Very nice gOtVoltage

What was your stock CPU VID and VCore?

Well well guys, the chip limit has been found.
First of all, this is the best one I've had so far, absolutely working as it should, no problems whatsoever and things are easy to figure out as they should be even when oc'ing. I just wish they would all work like this though. Chip without CnQ runs quite cool fully loaded even on stock HSF at 27C ambient, far cooler than the Kenstfields and Penryn QXs are running at totally stock let alone oc'd. This is a big relief for people like me who loathe bad temps throughout climates and travels and don't waste much more than "common" air cooling to test the temps when it has to apply to majorities, though better cooling is easily available (remember, I do work on charities for a good part of every year and those poor/sickly/elderly/disabled and various centers for them are what I'm thinking of adjacently). You might have seen my Q6600 G0 benches 4.25GHz air good, the more cooling and voltage you apply, the further it's scaling, which is very good for an IC m.arch. Someone with DICE/phase/semi-decent WC should be able to break near its limit of 4480MHz ... but at just 1.2V 2.4G, it is already running too hot stock stability tested with 22C ambients to really leave it much room for any of the systems at my uni or work places to oc apart from the odd uber expensive rigs. It reached ~65C stock with the Zalman at full speed and those ambients were lower than what I usually stability test at since 74C would make it lockup. Basically the same problems we had with P4 Prescott where my 3G ran at 1.264V 3.6G but blimey, the heat buildup was insane. Why is this? Well, Intel has uptil now, starting with P4, still, always been limited by TDPs for further speed bins every product cycle, and that behavior continues. Whilst for AMD, it has usually been a premature IC limit saturated and not cooling/voltage as the hold back although TDP may have been simultaneously high too.

Anyway, I've had no problems with this chip at all, everything I've tried so far makes logical sense, no happenings here... yet.

To the OC
Booted fully loaded idling at XP SP3 desktop into Windows (services/AV/FW running yet) 3GHz, 2.9GHz and 2.8GHz using multi and using HT+multi around 3 times each, hehe, about 3hrs30mins ago (too many 3somes, I know ), can still do it now but as soon as I touch CPUZ, a reboot ensues. Once I cut down on the services/processes and the unusually long logon time (a disabled service), with the Zalman HSF, with the best old BIOS so far, I'll give them a shot again but they're pointless attempts to me since they can never be ran normally or be close to stable runners.

Well, that's considering booting CPU 1.25VID since they've removed AM2+ P-States options from the BIOS in the one I'm using. Now do you see why I wouldn't write an oc guide?

In the BIOS, 3GHz boot-up looks like this:



Me thinks its AOD Assistant after boot-up which makes it reboot that quick idling, especially when the most heavy load (close to 100&#37 part of boot-up has already long finished. This is another test left yet for when I have time...

Max fully stable, rock solid is also the max validated: 2756MHz @ 1.25VID 1.280V (2hr P95 stopped) but I need to bump it up one V notch for perfect stability and peace of mind, I'm sure (you need to be diligent and take into account most PSUs cannot give out their rated output above 40C and will only provide 80% of the max wattage from 40-50C, and at these temps, you are going to see further falls in load line voltages/efficiency which can definitely cause CPUs to fail stability testing)..

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=302096




We need NB VID/Multi changing again. The minute I get the BIOS with those options, I'll test what's holding the chip back better, but it won't do much more stable air cooled that's for sure.

However, I don't particularly like being 10MHz shy of the max CPU limit regular, so 2700MHz is the best option for me. By using 12x multi, it's damn easy to get stable at 1.280V but RAM still runs only DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15 (lowest timings I have options for), thus I've oc'd the HT to 225MHz x 12 = 2700MHz for DDR2-1200 5-5-5-15. Perfect combo IMO, and again, rock solid.

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=302094




Brother Esau, I recall you and BadNizze asked about DDR2-1200 with Phenom-> I run exactly those DDR2 settings/timings with the C2s and on this platform as well now. No problems just like on there. Here's a "semi-TLB-patched" 1200, high timings (lowest options I have) EVEREST run for you.



By "semi" I mean, WinRAR/Cinebench/POV-Ray/EVEREST/wPrime/Super Pi are still short of standard speed, in the case of Super Pi 1M for instance, it's running 2 seconds slower than it should be if the patch was unapplied (at any given frequency).

Just think what that would be like, had they given me 3-4-4-4 1T 1066 options.

I will run a 24hr load test to ensure the above settings are as good as the 2hr test+30min gaming showed and just in case, I will put it to 1.320V idle settings to see power/temps with >22C ambient and stock AMD cooling -> they need to remain within decent specs to run regular and be acceptable.

BTW, I need 1.305V BIOS which gives me 1.320V Windows idle and 1.288V load to get 2.756GHz perfectly stable. I'm using a crap BIOS ATM, it has the TLB fix option but still... the performance is very bad with it (AOD button'd or or not). Typically 30-80% of the expected and what was achieved with older better BETA BIOSes. Some screenies follow ->

Full settings/idle temps/volts @ (200x13.5) 2.7G-1066:


wPrime v1.55 32M and 1024M:


Max stable:


Best settings I've been running since then:


Current 2.7G wPrime 32M:



Power Consumption and Heat:
Despite the worse performing stock AMD HSF (although I like it's size), idling heat is lower than on the previous 9600s and 9600 BE I had, & idling stock wattage at 25C ambient is 102W AC, load is 177W AC (no CnQ). However, applying a tad bit of volts does increase the power and heat by quite a margin near to the coolings handling capacity. You can still however run my chip at up to 2.756G at 1.32V fully stable using the stock AMD HSF and stay within good operating temperatures at up to 28C heatsink ambient that I've tested. More than 1.35V 1.25VID and you'll be pushing into going >55C load temps and idling >36C.
1.25VID 1.57V at 2.75GHz hits a maximum full load power draw at 296W AC. The chip hates anything above 1.48V though.

Problems!!
*The inevitable. This board, not my PSU, this board fluctuates voltages like crazy and BIOS settings do not always transpire into the same in Windows settings for voltages. I set 2.2V DIMM and I booted to find them at 1.8V 1066. I set 1.305V Core and I boot to find it at 1.320V idle/1.288V load. I then standby for 20 minutes and rewake it to find the idling VCore at 1.352V and load at 1.328V. Naturally this affects temps/power/stability quite a bit. Watch out. Keep monitoring closely before you conclude your chip is unstable at "x" settings.
*Why such big voltage intervals? I mean 1.21V (1.24V real) then to 1.305V (1.32V real)? We need to have these lower and NB/CPU VID/FID options in the BIOS.


Ditto Jack, large variations between CPU of the same batch and week. However, there still seems to be the same average limits, 2.75G was attainable with my 9500 anyway. Some seem just better than others but some silicon seems buggy yet.

Daveburt714: I was experiencing that before, it's caused by Catalyst Control Center (Start CCC loading on startup)-> try and get rid of it from starting up and you might be OK, like I was later.

|3ourne: no I haven't mainly because they're not mine and you never know when one of these starts acting erratic, like my last, in which case you'd need to RMA or lose out.
I also want to sell them for a decent price pristine new condition, so no modding permissible. Only mod I did was on the 1st 9500, I embedded a thermal probe within the center of the IHS so its flush with the IHS base to try and check software temperatures against those probe values.

Thanks.