Overclocking FX 8350 at stock voltage

charlie227

Reputable
May 30, 2014
3
0
4,510
I've had an FX8350 chip for a while now and have been hesitant to OC because I'm on stock cpu cooler. I don't really want to increase the voltage because I know it will drastically increase the temps, but my chip came stock at 1.375v and I have read about people getting up to 4.5GHz on this voltage. Before overclocking I was looking to find some information, particularly an approximation as to how much hotter my chip could get on a stock cooler if I increased the frequency but not the voltage.

Also are there any cost effective coolers someone might recommend in the event that I will need one to stay within reasonable temps? (Preferably one that is easy to mount as I am inexperienced)

CPU: FX8350
MOBO: MSI 970a-g46

(I apologize if my post is written up incorrectly or in the wrong place, this is my first time posting on Tomshardware and I'm not yet fully aware of the protocol)
 

charlie227

Reputable
May 30, 2014
3
0
4,510
Thank you for the fast and simple feedback - however it still leaves me wondering. Would I be able to potentially push higher on stock voltage with this stock cooler? Will changing frequency on stock voltage increase my temps significantly, or is it the voltage increase that usually causes much higher temperatures?
 

exroofer

Distinguished
For the most part, power draw = heat. If you set the voltage to it's stock setting, which is not always exactly the same on every chip, you will not generate much extra heat. Also opening up the northbridge can usually be done with little or no extra voltage, and yields significant performance gains for little to no thermal penalty.

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

Read that, several times. Best guide out there for this series of chips. Understand that bumping the multiplier without manually setting the voltage limit WILL result in more heat, because the voltage will auto-adjust.
Never use auto clocking software. It will yield more heat and less performance.

If you have good case air flow, and make a custom profile for the cpu fan, you should easily be able to get 20% ish gain in performance on the stock cooler. If you do NOTHING else but increase the northbridge from 2000 to 2400, you will get almost that much gain in real world cpu thruput.
It will be louder.

So my advice is to......

1) Read the guide.
2) Read it again.
3) After you feel comfortable with what you are going to do, make small, one bump increases and run Prime95 for thermal testing, Intelburn for cpu thruput measurement.
4) Be happy with your improved performance for free.
5) Buy Hyper 212 Evo.
6) Get another 20% or more performance on top of what you just got.

* My brand new 8350 is sitting in my closet, waiting for the additional ram to arrive so I only open it up once. Then I shall be joining you in 8350 oc adventures. But not with a stock cooler.

Edit. In the above example, turning on Turbo - higher voltage.
Edit 2. You will not have as much headroom for this with a 970 chipset as you would with a 990fx motherboard.
Decent, noticeable gains are still possible.