4.0 Zambezi | Reached my limit apparently.

[lukestrothman]

So after following the Bulldozers Guide of OC : Overclockers.com I still can't get past 4.0, I've raised my vcore to 1.5 the NB to the recommended highest setting, disabled my turbo, just raised my multiplier to 22, I can boot fine , everything is blazing FAST amazing, as soon as I hit a Prime95, BAM cores 7/8 getting a ton of warnings. So I reboot and change,

My temps are perfect, My temps on idle are about 24c and load up to about 39c,

Can't figure out how to get past this brick wall!!!

 

[trents]

Let's see these three pics from CPU-z: CPU tab, Memory tab and SPD tab.

That MSI 970 chipset board is not helping your cause.

Did you disable Cool N Quiet, C1E and C6 in bios?

 

[lukestrothman]

Let's see these three pics from CPU-z: CPU tab, Memory tab and SPD tab.

That MSI 970 chipset board is not helping your cause.

Did you disable Cool N Quiet, C1E and C6 in bios?

Cool N Quiet yes, C1E no, and C6 no.

These are from the current stable config, ( the only difference is a decrease in multiplier )

 

[Mandrake4565]

Luke, I will bet your processor isn't at it's limit, your board is. These Bulldozer/Piledriver chips require a lot of power when overclocked. At stock clocks they will run on most of the "decent" AMD boards. When overclocking comes into play I have seen and experienced 1st hand, many instances where even second tier motherboards cannot handle the load. You board only has a 4+1 power phase count in the VRM section of it. You are probably getting errors because the chip isn't getting good power to it. Unfortunately if you really want to push that chip you are probably going to need a much better board. If you have a look at this tread you'll see the boards that have 8+2 power phase vrm, if you really want to push the overclock then you are probably going to need one of those. On another note MSI has also had issues with VRM failures, I have experienced it first hand with the same board you have. It wasn't pretty seeing smoke come out of my pc. Have a look at this article and see how many failures MSI had on it. Sorry if I'm the bearer of bad news but I just wanted to open your eyes to the reality of the situation.

 

[trents]

Why are your running your ram at only 1333? FX CPUs will easily handle 1866 ram and your ram will do 1600. Also, why is your HT Reference slower than your NB frequency? Are you confusing the chipset NB in bios with the CPUNB? And your CPU core voltage is only set to 1.416. You said it was at 1.5.

 

[caddi daddi]

Trents, I think that is the same board i stacked on my bone pile early last year trying the same thing. I think standing at 4.0 and working on cpu/nb (2400), ht link (2600), ram speed, (all it'll go) and ram timming might be the way to go.

 

[boucher91]

Cool N Quiet yes, C1E no, and C6 no.

c6=yes c1e=yes

 

[swampdonkey]

yea he has plenty of voltage for 4ghz. he may be getting confused with the different voltages in the bios. also as stated above could just be the board failing to feed hungry bulldozer.

 

[lukestrothman]

Well I raised the CPUNB and I changed my RAM to 1600 instead of 1333, I also upped to 1.5 for VCORE C6= Yes now as well as C1E is Yes as well, I have everything the way I think it should, and I started at 4.4 and it still kills my core 7 & 8 workers instantly in a Prime95.... however now at the 1.5 etc higher volts, I noticed I'm not idling at like 20c anymore, I idle around 31. and with Prime95 workers 1-6 running it hit 53c pretty darn quick, like (20 seconds quick) so I bumped back down to 4.0GHz on the dot, and trimmed down the voltage etc, left my ram @ 1600, and its quite quick for me, I would love to see a stable 4.4~ but not sure thats manageable.

Maybe some pictures of my BIOS Configs?

Not sure... :\

Thanks for all the help thus far.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Luke, overclocking is a process that takes patience, going from 4.0 to 4.4 isn't a bump, it's a huge jump. Doing so only makes it harder for you to figure out what is causing your workers to fail. What you need to to is find your last 2hr prime stable setting and start slowly upping either the multiplier and or the fsb. Just jumping the V Core to 1.5 and hoping for the best isn't going to do it. If 4.0 is where you are stuck at, was it stable 2hours prime blend there?

 

[lukestrothman]

Luke, overclocking is a process that takes patience, going from 4.0 to 4.4 isn't a bump, it's a huge jump. Doing so only makes it harder for you to figure out what is causing your workers to fail. What you need to to is find your last 2hr prime stable setting and start slowly upping either the multiplier and or the fsb. Just jumping the V Core to 1.5 and hoping for the best isn't going to do it. If 4.0 is where you are stuck at, was it stable 2hours prime blend there?

Yes 2 hours stable, I went 4 on it, and it was fine. No errors.

 

[swampdonkey]

Bro 1.5v on the core is WAY to much. This isnt a phenom ii. 4.0ghz shouldnt require anymore than 1.4v. Im suprised your temps werent at 40c idling we a hyper212 evo.

 

[RGone]

VCORE C6= Yes now as well as C1E is Yes as well, = Generally should be Disabled and Disabled when overclocking and doing the testing to get to a stable overclock. Cool N Quiet Disabled as well. Windows Power Managment to Performance Mode as well. APM in bios Disabled also. All that green stuff to Disabled when tweaking the speed of an overclock. Some can be turned back on after a stable overclock is fully found and is deemed stable. Otherwise the cpu and windows are moving the cpu speed up and down and varying the cpu voltage and making it hard to capture and show the speeds when the cpu is under load.

I noticed I'm not idling at like 20c anymore, I idle around 31. and with Prime95 workers 1-6 running it hit 53c pretty darn quick,

Response >> So what are you calling out those temps from? HWMonitor (free version) and the temp you are speaking of is CPU Temp or "package" temp in HWMonitor which is core temp in the later versions of HWMonitor. Which is what we all use in the forum here to determine what the temps are for recommendations.

Maybe some pictures of my BIOS Configs?

Response >> Maybe but certainly captures of CPUz at the CPU Tab, the Memory Tab and the SPD tab each captured and resized so the whole screen does not appear when uploaded. Also need HWMonitor captured after it has been open on the desktop logging before, during and after a stable run of Prime 95 Blend mode.

I agree completely with "Mandrake4565" in that just jumping to 4.4Ghz which is your target speed and not verifying the speeds in between, is a setup for frustration. Especially for being frustrated when using only a CM 212 EVO for cooling. We cannot see the tale of the temps rise since you don't show captures of HWMonitor as mentioned in Response above.
I would be verifying 4.1Ghz, 4.2Ghz, 4.3Ghz on the way to 4.4Ghz to ensure I knew what was going on with the requirement for Vcore and the temperatures of the cpu and the core of the cpu.

Whatever temp you called out as "jumping" to 53c and then you throttle back down does not tell us squat really. Sure the temps jumped, you went to 1.5Vcore. You cannot run 4.4Ghz without Vcore. You cannot run 4.4ghz without cooling to take care of the increased Vcore and speed and we cannot see how that progression is moving without the four captures along the way to indicate what the heck is happening.
RGone...

 

[lukestrothman]

VCORE C6= Yes now as well as C1E is Yes as well, = Generally should be Disabled and Disabled when overclocking and doing the testing to get to a stable overclock. Cool N Quiet Disabled as well. Windows Power Managment to Performance Mode as well. APM in bios Disabled also. All that green stuff to Disabled when tweaking the speed of an overclock. Some can be turned back on after a stable overclock is fully found and is deemed stable. Otherwise the cpu and windows are moving the cpu speed up and down and varying the cpu voltage and making it hard to capture and show the speeds when the cpu is under load.

I noticed I'm not idling at like 20c anymore, I idle around 31. and with Prime95 workers 1-6 running it hit 53c pretty darn quick,

Response >> So what are you calling out those temps from? HWMonitor (free version) and the temp you are speaking of is CPU Temp or "package" temp in HWMonitor which is core temp in the later versions of HWMonitor. Which is what we all use in the forum here to determine what the temps are for recommendations.

Maybe some pictures of my BIOS Configs?

Response >> Maybe but certainly captures of CPUz at the CPU Tab, the Memory Tab and the SPD tab each captured and resized so the whole screen does not appear when uploaded. Also need HWMonitor captured after it has been open on the desktop logging before, during and after a stable run of Prime 95 Blend mode.

I agree completely with "Mandrake4565" in that just jumping to 4.4Ghz which is your target speed and not verifying the speeds in between, is a setup for frustration. Especially for begin frustrated when using only a CM 212 EVO for cooling. We cannot see the tale of the temps rise since you don't show captures of HWMonitor as mentioned in Response above.
I would be verifying 4.1Ghz, 4.2Ghz, 4.3Ghz on the way to 4.4Ghz to ensure I knew what was going on with the requirement for Vcore and the temperatures of the cpu and the core of the cpu.

Whatever temp you called out as "jumping" to 53c and then you throttle back down does not tell us squat really. Sure the temps jumped, you went to 1.5Vcore. You cannot run 4.4Ghz without Vcore. You cannot run 4.4ghz without cooling to take care of the increased Vcore and speed and we cannot see how that progression is moving without the four captures along the way to indicate what the heck is happening.
RGone...

Thank you, I should have been more clear, I will pin point more in depth when I get home from work today.

However I have tried 4.1/2/3/4 etc etc , and it was the same all the way up, so I went back to 4.0 where it was stable.

Temps are also off of "HWMONITOR" Under the expanded Temperatures tab under the CPU, all cores match, right now it is idling at 18C on all 8 cores. @ 4.0 @ 1.44 V-Core

 

[RGone]

You can begin at the LAST known stable overclock and test and post the 4 captures from there but with the green stuff off as outlined below.

With these CPUs you would need to be concerned with and deal with certain things when overclocking:

The first thing would be to download the tools we use when overclocking: CPU-z, HWMonitor and Prime95. All are freeware.

The next thing to do would be to check core/"package" temps and CPU temps at stock frequencies and voltages to get an idea of how much overclocking headroom you have from a temperature standpoint, which is the main limiting factor.

To check those stock condition temps: Open HWMonitor on your desktop and adjust the slider and frame so you can see the core temps section and the voltage section. Leave it open while you run the Prime95 blend test for 20 minutes. When that is done, attach a pic of the HWMonitor interface with your next post. To attach a pic, first crop and save the image to disc using Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories. Then click on the Go Advanced button at the bottom of any new post window. When the Advanced Post window appears, click on the little paperclip icon which will load the file browser and upload tool. The rest is obvious.

Next you need to be able to:

1. In bios, first disable: Cool N Quiet, Turbo, C1E and C6 (BD/PD cpus). Also new with FX-series processor is the APM setting in bios. Locate and disable APM, so the high current draw thru the VRMs will not cause cpu throttling.
2. In Windows Control Panel Power Options configure it to High Performance.

These first two measures should disable all the "green" power saving stuff that cause erratic frequencies and voltages.

Then In bios, you will need to be able to manipulate:
1. CPU core voltage
2. CPU multiplier
3. CPUNB voltage
4. CPUNB frequency (may be expressed as a multiplier)
5. And perhaps, memory voltage

If you can locate those controls in bios you will be off to a good start and we can advise more specifically with regard to their adjustment. The terminology you encounter in the particular bios you are working on may vary somewhat from what I have used so be aware of that.

If you have a CPU with an upward unlocked multiplier, now just start increasing your CPU multiplier by .5x.

After each increase run a 20 minute Prime95 blend test to check for stability.

Always have HWMonitor open on the desktop to monitor core temps. Max stable core/"package" temp is typically 55-58c, somewhere in there. CPU Temp should not go higher than 70c.

When you first fail the 20 minute Prime blend test, increase your CPU core voltage by .025 and retest. If you still fail, add another .025 vcore. Then retest, repeating the pattern outlined. Stop adding vcore when your reach 1.5 or core temps exceed the parameters mentioned above.

Failing the Prime test can mean blue screen, spontaneous restart, lockup or one of the Prime core workers dropping out. Post back after you have added two increments of vcore or hit the mid 50's core temp wall. When you post, attach pics of HWMonitor; CPUz CPU Tab and CPUz Memory Tab from your last Prime95 blend run and give us a report.

 

[Zenos]

So after following the Bulldozers Guide of OC : Overclockers.com I still can't get past 4.0, I've raised my vcore to 1.5 the NB to the recommended highest setting, disabled my turbo, just raised my multiplier to 22, I can boot fine , everything is blazing FAST amazing, as soon as I hit a Prime95, BAM cores 7/8 getting a ton of warnings. So I reboot and change,

My temps are perfect, My temps on idle are about 24c and load up to about 39c,

Can't figure out how to get past this brick wall!!!

Keep banging your head on it.

 

[lukestrothman]

Keep banging your head on it.

lol.


RGone Thanks for the support man, will post back when I get home, I don't have access to the BIOS / through remote.

 

[Zenos]

lol.


RGone Thanks for the support man, will post back when I get home, I don't have access to the BIOS / through remote.

Glad you guys figured it out.