955 OC Voltage help

[tj223]

Hello, I have just built a new system (Here).

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-- BUILD SPECS --

CASE: COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel

Mainboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core

HS/F: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1

RAM: 2 x [G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600]

GPU: SAPPHIRE 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP

PSU: LEPA B850-MA 850W ATX12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC

HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

DVD: ASUS 24X DVD Burner



Monitor: ASUS VH226H Black 21.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen 16:9 Full HD 1080P

Mouse: Logitech G500 Dual-mode Scroll Wheel USB Wired Laser 5700 dpi Gaming Mouse

Keyboard: Logitech G110 Black USB Wired LED Backlighting Gaming Keyboard

Headset: Logitech G35 USB 2.0 7.1 Surround Sound


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Now I want to explore Overclocking the 955.

Here is all the info I have at the moment:


I read a guide on here about AMD Black Overclocking and followed it to the best of my abilty, I increased the multiplier by 0.5 each time until I reached 3.8 with auto voltage settings. I did not attempt to go any higher.

As I am posting this, it is 3.8 ghz @ 1.376~1.384V ( It fluctuates every few seconds)

@ 3.2 (stock) I am getting about 47~50 fps playing Witcher 2 @ 1900 x 1080 on Ultra Settings (without Uber-Sampling enabled). Fraps 60 second Average: 48.350 fps.
@ 3.8 Same settings I get 48.400.

Similar results with Uber-Sampling on:
@ 3.2 Fraps 60 second Average: 20.633 fps
@ 3.8 Fraps 60 second Average: 20.667 fps

Temperatures

@ 3.2 Idle: 29C. Load: 39C.
@ 3.8 Idle: 32C. Load: 43C.

Prime95 max temp @ 3.8 : 45C.



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My questions are:

1- Am I shortening the life of my CPU by OCing?
2- Since I had negligible differences in my frame rate, am I experiencing a bottleneck from my GPU?
3- Are these temps acceptable?
4- What is the goal with the voltage? The lower the better? Finding the most stable? (Really lost on the voltage)


Thanks in advance for entertaining my ignorance.

 

[henydiah]

1- Am I shortening the life of my CPU by OCing?
2- Since I had negligible differences in my frame rate, am I experiencing a bottleneck from my GPU?
3- Are these temps acceptable?
4- What is the goal with the voltage? The lower the better? Finding the most stable? (Really lost on the voltage)

1. of course overclock decrease lifetime CPU , but if properly Oc age will survive long
2. just little bottleneck, you can get 4Ghz for balance with speed HD 6870 and your score will up
BUT NEED AFTER MARKET COOLER or GOOD COOLER
3. temperature in Game 56 is good but you need check again use Prime95 , how high your temp (max your temp 60C)
4. you must find it by self , different system and hardware will different result, voltage, temperature. but you voltage very low and good max voltage can be up to 1.45V

 

[tj223]

Thanks for the reply.

2. just little bottleneck, you can get 4Ghz for balance with speed HD 6870 and your score will up
BUT NEED AFTER MARKET COOLER or GOOD COOLER

Do you mean 4ghz on the cpu or the gpu? And you don't think the 212+ is good enough?

3. temperature in Game 56 is good but you need check again use Prime95 , how high your temp (max your temp 60C)

A little confused here... where are you getting 56? I am running at max 45C now. Are you saying max my OC until I get to 60C in Prime95, then my games should run around 56C?

4. you must find it by self , different system and hardware will different result, voltage, temperature. but you voltage very low and good max voltage can be up to 1.45V

Still don't know what to do about the voltage? Should I increase my voltage or let it auto adjust?

 

[henydiah]

- 4ghz is your cpu oc for balance with hd6780
- your system default 3.2ghz and you do overclock 3.8ghz in your post. All overclock need stability test for health hardware. test stabillity use software prime95 at 8hours, CPU will ran 100%, If your oc get pass it'mean your oc stable and ok , during test prime95 alway's keep eyes at temperature, max temp your cpu is 60C , if your temp show over than 60C, you must stop it and drop your OC. While show bellow 60C it means OK OK
- ussualy when play game, CPU will ran at 70-80% . Of course your temp show max at 45C. And it OK and OK.
- if you still confuse, wait other user to explain you .

 

[tj223]

Ok, so I took your advice.

I've got my CPU running at 4GHz (20x multiplier).
I set the CPU Voltage is at 1.4875V.
NB is set to 2400MHz.

I have been running P95 for just over 2.5 hours and all is well thus far.

It has been hanging at 51C~52C for the last 30 min.
Max temp recorded: 55C.

I am going out with the family, so I am gonna stop the test.

But do you think that it is stable enough?

 

[henydiah]

Not enough , please ran at 8hours and we can say it stable and safely !

 

[tj223]

Ok, I ran Prime95 for just over 9 hours. My temp maxed at 54C.

And I had 1 error:

[Sat Aug 06 18:40:05 2011]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.4990234375, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

And just an fyi, the error came at 4 hours and 18 min.
(Not sure if that is relevant?)

Does this mean I am unstable?

If so, now what? Adjust Voltage? Slow my CPU and/or NB down?

 

[henydiah]

Had error not stable !
Sometime you would get bsod,
try other by check :
- feature disabled like cool n quite /C1E/spread spectrum
- pcie at 100,
- raise small voltage cpu nb : 0.025
- raise VDIM (voltage ram ) 1.58v-1.6v
- raise vcore at 1.49V
Test again

 

[henydiah]

Read again in readme.txt. From prime95 small fft test must 24hours, but people said 8hour enough, I don't recomend say stable prime95 test in 1hour .. Must more !

 

[tj223]

Best answer selected by tj223.