NX8500GT overclocking
so i was just dling GTA 4 ; indeed i knew i was needed overclocking for my 8500GT 512MB it has dynamic overclocking technology the normal MHZ
459Mhz GPU CORE
399Mhz CPU memory
when overclocked using its own VGA CLOCK sofware D.O.T
503Mhz CPU CORE
441Mhz CPU Memory
although i can overclock it but i can go further than that i know but i cant figure out the # for Mhz can someone help me and give the figures reall aprricated.
Can you clarify what info you need exactly?
Similar Messages
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Need GeForce Forceware driver to overclock NX8500GT
I have downloaded the latest Forceware driver from nVidia 163.71. I'm trying to overclock the card but it resets to factory defaults every time the computer is booted.
After a couple of hours of searching, I found several sources that say that the 16x.xx will not allow overclocking.
I need to know the best drivers to download in light of this.Quote from: htismaqe on 11-October-07, 10:19:35
I uninstalled all nVidia drivers and installed the latest drivers from MSI's website (162.18).
RivaTuner now works, I have my vidcard overclocked quite a bit, and everything seems to be fine. Hopefully the nv4 infinite loop problem is also gone.
"Hopefully the nv4 infinite loop problem is also gone."
If problem comes, return VGA to stock parameters and re-test, if its fine. Then seems you are OC VGA too much, start diging again. -
MSI NX8500GT 256MB...need just a *bit* more power...
I recently purchased Rome Total War to kill some time while my XBox 360 is being repaired. The game runs flawlessly on the highest settings with one tiny exception - when I increase game speed to 3x on the tactical map, the game becomes nearly unplayable. Even mouse and keyboard become slightly unresponsive (making it very hard to go back to normal speed).
I have the NX8500GT-TD256E (http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1198#) with core overclocked to 576Mhz, DDR2 at 512Mhz. I have found that overclocking much higher produces terrible instability.
Should I purchase another of these cards and go SLI? Or would I be better off spending the $40 or so more and getting an 8600?Quote from: jason str on 01-April-08, 23:30:14
Good choice.
Better than 2 8600s in sli by far.
Make sure your power supply has a pcie connector to power the card first though. Usually labeld but not always its a 6 pin plug.
Yeah, it does. -
Changed my hardware config, need help changing my overclock.
About a year ago I completed my new OC system using a considerable amount of input here. It has run well overall. However, my original intent was to use the PC solely for productivity apps and internet access. Recently, my XBox 360 died (you're shocked, I know) and I picked up Rome Total War to pass the time. It didn't take me very long to realize the video card I was using wasn't adequate. Here's my original system config (100% stable):
MSI K9N SLI Platinum nForce 570 BIOS 1.8
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 3.12Ghz (240*13) @ 1.45v
SuperTalent 1GB DDR2 800 445.8Mhz DDR2 (CPU/7) @ 1.90v, 5-5-5-15-20-2T timings
SuperTalent 1GB DDR2 800 445.8Mhz DDR2 (CPU/7) @ 1.90v, 5-5-5-15-20-2T timings
MSI NX8500GT-TD256E 576Mhz core, 512Mhz GDDR2
XClio Stablepower 500W +3.3V@30A, +5V@30A, +12V1@18A, +12V2@18A
I purchased an MSI NX8800GTS 320M OC to replace the NX8500GT. The NX8800GTS uses a dedicated 6-pin PCIE power connector, while the NX8500GT does not. In addition, the 8800GTS generates ALOT of heat. The 8800GTS was increasing ambient case temp, which in turn was increasing core temp to the point that the system was becoming unstable after long periods of playing RTW. I decided to lower my overclock in an effort to reduce voltages and hopefully reduce system temps across the board (I can't add anymore cooling, I already have 3 fans plus a Zalman CPU cooler). Here's my current config:
MSI K9N SLI Platinum nForce 570 BIOS 1.8
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.99Ghz (230*13) @ 1.35v
SuperTalent 1GB DDR2 800 427.1Mhz DDR2 (CPU/7) @ 1.80v, 5-5-5-15-20-2T timings
SuperTalent 1GB DDR2 800 427.1Mhz DDR2 (CPU/7) @ 1.80v, 5-5-5-15-20-2T timings
MSI NX8800GTS 320M OC 630Mhz core, 930Mhz GDDR2
XClio Stablepower 500W +3.3V@30A, +5V@30A, +12V1@18A, +12V2@18A
Here's where my question comes from:
I ran Orthos small FFT test, priority 9 with the above settings for 12 hours -- no errors.
I ran memtest86+ test #5, 24 passes -- no errors
However, I cannot get the Orthos large FFT test or blended CPU + RAM test to run for more than a few hours without starting to error out. I'm pretty sure the CPU is stable because of the small FFT test. So I think the problem is my memory.
At 1.90v, the large FFT test errors out after about 30 minutes. The blended FFT test errors out after about 4 hours.
At 1.95v, the large FFT test errors out after about 3 hours. The blended FFT test errors our after about 6 hours.
At 2.00v and above, the PC starts behaving erratically. It will freeze up sometimes, requiring me to pull the power and restart. And sometimes it will just power down.
Should I just trust the first two tests and ignore these results? I guess I'm not sure what to do at this point. I accomplished my goal of reducing temps (almost 8C degrees) but I want to make sure the thing is stable.
Also, I asked this question a while back and got conflicting answers - is it better to have a high memory frequency or tight timings? Because my cheap RAM really can't do both.Here is what I meant by Fine Tuning or finding that Sweet Spot.
There are 36 different CPU Speeds and I figured 152 possible memory speeds based on figures I have seen here.
200 to 250MHZ FSB (10 MHZ steps I am guessing)
10 to 15 Multiplier
7-13 divider
308MHZ to 1071MHZ memory speeds
Many more are possible not just the 4 that CPUZ shows for your current settings.
Here are a few you might try with the 4-4-4-10 timings.
FSB Multi GHZ Divider DRAM Freq.
220 13 2860 8 715
230 14 3220 9 716
240 15 3600 10 720
240 12 2880 8 720
250 13 3250 9 722
220 15 3300 9 733
210 14 2940 8 735
240 14 3360 9 747
230 13 2990 8 748
250 15 3750 10 750
250 12 3000 8 750
200 15 3000 8 750
230 15 3450 9 767
220 14 3080 8 770
250 14 3500 9 778
240 13 3120 8 780
210 15 3150 8 788
240 15 3600 9 800
200 14 2800 7 800
230 14 3220 8 805
250 13 3250 8 813
220 13 2860 7 817
240 12 2880 7 823
220 15 3300 8 825
250 15 3750 9 833
240 14 3360 8 840
210 14 2940 7 840
230 13 2990 7 854
Some are slower CPU clock speed than what you are at now but might Benchmark better at 4-4-4-10. Some have higher CPU speeds and might fail, but I listed them in case you wanted to give it a shot. After all you might have hit the memory wall at 890MHZ and not the CPU wall at 3.12GHZ
Set memory volts to max allowed by manufacturer and have fun. You can lower them later in steps to fine tune. -
Overclocking the i7, a beginners guide
To give credit where credit is due: This was not written by myself. I have only edited parts of it.
I found this on the internet, but it was such a great article, that I wanted to draw your attention to it. Credits go to Chad. Thanks for all the effort you put into this.
What is overclocking?
Overclocking is a process of making various components in a computer to go faster than their stock speeds. So if you buy a processor (lets say an i7-920 2.66 GHz) and make it go faster (lets say 3.6 GHz), that can be deemed as overclocking.
HALT! Do not proceed any further until you have read this:
Dell, Gateway, eMachine, etc... do not overclock very well, so proceed at your own risk. You break it, it is your fault.
A little bit more of some explanation:
This guide is intended to explain how to overclock and its uses. It was made for those who have computers (moreover, motherboards and other components) that support overclocking. If you bought a brand of computer like Dell, Sony, Gateway, HP, eMachine, or any other crappy PC (not saying all of them are) that comes for a store like Walmart, Best Buy, or Circuit City, then this guide does not pertain to you. Even though it is possible to overclock these systems with software, it is not recommended nor advised. This guide is meant for anyone who has a motherboard made by ASUS, GIGABYTE, Abit, DFI, (sometimes Intel), or any other well known brand known for their boards and overclocking abilities. But be forewarned, not all boards made by these companies are made to overclock. Check and see if yours does before going any farther than this final line.
Note: There are ways to bypass hardware overclocking via software, but it is not recommended and can make your PC unstable, even rendering it unable to stay stable till the system is returned to normal. Overclocking software is made for boards that supports overclocking so that changes can be made without having to restart.
Further notes:
-Motherboards not designed for overclocking will not go as far in overclocking, become unstable sooner, and heat far quicker.
-Computers with boards that do not support overclocking do not have adequate cooling.
Why would you want to overclock if it could be damaging?
Simple, to get more out of what you payed for. Overclocking is similar to going and upgrade a car's engine by boring out its piston chambers and adding better fuel injection, air intake, transmission, etc..., but there is always a risk in doing so. But it all boils down to one thing: performance. It is hard to fry your system if you are careful and know what you are getting yourself into. If you are careful about what you do, then it is rather hard to do any kind of permanent damage to your system by pushing it to its sheer limits.
As with any kind of performance enhancement, there is a level of risk involved. The first and foremost danger is heat. Heat will degrade and damage your components beyond repair if left unchecked and will most definitely lower your system's life span. When you overclock, you are making your computer do more work than it is used to, thus it is going to generate more heat, so having a good cooling system is essential. If you do not have sufficient cooling, then your system could and will overheat. Overheat by itself cannot kill your computer though, the only way for that to happen is to repeatedly overheat it time and time again past the recommended temperatures. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS TRY TO STAY AT OR BELOW YOUR CPU's MAX RATED TEMPERATURE! If you go above this, you can risk harming your CPU. Do so at your own risk. Run your CPU at 5-10C above its max temp for short periods only and ONLY for benchmarking purposes only. DO NOT DO IT FOR LONG TERM!
And as luck would have it, you do not have to be overly worried about your system overheat as there will be signs before you system becomes a fried potato. Random crashes are probably the most common sign. Overheat is easily prevented by the use of thermal sensors which can tell you how hot your system is getting. If you see temperatures that you think is too high, then either run at a lower speed, or get better cooling, which I will cover later on.
The other danger of overclocking is voltage. Too much, and you can significantly shorten your components' lifespan. A small boost will not do much, but if you plan on a rather hefty overclock, you may want to be aware that it will decrease the lifespan of your computer's components. But this is usually not an issue since most people who will overclock do not use their components for more than 4-5 years and there is a good chance your components will not fail before 4-5 years regardless of the voltages running through it. Most processors are designed to last in upwards of ten years. So most of the time, loosing a few of those years is worth the performance gained for overclocking.
Disclaimer for my own protection:
WARNING!!! READ THIS DAMN WARNING!!! I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR YOU WHINE YOU BROKE YOUR COMPUTER SO READ THIS WARNING!!!!!!
Overclocking can really mess things up, and it wares down your hardware and its life-expectancy. In other words, the more you overclock, the shorter your computer will live (like how an F1 car's engine must be replaced after every other race). If you attempt to overclock, then I am not responsible for any damage or destroyed hardware when using this guide. Follow at your own risk.
Overclocking
This guide is meant for beginners and not for people looking to squeeze out every last bit from their processor. That’s when things become extremely motherboard specific. The goal of this guide is to try to make overclocking the core i7 an easy and enjoyable experience. Overclocking your core i7 is a must; if you don’t you’re a chump. This guide will focus more on core i7 920s, but ideas will probably carry over into EE and higher end chips with locked multipliers.
Recommended hardware:
1. A good cooler (Do not use stock if you plan to go past around 3.5. You will run your processor way too hot) (Noctua, ThermalRight Ultra Extreme or Megahalem are my preferred ones but read around.
2. DDR3 1600+ - You can get away with 1333 but with ram being as cheap as it is, why not.
3. Pretty much any x58 board (although some are better than others, read some reviews).
4. A good PSU with an EPS(8 pin) plug.
5. Paper, Pencil, and Patience – Write things down so you can remember your successes and failures. There is not much to play with in terms of the i7, but keeping track of what you tried can eliminate any frustrating experiences and also allow you to go back to a known stable settings.
Recommended software for stability testing:
1. Prime95.
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/
2. Memtest86+ http://www.memtest.org/
3. Realtemp http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/
4. CPUZ - http://www.cpuid.com
Many people have personal favorites but the above are what I use.
Not all I7s are created equal:
1. So you read on a thread that someone hit 4 ghz on a C0 stepping processor with only 1.28 vcore and you’re wondering if yours will do the same. It’s doubtful, but who knows. It may take you up to 1.4 volts at least with a C0. That’s life; if you're unhappy, sell it and buy a D0.
2. Not all i7s have the same quality IMC (Integrated Memory Controller). Some are more temperamental than others and will refuse to run your ram at its rated speed without a huge raise of qpi/uncore (VTT). This is not common and often it can be a sign of the quality of the ram.
3. For the most part, D0's overclock higher and at lower voltages than C0 chips, due to refinements in the fabrication process. Late C0 chips benefitted from the same refinements, and random other batches hit 4.0 ghz at really low volts. I have been told that some D0's do not hit 4.0, but most will do so at a lower voltage than most C0's. A D0 is a more desirable chip, but it's not a must and this guide is still useful to owners of C0's.
4. Toms Hardware article about speed vs power consumption is flawed and based on one really terrible C0 that needed 1.5 vcore to hit 4ghz. Is a D0 at 1.2v at 4 ghz going to consume more power than a C0 at 3.6 and 1.32 volts? No. The D0 will use less. Power consumption at any given voltage will increase about 3-11 watts (avg 5 for every 100 mhz you increase). Something brough to my attention recently though is that this may differ because some chips are leakier than others. A D0 is by no means a guarantee that it will consume less power.
5. If you want to reach higher clocks, you may need a better motherboard, cooler, chip or whatever. This guide is not for advanced overclockers.
Key Terms and Settings Quick Guide:
BCLK – Base Clock - This clock controls your memory speed, QPI speed, and core speed based on whatever multiples for those settings you have. It's the most important part of overclocking the Core i7. It's stock setting is 133
Uncore – This is basically the speed of everything which isn't your core (i.e. L3 cache, IMC, etc). It should be 2x your memory speed but allows for multipliers higher than 2x as well. Stability will be greatest at 2x.
QPI – Quickpath interconnect - It's basically the intel equivalent of AMD's hypertransport. It's how the CPU and the X58 chipset communicate. It has multipliers of 18x, 22x, and 24x. The 920 should be left at 18x creating a 9:8 ratio between the uncore and the memory multiplier assuming you use the 8x ratio, which some claim offers the greatest stability. Although people have been able to run it at all sorts of ratios.
Memory - Memory is calculated based on either a 6x, 8x, 10x, 12x, or 14x of your base clock. I recommend 6x and 8x. Depending on your mobo bios it may be called ratio or multiplier.
Ram Timings – This guide will only deal with the first four and the command rate. There are other guides regarding these. You can use XMP (intel's memory profile system) to have these values plugged in but it may set your QPI/uncore voltage automatically to 1.35 which may be more than you need (although it will be stable).
Turbo mode – This enables the 21x multiplier on the chip. Most boards allow you to do this with eist disabled, but some boards require it enabled. See if a newer bios lets you change things.
CPU Multiplier – On the 920 the range is from 12x – 21x (22x on one core when at stock speeds). It has been found that the 19x and 21x multipliers are more stable than the 20x.
Vcore – Voltage of your cpu. See below for tweaking instructions.
PLL – phase-locked loop – Just use the settings recommended below (1.8 – 1.88 is within specification).
QPI/Uncore (VTT) – This voltage is the VTT although it does play a role in feeding the IMC with voltage enough to overclock your ram, the L3 cache and a number of other things (Specification is that it should be less than 1.35 but when taking droop into account you can go higher, probably 1.4 is safe. Some ram modules have XMP profiles which call for higher QPI so some will argue that this is safe. I'm not going to argue one way or the other.)
Vdimm – Your ram voltage (Specification says 1.65 max but 1.66 is fine and so is a bit higher depending on your QPI/uncore voltage).
Important to do before you overclock:
EIST – Enhanced intel speedstep technology - It's a power saving tech that should be disabled while testing overclocking stability. This should be disabled while finding your OC, but can be enabled after you are stable (Disable if you have stability issues).
C1E – Another intel power saving technology. Disable while overclocking, enable afterwards.
Anything Spread Spectrum – Disable it.
PCIE frequency – Always at 100, but see FAQ questions below.
LLC - Load Line Calibration - This gets rid of vdroop when enabled and can help stabilize overclocks. It breaks intel spec, but it is highly recommended to enable it, since it will reduce the needed vcore for a stable OC. The argument for vdroop is that it's a standard and reduces voltage spikes. I have not been able to find anyone who's done any damage by enabling LLC and thus disabling vdroop. In an old anandtech review from 2007 they found that it increased power consumption on an X38 asus board; a newer xbitlabs article using X58 found that it actually decreased with more threads or was otherwise the same. This guide pretty much assumes you use it, but like anything else you are taking the risk. Then again, on my board, enabling it doesn't give you any red letter warning like when you maybe tap your vdimm above 1.65.
All other settings leave at auto unless needed for stability.
Initial steps:
If you've played around with any settings before reset your bios to its stock options. There's probably no need to reset your CMOS, but it can't hurt; if you don't know how to reset your CMOS then I suggest you learn to do so. It's unlikely that you will have to as most modern motherboards will usually have some sort of protection against bad overclocks and automatically allow you to reset the bios upon a bad boot.
Once your bios is at its stock configuration disable EIST, turbo mode, C1, and any other power saving options that may interfere with an overclock as well as any spread spectrum settings. Now, boot into windows (If you want to use the 21x multiplier then go right ahead and set it as long as you can do so without enabling EIST). Open up cpuz, load up prime and see where the voltage goes. This is your approximate vid for stock. The chip may very well run under this voltage, but this is the vid that the bios is seeing.
From here we have a number of different methods we can try. I always change my BCLK in my bios settings so that anything set to auto will adjust itself if need be, although you are free to use whatever windows based tools you want although beware of any problems they may cause you.
You should always set your memory to 8x or 6x depending on what you have and your uncore to 2x the memory. Leave the QPI at the lowest setting.
Set windows not to restart on a bsod (You want to know what the error was):
Windows XP and Vista Directions, but it is the same for Win7.
Method #1: Optimizing for max performance per watt.
This method takes by far the most amount of time but for many its worth it in terms of its power efficiency.
Begin by going into the bios and changing your voltage to your vid and setting QPI/uncore (VTT) to 1.25 (I have raised this due to concerns about droop at 1.2) and vdimm to 1.65 (Most boards can't do this; 1.66 is safe, ignore your spaz bios warnings; you are not going to explode anything, although if you do, it's not my fault. Set it to 1.64 if it helps you sleep easier. I recommend at this point to be working with either the 21x multiplier if possible in order to keep your ram as much out of the equation as possible. 20X has known problems and 19x will land you with high ram speeds quicker which will require raises in the QPI/uncore voltage sooner.
Open up real temp and run Prime 95 with 8 threads and check stability for an hour at least (The more the better. I recommend overnight just to make sure all is good). Record your settings on a piece of paper or email them to yourself. Make sure to have Realtemp open in order to watch your temperatures. Temperatures should not exceed 80-85 during Prime. During normal use for extended periods, they should never see these kinds of temperatures. I like to keep mine below 70 for normal usage.
After its stable go into the bios and increase the BCLK by 10 and repeat the process. Find the max BCLK for your stock vid (or any voltage, if you'd like by lowering by smaller amounts when you find an unstable clock. This will help you know what you can run at any given voltage.
See below for known Prime 95 errors and how they relate to your settings (also some settings to try for stability). Once you get to the clocks you want, I recommend running Prime for at least 16-24 hours. I have in fact had errors in the 14th hour so it's good to know that you're truly stable.
See also below for optimizing your ram settings.
Method #2: Quick and dirty method for 4ghz aka screw efficiency
Set your ioh and ich to 1.2, your vdimm to 1.65, your cpu pll to 1.88, and your QPI/uncore to 1.35.
For D0 users set your vcore to 1.275 and for C0/C1 users set your vcore to 1.4 and BCLK to 190/191 or 210/211 and multiplier to 21 and 19 respectively. Check for Prime stability. D0's should be fine, but C0/C1 still may not make it, at this point your temps may be too high if you're not on water, so I suggest you start working backward in order to hit a much lower vcore or use method 3.
Method #3: Quick and dirty vcore boosting.
Set your ioh and ich to 1.2, your vdimm to 1.65, your cpu pll to 1.88, and your QPI/uncore to 1.35. Set BCLK to 190/191 or 210/211 and multiplier to 21 and 19 respectively.
The D0 chip usually hits 4.0 in the vcore range of 1.175 and 1.25. Try those voltages until you find whats right for your chip.
The C0/C1 is a much more difficult beast with a much larger range of 1.27 to around 1.4 and up to 1.5 (Do not attempt on air unless you live somewhere really, really cold). Some may not hit 4ghz at all.
This method is more difficult as some chips may not boot until you give them the proper vcore
How to use Prime95 to test stability:
Open up Prime95 and Realtemp to check your idles and loads. Set Prime95 to whatever priority you'd like. I prefer 4 or 7 so that realtemp still updates but some people prefer 10 and will run without a temperature monitor. Either is fine, but I'm always paranoid that my cooler will somehow become unlatched spontaneously. Set windows not to restart on bluescreen by setting [insert settings here] so that you can catch the error (although windows will record it somewhere). Start a mixed torture test and let it run for however long, depending on if you're only doing a temporary stability test in order to raise (about 1 hour) or a true stability test (16-24 hours). Once you've passed Prime95 you can run any other stability test that you want.
Prime 95 Errors:
Freeze: Increase the vcore
Other errors can indicate instability with the chip if they are during small fft (increase vcore by .125) or instability with ram large ftt (Try raising the ioh and/or running memtest).
BSOD code 101: Increase the vcore. I recommend increasing by +.025 if you get a bsod
BSOD code 124: Increasese or decrease the QPI/uncore by .25. Depending on where you are in your stability tests you'll probably need to increase it. 1.375 is the max I'm comfortable with although people say 1.4+ is safe. This is for you to determine and research. Don't do anything you're not comfortable with. Intel says do not go above 1.35 so 1.375 with droop and loss is safe and not too far outside specification.
It is important to note that sometimes QPI can be too high and that might cause this code. That's why it's not a good idea to just set things to 1.35 and hope for the best. If you find that increasing QPI/uncore voltage is not increasing stability, try decreasing it. Just remember of course, to keep track of your settings. I recommend not increasing, unless you have to (Don't be arbitrary about it).
D0 exclusive BSOD weird 2 letter/number codes: Treat this as a 101 and increase vcore by +.025. Update: It seems that these error codes can crop up for other reasons. Depending on where you are in the process you should take a look at your other voltages. I realize this is vague, but you may need to experiment.
If any worker fails, especially during small fft then it's cpu voltage. Bump it once or twice. If it fails during large fft then its probably memory error you can try running memtest/upping ioh. I would try running small fft at that point for a good amount of time and make sure its not the cpu voltage. If it passes 8-12 hours of small fft then work on making it pass large fft. Just remember to keep track of your settings. That's not to say that a large fft error won't be the result of cpu voltage, it's just not what I would try. Be methodical. If something allows Prime to run significantly longer then keep it. Significant depends where you are in the process. If your workers fail as soon as you start and a setting change gets you through a test then I'd say its good. If you get crashes during the 8th hour, and the setting change only gets you another 5 minutes in the 8th hour, it's probably just random and not the setting.
Testing Memory Stability with memtest 86+:
Personally, I do not run memtest until I actually encounter what could be memory errors( I assume things work until proven otherwise). Begin by setting your ram timings in the bios and setting your QPI/uncore to 1.35 and your vdimm to 1.64-1.66. Do not oc your cpu. Just run your ram at its rated spec to make sure that the ram is stable and not defective. You can also check it again with an oc'ed cpu as well. If it's unstable try raising the ioh to 1.20 or higher. If you are still getting errors try each dimm one at a time and see if you need to RMA (A pain in the *** but necessary).
Optimizing ram with memtest86+:
Assuming your ram is stable you can either overclock, lower voltage, tighten timings, or all of the above.
1. Lowering voltage. Run memtest86 for 20 minutes, if you get errors, stay where you are. Otherwise lower the vdimm by .02 and repeat until you get an error within 20 minutes. Then run it overnight.
2. Overclocking. You may be able to run your ram faster than you thought. Loosen the timings(make them higher) and then increase BCLK. You can optimize your voltage with the above number one. Depending on the ram, you may be able to overclock quite a bit or not at all. Running your ram at anything above 1066 is in fact overclocking the IMC.
3. Tightening timings. Timings should be decreased as such. Assuming you begin with 9-9-9 your next step should be 9-9-8 then 9-8-8 then 8-8-8. You can also try 8-9-8 but this is going to depend on your memory. You may need to raise voltages to tighten the timings.
The usefulness of overclocking your ram is limited. See the useful links sections below to see how certain ram settings will impact your real life performance.
Frequently asked questions:
Q: I can't raise my BCLK over some number. How do I fix it? What's the deal?
A: Not all chips and motherboards are made the same. You can try playing around with voltage amplitude, pll, skew or pcie (pcie is probably best not raised as it can cause damage). This is a question that is better asked on a thread dedicated to a specific board. You may end up being out of luck.
Q: What are safe voltages?
A: According to Intel or common knowledge the following are the safe air temperatures:
Vcore: ~1.4
QPI/uncore (VTT): 1.35
PLL: 1.88
Vdimm:~1.65 (Some will say that you are safe within .5 of your QPI/uncore allowing for a max of 1.85 on vdimm. See the link to the xtreme systems forum below on this subject for a long thread).
IOH: Less than 1.3
ICH: Less than 1.3
Q: My chip is too hot before I can reach 4 ghz. What can I do?
A: Disable hyperthreading or buy a better cooler (Noctua, TRUE or Megahalems recommended).
Q: But don't I want hyperthreading?
A: It's certainly nice to have a feature you paid for, but it sometimes decreases performance and it definitely causes a lot of heat. It's up to you.
Q: How do I go past 4ghz?
A: Same way as you got there in the first place. Just keep increasing BCLK. Past this point though it's up to you to do some research on your own.
Q: What is this multiplier throttling I've heard about?
A: Some boards will throttle down the 21x multiplier if the wattage becomes too high. The culprits without public fixes are the Asus P6T Deluxe and vanilla (The Deluxe v1 has a bios available on the xtremesystems forum which can be crossflashed onto the v2 which will fix this problem) It really only becomes a problem at high voltages with high frequencies. Other boards have ways of disabling it.
Q: Why would I want to optimize my voltages?
A: Save money on power bills and leave more wattage for other devices.
Q: My chip was stable for X amount of time and now it's not?
A: Have you added any hardware? How are your temperatures? High voltages and high temps can cause decay and make the chip require more voltage for an overclock. It may also be that your PSU is starting to go or maybe your motherboard is. Do your best to troubleshoot this.
Q: My temperatures seem really high? Is X degrees ok?
A: A better question is whether or not you are ok with X degrees. How long do you plan to won this chip? What are your ambients? If your house is 40 degrees centigrade, don't expect your chip to drop below that unless you are using extreme cooling (also try to move somewhere cooler cause that's really hot or get some AC, are you trying to cook yourself?). A cpu well taken care of can last over a decade when run within spec. How long do you really think you're going to keep this chip? A rule of thumb I go by is never push a part that I can't afford to replace if I break it (I do this anyway, but its a good rule nonetheless). Your temps will always get higher than normal when stress testing so do some normal stuff to see if your temperatures are acceptable. Try backing down a bit if you are unhappy.
Q: I heard this will work or this needs to be this way?
A: Try it. This is a general guide, not a set of hard and fast rules.
Q: My computer restarted while priming; how do I find out the error?
A: If you haven't already, disable bsod restarts in windows. Sometimes, though, it decides to restart anyway.
Open Computer Management by right-clicking the Computer icon on the start menu (or on the Desktop if you have it enabled) and select Manage. Navigate to the Event Viewer. Note: If you did not disable UAC then you will be prompted to consent to the action you're about to perform. Click Continue. Note: You can also open the Event Viewer by typing Event Viewer in the Search box and pressing Enter, or typing eventvwr.msc in the Run command.
Also check the results.txt in your Prime95 folder for a log of when it ultimately crashed and what it was doing at the time.
Q: Whats the deal with PCIE frequency? Can it help break my BCLK wall?
A: Yes, but I advise caution. Raising this too much can damage things running on the pcie bus or cause them to not work. I would not raise it personally more than a few mhz. You are probably safe at 103, but I take no responsibility of course.
Voltages/settings you can try to use to increase stability:
PLL: 1.88
IOH: 1.2+
ICH: 1.2
CPU voltage amplitude: +800mv
CPU Skew: +300ps
Command rate: change from 1n to 2n
You should really check in on your specific board as not all boards have the same settings. Be methodical in testing settings since you want to know whether something helped or hurt by itself before you combine.
Useful Links:
http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/538439-guide-overclocking-core-i7-920-4-a.html
Intel Info on the i7
QPI/Uncore voltage (XS) (Do not take this as gospel try to stay in spec unless you feel like really pushing things)
Info on multiplier throttling (XS)
Memory Scaling on the Core I7My i7 rig is with a socket 1156 board, an Asus P7P55D mobo, and an 860 CPU. I know the Corsair DDR3 memory @ its stock 1.65v simply doesn't run at 1600mhz like it says on its box - 1333mhz seems to be its stability wall.
I upgraded my Q6600 and Asus P5B deluxe rig because so many people said to never consider overclocking on an editing rig. Was that over-cautious advice? -
Overclocking and the MSI K7N2 Delta ILSR
Hi everyone,
I wanna overclock my system. But, I've experienced several problems.
Problem one: When i try to set my memory timings manual (3-3-3-8)
in the BIOS, CPU-Z, Everest etc shows CL2.5.... instead of the CL3.0 that I've selected in the BIOS.
The second problem: When i raise the front side bus to 200MHz FSB, and doing the same with the memory speed (200MHz, 1:1 Synchronous with the CPU..)
I get many BSOD's in Windows... So I've tried to raise the RAS#to CAS# delay to 4, the same for #RAS Precharge (also 4) and the Cycle Time (TRAS) at 11.
But this also doesn't work... The memory voltage is already at 2.7V, and it can't get higher...
How can i get this board working on a FSB of 400MHz (200) ? On my previous board (KT600) I've reached the 2.31 Ghz without problems, totally stable.
Anyhelp will be appreciated.
For my specifications, see my signature.
Edit: Oh, i see that i have placed my topic in the wrong place, sorry for that.Quote from: Computerfreakje on 01-December-06, 22:26:05
Thanks for above suggestions. But, as I said before, i can't change the CAS Latency of my memory... When i set the CAS to 3 in the bios, it stays at 2.5.... (checked with CPU-Z, Everest, CPUID) Is this a known bios-issue?
And my memory is designed to run at 200Mhz CL3.0-3-3-8.... I guess that's the thing that causes the instability... is that possible?
And before i flash my bios, I'd like to know if this solves my problem. As i said before, on my previous motherboard, i ran 210Mhz without a problem... totally stable..
Thanks.
- Computerfreakje
"When i set the CAS to 3 in the bios, it stays at 2.5.... (checked with CPU-Z, Everest, CPUID) Is this a known bios-issue?"
possible, with newest or modded should work normal.(never had similar issue) also underpowered memory stick can cause instability, with modded BIOS should be able to setup mem. vcore to 2.8V which is arround 2.76V(mobo is undervolted), also your Kingston required at least 2.75V to work property at ranked speed with default timings.
"When i set the CAS to 3 in the bios, it stays at 2.5....And my memory is designed to run at 200Mhz CL3.0-3-3-8.... I guess that's the thing that causes the instability... is that possible?"
yes its possible.
"And before i flash my bios, I'd like to know if this solves my problem. As i said before, on my previous motherboard, i ran 210Mhz without a problem... totally stable.."
your prevision mobo is much different.
follow this tips:
go into BIOS and Enable "Super Stability Mode", setup "FSB:RAM" Ratio in 1:1, setup "CPU Interface" to Normal,
apply memory timings as follow:
CAS: 3
TRCD: 3
TRP: 3
TRAS: 9
and memory vcore(Voltage) to 2.8V.
get a copy of Memtest86 and create bootable diskette or cd-rom(can be found on memtest site), boot from diskette, when memtest started select and use test number 5 only, that can be done via this keyboard shortcuts from a memtest ("c","1","3","5") ensure you can loop/pass test 20 times without errors.
post back results if there errors come report how much per pass is it. if there are errors go back into BIOS and start pull back FSB by 10Mhz (etc: apply 190FSB) and re-test with memtest. Ensure you have DIMM1 is filled with memory stick(close to CPU socket).
post back results. also check memory sticks individually to ensure there is no malfunction/defective stick.
also single/dual CH differences on Nforce2 is around 1%. -
MSI k7N2 Delta ILSR,AMD 2700+ & MSI GFORCE FX 5600 VTDR 128 Overclock
Guys, I have the above mentioned GPU, Mobo & CPU (Box edition with AMD FUN). Can anyone tell me the best way to overclock them at the highest possible mark?
StormRider,
Best way to overclock???? Humm......
Start with a big Case, then get a large Brand Name Top of the Line Power Supply. Then get a Ultra High Performance Heatsink and Fan for your CPU, I prefer a Peltier, others prefer Water. Then put a bunch of fans in your case and make sure you have all your wires run so you get great airflow. Then get High Performance RAM for overclocking, I use Mushkin Level II Black. (If you can still find any.)
Last thing that many people forget, have your computer in an air conditioned space.
Then go have at it. Overclock like crazy.
Take Care,
richard -
Msi g4 4200 64meg overclocking probs..
using xp pro as my OS. When I go into the msi tabs under display properties, and hit the tab to auto adjust the memory clock, the circle test runs into some kinda failure and therefore i cant adjust my memory clock. What gives and does anyone know how i can fix this. When i boot using 98se it works fine...i hate windows.
any advice would be greatly valued. i dont think i need to overclock this beast, but not being able to really bothers me
amd 2100+
msi k7n2
512m kingston 2700
creative 5.1 live
g4 4200
broadband cable connection
...who wants to smoke and who wants to get smoked.scottyrox,
Download the latest Detonator4 Drivers from the nVidia Website. Install them.
Delete the file msicpl.dll from your windows directory.
Use notepad to make a new file and put in it what I quoted below and then save it with the .reg extension.
quote:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARENVIDIA CorporationGlobalNVTweak]
"Coolbits"=dword:ffffffff
"NvCplEnableAGPSettingsPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableAdditionalInfoPage"=dword:00000001
"NvCplEnableClearViewPage"=dword:00000001
That will open all the extra options in the Detonator4 Drivers including the Core and RAM Speeds for your GF4.
Take Care,
Richard -
MSI Ti-4200 128 MB possible overclocking problem
I have a:
QDI Kudoz 7E/333A mobo
AMD Athlon 2000+ (Palomino)
MSI Ge-Force Ti-4200 128 MB
512 MB Ram@333
Maxtor 160 GB HDD UATA 133 8MB Cache
Western Digital 40 GB GDD UATA 100 2MB Cache
SB Live Audigy 2 NX
Nec DVDR/W 3520
Nec DVD-ROM 5500
Windows XP SP 2
NVidia Detonator (Forceware) 66.93
Coolbits2
I had overclocked my Ti-4200 to 285MHz Core and 585MHz RAMDAC using the coolbits registry key (boot settings). Everything worked fine for about a month, I have ran several 3DMark tests (mostly 2003) and many "heavy" games (Doom 3, Far Cry, HL2, Warhammer:DOW, etc) and no problems occured (crashes or weird graphics). The 3DMark 2003 score from 1500 now is 1700 and I am (was) quite happy about it. Yesterday I removed the 512 Ram and re-installed it after a while (had to remove the card also) and the PC, without having any problems at all (I was playing Dungeon Siege a few hours ago) suddenly, while in BIOS and DOS, the screen is filled with white dots (looks like Pac-Man ) and while loading the XP logo I see thin vertical lines (red and yellow) and then the monitor closes while the PC still works. I tried running in safe mode, it loaded but I still had these lines on the screen. I removed the DVD-ROM and the WD HDD just in case (350W PSU) but still had the same story. I installed a Club 3D Radeon 9600 Pro 256 MB and everything worked fine. I didn't install any Catalyst Drivers, I removed the coolbits from the registry and the NVidia drivers, re-installed the Ti-4200 and still I have the same problem. The card looks fine, no broken pins or anything. I also thought about a virus but this can't be, I triple-checked everything I installed and no viruses were found (and the Radeon worked).
I fear the overclocking was not so good after all but I can't be sure.
Any ideas?
Thanx in advance.Proves a theory im made at least, MSI makes cheap / fault video ram, your card is a gonner pretty much, those vertical lines and monitor shuitting down are known as screen corruptions that occur when the video ram is fried (in most cases), did you overclock it by 10%? Im wondering if you can RMA a card since MSI does guarentee 10% overclock on some cards so I here but I cant be sure, someone else needs to answer that question as for MSI, if your going to overclock, dont buy from them, Im quite peeved at MSI because the memory on their cards cant even handle stock speeds let alone overclocked ones.
-
Recent Conversation with MSI and Neo4 overclocking "thing"
I had a recent email transaction with MSI if anyone is interested. I tried my best to represent the group, and I know we all experience the problem a little bit different which is why it has been hard to explain and fix. I tried to give them the best info to duplicate the issue in the lab. It seems clear at this point that MSI still isn't duplicating the issue. They are using 166 Mem Clock Index, and the HT freq of 3x and still not understanding the issue, hopefully I have gave them a guide to duplicate what we have been trying to say. Yes I have explained this to MSI before but I really feel I am getting somewhere with my last 2 emails. Once we get them to duplicate the results then I think we will all have our solution shortly. Before anyone says anything negative, at least they aren't saying, oh that's an overclocking problem we don't deal with that. Also remember how long it has taken to get many people to see the issue, this isn't easy to understand so just stay cool, don't say negative sh-t if you reply and we'll see how this pans out. It was actully kind of hard since I am sitting in a hotel room 500 miles away from the motherboard but I was able to use modbin6 to view the BIOS and since I have done this about 7 zillion times I remember the settings LMAO. They have their Venice to 2750, not bad...
Hello MSI Engineer,
The information you requested. The data you sent shows a Venice running at 166 Memclock index value at HT at 3x, the goal is to run at 200 Memclock Index and HT at 4x. In order to duplicate this issue in the lab here is my recommendation. It MUST be tried with a CBBID Winchester RevD CPU and a Venice Rev E CPU and the Gskill memory you have in dual channel. The issue happens everytime with a CBBID Winchester and less often with Venice.
Starting with the Venice 3500+, Set the following in BIOS
[Memclock Index] 200
[CAS# latency (Tcl)] 3
[Min RAS active] 11
[RAS to CAS delay] 6
[Row Precharge] 6
[User config mode] manual
[bottom of 32 bit] (default)
[1T/2T] 1T
[Read Preamble] 6ns (default)
[Async Latency] 6ns (default)
[S/W mem hole] Disable (default)
[H/W mem hole] Disable (default)
[MTRR mapping] Continuous (default)
[High Performance] manual
[Agreessive timing] Disable
[Dynamic Overclocking] Disable
[Adjust CPU FSB Frequency] 200
[HT Frequncy] 4
[HT Width] 16 up 16 down
[CPU Spread] Disable
[SATA Spread] Disable
[PCI Spread] Disable
[PCIe Clock] 101
[SSE/SSE2] Enable
[CnQ] Disable
[CPU Ratio] 11x
[Adjust CPU VID] 1.45
[Extra CPU Voltage] your choice for stability
[Mem Volt] your choice for stability
[NF4 Volt] your choice for stability
Now boot into Windows. Using Clockgen, increase HTT to 250. This should be stable based on your screen shot and your RAM modules. Now having a CPU 2750Mhz, RAM at 250Mhz, and a HT of 4x250(1000). Test for stablity with Prime95 or other Stress Testing tool. Now we can say motherboard is stable at 2750Mhz CPU, 250Mhz RAM, and HT 4x250(1000). Now return to the BIOS at set the following
[Adjust CPU FSB Frequency] 250
This reults in a no POST condition for me and others. Now install the CBBID, except you will have to set a lower CPU max speed based on CBBID overclocking potential. In the BIOS, Return [Adjust CPU FSB frequency] to 200, Perhaps [CPU ratio] of 10x or 9x but a [Memory Clock Index] 200Mhz. Boot to Windows and use Clockgen to raise HTT to 250 again. Once you find a [CPU Ratio] that will have a STABLE overclock with a 250HTT. Return to the BIOS and set [Adjust CPU FSB Frequency] to 250. Try and POST. Try this experiment with the 3.1, 3.3, and 3.4 BIOS's. For the CBBID and the 3.1 BIOS you should be able to change the [HT Freq] to 3x, 2x or 1x and get a POST with [FSB Freq] 250, [Memclock Index] 200, and a known stable [CPU Ratio] you found in Windows. The 3.3, and 3.4 BIOS have made this work around not possible. Why does [HT Freq] 4x work in windows but not at POST time?
As a side note. The 1.3 BIOS for the 7125 works with the Venice, and the 1.4 and 1.5 do NOT. So somewhere between the 1.3 and 1.4 MSI created the issue on the Venice. Perhaps that is where you can find the answer and solution to the problem.
Here are some articles that describe the issue on a ECS and Chaintech board that were remidied by a BIOS update. So the problem is not uncommon and should be able to be fixed.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/chaintech-nforce4_6.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ecs-kn1-extreme_9.html
Here is some other users data of NF4 SLI and Ultra MSI Neo4's if you want to see some other BIOS settings.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=81364.0
Here is a screen shot of my Neo4 Plat SLI (MS-7100) 3.1 BIOS and CBBID Winchester(The Venice will NOT POST at all above [Adj CPU Freq] ~219-229 under any situation but is stable in Windows at HTT 250 with Clockgen). The system is stable and POST's when [HT Freq] is 3x, it will NOT at [HT freq] 4x which is stable in windows but won't POST.
http://home.comcast.net/~aicjofs/cbbidMSI2501.jpg
Here is another screenshot of the Asus A8N Plat SLI with all peripherals the same. Only changed the motherboard. This is POSTing at [HT Freq] 4x. This is just as a reference that the components do indeed POST with [Adjust FSB freq] 250, [Memclock Index] 200, and [HT Freq] 4x. This board will POST both my 3200+ Venice and Winchester CBBID at the settings described above.
http://home.comcast.net/~aicjofs/cbbid250asus1.jpg
The following are my BIOS settings that will create a non-POST condition, but the board is stable at these settings when ADJUSTED FROM WINDOWS.
[ADVANCED BIOS]
[Gate A20] Enable
[APIC] Enable
[MPS Table] 1.4
[Boot OS2] No
[ADVANCED CHIPSET]
[System BIOS Cacheable] Disabled
for newer BIOS
[SLI Brodcast apeture] Whatever default is.
[INTEGRATE PERIPHERALS]
[Onboard IDE 0 and 1] Enabled all channels in Auto
[IDE DMA] Enabled
[SATA 1,2,3,4] Enabled
[IDE PREFETCH] Enabled
[NVDA RAID] Enabled
[all IDE raid channels] Disabled
[all SATA raid channels] Enabled
[On Chip USB] 1.1-2.0
[USB KB/Storage] Disabled
[NVDA LAN] Enabled
[NVDA ROM] Disabled
[Onboard VIA 1394] Enabled
[Marvell Gigabit] Disabled
[Onboard Creative] Enabled
[SiI3132] Disabled
[FDC] Enable
[Serial Ports] Disabled
[Parallel Port] Disabled
[POWER MANAGMENT] all defaults
[PNP/PCI]
[Init display] PCIe
[Resources] Auto
[PCI Express Max Payload] 4096
[CELL MENU]
[Timing mode] manual
[Memclock index value(MHz)] 200
[CAS# latency (Tcl)] 3
[Min RAS active] 8
[RAS to CAS delay] 4
[Row Precharge] 4
[Row cycle time] Auto
[Row refresh] Auto
[Row to Row delay] Auto
[Write Recovery] Auto
[Write to Read] Auto changing this to known working value will lock system sometimes
[Read to Write] Auto changing this to known working value will lock system sometimes
[Refresh] Auto
[User config mode] manual
[bottom of 32 bit] whatever it defaults to
[1T/2T] 1T
[Read Preamble] 6ns
[Async Latency] 6ns Attempts to change this to 8ns will lock system
[S/W mem hole] Disable
[H/W mem hole] Disable
[MTRR mapping] Continuous
[High Performance] manual
[Agreessive timing] Disable
[Dynamic Overclocking] Disable
[Adjust CPU FSB Frequency] 250
[HT Frequncy] 4 (For 1000Mhz)
[HT Width] 16 up 16 down
[CPU Spread] Disable
[SATA Spread] Disable
[PCI Spread] Disable
[PCIe Clock] 101
[SSE/SSE2] Enable
[CnQ] Disable
[CPU Ratio] 10x
[Adjust CPU VID] 1.45
[Extra CPU Voltage] +9.9%
[Mem Volt] 2.7v
[NF4 Volt] 1.65v
BIOS Tested 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4. I have not tested 3.51 but forum users are still not getting positive results
-------------- Original message --------------
Dear Aicjofs
This is MSI technical support engineer from Taiwan.
We receive some message from MSI LA office & Anandtech.com.
We are sorry for inconvinence experience when you try to Overclock MS-7100.
We hope to contact with you directly and help you to solve it.
Depends on related message from others, we know that you have several problem for MS-7100 overclocking.
According to your info at MSI Forum, Here is your system configuration:
Neo4 Plat SLI(MS-7100) 3.1 BIOS
3200+ Venice (8x313) @ 2500Mhz
Patriot PC4000 (200:133) 2.5-3-3-7
HT x3
Aopen 6800GT @ Ultra speed
AthenaPower 500W 3.3v - 26a 5v - 47a 12v - 28a
Could you give us more info about what changed item inside your BIOS?
[Memclock index value(MHz)]
[CAS# latency (Tcl)]
[Adjust CPU FSB Frequency]
[HT Frequncy]
[Adjust CPU VID]
[Extra CPU Voltage]¡Kor others
We try to Overclock MS-7100 with BIOS v3.2 and 3500+ (Venice core).
CPU ADA3500DAA4BW ABBWE made in Malaysia
Memory G-skill PC4400 512MB*2 (Dual Channel)
We only change some item inside BIOS as: (Based on Optimized defaults)
[Memclock index value (MHz)] à166
[CAS# latency (Tcl)] à 3
[Adjust CPU FSB Frequency] à250
[HT Frequncy] à3x
[Adjust CPU VID] à 1.450V
[Extra CPU Voltage] àOver VID 6.6%
We will try to find similar CPU as yours to test it.
If possible, please tell us the CPU OPN number like we listed. (ADA3500DAA4BW)
We also help to know any other info that you can provide.
If possible, please help to tell us more setting and system info.
Thanks!
Waiting for your responding.
Best Regards!
Technical Support Engineer
Technical Support Department
E-mail: msi.com.tw
[Post edited by Glenn]Quote from: Indigian on 15-June-05, 19:41:43
Good news and good work guy's
On a side note to chakkasol....
are you using coolbits 1 or 2?
I heard that coolbits2 is the one for our later cards
Good question - coolbits 2. I happened to take a chance from this website and downloaded this file...ran it up against my antivirus and antispyware software and it looked clean. I simply ran the program and viola, coolbits functionality automatically added to the winxp registry. I cleaned out the msi DOT drivers first before I loaded this program. Even though I have tweaked on occasion the winxp registry to speed things up and make winxp shut down quicker, this was too complicated for me to do on my own.
The highest overclock with the MSIs DOT is 11% at 555/1100. My MSI card is actually very stable at 580/1160 for a 16% overclock. I have gotten it to 600/1200 but I usually run the coolbits stability program a few times and it has never failed at 580/1160. I am sure if I had a better cooling system than the stock fan it would probably go to 600/1200 or higher. At a 3DMark05 of 4133 (and much higher if I could get it stable at 600/1200, I would be bumping up against the stock speeds of the 6800s vid cards.
EDIT: Of course, if you download this coolbits 2 program you do so at your own risk...I take no responsibility for the download.
The coolbits download:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815
The MSI 6600gt card that I purchased:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=321916
btw, I have ordered more stuff from ZZF than newegg...they seem cheaper (but dont always have the stock of newegg) and the stuff gets here 1 day sooner usually (west coast to east coast USA). -
This guide is intended to help those people who have K8N Neo4 (nforce 4 based) boards. It will provide some general background information, but a lot of things will be specific to this particular series of motherboards, and in general it is assumed that the user is at least moderately familiar with the basic concepts of computer hardware and the concepts and risks associated with overclocking. As usual, I am in no way responsible for any losses/damages resulting in whole or in part from the use or misuse of this information, or in short, "overclock at your own risk". It should also be noted that I have the Neo4 Platinum, so things might be slightly different for those of you with the SLI or other variants of this board, though I would strongly suspect that most of the overclocking features will be pretty much the same. Anyways:
The Basics:
Okay, for those of you who are new to the overclocking crowd, here is a quick overview of some of the essential bits of knowledge. A very complete and thorough introduction and general overclocking guide is also available at https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=40413.0 for those of you who need extra help.
CPU Speed - If you don't know what this is, then I wonder what you were hoping to attain by accessing an article about "overclocking". The main aim of overclocking is to increase the CPU speed beyond what it is originally specified to run at. The CPU speed is equivalent to the product of your FSB speed and the CPU multiplier.
FSB - FSB is short for "frontside bus". Historically the FSB essentially controls the speed at which the CPU is able to communicate with the rest of the system, and this is pretty much still true for the Athlon64, although the impact of higher FSB speeds is somewhat diminished, as we will see later. On the Neo4 (and most any other board) the FSB and various multipliers/dividers are responsible for determining the core CPU speed, the memory speed, and the HTT speed. You PCI-E bus is locked, so raising the FSB will not cause your video card and other devices to become unstable. Additionally, there is no need to worry about an overclocked FSB screwing up the built-in SATA/IDE controller (the nforce one at least, I haven't tested the SiL, although it should be fine as well).
HTT - HTT (or sometimes just HT) is short for "HyperTransport Technology". Not to be confused with the HyperThreading feature on Intel's P4 processors, this is the communication link between an Athlon64 processor and the PCI-E bus, as well as everything that hangs off this bus, including the SATA/IDE controllers and so on. Basically, everything except for the RAM talks to the CPU via the HTT bus. The speed of the HTT bus is determined by taking the product of the FSB speed and the HyperTransport multiplier, and it provides an extremely large amount of potential throughput, so much so that once its speed is above about 800 MHz, there's very little to be gained by pushing the HTT speed higher.
Memory Clock - The memory clock refers to the speed at which the RAM modules are operated. The memory clock is determined by taking the FSB and applying a ratio to it. Generally speaking, a higher memory clock is better, although there are tradeoffs in terms of latency if memory timings (CAS latency, etc.) have to be loosened in order to get the memory clock higher, or if a ratio other than 1:1 is used (which will be necessary for high overclocks unless the RAM you are using is of extremely high quality).
PCI-E - The PCI-Express bus. This provides connectivity for your graphics card(s) and other add-in cards. The default PCI-E speed is 100 MHz, and this is locked on the Neo4 so that increasing the FSB does not increase the PCI-E speed. You may manually increase the PCI-E speed if you wish, although this is not at all recommended.
vcore - This is an abbreviated way of referring to the voltage that is applied to the CPU. Generally speaking, a higher vcore will provide stability at higher clock speeds, the tradeoff being additional heat, which may or may not require a more robust cooling solution, depending on how high the vcore is being pushed, the quality of your thermal interface compound, and the thermal characteristics of your individual CPU (some just overclock better than others). For the 90 nm Athlon64, the default vcore is 1.40V. The default is slightly higher for the 130 nm variants.
vmem - Similar to "vcore", this is a shorthand way of referring to the voltage that is currently being applied to the RAM modules. Again, an elevated vmem will generally give you improved stability at higher memory clock speeds. Memory specifications vary from manufacturer to manufacturer in terms of what voltages are supported (for instance, my RAM supports from 2.55V to 2.95V), though the default voltage is usually 2.65V. Vmem, vdimm, and vram all refer to the same thing.
Purchasing:
For anyone who happens to stumble across this guide while in the process of looking for some new hardware, I thought I'd list some of the things that are important considerations when you are buying a system with the intent of overclocking it.
The CPU - For most people, the main point behind their desire to overclock is that they want to be able to get a cheap CPU, and then run it at the same speed (or faster than) of a CPU that costs much more (possibly one for which the price premium has not come down on yet). When choosing which CPU to purchase, there are a few aspects that are especially relevant to overclocking (I'm going to assume that you've already decided to use an AMD CPU, due to the reduced overclockability, thermal problems, and generally poorer performance in most areas despite having higher raw clock speeds that all of Intel's current P4 models offer). Arguably the most important feature (when looking at the current Athlon64's anyways, which are very good CPU's and which you have to use if you want the Neo4) is the manufacturing process used. This denotes the size of the smallest individual feature on the chip (smaller is better). Your two choices right now are 90 nm and 130 nm. The 90 nm carries a fairly small price premium (about $10 for the 3000+/3200+ models), but is *much* more overclockable due to the fact that it operates at a lower voltage (and thus generates less heat), and also uses a more "mature" revision than the 130 nm parts. It is *strongly* recommended that you make sure to get a 90 nm CPU if you are in the market for a new socket 939 Athlon64. The next thing to consider is the default CPU multiplier. This is the one reason why it might be preferable to get a 3200+ over a 3000+ chip (generally speaking, all the 90 nm Athlon64's have about the same upper limit on their overclocked core speeds, until you hit the still very expensive 3800+ and FX variants, so it doesn't make sense to buy a more expensive CPU when you're not getting any extra overclockability out of it). The multipliers on the Athlon64 CPU's are "half-locked", meaning that you can run at the default multiplier (9x for the 3000+, 10x for the 3200+), or any multiplier that is smaller than the default, but you cannot select a multiplier that is higher than your default multiplier. Thus, getting the 3200+ over the 3000+ gives you two extra multipliers (10x and 9.5x) and, all things being equal, will let you achieve a higher clock speed before you are forced to run your RAM asynchronously and pay the latency penalty for doing so, although your max clock speed will likely be about the same as it would if you had gotten the 3000+ instead (so if you have cheap RAM that's not giong to overclock well at all, there's very little reason to go with the 3200+ unless a RAM upgrade is planned in the near future). So, for overclocking purposes my recommendation is a 90 nm Socket 939 Athlon64 3000+, or if you have high performance memory and want to get the most out of it, the 3200+. Both chips are competitively priced and should overclock at least to 2.4 GHz, if not higher, on stock cooling (spend the extra $10 for the non-OEM variant and get the HSF that comes with the chip, it works as well as many more expensive third-party air-based systems and is well worth the extra $10), and of course both offer the attractive feature-set of a socket 939 Athlon64 (dual integrated memory controllers, 64-bit support, dual-core processors on the future upgrade path, etc.).
The Motherboard - The motherboard is an important part of overclocking as well. There's not much point in getting a highly overclockable CPU and then pairing it with a mainboard that was not designed with overclocking in mind, and this is one area where the Neo4 really shines...it has superb overclocking support. Probably the most important feature to have if you indend to overclock your CPU by 20%+ (which should be easily attainable on either of the recommended CPU's above) is that the board have locks that prevent the overclocked FSB from overclocking parts of the system that can't handle the extra speed (like the PCI/PCI-E bus, for example), and long story short, the Neo4 has these (unlike the Via-based K8T Neo, which had no locks and which limited SATA users to overclocks of no more than about 225 MHz because any high than that and the SATA controllers would start to become unstable and kill your HDD data...working locks are a very good and important thing if you are overclocking). The next important feature is to choose a board whose BIOS lets you control the options that are important for overclocking. Again, the Neo4 does excellent here, letting you pick your memory divider, memory timings (and some very obscure ones at that), CPU multiplier, FSB speed, HTT multiplier, CPU voltage, chipset voltage, RAM voltage, and so on without complaint. The MB also has a handly little button on it that will clear the CMOS with a single press (no more screwing around with those annoying jumpers) in case you screw up and the system won't POST. The board also has some extra cooling hardware installed in the form of a passive heatsink near the rear I/O panel, but mostly it's the presence of functional locks and the wide range over overclocking related BIOS features that make it attractive from an overclocking perspective. Aside from this, it has a very nice feature set in general, including 8 SATA ports and 2 IDE channels (for a total of up to 12 drives), two gigabit ethernet adapters, firewire, 7.1 channel audio, and the additional selling point that nvidia's unified drivers tend to be much easier to install than most companies' drivers.
Cooling:
Okay, one last thing to consider before the overclocking starts. Cooling is important in general and especially if you are going to be overclocking. While a 90 nm Athlon64 performs rather admirably from a thermal perspective even when only stock cooling components are used, some simple modifications can drop your idle/load temps by 5+ degrees, which can give you a bit more overclocking headroom and which in any event will make your CPU happier.
Case Fans - The first thing you want to do is make sure your case is adequately ventilated...in general a single 120 mm exhaust fan will do the job just fine. If your case does not support fans this large, use at least two 80 mm fans, either both as exhaust, or one as exhaust and one as intake (if they perform differently, use the more powerful one as the exhaust fan to avoid overpressuring your case). If noise is a concern, the Vantec Stealth (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-999-614&depa=1) series of case fans are affordable, come in a variety of sizes, perform quite well, and do not make much noise at all (though you might want to consider doubling up on the 120 mm's just to be on the safe side). This can lower your CPU temp by about 2 to 5 degrees over a poorly ventilated case configuration using the same CPU fan.
CPU Fan - As I mentioned earlier, the default CPU fan that comes packaged with the retail Athlon64 chips is perfectly acceptable for overclocking use in my opinion. The only complaint I have is that the thermal compound that comes preapplied to the HSF is fairly cheap and does not perform that well. I *very strongly* recommend replacing it with Arctic Silver (http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm) before ever installing it on your CPU. To remove the default thermal pad, you can use a razor blade to get most of it off, and then hot soapy water (or denatured alcohol I've heard) to remove any remaining reside. Be sure that the HSF is free of any cleaning residue and also of any moisture before going to install it on the CPU, and then just apply the Arctic Silver and then complete the HSF installation, and you're good to go. Arctic Silver is relatively cheap (the tube you'll get will do several CPU's, and it doesn't go bad), and by replacing the thermal pad that comes on the stock HSF with it, you should be able to reduce your idle/load times by at least 5 degrees, and with this plus the added reduction you get from having a well ventilated case, you should have enough headroom to pull off some pretty aggressive overclocks.
Overclocking:
Finally, on to the good (and Neo4 specific) stuff. Hopefully at this point you have a freshly built Neo4 based system with an Athlon64 CPU that provides a large headroom for overclocking.
Initial Setup - Okay, the first thing you're going to want to do once the system is built and powered on for the first time is enter the BIOS and configure everything to run at its *default* settings. It's not quite time to overclock yet. First, you want to install Windows, patch it to SP2 if necessary, and then install some benchmarking, stress testing, and monitoring software. SiSoft Sandra is a good benchmark suite, as are FutureMark's PCMark and 3dMark lines of software. For stress testing you can use SuperPi and Prime95 (and Memtest86 if you don't mind the tedium of having to reboot in order to use it, which I do so I don't bother with it). For monitoring you can use SpeedFan or Motherboard Monitor 5. At the very least you should install one application from each category, and configure your monitoring software to launch when Windows loads. One you have all this configured and working right, it's time to start overclocking (don't install too much else, in case of the worst case scenario in which an instability causes your HDD to become corrupted, requiring a reinstall of Windows and all the software, which is admittedly very unlikely, but unfortunately possible if you're unlucky enough). For comparison purposes you may want to run some benchmarks and record the results before you start. Additionally, you may want to install something like ClockGen, which will let you tweak your FSB/CPU coltage on the fly and which can make it easier to zero in on a stable configuration without having to reboot every time an instability is found.
BIOS Layout - Just to save some time, I'll describe where BIOS options that we'll be using are all in one place, so that when I reference something you can just look up here and figure out how to find the appropriate setting in the BIOS. Basically, there are two pages that we're interested in for overclocking (note that the Neo4 manual is actually extremely well done, and describes pretty much all of the BIOS options, so you can use it as well). The first is the "Advanced Chipset Features" page. Going "Advanced Chipset Features" -> "DRAM Configuration" brings up pretty much all of your memory related options (divider, timings, etc.), *except* for the RAM voltage. The RAM voltage option is on the "Cell Menu" page, which happens to also contain all the other settings we are interested in, including FSB speed, HTT multiplier, CPU multiplier, vcore, vmem, chipset voltage, etc.. Basically, if it's not memory related, it's on the "Cell Menu" page.
HTT Speed - As mentioned earlier, your HTT speed pretty much has no performance impact on the system once it gets to 800+ MHz, so the very first thing you can do is select the 4x HTT multiplier in the BIOS. Note that as the HTT speed gets above about 1100 MHz, it will probably start to make the system unstable. Therefore, you should keep track of the product of your FSB setting and your HTT multiplier, and whenever it gets to be above 1100, decrement the HTT multiplier to the next lowest setting. at a 4x multiplier, you should be good up to about 275 MHz on your FSB. Because the HTT's impact on performance is negligible, you do not need to worry about trying to maximize its value during overclocking.
CPU speed - Onve you've reduced your HTT multiplier, it's time to find your max stable core speed. To do this first go to the memory page and select a memclock index of 100 MHz. This will run your RAM it half the FSB speed, and the reason for doing this is to ensure that as we raise the FSB, any instability the occurs is a result of the overclocked CPU and not a result of overclocked RAM, so that we can be sure that we have indeed found the maximum stable CPU speed when we are done. Leave your other RAM settings at their defaults, we'll come back and tweak these later. Now go to the CPU page and select "Manual" for the "High Performance Mode" option if necessary to enable editing of the settings. You should disable Dynamic Overclocking (since you are doing this manually) and I recommend disabling Cool'n'Quiet, though you don't have to if you really don't want to. Disable all the "... Spectrum" settings (what these do is kind of complicated, but the manual plainly states that they should be disabled if you are overclocking, so heed its advice). Also disable "Aggressive Timing", as this will decrease your RAM overclockability substantially without providing any real benefit (and may make it unstable even at its rated settings). Now, what you want to do is, leaving the other CPU settings (i.e. vcore and multiplier) the same, start raising your FSB Frequency in 10 to 12 MHz increments, depending on your multiplier (basically you want to raise it about 100 MHz at a time). Some people feel this is a fairly large jump to do at a time, but I've found that the Athlon64 handles it just fine. If you get up above about 2.4 GHz, then you might want to only go by half of this at a time though. Remember to decrement your HTT multiplier as necessary. Basically, every time you raise the FSB, test for stability by letting the system try to boot to Windows. If it is successful, return to BIOS and raise the core speed some more. Once the system fails to boot, you have two options, either raise the CPU voltage (use the "CPU VID" setting in the BIOS to adjust the voltage directly, or the "CPU Voltage" setting to specify how much over the specified amount of voltage to apply...personally I prefer the "CPU VID" route, but it's really a matter of personal preference, and yes, both can be manipulated in unison...one thing I've noticed here is that the "CPU Voltage" settings seem to allow for less variance in the final vcore setting, keeping it very close to the specified voltage at all times, whereas increasing via the "CPU VID" option lets the voltage decrease a bit from the specified value when the system is not under load) and try again (and keep repeating until you have given the CPU as much voltage as you are comfortable with and the system can no longer be made stable), or return to you last stable setting and let it boot. Once you have done this, use your benchmarking and stress testing software to make sure you really are stable at your settings. If the system crashes or the test reports errors, you will either need to raise the voltage a little, or lower the FSB a little (this is where ClockGen can be a big timesaver). While some people swear by Prime95, my opinion is that if you can get through the largest SuperPi test without any errors, your overclock is stable. Monitor your temps while you do this. If you notice that the CPU temperature is getting above 60 degrees, you are running a bit too hot. Generally speaking, about 55 should be considered the threshold of safety here. If you're running hot, you can either decrease the voltage and FSB settings, or get a better cooling solution. Once you have determined that your setting is stable and not overheating your CPU, record your core speed (not your FSB speed, the total CPU speed) and voltage settings for later. You should probably be shooting for a target clock speed of around 2.4 GHz, or more if you have good cooling, or if you are interested in doing a "safe" overclock, just shoot for as high as you can get without raising the voltage.
Memory Speed - Now that you know your CPU's limits, it's time to work on the RAM. First restore your FSB to 200 MHz and your CPU voltage to its default, and specify a CPU multiplier of 6x to make sure that the CPU will not be stressed as your raise the FSB. Go to your RAM page, and manually specify whatever timings are appropriate to your RAM modules. Also be sure to set "1T/2T Memory Timing" to 1T (set the "... Mode" setting to Manual to make the RAM settings editable). Leave the rest of the settings alone, except for the "Memclock Index Value". Here, you have a choice to make. If you have high quality RAM, or your target CPU speed is not too high (like < 2.3 GHz), you can try to run your RAM synchronously, which will give you somewhat better latency. If this is the case, select an index value of 200 MHz (note that on the Neo4, when you select a memclock index what you are really specifying in the ratio at which the RAM operates relative to the FSB...the memclock index option is basically just obscuring this setting. To calculate your ratio, divide whatever the index value is by 200, so an index of 200 MHz is a 1:1 ratio, an index of 150 MHz is a 3:4 ratio, and so on). If your RAM is not of very high quality (for example, it's only rated as PC3200), or your target CPU speed is high, you will likely need to run the RAM asynchronously, so select the next highest index value of 180 MHz. This will let you get slightly higher RAM clock speeds, at the cost of a little bit of added latency (the performance hit isn't much...you'll be much faster running asynch at 2.4 GHz than synch at 2.2 GHz). Now you do the same thing that you did with the CPU, gradually increasing the FSB (you might want to use smaller increments this time though) until the system will no longer boot (remember again to decrease the HTT multiplier if necessary), and then returning to your last stable setting (or increasing the voltage and repeating) and booting to Windows and running stability tests. You do not need to monitor your temps while doing the RAM tests (unless you want to). Generally I find that Sandra's "Cache and Memory..." benchmark works well for detecting memory instability, and you can also use SuperPi, Prime95, or Memtest86 as well. Once you have tested stable, record your memory clock speed (use the formula: memory speed = FSB speed * memclock index value / 200) and voltage and reboot to the BIOS settings menu. Note that while you may be able to attain a higher memory clock speed by selecting a higher CAS latency, it is not generally advisible to do so, as from what I've seen, although memory bandwidth remains about the same as CAS increases (as far as Sandra is concerned anyways), the lower latency provided by CAS2 improves the system score by 5% in PCMark 04, and given that RAM performance scales pretty much linearly relative to the clock speed, unless running at CL2.5 lets you get *at least* 10 to 15 MHz higher than at CL2, it is not worth it overall.
Run the Numbers - Believe it or not the performance of the Neo4 system is dictacted pretty much entirely by the core and memory clock speeds (given identical memory timing settings). The only other real factor is whether the RAM is run synchronously or not, which you just decided in the above step, so all that's left to do now is find the combination of memclock index, FSB, and CPU multiplier that allow you to get as clost to both your target core and memory speeds as possible. If you are running synchronously, your task is simple, just keep your memclock index of 200 MHz, specify your target FSB speed, and your default CPU multiplier (unless your RAM is so good that the CPU is not stable at the default multiplier and the RAM's top FSB speed, in which case drop the multiplier accordingly). If running the RAM asynchronously your task is a bit more difficult (having a calculator for this part will help), basically you have to go through the list of memory dividers (memclock indexes), and for each one calculate the ratio of memclock index / 200, and then divide your target memory clock speed by that ratio to get the FSB needed to attain your target memory speed (for example, if the target is 230 MHz, for a memclock index of 150 we get a ratio of 0.75, and 230 / 0.75 = 307 MHz, so running the RAM at 230 MHz with an index of 150 MHz requires a FSB setting of 307 MHz...pretty good if your target clockspeed is 2.45 GHz, as selecting an 8x multiplier will pretty much hit this exactly), and then go through the available *whole* CPU multipliers (I've heard that the half-multipliers should be avoided, as they cause the memory to get clocked incorrectly) and see if any multiplier times the FSB you calculated hits (or comes reasonably close to hitting) your target CPU speed. Go through all of them until you get an exact (or very close) match, and pick whichever one ends up matching most closely. Note that there is no benefit in this case to a higher FSB speed configuration over a lower FSB speed configuration, provided that both produce the same core and memory clock values, so you should not favor configurations with needlessly high FSB settings unless they produce a better fit than the others. Apply whichever settings are closest, and then apply the appropriate CPU and memory voltage settings that you got from the previous steps. Also apply whichever HTT multiplier will put you closest to 1000 MHz without going over 1100 MHz. After this, your system should be ready to boot, overclocked and stable. Be sure to do additional benchmarking and stress testing to make sure that you really are stable (if you saved your scores at the beginning, compare them to your scores now and marvel at the improvement...and post the results for people to see), and be sure to monitor your temps for a bit to make sure your cooling is working adequately.
Post Overclock Overclocking:
There's not a whole lot to do now, but if you want to try to tweak your memory timings to get a little bit of extra performance, now is the time to do it...just remember to record your stable overclock settings somewhere (*not* on the computer) in case the tweaking forces a CMOS reset and you lose all your settings, and enjoy. Also you can overclock whatever video card you have, a process that's much easier and faster than overclocking your CPU/RAM/FSB.
In Closing:
I hope someone out there finds this useful, given how long it took to write up. Maybe I'll get lucky and this will end up as a sticky...we'll see. And just to start things off, here are my benchmark scores, at stock and at the overclock described in my sig:
Stock:
3dMark05 = 3141
PCMark04 = 3589
Overclocked:
3dMark05 = 3704
PCMark = 4805
Just started ocing the system, I'm new at this so these are where my system stands and the results
--------[ EVEREST Home Edition (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. ]------------------------------------------------------------
Version EVEREST v2.20.405
Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Report Wizard
Computer HOWARD-4B304E62
Generator Howard
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2005-09-16
Time 16:14
--------[ Overclock ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CPU Properties:
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64
CPU Alias Venice S939
CPU Stepping DH-E3
CPUID CPU Name AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+
CPUID Revision 00020FF0h
CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 2456.56 MHz
CPU Multiplier 9.0x
CPU FSB 272.95 MHz (original: 200 MHz, overclock: 36%)
Memory Bus 204.71 MHz
CPU Cache:
L1 Code Cache 64 KB (Parity)
L1 Data Cache 64 KB (ECC)
L2 Cache 512 KB (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)
Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 03/15/2005-MS-7100-6A61FM4BC-00
Motherboard Name MSI K8N Diamond / K8N SLI Platinum (MS-7100) (3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce4 SLI, AMD Hammer
Memory Timings 2-4-4-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Command Rate (CR) 1T
SPD Memory Modules:
DIMM1: GeIL CL25-4-4DDR 500 512 MB PC4000 DDR SDRAM (2.5-5-5-9 @ 250 MHz) (2.0-5-5-9 @ 232 MHz)
DIMM2: GeIL CL25-4-4DDR 500 512 MB PC4000 DDR SDRAM (2.5-5-5-9 @ 250 MHz) (2.0-5-5-9 @ 232 MHz)
BIOS Properties:
System BIOS Date 03/15/05
Video BIOS Date 06/27/05
Award BIOS Type Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Award BIOS Message W7100NZ1 V9.0 031505 14:17:53
DMI BIOS Version 6.00 PG
Graphics Processor Properties:
Video Adapter nVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E
GPU Code Name NV43GT (PCI Express x16 10DE / 0140, Rev A2)
GPU Clock 299 MHz
Memory Clock 522 MHz
--------[ Power Management ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power Management Properties:
Current Power Source AC Line
Battery Status No Battery
Full Battery Lifetime Unknown
Remaining Battery Lifetime Unknown
--------[ Sensor ]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type Winbond W83627THF (ISA 290h)
GPU Sensor Type Driver (NV-DRV)
Motherboard Name MSI MS-7046 / 7100 / 7125
Temperatures:
Motherboard 32 °C (90 °F)
CPU 35 °C (95 °F)
GPU1: GPU 56 °C (133 °F)
GPU2: GPU 50 °C (122 °F)
Cooling Fans:
CPU 3444 RPM
System 2637 RPM
North Bridge 7337 RPM
Voltage Values:
CPU Core 1.38 V
+3.3 V 3.34 V
+5 V 5.08 V
+12 V 12.04 V
+5 V Standby 5.17 V
VBAT Battery 3.10 V
Debug Info F 40 31 17
Debug Info T 32 35 157
Debug Info V 56 D1 C6 BD 1C 14 34 (01)
--------[ Debug - PCI ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmarking PCMARK04/score:4684 3DMARK03/score:15075
got any suggestions, Im just trying to learn how to do this, any help would be greatly appreciated
-
Overclock AMD Athlon II X2 250 on MSI 760GM-P21 (FX)
I want to overclock AMD Athlon II X2 250 on motherboard MSI 760GM-P21 (FX), integrated video card from motherboard and MS-TECH VERTIGO 520W 80+ power supply.
But before buy this power supply I had a NoName 400w.
And when I oc on NoName PSU after 3,3 ghz I receive BSOD.
How to oc more than 3,3 ?
Ty.The CPU itself would work just fine up till the current draw exceeds the limit of CPU VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) and fry it. Even tho it's listed as supported don't use CPU over 95W and even then under heavy loads for longer periods of time a 95W CPU could possibly cause damage also. If using a 95W don't OC it any. The VRM on the 760GM was never intended for 125W CPU.
The only reason the 125W CPU is listed is because competing brands show support for them and MSI made the wrong decision to list them also just for competitive marketing purposes. -
How to overclock my x2 3800+ with K9N Ultra
My current rig as below:-
AMD X2 3800+ AM2 stock fan
MSI K9N Ultra (MS-7250 v2.0 but on board stated v2.1) bios upgraded from 3.2 to 3.5
1G DDR2 667 Kingston Value Ram x 2
MSI 8600GT-Overclock edition
Lite-on 20X Sata DVD-Ram
Seagate Sata2 320GB
WD Pata 120GB
Cooler Master 500W Extreme
Cooler Master Centurion 5
As I'd seen in many forums that a lots of people are able to archieve 2.4G~2.6GB easily but I don't know why I can only able to archieve highest at 2.3G only.
My current setting is as below:-
Multiplier - 10
HT - 230
HTT - 5X
FSB - 287.5
Ram divider - 533
Clock speed at 2300mHz stock vcore & vdimm 1.95
But the moment I try to increase the HT to 240 or higher it tends to be unstable even I increase the vcore and vdimm.
Can someone advise me on this matter.Quote from: BOSSKILLER on 10-May-07, 12:03:37
"Besides that I'd also tried to set HTT to 3x and loosen the ram timing to 5-5-5-15-20 2T. vcore at 1.45 vdimm 2.0 and HT set to 240 but it won't boot."
try with lesser steps. give CPU vcore only when need. what is your actual memory frequency at latest good OCed settings?
"Btw I'd not seen the function "DOT & aggressive memory timings" where am I suppose to disable it?"
aggressive memory timings option doesn't exist in your BIOS, DOT(Dynamic Overclocking) its Disabled by default, but ensure it.(located in Cell Menu).
"My PCI-E has set to 104Mhz. Coz I'd seen some forum advise to set to 104Mhz. So actually 103Mhz or 104Mhz will be more stable?"
nop will be the same.
provide screenshots from CPU-Z with your last good known OCed settings.
I'd set to disable on dynamic overclock all the time. btw I'd upload the link CPU-Z validation but I don't know how to put attachment thats why I upload the link. -
OVERCLOCK MY AMD 64 X2 3800+ AND MSI K9N NEO-F V3
here's the problem
when i set my TEAM ELITE DDR2-800 2gb dual channel to DDR2-667 when i restart the computer it won't boot..then i try to remove 1 stick i turn on the computer will reboot my PROC is AMD64 x2 3800+ i try to i just the mems so i can overclock my PROC as i can..even in windows XP same prob
please help me about this..
tnx in advance
OS: windows vista ultimate 32bitBosskiller meant that you should tell us the specs of your system and the current settings as it can be seen in my sig!
Of course your prob was not in the link, it should show you how to ask for help so that we are able to help... The details provided so far aren't sufficient to help you!
EDIT: Just saw he is asking for that prob in another thread: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=114725.0 - So this can be closed!
Hawk999 don't ask for the same prob in two threads!!! -
Hello all
Well, I'm curious on how high up you can clock the AMD x2 3800+ (E4 Stepping) cpu on stock heatsink/fan?
So far I was able to OC'd my x2 3800+ to 2.48 Ghz on stock heatsink/fan (the stock HSF is from the x2 4400 model, the one that comes with heatpipes).
So far my CPU OC'd temps are at Idle 25C to Load 35C (with the HSF that came with the X2 3800 stock settings Idle 35C Load 41C)
System temps goes from 33C to 40C which was the same readings with the old HSF.
I got the FSB at 248
multiplier at 10x
CPU Volts 1.48v (went up from 1.36v)
DRAM/FSB 5/6 making the XMS RAM run at DDR412 2.0-3-3-7 1T 2.80v
HT multiplier ??? since I can't find it in BIOS only the frequencey and Bandwidth, that's HTT I think....
I think I can go higher but my Corsair XMS memory might cause problems, since it's not known to OC well (stupid me didn't know that until I found this forum ).
So has anyone was able to OC'd their X2 3800 past the 2.6Ghz mark?
I'm new to this OC business so any ideas would be much appreciated.
Oh I'm afraid to give my CPU anymore voltage than what I gave it. I really don't want to fry it cause I don't have money to buy another one. I got a case that comes with a temp display and case fans speed displays so I can keep an eye on temps and the Core Center running to check temps I've tried speedfan but it doesn't show my CPU or System temps only HD0 temp. Don't know if it's due to having the MSI K8N Diamond Plus board?
Oh my case does have 3 fans running, one at front, one at back and one at the Side panel.
AlexanderThe average overclock on the 3800 is about 2.5 Ghz stable. You can get up to 2.7 which seems to be the max for the 4200 also but it is rare and requires 1.55 volts on the CPU and water cooling or better. The voltage range for the 90nm CPU is 1.3 to 1.45 volts (Warranty Range), beyond that your taking a risk as your temperatures can run away very quickly and fry your chip. (Explained below, you can read it or skip it as I tend to ramble on.) As for temperature monitoring, get a program called MBM5 with a sister program "ShutDown Now!" this will monitor your MB and CPU temps and do an automatic hard shutdown a the temperature you choose. High temp for the 90Nm is 53C and 60 begins to damage it.
As for your HT, look for something in the Core menu right under FSB that reads 5x and change it to 4x or lower. (You want to stay around FSB x HT Multi = 800 to 1050)
Explanation for Temp:
Since your OCing a dual core, Ill explain a little bit further since it applies to us more. The silicon your chip is made out of is a semiconductor, sandwiched with a conductor, an insulator, and then another core. (Dual core as explained to me.) Anyway, as temperatures rise in the core from higher loads, the silicons conductivity changes relative to the temperature on an exponential scale. On the flip side, as the chip gets hotter, the thermal conductivity decreases on an exponential scale and the chip will cool slower. So when you up the voltage you come closer to the point where your generating more heat than the silicon can disperse, and with an increase in voltage the electron bleeding between paths increases (causing errors) and more heat. This is more important in Dual Cores because its a further path from the center of the chip to the outside, hence why Dual Cores seem to run cooler but in reality the temperature in the center is most likely higher. If you overvolt and or let the temp get too high, the chip becomes similar to a nuclear reactor meltdown, where the damage is done before you even see a sign something is wrong, and poof.....off goes the computer. Because the curve is relatively flat at the bottom, you have alot of leeway between 1.35 and 1.45 volts and in turn can have a large temperature range from 48 - 53 C. But the curve dramatically rises past 1.45 V and you can quickly get out of control temperatures if you dont have the proper cooler. This is also why you need to move to water cooling when getting up to 1.55 volts and a freon or colder cooler for just a few more volts on top of that (1.65 V at 3.0 Ghz 4200X2) Ok thats the end of my ramble.
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