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Am I overclocking my NB right?

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Dapman02

Dapman02

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Joined
Jan 17, 2008
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Overland Park, KS
I am working on getting my Northbridge (CPU bound one) overclocked. I'm currently at 2.4Gghz with +1.25V. What is the most Voltage I should use.
 
What are you trying to achieve by oc'ing, Dolk showed that too much of and oc' hurts performance as well as too low. But I would say what ever you feel safe with. I run mine at 2500mhz (multiplier thing) with 1.25ish volts 24/7 and I have no problems.
 
I've seen voltages up to 1.30v on the NB, some even push 1.35v (which is generally considered too much). Just note that NB voltage is as bad as vCore for increasing core temps ...
 
Does anybody know if the PhenomII is supported on the original AM2 socket?

Regardless of bios support, if AMD says the PII is supported on AM2 then 1.35 volts to the NB shouldn't be a problem as the AM2 socket doesn't support dual power planes and will run the CPUNB at CPU voltage.
 
ViperX800 said:
Does anybody know if the PhenomII is supported on the original AM2 socket?

Regardless of bios support, if AMD says the PII is supported on AM2 then 1.35 volts to the NB shouldn't be a problem as the AM2 socket doesn't support dual power planes and will run the CPUNB at CPU voltage.
Click to expand...
We don't know that and I couldn't find a definitive answer. There may be some internal circuitry that reduces voltage to the NB on single-plane systems. If it's safe for the NB to run the same voltage as the cores (on dual-plane) then why wouldn't they show it that way on the thermal data sheets ...???
 
Last edited:
QuietIce said:
We don't know that and I couldn't find a definitive answer. There may be some internal circuitry that reduces voltage to the NB on single-plane systems. If it's safe for the NB to run the same voltage as the cores (on dual-plane) then why wouldn't they show it that way on the thermal data sheets ...???
Click to expand...

The thermal data sheet lists both single and dual plane for the PII procs. According to the thermal sheet a 940 has a 125W TDP on a dual plane socket and a 139.6W TDP in a single plane socket.
I checked the PII product data sheet and AM2 is not listed as a supported socket but some claim to have run them on AM2 boards.
 
I saw the TDP numbers as well but my question still remains.

If the NB really does run at core voltage on single-plane systems then why change the spec for dual-plane? I can't believe they would do it just to reduce the TDP for dual-plane systems, what purpose would that serve ...?
 
Keep in mind that the dual power plane started with Phenom 1 which did have TDP issues.
If you have the capability to run the NB with stability at a lower voltage then why not do it?

Performance per watt is a big deal these days.

Edit:
Something else interesting is the TDP listed for the Phenom 1 chips are the same for both single and dual plane, although in theory they would produce less heat on dual plane.
 
Last edited:
Yes, the TDP is the same - but you'll notice the NB voltage on Phenom I is 1.30v (dual-plane), which is the same as the max vCore.

Still no reason I can think of for listing the max NB voltage on Phenom II lower than the vCore, assuming the NB will take that much. They still could have listed it as 1.15v - 1.40v (or whatever). Instead they chose to list it as 1.225v. Having a higher max NB voltage wouldn't change the TDP for the chip because it still needs to be rated at the highest level, which is single-plane ... :shrug:
 
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I pushed my nb up to 1.35volts for a reasonable overclock.. it's stable on 1.30 volts for 3.7ghz running with a 2400mhz nb.. but for 2800 it seems to want 1.4 volts.. sometimes less.. but it just reboots and 1.45volts which was an absoloute dare that scared me..
 
I do 1.35v 24/7 because its at 2.8ghz with my cpu at 3.8ghz @ 1.55v

I've gone as high as 1.45v only when doing extreme.

As for now there is no "safe zone" or a point for which the CPU will start to degrade faster due to the amount of voltage spilling into it.
 
Dolk said:
I do 1.35v 24/7 because its at 2.8ghz with my cpu at 3.8ghz @ 1.55v

I've gone as high as 1.45v only when doing extreme.

As for now there is no "safe zone" or a point for which the CPU will start to degrade faster due to the amount of voltage spilling into it.
Click to expand...

Man, that is almost a split image of the 940 I just shipped out.

My new 955 is nice, but I noticed that it does run a bit hotter (but it also will actually boot at 4.0Ghz)
 
And you may have to increase NB and/or SB (chipsets) voltage as well - but only a little. IIRC chew had to push his NB (chipset) up to 1.2v when he hit 2.8 GHz and I think he bumped the SB voltage to 1.25v (default is 1.2v for the SB).

But I'd only try that if you're still having issues after raising the cpuNB voltage ...
 
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