FX-6300 Turbo mode and overclocking

[lilrayray69]

Hey all,

I got a FX-6300 about a month or two ago, and have noticed that although it says it goes up to 4.1ghz with turbo mode, I never see it go higher than 3.8ghz. Not sure why. I have the turbo mode enabled in BIOS.

I have been considered overclocking it. I have a 212 EVO on it which keeps its temperatures pretty low. I'm wondering if I turned off Turbo mode and upped the multiplier to make it 4.1ghz, would that work like normal? I've never been sure if you also have to disable Cool N Quiet when you OC. Personally, I like CnQ and would prefer to keep it on - I just don't know if it operates like normal when you OC to ,say, 4.1ghz or whatever.

I don't plan to mess with the HTT or anything. I have DDR3 1600 RAM, 8gbs of G.SKILL RipJaw, but I don't really want to try overclocking that as well. Never been good at overclocking RAM.

 

[inf64]

I have QC Piledriver and CnQ works even when OCed . Turn off C6 in bios though, it can make troubles.
So basically what you are looking for is to turn off Turbo, up the cpu multiplier to the value that gives you 4.1Ghz (combined with your HTT clock) and mess around in stability programs to see what kind of VCore you need to achieve full stability. Also monitor temps in stress programs.

 

[Piroko]

Hey all,

I got a FX-6300 about a month or two ago, and have noticed that although it says it goes up to 4.1ghz with turbo mode, I never see it go higher than 3.8ghz. Not sure why. I have the turbo mode enabled in BIOS.

Windows 7?

I don't think you need to up the voltage to achieve stability at 4.1 ghz.

 

[Stingercjc]

I have my fx6300 running at 4.2 on stock voltage with no problems at all.

 

[lilrayray69]

Well I put the multiplier up to 20.5x for 4100mhz, disabled Turbo, kept CnQ on...could not find C6 though, saw AMD C-State Support but not sure if that is the same thing, left vcore alone and booted up and a few seconds after getting into windows it black screened and shutdown. I upped the vcore one notch to 1.3250v and ran Prime95 but it immediately stopped with " FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4".

Also, strangely my GPU temp is now increasing. Booted in at around 30C and it just keeps climbing incrementally, now to almost 60C.

 

[inf64]

1.325V is suspiciously low IMO. Can you try going for a bit higher Vcore? 1.375V would be a good target since this is the Turbo core voltage chip gets when Turbo engages (or maybe it's even higher than that, don't quote me on this).
Also the C-state support is C6 option so you can turn it off. Also turn off CnQ for starters.

As for your GPU temps I don't see how would your action on multiplier be affecting your GPU temps. Unless your CPU is drastically overheating due to low RPM on the cooler at those settings, your GPU should see no ill effect from changes restricted to CPU in BIOS.

 

[lilrayray69]

Ah, figured out the GPU thing. I was overclocking that last night via MSI Afterburner, and it was forcing it to stay at the OC'd clocks instead of clocking down when idle.

Will now give 1.375v a try at 4.1ghz and turn CnQ,C-State, and Turbo off.

 

[lilrayray69]

Well at 1.375v it got to Test 2 in Prime95, after about 5 minutes it stopped Core 6 saying "FATAL ERROR: Final result was D220AE45, expected: E91EEB5A." the other cores kept going but I stopped it there.

Looking around via google and such I see lots of people with 6300's saying they get to 4.1ghz at stock voltage, and at 1.375v are getting to 4.4ghz and 4.5ghz...

all I've done thus far is change the multiplier and vcore. I've left the cpu bus and htt where they were

 

[inf64]

What are your temps when you run stress test? You seem to have not so stellar specimen, your only option is further raising VCore. Watch the temperatures (72C is maximum I think, double check it). Max. Vcore one can apply AMD does not state but community agrees that 1.5V is around the max. one can try with proper cooling. I'd say you should try one last try at 4.1Ghz and 1.4V and double check for droop under load (maybe it drops a lot causing your core 1 to fail,a weakest one it seems).

 

[lilrayray69]

Well it's never gone over 40C at stock, usually idles in the teens and goes up to 35C under load. I have a 212 Evo heatsink on it.

 

[lilrayray69]

It does seem more stable at 1.4v @ 4.1ghz. It's gotten to Test 3 of Prime95 without error, obviously I need to keep testing it but it's better than any setting before. I was using CPU-Z to monitor the vcore during Prime95 and saw it mostly fluctuated between 1.336-1.352, but went as low as 1.328 and as high as 1.360. I'm not sure how accurate CPU-Z is at measuring vcore but it's showing 1.392-1.400 now that Prime95 is off.

The highest temperature it hit was 44C.

 

[inf64]

It's much better now, keep testing. Your board applied a big droop so that's why your OC was not stable before.

 

[lilrayray69]

Further tested and it seems to be stable at 4.1ghz with 1.40v vcore. Not sure why the motherboard drops the vcore so much under load. Don't know if I will try to overclock it much, maybe one day but I don't see much point at the moment.

so if I'm happy with these settings can I just enable CnQ and it will work appropriately?

 

[inf64]

Your chip scales with voltage, it's a good sign . If you are sattissfied with 4.1Ghz you can leave it there and re-enable CnQ. Be sure to select balanced or power saver mode in power options when you enter Windows. I recommend Balanced for everyday or High Performance when you need all from your CPU. Your chip certainly has more under the hood, probably you could hit 4.5Ghz with some additional Vcore without much trouble, which is another 10% of "free" performance( not exactly free due to increased power draw). Good luck!

PS the droop is normal occurrence on any board, don't worry about it.

 

[lilrayray69]

I tried overclocking it some more

Seemed stable at 4.2ghz @ 1.4125v, then 4.3 @ 1.4375v. Tried getting up to 4.4ghz but still wasn't stable at 1.450v...not sure if I should try going any higher on the vcore. It got about as high as 47C at 1.450v.