AMD FX-8350

[lostcondottiere]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. Great info all around.

I will definitely look into a more expensive liquid cooling setup. In the meantime, where do you guys suggest starting with upping the base clock? As far as I understand, that will OC the RAM as well as the CPU, correct? What kind of performance increase can I expect from doing that, and where to begin?

I'm at work until 5pm but then I'll be home all evening. I can see why OCing itself is a hobby for many. It's very addictive and honestly pretty fun.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. Great info all around.

I will definitely look into a more expensive liquid cooling setup. In the meantime, where do you guys suggest starting with upping the base clock? As far as I understand, that will OC the RAM as well as the CPU, correct? What kind of performance increase can I expect from doing that, and where to begin?

I'm at work until 5pm but then I'll be home all evening. I can see why OCing itself is a hobby for many. It's very addictive and honestly pretty fun.

Yes it is addictive and be sure that your addiction isn't going to lead you to wanting a better cooling setup after you buy the H100.

Have you run Prime blend 2 hours yet? I ask because when pushing forward it is very helpful to have a known stable point to reference back to when we lost our way. Trust me you will lost your way at some point when you start Ocing with the Fsb and Multi.

The Fsb not only Changes the Ram speed and Cpu clock, it also changes the Nb Frequency and the Ht Link speed. So you're going from 1 thing that could be causing instability to 4. Yes you can use the Fsb to OC but it is helpful if you try to keep the parameters that you are changing in check. Such as keeping the Dram at 1600 or close to it, when you become more comfortable with what you chip can handle you can overclock and experiment with other speeds such as the Nb and Ht Link. I will re-iterate what Rgons said and that is take detailed notes of everything you change.

 

[Johan45]

Yes it is addictive and be sure that your addiction isn't going to lead you to wanting a better cooling setup after you buy the H100.

.

You can say that again ! You want to hold an intervention and RGones got me signed up for OA ( Overclockers Anonymous) already.

 

[lostcondottiere]

Will do.

I may hold off messing with the FSB until I have a bit more experience with OCing, in general.

I'm going to increase my LLC settings tonight (from High to Ultra High) to eliminate some of that vdroop and hopefully be able to shave that 0.0125 off the BIOS vcore settings to a flat 1.40000.

I'll probably look at the Swiftech H220 for cooling. I've heard a lot of good things about it and for $40 more than the H100i it's supposed to offer a lot better performance. If that can get me to a stable 4.6ghz (24/7) then that's worth it to me.

Edit: I'm at work now but I was planning on doing a full Prime multi-hour diagnostic this evening. As soon as I establish stability I was going to bench everything with Unigine. I'll keep you guys updated.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I'll probably look at the Swiftech H220 for cooling. I've heard a lot of good things about it and for $40 more than the H100i it's supposed to offer a lot better performance. If that can get me to a stable 4.6ghz (24/7) then that's worth it to me.

Yes it's good but tough to find, they have a patent infringement against them, so they had to pull them from the shelves.

Edit: I'm at work now but I was planning on doing a full Prime multi-hour diagnostic this evening. As soon as I establish stability I was going to bench everything with Unigine. I'll keep you guys updated.

Unigine is mainly a Gpu based benchmark, if you're running it to test out the Cpu you may want to run Futuremark 3d Mark Vantage, 3D Mark 11 or Cinebench 11.5.

 

[Johan45]

Yes it's good but tough to find, they have a patent infringement against them, so they had to pull them from the shelves.
Unigine is mainly a Gpu based benchmark, if you're running it to test out the Cpu you may want to run Futuremark 3d Mark Vantage, 3D Mark 11 or Cinebench 11.5.

I read they were putting them back out again.

 

[lostcondottiere]

Hey, guys, another quick question. Once I've found my stable clock I've read a lot of guides suggest turning back on Cool N Quiet, Offset voltage mode, and other power saving features. What exactly do you recommend once I've found the stable clock and my settings are final?

 

[Johan45]

You can do that dut you need to know your CPU's base voltage to start with , then set your offset accordingly keeping in mind the LLC offset as well. Thanks to Manny I know you can use CPU-z to get the voltages go to the about tab and then select a text out put. It will show you the P_States. go off the 20x.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I use all the green stuff for my 24/7 overclock @ 4.7 it works fine. When I'm just browsing around the chip will drop down to 7x on the multi and .9 on the Cpu V. Just figure out what your stock Vid is and use the + offset to get it to the voltage for your stable overclock. For example my Vid is 1.325 so I add .14625 to get to my 1.46 Cpu V that I need to be stable at 4.7. You can find this by setting everything to stock and then open Cpu-Z click on "About" the "save txt report" it will be the P-state for the 20X multiplier.

 

[RGone]

You can RE-enable Cool N Quiet and C1E and set windows power manager to balanced mode and the cpu mhz will idle down and drop Vcore when not pushed regardless of settings of Offset Mode in bios. You can continue to use C6 as disabled as well as TurboCore since it is C6 that is needed for TurboCore which is not going to be used any longer.

RGone...

 

[lostcondottiere]

You can RE-enable Cool N Quiet and C1E and set windows power manager to balanced mode and the cpu mhz will idle down and drop Vcore when not pushed regardless of settings of Offset Mode in bios. You can continue to use C6 as disabled as well as TurboCore since it is C6 that is needed for TurboCore which is not going to be used any longer.

RGone...

This seems a lot simpler than finding the VID and going into offset. I will probably just do this when all is said and done. I just know that running a 24/7 higher voltage isn't recommended for CPU lifespan, etc.

Set CPU LLC to "Ultra High" and reset CPU voltage to a flat 1.400000. Kicked up the mutiplier to 22.5 to go for a 4.5 OC. CPUID is reading a steady 1.416v with absolutely no fluctuations, so I guess that's all good.

Running Prime Blend right now. I'm going to continue to walk the multiplier up bit by bit and do 20 minute tests. I'm pretty sure I'm at voltage max for the Hyper 212, so it's just a matter of finding how far I can push the clock at these voltage settings. I'll keep you guys updated, and thanks once again.

Edit: And as I write this, Worker 7 fails. I'm going to budge the CPU voltage back up to 1.4125, which is definitely the max and run Prime again.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Just remember at some point you're going to have to run Prime blend for at least 2 hours to find stability. For me if I can pass that my rig will take anything I throw at it.

 

[lostcondottiere]

Damn, Worker 8 failed @ 15 minutes into Prime Blend @ 1.4125 CPU volts. I was at 51c CPU package and 61c on the socket. Think I can push with another 0.0125v?

Damn, Worker 8 failed @ 15 minutes into Prime Blend @ 1.4125 CPU volts. I was at 51c CPU package and 61c on the socket. Think I can push with another 0.0125v?

The Worker 8 fail was "possible hardware failure"? Does this mean I have a weak core and should stop pushing voltage? Kind of worried now.

Edit: Maybe I should just go back down to my 4.4 OC @ 1.40000v.

 

[RGone]

Edit: Maybe I should just go back down to my 4.4 OC @ 1.40000v. = sounds good since you keep backing away from giving the cpu any voltage.

I put a link up to a long thread where I hammered my own FX-8350 and its' last page has a run with a hUMONGous air cooler and the Vcore I had to hit it with to go upward. More Vcore than was needed on water when I went over to air cooling for testing. And I could n0t get it stable until I gave it the extra Vcore even though on my water cooling it took less Vcore.
RGone...ster.

 

[lostcondottiere]

Yeah, I've hit the limit on this cooler, it seems. Bumped up the vcore to 1.4250 and ran Prime Blend. No errors for 20 minutes, temps were 55c CPU and 65c socket. Looked away for 30 seconds, looked back, and CPU temp had shot up to 69c and socket temp was at 79c, both holding. I ended the test immediately.

Any suggestions here? I've read a FSB OC can save you vcore and thus heat, so I guess I can try that. Or, like I said, I can go back down to 4.4 OC at 1.40000 vcore until I get some different cooling in a couple days.

What do you guys think? Seeing temps shoot that high that quickly and hold freaked me out - the last thing I want to do is damage my system. I'm going to multi-hour test that 4.4 clock for now and establish good stability and chalk up the failed attempt at 4.5 as just the Hyper 212 being maxed out. Unless someone wants to walk me through a FSB OC, I'll go ahead with the 4.4 and post results.

Thanks in advance.

 

[RGone]

FSB clocking is not going to deal with that big of a rise in temps. Look, we that try to help; have all been there and done that. We all run good boards now and d*mn good cooling. It is required if you want to bust the 4.4/.4.5Ghz-ish barrier most of the time. Just a fact.
RGone...ster.

 

[lostcondottiere]

FSB clocking is not going to deal with that big of a rise in temps. Look, we that try to help; have all been there and done that. We all run good boards now and d*mn good cooling. It is required if you want to bust the 4.4/.4.5Ghz-ish barrier most of the time. Just a fact.
RGone...ster.

Fair enough, good sir. And I thank you (and everyone else) for all the help. Sorry if I ask a lot of questions - I'm trying to learn all of this at the same time I'm taking direction.

I will invest in better cooling. If I can't find the Swiftech H220, I'll probably go with the next best thing for under or around $200.00 and just see how high it takes me.

I am very much interested in FSB clocking at one point or another. Maybe after I get my better cooling we can look at that?

About 50 minutes into that 4.4 @ 1.40000. Changing the CPU LLC to "Ultra High" has really ramped up voltage performance. With the BIOS setting at 1.4 CPUID reads 1.416 under max load.

BTW, how long is a "spike" in temp measure during Prime blend? I'm looking at 63c CPU and 71c socket but they're only been there for around 1 minute. Should I stop the test?

Ick, ran Prime blend for exactly one hour, snips attached. Snip of CPUID was taken after I stopped the test. Vcore was at 1.416 under max load.

These temps seem dangerously high. They weren't above 62c/70c for long, only the last 5 minutes of the test. I don't know if this counts as a stable clock or not. I'll let you guys tell me that.

 

[RGone]

Okay now it is time. How to put up Sig at OCF.

New Shortcut method for putting a Signature with your system information following your every post so people can know what is in the case that they are trying to assist with. You can use something like what is shown in my signature as a good template of needed information Thank you.

There is not really anything wrong with asking questions. You have done pretty good at catching on. The only thing you are having an issue with is fully realizing that you are "there" with an 8 core running as an overclocked 8 core FX procesor. And especially so with a CM 212 with only one fan I think you said. Now don't go racing off for another fan since it will not break the 4.5Ghz barrier but it might lower temps at 4.4Ghz. *Might*.

Now if you get un-fixated on the 8 cores at 4.5Ghz or so, then you might just disable one module composed of two cores and get a little more processor speed. Just for shetts and giggles. Game fine at 6 cores. Give your yourself a break until you can get more robust cooling and give you some funzies along the way perhaps.
RGone...

EDIT:
I posted after you posted above and honestly you are seeing pretty high temps at the LOAD generated by the P95 Blend mode. You likely will not see such while surfing the net or gaming some. So you might consider it "close" for now and/or just do with the reduction to 6 cores and see what the heck happens. It might be fun until you get big azz cooling.
RGone...again.
END EDIT.

 

[lostcondottiere]

Awesome, thanks. Getting a new liquid cooler on Friday, so I'll update again. You guys have been an unbelievable resource in tackling this. I never thought I'd do something like this and perhaps I'm just pushing too hard and setting way high expectations without realizing I'm already "there" like you said.

I'll update the sig (posting from my phone) ASAP.

Thanks, again. You guys rock.

 

[RGone]

What are you getting for 'cooling' on Friday. We might save you or we can say attaboy.

Yep, you cannot do sig from phone. Thanks for getting one up when you can.

Look we can work with many types of people. Some are far easier than others to deal with. Good solid thought out questions are not a problem. Whining and beeching because they bought a cheapO rig is not good policy. You have a good mobo. With some cooling and some testing, trial and error on your part, you can do well. Hang with it.
RGone...ster.

Awesome, thanks. Getting a new liquid cooler on Friday, so I'll update again. You guys have been an unbelievable resource in tackling this. I never thought I'd do something like this and perhaps I'm just pushing too hard and setting way high expectations without realizing I'm already "there" like you said.

I'll update the sig (posting from my phone) ASAP.

Thanks, again. You guys rock.