rule of thumb "expected overclocks" for AMD old and new?

[hifidelitygamin]

I have more familiarity with intel at the moment, but want to expand my knowledge of AMD stuff. In general during the "core" era, my understanding was AMD didn't overclock very well at all, being pretty close to the limits when they came from the factory at least possibly until 45nm came out. I'd like to know which chips/lines this is NOT true for, ie "good value overclockers", something I can boost 30-50% maybe with stout air cooling. Comments on highly reliable multicore unlocks welcome as well.

This is basically for everything Phenom II and earlier actually, potentially much earlier (if someone has anecdotes on Socket A, go ahead back about that far still makes fine web browsers.. socket A, 754, 939, AM2, AM3) because I buy cheap used computers or/and parts, refurbish them and give them away alot to other friends... so i'm trying to see what kind of reliable performance boosts I could give to those systems both with stock and say moderate air cooling. I probably wouldn't buy a new $50 cooler I mean, but i've seen hyper 212's for $20, and if the cooler can work on multi cpu's buying it for the cheap first comp can repurpose it to another machine later. I wouldn't expect any cooling ability beyond a hyper 212 though.


I know intel pretty good, video cards pretty good, piecing together the rest of the systems from what I pick up, but i'm woefully ignorant of overclocking AMD's even though I exclusively used them up to the Core era, because I never boosted one. It's mostly like if I find out there are certain gems out there so I can value it better, like "oh this x2 commonly hits 4ghz and has all 4 cores working" or something. Links to someone else's compiled information is welcome, or opinions on what they usually hear having read up alot on the topic, just seeking something a little less needle-in-haystackey than random net searches..

 

[ssjwizard]

Socket A was simply fantastic back then. "Morgan" core durons overclock like mad. "Barton" core Athlons also were known for overclocking very well. As for Socket 939 the dual core Opteron chips were great overclockers, and so were "Venice", "San Diego", and "Toledo" core Athlon (x2) were also good overclockers on average.

Phenom generation CPUs AFIK were just generally bad. and Phenom-II was significantly better. "Deneb" and "Thuban" based chips oc very well but you really want to find a C3 stepping as C2s were known for throwing boats of heat and sucking needless amounts of power which ends up limiting the OC.

 

[mjrhealth]

The phenemons required the black edition to overclock well, the 965, 1090t and 1100 would all do 4 gig, i had my 1090t at 4.1 for 18 months or so till i went to the vishera. The best part of the phenemons was the NB, the higher you got it the nippier the chip got, Many managed to get it to 3gig i had mine at 2.8. Bulldozer are great heaters but vishera are a better chip. Have the 6300 @ 4.56 it will go higher but i would need water to do it. 4.7 on water is not an issue. NB does little on these, though some say it does, i have noticed very little performance improvement in the NB and it is hard to get stable even at 2400 without lots of volts.

 

[manu2b]

My 1075t does 4.2/1.57v stable. Even 4.3/1.61v, but it needs too much juice at my taste, even if temps stay in line (below 50°C).

My Phenom II 955 was struggling above 4.08 (C3)/1.54v.

My FX8120 was doing 4.9ish/1.55v, with a so-so MoBo (M5A97 Pro), custom loop.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Depending mostly on your Ram choices will your FSB exceed.

Air cooling never cuts it. Go liquid if not chilled liquid.

sA can clock 3ghz if your set up with a good board and modded bios, hit it with some chilling there's no cold bug.

s754 s939 sAM2 All have cold bugs or CBB CB issues.

Phenom II will run with a full LN2 pot.

you can hit 3ghz and beyond with just about every platform from AMD from sA and up.

sAM2 6400+ 4ghz is tough. Cold bugged at -48c.... the 6000+ will do max of 3.9ghz, I don't think I;ve had mine higher than that if even that high up.

Your odds are on chip choice and Ram choice and Mobo choice. Buy the best Ram and board for each platform if you'd like to compete. Chilled liquid, your good to go.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Socket 939 chips have decent performance for what they are. Not to mention they're really fun to tweak with.

Clawhammer CPU's-expect to be disappointed if you are going for high clocks, because these usually stop at 2.6-2.7GHz. You might be able to get 2.8GHz or a little more if you're very lucky.

Venice E6 stepping chips usually top out around 2.8-3.1GHz with air cooling (upgraded cooler, not stock), and I've found this with 2.0GHz and 2.4GHz CPU's (Athlon 64 3200+ and 3800+, respectively). I tested two or three different 3800+ chips, they all topped out around 2.9-3.0GHz. I had one 3200+ Venice that ran at 3GHz and was fully stable (though it ran hot), and would run benchmarks at 3.1GHz (not fully stable).

San Diego CPU's (the one's I've owned) typically max out around 2.9-3.0GHz, and offer decent performance. I had the Athlon 64 4000+ variant.

Manchester CPU's (the Athlon 64 X2 4200+) are somewhat underwhelming in terms of their frequency scaling, the ones' I've owned typically maxed out around 2.7-2.8GHz on chips that have a stock speed of 2.2GHz. A 500-600MHz gain really isn't much for a dual core with this low of a stock speed.

Toledo CPU's are very nice. The ones' I've owned have typically maxed out at 2.9-3.1GHz. But they do tend to run hot when you get to 3GHz or higher. I usually run them at 2.8GHz, and they are happy at that speed.

At the absolute maximum speed socket 939 CPU's aren't always fully stable.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I tested two or three different 3800+ chips, they all topped out around 2.9-3.0GHz.

3800+ on air
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2176218

 

[sandman001]

Some of the old socket a cpus were great.

1700+ overclocked from 1.47 to 2.6 ghz for me on aircooling.

Thouroughbred b chips were the best followed by bartons imo.

 

[freeagent]

A realistic oc for older amd chips (a64, barton, tbred) is between 4-600mhz aircooled. Sometimes you can squeeze for more, and sometimes you can't. I've had good ones and bad ones. It seems like newer chips are doing a lot better than before.