Problems OCing over 4.0GHZ - Z97 PC Mate & G3258

[Ryan Fallon]

I have been having problems OCing over 4.0GHz and can't figure out what the problem is. When I try 4.2 or 4.4 ghz and adjust the voltage up accordingly it will either get stuck before the BIOS with an A2 in the bottom right corner or it will boot into Windows, but then report that Windows has encountered an error (WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR).

In my MSI BIOS I have CPU Ratio Mode = Fixed and CPU Core Voltage Mode = Overrride Mode. Does anyone else know what I might be missing and why I can't OC past 4.0? Most people can get to 4.4 easy with 1.25V or less.

For what it's worth as well, here is my hardware:
MSI Z97 PC Mate Mobo
Nvidia GTX 660
Intel P G3258
WD 1TB Cav Blue
Asus PCI-E Wireless card
LG CD Drive
Corsair CX430W
(Don't know if there's anything else I need to include, new to this, please let me know)

Thank you in advanced!

 

[Y0GI]

What is your Vcore voltage set at when you OC?
Have you checked to see if that mobo requires a BIOS update in order to OC the P G3258?
Have you checked to see if 430 w. PSU is adequate for your GPU+CPU?

Yogi

 

[Ryan Fallon]

Hi Yogi, thank you for your response.

Please bare with me as I'm pretty new at this. I went with the Z97 mobo as I thought it did not need any BIOS update to OC the G3258. I am using CPUID and it says it is running at 4.0GHZ which was the highest I was able to clock it. Can you help steer me in the right direction on how to check if the 430W is suitable for my CPU+GPU? I am almost certain it is fine for both of them at stock, but not sure if I'm skirting the threshold OCing.

Also I was just recently able to clock to 4.2GHz, but I had to go with a 1.28V Vcore voltage, which seems a lot higher than what most people have had.

 

[iamlegend]

Yogi is correct. Check if the bios supports the OC for G3258. Linus once discussed that the B-series motherboard supports the OC for G3258 but maybe Z-series already supports it.

Check for MSI BIOS update and see if there is a quote for G3258.

 

[Ryan Fallon]

So just updated/flashed my BIOS to the latest version from the manufacturer's website. I tried OCing again and had the same sort of failures where it would not post to BIOS and would just show an "A2" in the bottom right corner. I went with 1.29V and tried 4.4ghz and didn't work. Went down to 4.0ghz and it worked. Went up to 4.2ghz didn't work. So right now I have the voltage set at 1.24V and the clock at 4.2ghz and it's running stable:

http://imgur.com/6NB3TOI

I was also wondering what the difference was between VID and IA in CPUID:

http://imgur.com/uM7NDHo

I read some posts and people were saying that VCORE is what you should be looking at, but that is posted under my mobo in CPUID and the voltage says 0.944V, doesn't make sense to me. Just wondering what might be happening why I can't OC past 4.2GHz without throwing a ton of voltage through the chip? This was my first time building a PC so I'm wondering if it's worth reconnecting all the power connections incase one isn't connected perfectly.

 

[iamlegend]

Lol, sometimes you need to throw a ton of voltage to jump from 4.2 to 4.3.
Try bumping up your voltage and just monitor the temps.
Set 4.3 and bump your voltage to 1.31.

 

[Ryan Fallon]

Lol, sometimes you need to throw a ton of voltage to jump from 4.2 to 4.3.
Try bumping up your voltage and just monitor the temps.
Set 4.3 and bump your voltage to 1.31.

Haha, does it show I'm new at this...? Thanks for the reply Legend. I guess the biggest part that confuses me is that other people are claiming they can get 4.4-4.6 with just 1.26V. I'm just trying to figure out why mine is so much off. I am using a 430W power supply and I guess that's the only thing I can think of is that I need more power...?

I'll try upping it, is there a max I should stay under for voltage?

 

[iamlegend]

Here`s a link on GURU3D. http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/pentium-20th-anniversary-series-g3258-processor-review,7.html

They bump until 1.5 to clock 4.7.

 

[Ryan Fallon]

Here`s a link on GURU3D. http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/pentium-20th-anniversary-series-g3258-processor-review,7.html

They bump until 1.5 to clock 4.7.

Thanks for the article legend. I think the moral here for me is it takes a lot more V to get there than I thought. I'm running the stock cooler too so I'll just have to keep an eye on temps.

Last thing I'm wondering, I currently have the multiplier set on "Fixed" and the voltage set on "Override" in my BIOS, do those sound correct? Thank you for all your help.

Okay, one more thing I just thought of. I was able to get it to 4.4ghz with 1.38V. When I run Cinebench I only really get an extra point or two (308 vs 306) on the test score with 4.4 instead of something lower, 4.2 or 4.0. Is it really worth the extra temps and voltage to get the 4.4? I'm just looking for your opinion if it was your rig.

 

[iamlegend]

If it was my rig I will OC it until 4.7 (overclocking bitch). lol
I don`t run cinebench and I apologize for that. Basically the main point of overclocking is to boost performance but it does not mean if you overclock at 4.7 your CPU will stay at 4.7 most of the time. You just adjusted it`s range into higher but of course clocks will fluctuate according to your load.

Also extra voltage will be supplied if your on a high load. Voltage also fluctuates depending on the load.

Which means, if your watching movie let`s say CPU clock is 4.0 V is 1.3
If you play game, CPU=4.3 V = 1.35

That`s basically it.

 

[Ryan Fallon]

If it was my rig I will OC it until 4.7 (overclocking bitch). lol
I don`t run cinebench and I apologize for that. Basically the main point of overclocking is to boost performance but it does not mean if you overclock at 4.7 your CPU will stay at 4.7 most of the time. You just adjusted it`s range into higher but of course clocks will fluctuate according to your load.

Also extra voltage will be supplied if your on a high load. Voltage also fluctuates depending on the load.

Which means, if your watching movie let`s say CPU clock is 4.0 V is 1.3
If you play game, CPU=4.3 V = 1.35

That`s basically it.

Thanks for the help Legend. I'll have to decide what I want to do at this point. I am using this to play a couple of video games. WoW runs on Ultra graphics without skipping a beat. Planetside 2 runs on ultra and does okay, just drops a little FPS in large zones, but I'm having a problem with stuttering in the screen on that one, a whole different story.

Anyway, thanks again!

 

[iamlegend]

Haha I can help with that if you like. You seems to be a good person.

For stuttering issues did you turn off the v-sync?

 

[Ryan Fallon]

Haha I can help with that if you like. You seems to be a good person.

For stuttering issues did you turn off the v-sync?

Haha, what don't you know Legend? I have tried all the graphic settings from low to ultra and have toggled v-sync on and off. My FPS stays between 58-60 with v-sync on and 90-100 with it off. It never seems to dip down when the stuttering happens. So far I have tried these two suggested fixes:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1y9u13/the_omfg_honeymoon_is_over/cfiqjv8
http://www.iron-pulse.com/showthread.php?3755-Potential-Stutter-Fix

They may have improved the stuttering slightly, but it still exists. For what it's worth I did notice it in WoW as well, but that game not being a FPS it doesn't really matter if it happens. I do not notice any stuttering when I'm just in Windows. I have tried playing PS2 in Windowed mode as well and it still happens. Some people suggested that it has something to do with an OCed machine so I took my overclock off and it still happens. I even changed the batteries in my mouse!

Not sure where to go from here. Any other suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.

 

[iamlegend]

I suggest that I will sleep for now and wake up tomorrow.

 

[iamlegend]

And I woke up. I`m so sorry man but I`m not familiar with the games that you are playing. For stuttering issues I managed to solve my COD ghost and AC4 stuttering and lock both at 60 FPS. (I`m only using crack for those! Pirates.)

Yesterday, I tried to lock BF4 at 60 FPS but I cannot get it stable, there were frame drops until 48. (It`s unfortunate that I can`t enable Mantle because it`s also a crack. lol)

I will try to find updated version of this game which I can enable the mantle and I can wipe my a** and smile.

 

[iamlegend]

What did I say? Oh, for better performance. I have a Radeon Card and you have Nvidia I also have Nvidia but it`s the low end GT610 which i will give to my GF`s little sister.

So now, for us Radeon users, we use (not all) use the Radeon pro (which I don`t use) to tweak the settings of games. To match game settings with GPU specs.

For Nvidia, I don`t know if you have the same software that can tweak in game settings.

Now, for what I do. I use the MSI afterburner and D3D.

MSI afterburner: will be used to lock FPS and OSD (monitoring FPS and temps)

D3D: to force tessellation and v-sync.

Rationale: Enabling V-sync will remove the stuttering but will give you significant frame drops(based on my results) but you will have smoother gameplay.

For COD ghost I get 200~30 FPS. (not good right?)

Locking FPS to 60 (with MSI afterburner) will limit the max FPS into 60 and flucutations will be around 55~60 FPS. (i prefer this than having 200FPS at highest).

I think you should give it a try for performance boost. If you are skeptical for what i`m saying, try to search it on youtube and find out.