SOLVED Modestly overclocking my Phenom II X4 965 Processor

[Dlaw]

I'm not sure, but I think stock voltage is CPU specific. Having said that, your VCore @ just over 1.3, is low indeed. Temps permitted, you could probably push upward of 1.4 and get a pretty decent overclock on it. If 44C is socket temp (reading from post #18), then your core temps are probably closer to the mid to high 30s if my estimations are correct. Is there a way to verify that under Linux?

If that is indeed the case, you have plenty of room for a modest VCore bump. From there, it's just raise the multiplier, run Prime, rinse and repeat until no longer stable.

 

[pqwoerituytruei]

did not know the stock voltage varied among CPUs of the same model
idle is 30C (once and a while it goes lower), 44C is the max

 

[keny]

As I said earlier "all cpu's are different" and his boards auto may be different to you're boards auto, it can be as high as 1.425v on auto, so that has to be taken into account also. Youre boards auto seems low to me!

 

[pqwoerituytruei]

i thought you meat there potential not there defaults
Thoes results assume the software is getting the info correctly from the board's sensors, i don't have a voltage meter to double check it

 

[||Console||]

Never leave your voltage on auto it causes way to many problems . If yo dont want to overvolt any ( for some reason) then find what amd says is the ~stock vcore ( prob like 1.35-1.4) and set it @ that in the bios .

 

[keny]

CPUz will tell you what voltage you're putting in 9 times out of 10 correctly and you're bios will tell you also if you look at the voltage section of you're boards bios, if its on auto and it just says auto with no amount next to it, then take it off auto by hitting the plus (+) button on the keyboard and see what it goes to as that is one bump up from auto and you can see how low it was and if its the same as CPUz (which it probably is)

 

[trents]

are you sure it is stable?
one thread on while running prime crashed for me after 10 min or so
what is the stock voltage, my board might me under volting it as it for all i know
highest vcore i have seen from lm-sensors is 1.310 or was that 1.312, just under 1.3 while using prime

Stock vcore will vary considerably even within the same processor model. If you will look in the CPU-z CPU tab when vcore is on auto it will tell you what it is and you can go from there.

 

[pqwoerituytruei]

hitting + on my auto puts it at 0.8, it appears to be a list starting at auto then .8 in 0.125 intervals
voltage it not on the CPU information section <.<
according to dmidecode my voltage is 1.5, and i don't feel like installing windows to run cpuz, running xubuntu 12.10
should i set it to as close to 1.3v as i can and see if it works at 3.5GHz?
i have the latest bios version for my board

Spoiler

~$ sudo dmidecode --type 4
# dmidecode 2.11
SMBIOS 2.5 present.

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 4, 40 bytes
Processor Information
	Socket Designation: AM3
	Type: Central Processor
	Family: Phenom II
	Manufacturer: AMD              
	ID: 43 0F 10 00 FF FB 8B 17
	Signature: Family 16, Model 4, Stepping 3
	Flags:
		FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
		VME (Virtual mode extension)
		DE (Debugging extension)
		PSE (Page size extension)
		TSC (Time stamp counter)
		MSR (Model specific registers)
		PAE (Physical address extension)
		MCE (Machine check exception)
		CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
		APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
		SEP (Fast system call)
		MTRR (Memory type range registers)
		PGE (Page global enable)
		MCA (Machine check architecture)
		CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
		PAT (Page attribute table)
		PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
		CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
		MMX (MMX technology supported)
		FXSR (FXSAVE and FXSTOR instructions supported)
		SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
		SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
		HTT (Multi-threading)
	Version: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor                  
	Voltage: 1.5 V
	External Clock: 200 MHz
	Max Speed: 3500 MHz
	Current Speed: 3500 MHz
	Status: Populated, Enabled
	Upgrade: Other
	L1 Cache Handle: 0x0005
	L2 Cache Handle: 0x0006
	L3 Cache Handle: 0x0007
	Serial Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
	Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
	Part Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
	Core Count: 4
	Core Enabled: 4
	Characteristics:
		64-bit capable

 

[Khan]

1.35 seems to be the most common of the stock voltages for the 955/965's, I'd say try that and have a go at it, also if your board has load line calibration turned off the voltage will drop under load, if "LLC" is turned on it will add voltage under load, just throwing that out there for you to play with.

 

[pqwoerituytruei]

it posted and booted at 3.5GHz @ 1.3v and checking prime95 (technically mprime since i am on linux)
if it seems to be stable i will try 3.6GHz and see if that is unstable
if this is stable and 3.6 is not i guess i will have found/verified my stock voltage
9 times out of 10 how long does it take to found out if it is stable?

 

[trents]

Passing 20 minutes of prime95 blend will tell you if it's at least close to stable.

 

[keny]

2hrs of prime should be stable enough for daily computing but for hardcore stability let it run overnight

 

[oerllikon]

I have my voltage in my sig, ive got the same cooler and proc, and I get about 51*C max on a good day. I probably could run it at 4.3 but it gets a little too warm running p95 then. Dont be afraid to bump up the voltage either, its mostly temps you have to watch for.
Im also using stock CM thermal paste
Happy Overclocking!

 

[pqwoerituytruei]

based on what my Vcore sensor reads (looks the same as when it was on auto) i expect this to be unstable, i think it hit a error in the 1st 15min with auto voltage
almost at the 20min point now, if this is actually stable anyone think i can do 3.7Ghz stable at 1.3V

is there a way to look up the record for stable at X voltage for this cpu?
passed the 20min point while typing, i will give it a hour and see if it a error occurs
temp is 44C now

 

[keny]

Of it fails after 10 mins or 1 hour its not stable....... Don't progress to the next level until you know its stable, and seeing asthough you are reluctant to bump the vcore above stock I am at a loss as to what you're aim is ! As you are only going to get a tiny overclock which is not going to give you're pc any sort of noticeable boost in performance, ramp up the vcore get a decent clock and then put the hurt on it, make it work for you.

 

[oerllikon]

based on what my Vcore sensor reads (looks the same as when it was on auto) i expect this to be unstable, i think it hit a error in the 1st 15min with auto voltage
almost at the 20min point now, if this is actually stable anyone think i can do 3.7Ghz stable at 1.3V

is there a way to look up the record for stable at X voltage for cpu?
passed the 20min point while typing, i will give it a hour and see if it a error occurs
temp is 44C now

You might want to try upping the nb and ht link speed as well, i got to 2.5 ghz with a little tweaking

 

[pqwoerituytruei]

Of it fails after 10 mins or 1 hour its not stable....... Don't progress to the next level until you know its stable, and seeing asthough you are reluctant to bump the vcore above stock I am at a loss as to what you're aim is ! As you are only going to get a tiny overclock which is not going to give you're pc any sort of noticeable boost in performance, ramp up the vcore get a decent clock and then put the hurt on it, make it work for you.

i just set it to 1.3v from auto, been running prime for just over 46 min and no errors at 3.6GHz, took under 15 min for a error on auto
i am guessing 1.3v is my stock voltage based on what my sensors say, based on how long prime is running it must have been below 1.3V
i don't see why i would run the Vcore higher than needed for a clock speed (only up voltage when unstable for a desired clock speed)

 

[keny]

i don't see why i would run the Vcore higher than needed for a clock speed (only up voltage when unstable for a desired clock speed)

No there is no need to run the vcore any higher than is needed but you keep failing prime so you need to raise it if you want to overclock to 3.6, you're CPU would last for years running 1.5v vcore with temps in check

 

[pqwoerituytruei]

i found the communication issue, it only failed once on auto voltage at 3.6Ghz, i assumed auto=1.3, my attempt to verify this has failed miserably as i have been running prime for 1:36 and have yet to see a error at 3.6GHz
1.3V at 3.6GHz appears to be stable, i expected this to fail

everything i did since making thread:
set multiplier to 17.50 (seems good)
set multiplier to 18.00 (fail)
set multiplier to 17.50 (known stable)
set voltage to 1.3V and multiplier to 18.00 (currently running prime, started at 14 min after midnight EST)

 

[pqwoerituytruei]

3.7GHz @ 1.3v = fail
3.7GHz @ 1.3125v = pass 29min test
3.8GHz @ 1.3125v = odd error

~$ dmesg | grep -i firmware
[    1.385124] [Firmware Bug]: powernow-k8: No compatible ACPI _PSS objects found.
[    1.385124] [Firmware Bug]: powernow-k8: Try again with latest BIOS.

Maybe you can't have over 1GHz difference when scaling

~$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_available_frequencies 
3700000 2700000 2200000 800000 
3700000 2700000 2200000 800000 
3700000 2700000 2200000 800000 
3700000 2700000 2200000 800000