Overclocking BE processors

[Poisoner]

How many of you with BE processors just crank the multiplier up? I am find myself curious as to why most reviewers simply crank up the multiplier instead of doing it like everyone else and messing with the reference clock to get faster speeds. Do you get the same performance increase by a higher multiplier that you get when you tune everything to the reference clock (such as memory, HT Link, North Bridge). I can get my Athlon II X4 620 stable at 3510 mhz and playing with all the ratios, but as a max out this processor I am considering a Phenom II. From what I read I've gotten about as much over clock out of my Athlon II as I'm going to get.

 

[Lmeow]

Increasing the multiplier is just easier, that's what I'd assume. Apparently a high multiplier and low base clock will score lower in benchmarks than a low multiplier and a high base clock. For example, with a Core i7, 150 MHz x 20 would score lower than 200 MHz x 15. Also, I'm not sure how much this applies to AMD CPUs, but with a higher BCLK (not sure what it's called with AMD) you will need to increase the IMC voltage as well, which results in more heat, but just upping the multiplier means core voltage, IIRC. I have a feeling I'm wrong somewhere.

 

[4Ryan6]

How many of you with BE processors just crank the multiplier up? I am find myself curious as to why most reviewers simply crank up the multiplier instead of doing it like everyone else and messing with the reference clock to get faster speeds. Do you get the same performance increase by a higher multiplier that you get when you tune everything to the reference clock (such as memory, HT Link, North Bridge). I can get my Athlon II X4 620 stable at 3510 mhz and playing with all the ratios, but as a max out this processor I am considering a Phenom II. From what I read I've gotten about as much over clock out of my Athlon II as I'm going to get.

The nice thing about a BE is you have a choice as to which overclocking route you want to take, either route you decide to take there is still trial and error settings, and multiple booting to get a stable overclock.

If you're used to overclocking an locked multiplier CPU and you were successful at it, you had a whole lot more juggling to do to attain a stable overclock, with raising the multiplier you have an option you didn't have before, less steps to a stable overclock.

You can always try it both ways and share your results, but even reviewers don't spend the time they should to get all they can get from a BE CPU.

 

[jitpublisher]

Yeah, Lmeow, you are pretty much right. Increasing the multiplier takes all the problems away that come from raising the buss speed. When you raise the buss speed, you overclock everything. There is more that has to be taken into consideration. In the old days, this was a big deal, as buss speeds were a bottleneck. Raising the buss speed netted you much higher results than simply raising the CPU multiplier. Today though, with hypertransport and quad pumped buss speeds, 1333/1600 mhz memory buss speeds, the system buss is not a bottleneck. Just raising the multiplier will net you almost exactly the same gains. It is mostly, not all, but mostly, about CPU core speed these days.

 

[4Ryan6]

Increasing the multiplier is just easier, that's what I'd assume. Apparently a high multiplier and low base clock will score lower in benchmarks than a low multiplier and a high base clock. For example, with a Core i7, 150 MHz x 20 would score lower than 200 MHz x 15. Also, I'm not sure how much this applies to AMD CPUs, but with a higher BCLK (not sure what it's called with AMD) you will need to increase the IMC voltage as well, which results in more heat, but just upping the multiplier means core voltage, IIRC. I have a feeling I'm wrong somewhere.

I Agree, Increasing the multiplier is an easier overclocking route to take, overclocking my AMD 965 BE was most definitely easier, than overclocking my Intel Q9550, a lot less settings had to be juggled to reach stability.

I will have to admit overclocking my Q9550 to 4G on air cooling was quite gratifying, there were so many different settings that had to be in the pocket to reach 4G with that CPU, so once you actually did it, you felt a serious accomplishment level of satisfaction.