AMD 5800K overclocking Difficulties

ace_macbeth

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Mar 8, 2013
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Hello All. First time overclocker. I've gone through a lot of different reads as to basics of overclocking and been using this resource as a general guide to what I'm trying to accomplish.


My current setup is an AMD 5800k APU. I had a Radeon HD 5770 donated to me a couple weeks ago and so I am currently not making use of the integrated graphics. I have 2 sticks of 1866 G. Skill Ram at 10-11-10-30 at 1.5v. The Motherboard is an Asrock FM2A85x Extreme 6 with the latest bios v 1.80, with a Cooler Master hyper 212 EVO cooler and a CM GX Bronze 450W power supply.

However there are some voltage issues I have been having.

The voltage does not want to stay above 1.4v. Without the overclock (stock settings for everything, turbo core enabled, APM (auto power management) disabled thermal throttle disabled) The CPU voltage tanks down from 1.4 v to 1.297 v.

I then disable turbo core and set the bios voltage to 1.45 v, and change the multipler, but when I go into my tuning utility, the voltage fluctuates between 1.35 to 1.4 v, and generally won't stay. I've been able to get 4.2 GHz stable but ideally I want to reach 4.4 GHz. I've been using ASROCK extreme tuning utility.

I've seen several other people have had issues with the voltage being above 1.4v. One poster mentioned changing the CPU offset. I've tried it to no avial.
 

noobsaibot_21

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Mar 8, 2013
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@ace_macbeth

I share the same situation as you. I just bought a new computer with amd-10 5800k setup and I wasn't planning on using a discrete card (at least not some time). I've been using my new computer for a couple of days now and I thought the apu was impressive on mild gaming. Then just yesterday, my cousing gave me his old gpu which is HD5770 and I installed it and I when I checked the windows index experience on my computer(properties), the graphics and gaming graphics rating boosted from a 6.9 rating from the apu to a 7.4 rating using the newly installed HD5770. Also, I tried borderlands2 with high settings and also other games and I saw a significant improvement.

@kiezz

therefore, I'm not so sure the 6670 from the amd a10 5800k is stronger than the HD5770.
 

kiezz

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Jul 7, 2011
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thats really interesting i had an a8 5600k i tried it with a 6850 and using just the integrated as well and didn't see any fps increase using the 6850, I only tried it on skyrim and sleeping dogs, I have to say though I actually like apu's for there price performance ratio
 

ace_macbeth

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Mar 8, 2013
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The 5770 was donated to me by my T.A. after I had already assembled the rig.

I really only play league of legends on it, the main issue is getting voltage stability.
Should I only trust the bios in terms of readings for voltage? Are the programs sometimes off in their readings? Or is there something else that can be done in getting past the 4.2 GHz mark?
 

ace_macbeth

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Mar 8, 2013
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Update:

Going back to the BIOS, I have found the CPU was receiving the proper voltage. 1.472 (setting at 1.475). Using CPU-Z when windows was running The CPU was receiving 1.5 v, but would drop to 1.45 under load with prime95. However, core 2 was spitting up errors no matter the voltage at anything over 4.2 GHz.
 

Philip Stubbs

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Jul 6, 2013
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When you are CPU limited, you won't see a performance increase with a better GPU... If you were to try playing those games with a higher resolution you would see that the GPU solution would not see decreased framerates (the APU would).

And as for your over clocking (OC) issues... it sounds like you might have a smart voltage feature enabled probably tied to a Thermal Limit.

Furthermore, I would not recommend running with an OC 24/7. Save the OC Setting, and if you happen to be running a game that is CPU limited where the fps is 20-30, OC so that your fps is 30-40... you likely won't notice a difference between 40fps and 50, or 100 fps and 120.