Unstable overclock even at 43 degree

bukaida

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I have the following system configuration

OS- Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit sp1
Processor: Pentium G 3258 at 3.9GHz (oc)
Mother board- Gigabyte GA-Z97 D3H (Full ATX)
Memory: 2 X 4GB Corsair Vengeance at 1600 MHz with XMP enabled
Boot: Samsung 850 EVO 120GB SSD
Storage: WD Blue 1 TB 6Gbps
DVD : ASUS
Monitor: Dell S2240L HD IPS
PSU: Seasonic SII 520 Watt
Cabinet: Deepkool Kendomen TI with 5 cooling fans

Now I cannot overclock beyond 3.9 GHz even when system temperature is showing around 35-38 degree and CPU 43 to 45 Degree. It is stable upto 3.5 GHz. It is stable without heavy applications( like playing DMC) for sometimes and showing BSD as soon as the frequency is set to 4 GHz ( X 40). I am using UEFI and changing only frequency multiplier without changing anything else. Please help. I am a newbie in OC.
 
That's exactly what you expect to happen if you OC without raising voltages. Just raising the frequency doesn't have a large impact on temperature. The CPU is made up of many transistors, which are like electrical gates which need to open and close. At some point as you raise the frequency they can't change state (open/close) quickly enough and your get errors and BSODs. To address that you up the voltage, which allows the transistors to change state quicker and makes higher frequencies possible... but at the expensive of more power and heat.

That's why the usual process of OCing is up the frequency until you hit errors, then up the voltage until it's resolved, then return to upping frequency again, and so on and so forth until you either hit a voltage that you've decided is unsafe, or your temps get out of control.

Are you following a decent OCing guide? I recommend that if you're new. Google OCing and you mobo model and you should find plenty.
 

bukaida

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Actually all the tutorials ( Even here also) indicated that it is not a problem for anyone to reach upto 4.2 GHz using the stock voltage and stock cooler for G 3258. I am not being able to reach even 4 GHz. :cry:

I have followed this guide
http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/intel_pentium_g3258_oc_guide/
 


Well that very guide you linked, on the last page under "results", says that some chips will require a little extra voltage to get to 4Ghz, which is exactly what you're seeing isn't it?

Not all chips are created equal, that why they call it the silicon lottery, so just because others or most can, doesn't mean you'll be able to either, unfortunately. Sill, unless I've misunderstood your message, your right where you'd expect to be, getting to 3.9 just fine, but needing (probably only a little) extra voltage to get to 4.
 

bukaida

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What step the voltage should be increased? I mean for every 100 MHz increase, what is the usual increase in volt ? Is it purely experimental or there exist any thumb rule? Do I need to OC memory also? Will I get any advantage in OC memory as it is already 1600 MHz and G 3258 supports upto 1300 MHz only ? Forgive me if I sound too silly. I am trying to learn the basics without damaging my processor /RAM/MoBo.
 


Increase voltages in 0.025 increments. Each chip has its own particular profile, so you can't pay too much attention to other's results, however I've listed the following if you're interested.

Ian Cutress from Anandtech used to be a hardcore overclocker (perhaps Pro, or at least active in the high level amateur scene), and I like the way he lays out his results. His review of your CPU is here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8232/overclockable-pentium-anniversary-edition-review-the-intel-pentium-g3258-ae
The results I'm talking about are in a table a little past half way through the page.
You can see he's been able to undervolt his CPU to 0.925 volts at 3.5Ghz, and then required gradual and usually small increases in volts from there until about 4Ghz, after which each 100mhz step required more significant voltage increases until at 4.8Ghz, even 1.525volts results in a BSOD (1.525v being way higher than most would recommend you run at).

He got a review sample from Intel, so you'd have to suspect they cherry-picked him a good CPU. Don't expect your CPU to be as good and if it is... you're lucky!

It sounds like you've got to 3.9Ghz just fine. Why not start yourself a table like that page has, and see how far you can get. Set yourself a voltage and temp limit, many suggest that you don't go over 80 degress on a stress test and 1.4V as the max... as soon as you exceed either of those, dial back to your previous "successful" row and you have your maximum OC.
With that table as well, you can then look a few rows up and see whether the last few hundred Mhz are worth it. In that Anandtech table, for example, The jump from 4.5 to 4.7 came at the cost of 0.125V (5 steps) and 12 degrees. Given that voltage and temps both affect the life of the CPU, if I'm wanting to get 4+ years out of my rig I might choose to dial back to 4.5Ghz, because the extra 4% or so performance doesn't justify the extra stress. On the other hand, if the Pentium is just a stop gap until I could afford an i5 or i7, I might be happy to push it even hard (perhaps past 1.4V even), to squeeze out every bit I can because long-life doesn't matter to me.
The point is, with a table like that you get a sense of how your particular CPU OCs, and where you want to leave things long term.

RE RAM, there are very few applications that benefit from increased RAM throughput, and Intel's memory controller is already very strong. Generally faster RAM or overclocking RAM is more of hobby than a way to get better performance, unless you happen to rely on one of the few situations where RAM speed is holding your system back (gaming with an onboard GPU is one such example).
 

bukaida

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Thank you very much for taking your precious time for such an excellent illaboration. I will definitely follow your suggestion and link and post my result here. I will be happy if I can have 4.0-4.2 GHz stable clock on stock cooler. Will definitely try this weekend. Thanks for the guidence on RAM.
 


Good luck and all the best.

If you're raising voltages on the stock cooler make sure you watch your temperatures very closely. It's generally not a great idea to OC without aftermarket cooling, but you can't damage anything as long as you make sure your temps stay under control (and even then, unless you've disabled the thermal safety measures on the itself (and absolutely don't do this on the stock cooler!), you shouldn't damage anything.)

Good luck.
 

bukaida

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Gave a try today. Could overclock till 4.2GHz but needed slightly greater voltage (1.250) instead of 1.150 as specified in the guide. Below this ( 1.225) it is showing BSOD. Didnot get time to fine tune between these.
Max temperature in CPUID is showing 48. I have run IntelBurnTest v2.54 and below is the result--
----------------------------
IntelBurnTest v2.54
Created by AgentGOD
----------------------------

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G3258 @ 3.20GHz
Clock Speed: 3.19 GHz
Active Physical Cores: 2
Total System Memory: 8077 MB

Stress Level: Standard (1024 MB)
Testing started on 21-08-2015 08:44:06 PM
Time (s) Speed (GFlops) Result
[20:44:41] 29.836 29.9601 3.436777e-002
[20:45:15] 29.354 30.4516 3.436777e-002
[20:45:48] 29.400 30.4047 3.436777e-002
[20:46:22] 29.316 30.4914 3.436777e-002
[20:46:56] 29.283 30.5256 3.436777e-002
[20:47:29] 29.599 30.2000 3.436777e-002
[20:48:03] 29.290 30.5186 3.436777e-002
[20:48:36] 29.335 30.4718 3.436777e-002
[20:49:10] 29.284 30.5246 3.436777e-002
[20:49:44] 29.432 30.3713 3.436777e-002
Testing ended on 21-08-2015 08:49:44 PM
Test Result: Success.
----------------------------

It went to a whopping 78 degree temperature inspite of having my home AC on at 24 degree(quite chilling for small room) and all 5 fans+ cpu FAN of cabinet running at full speed + Ceiling Fan running at maximum speed during this stress test. Hope the configuration will be steady. I will run Prime 64 this Sunday.

One astonishing thing-- I re-ran the windows experience index after OCing from 3.2 to 4.2, but the CPU performance index did not change a bit. Is it normal?