Overclock settings and strange behavior.

[Anubis63]

I have an AMD FX-8350, ASRock 970A G/3.1 motherboard, 16MB Corsair DDR3 2400 RAM and a Corsair Hydro H100i V2 cooler in a full tower gaming case with a dual fan 700 watt PSU w/1 rear fan, 20 top fans, 3 front fans and a dual fan blower, MSI Radeon RX 560 AERO ITX 4G OC, 4GB, 128-Bit, GDDR5, DX12, PCIe Graphics Card.
The motherboard has UEFI which I have upgraded the BIOS to the latest. The configuration in UEFI is: I have put a ? where I am not sure if it’s correct, Bold is just description.

OC Mode = CPU OC Mode
Load Optimized CPU OC setting=15%
4600MHz

CPU Configuration
CPU Frequency=230 ?
PCIE Frequency=100 ?
Spread Spectrum=Disabled
CPU Active Core Control= All Cores
AMD Turbo Core Technology=Disabled

Current APM Status
AMD Application Power Management=Disabled
NB Maximum Frequency=6200MHz

Processor Maximum Frequency=6300MHz
NB Maximum Frequency=6200MHz

Processor Maximum Voltage=1.5500V
CPU Voltage= 1.4500V
NB Frequency Multiplier=X10% ? 2400MHz (if I go above that the system will not boot)
CPU NB Voltage=1.2500V
HT Bus Speed=Auto
HT Bus Width=16bit

DRAM Timing Configuration
Load Profile Setting=Auto
DRAM Frequency=DDR3-2239 ? (CMOS wants to set it to DDR 930 don’t know why)
DRAM Timing Control=Auto
Power Down Enable=Disabled
Bank Interleaving=Auto
Channel Interleaving=Auto

Voltage Configuration
DRAM Voltage=1.600V
CPU Voltage Offset=+50mV
NB Voltage 1.150V-Auto
PPU VDDA Voltage 2.56V=Auto
PIIE VDDA Voltage 1.81V=Auto
SB Voltage 1.10V=Auto

Cool and Quiet=Disabled
(The rest is default except for)
Aggressive Link Power Management=Enabled ?
Dard Disk S.M.A.R.T.=Dissabled
SATA 0 is an Intel SSD 600GB HD

I’m sorry this is so long but I figured whoever can help might need it. I’ve been running this configuration for 1 ½ weeks with no problem system is stable under 2 hours torture test. Last night I changed the CPU OC setting to 20%, the CPU Frequency to 240 but I had to keep the NB Frequency Multiplier at X10% or the system would not boot. It ran all day yesterday at blazing speed with no problem the CPU temperature went down each time I overclocked it higher again, don’t know why. Today I turned on the system and Windows 10 64bit would crash before booting with a blue screen and I had to dial it back down to 4.6GHz. What am I missing if anything or is it just the motherboard or whatever? Thanks.

 

[trents]

1. You mention nothing about package temp or socket temp under load. Please run Prime95 blend for 20 minutes with HWMonitor open on the desktop during the stress test. Post back with a pic of HWMonitor attached to your post with the section of the user interface in view down through at least the package temp line. Please attach pics directly to the posts. Snipping Tool is good for framing and capturing images from the screen. Then use the Go Advanced button in the lower right corner of any new post windows to locate and attach the image.

2. Why are you using "Load Optimized CPU OC setting" and also making manual adjustments. Use either the auto overclock wizard or manual adjustments but not both.

3. Your motherboard may not be up to more than a 4.6 ghz overclock. There are only a few motherboards we would recommend for hefty overclocking of the 8 core FX CPUs. Two of the most recommended are the Sabertooth and the Crosshair by Asus. The board must have a very rugged power delivery system. You are probably exceeding the wattage the board can handle. Those 8 core FX CPUs draw huge amounts of juice and make huge amounts of heat when overclocked much.

4. You very well may be overclocking the memory frequency past what the CPU's IMC (Integrated Memory Controller) can handle. The FX CPUs have weak IMCs compared to Intel chips in the same generation. You can usually run 1866 mhz on the RAM without any problem.

5. Why are you using both the CPU core speeed multiplier and the BCLK to overclock? Makes it much more complicated. The FX CPUs are unlocked so you can overclock with just the multiplier.

 

[Mr.Scott]

OP has some lofty goals.
FX isn't going to run 16 gig of ram at 2400 speed. You'll be lucky to see 1866.
Same with the NB frequency. 2400 is about right.

Annnd.......no temps mentioned at all.

 

[Anubis63]

Prime95 and HWMonitor

Sorry it took so long to get back to you on this. I had to have surgery and it set me back a few days. I have 2 screen shots, 1 with Prime95 and HWMonitor side by side and another with just a part of Prime95 showing 0 errors and 0 warnings. As far as using the CPU overclock mode and NB Frequency Multiplier together. This ASRock board will only let me run the multiplier separately if I just use the multiplier, however, the system will not boot. Anyway I hope this is what you asked for and I hope the images are not to small.

 

[trents]

I have an AMD FX-8350, ASRock 970A G/3.1 motherboard, 16MB Corsair DDR3 2400 RAM and a Corsair Hydro H100i V2 cooler in a full tower gaming case with a dual fan 700 watt PSU w/1 rear fan, 20 top fans, 3 front fans and a dual fan blower, MSI Radeon RX 560 AERO ITX 4G OC, 4GB, 128-Bit, GDDR5, DX12, PCIe Graphics Card.
The motherboard has UEFI which I have upgraded the BIOS to the latest. The configuration in UEFI is: I have put a ? where I am not sure if it’s correct, Bold is just description.

OC Mode = CPU OC Mode
Load Optimized CPU OC setting=15%
4600MHz

CPU Configuration
CPU Frequency=230 ?
PCIE Frequency=100 ?
Spread Spectrum=Disabled
CPU Active Core Control= All Cores
AMD Turbo Core Technology=Disabled

Current APM Status
AMD Application Power Management=Disabled
NB Maximum Frequency=6200MHz

Processor Maximum Frequency=6300MHz
NB Maximum Frequency=6200MHz

Processor Maximum Voltage=1.5500V
CPU Voltage= 1.4500V
NB Frequency Multiplier=X10% ? 2400MHz (if I go above that the system will not boot)
CPU NB Voltage=1.2500V
HT Bus Speed=Auto
HT Bus Width=16bit

DRAM Timing Configuration
Load Profile Setting=Auto
DRAM Frequency=DDR3-2239 ? (CMOS wants to set it to DDR 930 don’t know why)
DRAM Timing Control=Auto
Power Down Enable=Disabled
Bank Interleaving=Auto
Channel Interleaving=Auto

Voltage Configuration
DRAM Voltage=1.600V
CPU Voltage Offset=+50mV
NB Voltage 1.150V-Auto
PPU VDDA Voltage 2.56V=Auto
PIIE VDDA Voltage 1.81V=Auto
SB Voltage 1.10V=Auto

Cool and Quiet=Disabled
(The rest is default except for)
Aggressive Link Power Management=Enabled ?
Dard Disk S.M.A.R.T.=Dissabled
SATA 0 is an Intel SSD 600GB HD

I’m sorry this is so long but I figured whoever can help might need it. I’ve been running this configuration for 1 ½ weeks with no problem system is stable under 2 hours torture test. Last night I changed the CPU OC setting to 20%, the CPU Frequency to 240 but I had to keep the NB Frequency Multiplier at X10% or the system would not boot. It ran all day yesterday at blazing speed with no problem the CPU temperature went down each time I overclocked it higher again, don’t know why. Today I turned on the system and Windows 10 64bit would crash before booting with a blue screen and I had to dial it back down to 4.6GHz. What am I missing if anything or is it just the motherboard or whatever? Thanks.

Looks like you are getting some down throttling. Your pic of HWMonitor shows 26 mhz difference between current and max frequencies for the cores. I'm thinking that your VRMs are getting overtaxed. Cores are cool enough but the CPUTIN is up to 75c. That is the socket/VRM temp reading. You should consider putting spot fans on the VRM heat sinks and on the underside of the board where the socket area is.

 

[Mr.Scott]

You need to work on cooling.
You ran P95 for 23 minutes and you're that warm. You'll never make 2 hours.

 

[trents]

Trying to get where you want to go with your overclock on these 8 core FX CPUs often requires a custom water loop. The cooler you have is only marginally better than the best air coolers and they fall short at this level of overclock.

 

[Anubis63]

You need to work on cooling.
You ran P95 for 23 minutes and you're that warm. You'll never make 2 hours.

The thing is I have run it 2 hours as a matter of fact I ran it 4hr. 15min last week. and it never gets past 54 deg. C. Now I'm talking about CPU temp so I assume you are talking about another area could you please let me know where the concern should be and what temp it should be running at? Back to the CPU temp, it has been running no higher than 29 deg. C for the last 8 hours so if there is a problem I would like to know as I've had no system crashes or stability issues. My cooling system is a Corsair Hydro H100i V2 cooler in a full tower gaming case with a dual fan 700 watt PSU w/1 rear fan, 2 top fans, 3 front fans and a dual fan blower. I'm going to fathom a guess here and say you may be talking about the motherboard? If that's the case then I need to replace the board which is what I'm doing in 3 weeks or so anyway. Could it be that it can't handle the voltage? Although I haven't really changed it that much. What would you recommend?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Package temp is your CPU. I see 58c max. That's about as high as you ever want to see.
CPUTIN is your socket / VRM temp. That should not exceed 70c. Your min was 66c.
So.....that tells me your board is struggling to give the power needed, and your CPU cooling solution is maxed out.

 

[trents]

VRM=Voltage Regulation Module. A motherboard component that regulates power to the CPU. It's very close to the CPU socket so we often speak of them in one breath.

 

[Anubis63]

Thanks. What I'll do is dial it down to the CPU basics until I can get the new board. I really appreciate the help.

 

[trents]

What board will you be getting? There are less than a handful of motherboards that have sufficiently rugged electronics to handle FX-8 cores heavily overclocked. There are a couple of Asus boards and one or two Gigabyte boards that will stand up to it. We most often recommend the Asus Sabertooth v. 2 or v. 3.

 

[Anubis63]

Thanks. What I'll do is dial it down to the CPU basics until I can get the new board. I really appreciate the help.

- - - Updated - - -

For the mother board Trents recommended one of these: Sabertooth and the Crosshair by Asus. I plan on putting the new AMD Ryzen CPU's in it. For some reason I like the AMD's even though Intel has always beet it in benchmarks but I think AMD is on the right track and libel to catch up with Intel. What do you think?

 

[Alaric]

I think a socket AM4 Ryzen chip is no way, no how, going to go in a socket AM3+ board. If you want to go with Ryzen (and that's a good upgrade) you may as well get an AM4 motherboard.

 

[Anubis63]

Yes, I would get an AM4 motherboard. Did I say it differently?

 

[Alaric]

I must have misread something.

 

[trents]

We assumed you were staying with the FX-8350 when you mentioned that you were getting a new board. Ryzen draws much less power and there are lots of good choices for motherboards. Just check the manufacturer's website to see that they are actively updating AGESA codes for the board you are looking at as there have been issues with memory compatibility in the Ryzen platform. But you would also need to get new RAM with Ryzen as it uses DDR4.

 

[Anubis63]

Thank you, I almost forgot about the RAM. I am a retired computer tech. and network tech. who contracted with the US Navy back in the mid 1990's when DOS 6.1 was going out and Windows 95 was coming in. A fast computer would be a 486-60MHz with 60MB of RAM and a 300MB or less IDE hard drive. I was sent by my company to be certified in Windows NT which I was but shortly after that I quit that job and went into business for myself until the year 1999. I did not keep up with my certifications and pretty much stayed with what I knew after that. Anyway all of this is new to me but I am able to easily pick it up and understand it. However, nowadays a mistake can be costly so everything you tell me here is much appreciated. I haven't done a lot of reading on the new Ryzen CPU's so when I go from my fx 8350 at 4.0 GHz 8 core 8 thread and see a Ryzen 3.7 GHz AM4 6 core 12 thread I get a little confused about why it is faster. If anyone knows a quick way of explaining that I would love it. I want to get what I want the first time as I have this terrible habit of buying everything just to upgrade almost all of it two months later. Thanks everyone.

 

[Johan45]

The reason an 8 core Ryzen at ~ 4.0 smokes a 5.0 GHz plus FX is first off AMD improved the IPC by ~ 50% then added SMT which gives another ~ 30% boost the way it sits now even the 1500x 4C 8T ryzen has ~ the same performance at 4.0 that the FX 8350 does at 5.5 GHz here a couple of pics to demo remember the 1500X is 4 cores with SMT

1500X 3.9 GHz 892 cb



FX 9370 5.55 GHz 897 cb

 

[Anubis63]

Thank you, I almost forgot about the RAM. I am a retired computer tech. and network tech. who contracted with the US Navy back in the mid 1990's when DOS 6.1 was going out and Windows 95 was coming in. A fast computer would be a 486-60MHz with 60MB of RAM and a 300MB or less IDE hard drive. I was sent by my company to be certified in Windows NT which I was but shortly after that I quit that job and went into business for myself until the year 1999. I did not keep up with my certifications and pretty much stayed with what I knew after that. Anyway all of this is new to me but I am able to easily pick it up and understand it. However, nowadays a mistake can be costly so everything you tell me here is much appreciated. I haven't done a lot of reading on the new Ryzen CPU's so when I go from my fx 8350 at 4.0 GHz 8 core 8 thread and see a Ryzen 3.7 GHz AM4 6 core 12 thread I get a little confused about why it is faster. If anyone knows a quick way of explaining that I would love it. I want to get what I want the first time as I have this terrible habit of buying everything just to upgrade almost all of it two months later. Thanks everyone.

- - - Updated - - -

Quick question off the topic. Am I double posting my reply's?