Athlon II X4 Vcore..how high can i go?

[Hyperlite]

so after lots and LOTS of tinkering with my X4 620, i'm stable @ 3.4ghz with +.025 vcore, 3.5ghz with +.075 vcore, and 3.6ghz with +.125 vcore. Temps are fine at 1.425 and 1.45, but by 1.525 i'm hitting 65C in linpack (which is never reflective of my real-world use, but...) @ 70F ambient. This is all with the stock cooler, and i'm confident that anything aftermarket i put on there is going to give me a solid 10C drop, as my airflow is good and the stock cooler kinda sucks. Even if i can keep temps in the 50's under load, when do i need to start worrying about damaging this thing from overvolting? Thanks

 

[manimal]

I woudnt go above 1.45 on the phenom 2s. Many people say 1.5 is fine but I always try to stay off the bleeding edge so my hardware doesnt bleed. At least these ph2s are much more forgiving at higher volts than say an i7.

Keep the NB volts rather close to your vcore if you can. Its more stable that way and prevents some bad things. Read some of the ph2 guides online.

 

[Schmide]

NM

 

[Rhoxed]

your perfectly fine untill 1.5

been running my 940BE @ 1.55 for 3.9 since january (good cooler, max load @ 52C)

temp wise i would try to stay under 60C for AMD

 

[nyker96]

I've seen reviews going as high as 1,55 but I wouldn't do it for 24/7 setting, probably 1,45 to 1,5v. In fact you should use CPUZ to check your actual voltage on load, for instance, on my Gigabyte m.b. with a x4 620 I set it to 1,4v in BIOS but under full load, it shows 1,47v in CPUZ I think for some boards the BIOS is very aggressive at overvolting at full load probably to compensate for the droop. so be careful, if you set it to 1,5 in bios you might actually get something much much higher and possibly put the chip in danger. but if you can keep the actual voltage 1,5 or under I think it's safe.

 

[Idontcare]

Does AMD publish a Vmax spec? I know Intel does, and I'm sure AMD does, just a matter of finding it. You will be safe up to the published Vmax provided your temps do not exceed the spec'ed Tmax.

By "safe" I mean to say that the accelerated degredation of your chip's lifetime expectation won't decrease below the designed lifetime spec (an internal spec, not typically publicized) for the product family...which will be 10yrs for consumer-grade CMOS (a typical industry value, but not guaranteed since there no official standard).

Now if you keep your temps below Tmax then you are "safe" at even higher (slightly higher, not lots higher) voltages.

And if you don't care to have a lifetime expectation of 10yrs for your chip then you can press onwards and upwards on both metrics.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Voltages: 0.925-1.425v /// Max Temps (C): 71

 

[waffleironhead]

Voltages: 0.925-1.425v /// Max Temps (C): 71

whoa, cpuz is reporting mine at 1.475 with default motherboard settings....

 

[thilanliyan]

CPUz is not ALWAYS accurate so try to find another program to verify as well.

 

[waffleironhead]

CPUz is not ALWAYS accurate so try to find another program to verify as well.

thanks for the suggestion. I tried multiple programs. cpuz,hwmon,everest,speedfan, and coretemp.

all were showing a 1.47 at load and 1.18 at idle.

I went into bios and disabled C&Q ands now it is locked at 1.4. Since I run boinc 24/7 I will just leave C&Q turned off till i can investigate further since I dont need it to throttle down anyway.

cheers!

 

[Hyperlite]

whoa, cpuz is reporting mine at 1.475 with default motherboard settings....

I suspect those voltages are the range of voltage for the X4...i mean. does the 630 ship @ 1.425? 1.425 for a 620 is only a .025v overvolt...

as for set vs actual voltage, my board is actually very accurate. 1.475 in BIOS = 1.472 in CPU-Z.

Thanks for the info guys

 

[waffleironhead]

I suspect those voltages are the range of voltage for the X4...i mean. does the 630 ship @ 1.425? 1.425 for a 620 is only a .025v overvolt...

as for set vs actual voltage, my board is actually very accurate. 1.475 in BIOS = 1.472 in CPU-Z.

Thanks for the info guys

First, sorry to hijack your thread.

well I figured out what was going on. My voltage control was set to auto in bios and it was auto ramping up to 1.475. By turinng it to manual and then re-enabling C&Q I now have 1.4 steady and it drops when in idle.

thx.

 

[Hyperlite]

First, sorry to hijack your thread.

well I figured out what was going on. My voltage control was set to auto in bios and it was auto ramping up to 1.475. By turinng it to manual and then re-enabling C&Q I now have 1.4 steady and it drops when in idle.

thx.

not a problem. it was relevant information.

 

[cbn]

when do i need to start worrying about damaging this thing from overvolting?

I have read posts from Tony @ OCZ saying electron migration is what really kills hardware.

Although Poor cooling must also contribute to damage.

 

[soccerballtux]

your perfectly fine untill 1.5

been running my 940BE @ 1.55 for 3.9 since january (good cooler, max load @ 52C)

temp wise i would try to stay under 60C for AMD

71C for quad core.
I keep mine below 68 to be safe. I wonder if management put the pressure on the engineers to match Intel's thermal specs. Having higher temps obviously enables higher overclocking.

 

[nyker96]

71C for quad core.
I keep mine below 68 to be safe. I wonder if management put the pressure on the engineers to match Intel's thermal specs. Having higher temps obviously enables higher overclocking.

and i always thought 60 are the upper ceiling to the athlon x4s. I think mine is about 52C loaded at 3,25ghz using a vendetta 2 cooler. but the spec does seem to be saying 71C is the upper limit.

 

[LoneNinja]

I just put an Athlon II X4 630 in yesterday, I've got it running 3.5Ghz @ 1.472(cpuz), I think I have it set to 1.45 in the bios. Personally I don't want to go any higher on the voltage, and 3.5 was my goal when I got the processor so I'm satisfied. I reach 61C after an hour of prime95 using a stock cooler from a Phenom 9850.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I thought that the TJmax for AMD64 was programmable on a per-CPU basis? CoreTemp seems to be able to read it out, and it's been different for different CPUs that I've had.