Bulldozer Overclocking Guide (Performance Scaling Charts, max OCs)LN2 Results coming!

Bulldozer OC Guide!
Everything you need to overclock bulldozer properly.
By Sin0822

Here is a preview video of what is to come:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qsrNgZ-YjQ
This is an overclocking guide for those who are advanced overclockers, and those who are brand new. I have step by step for those who are new, as well as performance charts for those who are experienced:
Memory Scaling
CPU-NB Scaling
HT Link Scaling
High HTT and HT Link Scaling
Higher memory and CPUNB + HTLink Scaling
Multiplier + HTT Scaling
Voltage Scaling

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/5369/benchc.png


I am pretty sure by now everyone has seen Bulldozer’s tip top performance….. There is one pro though, and that is that Bulldozer overclocks like Sandy Bridge for the most part, but even better in many cases. Even on air/water you will be looking at 4.8 GHz-5.2 GHz per CPU, even with an 8-core CPU. That will undoubtedly scale with voltage and cooling, as Bulldozer holds the max CPU frequency World Record, this CPU is really fun to overclock. Now this might seem kind of crazy, that AMD was able to increase the core count, yet increase the overclocking potential of the CPU, and in the end that might just save AMD. From what I have seen Bulldozer needs to be overclocked a lot, and tuned very finely, to produce any comparable results. That is what I am going to show you today, my results on air/water, and I will update this guide with LN2 cooling results. I used an Antec Kuhler 920, it’s a decent CPU cooler, it’s one of those all-in-one solutions. It has its limitations, but it does a pretty good job of cooling, but if you have a high quality air cooler, they will do about the same. Here is what you need to use, or what I used to get overclocking!

Materials:
• Motherboard, with 990FX Chipset- I used GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD7. If you have the UD5 or UD3 you can copy my settings as well.
• CPU FX series is what this guide pertains too, I used an FX 8120 (3.1ghz stock, 3.4ghz turbo, 4ghz max turbo)
• Memory, high speed dual channel is best; I used Kingston HyperX as well as some G.Skills for max clock.
• CPU Cooler, you want a good cooler, AMD FX runs on the hotter side. I used Antec Kuhler 920, it comes with everything, and I think AMD is offering the same thing basically.
• Good powerful PSU, if the CPU gets hot, that is because it’s using more power, and that power comes from your PSU, I used Corsair AX1200, but any 600W+ will do fine if you have a nice single GPU.
• GPU, I used GIGABYTE GTX 570, you can use whatever.
• Storage. Doesn’t really matter, I used a cheap MicroCenter 64GB SSD, to speed up my loading and boot time, and you will see why soon.
• Case, I used a custom made display case, you can’t buy it, so please don’t ask. It has terrible cooling, but it showcases the system very nicely, I used it without its cover, but if you are going to go for a 24/7 OC, like I am sure most will, you need good cooling in your case.
• You need a Bulldozer BIOS, you need to update the BIOS to the latest!!!!!! I used a special BIOS for my testing BIOS G2, it’s not publicly available, and it’s made for benching LN2 only, but I redid my tests on BIOS F6E and the water OC was the same.
• You need to get a Stress testing program, something that will test out all cores to 100%, intel Burn Test(IBT) is my favorite, but Prime95 is good, so is LinX(basically same as IBT), or even OCCT, even though it hasn’t been updated in years still loads very heavy.
• You need some benchmarks, 3DMarK Vantage I think was just made free, it has a good test suite, SuperPI XS MOD 1.5, HyperPI, Cinebench, and wPrime. Pick one or two of the light ones, like SuperPI and wPrime. Then pick one or two of the heavy ones, like CineBench or Vantage, these benchmarks act like more of a real world benchmark. When I mean heavy and light, I mean the benchmark’s size. It’s nice to use two, mix it up as different benchmarks react to different things. If you’re a gamer pick up 3DMark, pick benchmarks that fit your needs. You can use whatever benchmark you want, the purpose is to figure out if your performance is increasing or decreasing.
• Patience, you need to be patient, overclocking isn’t the hardest thing to do, and its not the easiest. If you just want a cookie cutter template, yea that is fine, take one of mine. But If you really want to tune your system well you need to understand that every CPU is different. You need to work to overclock, and test out different speeds, voltages, and settings.

You have to update your BIOS on any board to pop in a bulldozer CPU here are the BIOS link for GIGABYTE:
Official BIOS has only 2 characters like F5, and Beta has 3 like F6E, GIGABYTE recommends using the official BIOS releases.
990FXA-UD7
990FXA-UD5
990FXA-UD3

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2221/systema.jpg


Methods of Overclocking:
1. Multiplier Overclocking: it’s the easiest thing to do, just increase the multiplier. Up until now you need an AMD Black Edition CPU to OC the multi or the FX edition, to really get anywhere. You can do just this with bulldozer, but its heavily recommended that you use both HTT (FSB/CPU Host Clock) in conjunction with CPU Multiplier.
2. HTT increase: or formerly known as Front Side Bus, it’s the basic host clock that is multiplied by every multiplier present (CPU, HTT, CPUNB, DRAM). So it affects everything.
3. Increasing the Voltage: On air you only need a touch of the CPU-NB VID, and the CPU VCore. On the GIGABYTE boards you increase them over a base voltage(VID), and that base voltage is listed. I will talk about it more later, but please be careful.
4. Secondary Multiplier OC: This basically means OCing the CPU-NB multiplier, the HT-Link Multiplier, and the DRAM multiplier. The purpose is to get those segments up to a faster speed, to try and increase the overall system performance.

Voltages:

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/562/voltage1.jpg
Too much voltage will HURT performance, don’t use brute force like all the Bulldozer reviews, it doesn’t take 1.5v for 4.5ghz. So please, walk down the voltages!!!!!!!!
You will be surprised on what voltages BD will be stable at.

#1 CPU VCore: Stock varies, but safe on air up to 1.45-1.5v or 55C, whichever comes first. For 24/7 keep it under 1.4v or 45C, whichever comes first. That is my recommendation to avoid electron migration and voltage/heat degradation. This voltage can be increased on the GIGABYTE boards by setting a Plus (+) or Minus (-) value on top of a predetermined voltage. After disabling Core Boost, that voltage WILL decreased to 1.175 from 1.375 (or something along those lines), so that changed my final voltage as the offset was different. That means if you set all your settings from a fresh CMOS clear, your vcore will change significantly, so disable core boost and restart and then set your settings.

#2 CPU NB VID: Stock 1.175, safe on air up to 1.35v. I have no idea why AMD did this, but I also have no idea why they released BD. But AMD boards seem to have two Northbridge’s, but in different senses of the word. Everyone thinks of a Northbridge as being the first chipset paired with a Southbridge, and the 990FXA Northbridge is just that, and it has its own NB voltage. BUT, AMD CPUs have a Northbridge as well, built into the CPU. It handles things other than the CPU cores, and it has a heavy impact on HTT(FSB), CPU NB clocks, and can help memory overclocking.

#3 NB Voltage: This voltage is the 3rd voltage that might need to be changed. It controls the voltage of the Northbridge of the board. Its stock 1.1v, but you can safely take it up to 1.2v. It can help one get a higher HTT/FSB than 265mhz, as well as help with high memory clocks.

#4 DRAM Voltage: This is the voltage applied to your memory modules. The stock is 1.5v, but if your memory is like mine and rated at 1.65v and you don’t want to use the XMP/Profiles, then please just increase this.

NB/PCIe/PLL Voltage Control: Not an important setting. I’d leave it be.

CPU PLL Voltage: Like the setting above, it won’t help you on air/water.

LLC (Load Line Calibration): A setting used to counter the drop of voltage under loads, the droop varies with loading, but it is used to keep the CPU within TDP when loaded. But it also helps drop temperatures. If you do not have LLC available, then please find out how much the drop under 100% load is compared to idle voltage, and set the voltage that much higher so that your load voltage is what you want it to be.

!Warning!:
I take no responsibility if you kill your hardware, overclocking is up to you, and overclocking will void your warranty.
Heat is a deadly thing. For our CPUs it will kill them as fast if not faster than voltage. So please keep temps under 60C at all times. If you are coming over from Intel, please be advised that AMD uses different materials and processing to develop their CPUs. AMD max temp is about 55-60C, while Intel might be 80C. So please don’t go over that, if you do performance will drop off the deep end, and your CPU's lifespan will be reduced.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6634/areacpu.jpg

Overclocking Settings:
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8478/freq1.jpg

#1 CPU Clock Ratio: better known as the multiplier. Stock varies with the CPU, but max is 35X on this board with this ES CPU. It is “multiplied” by the CPU Host Clock (HTT/FSB) to provide you your final CPU frequency. A user can just OC with the multiplier if they would like, in fact they can hit the same clocks on lower voltage than if they used HTT/FSB as well, but performance will be higher with higher HTT/FSB.

#2 CPU Northbridge Frequency: Stock value is at 11X, maximum of 20X, and that is multiplied by the HTT/FSB to give you the CPUNB frequency, stock is 2200. This isn’t really as effective as it was for the Phenom 2s. It doesn’t impact performance as much, nor does it limit your OC, nor will it help your OC. You would think that with 8 cores, this frequency would need to run at 3-4ghz, but on air/water you won’t be able to successfully pull off over 2800 stable. Later on I will show you my testing with this changed.
Disable Core Performance Boost. It is like turbo.

#3 CPU Host Clock: This is the Front Side Bus, or better known on AMD as HTT. It is the base bus frequency that is multiplied by all the multipliers. On air you are looking at around 275-300mhz max. It is good to use a combination of HTT and multiplier for CPU clocking, it will improve performance rather than just using multiplier alone. It is also important to note that NB Voltage can help raise the maximum limit. For the same CPU frequency with decreased multiplier and increased HTT, we will need a bit more Vcore, than if it was just multiplier X stock (200mhz) HTT.

PCI-E Clock: You can just leave at 100, above that can/will corrupt your HDD and even GPU in many cases.
#4 HT Link Frequency: Stock at 2600mhz, 11x multiplier, 13x is maximum multiplier. I found it odd that this clock is set high at stock. I will show performance gain if there are any with increasing this clock. It is not hard to increase this clock over 3ghz, but it won’t help much.
DRAM E.O.C.P: is like automatic memory/system OC.
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/3652/eocp.jpg

Profile1 is the Intel XMP equivalent, and it will also change your memory voltage. Setting this to anything other than disable will change up the CPU Multiplier, the HT and CPU NB Multipliers, as well as DRAM multiplier, and HTT/FSB. I have listed the multipliers that it changes and what too for each memory setting. You can note that under DDR3 2000, everything is left at stock. It is interesting to note that this setting keeps the HT Frequency and CPU-NB frequency equal to each other. We will look at the impact this has in a little bit.

#5 Set Memory Clock: this will allow you to manually set up your memory multiplier, the maximum is 9.33 which will result in a 1866mhz memory speed. You need to increase HTT/FSB more to get higher memory frequencies.

http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/8854/dramtimings.jpg

Here are the DRAM timings, and how one can match up the timings on this screen to those written on your memory module. Above is a shot of my G.Skill DDR3 2200 memory, those are the XMP profile timings, that were set when I selected “Profile1”.

How do we OC Bulldozer?

Well overclocking bulldozer is pretty simple, here are simple steps to help you OC. First read them, and then read my performance charts, and then try them.

#1 First for the GIGABYTE 990FXA boards, disable Core Boost, save and restart. Then go back into the BIOS. Now set the multiplier for the OC you want, but JUST the CPU multiplier. Set something modest like 4.5ghz. Then increase the Vcore to something higher than needed, like 1.45v, but not higher and ONLY if you have good cooling. If you have LLC option set it to the highest or second to highest. Restart and you should be able to boot in if you didn’t change the HTT/FSB or any of the other multiplier.
Be aware that the reviews posted used a bit too much voltage for their OCes, they used brute force. If you are lucky you can get something like this without changing the HTT/FSB or other settings.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7424/97529109.jpg

#2 Decrease that high Vcore until you fail to POST(get into the BIOS). Try 3 voltage steps lower at a time, so from 1.45v down to 1.3v, and then go one step after that. Keep going until you fail to POST. Then get back into the BIOS, as the GIGABYTE boards have auto OC recovery and it works pretty well. Set your vcore 2-3 notches higher. So if you went down to 1.2v and it failed now push back up to like 1.24v or something.

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/5...leadvnaced.jpg
(This BIOS is BIOS G2, it is not available to the public, so there are some settings not available on BIOS F6E)

#3 Now go into advanced BIOS features menu and disable: C1E, K8 Cool& Quiet, C6 support, and any other features there that you don’t need. Then boot into windows, if you fail to get past the windows loading screen, then please increase the voltage a bit more.

#4 Get into windows and run a stress testing suite for about 30mins with every core being loaded to the max. if you pass, restart and go into the BIOS. Now you want to tune the finer things, and increase the host clock(HTT/FSB). So lower the multiplier of the CPU, and increase the host clock, something like 230mhz to 250mhz is a good point to start. At this point the CPU-NB multiplier needs to be changed, please make sure it’s under 2.7ghz. At this time HT multiplier needs to be changed as well. Also your DRAM multiplier needs to be changed.

#5 Now that you have an understanding at what voltage and frequency your processor is kind of stable at, then you can fiddle with the finer knobs. Try using the DRAM EOCP for memory if you don’t know how to set your timings, but make sure you always watch the CPU NB frequency, as if it’s too high the system will fail to boot. You also will need to increase the CPU-NB voltage; I set to 1.3v for the heck of it, but too high can cause performance issues. If you want a high HTT/FSB you might need to bump the Northbridge voltage as well as CPU NB. DRAM Voltage can be changed as well now.

#6 Get back into windows and test, if you fail to boot, at the same frequency you had before for the CPU, that could be due to the increase HTT/FSB, I had to increase vcore to keep up with lower multi and higher HTT/FSB even at the same CPU frequency.

#7 Now you are in windows, run a few benchmarks, write those numbers down. Go back into the BIOS and change up the timings, mix up or match the HT Link and CPU NB frequencies, or try them at different levels. You can try increasing the voltage or decreasing them as well. Go back into windows and run your benchmarks. If performance is higher then you are on the right track, if it is lower, then go back.

By now you can probably pull something off like this:

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/4039/79942807.jpg

My Performance Findings of Finer Tuning (CPUNB, HT Link, Multi, Voltage, HTT, DRAM):

Below I will go through some charts of my results. Each benchmark was run more than once, as the results are pretty all over the place with Bulldozer, so they were averaged. I ran SuperPI 1M, wPrime 32M, CineBench 11.5 CPU, and 3DMark Vantage CPU Test 1. My results are probably lower than most have seen, but they are not for showing how BDs performs, you can just look at different reviews, they are just for internal comparison. Windows 7 was put off disc, no updates, just stock windows 7, with all drivers installed. Also not the latest BIOS was used, so it has a kind of outdated CPU Microcode and the CPU is ES. Please look at a performance review if you want to see how BD performs against another processor.

First off memory speed’s impact:
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/4320/memoryscale.jpg
So you can see that the memory speed changed alone has a nice impact on performance, there is a huge jump from 1333 to 1600, but not that big from 1600-1866. Some are thinking, that is due to lower CPUNB and HT Link speed, and plz look at CPU NB Scaling for more on that, as I raise the CPU NB alone with memory at 1866.

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/9324/cpunb.jpg
Other than in SuperPI we don't see any steady scaling of any of the other benchmarks. 3DMark Vantage is close, but not very good. What we did see though, is that CPU NB isn't really bottlenecking the memory speed at 1866. Also please note that we can't pull off a CPU NB speed at or above 2.8 GHz, not on air. In fact with the 8.4 GHz record set, they used a 2.4 GHz CPUNB speed. While CPUNB speed probably will greatly improve performance at a higher level due to the increase in core count, sadly either this uarch doesn't take advantage of it or it will help only under subzero results. I do think that CPU NB helps performance when slightly increased; it’s probably not a coincidence that the DRAM E.IO.C.P auto sets it around 2300-2400mhz. CPU NB Speed can help performance, especially subzero, you can maybe hit 3-4ghz.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/6850/htlinkscale.jpg
I kept the CPUNB constant, as well as the speed, and kept memory at 1866. Only thing changed was HT Link speed, and it doesn't seem to be clock limited like the CPUNB is under air/water at 2.8 GHz. For the last two results, I increase the CPU NB, once to come close to a higher HT Link, and once to match HT Link. You see the results are very inconsistent, but that the 2796 HTLink frequency seems to do well, the stock is 2600, and increasing the CPU NB a slight bit seems to help as well. So I am going to suggest, that on air cooling, you take the HT Link to about 2.6-2.8ghz, and either set CPU NB at 2600 or 2400 to match or be close to HTLink.

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/7...memcpunbht.jpg
HT Link and CPU-NB speeds have been changed together, with a much higher memory speed. The result is miniscule at best in all benchmarks, except for Cinebench and 3DMark Vantage. We can see from this that there is a very small increase in performance having those settings close together. So yea it helps.

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/4...ghhtandhtt.jpg
In the past tests I used HTLink with DRAM of 1866 and HTT of 233, well let’s increase those a bit more, because HT Link is the one frequency we can change a lot, I wanted to see if it made a difference changing it with even higher busses. Here is something I find fascinating, can you see it? The performance is best when the HT Link equals the CPUNB in this round.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/7...tihttscale.jpg
As we increase the HTT we see that Cinebench as well as 3DMark CPU test seems to scale almost perfectly, even with lower memory speed for some of the tests. We also see a need for higher voltage to remain stable as the same CPU frequency. Even with lower CPUNB and HT link speed for the increase HTT (multiplier limited) we see that performance in those benchmarks still increase. SuperPI seems to have no change, but SuperPI seems to like a higher multiplier.

Conclusion: HTT(FSB) needs to be raised for best performance, even if you can only use the multiplier.

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/8...ltagesacle.jpg
Here is voltage scaling. You can see a steady rise in temperatures of load, but compared to change in idle temperatures that change is very small. That is because what is missing is current at idle, at load there is much more current than at idle, even if the frequency is the same. Some food for thought. Note that performance decreases for the most part as we go down. There is a sweet spot in there if you can find it.

Time for Optimized OC:
So now you are supposed to take those analysis of the different comparison tests, and find your most optimum OC. we put all that you just saw together, and you get this overclock:
http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/6995/ocfreq.jpg
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/1850/ocvolts.jpg

You can copy those results for your CPU if you like.
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4070/glamor1.jpg
It is a really nice looking system all together isn’t it?

Higher Overclocking on Air/Water:
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/1645/capturelw.jpg

So that is an easy 5ghz, we were stable at 5ghz.
Here is the MAX OC ON AIR/WATER:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/17/maxoc.jpg

Now if that gives you confidence for Bulldozer OCing I don’t know what will!

Thanks for reading, and till next time!

Also if you are looking to buy a GIGABYTE UD7 right now, GIGABYTE has a deal on Newegg for $214 after MIR

LN2 session is happening tonight, should have some type of results like max CPU clock up tomorrow, wish me luck!

awesome guide :)

great work

i would recommend you do a quick perf comparison between adjusting JUST the multi, vs all the extra tweaking you did.

Cool write up on tweaking,,
I cant wait to see what better bioses bring to the table and Steppings.
OMG 5ghz @ 24/7 with good air or water sounds about right ta me and im shure it has more:P

Thanks for the guide!

I have an 8120 coming friday, Nice to see those kind of clocks with the lower model... :up:
Just wondered how many chips you tested? Do you think that one is above average or about normal.

Hopefully the bios on my Sabertooth will be as good as your UD7, that is a good looking board!

I suddenly have a serious urge to ditch this 2500K and get a 8120 after seeing the sheer amount of tweakable stuff. The problem is clocking the 8120 sky high with this WC loop would require a good motherboard and thats gonna drive the costs up somewhat.

Might wait and grab a used CHV or UD7 since im guessing there are gonna be some going the SB route.

To the OP, awesome guide man.

the tweaking is really fun, you gotta admit. So far with Ln2 i was able to do 7.08ghz with 2 cores and almost 7 with all 8, it seemed to make a small difference with this CPU, but i still gotta find out how to run this thing at -180C.
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2043682
i only have the 1 CPU.

Ill see what I can do about that multi only increase.

My BD system is currently drying, it got wet in places i didn't want it too. lol

Can your Gig board lock one core of each module like done here,
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...-Threaded-Perf
?

Really want a UD3, but only if it can do that.

Sin isn't that 2600NB pretty unstable mate, you get a lower scores there at 1866. I tested with the CPU at the same 4.5Ghz speed, ram speeds at 1600C8 and I got pretty good scaling. Maybe at 1866 or higher the effect goes down. Maybe my press kit Asus board freaked out at certain times (don't have the 990FX UD7 yet)

You too see scaling with extra ram speed, while some sites claim its as fast at 1333 as at 1866... I'm completely stunned by some outcome...

@Cecil : if you want to OC this thing daily on air, plz get a high end board with enough power at the PWMS at 4.9 I'm already pulling over 400W out of the wall with just cinebench.

The UD5 has the bad vdroop and vboost issues, while the UD3 doesnt seem to have it as bad from what Ive found. Also, the $40 price difference when its just a toy.

For daily I plan to run 4 modules / 4 cores as high as they will go, so that should cut down on the power draw.

I've been very impressed with the UD3 on Thuban on F3 BIOS (had some problems with newer versions) but i'm holding back on FX for a few weeks, as there's no stock in the UK until the 25th and i'm for the benches/OC info on here to "mature" somewhat :)

The UD3 for me though does overvolt the vcore quite a lot, 1.475v in bios is 1.52 under load for me.

cecil i think ud5 is "better" with latest bios as far as vcore.. think i read 1.55v set in bios, 1.584 idle, 1.54 load or something like that.. i think i am going to stick with the ud3 and try BD in it whenever i can get one. if im not happy ill upgrade then but i got a good deal on ud3 so i should be able to get my $ back out of it

and cecil, f4 and f5a bios both allow core control on thuban at least,
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...-50-12_729.jpg

great work sin :up:

Can you please post some benchmark screenshots with your "optimized oc" for some comparison with our own setups?

thx in advance

still no retail now in my country

Excellent guide, well laid out step by step, thanks

I referenced it here if you dont mind

This thread is a work in progress, so i may update some things, but i will make a post and say it has been edited. If you need help OCing on air/water and you are new to OCing feel free to post in here and I will chec this thread often, at least 1 time a day.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Manicdan

great work

i would recommend you do a quick perf comparison between adjusting JUST the multi, vs all the extra tweaking you did.

---

I will do that for you this weekend :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Thanks for the guide!

I have an 8120 coming friday, Nice to see those kind of clocks with the lower model... :up:
Just wondered how many chips you tested? Do you think that one is above average or about normal.

Hopefully the bios on my Sabertooth will be as good as your UD7, that is a good looking board!

---

I only have 1 CPU, this 8120, it has been the only CPU I have tested. I think maybe the max air OC and the max stable might be a tad higher, but they might be average, i am unsure as not many people own and have been able to test for the time I had, i had about a week to make this guide. This is my hunch but I believe that the TDPs and thus bulldozer's heat problem contribute positively to its OC potential. I am thinking AMD opted to use high leakage transistors, which we know will clock higher, but will also use a lot more power.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Leeghoofd

Sin isn't that 2600NB pretty unstable mate, you get a lower scores there at 1866. I tested with the CPU at the same 4.5Ghz speed, ram speeds at 1600C8 and I got pretty good scaling. Maybe at 1866 or higher the effect goes down. Maybe my press kit Asus board freaked out at certain times (don't have the 990FX UD7 yet)

You too see scaling with extra ram speed, while some sites claim its as fast at 1333 as at 1866... I'm completely stunned by some outcome...

@Cecil : if you want to OC this thing daily on air, plz get a high end board with enough power at the PWMS at 4.9 I'm already pulling over 400W out of the wall with just cinebench.

---

Hey bud, 2600NB wasn't unstable, above 2700 was tho. 2600NB also didn't perform like i thought it would, so it might have been out of the CPUs comfort range, that is what i was trying to test for. Yea i saw I got a lower score with more memory, so something wasn't so optimized. The thing is also my CPu is ES, i have no idea how old it is, or if its recent enough to perform like the retail CPUs. That is one reason i opted out of a BD review, because if I know something might not be accurate, id rather not post it. I will do some testing, what do you recommend?

yes i found memory scaling, but I also used the same exact timings for the memory speeds, very loose timings so I could run with the same. I saw an article at one site, and they used loser timings for 1866 compared to 1600, i wanted to keep as many variables per test constant, so that this could be a useful guide. That is why you see some of the scores much lower than you would in a review, its a combo of not most updated BIOS, with ES CPU, with lose memory timings.

On a side note to power consumption, i have a 12v 8-pin power meter, i will hook up and make a video of :) of course my CPU has a 174W TDp as list lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cele303

great work sin :up:

Can you please post some benchmark screenshots with your "optimized oc" for some comparison with our own setups?

thx in advance

---

yes in fact i might change that up a bit when i do some testing. Its the same settings as in the video, i had to do it quick, that setting is more of a safe OC bet, than pure optimization. I guess you can say its good for 24/7 +/- some voltage depending on the CPU. But i put some of the things I learned to good use, i kept the CPUNB and HTLink close, I oced the CPu NB a bit, but i shoudl have left the HTLink a bit higher now that I am looking at it, even though it doesn't scale so well, i figure it should run at least at what it comes out of the box at. Id prob increase CPU NB to 2500mhz if i can. I will look into it, and run those benchmarks for you with benchmarks and prob some stability shots :) .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by brolloks

Excellent guide, well laid out step by step, thanks

I referenced it here if you dont mind

---

yea man go ahead. I saw your post, thanks for spreading it around :)

Hey sin... could you do a few linx runs at different speeds with 5120mb problem size? Shoot for as high gflops are you can muster. :)

great,
can you do me one more quick favor too, test around the stock clocks at the lowest stable voltage they will allow (like 4ghz) and show us the power consumption vs stock. since some people need an efficient cruncher, it would be good to know how much room there is to drop voltage if you give it a decent heatsink.

got it will do, but result prob not until monday.

Also you can delete your own post ;) look for the delete button under advanced editing

I want one of those cases, unfortunately I have been told over and over again that they are not to be shipped outside company... Meaning either staff, or stolen.... Third solution is "prime bullshift" by Gigabyte Motherboards, which is the one I think is the situation. ("No, we dont find see a reason", is a valid answer, making up funny stories is not)

Anyhow; To the test, looks very good, and great that you have done the effort, spend the time, and selected a good/broad/decent set of benchmarks to prove a point, I appreciate that you reveal the impact of adjusting each setting, makes alot more sense than "here is stock" and "here is everything overclocked"..
I dont really see it as a guide, as I ignore all guidelines, but I think it is a good analysis.

Double post, edited instead of deleting to highlight instability on the forum.

what brand is the water cooling ?
and it is much better then the stock air cooling ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by M.Beier

I want one of those cases, unfortunately I have been told over and over again that they are not to be shipped outside company... Meaning either staff, or stolen.... Third solution is "prime bullshift" by Gigabyte Motherboards, which is the one I think is the situation. ("No, we dont find see a reason", is a valid answer, making up funny stories is not)

Anyhow; To the test, looks very good, and great that you have done the effort, spend the time, and selected a good/broad/decent set of benchmarks to prove a point, I appreciate that you reveal the impact of adjusting each setting, makes alot more sense than "here is stock" and "here is everything overclocked"..
I dont really see it as a guide, as I ignore all guidelines, but I think it is a good analysis.

---

Maybe it differs per region you know?

Thanks for the post, i appreciate it. I did a lot of testing, and i am trying to make OC guides for platform i have my hands on, so that i can help others. I like doing them with my reviews, and i am always trying to make them better. I thought overclockers like yourself would like those charts, as they show a few benches and not just one, and they show trends, wether good or bad. Many times the results don't match up across all benchmarks, and that kind of got to me, but nevertheless i posted them.

Thank tho :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eladlevi

what brand is the water cooling ?
and it is much better then the stock air cooling ?

---

The water cooling is an Antec Kulher 920, its pretty nifty device, and yea it cools a lot better than the stock cooler. But that doesn't mean you can't OC on the stock BD cooler, it isn't a bad cooler persay.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by M.Beier

I want one of those cases, unfortunately I have been told over and over again that they are not to be shipped outside company... Meaning either staff, or stolen.... Third solution is "prime bullshift" by Gigabyte Motherboards, which is the one I think is the situation. ("No, we dont find see a reason", is a valid answer, making up funny stories is not)

Anyhow; To the test, looks very good, and great that you have done the effort, spend the time, and selected a good/broad/decent set of benchmarks to prove a point, I appreciate that you reveal the impact of adjusting each setting, makes alot more sense than "here is stock" and "here is everything overclocked"..
I dont really see it as a guide, as I ignore all guidelines, but I think it is a good analysis.

---

Maybe it differs per region you know?

Thanks for the post, i appreciate it. I did a lot of testing, and i am trying to make OC guides for platform i have my hands on, so that i can help others. I like doing them with my reviews, and i am always trying to make them better. I thought overclockers like yourself would like those charts, as they show a few benches and not just one, and they show trends, wether good or bad. Many times the results don't match up across all benchmarks, and that kind of got to me, but nevertheless i posted them.

Thank tho :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eladlevi

what brand is the water cooling ?
and it is much better then the stock air cooling ?

---

The water cooling is an Antec Kulher 920, its pretty nifty device, and yea it cools a lot better than the stock cooler. But that doesn't mean you can't OC on the stock BD cooler, it isn't a bad cooler persay.

sin: Have you had problems with P95? My machine seems very stable ~4.9 and will run every benchmark I've thrown at it including 20 passes of IBT.
For some reason though, P95 fails on a couple cores almost instantly unless I really crank the v's (>1.4v) and then heat becomes a problem when loaded (~56c).... :(

Maybe I'm just asking a little too much, but I wondered if you've noticed any incompatabilty with Prime95.

Thanks, Dave

wow tell us more dave! 4.9ghz @ 1.4v stable?! not too shabby!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daveburt714

sin: Have you had problems with P95? My machine seems very stable ~4.9 and will run every benchmark I've thrown at it including 20 passes of IBT.
For some reason though, P95 fails on a couple cores almost instantly unless I really crank the v's (>1.4v) and then heat becomes a problem when loaded (~56c).... :(

Maybe I'm just asking a little too much, but I wondered if you've noticed any incompatabilty with Prime95.

Thanks, Dave

---

I had that problem with one of the Phenom II chips I tested a long time ago. I was using a older version of Prime95 and didn't realize it. I'm curious if this is a Prime issue?
And I see you have your chip before me, Bah.... lol

sin I gotta hand it to you. Its been a year since I did anything with AMD and its been a year since Ive used a container. I totally skipped sandy because it just defeated the purpose of cold benching. I just got my 8120 and 990FX Ud7 tonight and im messing around with an air cooler and just trying to get back into the swing of things. I would like to personally thank you for putting the time into this guide for xs. you know the prerequisites and basic common sense but its always nice to have a foundation to work from. You laid the foundation and now its up to everyone else to elaborate. thanks man. outstanding job! finally a thread about bulldozer that isnt full of noobs talking trash.

Finally we can focus on overclocking BD:up:

Still a lot of surprise waiting to be discovered with this platform

Hey,

Having a problem was wondering if you might know whats causing it.

First specs:

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5 F5 Bios
FX-8120
16GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 (1.5v)
Crucial M4 128GB SSD [OS]
Samsung 1TB F3 32MB Raid 0 (x2) [STORAGE]
GIGABYTE 6870 1GB
AuzenTech Prelude
Prolimatech Megahalems
Corsair HX620


This is my friends build and we go into bios and at first it shows Stock voltage for cpu @ 1.41 but when we reboot it shows it as 1.368v. But when we go to overclock and under load his Vcore is all over the place 1.45v and will bounce to 1.31, 1.200v and obviously fails linx right away. Was wondering if you might know what is causing this problem. His temps are fine as well no problems on temps.

sorry for semi hijack if anything mod can delete this and I will make a thread

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daveburt714

sin: Have you had problems with P95? My machine seems very stable ~4.9 and will run every benchmark I've thrown at it including 20 passes of IBT.
For some reason though, P95 fails on a couple cores almost instantly unless I really crank the v's (>1.4v) and then heat becomes a problem when loaded (~56c).... :(

Maybe I'm just asking a little too much, but I wondered if you've noticed any incompatabilty with Prime95.

Thanks, Dave

---

I used wprime and ran 1024M a few times to quickly test consistency, but not prime95. I use IBT for stress testing as i like being able to set a limit on the amount of time run, but i will give p95 a shot.

I decided to pick up 10L of LN2 today, and I reapplied some LET, so I am going to do an LN2 run tomorrow morning or somthing, and then the rest of the weekend doing tests for users like you. i will toss P95 into the mix, if not only to test if this platform like SB is better stressed on prime.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dumo

Finally we can focus on overclocking BD:up:

Still a lot of surprise waiting to be discovered with this platform

---

Agreed man, a lot of surprises with cold as well, I have to be honest, i have never benched AMD in the cold with LN2, and i gotta say i love being able to just fill up the POT. Now to find a paste that will hold lol. If i do see any improvements, or any tips provided by other users, and they don't mind then id add them to the first post, and give them credit. That is just what i was able to come up with in a week or so, so I am sure with months there will be much more info.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by trans am

sin I gotta hand it to you. Its been a year since I did anything with AMD and its been a year since Ive used a container. I totally skipped sandy because it just defeated the purpose of cold benching. I just got my 8120 and 990FX Ud7 tonight and im messing around with an air cooler and just trying to get back into the swing of things. I would like to personally thank you for putting the time into this guide for xs. you know the prerequisites and basic common sense but its always nice to have a foundation to work from. You laid the foundation and now its up to everyone else to elaborate. thanks man. outstanding job! finally a thread about bulldozer that isnt full of noobs talking trash.

---

Thanks I appreciate it :) Yea i wanted to keep benchmarks out just for that reason, but i still get guys telling me that their 1100T scores better in cinebench, lol. I am just glad some people find a use for this, because i didn't know how many ppl would actually buy BD after the reviews. There is one thing tho, its just really fun to OC this CPU, if AMD got one thing right it was that BD would be fun to OC>

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by redrumy3

Hey,

Having a problem was wondering if you might know whats causing it.

First specs:

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5 F5 Bios
FX-8120
16GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 (1.5v)
Crucial M4 128GB SSD [OS]
Samsung 1TB F3 32MB Raid 0 (x2) [STORAGE]
GIGABYTE 6870 1GB
AuzenTech Prelude
Prolimatech Megahalems
Corsair HX620


This is my friends build and we go into bios and at first it shows Stock voltage for cpu @ 1.41 but when we reboot it shows it as 1.368v. But when we go to overclock and under load his Vcore is all over the place 1.45v and will bounce to 1.31, 1.200v and obviously fails linx right away. Was wondering if you might know what is causing this problem. His temps are fine as well no problems on temps.

sorry for semi hijack if anything mod can delete this and I will make a thread

---

nah no problems man, is core boost enabled?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by redrumy3

Hey,

Having a problem was wondering if you might know whats causing it.

First specs:

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5 F5 Bios
FX-8120
16GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 (1.5v)
Crucial M4 128GB SSD [OS]
Samsung 1TB F3 32MB Raid 0 (x2) [STORAGE]
GIGABYTE 6870 1GB
AuzenTech Prelude
Prolimatech Megahalems
Corsair HX620


This is my friends build and we go into bios and at first it shows Stock voltage for cpu @ 1.41 but when we reboot it shows it as 1.368v. But when we go to overclock and under load his Vcore is all over the place 1.45v and will bounce to 1.31, 1.200v and obviously fails linx right away. Was wondering if you might know what is causing this problem. His temps are fine as well no problems on temps.

sorry for semi hijack if anything mod can delete this and I will make a thread

---

giga UD5&UD7 has a vcore swing problem

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

nah no problems man, is core boost enabled?

---

Yeah, I followed pretty much what you changed except only 4.5ghz but vcore seems to be all over the place while stress testing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PatRaceTin

giga UD5&UD7 has a vcore swing problem

---

Really? If so that is really horrible cause 1.42 in bios while under stress it goes to 1.36 to 1.2 and back its crazy :X

Sin: You laid this out so well, hope you don't mind if other folks post their observations... :)

I've only had a few hours to play with this so far (gear in sig), but I thought I'd post some results.
Keep in mind I'm not looking for any records yet, basically just trying to find stability and efficiency first.

Maybe I'm just stuck on the 53c temp limit I saw on all my PHII's, but I did notice this chip heats up pretty fast
with voltage. Does anyone know where temps actually come into play on the arch? It'd save me alot of testing... :p:
Anyway, to try and limit this effect I've actually set the voltage a little higher (on the CPU) and allowed LLC to let the voltage
droop under full load. This may not be the best option, but it does seem to help a little. Time will tell I guess...
From the v's shown in the SS, it resulted in 1.344v under load.

I also noticed that the Gflops shown in IBT seem pretty low compared to what I saw with Thuban. Either I have some efficiency
problems, or it's just one of those things FX just isn't that good at.

Here's what I've gotten bench stable so far (except P95, still not sure what's going on there :shrug:):
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...20_Stable1.png

Hm looks good Dave. 1.38v for 4.9ghz. Waiting for them to arrive in our land here, pick one up as well. Will definitely need this guide to get started :)

well the coreboost enabled takes your VID up a lot, a lot more than it should, and then the turbo might be enabled too. It depends how much you have set enabled for all the default settings, but you should know that

dave it looks very nice!

Thanks man. All the power conservation features are turned off as well as Turbo Mode.
I'm sure there are differences with our MB's, but did you notice a particular temp were things got squirley?

So far this chip is ALOT of fun to play with.... :yepp:

nothing odd with the temps, other than the CPU heats up pretty hot scaled with voltage. But in general i tried to keep it under 55C if i deemed it stable, there were some clocks that were good to 65C but i didn't think that was good for 24/7. I used easytune for my temps tho, and AMD OD.

Great thread people! Congrats Sin, once again, for the terrific work :)

I'm just w8 for the BD to arrive to the stores in Portugal ... i'm going green baby :) ( not very ECO though )

Really don't care what 99% of people are saying about the BD ... the remaining 1% are those who love to have fun with hardware... and not just "playing" benchmarks ...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Thanks man. All the power conservation features are turned off as well as Turbo Mode.
I'm sure there are differences with our MB's, but did you notice a particular temp were things got squirley?

So far this chip is ALOT of fun to play with.... :yepp:

---

I'll have mine Monday afternoon and will give it a go. I am also making a chiller for my water setup. Won't have it done by Monday though....
I saw a video on Youttube that looked like with temps and voltage the CPU was getting slower even though the Frequency was going up. I do not know the settings in bios though...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

Maybe it differs per region you know?

Thanks for the post, i appreciate it. I did a lot of testing, and i am trying to make OC guides for platform i have my hands on, so that i can help others. I like doing them with my reviews, and i am always trying to make them better. I thought overclockers like yourself would like those charts, as they show a few benches and not just one, and they show trends, wether good or bad. Many times the results don't match up across all benchmarks, and that kind of got to me, but nevertheless i posted them.

Thank tho :)

---

Scandinavia, but also/most frequent asked directly at HQ in Taiwan.
(I thought it would be cool for showcase - something like this, but also for events)
I am definantly jealouse on the case, I think it is freakin' cool... Asked Tim directly for it, I have asked regional marketing manager, and the person in charge of samples last year for my region as well, making a total of 3 persons.

But deffo think it is good to see the tests of scaling on each setting, please dont get me wrong, the guide part is not against you or anything, but I'd never go for "suggested" voltage settings etc.... I have to play around myself, as most others - getting the touch and understanding for the platform myself.
But I think it is very useful for alot of people, and after all, this is not xtreme-overclocking section ;) (which I most frequently read on this forum)

But really, you have put alot of effort into this, and I personally like this alot more than most other stuff you have done, you use a Gigabyte product, very potent product, can handle what ever you throw at it, and you use it to prove a point on how something works, the AMD chip which is in focus.

Summed up; Cudos for the work, I prefer this approach!

hey guys so, i am told that the ES CPU i used had some issues with some of the scaling, and that i should retest with retail. So i Will try and do that in the following weeks, if I find any difference i will let you guys know. So test for yourselves, and if you find different let me know.

I've actually had time to sit down and play with this chip today... ;)
FWIW, heres a few observations I've made using custom water cooling:

1) It scales with voltage REALLY well, in fact I haven't found a point where scaling stops!
Should be fun for short benchmarks where temps don't really come into play.

2) I haven't seen a temp barrier similar to the PHII's, but I just don't feel comfortable with temps >60c, so I've held it below that (~ 1.4v on CPU under load).

3) Prime95 seems to be the best stress test. It would run every other bench (including IBT) without problems at my last settings.
At first I thought it was just something funky with P95, but when it failed to encode using RipBot I went back and got it Prime stable.
After a good 30min P95 run (socket temp hit 59c :shocked:), I succesfully encoded an HD movie that works perfectly! :D

4) The IMC gets flakey ~2600mhz. I only pushed the v's to 1.25 but scaling actually slowed drasitcally ~1.20. I quit pushing there due to bullet point #2.
I figured higher CPU clocks were more important and I didn't need the added heat.
OTOT, it clocks memory frequency VERY well! 2040mhz wasn't possible on Thuban and I get the feeling I may be able to tighten timings even more (7-10-7?).

Oh well, after 10 hrs of fiddling I've come up with what would seem to be my new 24/7 clocks :p::
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...101511_247.png

nice yea i found the same things, except you only need like tiny voltage increases to hit higher clocks, and it becomes a bit exponential rather than linear.

i wasn't able to do over 2300mhz, it might be because of my memory, but are you talking about CPUNB at 2600?

So I'm guessing swinging @ 4.6 with something like an FX 6100 would require water cooling too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

nice yea i found the same things, except you only need like tiny voltage increases to hit higher clocks, and it becomes a bit exponential rather than linear.

i wasn't able to do over 2300mhz, it might be because of my memory, but are you talking about CPUNB at 2600?

---

I agree 100%! You definetly have to be gentle with v's, they offer alot, but temps get out of control quickly!

Yeah, when I say IMC (Integrate Memory Controller), I'm talking about the CPU-NB. Old school PHI talk I guess. :p:

I'm using a Mushkin (lovo) PSC mem kit and it's doing pretty well. 2550 on the IMC looks like the limit on this kit with reasonable v's though.
I was getting >3ghz on Thuban, but it doesn't look like FX is going to run that high...
Still, it clocks mem frequency much better!

@Daveburt714: Something went wrong with the GFlop number? Even an Athlon II X4 @ 4GHz can produce the same number.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by amdsempron_xs

@Daveburt714: Something went wrong with the GFlop number? Even an Athlon II X4 @ 4GHz can produce the same number.

---

Yep, I agree with you man! It's really low... :( That being said, it doesn't seem like a fluke...
I guess it's just one of those things where FX doesn't shine. Now that I've gotten it stable it's even lower (~42 GFlops).

All I can say is, overall the system feels really snappy even compared to a 4.1Ghz Thuban, reguardless of those numbers...
Maybe it's because it's a whole new uArch and software just hasn't taken advantage of it's features yet. :shrug:

In all honesty I'm not sure this is a good upgrade from an X6. IMHO though, it's ALOT of fun to play with, and for everyday use it just feels better. :D

People who only look at benchmarks probably won't be happy with FX, but it's not a POS reguardless of some folks opinions.
Like any brand new hardware it's going to take some time to mature.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Sin: You laid this out so well, hope you don't mind if other folks post their observations... :)

I've only had a few hours to play with this so far (gear in sig), but I thought I'd post some results.
Keep in mind I'm not looking for any records yet, basically just trying to find stability and efficiency first.

Maybe I'm just stuck on the 53c temp limit I saw on all my PHII's, but I did notice this chip heats up pretty fast
with voltage. Does anyone know where temps actually come into play on the arch? It'd save me alot of testing... :p:
Anyway, to try and limit this effect I've actually set the voltage a little higher (on the CPU) and allowed LLC to let the voltage
droop under full load. This may not be the best option, but it does seem to help a little. Time will tell I guess...
From the v's shown in the SS, it resulted in 1.344v under load.

I also noticed that the Gflops shown in IBT seem pretty low compared to what I saw with Thuban. Either I have some efficiency
problems, or it's just one of those things FX just isn't that good at.

Here's what I've gotten bench stable so far (except P95, still not sure what's going on there :shrug:):

---

Awesome. Are you willing to share all your bios settings please. I returned UD5 and grabbed a sabertooth for friends build. So if you would be so kind/awesome to post bios settings please (:

@Daveburt

for your 24/7 settings, why not use the turbo feature to give you around 5ghz for a few cores? you should be able to use AOD to set up the higher voltage for the turbo state, and it wont be anywhere near hot with only a few cores using it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Yep, I agree with you man! It's really low... :( That being said, it doesn't seem like a fluke...
I guess it's just one of those things where FX doesn't shine. Now that I've gotten it stable it's even lower (~42 GFlops).

All I can say is, overall the system feels really snappy even compared to a 4.1Ghz Thuban, reguardless of those numbers...
Maybe it's because it's a whole new uArch and software just hasn't taken advantage of it's features yet. :shrug:

In all honesty I'm not sure this is a good upgrade from an X6. IMHO though, it's ALOT of fun to play with, and for everyday use it just feels better. :D

People who only look at benchmarks probably won't be happy with FX, but it's not a POS reguardless of some folks opinions.
Like any brand new hardware it's going to take some time to mature.

---

could you run that IBT with half the clusters disabled

every other core at those clocks.

Blacklash: The 6100 should produce less heat, you may be able to get 4.6 on aftermarket air (maybe better:)).

redrumy3: Sure give me a little time and I'll post them up, ofc your system will vary, you'll probably still have to tweak a little.

Manicdan: Thats a good idea, Thanks! I'm a little burned out after yesterday but I'll be sure and try that... :up:

demonkevy666: I'll try that too! :yepp: I saw some core options in bios but I didn't really look closely yet.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Blacklash: The 6100 should produce less heat, you may be able to get 4.6 on aftermarket air (maybe better:)).

redrumy3: Sure give me a little time and I'll post them up, ofc your system will vary, you'll probably still have to tweak a little.

Manicdan: Thats a good idea, Thanks! I'm a little burned out after yesterday but I'll be sure and try that... :up:

demonkevy666: I'll try that too! :yepp: I saw some core options in bios but I didn't really look closely yet.

---

That would be greatly appreciated Dave! :up:

Rumy is a good friend of mine and just assisted me with this build and we are trying to get the jump on OC'ing this beast.

-Nathan

Hey dave nice stuff yesterday.. I was up all night Friday and like you I needed a break. Im on again trying again with my rig.
first things first. On friday my 1st mistake was grabbing this cheap rosewill cooler and hastily strapping it on. I wasnt planning on using air too long but when I ran 1.4vcore and my temps were getting to 67F I knew something wasn't right. Then today I remembered a few years back I got this massive cooler from scythe to review. do you guys remember the OROCHI?

Dude I found it in the box in the kitchen cabinet and low and behold the amd plate was already mounted. Check this out.

I went in the bios and kept the same clocks and temps after the massive air cooler. I was getting 51c before and now i have like 31c. I would love to join you guys on H20 but I dont plan on keeping this on too long this was meant for Ln2. but until I get this figured out Its nice to have some better air cooling. Right now my main goal is trying to get this thing up to 5ghz and doing some wprime runs. right now its at 4.8. the guide has been an asset thus far. :up:


before
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...h/ROSEWILL.jpg


after
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...ith/orocHI.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nathan0490

That would be greatly appreciated Dave! :up:

Rumy is a good friend of mine and just assisted me with this build and we are trying to get the jump on OC'ing this beast.

-Nathan

---

Well, it looks like the screen cap feature in bios isn't working in 0810, and I don't have a good enough camera for pics... :(

Basically, just turn off turbo, and all the power saving features (cNq etc).
Heres a pic showing most of the voltages and settings. Hope this helps.
In the end your going to have to tweak your own gear anyway, no 2 systems are the same. ;)

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...20Settings.png

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by trans am

Hey dave nice stuff yesterday.. I was up all night Friday and like you I needed a break. Im on again trying again with my rig.
first things first. On friday my 1st mistake was grabbing this cheap rosewill cooler and hastily strapping it on. I wasnt planning on using air too long but when I ran 1.4vcore and my temps were getting to 67F I knew something wasn't right. Then today I remembered a few years back I got this massive cooler from scythe to review. do you guys remember the OROCHI?

Dude I found it in the box in the kitchen cabinet and low and behold the amd plate was already mounted. Check this out.

I went in the bios and kept the same clocks and temps after the massive air cooler. I was getting 51c before and now i have like 31c. I would love to join you guys on H20 but I dont plan on keeping this on too long this was meant for Ln2. but until I get this figured out Its nice to have some better air cooling. Right now my main goal is trying to get this thing up to 5ghz and doing some wprime runs. right now its at 4.8. the guide has been an asset thus far. :up:


before
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...h/ROSEWILL.jpg


after
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...ith/orocHI.jpg

---

that is a sick cooler!!! hahah it really is huge!

a am glad the guide helped, its not too hard to OC these CPUs, but hey its really fun, i am going to add some shots of the LN2 session i did last night. I made some video too.

what cooler for my setup?
1)Xigmatek DK+Ultra Kaze 3000rpm (now at my 1090T, there I have no problem with temps under full load)
2) venemousX+Ultra Kaze 3000RPM
3)Corsair H100+2x Ultra Kaze 3000rpm

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

that is a sick cooler!!! hahah it really is huge!

a am glad the guide helped, its not too hard to OC these CPUs, but hey its really fun, i am going to add some shots of the LN2 session i did last night. I made some video too.

---

whoa sin you did ln2 last night? yeah man send me some footage to work with. I am actually eager to compare my sony vegas 10 rendering times to my xeon 3540. I dont have any of that installed on the BD rig just stripped xp and basic necessities. I cant wait to see your ln2 session. Im benching pc05 and pc vantage right now off a single c300 and a gtx 460 at stock clocks atm just so I have a foundation. Once that is done I might have to get my mega raid rig on here. (4x crucial m4 raid0 on lsi 9260-4i w FP key.) I must say I think what helped me the most from the guide was disabling core boost and the mem clock. That had me scratching my ass for hours on friday. I would look at my ram clocks in cpuz when I set 7-7-7- and they were showing at 2-14-13- in cpuz


@flanker just grab the heaviest one that has the heaviest base and find the amd clips for. put your highest fans on it and thats it. just grab heaviest one. next open the windows and put a warm sweater on and crank some AC/DC like our AU team friends do. Im listening to dirty deeds and for those about to rock record. I prefer Bon Scott.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Well, it looks like the screen cap feature in bios isn't working in 0810, and I don't have a good enough camera for pics... :(

Basically, just turn off turbo, and all the power saving features (cNq etc).
Heres a pic showing most of the voltages and settings. Hope this helps.
In the end your going to have to tweak your own gear anyway, no 2 systems are the same. ;)

[IMG]http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c330/Daveburt/1016_8120Settings.png[/IM]

---

Hmm I have 0810 and screen capture works for me. Are you trying to save to a flash drive or? It saves my screen caps as .BMP files to my flash drive.


Basically we are trying to see all settings you have modified to come to your clocks such as Loadline options.



Any help is greatly appreciated.

Has anyone else had a problem with their FX CPU still throttling down after overclocking on a Gigabyte board? I could swear I read about someone else who noticed this and found a way to defeat it. As it stands, no matter what I overclock to, cores on my 8120 will flicker back to a 14x multiplier when under load. There's no telling how much of the potential performance that's sapping.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Particle

Has anyone else had a problem with their FX CPU still throttling down after overclocking on a Gigabyte board? I could swear I read about someone else who noticed this and found a way to defeat it. As it stands, no matter what I overclock to, cores on my 8120 will flicker back to a 14x multiplier when under load. There's no telling how much of the potential performance that's sapping.

---

Mine don't throttle down with my Gigabyte 990XA board. I have all the power saving features turned off though. Have Windows power options set to high performance.

Core performance boost
Cool&Quiet
Hardware thermal control

Interesting. Mine seems to regardless of those settings. C1E, C6, CnQ, CPB, and HTC are all off but it drops down to 14x under load at times. The higher I set the CPU frequency, the more cores are throttled and the longer they spend there. When everything is set to 3.1, it never seems to happen or happens briefly enough that I don't catch it on CoreTemp. The same is true at 3.2. At 3.3 it starts happening on one core here or there. By 3.6 it happens on as many as four cores at a time for brief periods. By 4.3 GHz, most cores are throttled down and most of the time. After about 4.3 GHz, the effect starts penalizing me more than the increased frequency helps. CB drops from 6.2 to 5.9 for example.

It's like the TDP estimator part of Turbo is still on even when I turn turbo off.

mine throttled with an earlier BIOS the F5 BIOS, with F6E it didn't throttle anymore.

Trans am, is that the PIS 2200 Cas 7-10-10-28 1.65v T2 kit? I used that same kit! hahaha

yea I did some LN2 last night, ill get my results up on here and some pics, gotta let that videos upload. Ill have it up later tonight or tomorrow. i made sort of like a LN2 prep guide for those who are new and want to try it out. it is something i could have really used when i went to try it.

Aha, that explains it, sin0822. The UD3 has F5B as the latest. I wonder if there's a beta available?

from what I saw there were some Betas up, and then they were taken down. I am not quite sure about your board tho, but I am sure some news BETAs or finals will be up. This is a pretty popular platform, so BIOS support should be constant I would think.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Particle

Interesting. Mine seems to regardless of those settings. C1E, C6, CnQ, CPB, and HTC are all off but it drops down to 14x under load at times. The higher I set the CPU frequency, the more cores are throttled and the longer they spend there. When everything is set to 3.1, it never seems to happen or happens briefly enough that I don't catch it on CoreTemp. The same is true at 3.2. At 3.3 it starts happening on one core here or there. By 3.6 it happens on as many as four cores at a time for brief periods. By 4.3 GHz, most cores are throttled down and most of the time. After about 4.3 GHz, the effect starts penalizing me more than the increased frequency helps. CB drops from 6.2 to 5.9 for example.

It's like the TDP estimator part of Turbo is still on even when I turn turbo off.

---

Use AMD Overdrive and enable Turbocore, hit oK, then disable turbocore and hit ok. no more throttling!

demonkevy666: Can't disable single cores in bios... Only disable options are 3+4, 5+6 and 7+8, so basically I can only shut down whole modules. :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nathan0490

Hmm I have 0810 and screen capture works for me. Are you trying to save to a flash drive or? It saves my screen caps as .BMP files to my flash drive.

---

Seems if the Flash drive is formatted as NTFS it's not recognised.... :p:

Heres the important stuff:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1017004243.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1017004306.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...1017004401.jpg

Do people find a big difference in clocking between the 8150 and 8120?

Thanks for nice information. I have a unsolved question though :p: (regarding this image)

Attachment 121329

Right after see this table, I guess there's some bug in a chip regarding some operation clock speed which sticks together with HTT, L2 speed for instance.
So I've tried the same test with a hope of making another excuse for Bulldozer's low IPC at default HTT.

My comparison settings are:

1. 3.6GHz (200x18) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (200x12) / DRAM 800MHz (200x4)
2. 3.6GHz (240x15) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (240x10) / DRAM 800MHz (240x3.33)
3. 3.6GHz (266x13.5) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (266x9) / DRAM 888MHz (266x3.33)
4. 3.6GHz (266x13.5) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (266x9) / DRAM 712MHz (266x2.66)

Note that for 3 & 4, dram speeds don't stick exactly with 800MHz, so I tested twice for FSB266 under two different dram speeds both distant samely from around 800MHz.

Anyway, my results are totally indifferent - means that higher FSB doesn't make sense at all :(
(I'm so disappointed that I cannot even make a graph......)

I tested Cache & Memory benchmark, CPU Queen, CPU AES, FPU Julia, FPU Mandel in AIDA64 and Cinebench R10 / R11.5.

Do you think you have any other variable which I (probably) missed? - I've only controlled CPU multiplier, NB/HT multipler and DRAM multiplier along with HTT clock.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

from what I saw there were some Betas up, and then they were taken down. I am not quite sure about your board tho, but I am sure some news BETAs or finals will be up. This is a pretty popular platform, so BIOS support should be constant I would think.

---

GA-990FXA-UD7 - F6
GA-990FXA-UD5 - F6
GA-990FXA-D3 - F4
GA-990FXA-UD3 - F5
GA-990FXA-UD3(v.1.2) - FB
GA-990XA-UD3 - F9
GA-990A-UD3 - F4
GA-990A-D3 - F7

-Update AGESA 1.1.0.0 code
-14.Oct 11

FX is no more NB 3000+ (like X6)

for normal Air/Water cooling?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mav2000

Do people find a big difference in clocking between the 8150 and 8120?

---

From what I've seen they OC very similar atm. The 8120 even seem to do slightly better over all..
Still too few samples to draw any real conclusion. But 4.6-4.7 on air seem to be the norm. Higher is hit or miss at this stage.

A list with model + OC and default VID would be cool.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DGLee

Thanks for nice information. I have a unsolved question though :p: (regarding this image)

Attachment 121329

Right after see this table, I guess there's some bug in a chip regarding some operation clock speed which sticks together with HTT, L2 speed for instance.
So I've tried the same test with a hope of making another excuse for Bulldozer's low IPC at default HTT.

My comparison settings are:

1. 3.6GHz (200x18) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (200x12) / DRAM 800MHz (200x4)
2. 3.6GHz (240x15) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (240x10) / DRAM 800MHz (240x3.33)
3. 3.6GHz (266x13.5) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (266x9) / DRAM 888MHz (266x3.33)
4. 3.6GHz (266x13.5) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (266x9) / DRAM 712MHz (266x2.66)

Note that for 3 & 4, dram speeds don't stick exactly with 800MHz, so I tested twice for FSB266 under two different dram speeds both distant samely from around 800MHz.

Anyway, my results are totally indifferent - means that higher FSB doesn't make sense at all :(
(I'm so disappointed that I cannot even make a graph......)

I tested Cache & Memory benchmark, CPU Queen, CPU AES, FPU Julia, FPU Mandel in AIDA64 and Cinebench R10 / R11.5.

Do you think you have any other variable which I (probably) missed? - I've only controlled CPU multiplier, NB/HT multipler and DRAM multiplier along with HTT clock.

---

It could be board variance.

I noticed before that jacking ht on some boards and or fsb impacts diff boards. It has to do with ram straps and how diff manufacturers adress ram differently.

I'ts rather simple, when you jack up the fsb and use a lower divider and mainly auto subtimings, some boards just when strap is applied force lower subtimings.

Also if he is using what appears to be B2 F die and you are using retail G die that can cause some conflicting data ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wez

From what I've seen they OC very similar atm. The 8120 even seem to do slightly better over all..
Still too few samples to draw any real conclusion. But 4.6-4.7 on air seem to be the norm. Higher is hit or miss at this stage.

A list with model + OC and default VID would be cool.

---

i hope particle rebuilds the List of Overclocks thread with FX like he did for thuban. he did an incredible job last time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daveburt714

demonkevy666: Can't disable single cores in bios... Only disable options are 3+4, 5+6 and 7+8, so basically I can only shut down whole modules. :(

Seems if the Flash drive is formatted as NTFS it's not recognised.... :p:

Heres the important stuff:

---

<3 you. Thanks for sharing this (:

To those of you testing LinX or IBT... I am kind of expecting bulldozer to really do well here. It's AVX enabled, after all. Please make sure that, like sandybridge requires, you're using the latest avx build of linpack with your IBT or LinX.
I suggest LinX as it's just a drag/drop replace, and I'm not familiar with how to upgrade IBT. Also note that to utilize AVX, you must be running win7 sp1.

Also, if you get low GFlops... You should try as mentioned in this thread previously to disable half your cores (so if you have an 8c, disable 4), to remove any possible cache thrashing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zoson

To those of you testing LinX or IBT... I am kind of expecting bulldozer to really do well here. It's AVX enabled, after all. Please make sure that, like sandybridge requires, you're using the latest avx build of linpack with your IBT or LinX.
I suggest LinX as it's just a drag/drop replace, and I'm not familiar with how to upgrade IBT. Also note that to utilize AVX, you must be running win7 sp1.

Also, if you get low GFlops... You should try as mentioned in this thread previously to disable half your cores (so if you have an 8c, disable 4), to remove any possible cache thrashing.

---

I don't think the performance increase is from non-cache thrashing, and you lose about 30-50% performance by doing so.

informal was speculating.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DGLee

Thanks for nice information. I have a unsolved question though :p: (regarding this image)

Attachment 121329

Right after see this table, I guess there's some bug in a chip regarding some operation clock speed which sticks together with HTT, L2 speed for instance.
So I've tried the same test with a hope of making another excuse for Bulldozer's low IPC at default HTT.

My comparison settings are:

1. 3.6GHz (200x18) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (200x12) / DRAM 800MHz (200x4)
2. 3.6GHz (240x15) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (240x10) / DRAM 800MHz (240x3.33)
3. 3.6GHz (266x13.5) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (266x9) / DRAM 888MHz (266x3.33)
4. 3.6GHz (266x13.5) / NB/HT 2.4GHz (266x9) / DRAM 712MHz (266x2.66)

Note that for 3 & 4, dram speeds don't stick exactly with 800MHz, so I tested twice for FSB266 under two different dram speeds both distant samely from around 800MHz.

Anyway, my results are totally indifferent - means that higher FSB doesn't make sense at all :(
(I'm so disappointed that I cannot even make a graph......)

I tested Cache & Memory benchmark, CPU Queen, CPU AES, FPU Julia, FPU Mandel in AIDA64 and Cinebench R10 / R11.5.

Do you think you have any other variable which I (wprobably) missed? - I've only controlled CPU multiplier, NB/HT multipler and DRAM multiplier along with HTT clock.

---

what benchmark did you use? I have been told by many that the HTT helps a lot with many benchmarks, so i thought that was out of the question. Yes its very hard to use the same speeds for everything.

but what benchmark did you use? That could make all the difference.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PatRaceTin

FX is no more NB 3000+ (like X6)

for normal Air/Water cooling?

---

correct, infact many have trouble with over 2600mhz CPu NB on air/water

for subzero it might be different, but I just went for higher clocks.

Also as far as 8120 vs 8150, it seems that subzero the 8150 do better, much better, but 8120 seem to do great under air.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

mine throttled with an earlier BIOS the F5 BIOS, with F6E it didn't throttle anymore.

Trans am, is that the PIS 2200 Cas 7-10-10-28 1.65v T2 kit? I used that same kit! hahaha

yea I did some LN2 last night, ill get my results up on here and some pics, gotta let that videos upload. Ill have it up later tonight or tomorrow. i made sort of like a LN2 prep guide for those who are new and want to try it out. it is something i could have really used when i went to try it.

---

lol yep same kit!

hahah our systems are like twins, almost.

LN2 part is coming soon, i am still editing the movies. So i am going to cut it into sections.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

hahah our systems are like twins, almost.

LN2 part is coming soon, i am still editing the movies. So i am going to cut it into sections.

---

Sin send me some footage.

btw are you editing with the BD rig? I use Vegas which is optimized for multi cores. How fast can you render? do you feel any gains from your last setup?

Quick question for you guys (:

VCore-1 and Vcore-2 according to Turbo V Evo program for asus seems rather hot, not sure what normal temps for that is but according to program its for the power phase or mosfet area I think.

Still have to tweak voltage for cpu but Still wondering why VCore-1 and VCore-2 is so hot
Quick Screenshot

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/850...igh2414128.png

are you using a water cooler? or air cooler? if no air is going around the VRM heatsinks then they will get hot.

Switching frequency has a direct impact on the VRM heat output (higher switching frequency=higher heat), as does the power draw of Bulldozer.

Check the Vcore itself, what is it? 1.4v? at 4.5ghz, that is standard, you can try to lower that vcore, but those VRMs will get hot, very hot. especially because of the high power draw of bulldozer. When they get over 90C id start to worry, heat kills VRMs (but very high heat, like 120C+).

if youare using one of those all-in-one water coolers, try to have a fan blow over the memory and VRM.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

are you using a water cooler? or air cooler? if no air is going around the VRM heatsinks then they will get hot.

Switching frequency has a direct impact on the VRM heat output (higher switching frequency=higher heat), as does the power draw of Bulldozer.

Check the Vcore itself, what is it? 1.4v? at 4.5ghz, that is standard, you can try to lower that vcore, but those VRMs will get hot, very hot. especially because of the high power draw of bulldozer. When they get over 90C id start to worry, heat kills VRMs (but very high heat, like 120C+).

if youare using one of those all-in-one water coolers, try to have a fan blow over the memory and VRM.

---

I am cooling it with a Noctua D14.

interesting, you have Vcore switching frequency control in BIOS, maybe called VRM frequency? you can try lowering it(it might causes some problems if its too low maybe), or if its on auto it could have automatically increased it, you can try messing around with that, but IDk how much it would help, the high temp might be caused by bad contact. otherwise the temp program or sensor isn't reading correctly, or its designed to work that hot.

A questions for you guys from a relative n00b.

Is there any software that could read the temperature correctly? I've heard that checking HW Monitor should work but I get exactly the same temps with as with coretemp. Same with HWInfo64 (using the version that are in the CPUID Reviewer Kit for AMD FX Bulldozer).

I've heard that coretemp shows ~15c to low so I set the offset in coretemp to 15 to get some kind of reading right now.

have you tried AMD overdrive?

Thanx for this awesome guide.

Just want to give you a heads up about OCCT stress testing tool. It is being updated. You can get the latest build here:
http://www.ocbase.com/download/OCCTPT4.0.0.zip

Hi guys / gals, just registered on this forum and this is my first post here :)

Long story short I work in IT as project implementation specialist, with lots of background in servers, firewalls, switches, routing, OSs, telecom, etc... I have been building computers since I was 13 and have always gone the Intel route. At the age of 26 I finally decided to give AMD a try for the first time. I bought without much research (any) a GA-990FXA-UD3 motherboard paired with a FX-8120 chip, 8GB DD3 1866 RAM computer, powered by a Corsair 750TX PSU and cooled by a Corsair H100, inside a Corsair 500R case. My previous machine was C2D E4300 OCed to 3.2GHz and was plenty powerful for my daily use.

I decided to overclock this FX-8120 and these are my stable results so far. I just wanted to ask the more experienced AMD people around here what they think of the temps (cooled by Corsair H100)?

Idle: 32 celsius
Load w/ prime95: 71.2
VCore: 1.392
NB Vid: 1.375
NB: 1.2

http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/v...rosniperoc.png

thank you for your kindly sharing.
this is my first time to read a very clear procedure to OC. :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ro.sniper

Hi guys / gals, just registered on this forum and this is my first post here :)

Long story short I work in IT as project implementation specialist, with lots of background in servers, firewalls, switches, routing, OSs, telecom, etc... I have been building computers since I was 13 and have always gone the Intel route. At the age of 26 I finally decided to give AMD a try for the first time. I bought without much research (any) a GA-990FXA-UD3 motherboard paired with a FX-8120 chip, 8GB DD3 1866 RAM computer, powered by a Corsair 750TX PSU and cooled by a Corsair H100, inside a Corsair 500R case. My previous machine was C2D E4300 OCed to 3.2GHz and was plenty powerful for my daily use.

I decided to overclock this FX-8120 and these are my stable results so far. I just wanted to ask the more experienced AMD people around here what they think of the temps (cooled by Corsair H100)?

Idle: 32 celsius
Load w/ prime95: 71.2
VCore: 1.392
NB Vid: 1.375
NB: 1.2

---

:welcome: to the forums. I'm sure you'll find a lot of useful information here for your overclocking endeavors! I feel like your temps are a little high (especially with a H100), though I haven't played with BD and the new FX series.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ro.sniper

Hi guys / gals, just registered on this forum and this is my first post here :)

Long story short I work in IT as project implementation specialist, with lots of background in servers, firewalls, switches, routing, OSs, telecom, etc... I have been building computers since I was 13 and have always gone the Intel route. At the age of 26 I finally decided to give AMD a try for the first time. I bought without much research (any) a GA-990FXA-UD3 motherboard paired with a FX-8120 chip, 8GB DD3 1866 RAM computer, powered by a Corsair 750TX PSU and cooled by a Corsair H100, inside a Corsair 500R case. My previous machine was C2D E4300 OCed to 3.2GHz and was plenty powerful for my daily use.

I decided to overclock this FX-8120 and these are my stable results so far. I just wanted to ask the more experienced AMD people around here what they think of the temps (cooled by Corsair H100)?

Idle: 32 celsius
Load w/ prime95: 71.2
VCore: 1.392
NB Vid: 1.375
NB: 1.2

http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/v...rosniperoc.png

---

Temps might be a little high but for the most part look in-line with your cooling and vcore.
What voltage do you mean by "NB VID"? CPU-NB or the 990FX chipset? Either way, that's way too high.

I've been building machines since I was 11, however I've got another 10 years to make it to 26 :D

Thanks for the warm welcomes guys!

Some time has passed since my last post so here are some updates:

I kept on struggling with the high temperatures so I decided to get another FX-8120 in order to compare.

Results:

FX-8120 125Watt Serial: 9Y19305J10232
This one keeps giving the following errors with any sort of over-clocking

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Corrected Machine Check
Error Type: Cache Hierarchy Error
Processor ID: 1

Reported by component: Processor Core
Error Source: Corrected Machine Check
Error Type: Cache Hierarchy Error
Processor ID: 0

I'm pretty sure core 0 / 1 are busted on this one. I have started the RMA process with AMD. Has anyone ever seen these errors on the FX series?

---------------

FX-8120 125Watt Serial: 9Y19305J10385

This is my original CPU. I have re-seated this CPU and have re-applied the thermal compound and was getting 63.5 degrees Celsius. I used AS5 for thermal compound (I know it isn't the best out there). After about 10 days I ran P95 and max temps are around 59 degrees Celsius (guessing the AS5 is now cured).

In conclusion I can over-clock to 4.5GHz without much trouble with decent temps. I'm going to try a push / pull fan combination on my H100 to see if I can over-clock further while keeping the temps down. I can't believe the difference between two of the "same" processors.

Cheers!

NEW processor has now arrived from AMD. From the moment it was sent in for RMA it was about 10 business days to receive new one. Will test this one tonight :)

Conclusion: RMA process for AMD is pretty painless.

Cheers,

Raz

Hi all,

New here and new to OC and AMD chips. I just did my first overclock and ran Intel Burn Test, my overclock passed the test but I saw my chip get up to 59C max near the middle of the runs. Is this ok?

I cant seem to get past 4.2Ghz @ 1.28v even with increasing the voltage slightly my PC will crash during stress testing. I dont mind staying at 4.2Ghz was just wondering about the temps. Right now, idle temps are 36-40C on the CPU and VCORE idle temps are 41-43C.

I was also wondering about DRAM - I cant find that setting in my BIOS. I'm running a ASUS Sabertooth 990FX BIOS Revision 1604.

Below are my CPU-Z Screen Caps and my IBT Results:

http://imgur.com/kaD4MrE,qlREdJw,LXFIBwK

http://imgur.com/of7Ej70