AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE + Gigabyte GA970A-D3 Overclocking

[moccor]

So I'm not sure if it's related with my videocard, but I render videos in Sony Vegas and I got some weird Windows error when trying to render a video. It's something about running out of memory and asking if I want to close Sony Vegas. Well My RAM only shows about 3.4GB used, so I cancel it, Windows gets laggy and then my system freezes up. This is with Sony Vegas 8.1 x64 tho, so it has no GPU acceleration. I figured it had something to do with the default RAM timings or something, so I tried using a automatic profile for 1866. Didn't work. That's fine, I know automatic settings are bad to use and don't work well. So after disabling everything except APM (Gigabyte is slow on the tickets and apparently think I'm retarded because my F11 BIOS doesn't have APM but theirs does). Well, even with a vCore of about 1.488, maybe a little higher (which is higher than the default vCore my MOBO chose), it still won't boot at 3.495Ghz and 1866Mhz for RAM. Also, the RAM voltage was automatically increased from 1.50 to 1.65 with the 1866 profile. Also, I ran memtest already and it passed with no errors. I think the SonyVegas thing might be just a problem on their part, it's not completely relevant to the overclocking tho since memtest passed.

So as for the temps, my CPU idles at about 30-33C and reaches a max of 48-50C @3.9Ghz, so my temperatures are fine. My CPU HSF is the Artic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro rev 2.

If there is any other info that I can provide to help find a more stable overclock, it would be awesome and greatly appreciated. I'm not going for highest benchmark, I'd just like to stay at about the stock voltages (I'm aware they must be raised a bit for stability).

Also, I have read a few guides on how to overclock and I am not dumb (not saying any of yous said I am ). I think I either have a dud cpu that doesn't allow for much overclocking (due to the 1.47 or so default vCore the mobo set), maybe the APM setting is screwing me over, or I just need to learn some crazy stuff and increase everything together.

 

[TeknoBug]

First things first, get rid of the ACF7 cooler, I had one of those and the copper tips melted, the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ does a much better job. Secondly, just upping the multiplier in the BIOS should be enough to get 3.9-4GHz without touching voltage (was it 1.375v or 1.4v) and other stuff, but DO turn off core turbo. I also have that motherboard and used a 955 in it for a short while, bump the voltage up to 1.4 or 1.425 if things get hairy under load, 1.475 is unneccessary. I chose to leave CIE and K8 CnQ on, and LLC at auto.

 

[moccor]

I have 5-7C of room until I reach max temp, I have no reason to get rid of this cooler haha. And I chose this one, because I think that hyper212+ might not fit in my case with the side fan. If the copper tips melt or if something happens, I will be sure to let them know of my pc downtime and troubles I ran into, to the point that I'd get a better one . I'll go ahead and try that tho, thanks a lot.

 

[trents]

Two things:

1. The Deneb core CPUs did not use turbo core technology so that's not an issue.
2. The Deneb core CPUs will not be stable with the memory frequency set to 1866. The CPU IMC (Integrated Memory Controller) is not stout enough to carry that frequency. 1600 is often possible with these CPUs with relaxed timings but 1333 for sure.

Concerning the original problem you were trying to fix by changing the memory frequency and timings, I don't have any solution to offer. Sounds like a bug in the program to me.

 

[moccor]

Do you think if I underclocked the RAM, that it might help with overclocking the CPU? Because I run into some weird problems when I am at 3.8Ghz or higher and using high memory/CPU intensive things like a game, sony vegas, tests with prime95. Weird stuff happens after about a hour or two. The game crashes, and continues to crash. Skype crashed and wouldn't open, only kept crashing. I heard some weird sounds in my earphone (kinda like popping sounds). Is my motherboard faulty?

 

[trents]

Could be a faulty motherboard but I would also consider the Apevia PSU you are running. Apevia makes a lot of junk. For the time being, I would run your ram at 1333 mhz. There is very little performance hit with doing that anyway as that CPU really can't take advantage of the extra bandwidth of high ram frequencies.

Please download and install CPU-z and attach pics of these program tabs with your next post: CPU, Memory and SPD. That will give us a wealth of info about your system and system settings. To attach a pic, first crop and save the images with Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories. Then click on the Go Advanced button at the bottom of any new post window and then click on the little paperclip icon at the top of the advanced post window. This will load the file browser/uplink tool and the rest will be obvious.

 

[TeknoBug]

Oh yeah I forgot about the ram, yeah 1333 but I ran mine with 1600 (although BIOS likes to reset it to 1333 sometimes for some reason even though the RAM is stamped 1600). And be sure to put the ram in slot 2 and 4 (or 1 and 3) in pairs.

And trust me, the AF7 sucks for OC'ing, try the Coolermaster Hyper TX3, smaller with 92mm fans which is what the AF7 uses.

 

[storm-chaser]

you should try increasing your NB speed. See if you can get it to 2800 or 3000mhz. That will really improve memory performance. Set it to 1600mhz and manually enter the XMP profile timings in your bios. Your cpu nb should be 1.3 or 1.4v. don't worry about increasing your fsb, just use multis on the cpu and nb to achieve your overclock

 

[moccor]

You can also hold the Alt+Press Prnt Scrn and it will only take a screenshot of the current Window. Also, is there any way of finding out if my PSU is faulty, from within the OS? Maybe using HWiNFO?
@storm-chaser - I would try that, but I think on this MOBO that the northbridge gets very hot. I'd like to leave those at stock if it affects those things under the heatsinks. Even my GPU was hot to the touch after turning the PC off with doing tests (only running for a few minutes with a game that doesn't even run my GPU at 100%) and it felt like 90-100 on the top. But that heatsink on the mobo, I actually had to remove my fingers from lol.

Also, this isn't the stock voltage that the motehrboard chose, I chose that. The motherboard chose like, 1.47 or 1.488, something very high. And I also manually entered those XMP values for the RAM in hopes it would make overclocks more stable (which it didn't).

 

[storm-chaser]

Yes the board does appear to have some overclocking issues. still you should try to get your FSB down to a flat 200. Sometimes, even a 1mhz bump can cause serious reliability problems given the perfect storm of components.

Also check this out:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1278065/...and-prime95-not-a-temp-issue/10#post_17634622

 

[moccor]

Well I think it's showing a slight increase due to the default motherboard settings. I just left it all default, except for the CPU voltage, that was too high. So all that weird stuff that regulates voltages and CPU frequency is enabled. And thanks for the link, I'm a little busy now but I definitely will check it out soon.

 

[FlailBoy]

Well I think it's showing a slight increase due to the default motherboard settings. I just left it all default, except for the CPU voltage, that was too high. So all that weird stuff that regulates voltages and CPU frequency is enabled. And thanks for the link, I'm a little busy now but I definitely will check it out soon.

FYI-My readings for FSB/DRAM Frequency also look the same on CPU-Z with my FSB set to AUTO. As I understand it those readings should be reliable. I don't know why your RAM would get twitchy at less than a
+1% OC, but if you wanted to, drop the FSB to 199 (or up your DRAM voltage a bit ) just to rule it out.

 

[storm-chaser]

FYI-My readings for FSB/DRAM Frequency also look the same on CPU-Z with my FSB set to AUTO. As I understand it those readings should be reliable. I don't know why your RAM would get twitchy at less than a
+1% OC, but if you wanted to, drop the FSB to 199 (or up your DRAM voltage a bit ) just to rule it out.

He said that the board is running better with stock settings (which I assume means 200mhz fsb) so that almost proves that yes in fact just a small memory OC of 10mhz can result in instability. Given that his board is running XMP profiles, the timings are nice and tight and probably cant handle more than 800mhz on the button. I have seen this on a handful of occasions. I bet if he opened up the timings a bit, it could help. But overclocking via FSB is a pipe dream unless you have liquid nitrogen cooling. So scrap that.

Move on to trying to increase your NB speed to 2400mhz. that 2013mhz is just killing your memory throughput. You can use aida64 to check temps for assurance.

 

[moccor]

Yes the board does appear to have some overclocking issues. still you should try to get your FSB down to a flat 200. Sometimes, even a 1mhz bump can cause serious reliability problems given the perfect storm of components.

Also check this out:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1278065/...and-prime95-not-a-temp-issue/10#post_17634622

So you think if I tried 8-8-8-24 it might help? I'll give it a try.

FYI-My readings for FSB/DRAM Frequency also look the same on CPU-Z with my FSB set to AUTO. As I understand it those readings should be reliable. I don't know why your RAM would get twitchy at less than a
+1% OC, but if you wanted to, drop the FSB to 199 (or up your DRAM voltage a bit ) just to rule it out.

Well when I tried it with the RAM at 1800, the voltage increased to 1.65v automatically. And Also trying it with 1.50/1.51 didn't work either.

He said that the board is running better with stock settings (which I assume means 200mhz fsb) so that almost proves that yes in fact just a small memory OC of 10mhz can result in instability. Given that his board is running XMP profiles, the timings are nice and tight and probably cant handle more than 800mhz on the button. I have seen this on a handful of occasions. I bet if he opened up the timings a bit, it could help. But overclocking via FSB is a pipe dream unless you have liquid nitrogen cooling. So scrap that.

Move on to trying to increase your NB speed to 2400mhz. that 2013mhz is just killing your memory throughput. You can use aida64 to check temps for assurance.

I'll give it a try, I messed with it some days ago so I don't remember exactly, but I think increasing this is how the RAM got to 1800. I appreciate each of your thoughts, same and different and will try some things out now.

Edit: Ok I tried increasing the NB frequency to 2400, and that was unstable when running prime95, I got a BSOD. Even under 1333 and 1600Mhz. Also What I found odd (and also reminded me about a little weird effect) during my previous overclocks where I would have 1.40vcore or even 1.42, Windows Explorer would stop working when I went into control panel. It would restart np though. But when I left the voltage on its default motherboard choice (which was like 1.51 or 1.52) it did a 4.0Ghz overclock np and nothing failed in prime95, though the max temp was 55C lol. So that means it's not a PSU problem right? Also, I can't go below 200 FSB sadly. I would love to have tried lowering FSB and increasing multiplier. Does AOD allow going below the BIOS limit? And yeah even setting the FSB to 201 caused a core to fail and stop during prime95, pretty quickly too. I think I also tried that @1333 too. Is it possible the NB VID voltage is holding me back? I see in Flailboy's config that his is @1.2 while mine is at 1.1 by default. Not sure if it's due to different motherboards, but ours is kinda the same.

 

[moccor]

Is this true with my motherboard?
"Dear Customer,
You will need to use an AM3+ processor to use the APM feature"

After about a week of bs and no attempt at troubleshooting, responding w/half assed answers, I leave them a response that isn't very nice. And then I just got that yesterday. I really don't believe anything this guy says, Gigabyte technical support seems to have less knowledge than a A+ certified guy.

 

[RGone]

APM New = Application Power Management = Began only with the BD/PD series of processors.
RGone...

 

[moccor]

APM New = Application Power Management = Began only with the BD/PD series of processors.
RGone...

Good to know, thanks. Funny thing is, they make you fill in all your specs when making a ticket. And since I'm not just a average computer person, I had np filling out each thing with the exact names w/speeds,watts, etc. I even told the guy, I had F11. I just don't get it lol. You people that help others daily should have His job or be paid for this.

 

[RGone]

You people that help others daily should have His job or be paid for this.

That is the type job I had with DFI until they quit selling consumer motherboards in 2010. And man oh man some of the types of questions that could come. Sounds like you are dealing with people whom do not use the products of the company they are employed by. I ran just about every board DFI sold for at least 2 weeks. That makes a lot of difference. I also managed the DFI forum and had a pretty good idea of what the customers were complaining about before the emails for support came in.

If Email support is 'just a job' to the one doing it; then it will not be what we in the Usa expect for support. Sadly so.
RGone...

 

[moccor]

If Email support is 'just a job' to the one doing it; then it will not be what we in the Usa expect for support. Sadly so.

I agree 100% lol. Seems like few can do their job right these days. Btw, I know AOD is bad to use, but since not much works anymore and is unstable, I figure why not. I'm looking at AOD, the 'clock/voltage' tab and I see something weird. Could this be a sign to something like a faulty PSU?

Edit: I managed to increase the FSB And increase the NB freq and HT freq lol.. To achieve the FSB increase, I think it's stable because I lowered the CPU voltage. It now idles at 1.360-1.376 and when doing something CPU intensive it goes to 1.392. Now what is funny but also weird, if I increase the vcore, even by +.025, these same settings won't work. Makes me think twice about the PSU. However, in order to get this 2500Mhz NB and HT Link stable, I had to increase the NB voltage by +1.000 (if I remember correctly.). I know increasing the FSB isn't necessary for this CPU to overclock though. But I think 3570Mhz w/ 17.0 multiplier and 210FSB is the best I can do without increasing voltages And keeping it stable. It's stable @ 3570 with a NB and HT Link of 20XX, with no voltage increases. I think that 'less is more' theory is applying to my setup, it seems to have some sweet spots.

 

[storm-chaser]

Looks good! but keep in mind increasing the HT will not result in any performance gains (try to keep between 2000 and 2200mhz). Also your memory is running at less than stock speeds. See if you can tweak that.