Seeking general help.

[Hicksimus]

Where is the CPU multiplier that I need to change? Going to try stock voltages and see how high I can go

You would go to the AI Tweaker Tab in the BIOS menu then set AI Tweaker to Manual then you can change CPU Ratio. Turning AMD Turbo CORE technology off is a good step at this point as well. Pressing the Delete key at the Asus screen when your computer starts gets you in to this menu. F10 is the save settings and exit key. If your machine fails to turn on you can try again, most times your computer will go back to default by itself. Sometimes you have to remove the CMOS battery and unplug it or use jumpers to get back to normal operating.

 

[Desync]

You would go to the AI Tweaker Tab in the BIOS menu then set AI Tweaker to Manual then you can change CPU Ratio. Turning AMD Turbo CORE technology off is a good step at this point as well. Pressing the Delete key at the Asus screen when your computer starts gets you in to this menu. F10 is the save settings and exit key. If your machine fails to turn on you can try again, most times your computer will go back to default by itself. Sometimes you have to remove the CMOS battery and unplug it or use jumpers to get back to normal operating.

Alright I'll try that here in a second and see what I can get to on stock voltages.

These are the Programs you will need to monitor and test your overclock!

1, http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
2, http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
3, http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/

4, http://prime95.en.softonic.com/

The last download is what we use to test the PC Stability! Best of luck AJ.

Appreciate it, goinng to download these now. HWMonitor still screws me up because core temps are called packages.


UPDATE: Cool N Quiet Disabled, C1E Disabled, Core C6 State Disabled

Question about these last ones, I was told to turn Turbo APM off, is that the same as APM Master Mode? Because it's on AUTO right now, also HPC MODE is disabled and SVM is Enabled. I see some videos with only Cool N Quiet disabled and some videos with EVERYTHING disabled. What do you recommend me disabling?


Got my CPU sitting at 4.0 ghz at the moment

This is after about 40 minutes of Prime95

 

[Hicksimus]

You may want to make a separate thread or take a look in the AMD processor section because there are some people overclocking their 81XX bulldozers currently. It really has been a bit since I had one. You could probably make a thread like "Best settings to achieve maximum performance from an 8120 at 4.2 ghz" and get some pretty good input in the AMD section.

Turbo APM(APM Master Mode) I believe should be off, it's a way of keeping the processor within its factory specified power draw last time I checked. I'm also fairly certain that HPC mode is another way to ignore certain types of throttling, I'm not sure if you really need to turn it on. If you ran a Prime95 blend test for 45 minutes you are off to a good start, most run it for ~2 hours once they hit the frequency they want. If it runs for 2 hours it is pretty stable(100% maybe not, but 2 hours is pretty solid). Most of the time I'm lazy and call 10 minutes good, that's usually a crash every 2-3 weeks for me....

Here are some pictures from a current 8150 overclocking thread in the section, this guy has an H80 but his temps and settings may be of use to you, he even has the same board.

4.27Ghz HWMonitor
4.27Ghz CPU-Z
4.27Ghz BIOS Settings(you may need to download it and magnify)

Thread the pictures came from. Note: The thread sort of starts on page 2(post ~30), page 1 is the guy discovering he needs a new mobo.

Edit: I leave SVM on. Sometimes after I find the OC I want I even go back to some of the green stuff(C1E, CoolNQuiet) because it can save 20 or 30 watts at idle some leave it off forever to avoid complications.

 

[Desync]

You may want to make a separate thread or take a look in the AMD processor section because there are some people overclocking their 81XX bulldozers currently. It really has been a bit since I had one. You could probably make a thread like "Best settings to achieve maximum performance from an 8120 at 4.2 ghz" and get some pretty good input in the AMD section.

Turbo APM(APM Master Mode) I believe should be off, it's a way of keeping the processor within its factory specified power draw last time I checked. I'm also fairly certain that HPC mode is another way to ignore certain types of throttling, I'm not sure if you really need to turn it on. If you ran a Prime95 blend test for 45 minutes you are off to a good start, most run it for ~2 hours once they hit the frequency they want. If it runs for 2 hours it is pretty stable(100% maybe not, but 2 hours is pretty solid). Most of the time I'm lazy and call 10 minutes good, that's usually a crash every 2-3 weeks for me....

Here are some pictures from a current 8150 overclocking thread in the section, this guy has an H80 but his temps and settings may be of use to you, he even has the same board.

4.27Ghz HWMonitor
4.27Ghz CPU-Z
4.27Ghz BIOS Settings(you may need to download it and magnify)

Thread the pictures came from. Note: The thread sort of starts on page 2(post ~30), page 1 is the guy discovering he needs a new mobo.

Appreciate all the help you've given me. I'm off to a good start now. Going to restart my comp and change some settings in the bios.

I believe I will leave my CPU at 4.0 as I don't feel 4.2 will make a huge difference for me at the moment.

Again, thanks for all the help and hope to see you around on here sometimes.

 

[Hicksimus]

Any time. You should post up 1 last 3dmark11 result with your CPU and GPU changes. I'm interested to see what some light overclocking gained on that system and it may be helpful for others.

 

[Desync]

Any time. You should post up 1 last 3dmark11 result with your CPU and GPU changes. I'm interested to see what some light overclocking gained on that system and it may be helpful for others.

Here you go, not really the best looking scores in the world, but I guess that's all I can do with what I have.

 

[Hicksimus]

Here you go, not really the best looking scores in the world, but I guess that's all I can do with what I have.

That's a 20% performance boost in 3d11 over when you started which is great for a low effort low risk overclock. You have a thread in the CPU section now for working on more detailed CPU overclocking so I'll leave that discussion there. As you can see from my results earlier there are benefits to getting more out of the GPU.

If you're going down that path in the future, these tend to be the useful programs.

First up are two programs that will give you longer OC sliders. I'll list 2 popular ones for 7850's. These programs don't rely on your card being made by them. I'd recommend using just 1.

Sapphire Trixx This has an overclock tab, and a scroll bar in it that most people miss(scroll down for voltage if it's supported)

ASUS GPUTweak
For this you have to click the advanced mode hexagon in the bottom left of the main screen then find overclock range enhancement in the settings.

Lastly it can be helpful to have GPU-Z(assuming I didn't link it earlier). This lets you monitor a variety of vitals for your card such as voltage and GPU load.

GPU-Z

As I've mentioned before, voltage tends to be where the nasty stuff can happen. I'm not sure if that card will let you move beyond 1.225V which is quite safe. But if it does and you go past that make sure to watch your GPU temp and remember that there are more components under stress than the GPU. You don't want your card's GPU VRM doing this. That can happen immediately from going way overboard without proper cooling on it, or it can take time to happen if it is on the edge.

 

[Desync]

That's a 20% performance boost in 3d11 over when you started which is great for a low effort low risk overclock. You have a thread in the CPU section now for working on more detailed CPU overclocking so I'll leave that discussion there. As you can see from my results earlier there are benefits to getting more out of the GPU.

If you're going down that path in the future, these tend to be the useful programs.

First up are two programs that will give you longer OC sliders. I'll list 2 popular ones for 7850's. These programs don't rely on your card being made by them. I'd recommend using just 1.

Sapphire Trixx This has an overclock tab, and a scroll bar in it that most people miss(scroll down for voltage if it's supported)

ASUS GPUTweak
For this you have to click the advanced mode hexagon in the bottom left of the main screen then find overclock range enhancement in the settings.

Lastly it can be helpful to have GPU-Z(assuming I didn't link it earlier). This lets you monitor a variety of vitals for your card such as voltage and GPU load.

GPU-Z

As I've mentioned before, voltage tends to be where the nasty stuff can happen. I'm not sure if that card will let you move beyond 1.225V which is quite safe. But if it does and you go past that make sure to watch your GPU temp and remember that there are more components under stress than the GPU. You don't want your card's GPU VRM doing this. That can happen immediately from going way overboard without proper cooling on it, or it can take time to happen if it is on the edge.

Seems like a lot of stuff going on to get more power, but I believe I am going to leave mine like it sits for tonight and mess with it later on in the week. Going to go game a bit right now and see what some improved differences are.


Downloaded ASUS GPU Tweaker and set everything to the max, which was slightly lower than I seen someone else do a test on youtube. I got

3DMark Score P6051
Graphics Score 6107
Physics Score 6196
Combined Score 5487
3DMark Score 6051

3DMarks Graphics Score 6107
Physics Score 6196
Combined Score 5487
Graphics Test 1 24.65 FPS
Graphics Test 2 28.61 FPS
Graphics Test 3 38.71 FPS
Graphics Test 4 20.29 FPS
Physics Test 19.67 FPS
Combined Test 25.52 FPS

Video Card temp went to 70*c during the test

 

[Desync]

Final test, upgrade to the newest 12.11 beta drivers.