Amd phenom ii 970 be

[bullshiz]

I have a Phenom II 970 black that I have been trying to OC over 4.0ghz. No matter what I try if i go over 4.0 by much it becomes really unstable. I've seen other people claim to get this cpu up to 4.2 or higher but I haven had any luck over 4ghz. I have been running it at 3.8 for years, this week I got a new graphics card and feel like my processor is holding me back so I was trying to eek out some more performance. any advice?
I have:
coolermaster 212 fan
haf 912 case with several fans
asus board M5A97
corsair 8 gb ram xms3 1333 (currently i have clocked at 1600 and have upped voltage slightly)
asus strix gtx 960 (new this week replaced a 550ti)

 

[Bluefalcon13]

With that board, you are going to have a struggle getting 4.0ghz. The VRM section is somewhat weak. I can push my 955 to 4.0ghz, but it takes lots of vcore because I start getting vdroop. Just my personal experience.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I have a Phenom II 970 black that I have been trying to OC over 4.0ghz. No matter what I try if i go over 4.0 by much it becomes really unstable. I've seen other people claim to get this cpu up to 4.2 or higher but I haven had any luck over 4ghz. I have been running it at 3.8 for years, this week I got a new graphics card and feel like my processor is holding me back so I was trying to eek out some more performance. any advice?
I have:
coolermaster 212 fan
haf 912 case with several fans
asus board M5A97
corsair 8 gb ram xms3 1333 (currently i have clocked at 1600 and have upped voltage slightly)
asus strix gtx 960 (new this week replaced a 550ti)

A lot of people say a lot of things on the net, what your chip will and will not do is what counts. Every piece of silicon is different. as well as the components it is tied to and will Oc differently. You should read this guide and Open Hwmonitor "non pro" run prime blend 20 minutes and post screen shots of Hwmonitor and the following tabs in Cpu-Z, Cpu Spd and Memory.

 

[Tír na nÓg]

There is one thing with the PhenomII's : when you hit 3.9/4GHz, they become very sensitive to temperature. Most of them loose stability around 53/55°C at these frequencies, while they remain stable up to 65/70°C below 3.9GHz.

Check your temps!

I don't think the Evo is actually up to the task if you are in the 1.5/1.55vCore range.

 

[bullshiz]

I will run prime 95 and post pics of temps and cpu z in the next couple days. I have been monitoring and not seen over 51*C in testing. 4ghz has been stable for me so far.

 

[trents]

Is that a core stepping 2 or stepping 3 Phenom II? If it's a 2 and you got it to 4.0 consider yourself to have achieved a minor miracle under air.

 

[Mandrake4565]

There is one thing with the PhenomII's : when you hit 3.9/4GHz, they become very sensitive to temperature. Most of them loose stability around 53/55°C at these frequencies

Good point here!

 

[bullshiz]

How can i tell if it is a core stepping 2 or 3?

 

[trents]

That information would be displayed in the CPU tab of CPU-z. Look for C2 or C3.

 

[bullshiz]

It is a stepping 3

 

[Dr. McCoy]

Even with a C3 chip results can vary and it's not too unusual for one to hit a wall around the 4.0 mark, maybe a little higher even with a good board.
Another difference between the two versions is how well they can handle RAM speeds, C3's clearly being better than the C2's for RAM tweaking. Heat with these is indeed an issue once the clocks are up there so be sure temps aren't getting too high.

 

[Bluefalcon13]

Even with a C3 chip results can vary and it's not too unusual for one to hit a wall around the 4.0 mark, maybe a little higher even with a good board.
Another difference between the two versions is how well they can handle RAM speeds, C3's clearly being better than the C2's for RAM tweaking. Heat with these is indeed an issue once the clocks are up there so be sure temps aren't getting too high.

This. As I said, mine can hit 4ghz, with the same board as you, but due to meh power section and the on/off LLC I end up sending it more vcore than it really needs to get there to account for the vdroop. This adds heat, and causes the chip to brush and surpass the recommended max heat (by a smidge) when stress testing. I dialed mine back to 3.8 to keep the heat in control. You may have better milage than I if you can fit a fan on the VRM heatsink, but with my case there is pretty decent airflow over my VRM heatsink, and I do not really have space for a fan because of my h80.

 

[Bluefalcon13]

On a side note: to check and see if your CPU is holding the GPU back, I use the evga precision OSD and watch my gfx card's load, heat, and boost levels. If the card's heat is low, not boosting, and not at max fps (I run vsync on) or max load, then there is a bottleneck issue.

 

[bullshiz]

A lot of people say a lot of things on the net, what your chip will and will not do is what counts. Every piece of silicon is different. as well as the components it is tied to and will Oc differently. You should read this guide and Open Hwmonitor "non pro" run prime blend 20 minutes and post screen shots of Hwmonitor and the following tabs in Cpu-Z, Cpu Spd and Memory.

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[Mr.Scott]

Even with a C3 chip results can vary and it's not too unusual for one to hit a wall around the 4.0 mark, maybe a little higher even with a good board.
Another difference between the two versions is how well they can handle RAM speeds, C3's clearly being better than the C2's for RAM tweaking. Heat with these is indeed an issue once the clocks are up there so be sure temps aren't getting too high.

Eh......Maybe. My C2.

 

[Mandrake4565]

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One thing I don't care for is how much Vdroop you are getting, what do you have the Cpu LLC set at?

 

[bullshiz]

 

[Dr. McCoy]

Eh......Maybe. My C2.


View attachment 169222View attachment 169223

That's pretty good - I had to base that on how my 720BE acts vs my 555BE chip.
The 555 really doesn't mind revving RAM speeds at all but the 720 kinda falls flat after the 820MHz mark or so and won't budge much past that point, probrably a max of 830 or so. The 555 has gone over 1000MHz with ease with the same sticks so that's where I got it from.
Even unlocked to a full-blown quad the 555 does it all day long.

@ the OP: You can raise your RAM voltage up a little and it won't hurt anything, may even help to stabilize your setup a little. I'd say 1.65v's with the speeds you're trying to run and that's about where I tend to run my sticks unless I'm going for mad RAM speeds - Then it's a "sky is the limit" thing.
No I don't expect you to be doing that.

 

[Mandrake4565]

View attachment 169226

You can give the DRam a bump like McCoy mentioned, I also suggest try lowering the Cpu/Nb Voltage to 1.25 v. With the sticks at 1600 Mhz and the Nb at 2200 Mhz I don't feel you would need 1.3 v to keep it stable, try lowering to 1.25 V it will help temps a bit. Can we also see a Cpu-Z Spd tab.

 

[bullshiz]

You can give the DRam a bump like McCoy mentioned, I also suggest try lowering the Cpu/Nb Voltage to 1.25 v. With the sticks at 1600 Mhz and the Nb at 2200 Mhz I don't feel you would need 1.3 v to keep it stable, try lowering to 1.25 V it will help temps a bit. Can we also see a Cpu-Z Spd tab.

Should i increase the NB from 2200 to higher?