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CPU/NB...or CPU-NB...or CPUNB...or CPU VID NB...or CPU NB...

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FlailBoy

Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2003
...And one more question-I have two values in the BIOS I can change: NB voltage and CPU VID NB.

When I start upping the multi further, which one do I use?

I got an answer in another thread, so I'm not looking for one here. What I'm talking about is the setting to change the voltage to the: CPU/NB...or CPU-NB...or CPUNB...or CPU VID NB...or CPU NB...

:bang head

This created some confusion for me. It seems like I'm not alone:

...but for some reason giving it extra CPU-NB (voltage) will improve stability at higher CPU frequency. I don't know why, but I've tested it numerous times to be true...

...and bump the cpu nb vid to 1.2...

..and CPUNB (or just "NB")...

...and the NB (or CPUNB)...


I've found these multiple ways of saying this elsewhere on the web also. I now think it's because this setting appears differently depending on the manufacturer, board, and BIOS used. I actually had to post a phone pic screenshot of my BIOS to get an answer.

Manufacturer, board, and BIOS info I think would be extremely helpful when talking about this. There's no way for us to know what every BIOS looks like, but here's a start:

On my Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3, BIOS ver F6, this setting appears as CPU VID NB
 
Yes non standard naming across different manufacturers is a PITA. Some are not even consistent across their own products. HTRef, HTT, BCLK, CPUCLK, FSB(outdated term) all refer to the system clock gen which is 200Mhz on most AMD boards and 100MHZ on almost everything else, but for some reason we have to have 10 different names for it which makes helping someone with a different motherboard than your own a real challenge some times.
 
Take my comment with a grain of salt. Vcore is of primary importance for cpu stability. In my experience, additional cpunb voltage has helped cpu frequency under liquid Nitrogen cooling when doing 7 and 8ghz plus. For those kinds of runs, I have pushed as much as 1.6v or so, which could likely mean instant death when not on ln2. It is pretty likely extra cpunb voltage does not help meaningfully under normal conditions where stability means more than setting cpu frequency and validating cpuz in a split second.

Best bet for talking about it is referencing the mobo manual, unless the user provides a picture. Usually the manual lists the correct nomenclature when I am telling someone what setting to look for.
 
Best bet for talking about it is referencing the mobo manual, unless the user provides a picture. Usually the manual lists the correct nomenclature when I am telling someone what setting to look for.

Agreed, I just hate asking people to RTFM. Even though a lot of noob questions are answered quickly and easily this way.
 
Take my comment with a grain of salt. Vcore is of primary importance for cpu stability. In my experience, additional cpunb voltage has helped cpu frequency under liquid Nitrogen cooling when doing 7 and 8ghz plus. For those kinds of runs, I have pushed as much as 1.6v or so, which could likely mean instant death when not on ln2. It is pretty likely extra cpunb voltage does not help meaningfully under normal conditions where stability means more than setting cpu frequency and validating cpuz in a split second.

Best bet for talking about it is referencing the mobo manual, unless the user provides a picture. Usually the manual lists the correct nomenclature when I am telling someone what setting to look for.

I actually took your comment as spot-on. :thup:

I was really just grabbing a few quotes where this was said in different ways.

And I did RTFM. :) Problem is, that it's only the manual for *my* board/BIOS. I think among the AM2 to AM3+ boards, talking about this setting can be especially problematic.
 
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Absolutely agree... On the manual front, I actually usually go out to the manufacturers website and pull their manual so I can use the right names and locations for them.
 
If the nomenclature is CPUNB,CPU/NB or CPU-NB it obviously is referencing the north bridge that is part of the integrated memory controller on the CPU die. If it's just "NB" then it's a little trickier. I look for the context in which it's found in that case. If it's found in the same section as as other CPU overclocking tools then it's probably the same as CPUNB. If it's found in the chipset section then it's probably referring to the onboard GPU/PCI-e adjustments. Before the days of the Athlon 64, the NB chip on the motherboard was the controller for the memory and the PCI-e and that's the source of the confustion in nomenclature.
 
If the nomenclature is CPUNB,CPU/NB or CPU-NB it obviously is referencing the north bridge that is part of the integrated memory controller on the CPU die. If it's just "NB" then it's a little trickier. I look for the context in which it's found in that case. If it's found in the same section as as other CPU overclocking tools then it's probably the same as CPUNB. If it's found in the chipset section then it's probably referring to the onboard GPU/PCI-e adjustments...

Here's the screenshot of my BIOS again. As you can see these settings all appear in the same place (and all on page 40 in the manual). On my board it's the CPU NB VID Control.

@ I.M.O.G. I think pulling up the manual for the board is a really good idea-for this setting and others.

When helping someone with a different board/BIOS we'd literally 'be on the same page'. Granted, we'd have to R somebody else's FM, but I think this a great way to get around some of the confusion. :cool:
 

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Yes, but notice that the CPU NB VID Control is immediately above the CPU Voltage Control so that provides a little context though admittedly, they are all pretty close together.

Pulling up manuals can help but the problem is what you actually see in bios is often quite different from what you see in the manual because of bios updates.
 
...Pulling up manuals can help but the problem is what you actually see in bios is often quite different from what you see in the manual because of bios updates.

Also true-but I think it's not a bad place to start.

Maybe you get the reply: "I don't see that in my manual/BIOS." Ok...there's probably been a BIOS update, so now we have to look someplace else. :shrug:
 
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