When to tweak other voltages?

[bob4933]

This is always a confusing thing for me. I see over clocking guides online, and basically its just "pump and dump" voltage into CPU block and nothing else. At what point do you add voltage to NB/SB/CPUNB? RAM and CPU makes a ton of sense, its the others that don't.

Clarification on this would be much appreciated.

 

[ninjacore]

I would say almost never. Gains seen from overclocking those components are minimal. They're also not typically cooled very well, so you have a heightened chance of damaging them.

 

[RGone]

This is always a confusing thing for me. I see over clocking guides online, and basically its just "pump and dump" voltage into CPU block and nothing else. At what point do you add voltage to NB/SB/CPUNB? RAM and CPU makes a ton of sense, its the others that don't.

Clarification on this would be much appreciated.

B4933, I don't know what guides and/or tutorials you have read but here is a good one and speaks to the very things you 'say' confuse you.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=688663
Bulldozer OC Guide!

The principles are all there. Some names change from mobo/bios brand to the other but the idea is solid. Getting to know something of the architecture and nomenclature of the FX which you seem to have now on your new Fatal1ty Killer board is good for you. When a system area of the cpu is talked about it is not so easy to be lost. That link to OC Bulldozer will or should if read for what it says and not what we thought, well it will help.

Well you speak to one "large" group that dumps voltage to the cpu and then there are those like 'ninjacore' that replied to you first that don't really seem to tweak their boards for all that is there for free if you call it up.

Yes raising CPU_NB frequency and thus having need often to raise the CPU_NB can add more heat. Well with my ram overclocked beyond DDR3-2000, there is a need for my CPU_NB to be speeded up as well. So I have my ram hauling booty and raised the CPU_NB frequency over which the ram communicates and had to add some CPU_NB voltage. More heat? A little but you know what? I don't care since I have very g00d cooling. One without good cooling...well he does not need to be overclocking an 8 core FX processor much anyway. Probably cannot go fast enough to use overclocked ram or the overclocked CPU_NB.

As for these two > NB/SB < I seldom ever see any need to add voltage to them. There is a rumor of a situation where using 3 video cards in tandem can benefit from a very slight voltage increase to the NB itself, but I have NEVER seen such for myself. The SB, well I don't add voltage to it.

You need to read some of the posts where people like "trents", "johan45" and "mandrake4665" are helping peeps with the beginnings of setup for overclocking. They generally suggest this and I agree as relates to Voltages.
1. Add 0.05 to your ram voltage and most generally so if the ram is some of the 1.5Volt stuff. 0.05 will not hurt at all and back when 1.5V ram was first out most of it was 1.65V ram binned to run at 1.5V. I run my ram 0.05V over day in and day out as a hedge against ram issues.

2. They also relate that if you are going to run CPU_NB in lock-step speed wise that you up the CPU_NB to about 1.25V. No problem there Voltage wise as AMD in their won AMD FX Overclocking guide, say that 1.35V is not considered harmful to the CPU-NB. I have NEVER had to go that high. Might come a day though and nice to know what AMD susggest for a max.

3. Most of the time it is suggested that you baseline test the system for stability with a Vcore of about 1.4V and at that point the Speed would be 4.0Ghz. Running P95 for at least 20 mins with HWMonitor open in the back ground logging min/max volts and temps. Then we "know" something when a user posts up his CPUz > CPU Tab > Memory Tab > and the SPD tab along with that captured HWMonitor that was logging min/max temps/volts.

From 3 above user would increase multiplier by 0.5 and test again and so on until P95 Blend mode fails in some manner and then up the Vcore by one bios increment and retest. Continue on until the cpu voltage is too high for safe use or until the Cpu/socket temp exceeds ~70c and the Cpu Core/Package temp does not exceed ~60/62c.

Now that IS what those of us that have hung here for the few years of the FX processor life to date and have helped 100's or even 1000's with their overclocks, do with our rigs. Well that and push the pee out of our FXs and search for MORE cooling.
RGone...

 

[keny]

This is always a confusing thing for me. I see over clocking guides online, and basically its just "pump and dump" voltage into CPU block and nothing else. At what point do you add voltage to NB/SB/CPUNB? RAM and CPU makes a ton of sense, its the others that don't.

Clarification on this would be much appreciated.

Add voltage to CPUNB when overclocking the northbridge to speed up ram performance, the NB(chipset) usually only needs voltage adding when you are getting to a high level on the reference/fsb clock to help the motherboard with the high clock, SB never

 

[bob4933]

Rgone are you a nuke?


That said, I'll will go over that guide with a fine toothed comb tomorrow. I really think I'm over thinking this whole process, but I guess if its that simple, no reason to limit myself.

I'll see what kind of OC I can get on air tomorrow.

 

[RGone]

Rgone are you a nuke?


That said, I'll will go over that guide with a fine toothed comb tomorrow. I really think I'm over thinking this whole process, but I guess if its that simple, no reason to limit myself.

I'll see what kind of OC I can get on air tomorrow.

iRobot aKa RGBobertone...sterstignatorzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

All I guess one needs to know is that minor adjustments to settings and logging for future reference the 'result' are how one learns his rig.

Months ago I wrote up a little how-to use offset VCore. One bud tried it and said fork it. A few months later I tried what I wrote (sorta) and I said fork it. Then about 3 months after that I got serious about runnnig offset Vcore and man I will run nO other way now. It is how you look at it. Not so much how you can overthink it, but how you look at it. The doing is the thing. I don't have to have these other guys so it is okay. We generally talk amongst ourselves all the time anyway so we know each of us is 'tinkering' constantly. That is how it is.

If I had to ask about everything I ever tried from someone else...I would have learned mostly zero. Now there is one thing that I do and that is read and read and read. Mostly I would say that 75% of what you read is questionable. Of the other 25% the stuff is at one end or the other of some "point" someone is trying to stand-up for. Somewhere, most likely in the middle is a good place to test from.
RGBobertone...sterstignatorzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Mandrake4565]

bob one of the more important voltages I have found besides the Cpu V, is the Cpu Nb voltage. When raising the Cpu Oc, the system will be quicker for most applications by raising the Nb Frequency which will require the Cpu Nb Voltage to be raised as well. So I agree with Gonester and Keny. I have also messed around with other voltages but can't confirm that I have found some secret for added stability at high clock speeds. The biggest issue with these chips is heat, if you can get the heat out of them, you can clock the pee out of them, in most cases.

 

[Johan45]

I agree with just about everything that's been said in this thread so far. One thing you'll notice Bob if you look through various posts frome us here in the AMD section is we all have our own "style" of overclocking. Yes the principles are all basically the same but we need different little tweaks to suit our systems and our preferences.
Personally I will be running higher FSB than most( usually between 250-280) , I will also run my HT frequency one notch above my NB where most run them hand in hand. So I will need different volts here and there compared to say Manny or RGone.
These CPUs are pretty flexible in my opinion so take your time and play around till you find your niche.