Phenom II 965 needs massive voltages?

Muel

Muel

Muel

Soldato
Joined
26 Jun 2009
Posts
3,023
Location
Sheffield
Hey, I'm a little puzzled by this one, I can only OC to 3.6ghz on the stock voltage, (1.425v), but on the stock clock of 3.4, it will run at 1.3v and is totally stable?

Does this mean that to get to 4ghz, I'm going to need a massive voltage? Like 1.5-6v? It should still be cool, on stock settings under load it will barely break the 40C barrier, so I have 22C to play with...


Also if anyone has this chip OC'd at all, could you post your profile up please? Would be a great help.
 
Bit of both, I got the multiplier to 18.5, but it wouldn't boot with it any higher!

I tried it at 210mhz x 18.5, and it ran for about 2 minutes on COD4 before it locked up and rebooted. :(


I have read of other people only getting the multiplier on these to 18.5, don't know if that a voltage thing or what though? I havn't ran the CPU voltage any higher than 1.425 yet, just worried me going any higher, because I spotted a thread the other day where everyone was shocked that a guy was running his E8400 over 1.5V?
 
Exxx chips are very sensitive to voltage, they are only able to cope with 1.36v, maybe 1.45 max. Phenoms can go upto 1.5v safely, in my opinion, others may say lower than that, but to me 1.5 is safe.
 
Phenom 2 chips need massive amounts of voltage above around 3.8ish GHz. I would keep it under 1.5V for 24/7
 
I've done a lot of research today, and the general consensus from all of the overclocking is that the highest safe voltage is 1.55v. For the time being, I've set it to 1.5v and increased the multiplier to 19, and previously it wouldn't go past 18.5.

It's still only running at 47C though, and ideally I want to stick below 55C, so would it actually do any damage to push it nearer to 1.6v? Has anyone tried it or would it be endangering the chip going that high?

I just hope I can get the multiplier upto 19.5 or even 20, that'd make my day. :D


Unfortunately, I can't find how to change the ram divider in the BIOS? I've had a good look around for it and can't find it...
 
It would appear I've hit the maximum of what this particular CPU can offer! I set the CPU voltage to 1.55ghz, and it still wasn't stable with a 19.5 multiplier, so I knocked it back to 19 and tried a 205mhz CPU frequency, and it was just as bad.

So I'm now at 19x200mhz, which is 3.8ghz, which ain't that bad really.

Anyone else got any more tips for these? Still struggling to find a 4ghz profile from anywhere, it seems most people can just up the multiplier to 20 and have done. :(

Everything is on auto at the moment apart from the multiplier, the CPU voltage, the RAM frequency and the RAM voltage. I set the NB/CPU voltage aswell to 1.125, as that was what someone who got theres to 4ghz was running.

Any ideas as to roughly what else I should set manually?
 
Whats the rest of your settings like? Some people have only managed 4GHz on that chip by lowering their HT link to 1.8Ghz or something. You may need to knock this down a bit.

Others get it there by increasing both the HT link and the CPU-NB link speeds. You'll need to play around with these two numbers, but for starters, i'd say try lowering your HT link to 1.8 and give that a go at 19x205.

It may be that your board is the limiting factor here. What board have you got? Also, what memory are you running, and what have you got that set at? When overclocking the CPU to 3.8+, you need to think about everything...


*edit* Looking at your sig, your memory may be the problem. 1600MHz is only supported as far as i'm aware by an overclock function, even though it appears in the menu (since the memory is designed to be able to take it...). First check the voltage your memory can take from the manufacturers website.... I know that OCZ stuff often has 'Extended Voltage Protection' which means its covered under warranty up to a higher voltage. You may get a better cpu clock by reducing your memory speed to 1333. You most likely won't notice a performance hit with this either.
 
Last edited:
Ah there's lots to think about there!

My HT link is set to auto, as is the CPU-NB link (I think).

The Ram is set to 1600mhz in the bios, at the voltage suggested by the manufacturers which is 1.65v. (Well mine's at 1.64v, but almost the same).

I shall give all that you have suggessted a try. If I increase the CPU frequency it will bump the ram back up towards 1600mhz anyway I think. For the life of me I can't find the CPU:Ram frequency ratio thingy anywhere in the Bios!
 
I've decided to pack it in now, I dropped the ram down to 1333mhz, set the HT link to 1.8ghz and upped the CPU frequency to 205x19, it lasted about 2 mins before locking up.

My board is one of these, shouldn't cause an issue? They're supposed to be really good overclockers.
 
I personally have gone right off Asus boards. I had an M3A78 Pro, but it wouldn't let me take the cpu voltage above 1.3... was on 1.4 on auto, which was weird. Also, graphics card temp was much hotter, about 10°C hotter on average. Went to a gigabyte board, and after a week of messing with settings, my OC is 200MHz better than it was for about 5 months.

Also, there is no CPU:RAM ratio that can be manually changed under an AMD system. It automatically calculates it depending on the frequency you tell it to run at. Easier to get right, but more difficult to do some complex overclocking.

A shame that you can't get it higher. You may have been one of the unlucky ones that can't get 4Ghz. I read somewhere that the "Heat Wall" for an AMD processor is anywhere between 35°C and 55°C. If you're between those, and it won't go higher, welcome to the Heat Wall.

On the other hand, you may have just hit the ceiling for that chip... 3.8GHz is a respectable overclock anyway. It's more than enough for any current game, and it'll tear through encoding/ripping.
 
with the phenom II x4's they all seem to be able to be over clocked to the same level.

the further you go up the range, you're less likely to improve a great detail by overclocking
 
I didn't know about this heat wall, but I doubt it'd effect it, as soon as I push it any more it crashes before it reached 40C, yet at 3.8ghz it will reach about 45C.

I've read a fair bit about these chips not wanting to go higher than 3.8ghz with a 64 bit OS, so I've decided to leave it now. It's a very mild overclock as it is, everythings set to auto, apart from the Ram is locked to 1600mhz at the max safe voltage of 1.64v, and the CPU is just below the max safe voltage at 1.5v, and I've upped the multiplier from 17 to 19, so I think that'll do now! I don't need huge performance, what I need is something super stable and relatively fast, So that'll do me, I'm happy to bow out now.

Unless, someone has a 965 on a 64bit OS at 4ghz and fancies posting up every last so I can copy it... :P
 
I must say, I didn't know about the 64-bit overclock barrier... I'm going to be changing over to a 64-bit Windows 7 soon, release date tomorrow and all that...

Currently got my X3 720BE running at 3.5GHz prime stable for 4 hours+... thats at 17x206. I hope under 64-bit, it'll run at this speed.... I'll be really annoyed if i have to turn it down, since I've been trying for a month to get it to this speed.

If I have some headroom, it'll help me keep my OC... Bad luck only getting 3.8. a nice speed though, regardless of it being a low % overclock.
 
I had 3.8 on my 955 but had issues and an big heat increase from that of 3.6. back on stock again, not had time and wanted to sort my drives before I had a look and adding my water cooler/overclocking again.

there have been a few 955 that have reached 4GHz but usually they're easier than 965's
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom