Over Clocking AMD FX6100

[rbruntzjr]

Here is something else that is odd. In trying RGone's suggestions,
Changing CPU Freq. Control to 2300, X11 was too high and had to change CPU NB VID Control to 1.225, system would not boot. Upped voltage to 1.5 no boot.

Keeping these changes and changing the CPU Host Clock Control from Auto to Manual was an automatic choice from before of 230. With the Host Clock Control now at 230 the CPU Clock Ratio automatically went up to 5.8 which is way to high so I lowered the multilplier down to X20 which results in 4600Mhz.

The system boots fine and I am now getting a good memory bandwidth benchmark.

But Wait!!!!!

In looking at the results the CPU Clock did not look correct. It was telling me it was set at 4.0. Sure enough. Now I can change the multiplier to anything I want and when it boots I get the same results with no change. Am I missing something?

 

[rbruntzjr]

Thanks, for all your help. Is there something in the Mem. Bios settings? I think it has been like that since I downloaded it. It's fun messing with this stuff but frustrating at the same time. I'll take things back the way they were before and now see.

 

[BlueOceanAlex]

Nice work. I'll have to try the sisoft at some point and see where i come in. Without better cooling I think I'm as high as this puppy's going to get.. but for the buck, I definitely can't complain.

 

[trents]

rbruntzjr, you may know this already but as I read your remarks in post #21 I wonder if you understand that when you overclock using the CPU Frequency (aka, FSB and HT Reference) all the other bus frequencies increase along with it. Namely: memory, CPUNB/NB and HT Link. The CPU frequency is the master bus of the system and all other frequencies are tuned to it. When you use the CPU Clock Ratio to overclock these other "slave" frequencies are not affected. However, you can raise or lower them individually as necessary. That is why CPUs with an unlocked multiplier ("black" edition CPUs) have an advantage in overclocking. You can use either the frequency or the ratio or a combination of both.

 

[rbruntzjr]

So in moving to higher clock speeds, if you are using just the CPU Clock Ratio, you reach a point where a threshold is met that you can't go over, unless you increase the other values say using the CPU freq. to overclock with or use inconjuction with the multiplier?

 

[trents]

You don't have to use the CPU frequency to overclock the HT Link and the CPUNB. Those two frequencies have bios controls of their own. Like I said in the previous post, you can manipulate them independently of the CPU frequency. Take HT Link Frequency off of "Auto" and you will see what I mean. You've already done this with the CPUNB Frequency. It's the same type of control, a multiplier. The FX CPUs like to keep the CPUNB and the HT Link Frequency in lockstep. That seems to help with stability. So if you have the CPUNB Frequency at 2300 you should have the HT Link Frequency the same. Overclocking is much simpler if you just use the CPU Clock Ratio (what we usually call the "CPU Multiplier") to overclock the CPU cores as high as they will go and then go back and adjust the HT Link and the CPUNB frequencies independently. The Bulldozers seem to like a max of about 2400 overclock of the HT Link and the CPUNB.

There is some evidence, however, that a combination of the FSB and the CPU multiplier is the most effective way to get the highest overclock. It's not clear to me why that is better, however, but on some systems it is.

 

[rbruntzjr]

Well, might as well go big. After much experimenting and everyones advice, this is what I was able to come up with. I think this looks ok. Running very stable, ran all night with no errors and temps. Temps. are just below the threshold I think.

 

[BlueOceanAlex]

So I'm back with a minor update to my OC - The max I can get somewhat stable is 4.2, and the max fully stable is 4.1. I found my heat problem was twofold, as it was partially because I don't believe my 750w bronze PSU was able to adequately power my dual GTX295 cards, and those generate a LOT of heat on their own, so they may also have contributed to too much hot air in my mid-sized case.

The other part of the heat issue was too much AS5 paste on the CPU, so cleaning and reseating and then giving a decent break-in period combined with taking one of the GTX295's out resulted in more stability and 15c cooler temps at the same voltages overall compared to my prior tests. To be honest BF3 runs better NOT in Quad SLI than it did with both cards.. who'd have thought? Im now using a great app called MSI Afterburner from Guru3d to OC my video card and have it tuned in too. (Core clock at 675, and memory clock 1225 with no artifacts/overheat).

The problem I face now is getting above 4.1 stable. I know I can do it because heat is no longer an issue, except it appears my problem is voltage. I have watched my hardware monitor during my intel burn test and prime95 runs, and what I see essentially is that at 4.2 my voltage spikes about 1.42-1.45 momentarily, then within 10-15 seconds, it drops consistently to 1.25 and never goes higher after.

I have checked my line load calibration to extreme, and auto, and disabled, no change. I have turned off ALL power management, played with CPU voltage from 1.2 to 1.45, adjusted CPU NVID up and down. I have thermal overheat protection disabled too. The only thing I can think of now, would be to disable 2 of the 6 cores and see if the voltage continues to drop. Can anyone suggest anything else to look at or try? I know "each CPU is unique" but I think I should at least be able to get to a stable 4.2 if others can achieve 4.5 on air and as high as 5 on liquid. I have bare minimums in my case (1SSD, 1 Spinning drive, Graphics card, sound card, ram, cpu, and BD Rom) so my PSU should have absolutely no issue producing the extra .25 volts it needs for the CPU... am I wrong??