Help overclock 9950

WG1337

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Jul 14, 2008
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Hi!
I have AMD X4 9950 BE in a MSI K9A2 (AMD790FX) and 2 sticks of 1GB RAM @ 667 MHz.
Now the CPU is running at stock clock, that is @ 2.6 GHz.
I have tried to overclock the CPU to 3.04 GHz, but the system gets unstable, it freezes sometimes at Windows logo, sometimes when an app is running, whenever the CPU wants. But I don't think 3.04 GHz is enough, so lets talk about 3.4 GHz! Here are the settings I tried with 3.04 GHz:
FSB clock: 210 (from 200)
CPU multiplier: x14.5 (from x13)
VID: 1.317V (from 1.3V)
Memory Voltage: 1.80V (from 1.75V ?)
increases the memory clock: 700 MHz (from 667 MHz)
- The system is unstable, it sometime is able to boot, but usually freezes. Thought that memory didn't get enough power, but it wasn't it.

Here are the settings I tried with 3.4 GHz:
FSB clock: 200
CPU multiplier: x16.5
VID: 1.371V, 1.400V
- The system was able to boot only a few times, wasn't even able to get in Windows. The temperature was from 30oC to 45oC so I turned up my Zalman.

So what should I try to clock?
Btw, does clocking the HT helps?
 

eclipseaudio4

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Feb 23, 2008
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first off disable C&Q (cool and quiet), and stay w/the 14 multi for now, now to make sure that you are not overclocking the HT drop it to 4x and drop you mem multi next leave your vcore on auto and slowly step up the FSB in increments of about 5mhz untill you get a bsod. now raise your vcore in small increments .25 at most. untill you get a stable overclock watch you temps as well. it takes a while and there is a more in depth guide somewhere here in the forum or in an article. just try google ing overclocking
Also some mem just wont overclock.
 

PrangeWay

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Nov 21, 2008
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- Disable Cool and Quiet
- Use Prime 95 to check stability, 3dmark06 to measure any gains

Don't change any FSB numbers!

You can get 3.0ghz easy with just;
x15 mulitplier
volts to 1.375 (assuming .125 increments up), it'll read 1.4 or so in actual draw in cpu-z

With the SB600 chipset and a 9950 any FSB changes will crash you. Even 1 mhz will unstabilize the system.

To get higher. Breaking 3.0ghz will take one more voltage jump to 1.4 voltz in bios (it will read 1.416 or so in cpu-z), with a x16 multiplier.
Change your NB and HT multipliers to x11, and boost voltage on each of those one notch (mostly .05 v).

This has a 50% chance of workign on the SB600 boards, on a 750 board it'll work fine.


PW
 

WG1337

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Jul 14, 2008
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Ok, looks like the system is more stable when there isn't any FSB clock added.
The system freezed at first time, but that could be simply "bad-luck", but now it runs fine and only with +3oC from normal temp. that I can lower down to 26oC with Zalman's FanMate.
Will now test the stability in your recommended app, after that will see if I should even go even further.
Oh, and I enabled AMD's TBL bug fix (said that fixes the bug that keeps cache memory full), hope that won't harm.

The test went well, without warnings and errors. The CPU reached 45oC. Btw, this is the temp. that has been gained without a cooler on this PC from just starting up the windows, everything was enough fast to not notice that the cooler is off ^^

Thanks for all the help!
 

PrangeWay

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Nov 21, 2008
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I'd disable the TbL bug fix, you lose performance and it's a crash that is like a .0001% chance of happening type thing. Infact I'm not sure if anyone actually EVER crashed from the bug, the simulations just said it was possible.

and glad it worked!

PW
 

eclipseaudio4

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nice catch thats what i ment.