Overclocking Athlon II x4 620

[olifer77]

Hi guys,
Need an opinion from all you seasoned overclockers regarding my overclock of the x4 620.. My rig details are:

Athlon II x4 620 @ 2.6 Ghz
Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H
2 x 2 GB Kingston DDR2 Ram @ 800 Mhz
Onboard Radeon HD4200 @ 500 Mhz
80GB HDD Seagate 7200rpm SATA

I have been able to oc the processor to 3.58 ghz stable by increasing the fsb to 276.. i have kept ram at 1:1 and reduced the HT and NB to 7X to keep it around 2000 Mhz. The processor seems to be raring to go beyond 280 as well; however; increasing the fsb beyond 280 reboots the system. I tried reducing the cpu multiplier to 10X as well so as to check if my processor is the bottle-neck; but still the system reboots at anything beyond 280.. My question is whether 280 is the limit that my motherboard can take; or am i missing something.. do i need to make any other changes to see the max that the motherboard can go to.. also please note that AAC is disabled and EC is on normal mode.. I have also overclocked the radeon 4200 to 980 Mhz stable..

Any suggestions guys??

 

[OvrClkr]

What voltage did you give your CPU when you overclocked to 3.58Ghz?

Have you tried under clocking your RAM?

 

[olifer77]

The CPU voltages were adjusted by the bios automatically.. It shows as 1.55 in cpu-z.. I have under-clocked the ram to 2x vs the 4x default. That's the minimum it can go.. the CPU is running on the stock heatsink/fan and i'm getting max temps of 65 degs max under prime95.. My aftermarket cooler will be coming in this weekend which should push the temps down further.. I'm sure the processor will go further - but for the 280 fsb bottle-neck..

 

[OvrClkr]

If you are overclocking past 3.1/3.2Ghz you cannot leave the CPU voltage on AUTO, 1.55 is ridiculously high for 3.5Ghz. You need to manually set it around 1.36v unless you don't mind a fried CPU sooner than later....By leaving the CPU voltage on AUTO the board does not know exactly how much voltage it needs so it supplies more than the voltage needed.

Also if you are overclocking past 3.3Ghz you will need an aftermarket cooler. 65c is HOT, and this is due in part because you are using the stock cooler. You need to keep the temps lower than 60c if you want that chip to last...

Look at this 620, stock voltage (1.3v) :

 

[olifer77]

Thanks.. will do that.. as I had mentioned earlier; the aftermarket cooler will be coming in this weekend which should keep the temps under control.. the voltage mentioned as 1.55 is during prime95 testing.. at normal usage - i see it at around 1.125.. that must be because of "cool and quiet".. should I restrict it to 1.36? that would probably drop my oc down quiet a bit right?
but coming back to my main question; keeping everything else at minimum, I can't get past 280; so should I consider that as the max that my board will give me or are there other settings which I should consider tweaking as well..

 

[OvrClkr]

If you are overclocking you need to disable Cool n Quite, CIE and anything that has to do with "power saving" in your Bios...

Like I said you cannot leave your CPU voltage on AUTO, you need to manually set it according to the CPU clock desired.

You might be able to ge a bit more on FSB but first you need to manually set your values first, once stable and temps at a tolerable level then you can play around with the FSB again...

 

[JofaMang]

277 is the hard FSB limit on my 710x3. Nothing I have done has allowed it to boot above 277. Different chips, similar situation, heh.

 

[Guest]

I got to 30% overclock...thats 260 fsb...underclocked HT bus and memory, cpu voltage on stock

when i try to get to 261 i get a black screen and no post

any increase in voltage od the cpu/np/ram or any underclocking i do cant get me past 261 mhz

anyone know why and how to get pass the HT bus hole as i've heard its called?

 

[OvrClkr]

Not sure how you are gettin a 30% overclock with stock volts. Anyways have you tried lowering your RAM frequency to 667Mhz?

 

[olifer77]

Hey guys.. checked out my cpu volts and set it to 1.4 manually as ovrclkr suggested and tried out the max the ht bus can go.. same result.. blue screen once i go past 280.. cpu is steady at 278 after prime95 and occt testing to give me an overclock of 3.6 ghz.. ram is at 2x = 556 mHz with 5-3-3-9-1t timings.. onboard HD4200 overclocked to 975 Mhz.. cpu NB at 10X = 2780 Mhz and HT Frequency at 7x = 1946 Mhz..
Should I consider this as the max that I can go - or - can it be better..
One more query - is ram at 2x 278 HT bus = 556 mhz with 5-3-3-9-1t better or worse in speed to 3.33X 270 HT bus = 899 mhz with 6-5-5-13-2t.. i can run the 3.33x ram multiplier till 270 HT bus which will give me a cpu overclock of 3.5 Ghz.. I have a ram multiplier option of 2.66x but it reboots into bios recovery when i set it.. so option is between 2x and 3.33x as mentioned above..

 

[JofaMang]

Be careful OCing the oboard video, if it burns out it may blow your board.

 

[olifer77]

Thanks for the suggestion JofaMang.. will keep that in mind..

 

[slaveondope]

Hey guys.. checked out my cpu volts and set it to 1.4 manually as ovrclkr suggested and tried out the max the ht bus can go.. same result.. blue screen once i go past 280.. cpu is steady at 278 after prime95 and occt testing to give me an overclock of 3.6 ghz.. ram is at 2x = 556 mHz with 5-3-3-9-1t timings.. onboard HD4200 overclocked to 975 Mhz.. cpu NB at 10X = 2780 Mhz and HT Frequency at 7x = 1946 Mhz..
Should I consider this as the max that I can go - or - can it be better..
One more query - is ram at 2x 278 HT bus = 556 mhz with 5-3-3-9-1t better or worse in speed to 3.33X 270 HT bus = 899 mhz with 6-5-5-13-2t.. i can run the 3.33x ram multiplier till 270 HT bus which will give me a cpu overclock of 3.5 Ghz.. I have a ram multiplier option of 2.66x but it reboots into bios recovery when i set it.. so option is between 2x and 3.33x as mentioned above..

Good god turn your NB multiplier down! You need to stay near 2000mhz i havent bothered past 24xx something i keep mine at 2250mhz. How your at 278 core im still trying to figure i cant get past 250 prime95 stable. Secondly my voltage is set at 1.5v i suppose because i dont have lower options and yes it gets alttle warm. I'm going to get back in my BIOS and figure what the deal is because i have auto then it jumps to 1.5v and there is an option where i set a minimum too at 1.4v not just one voltage option. Also run a memory benchmark program like SiSoftware Sandra and that will let you know which is better on your timings.

 

[olifer77]

Thanks slaveondope.. I have tried stability with the nb multiplier at 7X right upto 10X which is the max and find it stable.. I have left it at 10X since it helps in memory bandwidth.. Of course increasing the ht multiplier does crash the system beyond 8X and since it does not boost performance; kept it at 7X.. I have been running the system on these settings and running large quantities of video encoding using handbrake (which stresses all cores) and have not had an issue till date.. checked the volts and temperature during these tasks and with my evercool buffallo cpu cooler; the temps max out at 56 degrees and the volts show me 1.39 on cpu-z and core-temp..
Infact; I believe if it was not for the motherboard not allowing me further increase in fsb beyond 280; this little chip could go a lot further.
By the way; I tried installing sisoft sandra but always shows an error when loading. I guess it is not fully compliant with windows 7 RC 64 bit.. Tried it on two machines.. same result..
One more thing: I had a bottleneck at 250 too with stability.. but then I could get past it by lowering my ram timings to 3.33X which took me to 272 and finally the minimum possible 2X (from 4X default) as mentioned in my previous post.. that allowed me to reach 280.. check if it works for you too..

 

[slaveondope]

If you are overclocking past 3.1/3.2Ghz you cannot leave the CPU voltage on AUTO, 1.55 is ridiculously high for 3.5Ghz. You need to manually set it around 1.36v unless you don't mind a fried CPU sooner than later....By leaving the CPU voltage on AUTO the board does not know exactly how much voltage it needs so it supplies more than the voltage needed.

Also if you are overclocking past 3.3Ghz you will need an aftermarket cooler. 65c is HOT, and this is due in part because you are using the stock cooler. You need to keep the temps lower than 60c if you want that chip to last...

Look at this 620, stock voltage (1.3v) :

http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv199/OvrClkr/32.png

Hmmmm couldnt be stable or they are damn lucky. Anything higher than 3.1ghz on mine requires 1.5volts for prime95 stable and it does get warm. 71c is the cpu's max and nothing gets mine @ 3.25ghz over 60c unless its prime95 and I game for hours but i suppose video encoding puts more load on than gaming.

 

[OvrClkr]

Hmmmm couldnt be stable or they are damn lucky. Anything higher than 3.1ghz on mine requires 1.5volts for prime95 stable and it does get warm. 71c is the cpu's max and nothing gets mine @ 3.25ghz over 60c unless its prime95 and I game for hours but i suppose video encoding puts more load on than gaming.

Then there is something wrong because 1.5v is used for 4Ghz or higher on most quads with the exeption of the 955 and 965 (C2/C3). And the fact that not all mobos/CPU's will use the same voltage, some will need more while some will need less...

Your temps are wayyy off. I helped a buddy with a build not too long ago and he was running his x4 620 at 3.5Ghz and the CPU did not need more than 1.38v to pass a 24HR torture test....You might want to check your cooler

Here is the screenshot :

 

[slaveondope]

Then there is something wrong because 1.5v is used for 4Ghz or higher on most quads with the exeption of the 955 and 965 (C2/C3). And the fact that not all mobos/CPU's will use the same voltage, some will need more while some will need less...

Your temps are wayyy off. I helped a buddy with a build not too long ago and he was running his x4 620 at 3.5Ghz and the CPU did not need more than 1.38v to pass a 24HR torture test....You might want to check your cooler

Here is the screenshot :

http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv199/OvrClkr/x462035Ghz.png

Well help me out here if you could im stuck and i do want lower voltage.
Biostar TA785G3 AM3 AMD 785G
Athlon 620
450 watt psu
9800gtx+
A-data PC1600 2x2gb 9-9-9-24@1.65v
CoolMaster H101 with 2x80mm fans and plenty of air flow through case

Now this is what im at
250mhz core
9x NB =2250mhz
8x HT =2000mhz
13x multi core =3.25ghz
1.5volts cpu
RAMx2.66=666mhz@8-8-8-24@1.65v
i have all cores always on
coolnquiet off
idles 30c gaming load 55c prime95 70~c
case temps high 45c

now heres the catch i can boot on auto volt @250 but it will crash in prime95 and its voltage shows 1.41 on auto and doesnt move.
Now at 1.5v it will pass Prime95 but gets warm for sure so i dont think its heat stopping me there its voltage.

In my bios i can over voltage from auto then in increments of .5v starting at 1.5v. Also i have a PState menu where i adust multipliers for NB etc and adjust what seems to be minimum cpu voltages from 0-1.4v im set on 1.4v. If i tell it 0v no boot. I can disable this Pstate but wont have NB multi control. I have adjustments for chip set,cpu, ht, nb, and ram, voltage but have left all alone for where im at. I have found that a bump in voltage on NB of .5v is needed for 2500mhz. Im starting to feel my mobo is the weak link here i can get booted @ 3.38ghz or 260core but horrible stability. Im really at a wall here and jealous. Its a americantrends bios with no ACC also. I can humble myself since i seek the understanding.

 

[OvrClkr]

Well help me out here if you could im stuck and i do want lower voltage.
Biostar TA785G3 AM3 AMD 785G
Athlon 620
450 watt psu
9800gtx+
A-data PC1600 2x2gb 9-9-9-24@1.65v
CoolMaster H101 with 2x80mm fans and plenty of air flow through case

Now this is what im at
250mhz core
9x NB =2250mhz
8x HT =2000mhz
13x multi core =3.25ghz
1.5volts cpu
RAMx2.66=666mhz@8-8-8-24@1.65v
i have all cores always on
coolnquiet off
idles 30c gaming load 55c prime95 70~c
case temps high 45c

now heres the catch i can boot on auto volt @250 but it will crash in prime95 and its voltage shows 1.41 on auto and doesnt move.
Now at 1.5v it will pass Prime95 but gets warm for sure so i dont think its heat stopping me there its voltage.

In my bios i can over voltage from auto then in increments of .5v starting at 1.5v. Also i have a PState menu where i adust multipliers for NB etc and adjust what seems to be minimum cpu voltages from 0-1.4v im set on 1.4v. If i tell it 0v no boot. I can disable this Pstate but wont have NB multi control. I have adjustments for chip set,cpu, ht, nb, and ram, voltage but have left all alone for where im at. I have found that a bump in voltage on NB of .5v is needed for 2500mhz. Im starting to feel my mobo is the weak link here i can get booted @ 3.38ghz or 260core but horrible stability. Im really at a wall here and jealous. Its a americantrends bios with no ACC also. I can humble myself since i seek the understanding.

Yea, well first off... What CPU cooler are you using?

 

[olifer77]

I'm an amatuer; but this is what i learnt to overclock my rig successfully.. Check if it works for you as well:
1. Disable AAC, Cool & Quiet as well as AMD C1e
2. Reduce NB and HT multiplier to 6X
3. Reduce CPU multiplier to 8X
4. Reduce Ram multiplier to 2.00X
5. Now increase your fsb to the max untill it crashes.. I do this in AMD overdrive to avoid rebooting over and over again.. I checked in multiples of 5 and then down to 2 to find the absolute max that the mobo can take.. (mine was 280)..
6. Now check the max that the Ram multiplier can go.. This has to be done through Bios and work your way up the FSB in AMD overdrive.. (I hit a wall at 250 with 4X, 272 with 3.33X and 280 with 2X)
7. Then I brought back the RAM Multiplier to 2X and increased the CPU multiplier to 13X and tried the FSB change in overdrive to see the max the cpu is stable.. I ran prime95, occt as well as everest ultimate stability test to check.. Check temps as well to keep it under 60 degs since 71 is max.. (aftermarket coolers help a lot here)
Mine went all the way to 280 stable probably because i got a CACYC 0938 chip as against the CADAC one.. forums say the CACYC one is more stable since it is a deneb discard or something.. Not sure though..
8. Then once you have the higest stable clock - ramp up the ht and nb frequency as close to 2000 as you can get.. I suggest leaving ht at around 2000 and increasing nb until its stable..
9. Adjust ram timings to the tightest you can.. On my DDR2 800 at 2X i could get 4-3-3-8-1t and stable yeaterday after a lot of tweaking..
10. In my mobo; the auto base cpu voltage is 1.3v and +0125 increments so I set it at 1.375v.. NB and SB voltages are at auto and RAM is at 1.9v which is the lowest i can go..

Please understand that this is my amatuerish method of going about overclocking and overclkr will probably be able to give you much better advice.. so happy overclocking..

 

[OvrClkr]

Ok so I looked up the cooler that you are using and it is not that much better than the stock cooler. Anyways, your Bios settings are more or less correct, but it seems you might need to re-paste and re-seat your cooler...Have you tried that yet?

 

[slaveondope]

Ok so I looked up the cooler that you are using and it is not that much better than the stock cooler. Anyways, your Bios settings are more or less correct, but it seems you might need to re-paste and re-seat your cooler...Have you tried that yet?

I've reseated the cooler twice to be sure and i get the same results. The second fan on the cooler helped keep things lower longer and reduced the the max to stable at 70c before with one fan things wanted to go higher. I only get such high temps with the 1.5v. Im concluding that some chips just can hanle more than others and in my case i got short handed. The instablility occurs on the second core in prime95 ant anything higher than 250 i can get booted up to 262 and even 263 but it locks up quick. I game for hours so i will not tolerate instablility on any level and as of now the cpu isnt even struggling to keep up with the games my rig runs fry cry 2 @ 1600x900 at max detail and 4x antialias @ 45fps average and the cpu doesnt flintch. Nothing I use has put a full load on all 4 cores yet and thats the only thing that can get this thing running too hot. aka +60c. Im considering a better cooler but ive got some more fans for the case on the way for my old emachines baby case from my old athlon 3200. A better coolers not going to help me at higher speeds if it doesnt want to go past 263 anyways or is there some kind of thermal load at startup thats telling the bios NO NO! Thats reminds me can someone clarify ACPI thermal temp and how its diffirent from core temp. My understanding thus far is that its more the mobo circuit temp load. Thanks again Ho Ho Ho.

 

[slaveondope]

Also when you all run prime95 are you running 4 threads?

 

[OvrClkr]

I've reseated the cooler twice to be sure and i get the same results. The second fan on the cooler helped keep things lower longer and reduced the the max to stable at 70c before with one fan things wanted to go higher. I only get such high temps with the 1.5v. Im concluding that some chips just can hanle more than others and in my case i got short handed. The instablility occurs on the second core in prime95 ant anything higher than 250 i can get booted up to 262 and even 263 but it locks up quick. I game for hours so i will not tolerate instablility on any level and as of now the cpu isnt even struggling to keep up with the games my rig runs fry cry 2 @ 1600x900 at max detail and 4x antialias @ 45fps average and the cpu doesnt flintch. Nothing I use has put a full load on all 4 cores yet and thats the only thing that can get this thing running too hot. aka +60c. Im considering a better cooler but ive got some more fans for the case on the way for my old emachines baby case from my old athlon 3200. A better coolers not going to help me at higher speeds if it doesnt want to go past 263 anyways or is there some kind of thermal load at startup thats telling the bios NO NO! Thats reminds me can someone clarify ACPI thermal temp and how its diffirent from core temp. My understanding thus far is that its more the mobo circuit temp load. Thanks again Ho Ho Ho.

Not sure if you posted this info above^^, but what case are you using?? I use a cheap 30 dollar cooler in one of my rigs and the temps are better than average. Do you have a cooler in mind?

 

[slaveondope]

Micro sized case like i said its my old emachines case from 5 years ago so its a small tower. Once the new case fans come one 80mm since the old one has gotten load and a pci slot for under my gpu since it pumps so much heat both are rate at 30+ cfm. with the cooler i have now the copper tubes dont exactly make a flush let alone much direct contact with the cpu when i saw this i was like hmmmmm not my liking. i have concluded that 250 is the highest sweet spot for my 620 and that all are not created equal and keep in mind my temps are due to that .5v bump needed to run 250 so the heat is to be expected. I really didnt luck on this chip not to say im not happy with it just no Deneb core unlocking and no crazy overclocking. im going to see how the temps do with the new air flow and if no real improvement i would like to go with another cooler dont care to spend more than 30~ i mean this was a $450 budget build so spending 50 bucks for a HSF on a $100 cpu doesnt make much since to me if it burns up oh well just will get me to buy a Phenom 955 black and water cooler.

 

[JofaMang]

I have a cheap HSF that I have been enjoying, and it is also surprisingly compact, the Scythe Samurai Zz, which I picked up for $22 on sale in a shop, but can be had for as low as $30 online.

It has been doing a fantastic job cooling my OC'd 710x3, idles at ambient + 2-3 degrees, and have yet to see it break 50c on any overclock I have attempted. I have a leaky chip, that requires absurd amount of volts to get stable at higher OC (like the 3.55 in my sig) so I am doubly impressed with the low temps I have seen with it. My daily gaming OC is 3.4ghz @1.425v, and have yet to see it break 40c in any game, idles at 22c, about 2 degrees above normal ambient. With the window open this winter (-20c wind flowing onto the PC from a window a few feet away) I have had as low as 2c idle, and 22c 30min Prime95 runs, but that is a silly non-practical anecdote.