Would appreciate assistance on overclocking NB

[Berke53]

Hi all,

First off all im new to this forum

A week ago I built my selfmade rig for the first time ^^

Specs:

-ASRock 880GMH/U3S3 Mobo
-AMD Phenom II 965 BE overclocked @ 4ghz(125w version)
-Ati 6870/oc
-8Gb Ram @ 1600mhz
-Zalman Cnps11x extreme cpu cooler
-Corsair TX650M PSU

Now the pc works like a charm except the fact that I did an gpu overclock from 920/1050 to 1000/1175 without any gain in fps on benchmark (ok there is some gain but its only 1 fps or so..)

I was told that this is occuring because my NB frequency is bottlenecking my GPU. My standard NB freq is 2ghz but has to be about 3 ghz (was said).

Now the problem is i don't know sh*t about NB overclocking. What is the max safe temp and NBvoltage for my mobo? AIDA64 shows me the motherboard temperature. Is this know to be the NB or could the sensor be somewhere else on the mobo?

Link to mobo specs: http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=880GMH/U3S3&cat=Specifications

A little help would be much appreciated

thanks on advantage

 

[rayzr]

Were on the same boat, Berke53. Even my NB Freq & HT Link is bottle-necking me(Coz I'm using AM3 Socket CPU on AM2+ Socket). Talk to this guy called Shata. He can help you better than me. Just keep me updated on how far you can push your machine.

 

[trents]

I presume you are talking about your CPUNB and not the motherboard chipset NB. The chipset NB on the motherboard will not have any bearing on how your system performs if you are using a separate video card. The motherboard NB controls onboard video. The CPUNB is the integrated memory controller built onto the CPU die. The memory controller is not on the motherboard any longer and hasn't been for years. Your post is rather puzzling. Are you implying your memory performance is the bottleneck?

 

[Berke53]

I presume you are talking about your CPUNB and not the motherboard chipset NB. The chipset NB on the motherboard will not have any bearing on how your system performs if you are using a separate video card. The motherboard NB controls onboard video. The CPUNB is the integrated memory controller built onto the CPU die. The memory controller is not on the motherboard any longer and hasn't been for years. Your post is rather puzzling. Are you implying your memory performance is the bottleneck?

I'm sorry for my vague explanation but i'm new to this more advanced overclocking. Someone told me that the NB is the link between the gpu en cpu and my GPU is being bottlenecked because the northbridge wont cut it and I had to aim for a 3ghz NB frequency.

I actualy don't have an extended knowledge of how this works. But i realy wan't to learn. Everybody had to start as a newb someday right?

 

[Berke53]

Were on the same boat, Berke53. Even my NB Freq & HT Link is bottle-necking me(Coz I'm using AM3 Socket CPU on AM2+ Socket). Talk to this guy called Shata. He can help you better than me. Just keep me updated on how far you can push your machine.

Auwtch.. On an AM2+ socket ur HT will be downgraded back to HT 1.0 right?

I will let u know when i have it at the highest stable frequency. But don't expect to much from me i'm just a beginner

 

[rayzr]

@Berke Yes mine will degrade. And does.

 

[trents]

My standard NB freq is 2ghz but has to be about 3 ghz (was said).

The numbers you reference here are appropriate for the CPUNB. That's what caught my eye. The stock CPUNB for AM3 CPUs is 2000 ghz. It improves ram performance if you can get this up to the 2600-2800 mhz range. If the games your are playing are very CPU/memory dependent then having the CPUNB at 2000 could be bottleneck. If the games you are playing are more GPU dependent then I would not think it would make a lot of impact to speed up the CPUNB.

 

[Berke53]

The numbers you reference here are appropriate for the CPUNB. That's what caught my eye. The stock CPUNB for AM3 CPUs is 2000 ghz. It improves ram performance if you can get this up to the 2600-2800 mhz range. If the games your are playing are very CPU/memory dependent then having the CPUNB at 2000 could be bottleneck.

I don't think that the RAM is the bottleneck. I was told that the NB is in charge of the communication between the CPU and GPU. Is this information incorrect?

 

[trents]

I wish I could lay my hands on one of those AM3 schematic diagrams but I can't seem to find one when I need it.

 

[trents]

The NB chipset handles the PCI-E interface but I'm not sure how overclockable it is or if there is any advantage to it. I just never hear of people doing it. I don't think there is a problem with the 16 bit wide PCI-E interface choking bandwidth.

 

[Efonzerellie]

http://www.techreaction.net/2010/10/14/phenom-ii-imc-ram-overclocking-guide/

 

[trents]

http://www.techreaction.net/2010/10/14/phenom-ii-imc-ram-overclocking-guide/

Yeah, but the OP says he's not talking about the CPUNB but rather the chipset NB instead.