Athlon II X4 635 OC Results, Please Critique

Please see the attatched JPEG for all of the CPU-Z Info.

My System Specs

AMD Athlon II X4 635
8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 Corsair XMS3 1333Mhz
EVGA GTX470 Superclocked 1280MB Video Card
ASUS M4N75TD Motherboard
Ultra LSP 750W Power Supply
500GB WD HD SATA

In order to acheieve these numbers I simply dropped the HT, NB & Memory down one multiplier. First I tried a FSB of 250, everything was great and it was bootable, but got blue screens after running IBT. Then I tried 240. and got blue screens as well. So I finally tried 230 and this seems to be the sweet spot for my setup @ Default voltages. These numbers are all done with default voltages(everything set to Auto in BIOS). I ran Prime95 torture test for 12 hours with zero errors, as well as IBT on Maximum settings for 30 runs.

Max Temps @ Full Load ~ 55c
Idle Temps ~ 28-30c

I am quite satisfied with the results I currently have. I do however have a question, since I was forced to lower the memory down, does this hinder the performance of my memory? I notice a lot of people lower the speed of their memory in order to acheive their overclocks but I was wondering if it negatively affects the actual performance of the memory? Or does the overclock of the CPU actually make up for that loss, and then some?

Please feel free to comment or add suggestions if you think I can get a little bit more juice out of my current setup. Thank you

tonychang said:

I am quite satisfied with the results I currently have. I do however have a question, since I was forced to lower the memory down, does this hinder the performance of my memory? I notice a lot of people lower the speed of their memory in order to achieve their overclocks but I was wondering if it negatively affects the actual performance of the memory? Or does the overclock of the CPU actually make up for that loss, and then some?

Click to expand...

Yes, your memory is hindered, as it is it is running at 7.5% below stock.

However, mathematically speaking, your processor is running 24% faster than its stock speed.

Without running some benchmarks on your system before and after the overclock though I would say it is hard to say for certain whether the hindrance to the memory is all that noticeable.

But your processor isn't the only thing that's been sped up, by increasing your FSB you've increased speeds throughout your system (CPU, NB speed, HT Link speed, etc). Theoretically that would most likely cancel out any deleterious effects that might be coming from your memory running below the rated speed, but once again without running some benchmarks on it there's no real way to tell how much faster your system really is.

If you want to try for higher speeds you could try putting the RAM multiplier to the normal setting and seeing if you can boot and are stable at that setting, as I'm getting the impression that you have not yet tried it at the default setting. Also, I might suggest raising the VCore voltage setting to one step above the stock setting and upping the FSB to 235 to see if that is stable.

What kind of cooling do you have on the CPU? Stock cooling, aftermarket air, water cooling?

Yes I am using the stock cooler.

I will try upping the vcore to 1.475, FSB to 235 and memory back to default multiplier to see what my results are. I'll get back to you with results. Thanks!

Well, it wouldn't boot with the memory set to the default multiplier. Even with the voltage raised on the CPU. So I went back to my previous settings, and I am now upping the NB Freq to the default multiplier. So far Prime95 has been running for 7 hours with no errors with the NB Freq at default Multiplier, somewhere in the range of ~2350mhz(forgot the exact number). I'll post back with an update soon.

to OCF!


Your overclock looks pretty good for a first shot!

The main thing I would change (from post #1) is the cpuNB speed, which you're now doing and testing. A higher cpuNB speed will effect RAM performance about as much as the RAM speed itself. Any increase in vCore (core voltage) or cpuNB voltage is likely to fail because your core temp is pushing the usual stability limit of 55.

If your cpuNB test passes at 10X the only thing left to try would be tighter RAM timings, which may or may not work. You might try 8-9-9 and increase the vDIMM (RAM voltage) to 1.65v. If that happens to work try 8-8-8 and you can bump the vDIMM to 1.70 if needed. Other than that, you've pretty much maxed out your system with the cooling you have.

It's good to see new members get a handle on the basics so fast!

QuietIce said:

to OCF!


Your overclock looks pretty good for a first shot!

The main thing I would change (from post #1) is the cpuNB speed, which you're now doing and testing. A higher cpuNB speed will effect RAM performance about as much as the RAM speed itself. Any increase in vCore (core voltage) or cpuNB voltage is likely to fail because your core temp is pushing the usual stability limit of 55.

If your cpuNB test passes at 10X the only thing left to try would be tighter RAM timings, which may or may not work. You might try 8-9-9 and increase the vDIMM (RAM voltage) to 1.65v. If that happens to work try 8-8-8 and you can bump the vDIMM to 1.70 if needed. Other than that, you've pretty much maxed out your system with the cooling you have.

It's good to see new members get a handle on the basics so fast!

Click to expand...

Thanks QuietIce. This is a new system that I just built a couple weeks ago. Trying to get the best performance I can out of it without changing the voltages if possible. Typically I don't like messing around with voltages too much and try to avoid it if possible so I am happy that I was able to acheive what I have without changing any voltages so far.

I'm thinking now that I've upped the CPU-NB that this will indeed make up for the lower RAM speed, and then some. Not sure if I will tighten the timings on the RAM as of yet as I don't know if I'm comfortable adjusting the DRAM voltages yet, will have to do some gaming(for further stability testing) for a few days once Prime95 comes back with zero errors after proper stability testing. I'm also overclocking my video card as well, I've got it running pretty close to 480 speeds at the moment, these EVGA cards overclock extremely well.

Good news guys, I just ran Prime95 for 16hours, no errors. This is with my original settings as posted in the original JPEG, but this time I've got my CPUNB set to default multiplier. I will spend the rest of the day gaming(what a great excuse) to test the stability of my GPU now.

Quick Update:

Video Card Overclock: CPU Core 750MHz: (stock 625) Memory:1800MHz

GPU Temps After 2 Hours Bad Company 2: 61c

FRAMERATE: Noticing increases in framerate by about 10-15 in Bad Company 2.

World of Warcraft noticing about a 30FPS increase. Both games played at 1680x1050 8xCSAA

CPU Temperatures: MAX Reached during BC2: 42c

Voltages are also looking good, using hardware monitor to check status, as well as EVGA Precision for overclocking the GPU and controlling fan speed. I've forced the fan speed on the GPU to 75% and the temps have lowered significantly from when set to "auto". At auto they are at 40% and for some reason doesn't do a great job of controlling the temp, it used to get up to 82c on "auto fan speed".

tonychang said:

Quick Update:

Video Card Overclock: CPU Core 750MHz: (stock 625) Memory:1800MHz

GPU Temps After 2 Hours Bad Company 2: 61c

FRAMERATE: Noticing increases in framerate by about 10-15 in Bad Company 2.

World of Warcraft noticing about a 30FPS increase. Both games played at 1680x1050 8xCSAA

CPU Temperatures: MAX Reached during BC2: 42c

Click to expand...

Anyone else think the GPU temp seems kind of high, or is it just me?

CPU temp seems nice and reasonable though, especially for stock cooling.

From what I've read the max these cards can handle is 100c, but obviously don't want to be near that. On average I am pretty sure these cards run around 70-80 at full load, and idle around 30-40. Mine idles at 31c, full load around 55-60.

Tech Tweaker said:

Anyone else think the GPU temp seems kind of high, or is it just me?

CPU temp seems nice and reasonable though, especially for stock cooling.

Click to expand...

For a GTX 470, that is probably a little low.. those cards can see upwards of 70-80*C. It's a perfectly normal operating temperature at 61*C.

Parad0x420 said:

For a GTX 470, that is probably a little low.. those cards can see upwards of 70-80*C. It's a perfectly normal operating temperature at 61*C.

Click to expand...

Oh, okay.

I guess it is just me then.

I just thought that seemed high because all the cards I've ever owned have rarely made it above 40°C even during gaming/3D benchmarks.

hi well done for your overclock, Proper overclocking !! none of this multiplier noobie play-school ****.
I think the standard cooler is really limiting the potential of your chip, I'd recommend a titan fenrir or something similar.
Are the temps you're reporting core temperatures or cpu temps?
Aim at keeping the core temp below 54c at 100% load when stability testing.

A c3 stepping on average should be hitting 3.7/3.8 @ 1.40-1.45 (3.8/3.9 being the average upper limits )
a c2 athlon x4 usually maxes out 3.5/3.6 @ 1.40-1.45.

Lower your ram speed multi by 1 or 2 and concentrate on finding the max Ht ref clock, max stable cpu frequency/nb. leave ht
around 2000.

I'd try and aim for 3.6ghz with 1.40v-1.475 vcore, nb 2200-2400 @ 1.175-1.2v (for 2 ddr modules).
As a rough guide i ran my x4 620 c2
13 x 277 @1.43v 2216 nb@ 1.20 1939 ht.
i struggled to get over 3.4 ghz no matter what voltage i used until i bought a better cpu cooler.

2 other things you could try aswell, Try using a cr2 command rate for the ram this might help in getting over the ht ref-237mhz instability,
I noticed you have all 4 ddr modules populated this might be straining the memory controller when overclocking the cpu with a higher than standard nb freq
I'd try using 2 sticks just to see if this effects your cpu-nb overclock or increase the nb voltage nb-v

Latest Update

Here are the latest results.

CPU + NB OC have been rock solid, haven't seen any errors caused by these settings yet.

EVGA GTX470 SUPERCLOCKED OC RESULTS

GPU Core OC: 780MHz(stock 625)

GPU Memory OC: 1841MHz(stock 1701)

100% Stable, idles @ 30C, Full Load @ 60c