My Phenom II 940 - First Encounter

Well this weekend I've been playing with my new toy, and I,ve lots of doubts and questions. I'm with stock cooler (saving money to get my xigmatek s-1284) so I've not pushed the chip so much.

At stock volts(1,350V) my chip reaches 3,3Ghz NB 2.0 Ht 1.8.

It only needs +0,25V (1,375V) to be stable at 3,4Ghz Nb 2.2 Ht 1.8

And now start the probelms, to get 3,5 stable I need 1,45V...and temperatures are 50Cº in full load..so after 30 minutes in prime 95 it crashes.

Wonder if with the new cooler and less heat I will be able to get more clocks with less voltage, I can't push the chip more with the stock cooler, sure I'd take 3,6 at 1,5V but I prefer to wait.

I am overclocking by bios since AOD says that my cpu is unknown...Im in vista 64, my board is Gigabyte 790gp and the bios Fo3

Other little problem is than super pi crashes everytime I start it, even at stock clocks (using mod 1,5)

I can't set the Northbridge above than 2,3, don't know what i'm doing wrong.


Well some pictures:

Vantage 3.0Ghz Radeon 4870 512Mb 830/950

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/2...vantageuw7.jpg
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3...pg/1/w1280.png

Vantage 3,4Ghz Radeon 4870 512Mb 830/950

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/9068/3dvanlw2.jpg


3d06 3.0Ghz Radeon 4870 512Mb 830/950

http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/6773/3dmark062kx0.jpg
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3dm...pg/1/w1280.png


3d06 3,4Ghz Radeon 4870 512 Mb 830/950

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/4...ark06occy6.jpg
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/3...pg/1/w1280.png

Farcry 2 Run at 3,0Ghz Radeon 4870 512Mb 830/950 1280x1024 Ultrahigh settings

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1228/farcry2ao9.jpg
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/f...pg/1/w1280.png

Lookin' Good.:clap:

Very nice :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Throwed

Lookin' Good.:clap:

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by werty316

Very nice :up:

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are you serious?:confused:.........his overclocking results are similar to PH1 not Ph2......I think its bad.

his benches are fine for those clocks........but the voltages hes using for the overclocks seem way high.......50c load on stock cooler is pretty good.

Personally I think those are bad results for the voltages.:( 1.45v for 3.5ghz)

PI doesn't work in vista.

well there is a way to get it to work, you need to drag the calculate now off the screen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Titan7171

are you serious?:confused:.........his overclocking results are similar to PH1 not Ph2......I think its bad.

his benches are fine for those clocks........but the voltages hes using for the overclocks seem way high.......50c load on stock cooler is pretty good.

Personally I think those are bad results for the voltages.:( 1.45v for 3.5ghz)

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As odd as this may sound for vista 64 3.5 at that voltage is currently the rolling-average right now. There are only a hand-full of people near 3.8 on vista64. Right now I'm using about 1.55v to hit 3.75 stable and given my setup that is considered "very good".

The thing to focus on is not clocks but IPC (god I never thought Id say that to an AMD user lol)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sentential

As odd as this may sound for vista 64 3.5 at that voltage is currently the rolling-average right now. There are only a hand-full of people near 3.8 on vista64

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thats pretty disapointing, I dont think Im going 64bit till overclocks improve much more on that os........is there going to be a Windows 7 64?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Titan7171

thats pretty disapointing, I dont think Im going 64bit till overclocks improve much more on that os........is there going to be a Windows 7 64?

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Yes but its pretty much identical to vista.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sentential

Yes but its pretty much identical to vista.

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dont want to take this thread off track..............but I heard the 32bit w7 ran better than xp so I was hoping the 64 bit 7 would be an improvement also.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chew*

PI doesn't work in vista.

well there is a way to get it to work, you need to drag the calculate now off the screen.

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yup i do it that way
the other thing you can do is download hyperpi and turn off Audio and themes/aeroglass which will then work no probs

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Originally Posted by dinos22

yup i do it that way
the other thing you can do is download hyperpi and turn off Audio and themes/aeroglass which will then work no probs

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whats aero? :D

I Know that I can tweak more and maybe to get stability with lower volts, but thats for now. What is the highest vcore should I reach? AMD says that is sure to go until 1,5v. And what about highest temperature?

Other question, I'm new overclocking k10, do I need to up the cpu Northbridge Voltage at the same time of vcore? Im 3,5Ghz 1,425 Vcore and +0,50 Cpu Nb V, so I,m getting lost.

Well, anyone has the same problem with AOD 2.1.5??? It says:" Cpu found is unknown"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by noki

I Know that I can tweak more and maybe to get stability with lower volts, but thats for now. What is the highest vcore should I reach? AMD says that is sure to go until 1,5v. And what about highest temperature?

Other question, I'm new overclocking k10, do I need to up the cpu Northbridge Voltage at the same time of vcore? Im 3,5Ghz 1,425 Vcore and +0,50 Cpu Nb V, so I,m getting lost.

Well, anyone has the same problem with AOD 2.1.5??? It says:" Cpu found is unknown"

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I will start from the end.
AOD 2.1.4 and older build of 2.1.5 work for me, AOD 2.1.5 newest build gives me same message as yours :)

You don't need to up NB volts while OCing CPU. NB needs more volts when going above 2.3GHz on it. In my case 1.3V is good up to 2.75GHz

Cooling is limiting you to some degree. My Phenom is fully stable at 3.64GHz 1.36V, for 3.745GHz I need only 1.4V for 3.8GHz I need 1.475V, 3.85GHz is not prime stable (yet, I'm working on it :)). I can run tests up to 3.9GHz at 1.52V but when heat reaches 52-54C it's over.
All that in Vista x64. BTW every CPU no matter Intel or AMD clocks worse in 64BIT mode. Simply more transistors are used to do some work and this creates more heat ....

So Ligthman, do you think that I will be able to get better clocks at less voltgage when I use the new cooler?? At 3,6ghz vcore 1.475 it reaches 54 Cº and it is not stable. I've read that these chips love cold more than volts..I hope so!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Titan7171

are you serious?:confused:.........his overclocking results are similar to PH1 not Ph2......I think its bad.

his benches are fine for those clocks........but the voltages hes using for the overclocks seem way high.......50c load on stock cooler is pretty good.

Personally I think those are bad results for the voltages.:( 1.45v for 3.5ghz)

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Maybe, but you have to take into account that he is running STOCK VOLTS! Most 9850's/9950's can't do 3.4Ghz on stock. Look at his CPU Z screen shot. It has 1.3Volts which IIRC is stock. BTW, he did mention this was his first encounter. I'm sure there is more he can get out of the chip if he tweaked better.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Titan7171

dont want to take this thread off track..............but I heard the 32bit w7 ran better than xp so I was hoping the 64 bit 7 would be an improvement also.

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It is, I have more luck running w7 than Vista. More things work properly and I dont get random hangs with apps anymore. Seems to be just as stable to me as well. Granted, it's a beta and I'm really just getting into testing with it.

Finaly I've managed to get the chip stable at 3,5Ghz 1.400V (thats +0,50). Seems that my board prefer higher bus and lower multi..because:

I can't get stablility at 3,5Ghz 1,450V(200x17,5)

I can do 3,5Ghz 1,400V (220x16).

A bit strange, don't you think?


http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/752/occtfh1.th.jpg

thats why it never hurts to check out all the multi's, sometimes some will work better than others or some wont really work at all. i cant remember who but someone had a thing where thier mobo didnt like half multis i think so you never know

Is your power supply up to the challenge? Turn your NB and HT as low as possible on your board just to see what your chip is capable of.

My power suply is a Tacens Valeo Pro 600W, my system is:

Phenom II 940
Gigabyte 790GP DS4H
2x2 Gb DDR2 800 OCZ TITANIUM pc-6400
Sapphire HD 4870 512Mb
Seagate Barracuda 7200 500Gb
1x DVDrw drive

And that's it, I have power enough to move it, I've made some calculations and at full load it never reaches 400W.

My NB is 2.2, and I get it stable at stock volts, and my ht is 1.9 so that's not the problem I think. Maybe it's true that this board doesn't like half multipliers

im not trying to rub it in Noki, but i am using vista 64, fully laden with word and anti virus and so on, and i can boot into windows @ 3.8 gig on 1.4v on vcore,

no its not stable, and if i just open an app, my PSU OCP kicks in, so to be fair, i dont really know if it is really stable.

PSU is in the Post, but i fully expect my chip to be 3.8 gig stable in windows with new PSU at maybe 1.5v

but please note that at 100% TDP the chip running at 3800 1.5v will be drawing over 200 watts alone, hence why i need a new PSU.

your 3400 mhz OC at 1.4v is pulling over 160 watts, thats 14 amps, is your board and more importantly your PSU up for it? i think not if you include the memory, your in the same postion as me,heres your PSU specs

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/k...d/Image1-9.jpg

you have two 12v rails, one at 20amp (CPU) and the other at 18amp, i have 4 x 12v rails all rated at 18amp, yet i need a new one.

take what i say with a pinch of salt, im sure some others will give you other numbers on this, but i would get a single rail PSU rated at least at 50amps

Well, thanks for the advice...but I'm not totally agree, here we can see the consumption of a rig with the same components that mine:

System

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ii,2119-3.html

IDLE AND FULL LOAD OC 3,6GHZ

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ii,2119-9.html

Look that it only uses 435w at full load......If you have 750W and I have 600...don't you think thats more than enough?????

What other people think about this??

Aps...forgot to say that they are using a 4870X2, and I have the Hd4870

yeah but what you need to consider is not the overall wattage, but the ampage of a single rail, and more importantly the ampage load of your 20amp rail.

you are pulling over 14 amps on your '20 amp rail' and thats not counting your memory, you will likely start to see BSOD's and shut downs on any overclock above 3.4 gig due to this.

there is so many ways to calculate this, yo can go from 'overall' wattage, to what we have just done here. and you can here what you want to hear.

but it all comes down to what that CPU and Memory is pulling on that 20 amp rail of yours, nothing else in your rig matters, as your graphics card and hard drives will be on the other rail.

and to be honest thats heading a bit close to the fail area, but lets not go there.

wattage is nothing without volts and amps :up:

I'm now 3,5Ghz at 1,415 and it is 100% stable. Whats your highest stable oc and what voltage do you use to get it stable? Anyway you have 2 ampers less than me in your cpu 12v rail..isn't it??

Now could you please explain me how to calculate the amperage used by cpu motherboard and memories?

when you say stable, do you mean you are in there surfing the net and stuff?

because that isnt stable, you need to put it under some load, but please be careful as if you PSU blows it could take parts with it.

as for mem and mobo, its hard to say, your mobo takes very little power compared to your cpu, memory on the other han can pull quite a bit.

the reason memory is important is that it is drawing power from the same source as you CPU (same rail)

i am not the most sold of advisors on this, as PSU's are not my thing, hence why i am getting a new one on others advice. :up:

Not surfing.

http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/752/occtfh1.th.jpg

sry i just noticed it in your toher post

well thats stable for me, i cant get that at the moment, i get a OCP/OVP shut down on the PSU.

have you tried to go higher than that?

Later or tomorrow (here in spain is time to sleep...jejej) I will try to go to 3,6 GHZ with that vcore, and if it crashes I will increase vcore to 1,425, I don't want to set a lot vcore because I'm with stock cooler