AMD FX-8120

[JAYFRESH1271]

I know this been ask on here lots of times i have the fx-8120 n i have it running at 4.0 on stock voltage n a few things disable in Bios to avoid throttle problems n it is stable on prime95 3 hours blend test it reach 53c n on idle around 26c my question is i want to bring it to at least 4.1 to 4.2 what setting do i need to achive this here is my set up:

Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX AM3+ Motherboard, AMD FX-8120 X8 3100MHZ 16MB 125W AM3+, Sony Optiarc 24X DVDRW SATA OEM, WD Caviar Blue 1TB SATA HD 7200/32MB/SATA-6G, Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB PC12800 DDR3 1600MHz 2x4, Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Full Tower Gaming Case, EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB GDDR5 PCIe 2.0, Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler for i5, i7, 775 and AMD, COOLMAX ZP-750B APFC/V2.3/EPS12V/V2.92 80+ BRONZE

 

[mocchan]

You'll probably need to increase your voltage little by little; small increments on either the base clock or multiplier should allow you to achieve this clock speed.

 

[JAYFRESH1271]

well i am at 4.0 via multiplier no voltage boost normal voltage n disable a few things to avoid throttle issues

 

[mocchan]

well i am at 4.0 via multiplier no voltage boost normal voltage n disable a few things to avoid throttle issues

Increase voltage and you should be able to hit 4.5Ghz+ as long as you have a decent cooler

If I remember correctly, with a slight voltage increase, you could hit around 4.2Ghz on FX chips with the stock cooler.

 

[JAYFRESH1271]

i am using noctua nh d14 right now my temps are 24c n it just to 30c to around 40c my temps jump arund that range i guess it is normal when surfing web n other minor stuff on prime95 3 hour blend test the highest it went was 53c running at 4.0 on stock voltage

 

[nekulturny]

You've got like the best air cooler on the market right now. Noctua D14s, I don't think there is a more effective one. 53c should give you plenty of room if you ran Prime 95 for 3 hours and thats the highest you hit.

Although, the motherboard you got isn't the best to overclock on. I remember reading somewhere the Gigabyte 990FXAs weren't so hot, but I might have been dreaming. Oh well, but yea, if you're hitting a wall and want to go higher, it might be voltage time. Me, I'm more conservative, I'll push it as far as it will go without voltage increases. My P II is good for 4.2GHZ at least, but my CPU cooler isn't good enough.

 

[JAYFRESH1271]

so u think i should just keep going up on multiplier before voltage to see how far i get? i never mess around with voltage before thats why i ask what setting should i use

 

[nekulturny]

Well, if you hit 4.0 and you haven't hit a blue screen, then yea, keep stepping up the multiplier. You may not need a voltage increase. Every CPU overclocks differently, I can't say to you "oh for FX-8120s you need a 1.375 voltage setting to get to 4.5GHZ" or anything like that, if you understand how CPUs are made, really they're like snowflakes, no 2 will be exactly alike, its just not that simple.

 

[JAYFRESH1271]

i am going to try to keep stepping up on the muliplier like i said i never mess around with voltage in matter of fact this was my first overclock i ever done i did research on here on google n youtube

 

[mocchan]

i am going to try to keep stepping up on the muliplier like i said i never mess around with voltage in matter of fact this was my first overclock i ever done i did research on here on google n youtube

Good luck with the stock voltage Let us know how far you get.

However, on a side note, you should be able to reach much higher clocks if you bump up your voltage to 1.45v. This is very reasonable considering you have one of the best CPU heatsinks on the market today.

 

[JAYFRESH1271]

just the voltage i raise in the bios?

 

[mocchan]

just the voltage i raise in the bios?

Yes, just the CPU voltage.

 

[nekulturny]

You're welcome.. One word of caution about OverDrive. For some reason it gives false temps on motherboard. I know for sure it will on yours because I originally had the UD5 variant of that same board before it died and I replaced it with a Sabertooth. It shows the core temps as being hotter than they actually are. If you're using Hw monitor to watch your temps stick with it.

 

[nekulturny]

You don't have to do it all in BIOS you know? You can download AMD OverDrive for free, and make your changes within your OS, so you don't have to constantly reboot and run stability tests. Once you find something you're happy with you can dial in your settings in BIOS to make them permanent.

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/amd-overdrive/pages/overview.aspx

 

[JAYFRESH1271]

i have amd overdrive

 

[JAYFRESH1271]

ok thanks going to give it a shot n see

 

[mocchan]

You don't have to do it all in BIOS you know? You can download AMD OverDrive for free, and make your changes within your OS, so you don't have to constantly reboot and run stability tests. Once you find something you're happy with you can dial in your settings in BIOS to make them permanent.

Totally forgot about that for a second :lol:

 

[nekulturny]

Totally forgot about that for a second :lol:

Yea, lol, I didn't think of it at first either. Asus boards comes with AI Suite, which is what I use. That Gigabyte board I would and did find annoying, it had your old fashioned Blue Screen BIOS. Totally unacceptable for a board of that price range in 2011-2012.

 

[JAYFRESH1271]

i have hw monitor but i think sometimes i get false reading even on fans rpm

 

[nekulturny]

Whoops, that one doesn't work with AMD CPUs. My mistake.

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

 

[nekulturny]

Hwmonitor should give you accurate temperature readings. You can try using this program and see if they agree.

 

[mocchan]

Yea, lol, I didn't think of it at first either. Asus boards comes with AI Suite, which is what I use. That Gigabyte board I would and did find annoying, it had your old fashioned Blue Screen BIOS. Totally unacceptable for a board of that price range in 2011-2012.

Agreed...

 

[JAYFRESH1271]

i have core temp too lol lol i use core temp n hw monitor n the software that came with the motherboard call eazytune

 

[noob2222]

First thing is to find the LLC voltage control setting and set it to its maximum setting. I don't remember where gigabyte hid it but its there.

If you run into stability and cpu voltage doesn't seem to be doing anything to help, bump the cpu nb and ht voltage one tick.

For the gigabyte board one tick is pretty massive like .05v i think, the asus is like 0.0125v per tick.

I was able to hit 4.4 easily on the gigabyte you have, just up the multi and the cpu volts some, I think i was around 1.39v. I also didn't like the gigabytes bios so I swapped to the asus. now im sitting at 4.7 ghz @1.344v, no errors since january once I got it where I like it.

In terms of ease, the gigabyte is very simple. the Asus however, has soo many more options its intimidiating to people who aren't used to overclocking and massive testing to see what each setting does. At the end of the day tho the asus is a sweet overclocker because of the control it has over every aspect.

 

[noob2222]

p.s. as far as temperatures, AMD overdrive monitors the internal cpu temp. Most of the others will probably find the motherboard socket temp. The socket temp will be higher than the cpu temp because its farther from the heatsink.