Overclocking AMD CPU FX - 8320

With the right cooling - such as liquid nitrogen, you could go 7ghz. However, I'm thinking that you'll want to stay a little more sane than that.

You should be able to get a bit higher than that, but there are several things you haven't mentioned.

1) what are your voltages and your temps?
2) what kind of cooler do you have?

That will help develop a plan, but there are many things which determine how far ANY CPU can overclock, and different CPU/mobo/heatsink combos will have very different overclock limits. Even with the same mobo and heatsink, your 8320 may hit 4.2 and no higher, while the guy next door will hit 4.7ghz. Hence the term: silicon lottery. Some CPUs just do better - even from the same production batch.

So - in any event, once you hit a certain point in overclocking, there are methods towards hitting the maximum OC on any particular chip. In general, your load temp limit should be about 75C for a nice safe and stable OC. Your voltage max is about 1.50v - higher than that will damage the chip. The general procedure for overclocking is:

1) bump multiplier.
2) stress test.
3) if below 75c and 1.50v and passes stress test, go to step 1. If fails, go to step 4.
4) if at 75c OR 1.49v, go to step 7.
5) increase voltage by .01v
6) got to step 2.
7) you're done. Downclock multiplier by 1 - recheck via stress that it's stable - this is your max stable speed.

The way this works if you look at it is you're creeping up on max speed by increasing the multiplier which is determined by a function of both voltage AND temp. If the stress testing fails - you can add a bit more voltage until it passes the stress test - up to a limit of 1.5v or 75c load temp. If you're at either of those limits, you're done and shouldn't add any more voltage or push the chip any further.

Some notes. Cooling is uber-important. If you have a stock cooler (unless its one of the newer Wraith coolers), you're not going to get very far. Usually a bigger heatsink is needed if you're going to overclock, or a good water cooler (or liquid nitrogen... lol). Don't forget to account for cooling the VRMs - having good airflow in the case will be very important as well. Lastly, remember that not every chip will easily hit 4.7ghz (or 4.5, or even 4.3ghz) stable. Chip tolerances vary WILDLY, and these chips already go through a round of testing to find the better and best ones. That's what a FX-9590 is made from. If your chip was capable of 4.5ghz at low temps and voltages, AMD would have already picked it out and repackaged it as a premium chip. That's why the do binning in the first place.

Good luck with the OC!

**** Edit ****

Pointed out by someone below that tMax for AMD is about 10c lower than Intel. While this might be true, the point is that with the 28-32nm process that these are on they can take a fair bit of abuse, you may never be able to hit 70C stable, but according the flowchart above you'd hit vMax and have to stop anyhow and that IS a hard limit that can damage the chip.

I also need to add that at the end of the chart step 7 you'd theoretically at a multiplier which is unstable as you failed the stress test and are either at tMax or vMax. You need to then downclock the multiplier by one notch, retest and verify you're stable.