Help: Overclocking FX 8150

[Wazza92]

Hi all,
I am quite new to overclocking and have been having some problems at achieving a respectable overclock speed.
I know some basics to overclocking as i am currently running 4.2ghz at 1.375v.
However when i start getting anywhere higher than this i struggle to get either a stable system or fail to have windows boot.
I have disabled core boost, K8cool C1E etc but am not to sure what to do.
Im not to familiar with DRAM timing and voltage or the NB frequencies and volts.
I have read some guides on this forum however i still cannot work it out.

help would be much appreciated



Model- GA990FXA-D3 - CPU FX 8150 black edition 4.2ghz @ 1.375v - cooler Gamer Storm Cooler Assassin - G.Skill RipjawsX 2x4Gb - Asus HD 7870 Direct CUII 2gb - Coolermaster RS 700W - Coolermaster 690 II advanced Exhaust 2x140mm 1x120mm, Inlet 1x120mm 1x140mm

 

[trents]

You also need to disable C6 and APM if that isn't already included in "etc."

Have you checked package and CPU socket temps? High temps are one of the main causes of instability. What are you cooling the CPU with? I hope you aren't trying to overclock this thing with the stock cooler. Please add that info to your list of system components. And in that list did you notice you say you have an "FX 3150" instead of an FX 8150?

But just looking at the meager info you have given us about your bios settings it looks like low CPU voltage is the culprit. You aren't going to get very far on an overclock (not stable, anyway) on 1.375 volts to the CUP. And how are you overclocking this, with the FSB or the multiplier or a combination of both?

And your motherboard. That board doesn't even have heat sinks in the VRM area. I wouldn't think it would be a good overclocking choice with a power hungry FX-8350 CPU. The 990 chipset Gigabyte boards with "UD" in their model name are much better suited for overclocking the FX CPUs.

Please download and install these three programs that are standard tools of this overclocking community: CPU-z, HWMonitor and Prime95. The first two are reporting and monitoring utilities and the third one we use to stress the system in order to check temps and stability under load. Post back when you have done that.

By the way, welcome to OC Forums!

 

[Wazza92]

Thank you i feel welcome already!

My mistake just a typo its an fx 8150 However in regards to cooling im using a gamer storm cooler assassin.
When i do overclock it i do use a combination of both. So far i have tried it with the multiplier at 21 with the FSB at 220-230. I tried bumping up the voltage and have taken it at 1.45v at highest.
However from what you are saying the mother board sounds like the potential problem.
And i have already downloaded those programs which is a bonus
Might i add, at the higher voltages if i do get windows to boot i tend to freeze in prime95.

 

[trents]

So here is what I want you to do:

Post back with attached pics of these three CPU-z tabs: CPU, Memory and SPD. Please attach them directly with your post instead of linking them. I'll paste a script now describing how to attach images to posts:

To attach a pic with a post, first crop and save the pic to disc if it includes surrounding irrelevant territory. In other words, we don’t want to see your whole desktop. That just shrinks down the important stuff we need to see so that it may not be legible. Snipping Tool in Windows Accessories is great for this. Then click on Go Advanced at the bottom of any new post window. When the advanced post window appears, click on the little paperclip tool at the top. This will load the file browser/up-link tool and the rest will be obvious.

This will give us a birds eye view of your frequencies and voltages. When you use the FSB to overclock you also drive up HT Link, CPUNB and RAM frequencies and this can cause instability if you don't adjust them in the process.

We will also have you do a stress test while monitoring for max temps but that will come later.

I'm off to bed now.

 

[Wazza92]

Not a problem i have captured all the tabs.
That also may be a problem with the FSB as im not to sure how all the HT Link, CPUNB and RAM frequencies work.
Hopefully it can all get sorted out

 

[RGone]

The link below is done using a Gigabyte mobo (not necessary at all) and gets the terminology brought forward so people have a clue to what the names of settings are and speaks to:
Memory Scaling
CPU-NB Scaling
HT Link Scaling
High HTT and HT Link Scaling
Higher memory and CPUNB + HTLink Scaling
Multiplier + HTT Scaling
Voltage Scaling

Bulldozer OC Guide!
Everything you need to overclock bulldozer properly.

 

[Johan45]

First I would manually set your ram to the timings in the XMP profile. Take the HT and NB off of auto and set them bothe around the 2200-2400 range for now.
As Trents said the MOBO you have won't be too friendly for OC'ing there just won't be enough power and you will have problems with the VRM heating up.
That said start with something more modest like an even 4.0G and see if it can take it.
So drop the multi to 20. Set your Vcore at 1.38 and NB to 1.2. Iff you have cpu/nb PLL set them to regular or disable it depending on your options.
Once you have this done test with Prime95 for 20mins if it's stable. If it drops workers or crashes you'll need more vcore. So adjust and try again.
While you are running prime have HWmonitor open and watch your temps. If the CPU temp hits 70 or the package temp hits 60 stop the test immediately.
Temperature will be your limiting factor if it's too hot you'll have to back off the voltage.

 

[trents]

If you compare the XMP 1600 column in the CPU-z SPD tab with the timings you are currently running (Memory tab) you will see that your memory timings are more "relaxed" than they need to be (bigger numbers means more relaxed timings, i.e., longer wait states or pauses in the data flow). That should not create a problem with stability but it does cost you a little performance.

Now what we need you to do is to check max "package" and "CPU" temps. Package temp is the temp of the processor itself. CPU temp is actually the motherboard socket temp.

Please open HWMonitor on the desktop and leave it open while you run the Prime95 "blend" stress test for 20 minutes. If your system doesn't restart, lockup or blue screen before the test completes, attach an image of HWMonitor (don't close it before you do this) with your next post. This will give us a snap shot of your temps under load and also your voltages under load.

 

[Wazza92]

Ok so i had time this morning before work to do the blend test and got the following results.
In regards to all the setting changes recommended by RGone and Johan45 i will have to do them tonight after work

 

[Titus_x]

Little bit about my specs.... to help you out

OK here's the deal.
-set your HT link speed at 2000-2200Mhz.(Higher causes instability and does not have any noticeable increase on performance)

-I found the most stable NB frequency at 2400Mhz. Your board can maybe take it Higher but I would stick with this above.

-As people earlier said, if your worker drops at p95 then add more Vcore voltage.

-post the exact timings of your ram.( I have Crucial Ballistix Sport 9-9-9-27 1600Mhz @8-8-8-21[1455Mhz])

-Also you might want to up your CPU VDDA voltage it is usually in 2.5 volts. This voltage affects to your cpu clock multplier circuit inside your chip. I keep it in steady 2.7v.

P.S. AMD turbo core techonology disabled

 

[Wazza92]

I have changed all the dram timing to suite the xmp profile and changed the nb and ht frequency to the reccommended levels however if I push the volts up my pc fails to boot. My screen stays black and I have to hit delete to reboot where I get a message saying "your system has experienced bios failues because of overclocking. Last settings in bios setup may not coincide with current h/w states."
Current cpu speed: 21.0x200mhz
Current memory speed: 1600mhz
Current ht soeed: 2200mhz

Not too sure

 

[RGone]

G Skill forum has some pretty explicit instructions for setting up that ram at their forum.
RGone...

 

[trents]

After you changed the RAM timings to match the XMP profile, was the system stable at stock voltages and frequencies before you added voltage to the CPU? Just trying to sort out whether it was the timing changes with the ram or the voltage increase that caused it to be unstable.

One tip I would offer and that is make one change at a time and test it before making a change to something else.

 

[Wazza92]

The system is currently running stock voltages however i have changed the EOCP to profile 1 along with setting the ram timings to suite the XMP profiles. I have changed the NB frequency to 2400mhz and HT link frequency to 2400mhz and received errors in prime. so i have put them back to 2200mhz for now.

 

[Wipeout]

That board only has a 4+1 power phase.I would say your your looking good @ 4.2G on 1.37v. if your running stable under prime.As Trents mentioned,That board doesn't even have heat sinks in the VRM area.Increasing multiplier and frequency in other areas, is probably not helping the cause.

 

[Wazza92]

so it's either stay with the 4.2ghz at 1.37v or get a new motherboard with a bit better cooling and so forth??

 

[Wipeout]

so it's either stay with the 4.2ghz at 1.37v or get a new motherboard with a bit better cooling and so forth??

That's your best bet.The 970A-UD3 will run you about 105 dollars.Best suited for 1 video card,as it only has (1) 16x PCIe slot,but with a 8+2 power phase,you can easily get a better overclock.Check out my Sig.I could go higher on that overclock,which I did,but I'm content at 4.4g.Those temps are the sweet spot for my set-up.Yours might be different.

If your willing to up your budget,there are better choices.

 

[Wazza92]

ahk cool. i was looking at crossfire somewhere down the track too but yeah another touchy topic haha. Much of a job changing the motherboard, or is it just a plug and go job?

 

[trents]

ahk cool. i was looking at crossfire somewhere down the track too but yeah another touchy topic haha. Much of a job changing the motherboard, or is it just a plug and go job?

Not hard. Set aside a morning or an afternoon to do it. Hardest part is changing over all the stuff that plugs into the board. A little time consuming but not rocket science by any means.

 

[trents]

You might scrape by on the Gigabyte 970 UD3 but if you want to insure good overclocking on that power hungry CPU, go with the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128509