Beginners Guide to Overclocking

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Great guide, very interesting reading.

Would be lovely to have an update to this guide (not sure how much has changed, but presume there are now some new differences, etc).
 
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Thanks. I have been thinking of updating it but the underlying principles are largely the same still.
i am overlooked in the past, sometimes simply by leaving voltage on auto in the bios and just upper the multipler - and sometimes running a program to test the system stability (unigine vallley benchmark). I am about to get a 3rd gen ryzen - I gather that AMD has software called Ryzen master - but as I have never used it I don't know much about it. Perhaps this thread could mention that or can I have some advice should I use that the OC my Ryzen rather than manually in the bios or using the mobo utility software.
 
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Thanks. I have been thinking of updating it but the underlying principles are largely the same still.

As a n00b around here, I would think an update would be worthwhile. Whilst much of the information remains relevant, a post from 13 years ago isn't going to be seen as immediately credible. Plus I agree with the above - some reference to the approaches taken by overcloking software bundled by mobo makers would be a good addition.

But notwithstanding its age, it's a cracking post!
 
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The general guide to overclocking in 2019 starts with

1. Doing leg work by reading all the review sites on your new bit of kit
2. Cheap.
3. Does the manufacturer allow overclocking and have they given it "good headroom", ie are they for once being charitable? ;)
4. Is the supporting hardware or firmware going to limit point 3?

Apply those rules to a modern day nvidia Super series graphics card and you can probably see none of them are good at "overclocking" on the cheap. You get what you are given. And they are expensive. You can apply the same for CPU's of course.

Once you have got your bit of kit that has followed the above 4 rules, and you are chuffed by your cheap as chips buy, then it comes down, in my experience to helping it along ... ie

a) Making sure you build it right, correct amount of thermal paste, getting correct seating of cpu to hsf, etc etc etc. A lot of time spent here will help. It's the simple things in life that matter.
b) bedding it in.

A bit like running in a car, just go slow and boot up to BIOS and check temps etc . Get a feel for if the **** up fairy has made an appearance or else it all looks good.

The first boot is most important. If all looks ok then just let it run for a while and see if all ok.

And finally to ...

Overclocking.

First rule of overclocking is

ALWAYS CHANGE ONE PARAMETER AT A TIME.

Never try to take shortcuts by changing more than one thing at a time.

2nd rule of overclocking is

Have an old fashioned notepad and pencil to hand for all your settings :D When it is all going swimmingly you don't need this, but when it goes pear shaped and you can't remember what you last did ... then it comes in handy !

As per here :-


intel.jpg
 
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"2nd rule of overclocking is

Have an old fashioned notepad and pencil to hand for all your settings :D When it is all going swimmingly you don't need this, but when it goes pear shaped and you can't remember what you last did ... then it comes in handy ! "

yes I agree, that what I do, also I use the paper to note down performance test (like passmark) results between installing mobo chipset driver, or installed radeon drivers, or tweaking memory timings (ryzen dram calculator), and updating bios etc.
 
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So I'm toying around trying to overclock my Asus Rampage extreme board and 5960x.

I can overclock the machine no problem in the AI suite software. I've managed to push the machine to 4600 MHz with a 1.33vcore. The machine works fine in windows, Asus stress test and prime95 is fine and all temps below 78c. But when I set it to default and try and reboot, or configure it direct from bios the machine won't post. And it goes back to the default overclock?

I'm honestly lost for what to do?


Furthermore my memory seems to default to 2133mhz rather than the 3000mhz it claims to run at. I've selected the slower timings from the xmp profile drop down? The machine instantly turns off when I tell it to save. Hangs then loads a default profile?

Can anyone help me out with some guaranteed settings for my Kingston please?

Thanks,
Adam
 
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Associate
Joined
28 Oct 2004
Posts
650
Location
Liverpool UK
So I'm toying around trying to overclock my Asus Rampage extreme board and 5960x.

I can overclock the machine no problem in the AI suite software. I've managed to push the machine to 4600 MHz with a 1.33vcore. The machine works fine in windows, Asus stress test and prime95 is fine and all temps below 78c. But when I set it to default and try and reboot, or configure it direct from bios the machine won't post. And it goes back to the default overclock?

I'm honestly lost for what to do?


Furthermore my memory seems to default to 2133mhz rather than the 3000mhz it claims to run at. I've selected the slower timings from the xmp profile drop down? The machine instantly turns off when I tell it to save. Hangs then loads a default profile?

Can anyone help me out with some guaranteed settings for my Kingston please?

Thanks,
Adam

Ok so I got my memory working at the 3000mhz I had to change the bclk to 125. Set the multiplyer to 34.

I'm setting my vcore voltage in settings but it's throttling higher?

My temps are spiking a little high with prime 95 (hitting 86c).

I've got CPU core set to 1.3, CPU cache voltage set to 1.3 and CPU system agent offset set to 0.0

Thanks in advance.
 
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