Help overclocking my 965

[KAB11]

I installed a hyper 212 the other day, so I could start doing some overclocking, but i'm a little hesitant on trying any voltage adjustments. I have increased the multiplier from 17 to 18 which gets me 3.6Ghz and I ran prime95 for 15mins no prob, but once I increase the multiplier from 18 to 19 and run Prime95 it crashes after about 10mins. But I don't know which CPU voltage to increase in my Bios, there is like 5 different ones. Can anyone help me out here?

From what I know all I have to do is incerase the multiplier until it crashes and then increase the voltage by.05. Rinse and repeat.

 

[KAB11]

Would it be better to increase the voltage by .025? And also I am a bit hesitant to increase the voltage since its in a big red font, but is would this be correct?

 

[KAB11]

Anyone?

 

[ocmusicjunkie]

Hey, I'll take a look at the specs there and give you some answers in a jiff. I'm familiar with most Asus AM3 boards and also run a couple 965 processors myself. Just want to look over what I can see on the screen there first.

 

[ocmusicjunkie]

Okay, got a look. What model motherboard is that? The BIOS looks like Asus, but I don't recognize it- might it be MSI? I've seen some of their BIOS screens look similar to that as well. At any rate...

You should first tick up the voltage on your CPU, as you have highlighted. It looks like it currently is set to 1.375v? If that's true, you have plenty of headroom to increase that by. I would generally go up to 1.392v (I assume this is what two "+" steps would do. 1.4v is perfectly safe. Anything thats being set automatically for the CPU is going to have at least .1v of room before being dangerous, generally. Heat is the primary factor at the moment- make sure to stay under 60c max and ideally around 50c under full load.

Increasing the CPU-NB slightly will help stabalize things, but will also increase the thermal output of the processor, so be mindful of that. Lastly, the NB itself can be increased one or two notches from stock to help with stability. So, it's the three bottom settings before RAM that you want to focus on.

IMO, unless your memory requires it specifically, there shouldn't be any need to change your RAM voltage with those settings. If you were overclocking from 1333mhz to 1600mhz on the ram, or tightening up the latency settings from stock, that's the only time to play with that. Overvolting at stock settings would actually have a chance to be the source of your crashes in itself.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Denebs will handle 1.55v safely with decent cooling, but don't just whack it up to that, 0.5v increments is a large step, if you can use lower like 0.05 its easier to keep temps down whilst finding the minimum stable voltage for the chip
I think your board has an Nvidia chipset though?
something in my mind is nagging me about that but I can't think what at the moment..
Moto

 

[KAB11]

Okay, got a look. What model motherboard is that? The BIOS looks like Asus, but I don't recognize it- might it be MSI? I've seen some of their BIOS screens look similar to that as well. At any rate...

You should first tick up the voltage on your CPU, as you have highlighted. It looks like it currently is set to 1.375v? If that's true, you have plenty of headroom to increase that by. I would generally go up to 1.392v (I assume this is what two "+" steps would do. 1.4v is perfectly safe. Anything thats being set automatically for the CPU is going to have at least .1v of room before being dangerous, generally. Heat is the primary factor at the moment- make sure to stay under 60c max and ideally around 50c under full load.

Increasing the CPU-NB slightly will help stabalize things, but will also increase the thermal output of the processor, so be mindful of that. Lastly, the NB itself can be increased one or two notches from stock to help with stability. So, it's the three bottom settings before RAM that you want to focus on.

IMO, unless your memory requires it specifically, there shouldn't be any need to change your RAM voltage with those settings. If you were overclocking from 1333mhz to 1600mhz on the ram, or tightening up the latency settings from stock, that's the only time to play with that. Overvolting at stock settings would actually have a chance to be the source of your crashes in itself.

Hey thanks for the reply! My motherboard is a MSI NF750-G55. I was reading this guide on overclocking AM3 processors and it says to find the max stable ram and NB clock you can before heading into the Cpu, so I was searching up how to find my max stable ram, but I can't really find anything so far. Is this needed or should I just jump right into the CPU?

 

[KAB11]

Denebs will handle 1.55v safely with decent cooling, but don't just whack it up to that, 0.5v increments is a large step, if you can use lower like 0.05 its easier to keep temps down whilst finding the minimum stable voltage for the chip
I think your board has an Nvidia chipset though?
something in my mind is nagging me about that but I can't think what at the moment..
Moto

Ok thanks for the help I will increase by 0.05v incriments and yes my board has a Nvidia chipset.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

I remembered, its mostly to do with amd overdrive, it doesn't work with Nv chipsets, I knew it was something hehe
If you aren't too bothered about the ram then just set the timings and speed/Voltage manually and leave it, overclocking ram isn't a big booster anyway,
but +1 for finding your NB limit
Moto

 

[KAB11]

I have a stable clock at 3.7Ghz, but every time I try to go any further it crashes. I have tried increasing the CPU voltage, NB voltage, but I cant get it too work. Anyone know what could be the problem?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Most Bsod's are ram related but it may just be that you have found your chips limit (at least on that mobo)
hows your temps at 3.7GHz?
Ambient, idle and load please
Moto

 

[KAB11]

Most Bsod's are ram related but it may just be that you have found your chips limit (at least on that mobo)
hows your temps at 3.7GHz?
Ambient, idle and load please
Moto

I idle around 33 and under full load is around 43. So i have alot of room with my temps. I am pretty sure its something to do with my ram, but i dont know how to fix it. I am using 2 different Ram kits, 2x2gb Ocz gold 1333mhz 9,9,9,20, and 2x4gb Corsair Xms3 9,9,9,24.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Try one kit on its own, I'm finding that rams an issue for me at the moment but Christmas isn't a good time to be ordering from the Net lol
Moto

 

[KAB11]

Yea thats what I was thinking of trying. Ill give it a go later on thanks for the help.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

No probs man, want some inspiration to keep you pushing?

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2598768
I'm on serious water and very close to that being stable, the rams the thing upsetting it I think
Moto

 

[ocmusicjunkie]

Hey sorry for being MIA on this one- I'd like to still try helping a bit here too. Moto is right that most BSOD issues are RAM. Here is my experience with overclocking AMD chips:

RAM issues: BSOD, rebooting with new settings but stalling without any signal to the monitor, or failure to actually reboot at all with new settings without manual power-down and restart via case switches

CPU: Crash during the Windows 7 logo animation, or immediately after animation but prior to reaching desktop, or crashing when starting a program or placing the system under load.

IMO, you might be okay with both sets of memory if you run at 9-9-9-24-2T-34 timings. It usually adds stability to relax the latency from spec numbers, so the 9-9-9-20 shouldn't hamper much. Keep in mind, if OC'ing far enough with even just the CPU, but certainly if across all the CPU/NB/HT/RAM or some combo, often it pays to go even looser with the timings than they specify. I run 9-10-9-27-1T-42 on my best OC despite in theory having 9-9-9-24 spec memory.

If you are really topping out at 3.7ghz and the mid 40's for CPU temp, I would ask for a full rundown of your current voltage settings. You are almost certainly playing it too conservative. Heat should be an issue before voltage safety for all but the best cooled rigs when talking about our chip.

And moto- pfft! Look at my sig without having to cheat with the 975 that nobody still sells in order to get there.