970 ASROCK Extreme 3 overclocking guide

[RGone]

hey how about my spread spectrum and amd turbo in bios? Should i turn both of them off?

U could g00gle them and see 'what' they really are and decide from what you know then.

Me I turn them off/Disable.
RGone...

 

[isogamer]

Try 4.4Ghz and see if it will go and be stable for two hours of P95 Blend testing. Just check and ensure the socket temps stays about <72c and the core/package temps stay <62c during the testing with P95 Blend. U have to give it some cpu voltage to get on up there though.
RGone...

HEY RGone thanks for your help so far.. but ya i am having now issues. So with my last settings that you have seen my mobo and cpu was clocked at 4400mhz.. now finally getting the chance to use P95... my pc crashed right away.. so i must have done something wrong with my ocing.. but now putting everything back to auto.. ran P95 Blend again.. works fine.. so for sure i know it is my ocing..

So what would you recommend at this point? I would like to at least reach 4300mhz in stable condition.. and i know my mobo ain't the best start for that.. but i would just like to go a little high at least..

Should i just start going up 100mhz and cpu volts bit at a time? I can only go 100mhz at the time cause bios only gives me this option to go at thip ace..

 

[RGone]

When the setting thought to be stable crashes immediately when put to the P95 Blend test, that means previously believed stable setup was not stable after all. What is suggested as next course of action.

Post #23 has previous and now current suggestion. Suggested cpu voltage and all.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7603807&postcount=23

By the way picking a target speed is most often a setup for disappointment. None of us ever gets more than the parts and pieces will allow. Your parts and pieces are pretty darn marginal for overclocking an 8 core FX processor. U have to feed that 8 cores hefty, stable voltage and current for them to run fast and then cool the crap out of them. If either of those two are underwhelming; then max stable overclock is always low.

RGone...

 

[Mandrake4565]

Your answer is on page two,
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7603807&postcount=23
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7604850&postcount=30

 

[isogamer]

When the setting thought to be stable crashes immediately when put to the P95 Blend test, that means previously believed stable setup was not stable after all. What is suggested as next course of action.

Post #23 has previous and now current suggestion. Suggested cpu voltage and all.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7603807&postcount=23

By the way picking a target speed is most often a setup for disappointment. None of us ever gets more than the parts and pieces will allow. Your parts and pieces are pretty darn marginal for overclocking an 8 core FX processor. U have to feed that 8 cores hefty, stable voltage and current for them to run fast and then cool the crap out of them. If either of those two are underwhelming; then max stable overclock is always low.

RGone...

Hi so far i am at 4100mhz with CPU V being 1.4 and CPU NB volt being 1.2
and NB being at 4400mhz last time i checked..

i did a p95 stress test for 20mins and everything pass.. haven't done the 4 hour mark yet.. should i still do the 4 hour mark or could i just go ahead and up the CPU multiplier a bit like 4200mhz ?

also here is how my bios menu looks like.. those r some one else settings but under spectrum or cool n quite should i have all those disabled?

 

[Mandrake4565]

Keep going till it fails then back it down .5 and run prime 2 blend 2 hours, if it fails add Cpu V until it passes or your Cpu temp goes above 70 or the Package goes above 62.

 

[isogamer]

Keep going till it fails then back it down .5 and run prime 2 blend 2 hours, if it fails add Cpu V until it passes or your Cpu temp goes above 70 or the Package goes above 62.

Hi thanks for your help.. ya i am testing it as of now 4200mhz and so far i got no errors.. ran it about for 20mins.. Should i go longer?

Now let say i move on to 4300mhz (And i think i am going to stay at that, cause of the type of mobo i have)... let say i am stable at 4300mhz should i move my CPU volt down a bit?

So far my CPU volt has been 1.4 and CPU NB volt 1.2 the whole time... I just don't want my volts to be too high if i am not going any further then 4300mhz..although i am currently getting around 35 to 45c idle on my cpu (Antec 920) with my volt settings as i mentioned.. i just want to make sure i don't go too high for unnecessary reason..

 

[RGone]

Test it. Test it lower if you want to do so. We have no idea how low it will go. That part is up to you to test with and REmain stable and below suggested temps for at least 2 hours of P95 Blend mode.
RGone...

 

[bassnut]

Dam you beet me to it RGone .....


once you have passed 4200mhz for at least 20 min with prime move up one step and try again. If you get an error or crash bump your VCore and try again. Keep an eye on your temps with HWMonitor as you are doing this and keep your temps in line, 70*C max on your socket temp (CPU Temp in HWMonitor) and 62*C max for your CORE Temp (Package Temp in HWMonitor). At some point when you get to a speed where you are nearing your max OC you will have to test longer about 2 hours but for now 20 min is fine as you work up.


EDIT....
What you are looking for is stability for at least 2 hours with prime at whichever speed you choose. Part of the fine tuning is finding your lowest VCore that you can run that speed at with out errors or your system crashing.

 

[isogamer]

Dam you beet me to it RGone .....


once you have passed 4200mhz for at least 20 min with prime move up one step and try again. If you get an error or crash bump your VCore and try again. Keep an eye on your temps with HWMonitor as you are doing this and keep your temps in line, 70*C max on your socket temp (CPU Temp in HWMonitor) and 62*C max for your CORE Temp (Package Temp in HWMonitor). At some point when you get to a speed where you are nearing your max OC you will have to test longer about 2 hours but for now 20 min is fine as you work up.


EDIT....
What you are looking for is stability for at least 2 hours with prime at whichever speed you choose. Part of the fine tuning is finding your lowest VCore that you can run that speed at with out errors or your system crashing.

Ya so far i been only doing about 20min + testing.. and so far no crashes for 4200mhz that is.. i am going to reach 4300mhz and if i still don't see any crashes at that level then i am going to proceed to go for the 2hour stress test.. so far when ever i do the stress test my core temp shows max at 70c and from what i read so far i should be fine? Right?

 

[isogamer]

Test it. Test it lower if you want to do so. We have no idea how low it will go. That part is up to you to test with and REmain stable and below suggested temps for at least 2 hours of P95 Blend mode.
RGone...

Also as i posted for my bios pic menu..

What about

Cool n quiet
Enhanced Halt State
Secure Virtula Machine
and Cpu Thmeral THrottle

Should i disable all of those? Or does it really matter?

 

[RGone]

These settings are apparently in the bios of an Asrock 970 Ext3 mobo and how I would set them for sure when pushing an overclock.

Cool and quiet: off
Secure Machine: off
Enhanced Halt State: off
Core 6 State ff
Cpu Thermal Throttle off
Spread Spectrum: off
CPU Active Core Control: off
AMD Turbo Core Technology: off
Current APM Status: off
AMD Application Power Management: off

RGone...

 

[isogamer]

These settings are apparently in the bios of an Asrock 970 Ext3 mobo and how I would set them for sure when pushing an overclock.

Cool and quiet: off
Secure Machine: off
Enhanced Halt State: off
Core 6 State ff
Cpu Thermal Throttle off
Spread Spectrum: off
CPU Active Core Control: off
AMD Turbo Core Technology: off
Current APM Status: off
AMD Application Power Management: off

RGone...

Hey so i am running prime95 on my current OC settings which is 4300mhz with still 1.4 cpu volts and NB at 1.2... it doesn't show me errors or warnings from worker 1 to 7.. but on worker 8 it shows me 1 errors, but still 0 warnings.. Is that something i should worry about? Cause it haven't crashed as of yet.. Haven't changed anything else other then from 4200mhz to 4300mhz..

btw haven't disabled the Core 6state, Enhanced Halt, Cool & Quiet, and Thermal throttle. Cause when ever i change those my windows wouldn't load..

 

[Johan45]

Well you're not completely stable yet worker 8 stopped after 7 tests. So you'll need a bit more V_core also changing just the green stuff shouldn't stop windows from loading.

 

[isogamer]

Well you're not completely stable yet worker 8 stopped after 7 tests. So you'll need a bit more V_core also changing just the green stuff shouldn't stop windows from loading.

you mean stopped working after 7mins intead of 7 test? Plus i am pretty new to p95 blend... Is there an option that shows me a detailed result of my test?

 

[Mandrake4565]

you mean stopped working after 7mins intead of 7 test? Plus i am pretty new to p95 blend... Is there an option that shows me a detailed result of my test?

Nothing to detail, it failed at those clocks so now it's time to do this.

At that point I would test for true stability, passing 2 hours of prime, by doing the following. Back the multiplier down .5 and run prime, if it fails then raise the Cpu V until it either passes or you reach 70c on the Cpu or 62 c on the package.

 

[isogamer]

Nothing to detail, it failed at those clocks so now it's time to do this.

Hi so just to give you and update.. i put my CPU volts a bit high from 1.4.. left rest alone.. I am at 4300mhz did a P95 test for a bit.. no errors or crashes..

when i have time i will do the 2hour blend test.. but so far everything is running fine.. and BF4 is running like butter...

 

[Mandrake4565]

that's fine but at some point you're going have to test for true stabiliy

 

[isogamer]

that's fine but at some point you're going have to test for true stabiliy

ya for sure i am going to do that soon.. i will do the 2 hour test and post the results right away...

right now everything seems to be stable and running fine.. although when i have stuff like firefox open with about 15tabs and chrome the temps around 55 to 63c.. with 4200mhz it was around 45 to 54ish C... i might just move down my clock speed to that so i the pc can run at a better temp setting..

 

[RGone]

You weill never notice 100Mhz. A few years ago they made a human ergonomic study and if something is not 'generally' 30% faster to a human they cannot tell the difference. 300Mhz, yes you might know that...but 100Mhz, uh uh.
RGone...ster.