Athlon x4 860k Overclock

[xFluing]

I want to overclock my CPU, and I managed to do it up to 4ghz last time I tried it, it was all fine, however something caused it to fail (most likely my shitty psu, or my motherboard), I have an A68H chipset motherboard (MSI A68HM-E33 V1), and I do realise it's not too great for overclocking, I don't even have a manual voltage option in the bios.

 

Now I'm wondering since I don't have manual voltage, would going past 4ghz fry it because of the auto setting? Currently I'm re-trying that same OC, I'm at 3.9 right now and it's sitting at 1.416V idle, 1.392V while under AIDA 64 stress test.

 

Also could I set the voltage from AMD Overdrive? Last time I tried that it was unstable (my whole system froze), I tried 4ghz OC with this tutorial here, same voltages but 4GHz instead of 4.2, if I can and it was a fluke, should I try set my voltages slightly above the tutorial's?

 

[Karl Sven]

Hi there  

Well first congratulations for the "Ed, Edd, Eddie" picture. That's worth a +3 to say the least

And according to the topic... Why the overclock? This is important. Because I think there's a lot of missconception about overclocking a CPU in terms of performance.

[xFluing]

1 minute ago, Karl Sven said:

Hi there  

Well first congratulations for the "Ed, Edd, Eddie" picture. That's worth a +3 to say the least

And according to the topic... Why the overclock? This is important. Because I think there's a lot of missconception about overclocking a CPU in terms of performance.

Just want some extra performance out of it, that's all

[Jurrunio]

enable c-states.

[Karl Sven]

Just now, xFluing said:

Just want some extra performance out of it, that's all

Thats what I thought....

Well the thing is that overclocking a CPU is the least rewarding overclock you can do in your computer. Even when the CPU is a high end one with good overclocking values.

And anyway are you a proffesinoal video editor that needs that extra 15 seconds per video render? Do you work in YouTube where rendering videos with an extra push of CPU can save you 10 minutes total every morning? 

That's what I mean. If that's not the case ( and I dont think so as long as you would already have a better CPU) you can actually forget about the CPU overclock. I've tried it, I have a very expensive CPU ready for good overclock and is just not worth it if you dont work proffesinoally and want to squiz every inch of your CPU for productivity issues.

[xFluing]

2 minutes ago, Karl Sven said:

Thats what I thought....

Well the thing is that overclocking a CPU is the least rewarding overclock you can do in your computer. Even when the CPU is a high end one with good overclocking values.

And anyway are you a proffesinoal video editor that needs that extra 15 seconds per video render? Do you work in YouTube where rendering videos with an extra push of CPU can save you 10 minutes total every morning? 

That's what I mean. If that's not the case ( and I dont think so as long as you would already have a better CPU) you can actually forget about the CPU overclock. I've tried it, I have a very expensive CPU ready for good overclock and is just not worth it if you dont work proffesinoally and want to squiz every inch of your CPU for productivity issues.

Thing is, it's free, I like to tinker with stuff like this so it's very well worth it for me, especially if I could get it up to 4.2, it's free performance so why not?

 

4 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

enable c-states.

How and from where can I do this?

[Komplett]

5 minutes ago, Karl Sven said:

Thats what I thought....

Well the thing is that overclocking a CPU is the least rewarding overclock you can do in your computer. Even when the CPU is a high end one with good overclocking values.

And anyway are you a proffesinoal video editor that needs that extra 15 seconds per video render? Do you work in YouTube where rendering videos with an extra push of CPU can save you 10 minutes total every morning? 

That's what I mean. If that's not the case ( and I dont think so as long as you would already have a better CPU) you can actually forget about the CPU overclock. I've tried it, I have a very expensive CPU ready for good overclock and is just not worth it if you dont work proffesinoally and want to squiz every inch of your CPU for productivity issues.

Thats kinda stupid.. I gained so much extra performance for gaming etc just from an easy safe overclock. Hahahah kinda funny saying OCing aint worth it.

[Karl Sven]

Nothing is for free in this live  

The thing  IS that this would shorten the life of your CPU for what I said no real performance improvement. Plus with that CPU the improvement is gonna be so anectodical you can skip it.

Now you do what you feel. Keep going if that's what you wanna do.

[Karl Sven]

1 minute ago, Komplett said:

Thats kinda stupid.. I gained so much extra performance for gaming etc just from an easy safe overclock. Hahahah kinda funny saying OCing aint worth it.

Remove "stupid" and your opinions is valid as so is mine.

And I repeat myslef. CPU overclocking is not worth the risk in most cases.

[xFluing]

4 minutes ago, Karl Sven said:

Nothing is for free in this live  

The thing  IS that this would shorten the life of your CPU for what I said no real performance improvement. Plus with that CPU the improvement is gonna be so anectodical you can skip it.

Now you do what you feel. Keep going if that's what you wanna do.

The only ways to shorte the CPU's life is to go above its max supported voltage, or to run it hot, both of which haven't happened so far.

 

Turbo Boost automatically turbos to about 4 ghz anyway so it's not like it was designed to have its life shortened.

 

Now if we could get back on the fucking topic without you wasting my time that would be great.

[Crunchy Dragon]

22 minutes ago, Karl Sven said:

Thats what I thought....

Well the thing is that overclocking a CPU is the least rewarding overclock you can do in your computer. Even when the CPU is a high end one with good overclocking values.

And anyway are you a proffesinoal video editor that needs that extra 15 seconds per video render? Do you work in YouTube where rendering videos with an extra push of CPU can save you 10 minutes total every morning? 

That's what I mean. If that's not the case ( and I dont think so as long as you would already have a better CPU) you can actually forget about the CPU overclock. I've tried it, I have a very expensive CPU ready for good overclock and is just not worth it if you dont work proffesinoally and want to squiz every inch of your CPU for productivity issues.

There's nothing wrong with overclocking, even if you're not a professional that could use the time saved. I was more or less forced to overclock my A6-5400K just to help it keep up with Windows tasks and other basic workloads since I couldn't afford a new CPU at the time. And believe me, it helped. Overclocking and seeing better results isn't limited to professionals that could use the extra time.

 

19 minutes ago, Karl Sven said:

The thing  IS that this would shorten the life of your CPU for what I said no real performance improvement.

That's a lie, the only way to actually shorten the life of a CPU from overclocking is to run it at higher than supported voltage and/or higher temperatures.

 

@xFluing: JayzTwoCents has quite a few overclocking videos you can refer to, such as this one which lets you know exactly what you're getting into when you overclock.

 

In terms of the question in your original post "would going past 4Ghz fry it at auto voltage?", I pushed an A6-5400K(3.6Ghz base) to 4.4Ghz with the stock cooler and that's running fine to this day. I didn't set any voltage, just left it at auto. If your CPU has adequate cooling, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[xFluing]

2 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

There's nothing wrong with overclocking, even if you're not a professional that could use the time saved. I was more or less forced to overclock my A6-5400K just to help it keep up with Windows tasks and other basic workloads since I couldn't afford a new CPU at the time. And believe me, it helped. Overclocking and seeing better results isn't limited to professionals that could use the extra time.

 

That's a lie, the only way to actually shorten the life of a CPU from overclocking is to run it at higher than supported voltage and/or higher temperatures.

 

@xFluing: JayzTwoCents has quite a few overclocking videos you can refer to, such as this one which lets you know exactly what you're getting into when you overclock.

 

In terms of the question in your original post "would going past 4Ghz fry it at auto voltage?", I pushed an A6-5400K(3.6Ghz base) to 4.4Ghz with the stock cooler and that's running fine to this day. I didn't set any voltage, just left it at auto. If your CPU has adequate cooling, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Yes, thanks, I know about overclocking, I've watched those videos, thing is I don't know how far I'm gonna push the voltage on the CPU if I go past 40 in the cpu multiplier, because it automatically adjusts the voltage and I have no control over it and I don't want to fry it by going into the 1.6V territory (something that did happen to Jay when he was overclocking his FX I think, which ended up in frying it)

[Jurrunio]

11 minutes ago, xFluing said:

How and from where can I do this?

in the BIOS. Either C-states or P-states, both similar. They allow the core clock and voltage to drop under low load/at idle, saving power.

 

As for your OC, I'd try push more without increasing the voltage. As long as temps dont get past 75C under full blast, it's fine.

41 minutes ago, Karl Sven said:

Well the thing is that overclocking a CPU is the least rewarding overclock you can do in your computer. Even when the CPU is a high end one with good overclocking values.

Try play some CPU heavy game and you will feel the difference. The performance gains on a slow CPU will be even more noticeable.

 

34 minutes ago, Karl Sven said:

The thing  IS that this would shorten the life of your CPU for what I said no real performance improvement. Plus with that CPU the improvement is gonna be so anectodical you can skip it.

Using the CPU itself will shorten its life. Overclocking does shorten it faster, but from like lasting 15 years to 10 years. That's still a very long time.

 

34 minutes ago, Karl Sven said:

CPU overclocking is not worth the risk in most cases.

Only when people dont know how to do it properly.

[xFluing]

Just now, xFluing said:

Yes, thanks, I know about overclocking, I've watched those videos, thing is I don't know how far I'm gonna push the voltage on the CPU if I go past 40 in the cpu multiplier, because it automatically adjusts the voltage and I have no control over it and I don't want to fry it by going into the 1.6V territory (something that did happen to Jay when he was overclocking his FX I think, which ended up in frying it)

OK nevermind, I did not see that last part because of the video.

[Jurrunio]

Just now, xFluing said:

Yes, thanks, I know about overclocking, I've watched those videos, thing is I don't know how far I'm gonna push the voltage on the CPU if I go past 40 in the cpu multiplier, because it automatically adjusts the voltage and I have no control over it and I don't want to fry it by going into the 1.6V territory (something that did happen to Jay when he was overclocking his FX I think, which ended up in frying it)

Max temp to max voltage:

85C: 1.3V

80C: 1.35V

70c: 1.4V

60C: 1.45V

 

Dont go any higher, that's dry ice territory

 

[xFluing]

6 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

There's nothing wrong with overclocking, even if you're not a professional that could use the time saved. I was more or less forced to overclock my A6-5400K just to help it keep up with Windows tasks and other basic workloads since I couldn't afford a new CPU at the time. And believe me, it helped. Overclocking and seeing better results isn't limited to professionals that could use the extra time.

 

That's a lie, the only way to actually shorten the life of a CPU from overclocking is to run it at higher than supported voltage and/or higher temperatures.

 

@xFluing: JayzTwoCents has quite a few overclocking videos you can refer to, such as this one which lets you know exactly what you're getting into when you overclock.

 

In terms of the question in your original post "would going past 4Ghz fry it at auto voltage?", I pushed an A6-5400K(3.6Ghz base) to 4.4Ghz with the stock cooler and that's running fine to this day. I didn't set any voltage, just left it at auto. If your CPU has adequate cooling, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Also yeah, it has more than adequate cooling, great air flow with a Gammaxx 400 cooler on top.

[xFluing]

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Max temp to max voltage:

85C: 1.3V

80C: 1.35V

70c: 1.4V

60C: 1.45V

 

Dont go any higher, that's dry ice territory

 

In terms of temps, I've always wondered what do I look for? Overall temp or core temps? I never got the difference.

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, xFluing said:

Also yeah, it has more than adequate cooling, great air flow with a Gammaxx 400 cooler on top.

I wouldn't worry about it, usually auto voltage doesn't let you boot if you set a clock speed that requires higher voltage(in my experience). Most people recommend you don't go above 1.5v as a rule of thumb.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, xFluing said:

In terms of temps, I've always wondered what do I look for? Overall temp or core temps? I never got the difference.

Quite honestly, either one works. Most people recommend going by overall temperature.

[xFluing]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

I wouldn't worry about it, usually auto voltage doesn't let you boot if you set a clock speed that requires higher voltage(in my experience). Most people recommend you don't go above 1.5v as a rule of thumb.

Yeah, 1.5 is below what I'm trying to stay.

[Jurrunio]

3 minutes ago, xFluing said:

In terms of temps, I've always wondered what do I look for? Overall temp or core temps? I never got the difference

I myself look for the highest.

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, xFluing said:

Yeah, 1.5 is below what I'm trying to stay.

You should be pretty good to go, it is after all only a 300Mhz boost from the base clock to hit 4Ghz. I boosted my A6 by just over twice that(800Mhz) to reach 4.4Ghz.

 

As long as your overclock is stable and you're seeing good temperatures, I wouldn't worry about it.

[xFluing]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

You should be pretty good to go, it is after all only a 300Mhz boost from the base clock to hit 4Ghz. I boosted my A6 by just over twice that(800Mhz) to reach 4.4Ghz.

 

As long as your overclock is stable and you're seeing good temperatures, I wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah but I'm still worried that even at 4.2 I might hit a threshold where the voltage would keep rising and a restart would fry the cpu, like it happened to jay (however I don't think that should be a problem since I can avoid that by resetting the CMOS)

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, xFluing said:

Yeah but I'm still worried that even at 4.2 I might hit a threshold where the voltage would keep rising and a restart would fry the cpu, like it happened to jay (however I don't think that should be a problem since I can avoid that by resetting the CMOS)

I wouldn't expect that to happen, another thing to keep in mind is that FX series chips like the one Jay had consume a pretty much the most power out of any CPU released in the years when AMD still manufactured them so it's less likely that your 860K would reach that point, having a much lower power consumption.

[xFluing]

2 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I wouldn't expect that to happen, another thing to keep in mind is that FX series chips like the one Jay had consume a pretty much the most power out of any CPU released in the years when AMD still manufactured them so it's less likely that your 860K would reach that point, having a much lower power consumption.

True, I've seen FX chips having a TDP of up to 125-220w, besides the fact that they're nicknamed "chipset fryers", a friend has an FX8000-series, and his chipset runs so fucking hot it's not even funny.