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Bad FX8350?

Soldato
Joined
9 Jun 2009
Posts
3,068
Location
OCUK Detention Centre
hey guys, I need some help here :(

before I start, I have been running AMD since the barton days, using pencil trick, wire mod etc, so I am by no means a newbie ;)

picked up a FX8350 from OCUK at the start of the week, all good. so I update the bios on my Asus M5A99X EVO to the latest version, using my 1100t.

then plunk my new FX in, and clear cmos, load bios and set 'optimized defaults' as usual, go back in and set ram to 1600mhz.

boot into windows 7, load up BF3, and crash to desktop :rolleyes:

so run prime, and core 8 keeps failing at stock, up the voltage a little, and now core 1 and 8 are failing :eek:

I have truly tried everything I can think off, two days of trying to get this stable.

I really don't want to send this back as a dud, what should I do?

is there anything I am missing here?

FYI,

Ram- Crucial Ballistix tracers 1600mhz
Power supply - corsair 750w
 
I would say it's probably faulty. Best to send it back:( If it's not stable when running at stock voltage with stock clocks something is wrong and could indicate further problems down the line.
 
It's hard to say but it might be your motherboard or PSU as AMD FX are extremely demanding, the fact that increasing voltage makes it less stable would point to either overheating or motherboard/PSU to me.

What are your temps? and have you tried lowering your RAM to 1333 to see if that helps?
 
Check the temperatures and set the RAM to a lower speed,and see if that helps.

What PSU does the OP have BTW? If its any reasonable quality 750W PSU it will be fine. FX8350 does not need a 750W CPU.

Unless the OP has a faulty motherboard it is perfectly fine.

Have a look at the review:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/M5A99X_EVO/13.html

"VRM capable of 275W, near double AMD CPU TDPs."

The CPU is probably faulty.
 
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I would suspect ram voltage at 1600MHz, try at 1.65V initially, that can be reduced when optimised.

The M5A99x is a good fit with the 8350 in my opinion and any branded PSU above 450W should run it at stock, 600W for serious overclocking.

Looking again it could be a faulty CPU but check all the optimised settings for the voltages in the bios.
 
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well I re-flashed the bios and it seems better, not had any crashes yet at stock, ram is at 1600mz 1.55v. maybe it was just a dodgy bios flash, had that a couple of times.

it was also showing weird behaviour, when I set a voltage or Multi, it would ignore it, and go back to the previous setting on boot into windows, it doesn't seem to be doing that now.

as for temps, i'm on a custom loop, temps never go above 43C in load.

im gonna let it sit for a day, to settle. and then go for 4.5gig, one thing I have noticed is the vdroop on this board, 1.45v to 1.29v at one point.

ill keep the thread posted as to result, maybe I have got a cracker :) that was sitting on a bad bios flash

thanks for the suggestions so far guys ;)
 
im gonna let it sit for a day, to settle. and then go for 4.5gig, one thing I have noticed is the vdroop on this board, 1.45v to 1.29v at one point.

LLC is good on this board. I use extreme for benching with CPU current 130% and LLC high/very high with current 120% for normal use. I have 1.4V at 4.6GHz. varies 1.384V to 1.404V.

Just experimenting with using offset voltages at the moment. I am also looking to watercool this one soon.
 
I have heard on occasion Prime can cause errors on the 8350 (see vishera owners club on overclock.net), have you tried with IBT / OCCT?

That's probably because they are clocked so aggressively and Prime95 is really the ultimate test at the moment, a CPU shouldn't be failing Prime95 at stock though so I wouldn't just ignore it and go to a lesser stability test.
 
I have heard on occasion Prime can cause errors on the 8350 (see vishera owners club on overclock.net), have you tried with IBT / OCCT?

Should not do this at all, not in my experience. Only errors are due to too aggressive overclocking and not enough voltage. Excessive vdroop may be an issue on some motherboards but readily overcome.

It seems that the cpu is faulty, no way can it be as picky as that in stability.


That's probably because they are clocked so aggressively and Prime95 is really the ultimate test at the moment, a CPU shouldn't be failing Prime95 at stock though so I wouldn't just ignore it and go to a lesser stability test.

Apparently from OP it was a bios flash issue.

I agree you should not discount prime although IBT on very high with 20 runs gives a good stability test on higher overclocks.
 
firstly I would like to say thank you to all that have helped,

as I said earlier I re-flashed the bios to 1604, the bios I was using, it was showing odd behaviour,

I ditched windows 7, and loaded up a copy of Win8, stuck BF3 on there and played at stock settings, all good, no crashes.

today I decided to have a tinker around, and after a few mishaps, I have managed a sober overclock of 500 MHz :p

haven't really pushed it at all, and all seems good, I have always used prime95 and various gaming tasks to bench/test an overclock.

I have managed 2.5 hours prime, with no errors on blend,

and have also managed the afternoon gaming on BF3 with no crashes to desktop,

I shall keep these settings for a few weeks, then push for 4.8.

thanks to nkata for the tips to help on vdroop on this board, I done exactly what you said matey, and I now get a steady 1.4v :)

heres the current clock settings,

CPU 4.5 ghz @ 1.425v
LLC @ 130%

NB 2400mhz at 1.3v
LLC @ 120%

RAM 1600mhz 8-8-8-24 @1.55v

on a custom water cooling loop, temps never go above 47C



http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2702728
 
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firstly I would like to say thank you to all that have helped,

as I said earlier I re-flashed the bios to 1604, the bios I was using, it was showing odd behaviour,

I ditched windows 7, and loaded up a copy of Win8, stuck BF3 on there and played at stock settings, all good, no crashes.

today I decided to have a tinker around, and after a few mishaps, I have managed a sober overclock of 500 MHz :p

haven't really pushed it at all, and all seems good, I have always used prime95 and various gaming tasks to bench/test an overclock.

I have managed 2.5 hours prime, with no errors on blend,

and have also managed the afternoon gaming on BF3 with no crashes to desktop,

I shall keep these settings for a few weeks, then push for 4.8.

thanks to nkata for the tips to help on vdroop on this board, I done exactly what you said matey, and I now get a steady 1.4v :)

heres the current clock settings,

CPU 4.5 ghz @ 1.425v
LLC @ 130%

NB 2400mhz at 1.3v
LLC @ 120%

RAM 1600mhz 8-8-8-24 @1.55v

on a custom water cooling loop, temps never go above 47C



http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2702728

keep in mind that 47c isnt true temperature... AMD always have ridicolously and impossible low temperatures. Usually people take the AMD sensor temperature as that of above room temperature.
 
keep in mind that 47c isnt true temperature... AMD always have ridicolously and impossible low temperatures. Usually people take the AMD sensor temperature as that of above room temperature.

yeah I have understood this since the phenom 1 days, no the temps are taken with a calibrated Temp probe,

My loop is also got temps on it, my loop sits at 32C, and without the probe I usually estimate +15C on that for true chip temp.

but thanks for pointing that out, I have seen that mistake made on many forums, as a rule, I always suggest an offset of +10C in coretemp to allow for this flaw :D

for me its easy to get a temp probe in there, as I have a bench rather than case, here is my baby,

UGTcBAZ.jpg
 
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Regarding CPU temps. I have pushed mine hard on air a few times and find that I get throttling when beyond 68C measured on my board sensor using HWMonitor. Not very scientific I know but shows a small safety factor over the 62C AMD limit. Generally I am in the 50C range when gaming and 55C on prime at 4.6GHz. A simple CPU loop may or may not keep things cooler than my Phanteks, I will try it though.

When going for the 100Gflops on 10 consecutive IBT runs, I used a 302MHz busclock and x16 multi with 4096MB memory size at 2000MHz and 2400 MHz HT and NB. This got things quite toasty at 65C. I need a better case methinks.

Soundood, very nice rig, some investment there.
 
Core temps are accurate on PD, just not at lower temps. They're calibrated to be accurate in the 50-70C range.

Also, don't waste your time trying for high NB clocks as PD doesn't benefit from them. Aim for fast RAM speeds with low latency and higher bus clocks with lower multis, like nkata's 302x16.

Max safe vcore is considered to be 1.55v, although I've run higher with water cooling when temps are under 60C core.
 
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