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Sabretooth 990FX r.1/r.2 - OC Discussion & Info

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B-Tec

Registered
Joined
Feb 28, 2013
Location
Finland
A topic like this is I think is important for such a popular board. This is a place for Sabretooth 990fx r1/r2 owners and others interested! Ask anything you dont know and tell us if you do!

I can start.
Currently running an impressive overclock on a Phenom II 965 C2 CPU and I wish to share the details in case someone owns a same CPU. At the moment tested only 1h on Prime 95:
CPU: 3838Mhz, 1.500 Volts, Extreme Load Line Calibration: 100%.
FSB: 225,8 (225), CPU Ratio: 17
DDR: 1500Mhz CL 8-8-8-24 1T
NB: 2700, 1.35V, Extreme Load Line Calibration: 100%.
HT around 2000, Stock Volts.
Power Phase mode: Standard.
Manual Voltage Frequency: 300khz.
VRM: Probe Thermal.
(Cinebench 11.5 Score: 4.58)

I got something I need to ask despite after some reading about them. What these do? When should we use these? How should we use these?
1. Fixed CPU Voltage Frequency?
2. VRM: "Probe Thermal" or "Probe Current"?
3. Do other Sabretooth owners experience inaccurate FSB? For example 200 is actually 200.7 and after a while jumps for one or two second to 202.4?
 
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Quicker CPU Voltage Frequency is supposed allow faster transient response times for the VRM's but faster switching of the VRM increases heat on the VRMs. So CPU Voltage Frequency either allows you to set a frequency for the CPU Voltage or defaults to the standard speed and locks it there (you need check your own board). Default CPU Voltage Frequency used to be 300Mhz but the newer R2.0 boards have raised that to 350 or even 500 depending on the bios version. A C2 processor would need n0 changes to this setting in bios.



VRM: "Probe Thermal" or "Probe Current"? = monitors the VRM circuit by either the Temp of the VRMs to internally adjust or monitors load/current across the VRM circuit to balance the VRM circuit. I can see no use for not using Themal Probe on anything but exotic LN2 or DICE cooling.

Do other Sabretooth owners experience inaccurate FSB? For example 200 is actually 200.7 and after a while jumps for one or two second to 202.4? = Never heard of any other R2.0 saying his base frequency oscillated as you say yours does. I know of one other R2.0 Sabertooth owner in this forum that for sure has the R2.0 and he tweaks the everloving crap out of his board and has never made mention of such base frequency oscillation.
 
When I set my multiplier to 20x for a 4.0 overclock, I notice in windows and CPU-Z my CPU is usually running like 4.013 or something like that. Sometimes it says 4.1. Then when I OC to 4.2 it'll say 4.21 or 4.23
 
1. Fixed CPU Voltage Frequency?

This setting allows you to adjust how quickly the VRM circuit fires. The default is 300K as you currently have it set. As RGone mentioned that increasing the speed of the VRM circuit allows it to keep a tighter grip on the CPU core voltage. This setting is mostly only useful when you are trying to shoot for the stars on your OC. Given the amount of power that 965 can draw and the amount of power the board can put out I doubt you will have any need to change this setting.

2. VRM: "Probe Thermal" or "Probe Current"?

Leave this on probe thermal. What it does is set how the VRM load is balanced. When set to thermal monitoring it will shift the load around to maintain better average temps across the mosfets and such.

3. Do other Sabretooth owners experience inaccurate FSB? For example 200 is actually 200.7 and after a while jumps for one or two second to 202.4?

Most motherboards drift a little bit, and almost every single board is a little bit off one way or the other on the baseclock frequency. I have my board set at 220 right now and it drifts between 220.65 and 220.74 under full load. This effect on some motherboards can be effected by enabling or disabling "spread spectrum". Whether this will work and which way you have to set it is completely variable depending on the motherboard. I have not bothered to mess with this setting on my sabertooth as 10 years back when they came up with the idea of spread spectrum it was intended to help with system stability, so I generally let it do whatever the mobo default is unless it is swinging around by large margins.
 
RGone: Nice, thank you. Good info! I'll Keep my CPU Voltage fq at 300. Keep it "Probe Thermal" and for FSB: I heard someone saying "I never had an exact 200fsb". Hope to hear about this more tho...

Desync: You got Sabretooth 1 or 2?
 
I have a first release sabertooth with a 4170 on it.
+1 ssjwizard and rgone.
I run it at 4.7 24/7 with thermal probe enabled and spread spectrum disabled.
I have run prime95 2 hours well above 5.0 with no issues and the vcore above 1.8 and this board just won't quit.
other than the feature set it rates right up with my chv's.
one of the things we have found for bulldozer and pile driver is to use an early bulldozer bios. it's been so long since i have had my deneb on it i can't say anything about that.
I only wish i could find it's sister.....

more and bigger Mr. Rgone, more and bigger............
fedex shows big sister has just left nashville so she should be home monday and ready to party, your package should arrive about the same time so i might be back to having a cpu fry by tuesday......

as for the displayed fsb in cpu-z I just use it as a reminder where i'm at. mine seems to balance out best with a 235 bus speed, thats where i get faverable cpu/nb and ram speed.
 
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