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OC on my new 980 BE

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I don't see a lot of point in increasing the CPUNB frequency. It won't help stability or real world performance I don't think. Try for 4.1. You might get there with the lower memory frequency and you do have a tiny bit of temp room for a very small CPU voltage increase. But first, try it with the current CPU voltage.
 
I got the fan to run at full speed. I hope this will help keep the CPU cooler when trying to get this OC sorted out. I haven't tried 4.1Ghz yet. Hope to get to try it soon.
 
Tried to hit 4.1Ghz at stock voltage of 1.4375 but Prime95 just closed by itself after about 10 min. I upped the voltage to 1.450 and ran it again. This time Prime95 closed out in about 15 min. I upped the voltage to 1.4625 and Prime95 ran for about an hour and closed out again. The max core temps were 54C. Is 4.0Ghz all I'm going to get? Is there anything else to do?
 
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You might try 1.475 vcore and see if the extra core temp is enough to make it unstable. You are very close to being stable at 4.1.
 
You might try 1.475 vcore and see if the extra core temp is enough to make it unstable. You are very close to being stable at 4.1.

Are the temps too high? I can try 1.475 vcore. I confused about your statement:You might try 1.475 vcore and see if the extra core temp is enough to make it unstable. Could you explain.
 
We preach around here that instability begins to happen on AMD CPUs when you hit around 55c core temp. "Around" means 55c isn't a magic number where your PC is guaranteed to become unstable. Your system might allow you a little more temp room before it becomes unstable. Give it a shot and see. But don't let either core temps or CPU socket temps reach 70c. That is unsafe territory.
 
The fan has 4 pin fan wire. I got about 2.5 hrs om Prime95 with no problems so I shut it down. I'll leave the memory at 1333 since it doesn't add to the performance. The temps stayed around 50-52C. Mostly running around 50-51C. Should I try 4.1Ghz and maybe change the CPUNB Freq to 2600 or just try 4.1Ghz? Maybe I'm at the limit? Your thoughts would be much appreciated. BTW, thanks for all the help so far.

If you up the CPU-NB to 2600 you'll need to up the CPU-NB voltage a bit. My 970 BE ran 4.2 with very similar settings to that (but with the NB at 3000), as well as similar voltages. With a biostar board I have a cpu-nb option and I think it was somewhere around 1.39v and core voltage was 1.475 nb voltage was 1.29 but it varies from board to board a bit. What I've noticed with phenom IIs in general (denabs and thubans) is the interesting fact they really dont need a lot more than stock voltage to go ~ 4ghz. And thats when you start hitting a wall, even if you pump lots more voltage through there (solution then would be liquid cooling). You are right near the upper limit but good work there Im sure you have a fast system. If you get time run aida64 and see if you can run the benchmark suite.

You still have some room to work with in terms of voltages, but your temps are getting up there.
 
Can someone explain what upping CPU-NB has for gains? or performance? I mostly just game so I'm wondering if it's something I should even bother with.

thanks :D

BTW I have the same set-up as him and going to try 4.1 ghz once I figure out how to up my voltage... lol
 
Here's the numbers for 4.1Ghz after 2 hrs of Prime95. The vcore is set to 1.475V up from stock 1.4375. I got the temps down a little by adding another front case fan. If you guys think I can get more, let me know what I can do. I wanted to break the 4Ghz barrier and I did but more would be better. BTW, the temps I have now are very close to the stock X4 945 C2 125W CPU I had with stock cooling and Q-fan turned on. What's strange to me was the 945 stock voltage was 1.3875 which I thought was low. Maybe it was a clocker and I didn't know it
 

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Can someone explain what upping CPU-NB has for gains? or performance? I mostly just game so I'm wondering if it's something I should even bother with.

thanks :D

BTW I have the same set-up as him and going to try 4.1 ghz once I figure out how to up my voltage... lol

Are you meaning the CPUNB voltage or the CPUNB Frequency?
 
frequency. I got 4.1 guzzle stable but I hate the bios in my motherboard. I am still running stock voltages with everything even despite changing numbers. based on the readings I get with cpu-z. ill put my system specs in my signature soon. I have 2600 mhz NB. BUT based on readings anymore and ill just lose speed.
 
Here's the numbers for 4.1Ghz after 2 hrs of Prime95. The vcore is set to 1.475V up from stock 1.437. I got the temps down a little by adding another front case fan. If you guys think I can get more, let me know what I can do. I wanted to break the 4Ghz barrier and I did but more would be better. BTW, the temps I have now are very close to the stock X4 945 C2 125W CPU I had with stock cooling and Q-fan turned on. What's strange to me was the 945 stock voltage was 1.387 which I thought was low. Maybe it was a clocker and I didn't know it

Yeah, I could live with that.
 
Can someone explain what upping CPU-NB has for gains? or performance? I mostly just game so I'm wondering if it's something I should even bother with.

thanks :D

BTW I have the same set-up as him and going to try 4.1 ghz once I figure out how to up my voltage... lol

The CPUNB is, or is a major component of, the ICM (Integrated Memory Controller). Increasing its frequency can improve its efficiency in handling data.
 
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Hey trents or storm-chaser, You think I'm at the limit? Or is it possible to squeeze a little more?
 
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Hey trents or storm-chaser, You think I'm at the limit? Or is it possible to squeeze a little more?

I would quit while you are ahead and not risk damaging components. How much real world difference is one more .1 ghz going to make, anyway.
 
A little curious, why was the stock voltage so low on the 945 I had installed?

Because the 945 was clocked lower, mostly. After all, they are both Deneb core CPUs and have the same architecture. That's how AMD markets their CPUs. They basically take the same chip and set the clock higher (and set the voltage higher as well to support the higher clock) and sell it for a little more. In other words, they overclock it part of the way for you. Now I'm not suggesting you can overclock the 945 as quite as high as the 980. The 980s were the cream of the production crop but on the other hand, there's not as much difference as the stock clocks of the two might suggest.
 
I have my 4 ghz running off of 1.41 voltage :), think I could go any lower?
oh and my fsb is 200, any benifit to increasing that?

NB still at 2600 mhz now.
 
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I have my 4 ghz running off of 1.41 voltage :), think I could go any lower?
oh and my fsb is 200, any benifit to increasing that?

NB still at 2600 mhz now.

FSB could technically help, as it OCs your ram and HTT, but your HTT will fail if pushed too far... also, it would allow a more grainular OC compared to multiplier OC, as you can bump the speeds in smaller jumps, rather than 100mhz at a time. That being said, what's a 20mhz boost going to yield in a game? Probably not worth it tbh, unless you really wanted to push your ram.
 
Thanks for all the help guys. I'll leave well enough alone. I'll show up once in a while just to see what's going on. I may get a board for the old X4 945 and start to build another computer for my son as a gaming system(he's a Mac Book geek). I may play around with it and see if I can get some more from the 945 since I learned a great deal from all of you that helped.
 
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