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How To: Overclocking Your AMD Processor

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  • Overclocking
  • Processors
  • AMD
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Anonymous
a b K Overclocking
February 20, 2009 5:00:06 AM

Paul spent the last two weeks overclocking three generations of of AMD processors to help owners of Athlon, Phenom, and Phenom II CPUs maximize the performance of their chips. If you're planning on entering our overclocking contest, this guide's for you!

How To: Overclocking Your AMD Processor : Read more

More about : overclocking amd processor

February 20, 2009 6:27:03 AM

It's nice to see articles about AMD cpu's once again! Just goes to show that Tom's is not biased but rather report's on current trend's and competetive product's that the consumer's enjoy!

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Anonymous
a b K Overclocking
February 20, 2009 6:34:28 AM

Thanks for rev!
Things i like to add are that not all CPU's are supported with AOD even having decent mobo, for example my 4850e + 780G. When overclocking NorthBrige you should really pay attention on it's temp, by simply touching it. Recently i overclocked my system by rising FSB and IGP. Looking at temps given by BIOS and some utilities everything seemed to be ok about 50c, but when touching pasivly cooled NB i couldn't hold my finger for second and heat was so great that even CPU got warmer! When i measured it with multimeter it was 85c idle! And i was wondering why on 3DMark i got blue screen... Problem was solved by adding fan in zone of NB.
Anyway, moral for those who are willing to overclock is - don't relay on temp measurements given by some utilities. Sometimes it's worth double checking or u can burn something easy. :)  Good luck!
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February 20, 2009 7:23:07 AM

Intel is such a meany. Another wannabe monopoly like Microsoft.

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February 20, 2009 8:36:36 AM

AMD overdrive doesnt see my K8 proccessor as an AMD procc. Cute.
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February 20, 2009 10:08:07 AM

I realize that the price difference between the "black edition" and normal processors aren't that much, but I have been wondering how well the "vanilla" cpu's would oc. I've done some light searching for anyplace that's done this and haven't found anything other than people attempting to max out the BE's.
Does anyone know what a good OC on say the X3 710 would be? It's about $40 cheaper than the 720BE and if it could even hit close to 3.0 I would consider it a decent buy.
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February 20, 2009 3:08:33 PM

... nice one... and for tha fun of it... would be nice to see a 'system build marathon' based on AMD CPU's...
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February 20, 2009 3:37:05 PM

xx12amanxxIt's nice to see articles about AMD cpu's once again! Just goes to show that Tom's is not biased but rather report's on current trend's and competetive product's that the consumer's enjoy!


I do agree. I honestly don't think TH ever conducted a boycott of AMD. They just needed something worth saying and AMD finally gave them that. Until Phenom 2, they really had not earned recognition for a good year and a half. They didn't have bad products, but very forgettable ones.
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February 20, 2009 4:39:08 PM

easily one of the best articles I've seen here in a long while.
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February 20, 2009 4:53:12 PM

It seems like this article was written specifically for me. I recently built a new PC and it has components used in this article and I've also never overclocked a PC before.

Specs:
ASUS M3A78-T
AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz
Patriot Extreme Performance SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
GeForce 7600GT 256MB
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283
Antec 500w Earthwatts power supply

My video card suits my current needs but if I upgrade to a 4870/4850, will I have any power issues if I follow this guide word for word considering my power supply is only 500w compared to the 650w the article uses?
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February 20, 2009 5:13:27 PM

iamlouieIt seems like this article was written specifically for me. I recently built a new PC and it has components used in this article and I've also never overclocked a PC before.Specs:ASUS M3A78-TAMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHzPatriot Extreme Performance SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)GeForce 7600GT 256MBXIGMATEK HDT-S1283 Antec 500w Earthwatts power supplyMy video card suits my current needs but if I upgrade to a 4870/4850, will I have any power issues if I follow this guide word for word considering my power supply is only 500w compared to the 650w the article uses?



A single 4850 and a dual core cpu around 3Ghz will be fine on your 500W PSU. If you had a cheap brand 500W PSU, I wouldn't risk it, but a 4850 should be fine for you.

The 4870 probably would be fine too but you would want to look into that before purchasing/installing the card.
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February 20, 2009 10:03:05 PM

wow just in time for my upgrade to Phenom II. i know how to OC my K8, but i wasn't sure what the difference would be with a K10. thanks toms.
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February 21, 2009 12:54:49 AM

What is the point of posting photos that cannot be read?

It's as bad as the unreadable color combinations on the AMD website.
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February 21, 2009 1:34:20 AM

yeah the photos quality very bad, btw i using ecs ECS A780GM-A Black and Atlon64 X2 6000+ why the AOD won't let me touch the OC bar?
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February 21, 2009 4:18:22 AM

JohnMD1022What is the point of posting photos that cannot be read?It's as bad as the unreadable color combinations on the AMD website.

Click on the pics to expand and they should be simple to read. ;) 
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February 21, 2009 4:22:05 AM

RRRThanks for rev!Things i like to add are that not all CPU's are supported with AOD even having decent mobo, for example my 4850e + 780G. When overclocking NorthBrige you should really pay attention on it's temp, by simply touching it. Recently i overclocked my system by rising FSB and IGP. Looking at temps given by BIOS and some utilities everything seemed to be ok about 50c, but when touching pasivly cooled NB i couldn't hold my finger for second and heat was so great that even CPU got warmer! When i measured it with multimeter it was 85c idle! And i was wondering why on 3DMark i got blue screen... Problem was solved by adding fan in zone of NB. Anyway, moral for those who are willing to overclock is - don't relay on temp measurements given by some utilities. Sometimes it's worth double checking or u can burn something easy. Good luck!

Yes, thanks for mentioning this about checking by touch or probe when raising NB VID and not relying on reported mobo temps for NB temps.
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Anonymous
a b K Overclocking
February 21, 2009 4:42:06 AM

Someone please answer me.
Whether there is any utility (AOD for AMD processors) which can work with intel processors?
Also, can i overclock from windows if my BIOS doesn't support overclocking?
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February 21, 2009 4:47:29 AM

jhanschuI realize that the price difference between the "black edition" and normal processors aren't that much, but I have been wondering how well the "vanilla" cpu's would oc. I've done some light searching for anyplace that's done this and haven't found anything other than people attempting to max out the BE's. Does anyone know what a good OC on say the X3 710 would be? It's about $40 cheaper than the 720BE and if it could even hit close to 3.0 I would consider it a decent buy.

Initial Street Pricing has spaced the X3 710 and 720 apart, but if you look the X3 720 is right now down to $150 on Newegg making it a $30 difference. I’d like to get my hands on a X3 710 myself to test on the Asus M3A78-T. It has a CPU multi locked at 13, so your OC will depend on the reference clock your mobo can hit. I question how far beyond 3.3GHz, especially if considering the X3 710 for the $625 SBM build as we couldn’t pair it with too expensive a mobo, still keeping a nice GPU, and sticking to strict $625. With the right mobo, I’d hope for 3.4GHz or beyond(similar to X4 810), but I have not used one nor even seen anyone’s results, so that’s just a guess. Of course, the flexibility of the Black Edition would be easily worth the extra $30 IMO if not confined to that strict budget.
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February 21, 2009 5:07:45 AM

iamlouieIt seems like this article was written specifically for me. I recently built a new PC and it has components used in this article and I've also never overclocked a PC before.Specs:ASUS M3A78-TAMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHzPatriot Extreme Performance SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)GeForce 7600GT 256MBXIGMATEK HDT-S1283 Antec 500w Earthwatts power supplyMy video card suits my current needs but if I upgrade to a 4870/4850, will I have any power issues if I follow this guide word for word considering my power supply is only 500w compared to the 650w the article uses?

I'll agree with Deuce that the Earthwatts 500W would have no problem for the HD 4850 upgrade. With 34A of 12V it should also handle the HD4870 just fine unless you are ridiculously loaded with drives & fans. If you look at the $750 International Challenge article you'll see I paired an OC'ed E8500 and HD 4850 with an Earthwatts 380W and had no issues at all. The last $625 SBM also used a 500W with 34A 12V paired with an HD 4870. I would have easily used the Earthwatts 500W on that system had it been cheaper at the time.
Congrats on the system; it's very nice. I like the Asus mobo, the Kuma X2 7750 Black is sweet for such a low price, your cooler choice offers great performance and is quiet, the EA500 a solid PSU I use myself. If you want to game a 4850/4870 would do wonders for the system and both are priced right(in the USA anyway).
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February 21, 2009 11:16:01 AM

pauldhI'll agree with Deuce that the Earthwatts 500W would have no problem for the HD 4850 upgrade. With 34A of 12V it should also handle the HD4870 just fine unless you are ridiculously loaded with drives & fans. If you look at the $750 International Challenge article you'll see I paired an OC'ed E8500 and HD 4850 with an Earthwatts 380W and had no issues at all. The last $625 SBM also used a 500W with 34A 12V paired with an HD 4870. I would have easily used the Earthwatts 500W on that system had it been cheaper at the time. Congrats on the system; it's very nice. I like the Asus mobo, the Kuma X2 7750 Black is sweet for such a low price, your cooler choice offers great performance and is quiet, the EA500 a solid PSU I use myself. If you want to game a 4850/4870 would do wonders for the system and both are priced right(in the USA anyway).


Thanks to you and deuce271 for the replies!
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February 21, 2009 1:34:23 PM

Here is a question unrelated to the article: Is Thomas Pabst still with Toms Hardware? Or is all this ran by something else now?
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February 22, 2009 3:26:53 PM

Thank you! Right up my alley. I just bought a M3A78-T, 4870x2, and Phenom II 940 BE. Lots of people seem to be jumping on the "Dragon" bandwagon and I for one have no prior experience with AMD or ATI products. Your guide is much appreciated, it's easier than sifting through pages of (mostly) useless forum posts looking for info.
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Anonymous
a b K Overclocking
February 22, 2009 6:20:10 PM

iamlouie: Im running here M3A78-T + Athlon X2 5400+BE + 4x1BG 800MHz DDR2+ GW Radeon HD4850 (GS factory overcloked to 700MHz) + 3 HDDs in RAID array + 420W Enermax PSU with no issues. So I think that you should not have any problems too. Im not overclocking yet.
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February 23, 2009 12:14:56 PM

Good article, 2009 marks the 10th year I have overclocked my CPU. PI 120MHz, Cyrix 300 (233MHz), Duron 750MHz, Duron 750MHz, Athlon 1.3GHz, Athlon MP 1.8GHz, E6400, Q6600.


scryer_360Here is a question unrelated to the article: Is Thomas Pabst still with Toms Hardware? Or is all this ran by something else now?

Tom’s is been run by a CEO with directors above and upper management below him, just like Lehman Brothers. Run by founder with value and integrity is so 1990s. Now it is all about merger, selling out and huge bonuses.


iamlouie…….My video card suits my current needs but if I upgrade to a 4870/4850, will I have any power issues if I follow this guide word for word considering my power supply is only 500w compared to the 650w the article uses?

I am running a Q6600 @3.0GHz and 4870 1GB. Taking into account of power supply inefficiency, my computer consumes about 250w at max load with an Antec 550w that’s 85% efficient at 50% load. (Actual draw at socket is 290~w).
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February 23, 2009 11:52:50 PM

Pei-chenTom’s is been run by a CEO with directors above and upper management below him, just like Lehman Brothers. Run by founder with value and integrity is so 1990s. Now it is all about merger, selling out and huge bonuses.


Hey now, Pei. I was the hardware editor at SharkyExtreme back when Tom was in charge over here. Patrick has been around since the beginning. I think we do a darn fine job of keeping that same enthusiast spirit alive here now.
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February 25, 2009 1:04:12 PM

wow, i had know idea how awesome AOD actually is. first time givin it a try. how do you edit the preferences? i went into the AOD directory and opened the AODconfig.xml file with notepad, but what do i edit??
even though i do prefer BIOS overclocking, i wanted to see how AOD compares to my regular bios OC's. help plez!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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February 25, 2009 1:04:30 PM

wow, i had know idea how awesome AOD actually is. first time givin it a try. how do you edit the preferences? i went into the AOD directory and opened the AODconfig.xml file with notepad, but what do i edit??
even though i do prefer BIOS overclocking, i wanted to see how AOD compares to my regular bios OC's. help plez!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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March 1, 2009 11:07:48 AM

deneme
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March 1, 2009 11:08:33 AM

deneme
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March 6, 2009 6:33:20 AM

Paul, could you re-do part of the test? Reset everything to standard and realy try the 'Auto Clock'? It would be nice verify that you're smarter than a piece of software :) 

Joking aside though, I like overclocking as much as the next guy, but time is sparse... If I can get 'very close' to the optimum with the 'Auto Clock', I can take it from there manually.


Also, as a side note - I've never 'overclocked the memory' (or whatever one would call it - 'finetune the memory'?). Any article(s) that describe the theory on that in more detail?
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March 6, 2009 6:35:09 AM

Paul, could you re-do part of the test? Reset everything to standard and realy try the 'Auto Clock'? It would be nice verify that you're smarter than a piece of software :) 

Joking aside though, I like overclocking as much as the next guy, but time is sparse... If I can get 'very close' to the optimum with the 'Auto Clock', I can take it from there manually.


Also, as a side note - I've never 'overclocked the memory' (or whatever one would call it - 'finetune the memory'?). Any article(s) that describe the theory on that in more detail?
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March 7, 2009 6:29:05 AM

I loved the article. It was very deteailed. But I couldn't figure out as well what to edit in the .xml file. The preference file didn't seem to have anything that I could edit that would change the maximum allowable voltage.
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April 2, 2009 9:19:42 PM


Quote:
jhanschu : ...Does anyone know what a good OC on say the X3 710 would be? It's about $40 cheaper than the 720BE and if it could even hit close to 3.0 I would consider it a decent buy.


I put together X3 720 BE system for video project and my own upgrade from 3GHz P4/800/512 and had same curiosity as you. My 126.5% overclock ratio results might be similar for X3 710. At non-BE locked setting of 14X multiplier I was error-free in Prime95 (longest run was 6+ hours) at CoreSpeed:3542 (1.4V), BusSpeed:253, HTLink:2024 (HT/NB=1600 in BIOS). That ran my DDR2-1066 as only 1012MHz, but acceptable.

My Corsair RAM is sold as DDR2-1066 but neither pair overclocked well above 1080. It is apparently DDR2-800 tested to perform at 1066 speed by increasing 1.8V RAM voltage to 2.1V, as per Corsair. All timings had to be set manually in my BIOS because reported SPD is DDR2-800. My BIOS is now set to DDR2-800 but with DDR2-1066 timings 5/5/5/15/2T/22 for the "overclock". I bought them because it was the least expensive brand DDR2-1066 sold by Newegg on Biostar's compatibility list, and Corsair has always fared well in past system builds.

Testing multiplier-only overclock at standard BusSpeed:200, HTLink:2000, DDR2:800 my CPU maxed out at 3500MHz (200x17.5) stable. I received an error from 3rd core about 3 hours into Prime95 torture test using 3600MHz (200x18) setting. Fastest I was able to boot and run AOD benchmarks was CoreSpeed:3762 (1.425V), Multiplier:x18.0. BusSpeed:209, HTLink:1881, DDR2:1113 (2.25V). I never bothered to exceed rated core voltage of 1.425V in any test. This is all with AMD stock cooling, mind you.

I failed to check if my CPU was from the 0904 production batch before installation but this motherboard will not even post with ACC "Auto" enabled for unlocking 4th core. BIOS is CM113.BS that was already loaded with motherboard. I'm pretty satisfied and this system has far surpassed the various Core 2 Duo E8xxx systems we used at work. I want Intel to have competition so I support/build AMD systems for myself and customers every chance I get. I'm not into gaming/overclocking and the mATX case I chose has limits, so I planned to be conservative from the beginning.

My current settings are: CoreSpeed:3458 (1.3875V), Multiplier:x13.0, BusSpeed:266, HTLink:1862, DDR2:1066 (2.15V). Nothing more than warm to the touch except my SCSI drive which has always felt moderately hot.

Corsair CMPSU-550VX (many long cables, bad choice for mATX)
Biostar TA790GX XE AM2+ mATX
AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE AM3
4GB Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5D (Dominator heatsink barely clears in DIMM1/2)
4GB Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5 (low-profile clears hard drive, DIMM3/4)
Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 (100225L)
Western Digital Black 500GB (WD5001AALS)
Maxtor Atlas 10K IV 146GB (on LSI U160 adapter)
Lite-On LH-20A1L DVDRW
SIIG Firewire 400 Home DV Kit
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May 16, 2009 5:17:07 PM

If i tried the same process on Amd x3 720 BE, would i have any good results ? My rest Overclocking stuff ( i guess !) is Asus M4A78 PRO ( as mobo), Corsair 2x2 GB 800 Mhz (Ram), Scythe Kama Angle (as a Cpu cooler). Thanks.
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May 27, 2009 5:05:44 PM

I have Phenom 9850 BE coupled to an MSI K9n2neo and I Initially installed 2 gskill 1066 rams at 2G each, I had to remove the ram and install 2 Gskill at 1G each to get my system up and running. this was my first computer build and later I heard that the reason the faster better Ram is that to take advantage of the better ram at 1066 requires changing settings in BIOS. as I said I am new to this I dont want to mess with Bios unless its very basic stuff. any way any suggestions or guidance to a good reference?
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June 24, 2009 2:00:54 PM

Just read this and it's going to be a great help when I get my 940be.

Thanks for the info - really helpful.

PJ
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a c 296 K Overclocking
a b À AMD
August 27, 2009 4:41:54 PM

Ok, really good....but where are the AM3???
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September 15, 2009 4:14:23 PM

saint19 said:
Ok, really good....but where are the AM3???

This article was written in February. AM3 wasn't even out yet genius. :sarcastic: 
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