FX8320 OC

[mudajama]

So I decided to try and oc this cpu some. Right now i have a bootable usable oc but fails stresstest after about 20min with possible hardware failure message. P95 and Overdrive give this message
4.5GHZ effective
FSB 250
Multi 18
ram at 1336 "i have 1333"
Both nb and ht link set 1780
vcore 1.35
I have a multitude of the digi-power control settings altered and forgive me for not knowing which but most are set one notch above normal.

temps are ok. package gets to around 42C and socket 50C.
I'm on water as you can guess, and I have 4 70mm cpu fans set up in a square around the cpu. two to the left on the vrm heatsink and two to the right over the ram and some downdraft to the chipset but its hidden behind my gpu.

Now I know i have some tweaking to do. HT and NB need to go higher and I could probably back down on the FSB and raise my multi. But what's getting me is this seams like my oc is way high for such a low vcore. Is it throttling down and i not know it?

I know its not a cut n paste deal when overclocking. But what are some of your results with this CPU.
System specs in sig

 

[caddi daddi]

would you please tell us the method you used to arrive at this clock?

 

[mudajama]

I broke all oc'ing rules and just jumped right at this. Didn't do small changes and stress test then change again. I just did some fsb multi. Calculations to find an even 4500

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

fails stresstest after about 20min with possible hardware failure message. P95 and Overdrive give this message

Must scramble to the BIOS, raise the Vcore and save the changes...

Let me know if the programs go any further.

 

[mudajama]

Must scramble to the BIOS, raise the Vcore and save the changes...

Let me know if the programs go any further.

I'm done with it for the night but I'll pushbit to 1.4 but here is the thing I never 100%/understood and what scares me. The bios has an offset and a fixed mode. What is the default voltage I am offsetting from. Or if I do manual set, what are normal NB voltages.

 

[caddi daddi]

this is why here we start you off at all default settings and work you up to speed, by the time you get a few hundred mgz over stock you start to understand whats going on and what is what.
if you will go download cpu-z and hardware monitor, both from the same site.
open as many copys of cpu-z to show us all tabs, yes, this is one program that you can open more than one copy.
open hardware monitor.
reset the system to stock.
run prime 95 torture test for twenty minutes.
post a screenshot so we can see what you have we can begain.

 

[mudajama]

Looks like I can't shortcut. I'll f w it later. Looks like 4.5 will definitely be attainable but more precisely done.

 

[caddi daddi]

good idea.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Looks like I can't shortcut. I'll f w it later. Looks like 4.5 will definitely be attainable but more precisely done.

It's a process, as Caddi noted you need to take a step at a time. Raise the clocks 100 Mhz and test then add voltage accordingly when needed. Jumping to an Oc usually leads to a lot of frustration. Just have patience and you'll get it where you want.

 

[mudajama]

this is where i ended up today. I had 4.5 but core 8 kept failing plus it was getting a tad warm. So i went back down to a respectable 4.3. TTACH]

 

[caddi daddi]

here is how I set mine up, this is with a 965 so don't just copy my exact numbers.
when you use offset voltage you are adding some voltage to a base voltage.
you will at some point need to set your load line calibration like mine, you might try it now and get that worked out and stable at this point.
what you want to do when you are at the lower clocks is to get all this digi vrm and other stuff setup so that as you increase your clocks all you are adjusting is your voltages and busses.

 

[mudajama]

so havng my loadline at medium is why the voltage is dropping when under load and causing a failure? I will try to get it back to 4.5 with more multi than fsb this time. And you still kept cnq on? I though that cnq will cause instability. Or do you only keep it off when finding your clock and then turn it back on.

 

[Mandrake4565]

so havng my loadline at medium is why the voltage is dropping when under load and causing a failure? I will try to get it back to 4.5 with more multi than fsb this time. And you still kept cnq on? I though that cnq will cause instability. Or do you only keep it off when finding your clock and then turn it back on.

mudajama, I'm glad CD posted those because the first thing that stuck out to me was the VDroop. I'm running my 8350 on a very similar board the M5A99X Evo as we speak. I've found having the Cpu LLC set on Ultra High is the best on this board. The goal with the LLC is to have it keep the voltage under load as close to the set voltage without over shooting by too much. If you look at the HWmonitor ss your Cpu V core dropped as low as 1.33 which could have caused the instability.

We both leave C and Q on but I find it best to achieve a stable OC first and then work on using the offset voltage to run it with C and Q on. We can help you do both.

What I suggest is, run prime blend at 4.3 for 2 hours if you haven't already. If it passes make sure you write down your settings, this way if you lose your way you have a known stable Oc to fall back on. Then try 4.4 test 20 min, fail add volts/ pass try 4.5. Once you get to 4.5 I feel you should again try to pass 2 hours of prime blend. The M5A99X/990Fx pro are good boards but only have a 6+2 Vrm section and will, depending on the Cpu, sometimes run out of power to feed the Fx 8xxx chips past 4.5. Mine will not run my 8350 "stable" past 4.5 but my chip is a bit of a power hog. You have plenty of headroom temp wise so you should be good at 4.5.

 

[Mag10]

Not sure how much help this may be, but I did some top end(mostly thermal limitations) for my CPU+Mobo about a month or 2 ago. You can find my exploratory thread Here I am not sure if this will be any help but in addition to some of the various minor tweaks I did, it was recommended to push my NB voltage to 1.2V which made all the difference in the world for OCing over 4GHz for my setup. Take my case with a grain of salt as I am still messing with OCing my 8320 and getting to know it better.

 

[mudajama]

quick update. Took CD's advice into account. Raised the LLC to extreme. And set the multi to 21.5 and fsb to 210 and a offset vcore. It ended up at 1.356V. 15min of P95 got warm 50package 60socket, but no failure. Its getting late and I got errands to do so I'll do a 2hr later.

 

[Mandrake4565]

quick update. Took CD's advice into account. Raised the LLC to extreme. And set the multi to 21.5 and fsb to 210 and a offset vcore. It ended up at 1.356V. 15min of P95 got warm 50package 60socket, but no failure. Its getting late and I got errands to do so I'll do a 2hr later.

Post a SS of Hwmonitor under load and Cpu-z, spd , memory tabs so we can see what it what. Extreme on the LLC may be giving you a bit more voltage then is needed.

 

[Kenrou]

Never set LLC to extreme unless you can avoid it as it overvolts under load, one step lower (ultra high if memory serves) will hit the sweet spot you want for overclocking on most boards that have the feature (its what i use on mine)