overclocking an fx8350

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chris78

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Dec 28, 2013
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I currently have gigabyte 990fxa ud3 ref 1.2 motherboard and was hoping for a good overclock but am disappointed. can u suggest a good motherboard so that I can overclock stably at 4.5ghz to 5.0ghz
 
Solution
ingtar33


well... 4.2ghz is pretty common for stock vcore. generally piledriver cpus can hit somewhere around 4.2ghz-4.6ghz on stock vcore. Its even more common when you consider the UD3 doesn't allow for working with the LLC settings for that chip. so it looks like you haven't really started to overclock that cpu yet.

That's not a motherboard issue

When you overclock a cpu, at faster clock speeds you need to increase the vcore... well it's a bit complicated. If you'd like i'll copy/paste one of my old instructional on how to overclock a piledriver properly.
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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you're going to have to give us a ton more info if we're going to help. I get how you might want a better motherboard, but that gigabyte isn't a "bad" overclocking board. what's happening? what cpu cooler do you have? your ram? your psu?

we'll need some more info before we start throwing out motherboards for you to use. (btw: there are plenty of boards that overclock as well or better then that gigabyte, that doesn't mean that gigabyte won't hit 5ghz... or another motherboard will, if you have a poor chip, poor psu, poor air circulation in your case, or a poor cpu cooler no motherboard in the world will get you to 5ghz)
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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that h60 is probably whats holding you back. it's basically equal to a hyper 212 evo. its a very low performing water cooler. Frankly i wouldn't expect you to get beyond 4.4-4.5ghz with that.

First step will be to replace that with a serious 240mm closed loop cooler, like a h100 or h100i, then see what you can get on your overclock. understand that "mediocre" fx cpus can't get past 4.7-4.8 no matter what you do so replacing the cpu cooler might not get you to 5ghz... just like replacing the motherboard might not as well.

but lets start with the obvious problem. While your motherboard isn't "great" there are a LOT of people who hit 5ghz with it, so it's definitely capable; so lets hit the most likely reason for your overclocking issues (the cpu cooler) first..
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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what have you done thus far? try to describe it, and tell me the max clock and vcore you reached... as well as temps.

(BTW: you might be overclocking right, just have the wrong chip or cpu cooler...)
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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well... 4.2ghz is pretty common for stock vcore. generally piledriver cpus can hit somewhere around 4.2ghz-4.6ghz on stock vcore. Its even more common when you consider the UD3 doesn't allow for working with the LLC settings for that chip. so it looks like you haven't really started to overclock that cpu yet.

That's not a motherboard issue

When you overclock a cpu, at faster clock speeds you need to increase the vcore... well it's a bit complicated. If you'd like i'll copy/paste one of my old instructional on how to overclock a piledriver properly.
 
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Solution
ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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understand i wrote this for someone with a MSI board, but it will work for you too... mostly i'm really familiar with ASUS boards and overclocking on them, but the principle is the same, so just search around a bit in the bios to find these options (if they're available) if they're not let me know, i'll see what i can do to help you out on it.

first you'll need to go into your bios. there are certain things you'll need to do before you overclock.
1) disable turbo mode
2) disable c1/c6 states
3) turn off AMP
4) if your mb supports LLC (i'm not sure about that msi board) turn it on to the highest setting for the CPU and a medium setting for the Northbridge (this prevents "voltage droop", or a drop in voltage when your cpu is under load. This will improve stability)
5) turn up your cpu and nb current capacity to its highest settings (this allows your cpu/nb to draw more power if needed when under load)
6) turn off quiet and cool
7) go to the advanced cpu settings, change to manual (it will probably be something like "automatic")
8) go to cpu multiplier, it should be set to 20 (the base cpu frequency for a 8350 is 4.0 ghz; cpu frequency (200) * cpu multiplier (20) = 4.0ghz); and bump it up +0.5 to 4.1ghz,
9) go down to your cpu's vcore voltage, change from auto to manual, every cpu has a different vcore out of the box, so set it to whatever the bios says it's currently set at. it will probably be something in the range of 1.32-1.36 depending on your cpu.
10) go down to the cpu/nb voltage (usually the next setting in the bios) and change it from auto to manual, and set it to whatever the bios claims it's working at (this is also unique to the cpu, though it should be something around 1.1v to 1.2v)

now save and restart... load into windows, download a one of two programs... it doesn't really matter which... either intel's burn test or occt (prime95 is also ok... but it tends to give false crashes at higher frequencies for piledriver cpus, so it's not the most reliable). I like intel's burn test for a quick stability test... run it for 20 passes, at it's highest stress levels... i don't like IBT because it doesn't generate the heat something like prime95 or OCCT will. so for judging if your case airflow and cpu cooler are doing a good job, it's a poor measure of that. but for finding instability, IBT is awesome, because 20 passes (10-15minutes) are better then 8 hours of prime, or 2 hours of OCCT for finding instability

if your computer passes, restart go into your bios and bump the multiplier another +0.5, rinse and repeat. get yourself core temp or hwmonitor to keep an eye on your cpu temps, if your temps close in on 70C you're reaching the end of the overclock.

If the computer fails an ITB or OCCT run, or the computer simply freezes your cpu is undervolted. go back into the bios and bump the vcore another +0.0125V. try again. keep bumping the vcore and testing system stability until your computer passes, or temps get too high. if the temps are too high you'll need to back the overclock down and call it a day (or get better cooling).

generally piledriver cpus can reach 4.3-4.5 ghz on stock vcore voltage. so you'll probably get that far before you need to start to add vcore... and usually around 4.7-4.8ghz piledriver cpus need a large step up in vcore to find stability. If your temps are good you might get past that point... just know that 1.55 vcore is probably the most you'll ever want to push into a piledriver cpu. you probably won't get that far though... around 1.45 temps tend to spiral out of control...
Click to expand...
 
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