How much more can I get out of my fx-8320

kn100 · 25 Feb 2013 at 06:15

Hello all!

I have a Sabertooth 990fx Rev2 board along with an AMD FX 8320. I currently have a stable overclock at 4.6GHz running the following settings. I haven't tried to get it any higher for fear of a housefire (running a Hyper 212 evo cooler)

Here's my bios settings currently

How much higher could I go and how can I proceed higher? What settings do I change?

Hagar · 25 Feb 2013 at 10:24

Depends what load temperatures you are currently getting.

currob · 25 Feb 2013 at 10:32

You've got a gem there if it is stable at 4.6GHz on 1.40vcore ! As nkata says it depends on your temps under load, there is plenty of scope to go up on the vcore to get higher clocks but your cooling is going to be the limiting factor there imo.

Smoogels · 25 Feb 2013 at 11:41

Indeed. What are temps? That coolers pretty decent but I'm not sure how much further you could go with it with a AMD FX.

Chrisoldinho · 25 Feb 2013 at 13:50

Try running Prime95 blend, it should test your cooler and core temps nicely

Stable is all relative, but on my 8350, I need 1.45v to achieve P95 stable 24/7, using a
Phanteks- PH-TC14PE (3 fan config) I hit circa 54 on the core temp. 4.7 requires 1.493v and core temps rocket to 63.

If you are happy with it's stability yes you can push on, but it would be interesting to see some stability / core temp pics after a 30 minutes prime or even OCCT at your settings.

Regards,
Chris.

kn100 · 25 Feb 2013 at 17:23

Here's my temps after 10 minutes of Prime Blend. At 1.4vcore, think it's worth trying to push higher with these temps?

Chrisoldinho · 25 Feb 2013 at 19:38

kn100 said:
Here's my temps after 10 minutes of Prime Blend. At 1.4vcore, think it's worth trying to push higher with these temps?

Is the 58 CPU socket or core temp?
Core temps are what you want to focus on (download CoreTemp), anything up to 63 is good.

You have a couple of ways to play this, either go for a high FSB, low multi overclock or a Multi overclock / small FSB increase (if at all). Personally, I am lazy so would go for a Multi overclock, try 23.5 and see what voltage you need to be stable at, 4.7 tends to be the limit on most high end air coolers.

Some good info here:-

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=23832354&posted=1#post23832354

currob · 25 Feb 2013 at 19:51

That motherboard temp looks high to me, is there much airflow in your case? Mine rarely goes over 42c and idles around 30c not sure what rated max is but it seems high at 62c

It might be worth trying the same tests with the side off your case to give you an idea how much lower your temps would be with decent airflow

Paladine · 25 Feb 2013 at 21:10

Hope I get so lucky with my 8320 due to arrive this week. I will be using H100i for cooling but this will be my first overclock so I will be looking for some advice from everyone here. My ultimate target is 5GHz but I will be happy with anything 4.7+

Probably best to ask now since there are a couple of FX OCers watching this thread - I am getting the Gigabyte UD3 mainboard and ideally would like to keep the juice drinking down, am I correct in my thinking that if I go for FSB overclock instead of pure vcore, I can get a better speed without using so much power?

Be gentle, as I said, my first time overclocking.

Paladine

kn100 · 25 Feb 2013 at 23:37

currob said:
That motherboard temp looks high to me, is there much airflow in your case? Mine rarely goes over 42c and idles around 30c not sure what rated max is but it seems high at 62c

It might be worth trying the same tests with the side off your case to give you an idea how much lower your temps would be with decent airflow

Currently I have a 120mm sickleflow in the front of my case, a 120mm sickleflow in the top of my case along with a 140mm aerocool shark fan, a 120mm sickleflow on my CPU along with some molex 120mm Zalman fan on the other side of my cpu cooler. No exhaust at the moment, maybe that'll help cool my VRMs?
Oh and the two 80mm fans on the left and the right for the drive cages, doubt they're doing much however.

currob · 26 Feb 2013 at 06:59

Paladine said:
Hope I get so lucky with my 8320 due to arrive this week. I will be using H100i for cooling but this will be my first overclock so I will be looking for some advice from everyone here. My ultimate target is 5GHz but I will be happy with anything 4.7+

Probably best to ask now since there are a couple of FX OCers watching this thread - I am getting the Gigabyte UD3 mainboard and ideally would like to keep the juice drinking down, am I correct in my thinking that if I go for FSB overclock instead of pure vcore, I can get a better speed without using so much power?

Be gentle, as I said, my first time overclocking.

Paladine

The h100i is really good - i am very impressed with mine. If this is your first time overclocking then i would just go with the multiplier tbh. Keep going up by an increment and test with p95, increase vcore to stabilize if workers start to fail. Keep an eye on your temps, don't let them go higher than 63c on the cpu core as an absolute max, i am cautious and keep my core temp below 55c but that's just me

currob · 26 Feb 2013 at 07:02

I found these useful, they are based on Asus boards not the Gigabyte you intend on buying but the settings are going to be the same, perhaps a different layout in BIOS:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2055/14/
http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

kn100 · 26 Feb 2013 at 13:30

Progress update everyone! I've made some small cooling modifications to my rig so the intake is close to an open window which made a huge difference in temps. Now onto my issue.

I have desktop stable 4.9ghz. Prime is fine for about 30 seconds, but I lose the 5th core. Always. It's always the fifth core. I am currently pumping 1.45v through it and I'm not sure how much higher I want to take it. CPU Package temp hits about 61 degrees with core 5 not being stressed. I think this may be the max I can get

Anyone want to offer any thoughts? My motherboard seems to give the the option to deliver different voltages to each core. Is this a good idea?

currob · 26 Feb 2013 at 15:24

Wow, that's good if you can stabilize it, that's a 1400MHz overclock ! Looking at your BIOS pics I think you are going to need to look at making some more changes to stabilize it and/or go higher, things such as LLC, overcurrent, current capability, power phase etc... maybe adding in a touch on the fsb too. Check out the link below it may help:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

kn100 · 27 Feb 2013 at 04:00

With some modifications to current and a slight FSB overclock we have stable 4.9. Prime stable for about a minute but then temps are getting too high for my liking so I stop it.

I will leave it like this for general desktop use and get a better cooler when money allows.

3.4ghz to 4.9ghz. <3

kn100 · 27 Feb 2013 at 23:22

And a suicide run just for fun

Paladine · 28 Feb 2013 at 11:49

Just received confirmation that my order is ready for pick-up, so I will have all the parts in my hands in the next couple of hours.

Hagar · 28 Feb 2013 at 13:15

kn100 said:
And a suicide run just for fun

My 8350 completed at 5.0GHz

x264FHD bench

Luxmark v2.0

Cinebench

Click to expand...

Jumper118 · 28 Feb 2013 at 17:04

kn100 said:
And a suicide run just for fun
http://i.imgur.com/W5dKHHK.png

that must be a good chip because the 212 evo isn't the biggest cooler ever :eek:

. What fans have you got on it?

kn100 · 28 Feb 2013 at 21:29

Jumper118 said:
that must be a good chip because the 212 evo isn't the biggest cooler ever . What fans have you got on it?

It's not prime stable and would probably overheat if I was to prime it - it's just a suicide for fun run. But the fans are a cheap molex 1 speed Zalman 'quiet fan' which came with the case and the other is a 3pin Sickleflow fan that revs up to 2000rpm when temps go above 55 degrees thanks to the motherboard.