AMD OverDrive and Llano APU general overclocking

[ShrimpBrime]

Cooling solution first. No point in overclocking without a better cooler.

Read up on cooling - Then get the best cooler for your needs. Then Read about overclocking while waiting for your cooler - Then read some more about cooling and modding for best cooler results - then read some more about overclocking - all the while ask a bunch of questions!

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Bios only overclock daily family rig - Finally got a chance to sit down with it...

3400mhz - AM2 Opteron quad pipe cooler with a larger CFM fan mod. Temps are actually high because it needs to be cleaned out. Now kind of glad to take the time to play with this.

So here's a screen shot of 3400mhz, I think would be a good overclock. At this speed it will cinebench a better score than my FX-4300 at 4ghz OC.

 

[Alaric]

My $.02 (and probably over valued at that). When I was getting started overclocking I found AMD Overdrive to be a useful time saver to get me in the ballpark , without having to go through reboot after reboot. The current version is actually not bad for what it is. After using it to work through the early (easy) stages of overclocking , it's back to the BIOS. I've also found voltage control/readings are pretty divergent between the BIOS and software OC solutions. I use a multimeter just to get an idea how far off my monitoring software is. Mine also has a temperature probe
We now return you to the more useful advice of folks like RGone and ShrimpBrime ! (and just about everyone else here...)

 

[RGone]

Long time no see Alaric. Sounds like that many-use rig you have is holding up well since it has been so long. That is good when one gets sorted and just plain works day in and day out.

Luck man.
RGone...

 

[RGone]

Just about everyone of us that has done competitive benching over a number of years is fully aware of software overclocking. The BIG boys used/use software to overclock the cpu beyond what values were stable enough to boot into windows. Sure I experimented with software overclocking but to the best of my knowledge...I never submitted a score that was done with software increasing my cpu speed. Just was not my style. I spent too much time helping newer users get going and supporting motherboards to post up scores done with software. Am fully aware it is done though. Strokes and Folks.

The bios has never been that Big Mystery to me. Heck it is where the adjusting is done. I wanted to adjust, so I wanted IN the bios. Hehehe. Peeps seem so afraid to go in the bios but don't think there is anything to moving sliders. Shett that is really often asking for trouble since I know from experience that some settings that work in windows will NOT allow the system to REboot. Yeah, move that slider but fear that bios. Makes no sense to me really.

The really neat tricks I can do with my Asus CHV board are only doable from the bios overall. That part where I can surf the net at 1.4Ghz / 0.980Vcore and do more heavy duty work at 4.8Ghz with 1.43Vcore. All from within windows without having to adjust a thing. P95 Blend mode stable over 2 hours at 4.8Ghz even on air as I am setup now. Now that is why I always suggest learning the bios and the system, first and foremost. That is where the true goodness lives in general.
RGone...ster.

 

[Alaric]

Hi , RGone! I've peeked in some , but have mostly been busy with crap I'd rather not be doing. I still have the innards from my first OC rig (Phenom X4 , 8 GB DDR 2 , and mobo) and a 14 year old daughter. We may rebuild it together , sans case , to start teaching her. I'm going to skip the software shortcuts in the lesson plan. We'll be using strictly BIOS. That Agena chip crashes faster than a paper plane in a wind tunnel , so we'll have hours of fun ! I figure it's like not giving her a calculator until she can do the math with a pencil. Sort of.

 

[Bucic]

I've been enjoying ArmA 3 on the automatic OC I hope I can count on your further assistance, guys.

In addition to the previously stated info:
- I've switched to IDE from AHCI
- I've acquired a 4 heat pipe cooler which brought my CPU temp in stress down to 40s deg C

I've done some OC altering only FSB and memory clock. I could go to FSB=135 -> CPU=~3100 [MHz]
I couldn't go any higher than this (boot error message) while with FSB=135 I could crank up RAM up to 2048MHz (def. is 1600).

Voltage:
I haven't touched voltage as it already says 'Normal CPU VCORE 1.4125V'. I don't understand why normal equals maximum per specs voltage. Also, my MOBO allows me to adjust VCORE only by differences relative to the 'Normal CPU VCORE 1.4125V' value.

Section 2:
...of the attachment shows the voltage sett. section expanded after selecting 'Manual'. Please note that the Normal CPU VCORE 1.4125V' remains unchanged while switching between 'Manual'/'Auto'.

NB:
As I've tried different CPU clock values it seems that the MOBO keeps the NB close to the default (720) automatically. I'm not sure of it though.

 

[Bucic]

Remember the weird [x23] CPU Clock Ratio setting? It turned [Auto] after I cleared CMOS and loaded optimized defaults. Other indications changed after this as well.

And so my best FSB-only OC so far is:
FSB 120 MHz -> CPU 3240 MHz
CPU NB Clock Divisor 5.5 -> NB 654MHz
RAM 1599MHz


What should I do next?

PS. Sometimes there are big differences in BIOS vs 'software' indications (see att.).

 

[RGone]

Well 13.5 x 240 = 3240Mhz for cpu speed.
Well 3.27 x 240 = 785 Mhz for NB speed.
Also 5.5 x 240 = 1320 divided by 2 = 660Mhz > 654Mhz shown in bios read out.

That sort of difference is why most of the time we suggest rather stongly against
overclocking by software. In some situations the math just does not add up. It is obvious
that the NB ratio is different between bios and software. Unless there is other software that
might read CPU_NB speed; I would have no idea which is correct. Or really if it matters much
on the older Llano setup.
RGone...

 

[Bucic]

OK, so what steps do you guys recommended now? From the pdf OC guide linked before I know I should step up VCORE a bit but I'm afraid to do so for the reason stated in one of the recent posts. VCORE seems to be at maximum even with defaults.

 

[Bucic]

Bump.

 

[Johan45]

You can most likely add an offset to the V_Core, I'm not sure where the fear comes into it. Just keep an eye on your temps and you won't break anything.

 

[Bucic]

You can most likely add an offset to the V_Core, I'm not sure where the fear comes into it. Just keep an eye on your temps and you won't break anything.

My understanding was that if the V_Core per specs http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K10/AMD-A-Series A4-3400.html is 0.45V - 1.4125V, then 1.4125V is maximum admissible value. On my system it's by default 1.4125V => fear to increase the value.

I'll follow your advice though. Thanks.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I see bios is not doing mathematics properly. How is your NB readout 22.5Mhz shy of actual speed.

That 5.5x Mulitplier should default closer to 10X??? Generally most chipsets are running at either 1000mhz Effective or 2000mhz with a 20X. At some point in time, default may have been 1800Mhz and 800Mhz respectively and this is effective clocks. Your NB at "720" which should be 742.5 at 135 reference clock is really odd to me....


If this was my board, I'd look for a different bios to try and do my overclocking with.

Is the bios up to date?

 

[Bucic]

I see bios is not doing mathematics properly. How is your NB readout 22.5Mhz shy of actual speed.

That 5.5x Mulitplier should default closer to 10X??? Generally most chipsets are running at either 1000mhz Effective or 2000mhz with a 20X. At some point in time, default may have been 1800Mhz and 800Mhz respectively and this is effective clocks. Your NB at "720" which should be 742.5 at 135 reference clock is really odd to me....


If this was my board, I'd look for a different bios to try and do my overclocking with.

Is the bios up to date?

Yes, the BIOS is of the latest version.

I've replaced the A4-3400 with FX-6300. I'll try bumping up voltages if I get back to the old setup. Thank you all for your help and sorry for the initial confusion.