You can follow that link below and learn to overclock your system. The tutorial was done using a Gigabyte motherboard even.
Bulldozer OC Guide!
Everything you need to overclock bulldozer properly.
This is an overclocking guide for those who are advanced overclockers, and those who are brand new.
We don't like to be a motherboard police and have to tell so many people that the motherboard or cpu cooler or some other part of their system is just not really up to the job of overclocking these 6 and 8 core AMD FX processors. However what is said about your motherboard not being a good choice for an extended overclock of an FX-8core processor just happens to be the truth.
We have many people come into this forum section asking about how to overclock their FX processor and we point them to one of the hundreds of good overclcocking guides scattered about the internet and very often and really too often they write back and say they are confused or don't get it.
How can one be confused? Most of the guides are in english and some have very good pictures of bios and the settings just as the guide above has. The problem really is that those users have no clue what their bios is about and they don't look or experiment with their own system to see how it acts and reacts. They really want just some numbers to plug into the specific bios menus and they can then go and say they have their system overclocked. Overclocking does not work that way about 95% of the time. Because each system varies somewhat. Different ram. Different power supply. Different Case and fans. Different CPU Cooler. CPU that is better or worse by some degree than the next users cpu. Different and just different.
Then we start to hold these wannabe overclockers hands and try and get a baseline or beginning stability baseline. Usually without any overclock. Why overclock if the system and defaults is not stable? No reason. Some of the boards users come; wanting to overclock, are so weak for overclocking that they barely can get stable with FX 6 or 8 core processors at default speeds. The VRM circuit that supplies the very POWER HUNGRY cpus is just not up to the job of supplying all the power the bigger FX processors want when made to turn on ALL cores and hold ALL the cores on thru a stability test run. Well Crap.
So the weaker board gets past the beginning baseline test for stability and we begin to walk the user thru adding a 100Mhz or 200Mhz to his cpu speed. Maybe the lesser motherboard makes it upward in cpu speed by 100, 200 or even 300Mhz but that still does not get us to 4.0Ghz on most cpus except for the FX-8350 which is default set to 4.0Ghz.
So maybe we have spent good time getting a user to 4.0Ghz. Things have worked pretty good up until now if all the stars are in alignment. BUT no user ever seems to want JUST 4.0Ghz and then the problems really begin. Everyone of these FX processors goes a little faster for a given amount of voltage to the cpu. BUT at points along the way of incresing the cpu speed the voltage to the cpu must rise by pretty hefty incremental amounts. The user may have gotten a 300Mhz overclock fairly stable with Cpu voltage not too different than the stock cpu voltage. But now he wants to go to 4.1 or 4.2Ghz and the cpu voltage must make a jump upward to try and run the processor stable. The CPU begins to put our MORE heat. More heat means more voltage to the cpu. More voltage to the cpu means more heat and suddenly there is a circle going on and the CPU cooler and the motherboard VRM circuit that supplies voltage to the cpu are just NOT enough for the job of overclocking a power hungry 6 or 8 core FX processor with ALL the cores on ALL the time.
So now we are in this circle of demanding requirements for overclocking power hungry FX processors. We have mostly wasted our time up till now. The new overclocking user is not satisfied with only overclocking to about 4.0Ghz or some speed in that range. He does not know why his crap will not do better. He does not know much about FX overclocking and does not realize that HE has asked his cpu to turn on ALL cores and to run at a greater speed than default and do so all the time. Such running of his cpu is NOT how AMD designed the FX processor to work at all. Not at all. Not even a little bit is it how AMD designed the FX processor to function.
So generally speaking we have wasted our time and the users time, because we have done this same going in circles many times. We all say in frustration that the users system is just not up to the job of running a power hungry and HOT AMD FX processor with ALL the cores on ALL the time and with a hefty overclock. Time after time after time, we see this and now we are the Motherboard/System Police. Not fun.
So we begin to suggest better parts and pieces. Parts and pieces that are generally known to work better for this sort of heavy-duty overclocking.
1. Like a motherboard better suited to suppling power to the power hungry FX processors now asked to run overclocked with ALL cores turned on and running.
2. Cooling for the cpu that is much better suited to getting the heat away from the HOT runnning FX processor that is overclocked with ALL cores turned on.
3. Then the user's case must be made to get the heat out of the case that the better cpu cooler is removing from the HOT overclocked AMD FX cpu.
4. And the list of parts and pieces needing to be upgraded and changed out to allow for a stable system (2 hours P95 Blend stable) running an FX 6 or 8 core processor just gets more expensive.
5. This entire overclocking process is a circle. Up cpu speed. Add cpu voltage for stability. Crap cpu runs hotter, need better cooling. Up cpu speed some more. Add cpu voltage for stability. Crap cpu runs hotter, need better cooling. And around and around and this circle is even more vicious with an FX 6 or 8 core processor it seems by the experience of the many.
So you want to overclock your Giga D3 board with an FX-8120 in the cpu socket? Use the information in the how-to overclock link way back up above and get started. The article/tutorial speaks to stabiliity testing so you can gauge your own progress. Monitor your temps during all stability testing so they do not exceed what are considered safe norms. When you can no longer get it stable or the heat gets too too great, then stop and ask yourself am I as fast as I want to be? If you are then good. If not then you already know you have to buy better parts and pieces. That is it.
Operating in this manner no one has seemed to waste anytime. No one has had to become the motherboard police, which by the way, I see happen in many forums all the time since we now know what is marginal and what seems able to really do the job.
Good luck to you and success.
RGone...
