Trouble getting 3.8Ghz stable with 955BE + m4a89gtd-pro/usb3

[Daveburt714]

AOD (AMD Overdrive) can be used for clocking on the fly, but it can be a little quirky sometimes, not sure I'd trust it, but it should be better on the X4's...

If your board didn't come with tweaking software (and it's not avail on their website).
I'd just go back into bios and set CPU voltage to 1.375 and try Prime again...

Prime (Blend) pushes AMD chips really hard (even worse on FX chips ), but IMHO 1.5 hrs should be good for everyday use.
You may have to tweak it down the road, but it's a good starting point, and there's really no such thing as 100% stable...

Honestly, I wouldn't put 4Ghz out of reach for that chip just yet!
Try lowering your CPU voltage and see what you get...

Then depending on temps you can start working on the other clocks.

[BeepBeep2]

AOD (AMD Overdrive) can be used for clocking on the fly, but it can be a little quirky sometimes, not sure I'd trust it, but it should be better on the X4's...

If your board didn't come with tweaking software (and it's not avail on their website).
I'd just go back into bios and set CPU voltage to 1.375 and try Prime again...

Prime (Blend) pushes AMD chips really hard (even worse on FX chips ), but IMHO 1.5 hrs should be good for everyday use.
You may have to tweak it down the road, but it's a good starting point, and there's really no such thing as 100% stable...

Honestly, I wouldn't put 4Ghz out of reach for that chip just yet!
Try lowering your CPU voltage and see what you get...

Then depending on temps you can start working on the other clocks.

My bad about the ram timings... but he did say that more vcore helped, and I guess it really didn't then! I was just saying that it wasn't impossible for his CPU to need that much voltage for 3.8. I had what I thought was the worst Phenom II on the planet at one time, didn't do CPU-Z at the speeds/voltages my recent one does prime and certainly needed a lot of vcore for 3.8!

He has an ASUS 890GX board, TurboV Evo is on the support CD and also on the website
For 890 boards I recommend it over AOD Overdrive, I know with my M4A89TD (890FX), AOD didn't give any correct voltages and/or allow adjustments of them.

At 56c load and it getting hotter there though, he doesn't have much wiggle room. 200 MHz and most likely more voltage will shoot temps higher than what most X4s can handle.

[Bri7man]

I've been hard at work Prime testing from 1.375V, 1.378V, 1.381V, and currently testing 1.384V.. Hopefully it holds soon!

I think I like BIOS for making changes :P

[Daveburt714]

I've been hard at work Prime testing from 1.375V, 1.378V, 1.381V, and currently testing 1.384V.. Hopefully it holds soon!

I think I like BIOS for making changes :P

In the end, bios is the best way to get the most stable results Bri7man , even though it's a PITA with all the resets...
I'm a little dissapointed your having trouble getting it stable @ lower V'core... Maybe 1.3875 will be the magic number.

With the testing you've done so far, it's probably safe to bring your memory up to 1600.
It should do better than 9-9-9, but I'd hold off on timings until your sure what the CPU cores like....

Your going to wind up being glad you didn't RMA that chip Bud.
It just needs a little luvin, and I'll try and help...

[BeepBeep2]

He will want to keep the ram divider at 1333 and OC with HT Ref clock in case he wants to bring the ram up to 1600. AFAIK a few people said GSkill ECO 1600 CL7 didn't play well with the 1600 multi.

[Bri7man]

Alright! After much Prime95'ing, 1.390V is the lowest voltage with the current settings at 3.8Ghz, max temp of 54C mainly floating around 52-53C(nighttime). 33-34C at idle with just firefox up.

CPUZ actually reads 1.404 though.

What do you guys think?

Edit, Nevermind I spoke too soon. It seems the OC is stable in Prime95, but not with Folding@Home Fah6.34...

I will get errors that apparently correlate with a bad OC with an unstable CPU or bad ram after some googling. These errors then crash Firefox and do not let it load until restarting and programs will start to error out like Skype, Utorrent, etc.

Continuing to up the voltage until this stabilizes.

[Daveburt714]

I've had more than a few beers Bri7man (I'm on Vacation), so for the next few hours you may want to take my recs with a grain of salt...

At least you managed to lower the voltage/temps a little!
Not sure how much it'll help temp wise, but this would be a good time to use the HTRef (CPU Bus Freq.) to do some "fine tuning" on your core clocks..

Try slowly increasing the CPU Bus Frequency while running Prime Blend, and see where you can get...
I'd start by raising it by multi's of 2. If you can manage 205, that'll put you @ 3900 (19x) with the lower voltage.
If that works, set the HTRef clock back to 200, and change the CPU multi to 19.5x (200x19.5 = 3900 )...

I have a vested intrest in your clocks now bud. I'm pretty sure you have the general idea (which is a good thing!)

Good tuning to you, and hope I helped a little...

[Bri7man]

Haha appreciate all the help!

I spoke a bit too soon though, you probably missed this part of my last post because I sort of ninja edited it:

"Edit, Nevermind I spoke too soon. It seems the OC is stable in Prime95, but not with Folding@Home Fah6.34...

I will get errors that apparently correlate with a bad OC with an unstable CPU or bad ram after some googling. These errors then crash Firefox and do not let it load until restarting and programs will start to error out like Skype, Utorrent, etc.

Continuing to up the voltage until this stabilizes. "

So as of right now I'm at 1.425V in BIOS (1.440-1.452V read by CPUZ) and it seems to be okay with it so far, I'm folding and it's not crashing.. but we'll see, this one might actually take a day to sort out because I'm usually constantly folding unless I decide to play a game or whatnot. So I want to be sure this OC is going to stable with that.

Sort of doubting I'll be able to get past 3.8Ghz now if I have to increase anymore past 1.425V

At least I've learned how to OC better, your efforts have not been wasted and I am very grateful for all the help!

I'll keep this updated but I most likely won't have my final voltage at these settings until tomorrow night because I really need a days worth of futzing around and folding to mimic my usual daily behavior to make sure there are no problems with folding.

Keep on enjoying that vacation!

[BeepBeep2]

Well, up to 1.5-1.55v is generally safe as long as you can keep temperatures down under 60c. You might have to do something like buy another cooler and different thermal paste though to help your temperatures any. Might not be worth the money/time.

[Bri7man]

Bad news.. I have been unsuccessful in stabilizing this CPU all the way up 1.440V and sick of rebooting so I just gave it 1.45V (actual 1.452-1.476V in CPUZ) and again got that fast smooth bootup. No idea if it's stable yet, but I'm doing my normal thing which is folding and I'm at 51C with my window open at 63F outside. So I wouldn't be surprised to wake up to it at something uncomfortably higher.

Weird thing is that folding and doing other stuff like watching videos on youtube and chatting on ventrilo or skype is causing freezes and program glitching and crashes, when Prime95 blend testing was getting my CPU at least 5C hotter and wayy baack at 1.390V.. which was stable for Prime95, but not my normal activities. So for my application, I see it as folding and doing my normal thing being the better benchmark than Prime95.

I don't know much about other speeds, but the above activities never cause issues with this cpu at stock speed, or with my 955(non BE) OC at 3.4Ghz.

So really I am ready to slap my old 955(non BE) in send this CPU back to where it came from and play some Russian roulette in hopes of a better one. (unless you guys think its my MOBO/hardware that's being the b*tch here)

I don't see how a different 955BE could be worse than this one if it's not my MOBO/hardware.

My cooler is a CM 212+(which I think is the best thing before WC if I was reading correctly?) and I just seated the cpu 2 weeks ago with AS5 thermal paste so I don't think I am going to get any better cooling than I do now. My heatsync fins and entire computer is spotless atm because I hit it with compressed air (with a grounded nozzle) before I I installed this CPU. My case is a HAF 922 also.

[BeepBeep2]

No, there are several better options than the CM 212+, but not sure how big the difference in temperature is really.
AS5 is really old, I think a lot of guys use Arctic Cooling MX-4 or Prolimatech PK-1 now. It could help for a few degrees.

Maybe there is another problem here, that may or may not be related to the CPU cores...is your ram still at 1066?

[Bri7man]

Ahhh okay definitely going to check that thermal compound out!

My ram is at 1333 and everything else is the same as in post #16 with exception to the voltage changes of course.

[Bri7man]

So what do you guys think? Are the chances worth it to exchange for another in hopes of one that demands less Voltage?(I can exchange for sure) Or are there other parameters to check that could lower my voltage at the current clock?

[Jethro]

Having clocked on an Asus board for a long time i can tell you the vdroop is horrible. Even with the fabulous 8+2 pwm arrangement i would have to set 1.45 to get a steady 1.4 etc. I would say you need at least 1.475 on that board to get 4ghz+ with that chip.

One thing i like to do is set my volts to say 1.5v for 4ghz (more v then i need), get to windows and using AOD lowering the voltage incrementally until cinebench 10 crashes. Bump it back to the last stable voltage and then i goto prime95 for 15-20min.

When in doubt improving your cooling always helps. Check caseflow, hot pwm etc! As Dave stated sometimes FSB increase + multi is better then multi alone.

With your odd freezes etc there might be other things at play here. Usually 4 sticks of ram in my experience appreciates a bump in juice to be stable even at stock speeds. Try running memtest before you load windows for 20min or so make sure its not making errors. If it is increase by .01/.02v at least.

[Shocker003]

So I have a 955BE and I am trying to get to 4Ghz on air with a CM 212+ cooler.

My first goal is 3.8GHZ but I can barely make it stable past booting, Prime95 testing results in a very swift BSOD.

NB and HT frequencies set on auto

1.45V CPU/NB
1.2V NB
1.2V HT

5-7-7-27-32 1066 RAM settings

Attachment 127054

I appreciate this info very much! So if the "1.2NB" I listed is not the common NB reffered to, which one in my pic of the bios is the one that I should be adjusting for voltage? I'm a bit lost.

I'm a bit confused on how to set the RAM frequency to 800 and have it on auto, with my BIOS in the first screen shot above with the "DRAM Frequency" I can only choose a frequency and set the timings which are in the 5th screenshot, or set it to AUTO and set the timings. Thanks for the input!

Sorry could not check my post had to spend some time with my wife and one year son.
in the first bios screen shot is the Dram frequency and it´s on auto. use the arrow key to highlight it and press enter then choose the lowest value there. I have never gotten a stable overclock by using the multiplier. Pushing up the fsb and leaving the multi at default will push up the ram frequency at the same time. The good news is you don´t need more voltage for the ram expect when when you exceed the default freq.(getting a 1066 to run at 1333).

[BeepBeep2]

Having clocked on an Asus board for a long time i can tell you the vdroop is horrible. Even with the fabulous 8+2 pwm arrangement i would have to set 1.45 to get a steady 1.4 etc. I would say you need at least 1.475 on that board to get 4ghz+ with that chip.

One thing i like to do is set my volts to say 1.5v for 4ghz (more v then i need), get to windows and using AOD lowering the voltage incrementally until cinebench 10 crashes. Bump it back to the last stable voltage and then i goto prime95 for 15-20min.

When in doubt improving your cooling always helps. Check caseflow, hot pwm etc! As Dave stated sometimes FSB increase + multi is better then multi alone.

With your odd freezes etc there might be other things at play here. Usually 4 sticks of ram in my experience appreciates a bump in juice to be stable even at stock speeds. Try running memtest before you load windows for 20min or so make sure its not making errors. If it is increase by .01/.02v at least.

What board were you using? Having checked my M4A89TD Pro in the past with a DMM, that certainly wasn't the case...

[BeepBeep2]

Having clocked on an Asus board for a long time i can tell you the vdroop is horrible. Even with the fabulous 8+2 pwm arrangement i would have to set 1.45 to get a steady 1.4 etc. I would say you need at least 1.475 on that board to get 4ghz+ with that chip.

One thing i like to do is set my volts to say 1.5v for 4ghz (more v then i need), get to windows and using AOD lowering the voltage incrementally until cinebench 10 crashes. Bump it back to the last stable voltage and then i goto prime95 for 15-20min.

When in doubt improving your cooling always helps. Check caseflow, hot pwm etc! As Dave stated sometimes FSB increase + multi is better then multi alone.

With your odd freezes etc there might be other things at play here. Usually 4 sticks of ram in my experience appreciates a bump in juice to be stable even at stock speeds. Try running memtest before you load windows for 20min or so make sure its not making errors. If it is increase by .01/.02v at least.

What board were you using? Having checked my M4A89TD Pro in the past with a DMM, that certainly wasn't the case...

[Bri7man]

So yesterday I switched my CPU fan from pulling air to pushing air through the heatsync fins, and I got 3C drop in temp I also added mild 120mm CM intake fan to the bottom of my case.

Turns out my system is not stable at 1.45V either, my folding application crashed a total of 5 times overnight, temps were cool, about 47-48C while folding.

Having clocked on an Asus board for a long time i can tell you the vdroop is horrible. Even with the fabulous 8+2 pwm arrangement i would have to set 1.45 to get a steady 1.4 etc. I would say you need at least 1.475 on that board to get 4ghz+ with that chip.

One thing i like to do is set my volts to say 1.5v for 4ghz (more v then i need), get to windows and using AOD lowering the voltage incrementally until cinebench 10 crashes. Bump it back to the last stable voltage and then i goto prime95 for 15-20min.

When in doubt improving your cooling always helps. Check caseflow, hot pwm etc! As Dave stated sometimes FSB increase + multi is better then multi alone.

With your odd freezes etc there might be other things at play here. Usually 4 sticks of ram in my experience appreciates a bump in juice to be stable even at stock speeds. Try running memtest before you load windows for 20min or so make sure its not making errors. If it is increase by .01/.02v at least.

I just ran a memtest for a 30 mins and it passed with no errors, I bumped the DRAM Voltage by .006 anyways.

Sorry could not check my post had to spend some time with my wife and one year son.
in the first bios screen shot is the Dram frequency and it´s on auto. use the arrow key to highlight it and press enter then choose the lowest value there. I have never gotten a stable overclock by using the multiplier. Pushing up the fsb and leaving the multi at default will push up the ram frequency at the same time. The good news is you don´t need more voltage for the ram expect when when you exceed the default freq.(getting a 1066 to run at 1333).

No problem thanks for the info, I actually have my DRAm Freq at 1333 now, if you look at post #16, those screenshots are what my BIOS looks like right now, the only changes are my CPU Vcore Voltage is now 1.45 and my DRAM Voltage is 1.406V. I will set DRAM Freq to 800(I believe that is the lowest) and I'll set the multi back to stock and increase the HT REF instead(if I'm reading that right) and we'll see if it makes the difference.

Edit, meant to say HT Ref(FSB) not HT Link

[BeepBeep2]

Is your vcore at 1.45v or your CPU/NB?

1.45v is too high for CPU/NB. Also, you are fine raising the dram voltage up around 1.5v on your GSKill ECO, the chips inside are similar to those found on 1.6 and 1.65v kits.

[Bri7man]

Crap! I meant CPU Voltage, CPU/NB is at 1.2V, I'll edit that!

Edit,

What do you think is a good DRAM Voltage for me, Beep? I'm at 1333 right now and timings on auto, but maybe I should lower that frequency?

[BeepBeep2]

Just to rule ram out completely, set your primary ram timings to 9-9-9-27 @ 1333 and 1.5v.

YGPM too.

[Daveburt714]

So yesterday I switched my CPU fan from pulling air to pushing air through the heatsync fins, and I got 3C drop in temp I also added mild 120mm CM intake fan to the bottom of my case.

Turns out my system is not stable at 1.45V either, my folding application crashed a total of 5 times overnight, temps were cool, about 47-48C while folding.

Hey Bri7, I was looking at some old screen shots of my 965 system to see were I was running v's on it (on water).
If you've gotten your temps that low under load you should be able to bring the voltages up a little...

I'm not sure if this'll work or not but it would give you a decent (air) tune across the board if it does.

Using your settings from Post #16 change these and see if it works:

Set CPU Ratio to: 16.0
Set CPU Bus Frequ to: 240
Set CPU Voltage to: 1.475
Set CPU/NB Volatge to: 1.275
Set DRAM Voltage to: 1.55

These settings will result in the following clocks:

CPU Core: 3840 (16 x 240)
IMC: 2400 (10 x 240)
HT Link: 2400 (10 x 240) Drop this 1 click to 2160 (9 x 240) if you have stability probs with these settings.
(I always liked to keep @ the same speed as IMC, but thats just personal preference, it won't effect performance much)
Mem Speed: 1600 (6.66 (1333 divider) x 240)

I'm not a crazy voltage guy, these are a little high, but should be perfectly safe as long as you can keep load temps <58c.
That being said, use at your own risk, I accept no responsibility...

I am going to lecture you here just a little bit on the whole RMA thing...
First, that seems like a decent chip and I'm pretty sure it would be perfectly stable at stock clocks.
Second, buying a CPU is like buying a Lottery Ticket, your not always going to hit the Jackpot!
Third, Karma can be a b*tch and you could very well get a total dog as a replacement...

It's a pet peave of mine to hear people talk of RMA'ing chips because they don't OC like they'd hoped.
I've said my peace though.

Hope those settings work for ya!

[BeepBeep2]

Dave, I'm just gonna throw this out there

Prime95 blend testing was getting my CPU at least 5C hotter

He might still have more headroom though since he has gotten them down a few degrees.
Also, some stores allow RMA for non-defective parts, one being newegg...you can RMA anything for a refund with the restocking fee.

In my case with my 8150, it was confirmed to be defective in RMA too. ...but I had broken the warranty technically, by overclocking beforehand.

[Bri7man]

Hey Bri7, I was looking at some old screen shots of my 965 system to see were I was running v's on it (on water).
If you've gotten your temps that low under load you should be able to bring the voltages up a little...

I'm not sure if this'll work or not but it would give you a decent (air) tune across the board if it does.

Using your settings from Post #16 change these and see if it works:

Set CPU Ratio to: 16.0
Set CPU Bus Frequ to: 240
Set CPU Voltage to: 1.475
Set CPU/NB Volatge to: 1.275
Set DRAM Voltage to: 1.55

These settings will result in the following clocks:

CPU Core: 3840 (16 x 240)
IMC: 2400 (10 x 240)
HT Link: 2400 (10 x 240) Drop this 1 click to 2160 (9 x 240) if you have stability probs with these settings.
(I always liked to keep @ the same speed as IMC, but thats just personal preference, it won't effect performance much)
Mem Speed: 1600 (6.66 (1333 divider) x 240)

I'm not a crazy voltage guy, these are a little high, but should be perfectly safe as long as you can keep load temps <58c.
That being said, use at your own risk, I accept no responsibility...

I am going to lecture you here just a little bit on the whole RMA thing...
First, that seems like a decent chip and I'm pretty sure it would be perfectly stable at stock clocks.
Second, buying a CPU is like buying a Lottery Ticket, your not always going to hit the Jackpot!
Third, Karma can be a b*tch and you could very well get a total dog as a replacement...

It's a pet peave of mine to hear people talk of RMA'ing chips because they don't OC like they'd hoped.
I've said my peace though.

Hope those settings work for ya!

Of course I understand this is overclocking and nothing is 100%, I accept anything that happens. It is all worth the learning experience and I appreciate all the help!

My 955 was perfectly fine though, the only reason I bought the 955BE was so I could overclock it higher due to the lower temps. I guess if I can get 3.8Ghz stable then I'll accept that.

I'm going to run Beep's parameters above in Prime95 for 8 hours on a custom setting to rule out RAM as the issue first, but then I will most definitely try yours out!

Dave, I'm just gonna throw this out there

He might still have more headroom though since he has gotten them down a few degrees.
Also, some stores allow RMA for non-defective parts, one being newegg...you can RMA anything for a refund with the restocking fee.

In my case with my 8150, it was confirmed to be defective in RMA too. ...but I had broken the warranty technically, by overclocking beforehand.

True I did technically break the warranty by overclocking, the question is do they need to know that? I just gave $5 to a Indian family with 4 kids in a parking lot, and I've been working on my sis car and fixing the house up for my mom, so my Karma levels should be favoring me right now. :P

Dave's right though, I could get one worse, but it seems with everyone elses OC's with this chip that the odds should be overwhelmingly favoring me. Or am I just crazy?

[Daveburt714]

In my case with my 8150, it was confirmed to be defective in RMA too. ...but I had broken the warranty technically, by overclocking beforehand.

Yeah, I remember that chip Beep, wouldn't even blend @ stock clocks.
If you remember correctly, I had a 8150 right around the same time that showed the same symptoms, and I didn't hesitate to RMA it!

Not sure this is the same case, but I'll shutup about it...

Good Luck Bri7man .