Athlon II X3 435 Rana

[aaron_c]

Hey guys! I'm setting my system up to run Battlefield 3 as well as it possibly can and I've got my GPU's overclock set up and 100% stable (running at about 55*C).

Here's my CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103724
And MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130235

I sort of feel like my CPU struggles, though, and may be my weak link. I've never overclocked a CPU before, but for starters, is overclocking a better option than trying to unlock the 4th core? Which direction should I go, or should I try to do both and meet somewhere in the middle?

Thanks for any info you guys have, much appreciated!!

 

[truegenius]

overclocking requires lots of tries and patience

in unlcoking it is only 1step process and done

both are risky as they cause lots of heat and can cause some damage

for single player bf3 you can try overclocking two cores and either disable 3rd or underclock 3rd core so as to make some headroom for temp

for multiplayer unlocking is better, and temps after unlocking are still low then do a little overclock on that

 

[aaron_c]

Awesome truegenius, I was indeed referring to multiplayer on BF3. I'll try to unlock the fourth core right now, and report back on the status of that.

*EDIT*
I unlocked the 4th core but on startup, it was VERY unstable. My Origin account opened up and stopped responding, so I closed that and opened Google Chrome, and it did the same. I went back and disabled the 4th core, everything is back to normal now so I guess, unfortunately, my best option is overclocking.

Will I gain anything really as far as playing BF3 online with the overclock? With my overclocked GTX560 and 8GB DDR3 RAM, I'm thinking the CPU is by far the weak link here. If it'll help smooth out my online gameplay, I'm going to go through with it (even if it only helps a little).

If your answer here is 'yes', with my MSI motherboard, do I just go back into that same menu and manually bump up the frequency a little, log on and test it, and repeat?

 

[enzo matrix]

Don't change your CPU if you don't know how to test for stability. To learn more, google "prime95 stability testing" or linX or linpack. I also recommend reading some overclocking guides.

"Will I gain anything really as far as playing BF3 online with the overclock?"
Determine that yourself. Google "fraps" and use the program to test performance before and after your overclocks in-game.

 

[truegenius]

Awesome truegenius, I was indeed referring to multiplayer on BF3. I'll try to unlock the fourth core right now, and report back on the status of that.

*EDIT*
I unlocked the 4th core but on startup, it was VERY unstable. My Origin account opened up and stopped responding, so I closed that and opened Google Chrome, and it did the same. I went back and disabled the 4th core, everything is back to normal now so I guess, unfortunately, my best option is overclocking.

Will I gain anything really as far as playing BF3 online with the overclock? With my overclocked GTX560 and 8GB DDR3 RAM, I'm thinking the CPU is by far the weak link here. If it'll help smooth out my online gameplay, I'm going to go through with it (even if it only helps a little).

If your answer here is 'yes', with my MSI motherboard, do I just go back into that same menu and manually bump up the frequency a little, log on and test it, and repeat?

[:truegenius:2]
you can unlock your cpu with stability

you will need to increase vcore a little so as to make the unlocking stable

and keep monitoring your temps

 

[aaron_c]

How much should I try increasing vcore by? I may try that later this afternoon!

 

[truegenius]

increase as little as you can at a time
if stable then no further need
if not stable then try more voltage
you should not pass 1.4v

and keep an eye on temp and do not let them cross 60'c

 

[aaron_c]

How do I get the voltage off 'auto'? Unlike other things I've changed in BIOS before, when I click it, nothing happens.

 

[truegenius]

check bios if you can changf vcore (auto to manual)
otherwise use cputweaker to change voltage (will need to change every time you start your pc)
else overclocking is the only thing you can do

 

[hollhoos]

Google "fraps" and use the program to test performance before and after your overclocks in-game.

 

[aaron_c]

increase as little as you can at a time
if stable then no further need
if not stable then try more voltage
you should not pass 1.4v

and keep an eye on temp and do not let them cross 60'c

My core voltage is already set to 1.432v according to CPU-Z. I did figure out how to change the voltage, but have left it set to auto (which, strangely, sounds like it's already higher than it's supposed to be?).

 

[aaron_c]

Here's my CPU info and what not...is something wrong or anything?

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2192090

 

[truegenius]

ok keep vcore at auto, and unlock your cpu, but you may need a better cooling

what about temps? Post reading of temp after unlocking 4th core

do not let them pass 65

 

[aaron_c]

The way it is now (without me changing anything), it runs at about 32*C when under full load. I can't really post the temp readings with the 4th core unlocked, though, because it's not stable enough to open any program for more than a few seconds with #4 unlocked.

Would underclocking a bit and running it as an x4 be better than overclocking it as an x3?

 

[truegenius]

surely yes

you can treat them like this in multithreading
3 x 3 ghz = 9 points
4 x 2.5 ghz = 10 points (it is better, also extra l2 cache is benificial)
but only in multithreading on same cpu

 

[truegenius]

surely yes

you can treat them like this in multithreading
3 x 3 ghz = 9 points
4 x 2.5 ghz = 10 points (it is better, also extra l2 cache is benificial)
but only in multithreading on same cpu

 

[aaron_c]

The way it is now (without me changing anything), it runs at about 32*C when under full load. I can't really post the temp readings with the 4th core unlocked, though, because it's not stable enough to open any program for more than a few seconds with #4 unlocked.

Would underclocking a bit and running it as an x4 be better than overclocking it as an x3?

 

[aaron_c]

*double post*

 

[aaron_c]

Best answer selected by aaron_c.