"FX6 SPEC OPS" AMD FX-6 6300 Bundle - Overclocking for long renders

Jamieoz

Jamieoz

Jamieoz

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22 Nov 2012
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30
Hi there, i'm kind of new here but have lurked for a while.

I bought the "FX6 SPEC OPS" AMD FX-6 6300 overclocked bundle just before Christmas because my previous potato-based setup was stopping me from getting work completed (and the occasional gaming session in between). I am looking to overclock the processor more if possible for overnight 3d rendering which is the only feasible way to get my work done. At the moment here's what's going on:

-AMD Bulldozer FX-6 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz with OverClockers OC running at 4.40GHz
-Temperatures after 12 hours of rendering (constant full system load)
CPU: 58
MB: 34
VCores: 50-55
All the rest below 40

I am only using the cooling that came with the bundle; the Alpenfohn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler and 4 case fans. I am hoping to squeeze some more power out of the CPU but after my last dabble in overclocking 4 years ago ending in disaster i have been living under a rock concerning overclocking. I've read a few threads but whether its my lack of smarts or repressed memories of my old rig dying i am struggling to know where to begin.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[edit] Forgot to add, my main concern in doing this myself with the research i have done is because i am confused about voltages and if any other hardware needs overclocking to work in conjunction with the CPU; RAM for instance.
 
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CPU: 58
MB: 34
VCores: 50-55
All the rest below 40

Your temps are fairly high to go much further without overheating the CPU. 62C should be the maximum. You could try to enhance the fan profiles or change to a better cooler.

For a 24/7 overclock the maximum would be in the range 4.5 to 4.8GHz on air cooling. My 8350 at 4.7 gives similar temperatures to yours, but using a Phanteks cooler with two case fans.
 
Hey nkata thanks for the response. I thought as much. I have looked around the BIOS to set fan speeds, but is there a way to set CPU fan speeds from the desktop so i could adjust them on the fly? i think that would allow me to to tweak them more efficiently.

Hi 8pack, the Vcore voltage is 1.356 and the CPU NB is 1.300. I haven't adjusted these so i presume they are the standard for OC overclock profile?

[EDIT] I've never had a MB with so meany features before like TurboCore (turned off by default) and Core C6 State (turned on by default) so i keep thinking i am missing out on some small benefits because i haven't clicked a button. I am going to get on the research after work tonight so i will hope to be a bit more up to date
 
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A quick followup to nkata!
I have adjusted my fans to a higher RPM at a lower temp and will see what the peak temperatures are after a 3 hour render tonight. They were set to turbo but i decided to customise them to run full RPM during renders. I know they will die sooner this way but if they can significantly reduce CPU temps during overnight renders then its a price i'm willing to pay, thanks for your help on that!
 
You have headroom then on Both of the main stability voltages for this CPU. The problem is defo going to be cooling as these AMD do throttle if they get much over 60C.

My advice is to try a higher multi with the volts your at and see how this goes. You could also try a lower multi but push the HTT abit. Be careful with this though as it clocks the memory bus too.

For rendering you could also improve your efficiency by tuning and overclocking your RAM. These CPU seem to like around 2133mhz and not much more. What RAM you using??? so we can ascertain if it will clock or not.
 
I've got 16GB GeIL Black Dragon (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel. when you say higher multi with the volts, does that mean upping the CPU volts? or upping the CPU multiplier whilst keeping the same voltage?
 
I have run bus clocks between 200 and 302Mhz with varying multipliers to suit (16 x 302 for example or 235 x 20 currently). The max bus clock you could get would be dependant on the motherboard. You should start with a lower multiplier for the cpu, ram and HT/NB before raising the bus clock too much. Your ram will normally run at 200 x 8 but a common multiplier is 6.667 and this would let you run up to 240 bus clock (6.667 x 240 = 1600)without overclocking the ram which is already C11, then you could try 240 x 19 = 2560 on the cpu, going up in steps of 0.5 or 120MHz at each increment. The HT and NB could be 10x 240 = 2400 in this case. If you get to a limit at 2560 temps wise, it may be possible to squeeze a bit more by going up in steps of 1-2MHz on the bus clock, slightly overclocking the ram. 242MHz bus clock x 19 = 4.6GHz for the CPU
 
Thanks for the assistance guys.

8pack, i tried increasing the multiplier by 1, from 20 to 21. This caused blue screens between Press Del for BIOS and loading windows, i'm not sure how i blundered that one. I then tried adjusting the bus clock from 216 and only managed to get it up to 218 before windows was failing to load... Is this system instability or is there something i have been missing?

Thanks for your time gents.
 
Nice one! system starts up okay, i'll do a 3 hour render session and see if it remains stable and within a safe temp zone. I'll also look into better cooling before i play with the volts.

Should i try small increases in a particular area until instability again? or just play it safe and be grateful for the current OC?

[EDIT] Using new fan settings after the 3 hour render session the cpu temp stabalised at 52 and the V-cores at 51 and 53... is this enough headroom to consider upping voltages?
 
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