Wy won't it overclock?????

[thxone]

I am so frustrated!!! Why can't my rig overclock!?!?!?!? I bought my motherboard as reviews said its and overclocking beast. I bought plenty of memory that is supported by the board. Closed loop water cooling on the CPU, big case, plenty of power, lots of air flow, fast hard drive(s)... and then there is the processor... the AMD FX 8320E 8 core cpu. Ok, so here is the deal. I can get it to overclock but just barely and it becomes unstable. At this point I have left it at stock clocks. I purchased this build and assembled it to support overclocking if I choose to do so. I should mention that I have seen this jump up to 4Ghz on its own from 3.5Ghz and all the way down to 1.4Ghz when under almost no load or idle. I know it will hit 4000.0Mhz because it does it on it's own... but I cannot manually overclock it to 4Ghz... which is what I want. I want all specs in (4's) Cpu at 4Ghz, Mem at 16GB's, Gpu mem 4GB (8GB when I add the second card).. and so on. Can someone explain to me why I can't manually overclock this setup? My first guess is the CPU 8320E which is a 95w lower power unit. Ok, here is my rig:

 

Case: Corsair Obsidian 750D solid front.

Motherboard: ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0

CPU: AMD FX-8320E 3.2Ghz 8 core

Memory: Crucial DDR3 8GBx2 (16GB total) Part #BLS8G3D18ADS3.16FE

Video card: ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 470 4GB OC Edition (second card coming soon)

Power Supply: Corsair AX 860 modular

CPU Cooling: Corsair H115i

Case Cooling: 3 - 140mm Cougar CF-V14HP

OS Drive: One - Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD

Storage Drives: Three - WD Blue 1TB 7,200rpm 64MB cache Sata 6GB/s

 

Temps:

- Room:  22c (72F)

- CPU: Idle 25c - Max load 60c

- MB: Idle 27c - Max load 44c

-GPU: Idle 29 - 30c - Max load 62c <-- On Ultra - SC Blacklist 1080p

 

[Jumper118]

set the cpu voltage to 1.4v then slow the memory down to 1333 speed, then increase the base clock. 

[The Sloth]

latest drivers? 

[thxone]

1 minute ago, nerdslayer1 said:

latest drivers? 

To my knowledge yes... I check for updates once a week regardless if my computer informs me or not.

[m0k]

@thxone

because it boosts to 4ghz on its own it should be as simple as increasing the multiplier to equal 4ghz

should not have to mess with voltage at all

 

it should be similar to my Phenom 1090t where it boosts to 3.6ghz on its own, and all i did was increase my ratio to equal 3.6ghz. voltage remained on auto, and my ram was still manually set to 1600mhz with no issues

[thxone]

I don't mind it boosting on its own but the principal of the thing... I want control lol. My mem on cpuid say like 933Mhz for some reason.

[tikker]

7 minutes ago, thxone said:

I am so frustrated!!! Why can't my rig overclock!?!?!?!? I bought my motherboard as reviews said its and overclocking beast. I bought plenty of memory that is supported by the board. Closed loop water cooling on the CPU, big case, plenty of power, lots of air flow, fast hard drive(s)... and then there is the processor... the AMD FX 8320E 8 core cpu. Ok, so here is the deal. I can get it to overclock but just barely and it becomes unstable. At this point I have left it at stock clocks. I purchased this build and assembled it to support overclocking if I choose to do so. I should mention that I have seen this jump up to 4Ghz on its own from 3.5Ghz and all the way down to 1.4Ghz when under almost no load or idle. I know it will hit 4000.0Mhz because it does it on it's own... but I cannot manually overclock it to 4Ghz... which is what I want. I want all specs in (4's) Cpu at 4Ghz, Mem at 16GB's, Gpu mem 4GB (8GB when I add the second card).. and so on. Can someone explain to me why I can't manually overclock this setup? My first guess is the CPU 8320E which is a 95w lower power unit. Ok, here is my rig:

 

Case: Corsair Obsidian 750D solid front.

Motherboard: ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0

CPU: AMD FX-8320E 3.5Ghz 8 core

Memory: Crucial DDR3 8GBx2 (16GB total) Part #BLS8G3D18ADS3.16FE

Video card: ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 470 4GB OC Edition (second card coming soon)

Power Supply: Corsair AX 860 modular

CPU Cooling: Corsair H115i

Case Cooling: 3 - 140mm Cougar CF-V14HP

OS Drive: One - Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD

Storage Drives: Three - WD Blue 1TB 7,200rpm 64MB cache Sata 6GB/s

 

Temps:

- Room:  22c (72F)

- CPU: Idle 25c - Max load 60c

- MB: Idle 27c - Max load 44c

-GPU: Idle 29 - 30c - Max load 62c <-- On Ultra - SC Blacklist 1080p

 

I don't know about overclocking that CPU, but I did want to note that adding a second card does not double your VRAM from 4GB to 8GB, that's not how crossfire (or SLI for that matter) works. It stays 4GB.

 

2 minutes ago, thxone said:

I don't mind it boosting on its own but the principal of the thing... I want control lol. My mem on cpuid say like 933Mhz for some reason.

That's because it runs at 933 MHz, but because it's DDR (Double Data Rate) it effectively runs at 2x933=1866 MHz.

[m0k]

7 minutes ago, thxone said:

I don't mind it boosting on its own but the principal of the thing... I want control lol. My mem on cpuid say like 933Mhz for some reason.

I'll take some time to help you with this issue once i get home,

sounds like a similar issue i had on my AMD system

 

[thxone]

4 minutes ago, tikker said:

I don't know about overclocking that CPU, but I did want to note that adding a second card does not double your VRAM from 4GB to 8GB, that's not how crossfire (or SLI for that matter) works. It stays 4GB.

 

That's because it runs at 933 MHz, but because it's DDR (Double Data Rate) it effectively runs at 2x933=1866 MHz.

Holy crap I feel STUPID!!!! I bought it because the motherboard said 1866 supported.... !@$%$#@ Me now I know how they get that number..... thank you

[tikker]

2 minutes ago, thxone said:

Holy crap I feel STUPID!!!! I bought it because the motherboard said 1866 supported.... !@$%$#@ Me now I know how they get that number..... thank you

You can't really go wrong if the motherboard lists it as supported. No reason to feel stupd, it's not something that's immediately obvious if you never looked into it before.

Anyway, I'll not go off-topic any further. I hope someone can help you with your OC issues.

[thxone]

19 minutes ago, Jumper118 said:

set the cpu voltage to 1.4v then slow the memory down to 1333 speed, then increase the base clock. 

I get the first part but you lost me after that.

[Jumper118]

1 minute ago, thxone said:

I get the first part but you lost me after that.

lower the memory speed in the bios down to 1333mhz. then increase the base clock on the cpu. its normally 200mhz so go up to 210mhz to start with and see if that is stable in stress testing.

[thxone]

1 minute ago, tikker said:

You can't really go wrong if the motherboard lists it as supported. No reason to feel stupd, it's not something that's immediately obvious if you never looked into it before.

Anyway, I'll not go off-topic any further. I hope someone can help you with your OC issues.

You are 100% on topic. In all my years I have only overclocked one of my rigs. I have always run stock clocks except for my E8400 Wolfdale that is now on a display stand on my right speaker. I ran her at 4Ghz on air for 6+ years and she never complained. All the info I can get is appreciated.

[DragonTamer1]

If I remember correctly AMD uses a base clock of 200MHz and a multiplier of 20 or something like that.

 

You want to lower the frequency that your RAM runs at because if you are pushing up the base clock then everything in the system is going to increase with it. Increasing the base clock is difficult and I personally have had very little luck with bclock modifications beyond an additional 5MHz on my Xeon server.

 

Increasing the multiplier would be easier and can be done without modifying the rest of your system speeds.

 

Your CPU speed is the Base clock speed x the Multiplier. A good motherboard with a good BIOS should tell you what you have your speed set to.

 

Also worth noting that I've never used an AMD system for anything other than the Phenom 9100e in the HTPC. But I did help a friend with his 8350 that was pushed to an unstable overclock because it's previous owner was an idiot, and I also stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[LeStringMan]

49 minutes ago, thxone said:

You are 100% on topic. In all my years I have only overclocked one of my rigs. I have always run stock clocks except for my E8400 Wolfdale that is now on a display stand on my right speaker. I ran her at 4Ghz on air for 6+ years and she never complained. All the info I can get is appreciated.

Try bumping up your CPU-NB voltage, also make sure that APM is disabled if you are throttling back to 1.4ghz under load, if its just idling at that clock that is fine, no reason to disable Cool'N'Quiet. You can also try lowering the HT Link speed.

[thxone]

1 hour ago, DragonTamer1 said:

 But I did help a friend with his 8350 that was pushed to an unstable overclock because it's previous owner was an idiot, and I also stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

One of my ideas was to literally just swap out my 8320E 95w 3.2Ghz (4.0Ghz Turbo) cpu with an 8320 125w 3.5Ghz (4.0Ghz Turbo) cpu. But as you mentioned... there is the 8350 125w 4.0Ghz (4.2Ghz Turbo) cpu. I have ZERO worries about using an 125w cpu with this Corsair H115i. What are your thoughts on just swapping out to the 8350? It can be had locally for me at $139. Is the CPU swappable without having to redo anything like the operating system? It is literally the same socket.. just higher thermals and clock speed.

[thxone]

1 hour ago, LeStringMan said:

Try bumping up your CPU-NB voltage, also make sure that APM is disabled if you are throttling back to 1.4ghz under load, if its just idling at that clock that is fine, no reason to disable Cool'N'Quiet. You can also try lowering the HT Link speed.

Ok... a questions.  Lowering the HT... what amount?

[DragonTamer1]

23 minutes ago, thxone said:

One of my ideas was to literally just swap out my 8320E 95w 3.2Ghz (4.0Ghz Turbo) cpu with an 8320 125w 3.5Ghz (4.0Ghz Turbo) cpu. But as you mentioned... there is the 8350 125w 4.0Ghz (4.2Ghz Turbo) cpu. I have ZERO worries about using an 125w cpu with this Corsair H115i. What are your thoughts on just swapping out to the 8350? It can be had locally for me at $139. Is the CPU swappable without having to redo anything like the operating system? It is literally the same socket.. just higher thermals and clock speed.

The 8350 should be a drop in replacement. Windows shouldn't do anything unless you actually swap the motherboard but it's sometimes hard to tell with windows.

 

I would try to overclock the 8320e first since you already have it, if you can't get the 8350 then you can swap it later if you want keeping the 8320 as a backup.

[thxone]

Ok... Here is what my BIOS looks like... suggestions or explanations for the settings?

 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Your CPU fails to overclock higher because you didn't give it a higher voltage. I've done this on a Sabertooth with very similar settings, although I cannot go look at the details right now. But off the top of my head, the most important things are:

 

1) Set CPU ratio to Manual. You want to start with multiplier OC first, it's much easier to get stable OCs with it.

 

2) Turbo Core technology: disable it. It's one of the hardest things to get to work, because you can only change one voltage, but Turbo works through simultaneous boosts in multiplier and voltages. Once you manually change the multiplier, these automatic boosts won't necessarily do the job anymore.

 

3) Leave all frequencies as they are for now. Save it for fine tuning.

 

4) Disable CPU Spread Spectrum (as per motherboard's manual it's better for OC stability)

 

5) CPU & NB voltage: I'd go with setting the level, not the offset (I don't remember what the other mode is called, but there should be another one )

 

6) CPU voltage: it seems to be at 1.26v right now. Try that or a little higher and see how many halves can you push the multi (that is, start with say 17 for 17x200=3.4GHz, then 17.5, and so on until you fail stability tests). Then come back here and increase it another notch, and try again.

 

7) Leave all other voltages as they are for now. Save them for fine tuning.

 

8) HPC mode has dubious impact on performance, but probably none on overclocking. Power saving features (cool'n'quiet, C1, C6) can be left on, I never had any issues with them and you'll save on power consumption while idle.

 

9) You can experiment with RAM timings, but keep them constant while OCing the CPU (either the default 1333 or 1600, or the XMP your chips are rated for).

 

That should get you started. Once you start to be happy about the OC results, we can come back to HT speed, RAM speed, and CPU NB voltages if needed, to get all of it to work as fast as possible (although typically increasing HT for the sake of it has no impact on performance, but you may need it to be at least at X speed to work with your RAM speeds/timings (usually 2600 works fine).

[thxone]

Ok, so I got it to 4.0Ghz!!!!!!! Ran Prime95 for a little bit just to see if it would screw up like last time and it passed with flying colors!! Thanks

SpaceGhostC2C

 

[thxone]

Since the CPU didn't crash with prime95 I decided to do a 30min test with AIDA64 and I think I can say I am happy.

 

[thxone]

That link makes more sense now. I have reviewed it before but it became confusing which is probably why my last overclock attempt failed.

[thxone]

It's been a few days since I got the computer to 4Ghz and have had ZERO issues. So, on that note... I won't be upgrading the CPU anytime soon. 4Ghz was my goal from the beginning for this CPU. now it is on to other things like a custom hard line cooling loop, a second gpu and a bigger Samsung monitor (C27FG70).