Overclocking AMD Phenom 2 X4 955 BE

[Leito]

Hi everyone!

I am back after some amount of time. I need Your help to OC my Phenom.

I have upgraded my PC, i have changed a case, to a bigger and with better cooling one, changed the CPU from Athlon 2 X2 250 to Phenom 2 X4 955 BE. First of all i was almost sucked in by a stock cooler, so i have changed it to polish Silentium PC Fortis 3 HE1425. So now it is cooler and much much more quiter than before

From the very begining i was planning to overclock the CPU. My old Athlon was working fine with stock cooler at 3,6Ghz without changing voltages. It was also quiet and cool enaugh for safe use.

As You propably know, my MB doesnt have heatsinks at mosfets which deliver the power to the CPU. When i had Athlon i left it as it is, because it doesn't require a lot of power, but now i have mounted some heatsinks to it, because phenom is much more hungry

SO after that i am starting to OC

First of all i want to tell You what is my goal for it. So i am not aiming for the highest OC that my chip is capable of. I need some stable machine for everydays usage and gaming from time to time. Because in 70-80% of time my PC is idling while i am browsing the net etc i want to keep AMD COOL 'n QUIET on.

So i increased FSB to 225, so i got 3,6Ghz. I have tested it with prime for 15-20minutes and it worked good. Then i have changed the CPU multiplier 1 abote and got 3,8Ghz - also went good in stress. Then i have increased CPU multiplier 1 step more, to get 4Ghz and i got BSOD and restart.

So thats why i think, that I need Your advice now

Voltages are at AUTO, my RAM is running at some ~1200Mhz ( They are supposed to work at 1600, but i have heard, that phenom RAM controlers don't like high ram Mhz, so i decided to lower it, because i wont see any gaming improvment, right? )

What would You recomend to me to do next? Oh, and i almost forgot - the temps at stress are around 45*C at cores, and i would like to achieve stable something little above 4Ghz, because it looks and sounds GOOD


If You need some more infos from me, fell free to ask.

With regards,
Leito.

 

[Johan45]

Well Leito I would ask why you tried FSB first and not multiplier? There's a good guide in my signature for overclocking the Phenom. Have a read or two till you have your head wrapped around it. Start with multipler then if you want some FSB as you near the end it'll be much easier for you this way. As for 1600 ram do the same try that later once you have the CPU stable. The Phenom only officially supports 1333 but I have never had one that wouldn't run at 1600. Not saying thy all will but chances are yours will.

 

[Leito]

Thanks for quick respond. I have already looked at this thread. But everybody says to turn off AMD cool n quiet.

In case of RAM I know, that phenoms will probably run them at 1600mhz, but I heard, that memory controller doesn't like those values and you can burn memory controller in your CPU. If there arent many visible in everyday usage benefits of 1600mhz memory instead of for example 1200mhz then I will leave it at lower frequencies to give my CPU some sort of "vacations" xd. It is not an APU, so I won't see any changes. On top of that, at those lower frequencies my timings are automatically lowered from cl9 to cl8 or even 7 from what I remember, when sticks are at something about 1000-1100mhz.

So You think, that I will probably get better results, when I will try to increase CPU multiplier instead of FSB? I will try this at home. Also what do You think about those temps in stress, and voltages. Do You think, that I should change it or not? Also what happens with voltages with AMD cool n quiet turned on? I mean, that when it's at low "gears" the voltage is lowered with my CPU speed - lower multiplier. I wondering, is voltage going still to go lower, when I will change my "auto" setting to manual?


Regards,
Leito.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I do not recall ever hearing a 955 die due to being run at 1600 Mhz on the Dram. Mine has been overclocked for the better part of 3 years running close to 1700 Mhz and is still going strong. Speed and timings are a fine balance, you can test the chip out with benchmarks to see to what the best is for you setup.

As far as pushing further, a picture is worth a thousand words, open Hwmonitor "non pro" and run prime blend for 20 minutes. Recommended temps are 62c on the Socket and Cores. Post back here with a screen shot of Hwmonitor as well as the following tabs in Cpu-Z, Cpu, Spd and Memory. This will give us a peek under the hood.

Running Cool and Quiet is recommended after you find a stable Oc. Once you find exactly where you want to be, you will need to find the stock VID of the chip subtract that from the voltage needed for X Oc. Then using the offset voltage add the difference.

 

[Leito]

So here is the screen after 20 minutes of prime95. On the right corner I also added a window of OpenHardwareMonitor, which I use for a mini widget. It shows the CPU temp with 1 more digit after the comma.

So this is my stable 230x17 - 3,9Ghz.

In the case of Ram OC - i have found some thread about dead phenoms after too much OC on DDR3 on this forum something about 3 years ago . Anyway i had my sticks at 1100Mhz and 1400Mhz on my old Athlon II x2 250 and i didn't see any greater results at gaming. Only Windows 7 benchmark is giving me better score at lower speed - because i had better timings. Even here You can see, that at those low speeds of my DDRAM at auto settings, i am geting lower timings - CL8.


Anyway, i forgot to admit. I bought this CPU as used one of course. I don't know if they are still making them. Anyway previus owner used stock amd cooler at 3,6ghz. In my case - even after cleaning it from dust, at stock speed and opened case i had something about 55*C when gaming .


So look at this pic and tell me what do You think. I'm really looking forward to read Your opinions and advices.

With regards,
Leito.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I think you read too much myth.
Here is my 955. Still going strong.



You need a better cooling solution and more voltage.
Ram speed and timings will not gain you much in real world applications. NB frequency WILL gain you some 'snappieness' back.

 

[Mandrake4565]

What are you cooling with? I agree with Scotty, you're really not going to see much difference in real world if you increase the ram speed. Though, increasing the Nb Freq can be helpful.

Just to be clear, yes overclocking the Dram can kill the processor. Usually this if one is pushing it as far as it can go, with excess voltage on sub ambient cooling. Under normal conditions, with around stock voltage it is highly unlikely.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Just to be clear, yes overclocking the Dram can kill the processor. Usually this if one is pushing it as far as it can go, with excess voltage on sub ambient cooling. Under normal conditions, with around stock voltage it is highly unlikely.

I'd like to extrapolate on this a little more.
Overclocking the DRAM isn't what kills the processor. Overvolting the CPU/NB (IMC) does.
As long as you use your head, you'll be just fine.

 

[Leito]

Ok, but is there any visible performance gain with OC memory? I mean in my situation, when it's not an APU. 1300Mhz should be enaugh? At CL9?

I was thinking about NB, but i don't know any details how to OC it, check if its stable after OC and how far can i push it and also how should i test, so let's say it simply - i don't know nothing about OC NB

So lets talk about the CPU.

20minutes prime95 stress went good - no instability, BSODs or restarts.

Mr.Scott I see, that You're using this same CPU. You achieved 4,25Ghz, but i can also see, that You're running at much higher voltage. I understand, that at some point stock voltages are not enaugh, but it is only 350Mhz more, and the voltage is 0,150V higher than in my situation. At what frequency You had to increase the voltage? After increasing voltage can i still run cool'n queit? My voltage is going to be higher for example for 0,05V for every "gear" of my CPU or only at the highest "gear" or it will always stay at 1,45?

Regards,
Leito.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you at what point you need to increase voltage. There is no definitive point as every CPU is different.
But I can answer your other question about C&Q.
Yes, you can still run C&Q and have it change the P-states properly without having a fixed voltage.

 

[PetrolHead]

Ok, but is there any visible performance gain with OC memory? I mean in my situation, when it's not an APU. 1300Mhz should be enaugh? At CL9?

Depends on what you define as visible gain and what you use as a benchmark. WinRAR and encoding 1080p video to x264 HD are a few examples of the kind of stuff that benefits from faster memory. Then again there are plenty of cases where your RAM speed really doesn't matter. While synthetic tests will find differences (as that's what they're designed for), you're in general unlikely to see any visible gains OC'ing your memory.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Leito do you still have the motherboard on Auto for the Cpu Voltage? If so it's not at stock voltage, the motherboard is most likely raising the voltage accordingly for the increase in demand from the chip.

 

[Leito]

Yes, the MB is on auto, but CPU-Z shows the voltage and HWMonitor too. CPU is on little bit under 1,4V.

On the lower gears the voltage is lower:

View attachment 170961


EDIT:

I have changed my voltages now to manual and left them at stock values, then i have changed my CPU multiplier to 17,5 and system boot up. Now i'm running prime95 to test it - it has already passed 10 minutes.

So now i have 4025Mhz - magical for me 4Ghz wall is passed (or it will be if the system will stay stable ;p). Anyway, in the situation when my PC is passing stress test like prime95 for 20 or 30 minutes with CPU temps under 50*C on stock voltage i should leave it as it is or increase the voltage (just in case or something)?

Is it also a safe OC for this CPU? I don't want to damage it or smth

EDIT2:

View attachment 170962

I run Prime95 even for half an hour to make sure that my baby is stable

Max temp on CPU was 48*C on cores and 44*C on MB sensor. NB temp was about 38*C.

I'll also try to upload a foto of my BIOS settings.


Edit 3
I wanted to edit the post from my phone, but I accidentally deleted the post...

Anyway here is the foto from my BIOS settings.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Looks fine.
Well done.

 

[Leito]

A little up.

So at 4025Mhz at PRIME95 PC was stable, but when i have launched the game today, after some amount of time (an hour of playing or smth like that) i got some strange things, like afrefacts. So in the begining i thought, that it's GPU, but it is working as always it was. I didn't noticed any higher temps or anythink like that. What is also strange, after this think happened, the sound of the game glitched too and the game itself hanged. So i have killed the game process and thought - lets see what are the highest temps for my radeon hd5750(i still thought that its an GPU at that moment), but i couldn't launch the browser - error at the begining, when launching again, error too (firefox crash, then it asks to restart it or not, so i clicked to restart it again - it launches, but i do have some strange visual issue and again, firefox crashed. Then i thought - maybe the system is damaged or smth, so i have launched my old OS from my old HDD(At this moment i am also changing my main drive to a new one, since old is showing some bad sectors) and started the game - this same situation happened - artefacts. So i have decreased the CPU multiplier, so now i got 16,5x230 and i have tested it in games and for something about an hour of playing - everything seems good.

Tell me please, is it possible that things like this are happening when CPU oc is too high? CPU temps were under 44*C. GPU temps ~ 75*C MAX, usually 70-73. But when i bought it it had too much thermal paste and it was badly disipating the heat to heatsink. The card was getting near to 100*C and it was still stable. It is a little bit OCed. From 700Mhz on GPU to 799Mhz and from 1150Mhz on memory of GPU to 1265Mhz, but i have triend to change this to stock settings and it didn't helped.

If this is caused by the CPU i don't think, that i'm at its limits. Propably it is too much as for stock voltage - 1,4V.

What do You think?

Regards,
Leito.

 

[Mandrake4565]

For starters Prime 95 which is my go to program, though it is not always 100% accurate for every ones uses. In other words just because you can pass prime does not mean the system is stable for your uses. In your last post I see you saying you ran it for a half hour, if so that isn't enough. Two hours prime blend is the minimum I would use to verify stability.

 

[Leito]

Ok, i have raised the voltage to 1,5V. The voltage is also raised for 0,1V for each of the lower gears.

Anyway, I am PRIMING it for an hour - everything seems to be good.



Is there other stressing CPU program, that will be better for me?

Regards,
Leito.


EDIT:

Damnit, in Poland we say, that "appetite comes with eating", so...


I am stressing it now at 4,25Ghz.

When it will pass it, I'll leave it at this state, i guess.

 

[Johan45]

Prime 95 works just fine leito, one thing you can do is add some NB speed. On these older chips it can help quite a bit.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Two hours prime blend is the minimum I would use to verify stability.

 

[Leito]

Mandrake4565 but the strange thing is that i was stressing it with PRIME for an hour - everything good, then i launched the game - 5-10minutes and it crashed... First thing You think at that moment is that it is app fault, but after error i cannot launch a browser. On another game it was this same.

I decided to check if is it a CPU or GPU, so i have underclocked it to almost stock values and launched the game. Everything good for more than an hour and GPU temps around 77*C according to MSI Afterburner (which in my case is showing higher temps than any other monitoring app). Earlier i had crashed much earlier, when GPU temps were around 73*C.

So i was also wondering if its maybe the RAM? So i have increased its speed to around 1500Mhz - I thought that if it is about to crash because of its speed, it will crash much earlier when its higher rated, but i managed to play for around 30minutes before it crashed.

SO. It is the CPU. I have downloaded a new PRIME, because my prime was 26,6 version. The new prime - 28,7 from very start pushed my CPU to higher stress. Earlier i had of course for all the time 100% CPU usage (BTW - in games i have less than 80% of CPU Usage). So at settings of 18,5x230 1,5V i have received a BSOD after ~7minutes. Also the NB was set to 2300Mhz.

I have started to tweak things in BIOS i have changed FSB to 220 and multiplier to 19. NB to 2200Mhz and CPU was at 1,5V - maybe it will be more stable, but... PC didn't started, for a couple of seconds i got screen to reset CMOS to latest working settings .

Some more tweaking and i'm now at 220x18. At the begining it was at 1,5V, but then i started to undervolt it and test it for 30minutes of "new prime" i was stepping for 0,025V and now i am at 1,4V (normal in my MB). Now i am going to test it for a while in games and later i will launch a PRIME95 for a little bit longer, anyway it looks, like my CPU is having some problems with 4Ghz barier.




Thanks to taking back the voltages to 1,4 the CPU is able to be colder for ~9*C. Oh and also i do have now my memory at a little bit higher frequency.

I'll test it for now and check if it is stable or not. Propably some better overclocker would achieve from this chip more that 4Ghz, but for me, if it requires 1,55V to have it faster for 200-300Mhz... I don't think, that it is worth it.

Regards,
Leito.


PS:

What is important in OC NB? As You can see it is also automatically pushing up my HT speed. What are the values of NB speed that i can go without burning it down?