AMD FX-8350 OC help

[ZHENW01]

Hi guys, I was overclocking my FX-8350. I managed to clock it to 4.6 GHz, boot up, run games fine, but it was unstable during stress testing. At first I thought it might be a voltage problem, so I volted the CPU to first 1.462 V, then 1.468V, and eventually 1.475V. It probably wasn't a heat issue as my CPU was running at around 45 C. I used OCCT and Prime95 for torture tests. Also, the CPU did the torture test fine when I was running it at stock. Plz help.

[Faceman]

Hi guys, I was overclocking my FX-8350. I managed to clock it to 4.6 GHz, boot up, run games fine, but it was unstable during stress testing. At first I thought it might be a voltage problem, so I volted the CPU to first 1.462 V, then 1.468V, and eventually 1.475V. It probably wasn't a heat issue as my CPU was running at around 45 C. I used OCCT and Prime95 for torture tests. Also, the CPU did the torture test fine when I was running it at stock. Plz help.

So was it stable at 1.475v?  Maybe try turning it down to 4.5Ghz @ 1.465 and see if you need to increase or decrease from there.

[Altecice]

test using prime95 for 10 mins, If no cores fail then bump up the multi > keep going till a core fails, when it does add voltage.

Max core temps = 64

Max socket temp= 74

Max voltage = 1.55v (I would use no more than 1.5v for 24/7)

 

 

If you hit either of theese three and still fail. keep the voltage but reduce multi and retest, keep removing multi till it passes the 10 min test. After that start removing voltage till it fails again. Once you reach this... This is your maximum overclock.

[rmac52]

It's not uncommon for prime 95 to have issues with 8350's.  My 8350 is not "stable" with prime 95 at stock.

[rmac52]

I use aida64 its not free but you can use the trial while you are getting your oc.

[ZHENW01]

So was it stable at 1.475v?  Maybe try turning it down to 4.5Ghz @ 1.465 and see if you need to increase or decrease from there.

No, the torture test was still unstable, with BOTH OCCT and Prime95. 

[i_build_nanosuits]

No, the torture test was still unstable, with BOTH OCCT and Prime95. 

play games and use your computer normaly...if it don't crash just call it a day.

[-rascal-]

Is 45*C during idle or under stress?

 

Which GA-990FXA-UD3 board you have? Revision 3? Revision 4? Older?

 

Are you experiencing any issues regarding to the VRM overheating? Gigabyte realized this was an issue when the CPU was overclocked, and they resolved the issue in revision 4.0 of the board.

 

1.475V seems a little on the higher side -- and it isn't even stable still.

 

Have you adjusted any of the other voltage settings other than Core Voltage?

• CPU-NB voltage. It needs to be adjusted as overclocks increase.
• CPU-VDDA (I believe Gigabyte calls it CPU-PLL). The stock voltage should be 2.5V. Increasing by a small amount (i.e. 2.55V, 2.6V) can help with stability, and voltage droop under load. You also reduce the core Voltage.

Is Load-Line-Calibration enabled? LLC counteracts voltage droop when the CPU is put under load.

[ZHENW01]

Is 45*C during idle or under stress?

 

Which GA-990FXA-UD3 board you have? Revision 3? Revision 4? Older?

 

Are you experiencing any issues regarding to the VRM overheating? Gigabyte realized this was an issue when the CPU was overclocked, and they resolved the issue in revision 4.0 of the board.

 

1.475V seems a little on the higher side -- and it isn't even stable still.

 

Have you adjusted any of the other voltage settings other than Core Voltage?

• CPU-NB voltage. It needs to be adjusted as overclocks increase.
• CPU-VDDA (I believe Gigabyte calls it CPU-PLL). The stock voltage should be 2.5V. Increasing by a small amount (i.e. 2.55V, 2.6V) can help with stability, and voltage droop under load. You also reduce the core Voltage.

Is Load-Line-Calibration enabled? LLC counteracts voltage droop when the CPU is put under load.

45 C was under stress (torture testing), I have the Rev. 4 of the GA-990FXA UD3, and the VRM doesn't seem to be overheating.I haven't tried adjusting the Northbrige or the CPU-PLL voltage yet. Should I try raising it?

[ZHENW01]

I just noticed something while using OCCT to try torture testing again. There seems to be frequency drops during stress. Could that mean voltage is not stable?

[ZHENW01]

Also, what is LLC? I can't seem to find it in the BIOS.

[Jumper118]

Also, what is LLC? I can't seem to find it in the BIOS.

load line calibration. frequency dropping is a sign of overheating. have yo tried using a different cpu temp monitor because at 1.475v that 8350 will be producing a lot of heat

[MarvinKMooney]

If its stable while playing all your games and being on 24/7 that's stable, all the other stress testers do is put it at under unrealistic situations.

 

I will get my settings and post them on here for you. 

 

http://imgur.com/7atcxAO

http://imgur.com/1n1YrJo

 

Those are the settings I have for my FX-8350 not sure the MOBO you have but if you go with the same settings you should have decent over clock with less Voltage, don't forget you are subject to " the lottery "

[ZHENW01]

load line calibration. frequency dropping is a sign of overheating. have yo tried using a different cpu temp monitor because at 1.475v that 8350 will be producing a lot of heat

My CPU is running at 46 C tops, I have a H80i watercooling it with all fans spinning at max. Also, I can't seem to find how to turn on LLC from BIOS.

[Jumper118]

My CPU is running at 46 C tops, I have a H80i watercooling it with all fans spinning at max. Also, I can't seem to find how to turn on LLC from BIOS.

i dont think it is though i think the software is wrong

[ZHENW01]

i dont think it is though i think the software is wrong

Well, I checked the air blowing out from the radiator while torture testing. The air was a fair bit warmer than room temperature, but not hot.

[Jumper118]

Well, I checked the air blowing out from the radiator while torture testing. The air was a fair bit warmer than room temperature, but not hot.

thats not really a good test 

[-rascal-]

Looking at the Gigabyte manual, your motherboard has the option to take Print Screens (pressing F12 while in BIOS) and save them onto a USB drive. Do you mind taking a few shots of your BIOS settings and posting them up here?

 

45 C was under stress (torture testing), I have the Rev. 4 of the GA-990FXA UD3, and the VRM doesn't seem to be overheating.I haven't tried adjusting the Northbrige or the CPU-PLL voltage yet. Should I try raising it?

 

There is a difference between CPU-NB, and actual NB. Don't get them confused and adjust the wrong one. CPU-NB is part of the Processor, while the NB is part of the motherboard.

 

I just noticed something while using OCCT to try torture testing again. There seems to be frequency drops during stress. Could that mean voltage is not stable?

 

Yes, from my experience with overclocking Phenom II's and FX chips, this means either something is over heating, is there is a lack of voltage.

When you stress test, run CPU-Z (or any CPU monitoring program that you have). Do you notice the Core voltage dropping BELOW what is set in the BIOS?

For an example, you have the voltage set to 1.462V. Once you run the stress test, the voltage drops down to 1.45#V, or 1.4#V. This causes the CPU to become unstable.

If so, that is called voltage drooping. This happens to all modern day electronics.

 

 

Also, what is LLC? I can't seem to find it in the BIOS.

 

Load-Line-Calibration counteracts voltage droop .

The user manual for the revision 4.0 board is not as thorough as the revision 3.0 / 1.X manuals. It doesn't even go into the voltage settings.

LLC should be located in the same place as where you adjust all your voltages (i.e. Core voltage).

 

 

 Some other things to consider:

• Under the M.I.T. tab, Disable "APM." This stands for Application Power Management.
• Under the M.I.T. tab, Enable "HPC Mode." High Performance Computing Mode.
• Under the M.I.T. tab, Disable 'Cool N' Quiet." It's a power saving feature. You can re-enable it and do some tweaking after your overclock is stable, if you wish.
• Under the M.I.T. tab, Disable "C1E Support." It is a power-saving features that slows a certain parts of the system when it is idle.

 

If its stable while playing all your games and being on 24/7 that's stable, all the other stress testers do is put it at under unrealistic situations.

 

I will get my settings and post them on here for you. 

 

http://imgur.com/7atcxAO

http://imgur.com/1n1YrJo

 

Those are the settings I have for my FX-8350 not sure the MOBO you have but if you go with the same settings you should have decent over clock with less Voltage, don't forget you are subject to " the lottery "

 

Do you have LLC on Extreme on your ASUS board? Core Voltage set to 1.40V, but it's up at 1.46V.

 

 

Here are my settings for my FX-8350. The below pictures are a little out of date (they are about 7 months old after all), and I had made some adjustments since then, such as:

• Re-adjusted some of the voltages (so they don't need to be as high)
• Ramped the RAM frequency back to the rated speed (shown as 1600MHz in BIOS Print Screens).

(TIP: Note that I am using the F12 Print Screen feature...which your board has too)

 

[ZHENW01]

thats not really a good test 

True, but I highly doubt that the CPU has temps higher than 85 C, which is the temperature I set for the CPU to power down (as in turn down the power). 

[MarvinKMooney]

Looking at the Gigabyte manual, your motherboard has the option to take Print Screens (pressing F12 while in BIOS) and save them onto a USB drive. Do you mind taking a few shots of your BIOS settings and posting them up here?

 

 

There is a difference between CPU-NB, and actual NB. Don't get them confused and adjust the wrong one. CPU-NB is part of the Processor, while the NB is part of the motherboard.

 

 

Yes, from my experience with overclocking Phenom II's and FX chips, this means either something is over heating, is there is a lack of voltage.

When you stress test, run CPU-Z (or any CPU monitoring program that you have). Do you notice the Core voltage dropping BELOW what is set in the BIOS?

For an example, you have the voltage set to 1.462V. Once you run the stress test, the voltage drops down to 1.45#V, or 1.4#V. This causes the CPU to become unstable.

If so, that is called voltage drooping. This happens to all modern day electronics.

 

 

 

Load-Line-Calibration counteracts voltage droop .

The user manual for the revision 4.0 board is not as thorough as the revision 3.0 / 1.X manuals. It doesn't even go into the voltage settings.

LLC should be located in the same place as where you adjust all your voltages (i.e. Core voltage).

 

 

 Some other things to consider:

• Under the M.I.T. tab, Disable "APM." This stands for Application Power Management.
• Under the M.I.T. tab, Enable "HPC Mode." High Performance Computing Mode.
• Under the M.I.T. tab, Disable 'Cool N' Quiet." It's a power saving feature. You can re-enable it and do some tweaking after your overclock is stable, if you wish.
• Under the M.I.T. tab, Disable "C1E Support." It is a power-saving features that slows a certain parts of the system when it is idle.

 

 

Do you have LLC on Extreme on your ASUS board? Core Voltage set to 1.40V, but it's up at 1.46V.

 

 

Here are my settings for my FX-8350. The below pictures are a little out of date (they are about 7 months old after all), and I had made some adjustments since then, such as:

• Re-adjusted some of the voltages (so they don't need to be as high)
• Ramped the RAM frequency back to the rated speed (shown as 1600MHz in BIOS Print Screens).

(TIP: Note that I am using the F12 Print Screen feature...which your board has too)

 

Indeeed it does have a print screen function, but alas i have no USB device for it to load the data onto! at least its MIA for right now, if i where you start with every thing at stock and slowly up one thing at a time start with OC Cpu once thats 100% stable go from there to Ram and so on and so forth. then you know at least that what ever its crashing at/shuting its self down to be for that its at a stable rate.

 

Oh and as to the LLC i just noticed the voltage was saying it was that high which is very odd!

just looked into the bios settings and its not up that high again and every thing i have that monitors it is showing it at that stock as well(1.4)

 

http://imgur.com/fVRCLKs

[-rascal-]

True, but I highly doubt that the CPU has temps higher than 85 C, which is the temperature I set for the CPU to power down (as in turn down the power).

Uhhh..the specified maximum safe operating temperature is ~62°C / 65°C on the core, and ~72°C at the socket.

You better re-adjust that.

[ZHENW01]

Uhhh..the specified maximum safe operating temperature is ~62°C / 65°C on the core, and ~72°C at the socket.

You better re-adjust that.

Terribly sorry, I mixed a few things up by accident, 85 C is what the ratings of AMD CPU operating temperature. I setted the system to shutdown at 65C on the socket in the BIOS. and plus, I highly doubt that both HW monitor and CPU-Z would be wrong about my CPU temps to the point of an unstable CPU because of heat reasons. 

[ZHENW01]

Noticed another thing that was odd, when I'm not torture testing the CPU, voltage is at 1.45 to 1.46, but when I start torture testing, voltage drops to 1.42-ish.

[-rascal-]

Noticed another thing that was odd, when I'm not torture testing the CPU, voltage is at 1.45 to 1.46, but when I start torture testing, voltage drops to 1.42-ish.

The suggested maximum safe continuous operating temperatures for AMD CPU's is ~62/65°C and ~72°C at the socket. This has been ststed by AMD's board manufacturers (I.e. ASUS, Gigabyte, etc).

Your voltage dropping down to 1.42V is what I was referring to as Voltage drooping. Load-Line Calibration prevents the voltage from dropping down during stress / load.

This is probably one reason why your overclock is not stable. 1.46V down to 1.42V is quite a significant difference.

But please, the questions you have been asking was answered in a previous post I made. Re-read what I typed. I will admit it was long, but you needed the info, I provided it.

[ZHENW01]

Alright, I have turned on LLC and the torture tests have been stable. Thanks guys!