Help overclocking Phenom FX-5000?

[quadomatic]

I unlocked my AMD Athlon X2 5000+ to a Phenom FX-5000 (deneb, 4 core, 6MB L3 cache). I'm trying to OC though and I hit an fsb wall.

I can't seem to get the fsb over 270mhz. I set the ram multiplier to the lowest (2.00x) and HT link frequency and HT link width are at auto. All voltages are at default/auto.

I tried raising dram voltage +.02 to 2.00v but it didn't do any good. I don't really understand the HT link settings. I tried setting HT link to 1.0 ghz and 800 mhz and setting HT link width to 8-bit, but it didn't help.

I'm using 2 sticks of 1GB HP Micron DDR2 667mhz and a 2GB stick of DDR2 1066 Corsair Dominator (3 sticks in all, 4 GB total)

I noticed there's a northbridge setting but I don't really know what to do with that.

Any advice?

 

[formulav8]

You need to lower your northbridge, hypertransport link multiplyers. You don't want them on auto.

I have the same cpu, except it won't unlock which majorly stinks because I bought it to try it. But I can get it to 3.6ghz.

Remember the nb link is 1.6ghz. In my ocing I have to keep the nb(northbridge) frequency x multiplyer below 2000mhz (4ghz mt/s) or it would start causing trouble. Theres apparently a reason AMD lowered the stock links to 1600mhz instead of the normal 2000mhz.

Check out this link http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=267708 for more detailed info.

Check out this link as well - http://www.ocia.net/articles/k10overclock/page1.shtml


Hopefully that will give you a good starting point.



Jason

 

[quadomatic]

You need to lower your northbridge, hypertransport link multiplyers. You don't want them on auto.

I have the same cpu, except it won't unlock which majorly stinks because I bought it to try it. But I can get it to 3.6ghz.

Remember the nb link is 1.6ghz. In my ocing I have to keep the nb(northbridge) frequency x multiplyer below 2000mhz (4ghz mt/s) or it would start causing trouble. Theres apparently a reason AMD lowered the stock links to 1600mhz instead of the normal 2000mhz.

Check out this link http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=267708 for more detailed info.

Check out this link as well - http://www.ocia.net/articles/k10overclock/page1.shtml


Hopefully that will give you a good starting point.



Jason

Cool thanks! Just wondering, but what motherboard are you trying to unlock with?

 

[quadomatic]

I tried lowering the NB multiplier to 5x from 8x, and then lowered the HT link frequency to 1000mhz, and even 800mhz, and I still couldn't get it to post at a higher fsb.

Update: i pulled out the 2 sticks of ddr2 667 and it posts at 3.3ghz now. It's purely a ram issue...looks like I need faster ram.

Update: I tried Prime95 4 threads blend and it was failing, but small fft's went on for 2 hours, so I'm guessing it's a ram issue. I dropped the fsb more to compensate. Damn I need better ram!

 

[formulav8]

I tried unlocking with a Biostar TF790FX and a Asrock with the 710 southbridge and no go. I was able to unlock the single core Sempron 140 into a AthlonII 4400 Dual core. It can clock in the 3.5ghz range fairly easy. It actually does great in everything even in mid-end to even higher-end gaming resolutions at 3.5ghz.

I would like to try one of MSI newer mobo's that can at least unlock the cache if the cores can't be unlocked.

Even if your cpu doesn't do much ocing, for the very little money you paid and getting a quad core is basically never heard of. A $50-$60 quad cannot be beat in the bang per buck!

Also lower your ram all the way down to 200mhz(400mhz ddr). You first need to find out where your cpu, nb, and htt maxes out. Then once you settle on your cpu speed you can increase the frequency of the ram. Even at 533mhz the Phenom will not be held back much at all. The core speed and L3 cache speed will show some of the biggest improvements. Once you get at the cpu core speed you want try maximizing the northbridge speed which is what the L3 cache and memory controller runs on. OCing the nb can bring about almost 10% in performance alone if you can get it high enough.

Anyways, just try to be happy wherever the oc settles at. You got very fortunate and I am kinda jealous. But enjoy!


Jason

 

[quadomatic]

I tried unlocking with a Biostar TF790FX and a Asrock with the 710 southbridge and no go. I was able to unlock the single core Sempron 140 into a AthlonII 4400 Dual core. It can clock in the 3.5ghz range fairly easy. It actually does great in everything even in mid-end to even higher-end gaming resolutions at 3.5ghz.

I would like to try one of MSI newer mobo's that can at least unlock the cache if the cores can't be unlocked.

Even if your cpu doesn't do much ocing, for the very little money you paid and getting a quad core is basically never heard of. A $50-$60 quad cannot be beat in the bang per buck!

Also lower your ram all the way down to 200mhz(400mhz ddr). You first need to find out where your cpu, nb, and htt maxes out. Then once you settle on your cpu speed you can increase the frequency of the ram. Even at 533mhz the Phenom will not be held back much at all. The core speed and L3 cache speed will show some of the biggest improvements. Once you get at the cpu core speed you want try maximizing the northbridge speed which is what the L3 cache and memory controller runs on. OCing the nb can bring about almost 10% in performance alone if you can get it high enough.

Anyways, just try to be happy wherever the oc settles at. You got very fortunate and I am kinda jealous. But enjoy!


Jason

My ram is actually running at the lowest multiplier allowed (which turns out to be 2x). I lowered the nb multiplier to the lowest (5x) and then lowered the HT link frequency to 1ghz (I left the HT link width at auto). 270 is still the highest I can post at, but it's not stable at that, probably because of ram, since I'm Prime95 stable with the small fft test but not blend.

I lowered fsb to 260 and it's all good now. Since I know I'm able to post at higher fsb without my 667mhz ram, using only my 1 stick of 1066, I'm certain I simply need better ram (especially since my nb frequency and ram multiplier is already lowered as much as it can be).

Regardless though, even with my fsb at 260, this is so much faster than my E2200. For example, Grand Theft Auto IV runs insanely better than it used to

Just checking, but were you using ACC under hybrid firmware? Also, did you try to unlock just one core?

 

[formulav8]

If you have decent cooling start increasing voltages. It takes approx 1.5v for the X2 5000+ I have to be stable at 3.6ghz. v1.5x is still safe for the PhenomII.

Start increasing the cpu and the northbridge voltages and even the ram voltages once you get the more important speeds dialed in.


Also i'm not 100% sure what you mean by Hybrid firmware. I think its either all cores or the factory setup. I don't recall any of my mobo's having options otherwise. I've tried acc to Auto/All/and per Core and still no go. I would like to unlock the cache at least as that can give 5%-20% increase in performance. But none of my boards support unlocking just the cache. But it is only a tweaker cpu anyways as I don't use it for my main comp. I have a Core2 based cpu for that.


Jason

 

[quadomatic]

If you have decent cooling start increasing voltages. It takes approx 1.5v for the X2 5000+ I have to be stable at 3.6ghz. v1.5x is still safe for the PhenomII.

Start increasing the cpu and the northbridge voltages and even the ram voltages once you get the more important speeds dialed in.


Also i'm not 100% sure what you mean by Hybrid firmware. I think its either all cores or the factory setup. I don't recall any of my mobo's having options otherwise. I've tried acc to Auto/All/and per Core and still no go. I would like to unlock the cache at least as that can give 5%-20% increase in performance. But none of my boards support unlocking just the cache. But it is only a tweaker cpu anyways as I don't use it for my main comp. I have a Core2 based cpu for that.


Jason

I did raise the cpu and memory voltages. They didn't help me post any higher, nor did they help with stability of the blend test. I actually didn't really have to manually raise voltages either - my motherboard was doing that automatically, with all voltages.

At least with Gigabyte motherboards, there's an option for Advanced Clock Calibration where you change EC Firmware. There's a "Normal" setting and a "Hybrid" setting. I read that it was because AMD wanted to restrict the ability to unlock cores. So, the hybrid EC firmware option was implemented. It rewrites some firmware and then reboots.

Only after I enabled the hybrid ec firmware did cores unlock. Maybe the ASRock motherboard doesn't require the hybrid option; but then again, maybe it does, and it doesn't have it. Nobody on xtremesystems mentioned the hybrid option for unlocking this cpu though. Many of them used ASUS, Biostar, and ASRock motherboards to unlock though, so maybe it's not necessary.

Anyways, on Toms Hardware Guide they give some extra info on how to unlock cores when auto doesn't work: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/unlock-phenom-ii,2273-3.html

They say you need to mess with the percentage setting when you select "all cores". Maybe that'll help?

 

[ear8dmg]

I've got mine running at 300x11 (3.3GHz). Over 8 hours Prime Blend stable. Have also done some shorter testing looping 3DMark06 with Prime and it stands up to that too. Will take S&M or 5 pass standard Intelburn too.

Looks like I actually have bad cache on one core though. With the CPU unlocked I get Machine Check Warnings on cache hierarchy. This CPU's taken a heck of a lot of work to get stable when unlocked but I think I'm there.

When clocking I hit a wall at around 285 frequency. Needed to loosen RAM timings and up the RAM voltage to get over it.

Screenshot: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/4317758345_7c4c42f414_o.jpg (I'm Uriel on OCUK forums BTW).

Edit: Interestingly enough I've never got the unlock consistently booting into Windows at stock speeds. It only seems to do that overclocked to about 3GHz or over. Strange behaviour, I know...