AMD FX-8350

[lostcondottiere]

At request, I'm starting another thread on the FX 8350/Sabretooth 990fx r2.0 setup.

I recently built my own system after only using pre-built laptops for the past several years. I use my system primarily for gaming. My specs are as follows:

CPU: AMD FX-8350
Motherboard: Sabretooth 990fx r2.0
Video: MSi Geforce GTX 660ti 3GB VRAM
RAM: Patriot 8GB (2x4) 1600mhz
Storage: HDD 7200rpm 3TB
Case: Corsair Carbide 400r (2 front intake fans, 1 rear exhaust, 1 top exhaust, all 120mm)
Cooling: Hyper EVO 212
PSU: Antec 800w non-modular Bronze
Display: Two 23' ASUS VX238h
Drive(s): Basic CD and DVD reader/writer
OS: Windows 7 OEM

Basically, I've been thinking about overclocking my FX8350 for quite some time now (had the system since April). Frankly, I've been far too scared. Everything I know about computers (besides basic, generalized stuff) I've learned since April. Before I built this system, I could barely muster a definition for RAM much less anything else.

However, I'm a quick learner and overclocking is something I'm very interested in. I'd like to get some increased performance with some of my more CPU dependent games (Starcraft 2, Skyrim, etc). I've held off on overclocking because everything has run pretty well on High or Ultra graphics. However, I recently got into modding Skyrim with stuff like the ENB series. It was suggested that I look into overclocking my 8350 to get some increased performance.

This guide gives me a very good idea of what to do and where to start. However, could anyone really help walk me through the process? I'm TERRIFIED of screwing something up here.

I have HWMonitor, CPU-Z, and Prime95 all installed. Where do I begin?

 

[ninjacore]

Welcome!

Have you taken a gander at this writeup yet?

 

[lostcondottiere]

Welcome!

Have you taken a gander at this writeup yet?

Yes, as well as read most of Oldie's 8350/990fx thread. I'm not trying to do anything too complicated. My Hyper 212 currently only has one 120mm push fan. My target is to get my 8350 up to 4.5 on my current setup. I'm not sure if I can only do this by increasing my multiplier (as was suggested to me by a friend) or if I need to increase the HTT, as well. I would like to gain increased overall performance so I'm open to overclocking other aspects of my board.

Perhaps down along the road I'll switch to liquid cooling and go for 5+, but for now, I think 4.5/4.6 is a good introductory goal.

 

[RGone]

Yes you can raise cpu speed with the mutlipier "only" and is really the easier method since using HT Ref Freq requires maintaing a number of other speeds in check as well.

Getting started: This is what we need to see for sure and a real good starting point.

CPU Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

Memory Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

SPD Tab in CPUz from CPUID com

And this is screen capture of HWMonitor (free version) from CPUID com
HWMonitor has been scrolled enough and large enough to show Min/Max of Voltages and includes the CPU CORE TEMPS / "package" temps fully visible.

This capture is made of HWMonitor after it has been open and running on the desktop logging Min/Max temps and voltages while Prime 95 was running Blend Mode test on all cores for at least 20 mins and then the capture of HWMonitor was made and it shows the Min/Max temps and voltages before P95 Blend was started and while running P95 Blend mode and gives much greater insight into how the system is performing without guessing.

In order to attach screenshots of INDIVIDUAL images as suggested, first crop and capture the images with Snipping Tool found in Windows Accessories or equivalent. Then click on Go Advanced, a button at the bottom of every new post window. Then click on the little paperclip tool at the top of the Advanced post window when it opens. Clicking on the paperclip tool brings up the file browser/upload tool and the rest is fairly obvious.

 

[lostcondottiere]

Alrighty, here we go:

 

[RGone]

Okay in order as they come to mind.
1. Looks pretty good at 4.1Ghz.

2. Would go into bios and disable C1E, C6, TurboCore and Cool N Quiet during setup testing. Also in windows power manager set to "performance mode".

3. Looks like your Voltages are likely on Auto with LLC on medium or Auto. You can leave that as is for one more up of the multiplier to 21.5.

4. Need to run Prime 95 in Blend mode for at least 20 mins and have HWMonitor open and running in the background to capture and show the temps/volts.
RGone...

 

[lostcondottiere]

K, couple questions before I start. And I apologize, for my extreme noobiness on this subject

Should I terminate all other programs before I run Prime? I have random stuff like Actual Multi Monitors, Rainmeter, etc. running currently.

Should I just run Prime in blend mode to get a baseline reading before performing steps your listed in 1, or vice versa?

BTW, current BIOS version for my Sabretooth 990fx r2.0 is American Megatrends version 1503.

And is there a more efficient way to enter my BIOS without shutting down, restarting, and spamming DEL?

Okay, so without fiddling with ANY changes, I ran the Prime95 blend testfor 10 minutes and these are the results:

Welcome LostCondotteire.

Having your system freeze, blue screen and such is common place when overclocking so don't stress to much about it.

Also you should understand that by increasing your bus (to 205) you are overclocking your RAM as well. This is good and bad. It's good if it's stable. But if it fails you wont know if it's the ram or CPU that's unstable at that setting. I prefer to OC with the multi first, find my "near" max CPU freq, then start bumping the bus and HTT.

There are many avenues to reach your goal and it may take a little time to perfect it. Just be patient.

Thanks for the response. I'm following some good guides on Youtube that have broken down things so I understand a bit better.

Just ran Prime blend at these settings (see CPUID) and Worker 7 crashed early into it. Temps were at 46c for the CPU package and 55c for the socket.

Whoops, here's the CPUID snip:

Per a guide, running a Small FFT Prime test with bus speed back at 200mhz and the multiplier at 22.0.

Socket is up to 61c and CPU package at 52c currently. I read that the 8350 can handle 60c to the package and 70c to the socket. Is this true? Or is it already getting way too hot?

Just completed Prime small FFT for 10 minutes and here are the snips:

Afraid my current cooling situation may just not be adequate enough to push things further. Have the Hyper 212 EVO with only one 120mm pushing. Thoughts?

 

[RGone]

Okay, so without fiddling with ANY changes, I ran the Prime95 blend testfor 10 minutes and these are the results:

At what speed which is why we suggest attaching the CPUz CPU Tab as a minium with the HWMonitor. Once you begin to fool with HT Ref Freq; it is best to then include again the Memory and SPD tab so we can keep track of what is going on.

As for all those 'gadgets' I suppose you can run them since they are part of your routine. I don't run such but many folks seem to like tons of gadgets and use them.
RGone...

 

[lostcondottiere]

Just entered my BIOS and switched off C1E, C6, Turbocore, and disabled Cool N Quiet. I also set the power options on the main BIOS screen to "ASUS Optimal."

I manually changed the CPU Ratio to 21.0 hoping for an easy 4.2 to start. I saved everything rebooted and CPUZ is now showing a 4.5(!) clock. I don't understand what changed or what happened. These are my current tabs:

Just tried to load Prime with these current settings and my entire system froze immediately and I had to hard reboot. Worker 7 failed immediately upon beginning Blend before everything froze.

Going back into BIOS and posting from my laptop now. Help!

Edit: Additionally, again, I didn't change ANYTHING in the BIOS other than what was listed. No idea why the clock shot up to 4.5. I manually set the CPU ratio to 21.0, disabled everything RGone told me to, and changed the power settings to "ASUS Optimal". I also switched to "high performance" settings in Windows.

Don't understand what happened.

Switched back to "Normal" power mode in the BIOS and re-entered settings of CPU Ratio at 21.0 with no changes to voltages. Booted everything fine. I have a Rainmeter app that reads my CPU freq, and it read as 4.214. However, loaded CPUID and its reading back at the stock 4.113.

Really lost at this point and not getting a lot of replies in this thread. Going to run Prime again and see what happens. I'll post results and keep tweaking.

Thanks RGone for the replies.

Okay, so I still need to disable SpeedStep because it'll bounce around my frequency, but I was able to complete 20 minutes of Prime Blend at 4.2ghz (200x21.0).

Going back into the BIOS to tweak a little more. Been looking around the internet and watching different guides to gain a better understanding of all of this since I'm not getting a ton of replies, so I'm fairly comfortable with the process at least.

Going to try 205x21.0 next and see what happens. Attached are the HW and Prime reports from this last test:

 

[Blaylock]

Welcome LostCondotteire.

Having your system freeze, blue screen and such is common place when overclocking so don't stress to much about it.

Also you should understand that by increasing your bus (to 205) you are overclocking your RAM as well. This is good and bad. It's good if it's stable. But if it fails you wont know if it's the ram or CPU that's unstable at that setting. I prefer to OC with the multi first, find my "near" max CPU freq, then start bumping the bus and HTT.

There are many avenues to reach your goal and it may take a little time to perfect it. Just be patient.

 

[Mandrake4565]

lostcondottiere, you're showing 4.4 in your last Cpu-Z ss, do you still have the Cpu V set to Auto? If so I would set it manually to 1.4. Then I would try running Prime "Blend" torture test for 2 hours to establish stability. Yes we generally try to keep the Cpu/Socket temp under 70c and the package/core temp below 62. When you run prime keep those temps in mind and if you exceed them for an extended period of time just stop the test. If it's just a spike u above them don't worry about it, but if it climbs up there and stays you probably have hit your heatload limit for the 212.

If while running, you freeze, BSOD or have a worker fail you will need to add more Cpu Voltage. Also for now leave the FSB at 200, since you are new lets keep it simple for now and we'll cross that bridge later on. In addition don't worry about adding additional voltage, you are still safe in the 1.4's these Chips are pretty tough.

EDIT: you posted #19 while I was writing this. At some point you will want to establish stability since you are close to the top temperature wise you may want to do it at the 4.4 Oc.

In addition as far as cooling goes, unfortunately these chips run hot. The majority of us running high overclocks with them run full custom watercooling loops to keep them cool. You may see a 2-3 c difference with an additional fan on the 212 but that's about it, for that cooler.

 

[lostcondottiere]

lostcondottiere, you're showing 4.4 in your last Cpu-Z ss, do you still have the Cpu V set to Auto? If so I would set it manually to 1.4. Then I would try running Prime "Blend" torture test for 2 hours to establish stability. Yes we generally try to keep the Cpu/Socket temp under 70c and the package/core temp below 62. When you run prime keep those temps in mind and if you exceed them for an extended period of time just stop the test. If it's just a spike u above them don't worry about it, but if it climbs up there and stays you probably have hit your heatload limit for the 212.

If while running, you freeze, BSOD or have a worker fail you will need to add more Cpu Voltage. Also for now leave the FSB at 200, since you are new lets keep it simple for now and we'll cross that bridge later on. In addition don't worry about adding additional voltage, you are still safe in the 1.4's these Chips are pretty tough.

EDIT: you posted #19 while I was writing this. At some point you will want to establish stability since you are close to the top temperature wise you may want to do it at the 4.4 Oc.

In addition as far as cooling goes, unfortunately these chips run hot. The majority of us running high overclocks with them run full custom watercooling loops to keep them cool. You may see a 2-3 c difference with an additional fan on the 212 but that's about it, for that cooler.

Yeah, I've already made up my mind I'm going to invest in the Corsair H100i. I'll pick it up from Fry's this Friday when I get paid.

Passed everything at previous settings on a small FFT Prime for 20 minutes. But when I loaded up Blend everything froze and I had to shutdown. I'm assuming I'm not getting enough voltage? Current BIOS settings:

CPU Ratio: 22.0
CPU Bus: 200mhz
Memory Freq: DDR3 1600mhz (Patriot 2x4gb 1600 installed)
CPU/NB Freq: 2200mhz
HT Link Freq: 2600mhz

CPU & NB Voltage: Manual Mode
- CPU Manual Voltage: 1.381250
- CPU/NB Manual Voltage: 1.3
- Everything else set to auto

I'm assuming I can tick up these two voltages to 1.4 each to account for the perma-freeze crash in Blend? I'm also assuming the problem here is with my RAM considering the small FFT ran just fine with no errors or stopped workers.

Edit: Bumped up both and currently running a Prime Blend test. I set both the CPU Manual Voltage and CPU/NB Manual Voltage to 1.4. Unsure of the difference between the two other than one affects the CPU voltage and one affects the voltage between the CPU and North Bridge? =/

It didn't crash when I loaded it so that's a good sign. Weird question: despite setting the aforementioned voltages to 1.4 each, CPUID is still reading Core Voltage jumping between 1.380 and 1.392. Is this normal?

So Worker 8 failed at around 20 minutes into Prime Blend. Snips are attached.

I'm done for the night. I'll look at things tomorrow. With both the CPU and CPU/NB voltage at 1.4 (the max I've heard you want to go under air) what could fail Worker 8? Sneaking suspicion it's something with my RAM.

Please post your thoughts. I'll be tackling this again tomorrow. I would like to establish a stable clock around 4.4 before I go higher on Friday with the new cooler.

Thanks again to those that commented!

 

[rocket47]

U can try to bump cpu voltage to 1.42, but lower the cpu/nb to 1.3,1.4 on cpunb looks high to me for this overclock, and try again.
I know every cpu is different, my 8320 runs @ 4.5 with cpu voltage at 1.44 and cpu/nb at 1.25 or 1.3, i dont remember.

 

[lostcondottiere]

U can try to bump cpu voltage to 1.42, but lower the cpu/nb to 1.3,1.4 on cpunb looks high to me for this overclock, and try again.
I know every cpu is different, my 8320 runs @ 4.5 with cpu voltage at 1.44 and cpu/nb at 1.25 or 1.3, i dont remember.

I'll try that, thanks.

Can someone explain the difference between both voltages and what they're powering and how that affects an OC?

 

[RGone]

1. Can NO way imagine that you need 1.4V on CPU_NB. Maybe 1.25-1.28V at the most.

2. I think one of the better tuners around here suggested 1.4V on the cpu but you have something over-riding that 1.4V and likely dropping it back to about 1.380V under heavy load not counting that burst to 1.392V. That means you have to take something off of Auto. Probably CPU LLC to High or Ultra High. I have not seen the bios lately for a Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 for the naming terminology of the various CPU LLC settings. About the second one down from the most extreme one.

3. I doubt the ram is the issue in P95 Blend Mode. Likely the cpu voltage is still Low as hinted at in #2 above.

4. Your temps are still pretty good so 1.45 to 1.475 or so is not unrealistic for cpu Vcore. Of course it is wise to monitor the temps as you raise the Vcore for stability. 70c Cpu Socket temp and 62 for the CPU Package/core temp.

This guide is not far out but you have to make the moves as he does to zero in on what is what in getting to a solid overclock. A piece of this guide and a piece of that guide and things in between are okay after one knows what is what. But not at the outset. Most guides are from point A to B and there are no off the road in between.


Bulldozer OC Guide!
Everything you need to overclock bulldozer (piledriver as well) properly.

Most of us that have overclocked for years, do it the same way everytime in getting up close to the limits. We write down all the volts we use and keep a solid log of where we have been. We do not jump around. It is easy to lose one's way when hitting a little of this and some of that.
RGone...

 

[lostcondottiere]

Yeah, the 1.4v on the CPU/NB was way too much. Simply a matter of me not totally understanding the voltage there.

Tweaked things to 1.4125v on CPU vcore and 1.25v on CPU/NB. Ran Prime Blend for a little over 30 minutes. CPUID was still reading a voltage jump on the CPU between 1.392 and 1.404. Not sure what's doing that. I have every necessary thing turned off "Auto" in my BIOS. The LLC settings are both on "High" (which is third highest, under "Ultra High" and "Extreme").

However, it looks like this current clock is pretty stable. Like I said, ran Prime Blend for over 30 minutes and got zero errors or warnings on any core.

I am inching close to my temp maxes. I REALLY want to hit 4.7/4.8 so I will definitely be picking up a Corsair H100i very soon here. For now, this 4.4 OC seems stable so I'll stick with that.

Attached relevant snips for this last test:

 

[RGone]

Put the CPU LLC on "ultra high" and the cpu Vcore bounce should settle down a little bit more. No boards Vcore stays dead on all the time, but g00d boards like yours should do better at keeping Vcore more stable looking. It takes a little to get it sorted out but that is for a day once you know what is stable and then you adjust around the known values to get things a little more precise.

Temps are okay for where you are. I will give you one word of advice or caution here. You will have to have a freeken awesome cpu to run 4.7/4.8Ghz 24-7 with just an H100 AiO cooler. They normally do not have enough cooling capacity for 4.7/4.8Ghz. Somewhere in the overclock process here, the Vcore will have to take a pretty hefty jump and to keep up with the cpu speed and remain stable. When that happens the TEMP will boom on up there. So just that as a word of advice so you don't fall into depression if you don't see that 4.8Ghz stable day in and day out. Maybe but my honest guess is it will be dang close if at all.
RGone...

 

[lostcondottiere]

Put the CPU LLC on "ultra high" and the cpu Vcore bounce should settle down a little bit more. No boards Vcore stays dead on all the time, but g00d boards like yours should do better at keeping Vcore more stable looking. It takes a little to get it sorted out but that is for a day once you know what is stable and then you adjust around the known values to get things a little more precise.

Temps are okay for where you are. I will give you one word of advice or caution here. You will have to have a freeken awesome cpu to run 4.7/4.8Ghz 24-7 with just an H100 AiO cooler. They normally do not have enough cooling capacity for 4.7/4.8Ghz. Somewhere in the overclock process here, the Vcore will have to take a pretty hefty jump and to keep up with the cpu speed and remain stable. When that happens the TEMP will boom on up there. So just that as a word of advice so you don't fall into depression if you don't see that 4.8Ghz stable day in and day out. Maybe but my honest guess is it will be dang close if at all.
RGone...

If the H100i won't get it done on 4.7/4.8, what would you suggest? Price range is always an issue, so I'm not looking to go above $200, and that's the MAX I can probably afford. Should I just get the H100i and stick with a stable, steady 4.5/4.6 24/7 target?

Remember, I use this rig primarily for gaming. At stock settings I was getting good performance already on a lot of higher end stuff (like Skyrim with ENB mods and other goodies at Ultra settings). I just wanted that last little push for some FPS performance increase.

tldr, is there anything out there I could get for around that price range that would hold a 4.7/4.8 OC, or should I just call it a day, get the H100i, and shoot for a stable 4.5/4.6?

Thanks again for all the help, guys. Learned a tremendous amount from lurking this forum. Pretty proud of myself just for the 4.4 OC, considering 5 months ago I didn't even know what an OC was, lol.

 

[RGone]

I am not necessarily recommending this sales site although I have bought a number of parts and pieces from them and used to email the owner directly years ago. What I am doing is giving you a looksee at some kits that are not just plain AiO type units. You can see some varying prices. This location also sells individual parts and pieces. So you could even get an idea of the price of separate pieces. There are many such sales locations around.

You could take the kit name/number and do a g00gle search for reviews of the kits. Not sure what sites I would trust for a review of watercooling since all of us have our opinions formed over time. I no longer chase a cpu water block for 1c better cooling. It is not worth it and few of us could measure such results regularly anyway.

But this link can get you thinking and looking.

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/coliki.html
PC Watercooling Kits from Swiftech, XSPC and Sidewinder Computers

Now as to the idea of getting an AiO H-100 or similar and perhaps settling for a little less max cpu speed. You could disable 1 module of 2 cores and run as a six core FX processor and likely clock up a little higher just from the reduction in heat of 8 cores dropped to 6 cores. I mean we have a thinking cap; right? You don't need an 8 core FX-8350 to game with currently for sure. But as with most games; the cpu speed can make a difference. And cpu speed seems to make a real difference with AMD over against an Intel cpu of some speed.

Just throwing some ideas out. I hate to see you buy too too cheap today and wish for more cooling tomorrow. Turning off two cores might be just what the doctor ordered for gaming and allow lesser cooling and some lesser expense.

The water cooling I use with my FX-8350 in the thread linked below is about 7 years old. Water block, pump and all. I could duplicate what I started with for about $280.00 Usd or so. I believe I could anyway.

Take a look at that thread. I pushed that FX-8350 for funzies, since I do my video editting at 4.8Ghz and run about 4.3Ghz the rest of the time with all cores on but I am not a gamer really.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=724953
Testing does FX-83xx seem to flat line after 4.3GHz

 

[Johan45]

Put the CPU LLC on "ultra high" and the cpu Vcore bounce should settle down a little bit more. No boards Vcore stays dead on all the time, but g00d boards like yours should do better at keeping Vcore more stable looking. It takes a little to get it sorted out but that is for a day once you know what is stable and then you adjust around the known values to get things a little more precise.

RGone...

On this board Ultra hogh is where I set mine, but this will bump your V_core over the setting in BIOS. I don't know if it's constant between boards but you'll want to drop your V_core setting to 1.39ish maybe lower to get the 1.404 in windows, the only way to know for sure is to test it on your equiptment.
I had the ThermalTake Water 2.0 AIO although a fairly good cooler for an AIO unit, I couldn't hit 4.8 as a daily clock my particular chip just wanted too many volts. Just to be stable at 4.64 I as using 1.476v. These puppies are pretty demanding. If you folly RGones lead with a water cooler set-up get at least a 120x360 rad.