AMD FX-8320

Soldato
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Try disabling Cool and Quiet. This is only supposed to kick in when the CPU isn't under load but it's worth a try. A lot of people recommend disabling C1E power saving too.

My first guess is that on auto voltage it's supplying too much which is causing the CPU to throttle, then it's going back up to 4.2GHz and the same thing happens.

^

This

Disable cool n quiet. Because your CPU is under load, this isn't causing your problem but it should be disabled anyway while you are messing with clocks.

Your CPU temperature isnt particularly high, so your throttling is most likely due to VRM's getting hot. Is the VRM heatsink hot after some stress testing? If it is, that's your problem. If the multiplier knocks down to 14.5 after just a minute or two of stress testing, there is not too much you can do about it but lower your voltage and hope that the CPU stays stable. If it takes a while to throttle, aiming some air flow towards the VRM heatsink might help.

If you have voltage set on auto, set it to manual and start with a voltage your motherboard autos at, this tends to be a little higher than it should be. So with a bit of luck you might be able to clock a multiplier or two higher without having to increase it to gain stability.

Does your core temperature shoot up to past 65/70 and then reduce after the multiplier changes to 14.5?

This will likely be throttling due to core temperature, meaning your voltage is too much for your CPU cooling. If this is not the case, and your CPU temperature stays in a safe range, it will likely be your VRMs. You should cautiously feel how hot they are straight after the multiplier is reduced.

The temps in the screen, seem quite high considering the clock is throttled.
 
Soldato
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The 990FX-UD3 has pretty good thermal design - but @Gavin, out of interest, is it the latest revision? (4.0). Gigabyte did some work on it to prevent VRM problems. If it's not 4.0 you could ask ocuk to replace it (I know from your spec thread the board is new).

I think that auto voltage tends to put it up way too high - sometimes near 1.5v.

edit:

Here's an image of rev 3.0:

http://www.gigabyte.com/fileupload/product/2/4397/6935_big.jpg

And rev 4.0:

http://www.gigabyte.com/fileupload/product/2/4672/8421_big.jpg

See in particular the heat pipe in 4.0.
 
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It's rev 3, should overclockers have sent rev 4 instead of 3?!
Also that fluctuation on core speed was happening before I changed multiplier ie when it was stock.

Also temperatures are not jumping about they seem constant, gradual and consistant with no spikes or drops, the temps shown on HW monitor above didn't get any higher than that and I now know amd temps are not the most accurate, but surely HW monitor would have picked up jumps and drops in temperature even if they might have been slightly wrong?
 
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Soldato
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Rev 4 is quite recent. I'd ask them for one of those though.

Throttling at stock clocks isn't a good sign, unless it's the regular boost thing going on (i.e. not dropping below 3.5GHz).
 
Soldato
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Yep, that's throttling at stock clocks, not good. I'd post in the CS forum to ask about a rev 4 replacement.

(There were reports of VRM issues on rev 3, which is why Gigabyte released rev 4)
 
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Soldato
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No problem. If they say they don't have any rev 4 I'd either ask about Gigabyte replacing it directly (they have a very good RMA service) or ask about a replacement model. You shouldn't be getting throttling at stock clocks.
 
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It depends entirely on the games you play. A lot of the time it makes no real difference and they both give great results, but there are some older games where the 2500K is much better (mainly WoW and RTS games, not really with FPS games).
 
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Think i cracked it! :) Can you have a look and see if temps, voltage etc are within limits?

I saved the default settings on a profile just in case and then tucked my balls into my pockets and tweeked the power saving options etc to disable Cool and quiet, boost and a couple other things i cant quite remember, that i was afraid to touch. lol :) It's now at a steady 4.2 with no drops in speed or voltage.

I will keep an eye on it just in case, how long would you recommend i stress test for, i have been going for about 50mins so far?

42oc_zpsed40e21f.jpg
 

X3T

X3T

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Looks good to me. I would download CoreTemp to monitor temps, as I know this reports the correct core temperatures for AMD (rather than the socket temps.)

I only stress tested my overclock for about an hour, then I couldn't be bothered anymore :p Been using it for a couple of months and had no issues at all.

I'm of the opinion that an overclock can still be considered stable (enough) even if it fails a stress test like Prime95 after an hour or so, as this is an unrealistically high usage of the CPU for most people. Of course a successful stress test guarantees stability, so it's for your own peace of mind really.
 

X3T

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4.2GHz is a very gentle overclock on the 8320, though I can't understand how you were throttling at stock, but not on an overclock?
I think it was because he had CnQ enabled - it wasn't throttling but very quickly adjusting the frequency based on the load. I have the same thing when I enable CnQ; the frequency jumps all over the place.
 
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Yeah I suggested he disable CnQ but I'm surprised it made a difference really. I prefer the idea of the system clocking down at idle.
 
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Hey folks,
I have 2 things that hopefully you can help with.

1) Can you check these settings and see i have everything i need disabled etc that i need to overclock?
SETTINGS1_zps55f12735.jpg

SETTINGS2_zpsb94c66b7.jpg


2) When i try to overclock to 4.4 i get blue screen crashes, i assume this is because i don't have enough voltage? However if i try and find CPU Voltage it's got weird numbers that range from +0.775 to -0.800, which i can go up or down in 0.025 bumps. I also have the option of Auto and Normal. Can anyone help with what this should be? Am i looking at the right option to change voltage?
CPUVCORE1_zps0e46da74.jpg

CPUVCORE3_zpsd1bbd6ec.jpg

CPUVCORE2_zps63044f76.jpg
 
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