Longevity of X4 980 with a 1.5v overclock

[Leyawiin]

Hey guys. I recently got an OEM X4 980 from Newegg to drop in my 790FX series AM3 motherboard. The stock voltage seemed high to me - fluctuated from 1.425 to 1.44 on auto. To get from just the stock 3.7 Ghz to 4.0 Ghz stable I had to apply 1.5v to it. I'm kind of disappointed - guess I just got a bad chip. It runs cool enough - 30C at idle and no more than 47C while gaming. 56C while using Prime95 in a rather small Lian Li case. I have a decent Xigmatek direct contact cooler so I'm not concerned there.

I was just wondering, will having to use a relatively high voltage of 1.5v affect the longevity of the CPU or the system in general? I know the maximum stated for the chip is 1.55v, but I have no intention of pushing it further - just going to be satisfied with the 4.0 Ghz. Thanks.

 

[LoneNinja]

I personally don't run with a voltage that high, but there have been plenty of Phenom II 955/965 chips sitting at 1.5V now for 2+ years, haven't seen any users coming online complaining about dead chips yet. I wouldn't worry too much about longevity, the chip will probably be obsolete performance wise before it dies.

 

[Leyawiin]

lol - yeah, most likely I will have replaced it by then.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Deneb doesn't clock well past 3,8 Ghz, I am afraid. You should have gotten a Thuban instead. Much better silicon.

 

[KingFatty]

And I wonder, assuming the worst, I think you'd just have to allow the chip to run at stock speeds - I remember reading that when someone's chip went "bad", the chip just had trouble staying stable at the max overclock, and so that person either had to increase voltage or reduce speed to maintain the overclock.

Has anyone ever rendered a chip completely dead by using a voltage that was a little high, but still under the max rated with proper cooling?

 

[Leyawiin]

Has anyone ever rendered a chip completely dead by using a voltage that was a little high, but still under the max rated with proper cooling?

That's really my main question.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Deneb doesn't clock well past 3,8 Ghz, I am afraid. You should have gotten a Thuban instead. Much better silicon.

Beg to disagree. There are plenty of instances of Denebs getting to 4GHz easily in the 1.3Xv to low 1.4Xv range.

My first Thuban had trouble getting past 3.84GHz with 1.42v, it took something along the lines of 1.52v for me to be able to boot at 3.9GHz. My second Thuban got to 3.8GHz 1.42v, but not 4GHz without 1.53v.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Beg to disagree. There are plenty of instances of Denebs getting to 4GHz easily in the 1.3Xv to low 1.4Xv range.

Deneb can be clocked higher, but excessive voltage and higher operating temperatures make it a questionable venture. I have built 7 Denebs in the past, so my experience differs. You might have had more luck

My first Thuban had trouble getting past 3.84GHz with 1.42v, it took something along the lines of 1.52v for me to be able to boot at 3.9GHz. My second Thuban got to 3.8GHz 1.42v, but not 4GHz without 1.53v.

In my experience, at the same clock, Thuban generally needed less volts (my 1090T needed 1.45v @ 4.0Ghz) and ran much cooler at the same time. That made it a far better over-clocking platform.

Zambezi, Thuban is what you should be buying today, if you intend to overclock.

 

[tweakboy]

As long as the CPU stays within good temps it will live because its not getting super hot.

vcore will never kill a CPU,,, HEAT will .............

This is really, really bad advice. Please do not follow this
-ViRGE

 

[SickBeast]

The Phenom II x4s really hit the wall at around 3.7ghz as others have stated. You're lucky to even obtain stability at 4ghz regardless of voltage.

I ran my Phenom II x4 at 1.5v for over a year with no issues other than a dead motherboard that couldn't handle such a high watt CPU.

 

[BD231]

Don't risk it. I degraded an x4 at 1.475v. Max OC of 3.7ghz wouldn't hold one day, lots of blue screens, backed down the clocks a bit but I still needed 1.450v to get past 3.4.

Took about 2 years to fall apart. As long as your North Bridge is OC'd anything past 3.7-3.8 won't net you much performance anyway.

 

[Leyawiin]

As long as your North Bridge is OC'd anything past 3.7-3.8 won't net you much performance anyway.

That's good to know. At present I don't have anything OC'd save for the CPU multiplier. I could let it go back to its stock 3.7 Ghz and OC the CPU/NB 400 Mhz.

 

[BD231]

Take what you can get at stock you have plenty of voltage, 3.8/3.9 maybe? Jack up the north bridge to 240-250mhz which should only take about 1.200v to 1.245v, you're safe up to 1.3v on the NB. Personally I'd get artifacts and crashing past 1.3v on a number of boards but your results may vary.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Deneb can be clocked higher, but excessive voltage and higher operating temperatures make it a questionable venture. I have built 7 Denebs in the past, so my experience differs. You might have had more luck


In my experience, at the same clock, Thuban generally needed less volts (my 1090T needed 1.45v @ 4.0Ghz) and ran much cooler at the same time. That made it a far better over-clocking platform.

Zambezi, Thuban is what you should be buying today, if you intend to overclock.

Ah, my bad then. I always thought I managed to get the worst pick of the chips, but seems like you have worse luck

I did have plenty of fun overclocking my Thubans, though. Still not as fun as the SB rig I just built, but still a blasty blast nonetheless.

As long as the CPU stays within good temps it will live because its not getting super hot.

vcore will never kill a CPU,,, HEAT will .............

Lol.

Set your vcore to 1.65v, overclock that Q6600 of yours even further, and come back in a couple months.

 

[sangyup81]

My Deneb doesn't OC as well as before but the lower undervolt settings still work. I didn't do as well with temps as you are doing however

 

[OVerLoRDI]

High voltage and high temperatures is what will destroy chips over time. Typically what you will see is that a chip will run at a high overclock initially, and then over time you may have to raise the voltage, or lower the clock speed as the chip degrades slightly.

Your temps are pretty good, I wouldn't worry too much about 1.5v, I'd just see if you can clock is just slightly lower and use less voltage. The performance difference between 4.0ghz and 3.9ghz is tiny, but it may require significantly less voltage. This is because voltage required for more mhz is typically an exponential curve.

 

[Leyawiin]

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A79T_Deluxe/#specifications

Here's the details on my motherboard. Its seems to be pretty robust (if old) with decent 8+2 power phase design and copper chipset heatsinks galore.

Starting to think if it dies it will just give me an excuse to go Sandy or Ivy Bridge. lol

 

[chubbyfatazn]

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A79T_Deluxe/#specifications

Here's the details on my motherboard. Its seems to be pretty robust (if old) with decent 8+2 power phase design and copper chipset heatsinks galore.

Starting to think if it dies it will just give me an excuse to go Sandy or Ivy Bridge. lol

Who needs an excuse when you can just do it now?! Hehe

 

[BD231]

i5? Why do that when u could just crossfire your 460 !? :sneaky:

 

[Magic Carpet]

Take what you can get at stock you have plenty of voltage, 3.8/3.9 maybe? Jack up the north bridge to 240-250mhz which should only take about 1.200v to 1.245v, you're safe up to 1.3v on the NB.

This, is the best approach in your situation. 3,9/3,8 should be the sweet spot for your chip. You could even run it at stock clock and undervolt it. You will not only drop temps but also power consumption. Which in turn, would allow you to have a quieter setup for years to come.

 

[Leyawiin]

Working fine with 3.8 Ghz and a 200 Mhz bump on the CPU/NB - all at that high stock voltage (1.4375). Ran Prime95 for a hour and it was fine - got no hotter than 51C. Played Skyrim for an hour and it was stable and I couldn't tell any difference than at 4.0 Ghz with no OC on the CPU/NB. Ran a degree or two cooler while gaming. Not what I was hoping for, but it'll work for a year or so.

 

[Magic Carpet]

See, if you can maintain 3.8 Ghz with lower volts. You should be able to go down a bit there. Try, ~1.400.

 

[Leyawiin]

Ha. I tried 1.4v at the stock 3.7 Ghz and it wasn't stable. What a lousy chip I got! Wonder if I should RMA it with Newegg for another?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

No it's fine, 1.5v is typical of Phenom II's for 4GHz, some are better than others but 1.5v isn't going to hurt it so long as you can keep it cooled properly.

 

[dkm777]

I feel your pain. I got a lousy X4 980 as well. After reading countless ovecrlocking tutorials I bought it on clearance as a stopgap until Vishera arrives, foolishly hoping for 4.2GHz. Oh, how disappointed I was when I found that it would not under any circumstances hold 4GHz stable. I'm now running it at ~3.8GHz and 1,45V with CPU-NB at 2.6GHz. It feels noticeably faster than my old Q9650 rig that I gave to my brother. But a monster overclocker it is not.