Ok so I know you have probably had to answer this a million times before, but me being new to amd I have yet to find a straight answer. I Just built a new pc. I put an FX 8120 oc to 4.3 ghz installed on a Gigabyte 970 UD3 mobo, 8 Gigs of kingston hyperx oc to 1866 a Radeon 7970, a 1 tb Western digital caviar black and a thermaltake 850 watt PSU. I also have an antec kuhler 620 installed as a cooler. When I play certain games eg. tribes: ascend my cpu temp will sometimes hit 63-65 for 30 or 40 seconds then drop back down to 60 or so. Games like crysis and metro 2033 never get over 55-60(Idk why tribes makes it hotter than metro, I would expect the opposite since tribes isnt a demanding game.). Is that an acceptable temp to run at? And should I be getting better temps since I have a liquid cooler? I read from other people that theres never gets over 50. My voltage is increased by .5 volts as well. Also, what program do you recommend for monitering hardware temps?Thanks for any help you might have.
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Fx-8120 temperature questions from an AMD noob
- Thread starter mrkonk
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2002
I recommend HW monitor by CPUID to monitor your temps. Leave it running in the background and it will measure max and min temps across the whole system for you.
You should not be pushing your CPU core temps up to 60 on an AMD chip. Technically they are rated for operation up to 62C, but when overclocked we tend to try to stay around 55C max under a prime 95 load.
It sounds like you have your voltage turned way to high to me.
Please post screen shots of CPU-Z open to the main, memory, and SPD tabs. Also what is the default voltage for your 8120 detected by the motherboard in the bios?
You should not be pushing your CPU core temps up to 60 on an AMD chip. Technically they are rated for operation up to 62C, but when overclocked we tend to try to stay around 55C max under a prime 95 load.
It sounds like you have your voltage turned way to high to me.
Please post screen shots of CPU-Z open to the main, memory, and SPD tabs. Also what is the default voltage for your 8120 detected by the motherboard in the bios?
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
We also need to know what the CPU "core" temps are instead of the CPU socket temp. Most temp monitoring programs only give the socket temp which they refer to as the CPU temp. Core temps are the most important. HWMOnitor will display both, as well as max, min and current temps for both.
- Thread Starter
- #4
I made a mistake when I said I had the voltage increased .5 volts. I only have it increased .05 volts big difference there. Its stock voltage for my Mobo is 1.3, so I only have it at 1.35. I think I found my problem though. I don't think im overheating at all. I downloaded and installed HW monitor and after 20 min of gameplay all core temp max readings were around 45. I must have been looking at socket temp. All I was using to read temps before was Easy tune 6 that came with my motherboard. So really all I have to wory about is keeping the cores under 55 or so? In CPU-Z I also notice my processor jumping between 1400 MHZ and 4300. Is that normal? Thanks
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
You need to look at both CPU socket temps and core temps because it seems AMD has trouble with the calibration of core temp sensors - with the last couple of processor lines (Thuban and FX) the core temps sensors often read artifically low. What did HWMonitor say your socket temps were when it was giving 45c for the core temps? Yes, Easy Tune will only give CPU socket temps.
Concerning the erratic processor frequency, in bios disable Cool N Quiet, Turbo, C1E and C6. Go into Windows Control Panel Power Options and configure it to High Performance. That should turn off all the "green" power saving technology that throttles the CPU down. You might also check in bios in the PC Health tab to see if there is some kind of thermal protection control that down-throttles the CPU when a certain temp is reached. Often, the temp threshold is set unnecessarily low. I would set it to about 65c.
- Thread Starter
- #6
I couldnt find anywhere on HW monitor that mentioned socket temp, although I was in a hurry to get to work. Later tonight after I get off work Ill stress test it and upload a screen cap of the readings. Should I even use prime95 or just play games on it for a half hour or so?
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
Sometimes HWMonitor will present the CPU socket temp as one o the TMPINx lines.
We always recommend testing temps and stability with Prime95. I prefer the "blend" test. True stability of an overclock would require passing Prime for at least 2 hours, though running it for 20 minutes is good enough to establish that it is at least almost stable as you are going through the overclock process and it is time efficient. 20 minutes will also give you a pretty good idea of max temps.
We always recommend testing temps and stability with Prime95. I prefer the "blend" test. True stability of an overclock would require passing Prime for at least 2 hours, though running it for 20 minutes is good enough to establish that it is at least almost stable as you are going through the overclock process and it is time efficient. 20 minutes will also give you a pretty good idea of max temps.
- Thread Starter
- #9
Ok so Im off work and was able to upload some pics of actual temps so you could more accurately help.
Im assuming TMPIN2 is my socket temp?
Everything else looks fine to me though. I just wanna double check. Iv built 3 of my own systems, however this is my first major overclock so im a bit nervous lol
Im assuming TMPIN2 is my socket temp?
Everything else looks fine to me though. I just wanna double check. Iv built 3 of my own systems, however this is my first major overclock so im a bit nervous lol
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2002
Tempin2 would be my guess for the socket temp, it has the most variance and is consistently about 10c higher than the core temp is in both max and min values. Your vCore looks fine if its not going over 1.38 your on the right track!
- Thread Starter
- #11
When I run prime95 my cpu throttles back to 2.8 ghz even with all of amds coolnquiet turbo etc. Other than that I think I got this thing running like a champ
- Thread Starter
- #13
I have a gigabyte 970-UD3 :/ wish I would have gone with the 990 but my budget ran out. Anyway I can't find anything in the bios that is APM or advanced power management. I did find a cpu unlock option which was disabled before. Im going to try it with it enabled.
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
I would also assume TMPIN2 is the CPU socket temp.
ssjwizard is just trying to help you disable the "green" stuff that causes downthrottling and erratic frequencies and voltages in the name of saving energy, which most of us overclockers are not concerned about. You may not have the master turnoff item he has in his bios but here's how you can do the same thing:
Disable: Cool N Quiet, Turbo, C1E, and C6. Then go into Windows Control Panel Power Options and configure it to High Performance.
ssjwizard is just trying to help you disable the "green" stuff that causes downthrottling and erratic frequencies and voltages in the name of saving energy, which most of us overclockers are not concerned about. You may not have the master turnoff item he has in his bios but here's how you can do the same thing:
Disable: Cool N Quiet, Turbo, C1E, and C6. Then go into Windows Control Panel Power Options and configure it to High Performance.
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2012
Just to add to the discussion - do not enable core unlocker, as you have no cores to unlock. All it will do is make you lose the ability to see your core temps.
- Thread Starter
- #16
I already did all that yesterday and it still throttles down during prime95 testing. It stays at 4.3 ghz a d then throttles down. I have the temp in my bios set to 65 and it isn't even getting close to that. Ill try updating the bios to f5 as im currently using f4
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
Looks like his core temps are showing in HWMonitor so I don't think he has done this.
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2002
@trents When APM is enabled even with all of the other green stuff off and HW thermal control disabled, and windows on high performance it will STILL throttle the FX CPUs under any significant load which can happen at stock speeds as well.
@mrkonk http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3907&dl=1#bios
if your not already on it download the latest bios for your motherboard it should have A.P.M. master mode under either the advanced configurations tab or the M.I.T. tab of your bois. IF you still cannot find it and your still having throttling issues there is a tweaking software(I cant find the link right this moment) called FX tuner or something like that which can change settings on the CPU live. There is also a workaround using AMD OD to do this by enabling turbo waiting 20 seconds then disabling turbo and setting your overclock which is kind of a PITA but it tricks APM into staying turned off.
@mrkonk http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3907&dl=1#bios
if your not already on it download the latest bios for your motherboard it should have A.P.M. master mode under either the advanced configurations tab or the M.I.T. tab of your bois. IF you still cannot find it and your still having throttling issues there is a tweaking software(I cant find the link right this moment) called FX tuner or something like that which can change settings on the CPU live. There is also a workaround using AMD OD to do this by enabling turbo waiting 20 seconds then disabling turbo and setting your overclock which is kind of a PITA but it tricks APM into staying turned off.
I've noticed that too when I got FX and ran prime95 for the first time at stock speeds, I often saw a core or two throttling at 2800 MHz. So this applies to Asus boards too, it's called APM master Mode. Was it something that it tries to keep temps or TDP at AMD spec?
@mrkonk Don't disable APM if you decide to go back to stock speeds, you will lose turbo and would be at 3.1 GHz all the time.
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2012
So, F5 did more than update the recognized processors list huh?
Does this APM thing only apply to FX series processors?
