CPU voltage

[corsa]

Have gotton the OC bug lately after installing a decent cpu cooler, to be stable I need 1.5v to get 304x8.5 = 2600.
Alot of guys are posting high OC's with lower voltages than I am running. I use the stock 350w power supply that came with the case so my question is, would a better power supply allow me to run a lower cpu voltage, or is my voltage where it needs to be to get that clock speed..... what voltages are u guys running ? any thoughts here would be appreciated

 

[starwars7]

I don't think a better PSU would allow you to run lower volts.

1.5 is ok for volts, you don't want to go much higher though.

 

[Xcobra]

if you have a 3200 venice, why would you use an 8.5 multi, why not do 260x10? oh well i think 1.5v for 2.6 is a little high, i did that on stock voltage, but i dunno man, like starwars said, replacing PSU wont yield lower voltage if you wanna run it at 2.6

 

[corsa]

if you have a 3200 venice, why would you use an 8.5 multi, why not do 260x10? oh well i think 1.5v for 2.6 is a little high, i did that on stock voltage, but i dunno man, like starwars said, replacing PSU wont yield lower voltage if you wanna run it at 2.6

Ok "i did that on stock voltage" this is what i'm getting at here :Q Is it the board i am using?, maybe the chipset that i have just happens to need more juice? Nobody can really shed some light on this subject, and I'm yet to find a review concerning this. Ohh and about not running 260x10....I would have thought the higher the HT the better, right ?

 

[Kakumba]

the A8N-E uses the NF4 Ultra chipset, never overclocked on it before. it seems weird that you should need so much voltage to just hit 2.6. you really shouldnt need more than 1.4 at all. would like to see that chip on a diff motherboard, so you can tell if its the chip or the mobo.

as for the 260X10 vs 304X8.5, the difference will be substantially less than 5%, unless one of them allows your RAM to be clocked much higher....

 

[corsa]

1.4v is the stock voltage for the Venice 3200+
I found using the 304x8.5 allows my memory to run 199mhz, it doesnt like to run much over 200.

 

[Kakumba]

well then. as long as you are happy with your CPU speed there, I reckon thats fine. you havent really lost any performance on your ram, and you ahve gained a lot on your processor. I wouldnt go much higher voltage with that cooler. What are your temps like?

 

[F1shF4t]

not too hard to believe that u need that much volts, i had a 3200+ and it was stable 2.5ghz at 1.425v and at 2.6ghz it was not stable at even 1.5v. With venices the average was around 2.4 - 2.6ghz, with a few hitting as high as 2.8.

 

[Mogadon]

Originally posted by: Kakumba
well then. as long as you are happy with your CPU speed there, I reckon thats fine. you havent really lost any performance on your ram, and you ahve gained a lot on your processor. I wouldnt go much higher voltage with that cooler. What are your temps like?

What's wrong with his cooler? The TT Typhoon is pretty solid.

I've heard the A8N isn't a wonderful o/cing board, no hands on experience with it though. I imagine that a DFI Lanparty or similarly good o/cing board would get you higher.

You can take the VCore upto 1.55V safely, don't go above 1.65V though.

A Venice at 2.6GHz is nothing to shake your head at, plenty of people topped out around 2.6GHz with alot of the venices.

 

[corsa]

hey good to see some feedback here...
Firstly about the TT Big Typhoon, room temp @24c I havent seen the cpu go over 45c & thats running @2600 havent done any mods to the cooler (just mounted nice and tight, as it should b) even with fan disabled it beats the stock AMD heatsink
A8N-E isnt the best board to OC - I'd say becuase I'm limited by the boards highest setting of 1.55v, so I cant go up to 1.65v even if i wanted to
Clock speed can actually hit 2650, though i find it benchmarks better @2600 with my RAM running @199.

not too hard to believe that u need that much volts, i had a 3200+ and it was stable 2.5ghz at 1.425v and at 2.6ghz it was not stable at even 1.5v. With venices the average was around 2.4 - 2.6ghz, with a few hitting as high as 2.8.

I'll take ur advice and try running @2500 and see how low I can go on the Vcore.
One thing I have noticed when running cpu-z is the voltage fluctuation, In bios its set to 1.4875v, cpu-z readings range anything from 1.456v to 1.536v :Q what is going on here lol
Is this how power a supply usually would fluctuate, or is it just that mine is very unstable, and the reason i have to set vcore so high.

 

[Mogadon]

The power fluctuation is a direct result of your PSU. Basically all PSU's will fluctuate a little and the technically allowed limit is, I think, a 10% fluctuation up or down. One of the things you pay for when buying a more expensive PSU is that stability on the rails.

You may well find that if you invested in a more efficient and powerful PSU (ie. a more expensive one ... ), you could get another 100MHz or so. In my last comp. I was running an overclocked AthlonXP with a generic PSU, my friend gave me the Antec TPII550W I have in my sig and I was able to get another 200MHz on the overclock at the same voltage.