FX-8120 Throttling @<50c even at stock clocks.
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Last response: in Overclocking
specter51095
February 18, 2012 2:59:22 PM
I got an AMD FX-8120 a week ago and so far its fantastic.
Now I want to take advantage of this awesome tuniq tower 120 extreme I have and overclock it.
I was running prime95 smallFFTs/In place largeFFTs at stock and monitoring temps to see what kind of headroom i have before overclocking.
Using coretemp i was looking at temps of under 40c (amd overdrive says otherwise at 50c but thats still not a problem)
Coretemp reported the Tj. Max of the cpu to be 90c and I have heard otherwise that the chip throttles at 61c but im not near that yet.
And heres where the problem comes in.
Coretemp (and AMD overdrive and cpuz and gigabytes easytune6) reported that at 40/50c (not sure what readings are correct) the speeds on random cores (usualy 3-5 at a time) throttle down from 15.5x multi to 14x multi (3121mhz to 2819mhz). Same thing happens when the multi is adjusted to 18x/19x/20x in overdrive/easytune/bios (yes i tried all 3 methods of overclocking)
Im not trying to shatter o/c records but the chip is stable at 4ghz stock voltage and thats where i would like to run for the time being but no matter where I set the multiplier it throttles down to 2818mhz.
Its not like a sustained throttle its just random cores every second or so jump back and forth from 3.1/3.6/3.8/4.0ghz to 2.8ghz
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I have been overclocking for about 8 years now and never once have i seen something like this that I cant figure out.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Is there some BIOS setting I need to change? This is my first time using a gigabyte board and I'm not too fond of the bios so i haven't done any real digging through it yet.
System specs are as follows:
Fractal design define XL chasis w/ 1x 120mm+2x140mm intake fans and 1x140mm+1x180mm exhaust fans
gigabyte 990fx ud3 rev 1.1
g-skill 8gb 1600mhz ripjaw X
AMD FX-8120
tuniq tower 120 extreme cpu cooler
2x Visiontek 7970s in crossfire + o/ced to CCC limits of 1125mhz core/1575mhz memory
ocz vertex 3 max iops ed. 120gb ssd
seagate 2tb hdd model ST2000DM001
sony dvd drive
cougar CMX 1000, 1000watt power supply
asus xonar dx sound card
Thanks for the help.
Now I want to take advantage of this awesome tuniq tower 120 extreme I have and overclock it.
I was running prime95 smallFFTs/In place largeFFTs at stock and monitoring temps to see what kind of headroom i have before overclocking.
Using coretemp i was looking at temps of under 40c (amd overdrive says otherwise at 50c but thats still not a problem)
Coretemp reported the Tj. Max of the cpu to be 90c and I have heard otherwise that the chip throttles at 61c but im not near that yet.
And heres where the problem comes in.
Coretemp (and AMD overdrive and cpuz and gigabytes easytune6) reported that at 40/50c (not sure what readings are correct) the speeds on random cores (usualy 3-5 at a time) throttle down from 15.5x multi to 14x multi (3121mhz to 2819mhz). Same thing happens when the multi is adjusted to 18x/19x/20x in overdrive/easytune/bios (yes i tried all 3 methods of overclocking)
Im not trying to shatter o/c records but the chip is stable at 4ghz stock voltage and thats where i would like to run for the time being but no matter where I set the multiplier it throttles down to 2818mhz.
Its not like a sustained throttle its just random cores every second or so jump back and forth from 3.1/3.6/3.8/4.0ghz to 2.8ghz

I have been overclocking for about 8 years now and never once have i seen something like this that I cant figure out.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Is there some BIOS setting I need to change? This is my first time using a gigabyte board and I'm not too fond of the bios so i haven't done any real digging through it yet.
System specs are as follows:
Fractal design define XL chasis w/ 1x 120mm+2x140mm intake fans and 1x140mm+1x180mm exhaust fans
gigabyte 990fx ud3 rev 1.1
g-skill 8gb 1600mhz ripjaw X
AMD FX-8120
tuniq tower 120 extreme cpu cooler
2x Visiontek 7970s in crossfire + o/ced to CCC limits of 1125mhz core/1575mhz memory
ocz vertex 3 max iops ed. 120gb ssd
seagate 2tb hdd model ST2000DM001
sony dvd drive
cougar CMX 1000, 1000watt power supply
asus xonar dx sound card
Thanks for the help.
More about : 8120 throttling 50c stock clocks
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Reply to specter51095
specter51095
February 18, 2012 4:59:06 PM
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always use the bios to overclock. You will need to do a couple things however to make sure that the Gigabyte does not throttle your CPU. For some unknown reason with Gigabyte boards and the FX processors the frequency gets throttled down when running at full load.
first make sure you disable turbo mode and CE1, this has alleviated the issue of throttling for some owners of gigabyte boards. If that doesn't help with the throttling I have read other threads from gigabyte board owners that kept the multi at x15 and overclocked the old fashioned why just using the FSB and of course voltage increase yada yada. Good Luck hope that helps!
first make sure you disable turbo mode and CE1, this has alleviated the issue of throttling for some owners of gigabyte boards. If that doesn't help with the throttling I have read other threads from gigabyte board owners that kept the multi at x15 and overclocked the old fashioned why just using the FSB and of course voltage increase yada yada. Good Luck hope that helps!
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Reply to rage33
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specter51095
February 20, 2012 4:57:58 AM
rage33 said:
always use the bios to overclock. You will need to do a couple things however to make sure that the Gigabyte does not throttle your CPU. For some unknown reason with Gigabyte boards and the FX processors the frequency gets throttled down when running at full load.first make sure you disable turbo mode and CE1, this has alleviated the issue of throttling for some owners of gigabyte boards. If that doesn't help with the throttling I have read other threads from gigabyte board owners that kept the multi at x15 and overclocked the old fashioned why just using the FSB and of course voltage increase yada yada. Good Luck hope that helps!
I always use the bios for the final overclock but start with amd overdrive to find where it crashes so i dont have to keep rebooting to stability test.
I took what you said and applied it.
CE1 off. (was on before you told me this. I just left it on because i didn't know what it did.)
I always have turned turbos off when overclocking.
This overclock I have running right know is based off multiplier overclocking.
All settings are left stock but the multi is set to 20x for a frequency of 4027mhz.
Yet it still throttles.
Ill do more looking into it but do you have any other ideas?
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Reply to specter51095
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I would maybe contact Gigabyte and see if their tech support can assist you. I have an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX and also had to turn CE1 off and turbo off but after that had no problem what so ever. And was able to get a 4.2GHz without increase voltage at all.
Maybe try setting everything from "auto" to Manual even if you don't adjust the settings and leave them stock turn auto off and maybe that will help take control of your settings.
Maybe try setting everything from "auto" to Manual even if you don't adjust the settings and leave them stock turn auto off and maybe that will help take control of your settings.
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Reply to rage33
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specter51095
February 20, 2012 5:32:45 AM
I think I figured it out.
Its a power management thingy from AMD called APM.
It (according to AMD) throttles the cpu to a lower power state when the TDP is exceeded. In this case, 124w
Just so happens that the whole gigabyte 990fx UD-x like doesn't have any option to disable this APM. No idea why a high-end board would leave that out or why my cpu throttles at stock. Ill do some more looking but for now I'm pretty much stuck waiting for a bios update that adds it.
Its a power management thingy from AMD called APM.
It (according to AMD) throttles the cpu to a lower power state when the TDP is exceeded. In this case, 124w
Just so happens that the whole gigabyte 990fx UD-x like doesn't have any option to disable this APM. No idea why a high-end board would leave that out or why my cpu throttles at stock. Ill do some more looking but for now I'm pretty much stuck waiting for a bios update that adds it.
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Reply to specter51095
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specter51095 said:
I think I figured it out.Its a power management thingy from AMD called APM.
It (according to AMD) throttles the cpu to a lower power state when the TDP is exceeded. In this case, 124w
Just so happens that the whole gigabyte 990fx UD-x like doesn't have any option to disable this APM. No idea why a high-end board would leave that out or why my cpu throttles at stock. Ill do some more looking but for now I'm pretty much stuck waiting for a bios update that adds it.
"I see said the blind man", that makes sense, you would think that Gigabyte would have fixed that by now huh? Good luck keep me posted.
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Reply to rage33
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specter51095
February 20, 2012 4:52:24 PM
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Reply to specter51095
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specter51095
February 20, 2012 5:43:45 PM
So f6f had only one change in it that i noticed, enable/disable AMD APM. It solved all my problems. I went for the quick, easy, and stable oc and just ended up @ 4000mhz @ 1.3v in bios (amd overdrive reports 1.35 hwmonitor reports 1.31 and cpu-z reports 1.312 1.35 in core temp as well) temps are as reported in AMD overdrive 52c and hwmonitor/core temp report 41c
All this is running at minimal cpu fan speed.
Ill overclock further if I need more speed but for now my CPU isnt bottlenecking anything and my system is silent.
This prettymuch solves my problems and it should fix anyone else with a gigabyte 990fx ud3 that has the same issues
All this is running at minimal cpu fan speed.
Ill overclock further if I need more speed but for now my CPU isnt bottlenecking anything and my system is silent.
This prettymuch solves my problems and it should fix anyone else with a gigabyte 990fx ud3 that has the same issues
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Reply to specter51095
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specter51095 said:
So f6f had only one change in it that i noticed, enable/disable AMD APM. It solved all my problems. I went for the quick, easy, and stable oc and just ended up @ 4000mhz @ 1.3v in bios (amd overdrive reports 1.35 hwmonitor reports 1.31 and cpu-z reports 1.312 1.35 in core temp as well) temps are as reported in AMD overdrive 52c and hwmonitor/core temp report 41cAll this is running at minimal cpu fan speed.
Ill overclock further if I need more speed but for now my CPU isnt bottlenecking anything and my system is silent.
This prettymuch solves my problems and it should fix anyone else with a gigabyte 990fx ud3 that has the same issues
Sweet! Glad to hear that. Also just as Noob2222 stated adjust you're LLC to high or very high, this will assist with keeping your voltage steady and minimizing Vdroop.
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Reply to rage33
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specter51095 said:
So f6f had only one change in it that i noticed, enable/disable AMD APM. It solved all my problems. I went for the quick, easy, and stable oc and just ended up @ 4000mhz @ 1.3v in bios (amd overdrive reports 1.35 hwmonitor reports 1.31 and cpu-z reports 1.312 1.35 in core temp as well) temps are as reported in AMD overdrive 52c and hwmonitor/core temp report 41cAll this is running at minimal cpu fan speed.
Ill overclock further if I need more speed but for now my CPU isnt bottlenecking anything and my system is silent.
This prettymuch solves my problems and it should fix anyone else with a gigabyte 990fx ud3 that has the same issues
Hi Specter,
Where did you get your UD3 rev 1.1? I need to find either the UD3 or the UD7 with rev 1.1 for the LLC control.
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specter51095
February 21, 2012 11:57:19 PM
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cheti
May 10, 2012 8:19:07 PM
hunter86_bg
November 26, 2013 12:35:52 PM
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