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GA-970A-D3P w/FX8350 Overclocking Guide

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isogamer

Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2012
AMD FX 8350 w/ 920 liquid cooling
GIGABYTE GA 970A D3P MOBO
560GTX Ti w/ 620 liquid cooling
ADATA 8GIG 1600MHZ
PSU 1000wat
1tb Western Digital black
windows 8.1 64bit

Hi, so i had a previous post on a guide to overclock a ASROCK 970 mobo with the same CPU chip as i posted in this post.That MOBO turned out to be a defective mobo since not only it was giving me high temp (high as 67c) and this was just surfing Firefox or Chrome browsers, but also giving me internet dis connectivity issues.

But i did learn all the info from that post and transitioned most of it to overclocking my current MOBO of GA 970A D3P.

Right now my current settings are at:

CPU: 4.3GHZ from 4.0GHZ stock
Volt core: 1.4 from 1.36ish

CPU NB= 2600MHZ (from 2200mhz)
CPU NB Volt= 1.3 from 1.06ish i think, had to do it cause my windows wouldn't post

DDR3 RAM= 1600MHZ to 1866MHZ
Memory RAM multiplier = 9.33


I just want to know what i have done so far was or is the proper way of the way i overclocked so far? I put everything else rest on AUTO, i didn't want to mess around too much since there were some instances where like disableing Turbo mode gave me some instability issues while doing general work with windows 8.1. Since this is also a different board the overclocking settings are pretty different from my previous ASROCK 970 extreme board.

Right now with my current overclock settings i ran p95 blend for about 1hour and i got no errors or crashes, and my CPU temps during this stress test was high as 36c to 42c. (Going to do a longer stress test, once i have the time for my pc)

If anyone can give me more info to some of the options i need to disable like Cool & quiet? To maybe couple of other options? OR if it is necessary or important? Right now i am pretty happy with my current settings since i am able to play Crysis 3 to Battlefield 4 like butter with no lag or frame rate issues.
 

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AMD FX 8350 w/ 920 liquid cooling
GIGABYTE GA 970A D3P MOBO
560GTX Ti w/ 620 liquid cooling
ADATA 8GIG 1600MHZ
PSU 1000wat
1tb Western Digital black
windows 8.1 64bit

This is my BIOS settings and CPU ID
 

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I understand i don't have the best motherboard for overclocking with the CPU chip 8350. But due to budget issues i had no choice but to get it. So far i am pretty happy with this MOBO VS what i previously had (ASROCK 970 extreme 3). This MOBO seems more stable and has much better VRM cooling.

Not looking to get crazy overclocking speed like 4.6ghz or above, but if i can sustain at 4300mhz or maybe even 4500mhz? I will be happy, i am so far happy with 4300mhz. I mostly overclock for gaming, and i know the next big move i need to do is upgrade my GPU from 560GTX Ti to a 760GTX. But just want to know to what i have done so far is proper? Or what else i can do to push my PC?
 

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If those temps show in the SS of Hwmonitor are the temps when running prime then they look good. I would run prime 2 hours at that clock speed to ensure stability, if it passes then it's a nice OC.
 
If those temps show in the SS of Hwmonitor are the temps when running prime then they look good. I would run prime 2 hours at that clock speed to ensure stability, if it passes then it's a nice OC.

THX for the reply, ya i was getting 24c while running p95blend in the background.. i was getting 69c to 71c! at times when i had the ASROCK MOBO with the same 4300mhz clock speed and NB speed. I am going to run hopefully today p95 for two hours and see how it goes.
 
You need to open HWMonitor have running and Also open Cpuz and monitor the cpu speed while P95 Blend is running. The temps that you report are just too low at 4.3Ghz and just short of 1.4Vcore. I bet that board is throttling the cpu speed back when under load. IF that is not so then all the rest of us need to sell everything we have and buy what you have. It is just about too good to be actual with the temps you mention. If it is real then very good.

OCCT in P95 Blend mode will show cpu speeds and also graph it so that the cpu speed can visually be monitored for remaining at 4.3Ghz and not slowing under load.
RGone...
 
You need to open HWMonitor have running and Also open Cpuz and monitor the cpu speed while P95 Blend is running. The temps that you report are just too low at 4.3Ghz and just short of 1.4Vcore. I bet that board is throttling the cpu speed back when under load. IF that is not so then all the rest of us need to sell everything we have and buy what you have. It is just about too good to be actual with the temps you mention. If it is real then very good.

OCCT in P95 Blend mode will show cpu speeds and also graph it so that the cpu speed can visually be monitored for remaining at 4.3Ghz and not slowing under load.
RGone...

Hi RGone, yes i did have p95blend running in the background while i had HWMonitor running in the background... if you look at the pic closely you will see P95 in the background behind the HWM when i used snipping tool at the time..

I did forgot to mention that i had my Antec 920 at fullblast mode (or EXTREME MODE) while i was running p95.. when i didn't have the Antec running in extreme mode the max i was getting was 45c.. also since it is winter over here i did open both my windows in my room while doing the p95 test, another reason why the temps were low.. but when i didn't do either of the two or both, like i said my temps would go high as 45c during a 1hour stress test..
 
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You need to open HWMonitor have running and Also open Cpuz and monitor the cpu speed while P95 Blend is running. The temps that you report are just too low at 4.3Ghz and just short of 1.4Vcore. I bet that board is throttling the cpu speed back when under load. IF that is not so then all the rest of us need to sell everything we have and buy what you have. It is just about too good to be actual with the temps you mention. If it is real then very good.

OCCT in P95 Blend mode will show cpu speeds and also graph it so that the cpu speed can visually be monitored for remaining at 4.3Ghz and not slowing under load.
RGone...

I don't have a whole lot of faith with any monitoring and these gigabyte boards. @4200mhz mine only reports 31c with the H100i on balanced.
 
I don't have a whole lot of faith with any monitoring and these gigabyte boards. @4200mhz mine only reports 31c with the H100i on balanced.

Even in bios? Cause in Bios i see it as same of 25c compared in HWMonitor
 
Hi RGone, also since it is winter over here i did open both my windows in my room while doing the p95 test, another reason why the temps were low.

Ah hah, some more winter time running with cold weather gear on. I saw "manny's" rig outside on the porch with him inside at the keyboard on his breakfast table. Hehehe.

Yeah as Luke1978 says, he thinks the temps may just read somewhat low, but running in winter with the windows open surely helps keep the temps low. Lots of people do most of their running benches for "score" in the colder weather. Makes sense really.

Luck man.
RGone...
 
but running in winter with the windows open surely helps keep the temps low. Lots of people do most of their running benches for "score" in the colder weather. Makes sense really.

Luck man.
RGone...

Ohh baby ooh baby :thup:
 
Ah hah, some more winter time running with cold weather gear on. I saw "manny's" rig outside on the porch with him inside at the keyboard on his breakfast table. Hehehe.

Yeah as Luke1978 says, he thinks the temps may just read somewhat low, but running in winter with the windows open surely helps keep the temps low. Lots of people do most of their running benches for "score" in the colder weather. Makes sense really.

Luck man.
RGone...

No windows open, and their is a small ceramic heater 2 feet from my pc heh.. I have thought about hauling everything out in the garage, suppose to be around 6f the next few days but I'm worried about moisture.
 
No windows open, and their is a small ceramic heater 2 feet from my pc heh.. I have thought about hauling everything out in the garage, suppose to be around 6f the next few days but I'm worried about moisture.
Luke that may be a bad Idea, I'm not sure if the H100 has anti freeze in it. Things don't go well when they freeze. If you notice my reservoir has anti freeze in it and it still froze last week when I was benching at -6c water temps.

Ah hah, some more winter time running with cold weather gear on. I saw "manny's" rig outside on the porch with him inside at the keyboard on his breakfast table. Hehehe.
It's just an illusion Gonester. It's actually a computer I made of snow and painted black :D
IMG_3869a.jpg
 
mR. Clean said:
It's just an illusion Gonester. It's actually a computer I made of snow and painted black

Okay, I see it beginning to drip around the cpu area now. You sure fooled me though. Hehehe.
RGone...stignatorzzzzzzz
 
No windows open, and their is a small ceramic heater 2 feet from my pc heh.. I have thought about hauling everything out in the garage, suppose to be around 6f the next few days but I'm worried about moisture.

This is how i setup my "cooling" method in my room...

when i was doing the stress test i also had the fan going.. my room isn't the biggest... so that fan with the combination of two windows opened, AND my PC case being fully Acrylic, brought the temps down for my CPU during the stress test..
 

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Cold air is an overclockers best friend!

OH FO SHO.... only thing sucks with my pc case is that come summer time my room becomes a boiler room... but hopefully this summer season would be different.. since last summer i had a V10 coolermaster cooling my CPU.. and with this 920 liquid cooling hopefully doesn't make my PC heat up like before...

Backing to overclocking.. so i am thinking to just put my CPU NB OC settings back to AUTO.. cause when i run 3Dmarks.. i don't get too big of a FPS increase.. and was wondering if i should just put the NB OC settings back to AUTO? Will i be throttling my OC of 4300mhz alot? I don't want to OC something that doesn't give me too much of a impact of when it comes to gaming...
 
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