out this thread for lots of posts and ideas. http://www.overclock.net/t/1418383/fx-6300-ga-78lmt-usb3-rev-5-0-overclocking-so-far/550
 
Manually configure your RAM to 9-9-9-27-36 2T and use like 1.55v - 1.65v should be good for more Mhz then. If you start getting a little high on the mhz and get some blue screens, drop the memory divider (or speed in bios) and that should leave some more head room. Or you can try slightly looser timings, my Mushkins always like 9-10-9-27-36 at around 1000mhz effective

You've got rooom for more Cpu-z voltage according to your temps. It'll go more.

edit, put a fan on the VRM section of that motherboard if you haven't already. Works wonders.
I can't OC my memory on this setup even to 1866 and even without any OC to CPU. With my previous mobo I could bump it to 2000 without problems. Any ideas?
 
You'll likely need to add volts to the CPU_NB to get that ram to run. It always seems to be the fix for kingston.
 
VDIMM is the ram voltage.

CPU-NB is the cpu northdridge, not to be confused with the regular northbridge. The cpu northbridge for the FX chip is the memory controller and L3 cache.

You want higher voltage for the cpu-nb when overclocking the ram, since the memory controller is doing more work it also needs more voltage.
 
Really weird. NO hassle at 2000 with the old mobo, struggling to get 1866 with the new one. The old one was GIGABYTE GA-A55M-S2V http://www.gigabyte.pl/products/page/mb/ga-a55m-s2vrev_10 BTW.

I've just succeeded with 1866 with some blind tweaks. I've just uploaded BIOS grabs to the same folder http://1drv.ms/1psEgdB

All in all I'm about to get close to the limits of my cooler. This is why I'm starting to look towards RAM OC. What I also plan to do is a proper ArmA benchmark: CPU Bus and NB vs pure Multiplier overclocking. Plus voltages of course.

EDIT:
One more thing. Even though I manage to boot into Windows, I get 4096 of my memory marked as hardware reserved very soon.

EDIT2:
You'll likely need to add volts to the CPU_NB to get that ram to run. It always seems to be the fix for kingston.
Which one is it on my mobo? 'NorthBridge Volt Control' or 'CPU NB VID Control'?
Ah, got it:
The cpu northbridge for the FX chip is the memory controller and L3 cache.
You want higher voltage for the cpu-nb when overclocking the ram, since the memory controller is doing more work it also needs more voltage.
'CPU NB VID Control' then.
 
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