Overclocking AMD 9850

[drdeathx]

Hello members,

I am new to this forum but have overclocked in the past. On a scale of 1-10 I would give myself a 5 as for understanding.

Here is my dilema. For the past year, I have been trying to overclock my AMD 9850 to at least 3.0GHz. I was able in the past to get it to 3.0Ghz but unstable so I kinda gave up. Well, I am ON A MISSION FROM GOD! I can get the poor thing to post at 3.0GHz but it will lock halfway through 3DMARK06. Currently, I am at 2.9GHz(Stable). I just upgraded my ram from 800 to 1066. I will post my specs and some screen shots. I understand this CPU can only go so high but I have seen many persons OC to 3.0 to 3.2GHz. Any suggestions????

I have played around with the memory timings with no avail. Also, I tried up to 1.47V on the processor.

Specs:

AMD 9850BE- Processor
Gigabyte GA-MA790x-DS4 Mobo
Thermaltake 750W PSU
Thermaltake 760i Bigwater water cooled- Cooling
EVGA GTX280(1G)- Video card
4G Corsair Dominator 1066- Memory
Antec 900- Case
Windows XP- OS

 

[jcknouse]

If I have time tonight, I'll get on from the house. I think I'm OC'ed to 2.85 and I have been up over 3.0, but the temps at full load on all 4 Cores got toward 70C, so I backed off. I keep all 4 cores 60C or below with my ZEROTherm Nirvana 120 with a 80mm case fan on the side pullin cool air in on the heatsink.

Will see if I can get you my stats tonight.

 

[drdeathx]

That is way warm dude. I am at 34 idle and low 50's full load 100% prime95 8 hour test with 1.4V. If I back it down to 1.3V i would be 32 idle high 40's full load.

 

[buzznut]

did you mention your cooling solution?

I was able to hit 3.2ghz with a thermalright ultra 120 with two fans in a push pull config. But thermals were high, I ran it 24/7 at 3.0 . Temps at that speed were 33C idle, 50 fully loaded prime torture.

Also to consider, your case cooling. It can have a great effect on overclocking potential

 

[drdeathx]

No problems with cooling here ... yours looks nice(temps)

 

[drdeathx]

Wish I would get someone who can tell me where to go if anywhere. Maybe this is is high as I can go.

 

[jcknouse]

Sorry I didn't get a chance to get you my stats last night, DrDeathx. I am going to get on tonight when I get home (before I crash. only slept 2 hours last night lol)

I have heard you can go over 3.0, and I have OCed mine over 3.0. I think I was running 1.4125V and 14.5x and 206FSB or something like that, but I can't be sure and I can't tell you if it was totally stable because when I saw the temps going past 60c and toward 70c i shut down prime95.

And yeah, my temps bite. I have a cheapo, RaidMax case with little airflow. The temps used to be worse, til I put the 80mm fan on the side to pull air in on the CPU HSF. that got me about another 4-5C cooler. I have thought about going to a case parts house, and ordering new top and side panels for it to get better airflow.

Anyways, I will get you my current OC stats (I think I'm running 2.85 or 2.9GHz now), and will OC it to 3.0+ and let you know how stable it is tonight.

Sorry for the delay

 

[Mantis83]

Hey Guys, Looks good here.

I just built my system in an old case with minimal (but not bad) airflow.

I'm running a 9850 BE using an Asus M3N78-VM motherboard.
Stock Heatsink & Fan
4G (2x2Gb) OCZ Gold edition 1066 RAM (rated at 2.1V)
Vista 32Bit
80mm Vantex Stealth fan
Enermax Noisetaker II power supply

I do want to say that although basic overclocking is easy by adjusting the CPU multiplier, trying to get the CPU overclocked and the memory up to 1066 at the same time has been rough. I do not recommend this motherboard for basic OC as, with everything on auto, it defaults the multiplier to 6x (1800Mxz) and the ram to DDR800. It also does not provide voltage settings in the jumperless bios but simply overvoltage settings.

I am concerned about temperature as I haven't found a lot of official documentation on heat tolerance for the board or the chip (links would be appreciated). Currently my fastest stable settings are to overclock the CPU fsb to 233 and leave the rest auto.

Here's what I have the BIOS set to and what it's running it at:
CPU overclock = 233
CPU multiplier = Auto(12.5x)
HT = Auto (2000Mhz)

Mem:
clock = auto(400)
timing = auto (5-6-6-18) (tRAS = 24)
memVoltage = +300mV

Northbridge:
unganged mode = auto (ganged on)
Everything else is auto.

Results (according to PC Probe and CPUZ): CPU core speed of 2890Mhz, Bus speed of 231.2Mhz, HT link of 2312.6Mhz, core voltage of 1.32, NB freq of 2312.6Mhz, DRAM freq of 462.5Mhz, and a FSBRAM of 1:2.

I wonder what you guys think of the temperature. At idle the CPU reports 55celcius and MB temp of 42-45. I am installing Half-life 2 to really test it but it ran through a sisoft sandra lite test with a max cpu temp of 61celcius.

I haven't seen anyone else overclocking like this (just using fsb) and I wonder if it's because I'm only half educated and am going to fry my system. I would like this system to last. So what do you think am I going to fry my system and if not, should DrDeathx try bumping up the fsb another 5-10Mhz to break 3Ghz?
Thanks

 

[drdeathx]

I have tried every combo as to multiplier and frequency. I cannot raise the FSB much. Getting better results with multiplier or at least equal to lower multipliers and higher FSB. In my bios there is no option for ganged or unganged. I have photos posted from my bios. Maybe I am missing a simple Bios adjustment. I have tried loosening and tightening memory timings with no avail. I do have a different mobo as you see......<<<<<<<very frustrated. Did see a guy get over 3.0 with this board BTW.

 

[drdeathx]

Sorry I didn't get a chance to get you my stats last night, DrDeathx. I am going to get on tonight when I get home (before I crash. only slept 2 hours last night lol)

I have heard you can go over 3.0, and I have OCed mine over 3.0. I think I was running 1.4125V and 14.5x and 206FSB or something like that, but I can't be sure and I can't tell you if it was totally stable because when I saw the temps going past 60c and toward 70c i shut down prime95.

And yeah, my temps bite. I have a cheapo, RaidMax case with little airflow. The temps used to be worse, til I put the 80mm fan on the side to pull air in on the CPU HSF. that got me about another 4-5C cooler. I have thought about going to a case parts house, and ordering new top and side panels for it to get better airflow.

Anyways, I will get you my current OC stats (I think I'm running 2.85 or 2.9GHz now), and will OC it to 3.0+ and let you know how stable it is tonight.

Sorry for the delay

Dude those temps are not good for this processor. All I can say. You will have a short life with those temps. If you get a better heatsync you will lower at least 10 degrees and be golden. Why are you running such high voltage?

 

[jcknouse]

Dude those temps are not good for this processor. All I can say. You will have a short life with those temps. If you get a better heatsync you will lower at least 10 degrees and be golden. Why are you running such high voltage?

DrDeathx,

I checked my settings last night, but fell asleep. Here's what I remember:

FSB: 212
CPU Mult: 13.5x
CPU Speed: 2862MHz

I can't remember my voltage. I think it was 1.375 or 1.3875.

That's what I constantly run at. I have idle temps about 32-34C. My load temp runs up about 57-59C. I guess that's kinda high. Maybe because I'm in Florida. Maybe because I applied the thermal paste wrong. Who knows. My CPU cooler is a ZEROTherm Nirvana 120, which is supposed to work good.


I run totally stable at this speed. I can run 10 sessions of Shadowbane, Ventrilo, AGC, and 3 sessions of Firefox, and it has no problems.

I will try to run tests tonight and give you results. I slept 9 hours last night, so I should be up later. lol

 

[drdeathx]

Thanx for input. This is my deal you will laugh. I have a gigabyte GA-MA790x-DS4 mobo. Did a biot update to F6 vesion. Have been goin absolutely nuts trying to find ganged/unganged setting. I found a screen shot of someone elses bios and my ganged unganged doesn't exist!!! I reflashed bios to f5 and there it is. Unbelievable. Also I was unaware of advanced settings ctrl/f1. All my other boards had advanced with no ctrl/f4. Long story short, I am ready to try to get this Phenom 9850BE and Gigabyte GA-MA790x-DS4 to over 3.0GHz. I need some basic bios adjustments to help. I did a quick run before bed in Unganged and can run halfway thru 3DMark06 and she locked halfway thru. Any input from any member will be appreciated. My basic Bios screen pics are abouve and I will post the advanced pics when I get home later tonite. If any suggestions please post as I will start doing trial runs later on. Need starting point!

 

[jcknouse]

Well, I re-set my stuff for OC. This is where I am now:

CPU Freq: 212
CPU Mult: 14.0
CPU Volt: 1.3000
DRam Volt: 1.9000
NB Volt: 1.3000
CPU Clock: 2962 MHz

Temp@idle: 42c
Temp@load: 61c

ambient temp in house: 22c

like i said...my case sucks. there's not much room for air to move around. i put an 80mm on the air intake on the side to blow on the CPU. I thought about taking the side off and seeing if the temp drops or not.

But, I'm running stably just under 3.0GHz. You might be able to notch it up. I just don't wanna risk it til I get a better case or cooler or something.

Good luck.

 

[jcknouse]

Just a little update:

Ran tests. This thing tends not to like a higher multiplier or freq.

Right now what seems most stable on this CPU is:

CPU Freq: 211
CPU Mult: 13.5x
CPU Volt: 1.3375v
DRAM Volt: 1.9000v
NB Volt: 1.3375v
CPU Clock: 2848.5MHz

temp@idle: 40c
temp@load: 60c

btw, I found out why I am running so hot.

Seems that running my PC under my desk where the air gets trapped is making it hot under the desk as it is against the wall.

I am going to move the PC out from under the desk tomorrow, and check the temps. Hopefully, they will lower 8-12C.

Hope this update helps. Good luck

 

[drdeathx]

Well, looks like 2.93GHz is highest I am getting. 38 deg idle 49 deg prime95 stress test. Again, If anyone has any ideas, it would be appreciated.

I am at 14.5x
FSB 202
Hypertransport at 2.0
Northbridge 12X (2424)


I tried lower multiplier and higher bus with no success. 15X and 200 boots but again does not make it thru 3DMARK06.

 

[jcknouse]

Well, looks like 2.93GHz is highest I am getting. 38 deg idle 49 deg prime95 stress test. Again, If anyone has any ideas, it would be appreciated.

I am at 14.5x
FSB 202
Hypertransport at 2.0
Northbridge 12X (2424)


I tried lower multiplier and higher bus with no success. 15X and 200 boots but again does not make it thru 3DMARK06.

Heck...I haven't even tried 3DMark06.

I am thinking I need to get some better tools to OC the RAM with and what not.

I think I might get up where you are at now. But, I haven't tuned everything perfectly I don't believe.

BTW, do you have the AMD Overdrive tool? I looked on their site, and couldn't find it. Heck, I just read about it. I don't even know if it works with out processor or not. But, I'd love to use it to overclock everything rather than the ASRock utility.

 

[jcknouse]

Well, looks like 2.93GHz is highest I am getting. 38 deg idle 49 deg prime95 stress test. Again, If anyone has any ideas, it would be appreciated.

I am at 14.5x
FSB 202
Hypertransport at 2.0
Northbridge 12X (2424)


I tried lower multiplier and higher bus with no success. 15X and 200 boots but again does not make it thru 3DMARK06.

DrDeathx

Just to let you know...this is the most stable of my settings I've found (haven't run 3DMark06 with it yet...but it has stayed solid for over an hour running all sorts of apps):

CPU Freq: 215MHz
CPU Mult: 13.5x
CPU Volt: 1.375v
NB Volt: 1.375v
DRam Volt:1.90v
Clock Speed: 2902.5 calculated (2908 reported by CPU-Z 1.50)

My setup:
AMD Phenom X4 Black Edition
Code Name: Agena
DRAM Freq: 287.2
FSBRAM: 3:4
CAS Lat: 4.0 Clocks
tRCD: 4
tRP: 4
tRAS: 12
tRC: 17

Mine isn't going much further without further tweaking. Hope this makes you feel better.
CR: 2T

 

[jcknouse]

If you're still reading, DrDeathx:

Hope that helps.

 

[drdeathx]

Just hit 3.2 GHz and 3.3Ghz(A bit unstable)




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Click for larger image!

 

[jcknouse]

Just hit 3.2 GHz and 3.3Ghz(A bit unstable)

Wow. Haven't even tried that high. Too afraid I'll fry something.

What are your case and CPU cooler again? And what video card(s) do you have?

For some reason (even with the latest Forceware release), my SM3.0 scores seem to suck with dual 9800GTX+s in SLi

Maybe I have something set wrong...or something on auto in the BIOS that is interfering.

I'm gonna OC later this weekend again...soon as I get done testing the new 720BE and mobo I ordered for quad-capability.

 

[drdeathx]

System:

AMD 9850BE
Thermaltake 760i Bigwater Cooling
Power Supply: Thermaltake 750W
EVGA Nvidea GTX280 Video card
Antec 900 Midtower case

OC'd to 3.3 GHz.

Video cards in SLI or Crossfire only gain 20% to 40% in performance depending on the application. It is always better to buy a better video card than going less expensive on 2 cards and using SLI depending on the step up. In my case, the GTX280 definitely outperforms 2 9800GT's but at the time it was a $500 investment.

 

[drdeathx]

I do have a question for an experienced overclocker. I am running 3.2 GHz at 1.47V. My temps gaming are at 43 idle,48 degrees gaming and full load stress test at 54 degrees. Temps seem "OK" but is this too many volts to run processor at? I can up the voltage to over 1.5 or more to see if I can get to 3.4 or 3.5 GHz. Is this too many volts if temps stay the same. I did run 3.3 GHz at 1.5 volts and temp was constant at 54 degrees full load. Will too many volts hurt mobo or processor and is there a "threshold"?


Death

 

[jcknouse]

Yeah, I am looking at that...running just one video card.

I haven't got the 720BE in yet with the unlocked CPU. didn't have time this weekend. mom is sick.

I am gonna look at, if the core unlocks and runs stable at 3.5GHz or better...getting 4GB of DDR3-1333 and a 4850x2 or 4870(maybe x2) video card. The AMI-based 790 boards (am2+ and am3) are all Crossfire-only, so I don't wanna get a card that can't crossfire...even though I prefer nVidia.

BTW...no wonder you run so much cooler temps! You're on water! I am running a HSF in a crappy case with 3 extra fans just to keep the temps down. DOH!!!

 

[drdeathx]

Yeah, I am looking at that...running just one video card.

I haven't got the 720BE in yet with the unlocked CPU. didn't have time this weekend. mom is sick.

I am gonna look at, if the core unlocks and runs stable at 3.5GHz or better...getting 4GB of DDR3-1333 and a 4850x2 or 4870(maybe x2) video card. The AMI-based 790 boards (am2+ and am3) are all Crossfire-only, so I don't wanna get a card that can't crossfire...even though I prefer nVidia.

BTW...no wonder you run so much cooler temps! You're on water! I am running a HSF in a crappy case with 3 extra fans just to keep the temps down. DOH!!!

When I decided to buy my board, I bought it with OC'ing solely in mind. I have a GTX280 with no intentions of running SLI. This card is awesome and I really run no applications to warrant SLI. The ATI cards are pretty awesome but I owned the 4870 X2 and returned it. It looked like it ran with just 1 gpu active and after research, a lot of people had problems. I eexc's for a Nvidea GTX280. If you have a few bucks take the 720 back and get the 940BE!!!! Looks like a winner.

 

[jcknouse]

When I decided to buy my board, I bought it with OC'ing solely in mind. I have a GTX280 with no intentions of running SLI. This card is awesome and I really run no applications to warrant SLI. The ATI cards are pretty awesome but I owned the 4870 X2 and returned it. It looked like it ran with just 1 gpu active and after research, a lot of people had problems. I eexc's for a Nvidea GTX280. If you have a few bucks take the 720 back and get the 940BE!!!! Looks like a winner.

Yeah, I did some brief reading. I noticed in 3DMark06 that the 2x 4870x2 CF lost ground to the 1x 4870x2 config. Astounding that 2 x2 cards lose capability to 1. I wonder if it was in fact a CPU bottleneck.

I am actually looking at getting a Sapphire 4850x2 1GB card. It was the ~US$250 most recommended card for the buck. It looks good. I just hope my case is deep enough for it!

As for the 940BE, I dunno. It's an AM2+ CPU, and I wanna get AM3 if I can. it's why I got the 720BE even tho it's an "X3" CPU. I got a 790xx chipset board with it, out of the sheer luck I might unlock the 4th core and get a 4-core CPU that's stable. If so, I'm gonna next look at getting an 890xx chipset mobo when they come out for AM3. of course, they probably won't be unlockable by then...so maybe a good ASUS or Gigabyte 790FX AM3 board right now is the best option. That way, I can use the 4th core if available and stable.

I looked at the 280/285 cards. They are kinda pricey compared to the 4850x2, and the claims were that the 4850x2 was faster in a lot of benches. $300+ vs $260.

I am tempted to stay with nVidia. But, I just don't know. If the chipset is made for Crossfire, I would think ATI/AMD cards run better solo too than nVidia does on that mobo.

But, I am probably just delusional. lol :lol: