Overclocking FX-4100

[JuanB]

So i've had my computer for about three months now and i want to overclock it to see if there will be any performance increase when playing pc games such as the witcher 2, crysis, modern warfare 3, etc. I have the FX-4100 along with the Asus M5A78L-M/usb3 and the HD 6770.

I am a complete noob with overclocking and i heard the FX-4100 is great for overclocking. I want overclock my system to 4.4GHz. So far i've overclocked it to 4.0Ghz with the stock cooler (I get about 56C on full load with Prime95 on my stock cooler, I'm looking into buying a new one, any recommendations?). When i run Prime95 64bit test, My Frequency drops from 4.0Ghz to 3.3Ghz then works it's way back up 4.0Ghz and stays there for a couple of seconds then goes back down again. Is this supposed to happen? What am i doing wrong? Is there any other settings i should change?

Here is a picture of my settings: (i also have cool & quiet disabled)
http://i.imgur.com/PIkKj.jpg?1

Any help/advice would be appreciated

 

[lighter420]

Sounds to me you are having a throttling problem, make sure you watch temps while you run the first 10 mins of so of prime95 If the processor is getting too hot it will throttle down if you have the protection for it enabled. For cheap you can buy a cooler master hyper 212+ with push/pull fans, cfm's and rpm's are the two most important things to look for in a fan besides the db's (loudness). Places you buy the fans from usually have these specs listed I recommend arctic silver 5 for your thermal grease but any grease will work. You can watch vids of how to install all of it right on youtube. Using 2 myself both oc'd and temps are very acceptable. Make sure you will have clearance on your ram and your case as it can be pretty massive if you arent ready for it.

As far as getting to 4.4ghz you will have to bump your voltage up a bit click it up a notch log into windows see if you are stable, wash and repeat until you are stable, you might want to check out the sticky on amd overclocking and all that.. read, read, read until your eyes bleed.

 

[JuanB]

Thank you for the quick reply How do i change the voltage in the bios, there is an option that says "CPU Over Volate" but i'm not sure what it does. I also saw that i should increase my NB hyper transport to 2200Mhz, what will the "NB hyper transport" be known as in the bios?

I had a look on ebuyer, and i'm thinking of getting the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2, is this any good?

 

[noob2222]

don't disable cool n quiet as thats your idle speeds. you want to disable C1E as that is your cpus mid-speed settings (14x multiplier). It is designed to help regulate heat and power draw. With overclocking its trying to balance itself a whole lot more than at stock so it stays in C1E more often.

 

[JuanB]

what is C1E? also what's better for overclocking, using the multiplier or changing the bus speed? i have the option for both. ALso, how do i change the voltage? what is the option for changing the voltage in the bios called?

 

[lighter420]

C1e should be in your advanced options, its just a safety setting that throttles down your cpu incase it overheats, anyone please correct me if im wrong. Also I do not recommend overclocking too highly without an aftermarket heatsink, (cuz i know my fx4100 came with the crappiest little heatsink) use the hyper 212 or evo they are common and solid products, you def don't want to go much if at all over 60 degrees ceclius with amd. Download cpuid hwmonitor and cpu-z and watch ur temps, the hyper series heatsinks are cheap, buy a couple good cfm fans for push/pull and take ur time mounting it. Get thermal grease, the hyper 212 comes with a tube of it.

As for the voltage looks like its cpu over voltage in ur bios, check around youtube and see if anyone else has posted a vid with ur motherboard about oc'ing. I know I was only able to get to 4.2 without messing with voltage and left it at 4.4 with the push/pull hyper 212+ cuz I didn't want too high of temps. Your bios should tell you what voltage ur at if it doesn't cpu-z will.. why I went intel, it was so much easier for a novice like me to achieve higher clocks. Next comes water cooling. Hope this helps a bit.

 

[JuanB]

Thank you, it really did help. I actually now have an aftermarket cooler (Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2). Is the CPU Over voltage the Vcore or the amount it increase the Vcore by? The minimum option for the over voltage is around 0.9 so i'm assuming is the Vcore, but i'm not sure.

 

[toolmaker_03]

Thank you, it really did help. I actually now have an aftermarket cooler (Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2). Is the CPU Over voltage the Vcore or the amount it increase the Vcore by? The minimum option for the over voltage is around 0.9 so i'm assuming is the Vcore, but i'm not sure.

yes it is, and good luck with that man, sounds like fun.

 

[JuanB]

so CPU Over voltage is the Vcore?

 

[toolmaker_03]

so CPU Over voltage is the Vcore?

well the core has a voltage to start and you are going to go over or under that voltage by the .9 that you described.

 

[JuanB]

So i've overclocked my CPU to 4.2GHz by changing the multiplier to x21. Everything is fine until i run prime95, i still get the same throttling issue. Any suggestions on what i should do?

 

[toolmaker_03]

yes, it looks like the EPU maybe throttling back the processor, try disabling this option in the BIOS

 

[JuanB]

I don't seem to have the option to disable the EPU in the bios.

 

[toolmaker_03]

I don't seem to have the option to disable the EPU in the bios.

well than you are hardware limited by the mother board. you won't be able to get more than about 8% clock on the system, sorry. I would guess that you need a better mother board Crosshair V does not have this issue.

 

[JuanB]

I noticed that the throttling issue only happens when all 4 cores are at 100% usage, if I'm playing metro 2033 the throttling doesn't happen. Should I still worry about it?

 

[toolmaker_03]

I noticed that the throttling issue only happens when all 4 cores are at 100% usage, if I'm playing metro 2033 the throttling doesn't happen. Should I still worry about it?

well the motherboard is protecting the hardware from damage, so I would probably lower the clocking a little, so not to stress the mother board out so bad.

 

[DaDepths]

Hey i OC'ed mine to 4.4 and it runs fine with the stock cooler. 4.5 automaticly protects it so you cant go over 4.4. My Specs - FX 4100 - HD 7850 2GB - 16 GB Corsair Vengance 1333mhz - 750W PSU

 

[JuanB]

What motherboard do you own though?

 

[Guest]

Hey i OC'ed mine to 4.4 and it runs fine with the stock cooler. 4.5 automaticly protects it so you cant go over 4.4. My Specs - FX 4100 - HD 7850 2GB - 16 GB Corsair Vengance 1333mhz - 750W PSU

i overclocked my little FX 4100 to 4.5GHZ by increasing the CPU voltage to about 1.535 and it worked perfectly on prime95. i also heard someone say that they got their 4100 to 5GHZ by upping the voltage to 1.62 but im running on the stock heatsink so when i put it to 4.5GHZ and ran Prime95 my processor got about 90 degrees !!! My computer shut it self down before suicide though so its all fine