Overclocking fx 8350 with efficiency

[shahvts]

Overclocking fx 8350 with efficiency

I’ve had my fx 8350 for about 6 months and after playing around with it I have come to a conclusion that rather than go with full brute force on the voltage and all other wizardry you will get better efficiency and temps by optimising the way the chip works is by mixing up the base clock and turbo clock.

Personally I have hit a good draw with the silicon lottery my chip cruses at 4.8ghz with 1.49 volts all day stable but the only issue I run into is temps, reason being my cooler which is a antec kuhler h20 620 running dual fan setup cannot keep the chip within the thermal limits hence the chip keeps throttling which causes whole lot of performance issues. So before I go any further here are the specs of my rig

Fx8350
gigabyte 990fxa ud3 rev1.2
8 gb Ram G skill Ripjaws 2133
2x 250gb 7200 rpm drive running in raid 0
1 500gb Seagate hdd
Hd4870 1gb
Aerocool gt700 psu
Antec kuhler h20 620 with dual fans push and pull exhausting air out

Now you have the system specs let get to the important bits, this is a guide for people with single 120mm rad setups or similar performing air cooler although you can use this method with much better cooling solutions. Everyone knows that the fx 8350 had weak single core performance and this will help with elevating the single performance which in turn will help with cpu bound games. Especially that most games at the moment in time use 4 core or less with a few exceptions.

I will be using cinebench to demonstrate the type of increases you can get by using this method and another thing you must know that the boost state can be used with 6 cores and below although I would'nt recommend using it with more than 4 cores, because this will be more ideal at keeping the cpu cores more stable.


Clocked at 4.4ghz no turbo enabled

This is the base performance at running at 4.4ghz with 1.36 volts core temps reached 48c on the package

Next run I did is with switching on turbo on Amd Overdrive upto 4.7 ghz

Just a side note on the turbo you must have boost level 0 and 1 on the same multi to get the cpu to turbo upto 4.7, I don’t know why but this is the only way I can make it reach 4.7ghz



Base at 4.4ghz (1.36) volts and turbo 4.7 (1.425) increases the score from 7.44 to 7.51 and single core from 1.16 to 1.24


Proof that the cpu turbo up to 4.7ghz on single core



Heres a 5ghz single core (1.475) and theres no more increase on multicore, it still stays at 7.51 so I guess the cores are not boosting as much on multicore. single core moves upto 1.31


lets also see how the core are effected when using 2, 4 and 6 cores so we can see the benefit of using turbo

2 cores running at 4.4ghz base clock


2 cores running at 4.7ghz turbo


2 cores running at 5ghz turbo


4 cores running at 4.4ghz base clock


4 cores running at 4.7ghz turbo


4 cores running at 5ghz turbo


6 cores running at 4.4ghz base clock


6 cores running at 4.7ghz turbo


I would'nt recommend running 5ghz unless you have cooling to keep up with it but just for you people here are the results


Conclusion by allowing the boost state of the chip you can improve the single core performance and in some instances you will see the chip turbo up to the max boost state when using all core but not that often, but still you will see an increase when your using 4core or less plus the core scaling starts to go down when you start increasing the cores. Plus to add, I didnt see any increase in the temps by boosting the single core perfomance and the core package temps stayed at around 42c when using single core and when using 4 core it hit around 47c. By balancing the base oc and the turbo state you will have a much more stable machine and will remain problem free and you wont require exotic cooling has well as saving on power consumption.

Plz feel free to add anything and if you have any quetion plz do ask

[Spannerhands]

Good work sir...

[Vbgf]

Good job dude! I don't have that chip and i'm not interested in this things Yet, BUT i learned that you can still use turbo core tech after overclock, that's awesome.

[tito]

Do you know the VRM temps? What LLC config did you use?

[shahvts]

vrm temps stay around 60c and thats with a fan on them any body with a gigabyte 990fx ud3 will know that vrm will heat up really high but with out a fan i will get 72c and thats with prime and the llc is set on medium and thats running at 4.6ghz with voltage set at 1.425.

 

voltage is the real enemy, the lower you can keep the core voltage the better temps u will get

[airdeano]

very informative, but i would not rely on that monitoring software as the information

could be misleading. your -12v and +5v VCCH readings are deffo fail.. so how far

are the temp targets off? i hadn't found a single monitor app for AMD architecture

to be anywhere reliable to monitor voltages/temperatures.

 

airdeano

[KneesWeak]

I have the same mobo, at least for me my temps on my 8320 are less than 55C (mini wc loop) but the vrms on the mobo get so hot it has to underclock/volt the cpu to keep it from melting, try getting some direct airflow on or away from the vrm heatsink.

[shahvts]

I absolutely don't rely on software monitor for example tmpin2 shows as the cpu temp but after abit of research tmpin2 is the VRMtemps and tmpin1 is the cpu but I use the cpu package temps and the voltage reading are wrong because I had a ocz Psu which showed the same symptoms so the motherboard chip or the software is way off with the readings. Best bet is to follow the package temps these gigabyte ud3 are terrible.

[Cryptonite]

I absolutely don't rely on software monitor for example tmpin2 shows as the cpu temp but after abit of research tmpin2 is the VRMtemps and tmpin1 is the cpu but I use the cpu package temps and the voltage reading are wrong because I had a ocz Psu which showed the same symptoms so the motherboard chip or the software is way off with the readings. Best bet is to follow the package temps these gigabyte ud3 are terrible.

most gigabytes aren't as great as people claim, the power of a brand name, people prefer stuff others rely on lol, kinda like it though makes me feel a bit on the unique side choosing biostar as my favorite mobo brand.

[tito]

vrm temps stay around 60c and thats with a fan on them any body with a gigabyte 990fx ud3 will know that vrm will heat up really high but with out a fan i will get 72c and thats with prime and the llc is set on medium and thats running at 4.6ghz with voltage set at 1.425.

 

voltage is the real enemy, the lower you can keep the core voltage the better temps u will get

I get pretty similar temps with my Asus board. Have you tried increasing LLC and lowering your voltage? I know we have different boards and chips, but my FX8320 did 4.3Ghz with LLC on Ultra High, and 1.29Vlts. With that config, using a FAN over the VRM it get around 60° and without the fan it gets 68°, Im gonna replace the thermal pad on the VRM to see if that helps a bit with temps

[shahvts]

I get pretty similar temps with my Asus board. Have you tried increasing LLC and lowering your voltage? I know we have different boards and chips, but my FX8320 did 4.3Ghz with LLC on Ultra High, and 1.29Vlts. With that config, using a FAN over the VRM it get around 60° and without the fan it gets 68°, Im gonna replace the thermal pad on the VRM to see if that helps a bit with temps

I have no need too, my voltages stay pretty stable I dont get any vdroop or v boost so therefore I have no need to set the LLC to Ultra High, I wouldnt recommend using Ultra High LLC unless you are going for a High overclock. If I was you I would try upping the voltage to 1.3 or above and use Medium to High LLC this should also help with your vrm temps.