AMD Overdrive vs BIOS Overclocking

[mrcaffeinex]

First, a bit of backstory...

I recently upgraded from the stock heatsink/fan on my Phenom II 955 BE to a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (with one fan), thanks to the recommendations of many here on the AT Forums. My previous idle temperatures were between 40 and 42 degrees Celsius, while under load they were between 58 and 62 C, at stock speed. Thanks to the upgraded heatsink/fan, my idle temperatures are now approximately 10 degrees cooler on average, while my load temperatures are approximately 20 degrees cooler on average, while still at stock speed. I had previously used AMD Overdrive to overclock to 3.5GHz at stock voltage with the stock heatsink/fan and it ran Windows, general web browsing, office, etc. without a problem, but any gaming more intensive than World of Warcraft and the system would shut down due to overheating. I ran a 14 hour Prime95 Torture Test (Large FFTs in-place) at 3.4GHz after installing the new heatsink/fan and the temperature reached 49C at maximum. Buoyed by the new confidence instilled by the performance of the Hyper 212, I want to give 3.5GHz a shot again (I don't want to have to get involved in voltage increases yet).

And now, the rest of the story:

I have used AMD Overdrive to increase CPU multiplier. I can set these properties within the BIOS also, but am I better off working in the BIOS, using AMD Overdrive, or testing settings in AMD Overdrive, then applying them in the BIOS? Also, at 3.5GHz, is it worth adjusting HyperTransport speeds, Northbridge speeds, Memory speeds, etc. or will these only improve performance at higher clock speeds than my target of 3.5GHz?

My complete systems specs are as follows:
AMD Phenom II 955 BE (Stepping 2, Revision RB-C2) | ASUS M4A79T Deluxe | 2x1GB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1333 (CL 9, tRCD 7, tRP 7, tRAS 16) | Gigabyte/nVidia GeForce GTX 460 1GB (Core 715, Shaders 1430, Memory 1800) | Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB | Cooler Master Stacker 830 Case | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus | Cooler Master Real Power Pro 1000W PSU

As a side note, the memory is supposed to run at 1333MHz with timings of 7-7-7-20 at 1.8V yet on my system it runs at 1066MHz with the above timings and 1.5V. The memory came as part of a combo deal on Newegg when I purchased the Motherboard and Processor and as far as I can tell has never ran at the speed/timings specified by OCZ.

-MrCaffeineX

 

[formulav8]

I always prefer bios ocing over software ocing. I would rather not test the oc settings in Windows in case you select to aggressive of a setting and take the chance of corrupting your windows install. Although thats still possible with bios ocing some settings would show problems before getting to windows.

It is definitely worth ocing the northbridge. Thats where the Level 3 cache frequency and memory controller speed is located. Even on non-L3 cache cpu's I saw a solid 4%-10% increase in performance. But having L3 cache you won't be able to clock as high as a cacheless northbridge, but you should get similar gains by making the L3 cache run faster. 2600 mhz is a possible oc with some chips. I only saw up to 1%-3% increase by ocing the HT controller itself so it wouldn't be worth the chance of in-stability by overclocking the ht link.

Anyways, I have always prefered bios overclocking compared to software ocing. The only time I would ever really use software ocing is if a mobo didn't provide bios overclocking.


Jason

 

[mrcaffeinex]

Thanks for the information!

I will start moving things up in the BIOS and with any luck even get the memory up to its rated performance.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Highly recommend you use the BIOS to overclock as well. Also, recommend you set the various voltages manually, instead of "Auto", since these boards have the default settings way too high. Heck, I ended up undervolting my 1055, since the "normal" vcore voltage defaulted to 1.475! (for Turbo). I'd be willing to bet your "normal" volts are higher than they should be; the latest version of CPU-Z will let you track the voltage.