asus sabertooth 990fx overclock help

[trents]

These are the things I want you to keep an eye on as you overclock. We will begin to increase the CPU mulitiplier in .5x increments. At first we will keep the CPU voltage at the current stock amount. You will see the CPU and core temps increase a small amount as we increase the multiplier. More heat will come when we begin to increase the CPU voltage. But first we will see how far you can get with no voltage increase. So:

1. Increase the CPU multiplier in .5x increments
2. After each .5x increment increase, run the Prime95 blend test for 20 minutes with HWMonitor always open on the desktop to monitor temps.
3. There will come a point where you cannot complete the Prime95 blend test. Failing the test means getting blue screen, computer locks up, Prime95 stops working altogether or one or more of the four Prime core workers drops out and you get an error message saying something about such and such a number was expected but . . . At that point, increase the CPU voltage one small increment and retest with Prime for 20 minutes. If you still fail. increase the CPU voltage another small increment and retest. At that point, post back with pics of CPU-z tab, "CPU" and a pic of HWMonitor.

You want to watch the core and CPU temps closely. You want to not to exceed about 55c for the core temp and 65c for the CPU temp.

 

[kga943]

ok i will do this in morning i hope you will be around

 

[trents]

Yeah, it's getting late. I'm on US west coast time. How about you?

 

[kga943]

im in central time zone i started increasing the multiplier i will post pics soon

 

[kga943]

here they are 21.5 is as hi as i could go at 22 prime95 had errors

 

[kga943]

temps looked ok but but prime95 wouldnt run

 

[trents]

Bump your CPU core voltage up from 1.308 (what it shows in CPU-z "CPU" tab, anyway) to 1.325 and retest. Or if the CPU voltage in bios is something different than 1.308 just add .025 volts and retest.

 

[trents]

Going to be gone for a few hours.

 

[kga943]

ok i tried to do it on the one voltage at the top but i dont think it worked this bios is pretty complicated

 

[trents]

"CPU Manual Voltage" is the one you want. There are other factors at work that affect what the CPU voltage turns out to be when you monitor it with Windows utilities like HWMonitor. When you set it to 1.325 in bios what does it give you in CPU-z or HWMonitor. Basically, I want you to add what you need to add in bios to wind up with about 1.325 in HWMonitor and CPU-z.

If you will look in bios you will see something called Load Lind Calibration or LLC we call it. This is a supplement to what you set the voltage to nominally in bios. It helps insure stability under load. There is one for the main CPU voltage and one for the CPUNB voltage. Usually, LLC can be adjusted as to the amount of supplement it will ad like "normal" "medium" "heavy" or it can be disabled or also put on Auto. Do you see it? Leave it alone for now. I just want you to be aware of it.

So back to the point, if you set the CPU Manual Voltage to 1.325, what does it show in CPU-z and HWMonitor. How about some pics?

 

[kga943]

ok got it i had do set it up to 1.350

 

[trents]

What options do you have besides "Regular" for the CPU/NB Load Line Calibration? You're getting some definite "vdrop" as it is. Vdrop is voltage drop at idle. Vdroop is voltage drop under load. It might also be helpful to check and see what LLC is doing under load because it might behave differently under load than at idle.

 

[kga943]

it has reg med high ultra high and extreme or auto

 

[trents]

Set the CPU LLC to medium and see what effect that has on the voltage being reported in CPU-z. The genius of LLC is that it allows you to get away with a lower idle voltage and saves wear and tear when not loading the system, yet supplements the voltage when your are loading it to help keep it stable. Leave the CPU/NB LLC like it is.

 

[kga943]

cpu volts went up to 1.332 it was 1.320

 

[trents]

Okay, go with that and retest with Prime, monitoring temps, of course as you do. Post back with results and a pic of HWMonitor.

 

[kga943]

it ran ok

 

[trents]

Temps are great! Start raising the multiplier again, testing, temp monitoring, etc. You know the drill now.

When we get close to the temp wall we'll stretch the test time out to 2 hrs. Twenty minutes is efficient at the front end of the overclock process and sufficient to establish tentative stability but to confirm stability a longer test is needed.

 

[kga943]

ok i will get back to you after doing test what is the max i should go with the multiplier

 

[trents]

As high as it will go and still have the system be stable under Prime95 load testing. There is no real limit. The only limits as far as potential damage to the system are excessive CPU voltage (greater than 1.5v) and core/CPU temps. With the FX chips, temps start to get too high long before you reach excessive CPU voltage so I don't think voltage will be an issue per se.