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overclocking a 965 be

CD32

CD32

CD32

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Having armed myself with a gtx 670, & seeing how demanding farcry 3 seems to be, I wondered if my phenom II 965 BE was holding me back somewhat. Thought about upgrading then thought about overclocking..never done before...

Here's what's confusing me atm...everywhere I read about oc'ing, I read about upping northbridge/memory timings (along with cpu multiplier/voltage)..then I come across this post elsewhere...

"You have a Black Edition CPU so all you need to do is increase the multiplier & possibly the CPU voltage to stabilize the overclock. That's the whole idea behind the BE CPUs. There's really no need to mess with any of the other settings.
AMD systems have no FSB. The CPU & memory controller communicate at full processor speed, so the higher you clock the CPU, the faster the CPU-memory communication. Increasing the RAM speed will have very little effect on performance. In the Tom's article I linked to in your other thread, it mentions that an overclocked CPU with DDR3-800 will perform better than a non-overclocked CPU with DDR3-1333. The key is to run the CPU as fast as possible, while keeping the HT & memory buses at their defaults speeds. Even so, the X4 965 BE is already near the upper limit of what the X4 is capable of. You'll be lucky if you can hit 3.8GHz & remain stable. Hopefully you have a decent PSU because your CPU is rated at 140W. Overclocking will increase the wattage."

(link http://www.computing.net/answers/cpus/overclocking-on-asus-m4a79xtd-evo/16738.html )

So now I'm confused as to whether I have to mess with northbridge/memory or is it as easy as cpu multiplier/voltage as the above para suggests with the BE editions?

Mobo is m4a79xtd evo if it makes a difference.

TIA..Andy.
 
Youre 965 should easily reach 3.8ghz,probably on stock voltage,so just up the multi,also keep the HT to about 2000,as this does not improve o/c.Keep the cpu base(or fsb) to 200,because if you up that you increase the HT and ram speeds.Also make sure the HT is no higher than your northbridge setting.
Right,as long as you have an aftermarket cooler on the cpu,stress using prime 95,initially for 30mins,if it does not last that long (BSOD)you may need to up cpu voltage,but not by much,then stress again,run prime for a couple of hours keeping an eye on your temps,no higher than 60*c.Best real way to stress is by gaming for a couple of hours.
If its all good up the northbridge multi so the northbridge is running about 2400,again stress test for a bit,if thats all good you just o/c your NB !!
Keep testing /playing games keeping an eye on your temps,
PS after 3.8ghz your cpu will defo need some more voltage and will get hot quicker,but you should be able to hit 4ghz with about 1.42-4v
Happy o/c ing.
 
as with everything take all posts on oc with pinch of salt as above :p

it depends on what revision you have c2 or c3

also all you wanna do is monitor temp do ten runs of intel burn test and make sure ideally it doesnt go over 55c (62c max )

so bump multi once notch at time do ten runs until crash then notch a volt step up do ten runs rinse repeat while watching temp.

most if realistic do about 3.8-3.9 24 /7 with decent voltage temps.

4ghz is a achievable goal but some hit walls in voltage about 3.8 and require quite a bit . just depends how hard you wanna push.
 
I had the 955be and managed to get it at 4.27 stable for everyday use with the hyper 212+ cooler. Now I can't remember the volts but I'm pretty retty sure they were about 1.475 always felt I could go higher but didn't want to push it.
 
Download Asus Turbo V, HWMonitor and prime 95.

Have prime running for about 10 mins to warm up, then you can gradually increment the multiplier in turbo V until it becomes unstable. Then you give the voltage a bump, rinse and repeat. Monitor the temps with HW monitor to find the max safe temp.

Plug the multiplier settings and voltage into the bios menu and you'll have a have a nice permanent overclock (on cpu clock alone). Then look into increasing the NB and overclocking your memory.
 
I've got the same chip and have mine overclocked.

As someone said what version of the chip c2, c3 etc will make a difference to how far you can push it and what voltage you need.

To just overclock the CPU is as simple as increasing the multiplier in BIOS, stress testing it (using Prime 95) until you get to a point where it starts becoming unstable, at which point you have the option of increasing the voltage, but don't take it too high unless you know what you're doing, or just keeping it at the highest stable voltage.

Constantly monitor your temps when you stress test to make sure they're not too high.
 
Thanks for all the posts...appreciated....oh and you have all written it so it's easy to take in..unlike some long winded websites I've come across in the past that scared me off.

It's a revision c3 & had the lower voltage at the time/aftermarket cooler/decent Antec 900 series case.

Are there any real gains to be made tho & worth the messing about? or is it just going to be a case of 5/6 fps more in games & oc'ing is just a pastime thing some people have to see how far things can be pushed.

I might actually give it a go this time when I'm next off as it seems straight forward. Thanks for arming me with the above info all :)
 
Quick question, do you have an aftermarket cooler? If you do continue reading.

For overclocking there's two ways you can do it, since your new I will explain the multiplier overclocking mode.

Multiplier overclocking mode is used to change the multiplier (or the number which is multiplied by the FSB ( in AMD's case the name for FSB is HT) to increase clock speed without the overclocking of any other hardware pieces.

Most HT speeds on AMD motherboards are set to 200.00 mhz~. Your processor if I am not mistaken is a 3.4 ghz black edition processor, meaning the multipliers have been unlocked for easier overclocking. So most likely your multiplier is currently set at 17x multiplier (17x200 mhz= 3.4 ghz)

Now obviously to get more juice out of a electrical device you need to feed it more electricity, you do this by providing higher voltages.

WARNING WARNING WARNING: RAISING VOLTAGES PAST 1.5v is a HUGE NONO FOR BEGINNERS, IF YOU REACH 1.47-1.5v PLEASE CONSIDER STOPPING AT THE LAST STABLE CONFIGURATION

Numbers= Steps, Letters=Options or situations, Number+Letter= options for a step.
The process of multiplier overclocking:
1. Enter your Bios, and look for "advanced" or "performance" tabs. You may need to dig around since it changes from bios to bios, motherboard to motherboard.
2. Once you find it, look now for "CPU Multipliers" in one of the sub menus.
3. Once you find it, now look for "CPU Voltage", you may need to do some research because most bios display many voltages for the CPU, look for the CPU voltage (confirm it online using google).
4. Raise the Mutliplier by 2x more, putting you at 19x200mhz=3.8 ghz...
5. Raise the voltage by .05volts.
6. Boot your system and use Prime95 (google it) and run torture test. Also try obtaining a CPU temperature monitor for Windows (AMD Overdrive will do it for temps). Make sure temperatures do not reach over 60c under full load.

Now there's two things that can happen here:
A. You ran Prime95, and it stayed below 60c under full load for atleast 15 mintues without crashing.
B. You ran Prime95, and it stayed above 60c under full load OR it crashed.
C. Your PC won't boot up, please refer to your Manual for the motherboard to "Reset jumpers".
D. I reset the jumpers but it doesn't boot still, contact your manufacturers for warranty and cross your fingers because you did something wrong (dont tell them that ofc ).

8. If you got option A, then you can raise the multiplier by 1x more, and redo step 5-6 and if you go back to A after raising the multiplier for the 2nd time, then go ahead and go on redoing the steps until your reach the speed you want.

9. If you got option B while your CPU runs well under 60c under full load, then you can either:
9a. Raise the voltage by .05 until Prime95 runs stable for at least 15 minutes. Remember not to go above 1.5v!!

Follow the steps above, once your happy with the clock or atleast limited by temperatures or voltages or anxiety then please run a MINIMUM OF 3 HOURS OF PRIME95 TORTURE TEST FOR FULL SYSTEM STABILITY. I recommend 8 hours and will not deem any configuration stable unless it can run for 8 hrs.. MAKE SURE TO MONITOR YOUR TEMPERATURES CONSTANTLY DURING THE TEST. If your computer remains ON/ COOL for 8 hours of Prime95, then you got a stable system. If your computer crashes or boots, redo the steps for increasing voltage until you hit 1.5v, in which case it's best if you go down a notch.
Click to expand...

Should help you with it. :)

The C3 is the improved revision, so it should overclock better. If you're lucky you may be able to get it up to around 4.2Ghz.
 
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it is worth o/cing,especially with that graphics card.My 955 ran 24/7 @3.8,but above that i needed to up the voltage and with the heat it wasnt worth it,yours maybe different,if you can get it stable at 4ghz it will be less of a bottleneck for your card
 
i was running 3.8ghz using stock cooler my 965be .... but had a dodgy mobo ... it did get nice and toasty in the room mind .. which did help in cold winter lol ....

but i'm just about to have my newer system built using same chip ... mobo change , ram to ddr3 and new cpu cooler , so will see what this baby can do.
 
Cheers for the further posts & help :) Taking the plunge.

Downloaded both Asus turboV & AMD Overdrive to test before entering manually in bios....ended up using overdrive.

Tried 18x (3600mhz) first at default 1.4v. passed an hour of prime.
Upped to 19x (3800) (1.4v) blue screened at prime straight away. Upped voltage to 1.45v. Blue screened at prime in half an hour. temps around 57 (first 15 min was pass....could up fans but don't like the noise)

Is this normal? will continue to up voltage .o1v at a time.

Everything in bios is set to auto...don't know if this will affect things. Changed "overclock" setting from auto to manual to keep fsb to 200 & something else to whatever. (there was also overclock presets 10% etc.

Naturally I'll manually enter multiplier/cpu voltage if a success..as for the rest on auto...no idea.

anyway....now for some more testing. tnx again :)

Oh prime was set on blend.
 
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Stayed on 3800mhz & upped to 1.4875v. Been stable on prime with passes now for 2 hours. Temps hovering between 59.5 - 60 c tho. seems high. So does the voltage for a 3800 oc....maybe I've just got a bad overclocker. Gonna have to look into altering this LLC setting which I've stumbled across for better stability....oh my head hurts...what road am I leading myself down??
 
You using stock cooler mate ?

i'd spend £20-£30 on a custom one .. shoud fix any oc problems ..well i hope it does as that's what i'm doing lol
 
As Talon said if you're overclocking on the stock cooler it's a good idea to upgrade.

It'll lower your temps quite a lot.

I upgraded mine and I get in the 30's at idle and 40's under load on a 3.8 overclock.
 
cheers..no it's not stock it's a zalman cnps 9700 LED applied with artic silver paste..case is antec 902. maybe it's a crap cooler but reviews were good at the time....dust it out now & then..might give it another dusting when I get the chance. (trying not to cut my fingers to bits a per usual).

I'm getting upper 30's at idle on 3.8 @1.4875v. Will have to throw bf3 or something on when I get time & see what temps I get then...can't see it getting that hot compared to prime.
 
Upper 30's isn't too bad considering at idle.

You're right Prime will stress it more than anything, I doubt it'll go as high when you're playing games and tbh those temps aren't dangerous, so I wouldn't worry too much.

I have my fan on full too, 2000RPM, so that prob plays a large part as you turned yours down too.
 
Well I've been playing bf3 mp all night & it only reached mid-lower 40's so that's at least a result. Though if fps going from 3.4 to 3.8mhz is noticeable is another matter.

Think getting any further than 3.8 is a non-starter.....putting it up to 4mhz/1.5v instantly crashes. Dunno why..maybe just unlucky in chip.

Anyway....whatever the results, I've taken the first steps into overclocking and it's been an interesting step forward so tnx again for all the input..Andy :)

Oh recently noticed there was an overclocking section...nevermind :\

ooh nice shiny signature too.
 
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Good job. :)

It may even be your motherboard that is constricting your ability to push it higher.

I have really low temps for a 965, a good heatsink and the C3 version but mine wasn't stable for too long above 3.8Ghz, even though I increased the voltage a lot and the temps were still great.

Imo it was my motherboard that was causing the instability. May be the same issue with yours.

I've read reviews where they got it to 4.2Ghz without having to raise the voltage too much.
 
Ta very much whiteshadow :)

Well I gave my heatsink a really good brushing/blowing today & it knocked the temps down to around 56 c on prime after 3 hours. Also bumped up the cpu nb to 2600. stable so far.

Tried getting to 3857 by increasing ht clock to 203 (on top of 19x multiplyer) but bluescreened at prime straight away so 3800 it is.. (tho could try upping the voltage some more.)

I remember buying the mobo at the time as it was supposed to be a good oc board...also bought it for its solid capacitors. Oh well.

Benchmark results in various things have increased along the way....can only conclude the stock 965 is holding back the gtx 670. Having said that all games ran great anyway so there's still life in the old dog yet.

as for moving on to oc'ing memory.....that just behind me is the dust trail I'm leaving behind. (all those numbers...maybe one day..)
 
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