Overclock Confusion

[Mike1949]

Question: I have a AMD 2600 XP+ Barton, a Shuttle AN35/Ultra and 1 gig of PQI PC3200 Turbo ram. I have read that all of this hardware loves to be over clocked.
In my mobo bios there are 4 settings under ?advanced chipset options?
___Optimal:____
FSB Freq. 166mhz
CPU interface ?Optimal?
Memory Freq. ?Auto?
Resulting Freq. ?Auto?
Memory Timings. ?Optimal?
T(ras) 7
T(rcd)4
T(rp)4
Cas Latency 2.0
At the boot screen it says my fsb is 400 mhz

____Aggressive___
FSB 166
CPU interface ?Aggressive?
Mem Freq. ?auto?
Resulting Freq. ?auto?
Mem Timing. ? aggressive?
T(ras)7
T(rcd)3
T(rp)3
Cas Latency 2.0
At the boot screen it says my DDR is ?Performance Enabled?


___Turbo____
FSB 166
CPU Aggressive
Mem Freq?auto?
Resulting Freq. ?auto?
Mem Timings. ?Turbo?
T(ras)6
T(rcd)2
T(rp)2
Cas Latency 2.0
The boot screen says my FSB is 333mhz


I don?t mess with Expert.
The one time I raised the fsb to 200mhz in Expert it raised my CPU speed to 2.3 but it wouldn?t load any programs like 3D benchmarks so I reset it to Optimal again

On 3D Benchmark2005 there is a difference of maybe 250 points between Optimal and Aggressive. 4300 in Optimal and 4570 with Aggressive. Aggressive and Turbo have nearly identical scores.
I have tried different settings in Half-Life 2 and get an increase of 6-8 fps with Aggressive or Turbo over Optimal.
Here?s where I?m confused: I have read and been told that the higher the FSB the faster the computer will work. But when I increase the bios performance setting from Optimal up to Aggressive , my CPU speed goes from 1.91mhz to1.92mhz but my FSB goes down to 333mhz.
What does this do exactly and is there a way to increase my fps without screwing up my computer?

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

Correct me if i'm wrong but isn't your CPU 333mhz FSB not 400? I'm not familiar with the 2600 as I have a 2500 running at 3200.

You can probably raise your vcore up some to get additional overclocks. Sounds like when you raised your FSB to 400mhz that your cpu wasn't able to unlock to those levels. Try to raise the vcore and set your ram to aggressive or turbo and go with that.

 

[Zardnok]

You have a similar system to mine, except I run a Mobile chip instead. If you boost your bus speed up to 200 and increase the vcore a bit, it should be stable. Make sure to keep your memory running the same bus speed as the processor.

As for your RAM timings, faster is better, but if it will not run, then faster is useless. The RAM you have is good quality and will probably run the faster speeds with little problem. I think the reason you had issues before running benchmarks was because you did not have enough core voltage on your processor.


PS You would probably get a lot better advice in the CPU/Overclocking forum. The folks that peruse those forums are a lot more hardcore than I am about overclocking; I am just a closet wannabe nerd that reads a lot and is not afraid to try stuff out.

 

[Mike1949]

Yes the AMD 2600Xp says fsb333 on the package it comes in but the mobo goes to 400fsb
When I set it to Optimal I get a 3d Benchmark of 4300 and at Agressive the score is 4570.
Thats what I dont understand. At the Aggressive setting the boot screen tells me my DDR is Performance Enabled. At Optimal the FSB is higher but the score is lower. What is the vcore?

 

[Fern]

Hi Mike,

The "vcore" means the voltage supplied to your cpu. The spec vcore for a Barton is 1.65v. When OCing these CPu's often additional vcore (like 1.70v) is nesseccary to ensure that they will run stable at the higher (OC'd) speed.

To begin OCing I recommend having these (free) proggies available b4 starting:

*Motherboard Monitor. This will monitor your temps and voltages, both are rather critical in OCing

* Memtest86. This will test the stability of your ram at the OC'd speed.

*Prime95. Tests the cpu (and ram to an extent, depending on the tests selected) for stabilty at the OC'd speed.

Since your ram and mobo are rated for 200/400mhz, and the cpu for is only 166/333, your task is to OC the cpu. Bring it up to 200mhz FSB (or as close as you can get).

Leave your ram at "Optimal" (the loosest timmings/slowest settings) and adjust your CPU's frequency or FSB speed upward. Might wanna try an increase of 10mhz (to 177mhz) first, therafter try increases of 5mhz or less. Test with P95 after each increase to ensure cpu stability. If not stable, increase vcore a notch (use MBM5 to watch cpu temps. I like to get no higher than 60c under load).
Note Keep your ram and cpu operating at the same frequency (in synch).

After finding the highest FSB for your cpu, start adjusting your ram's timings to find how fast you can run it stably as well. 2-2-2-11 will prolly be the fastest (if you reach it). Looks like "Turbo" setting will do that for you.

Fern

 

[Mike1949]

Thank you very much.
Let me ask you, is Turbo the best setting I can get without overclocking?
Will overclocking give me better fps in HL2? And if so , how much better?
Again thank you for the advice.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: Mike1949
Thank you very much. Your Welcome!
Let me ask you, is Turbo the best setting I can get without overclocking? Generally, OCing is when you change the settings/parameters of hardware to run faster than factory spec's. The "SPD" setting sets the timings to factory spec, the "SPD" is hard-coded onto the ram chips and is used by your PC to read factory spec's. The "Turbo" setting will result in faster ram timings than factory specs, so it's like a pre-set OC for ram timings. Your question would more properly be phrased " is Turbo the fastest setting I can get without selecting expert" The answer would be yes. Expert is better in my opinion as it gives more flexibilty. Again though, when OCing your cpu keep the ram setting to "optimal" (most stable setting) to remove the ram as a possible cause of instability-keep the focus on the cpu. Later, revisit your ram settings and focus on them
Will overclocking give me better fps in HL2? And if so , how much better? Likely it will, even if small. I am not slick enough to work out the math of it, even if I knew the details of your system. In general I would say that if your vid card were fast and the cpu is "bottle-necking" it all, yeah, you'll see improvements. If the card is the bottleneck-neck, likely you'll need to OC it to see real gains.
Again thank you for the advice.

What vid card do you have?

Given what you've posted above, I think you could use some help with BIOS. Sounds like your system may be running in asynch mode, don't want that. If you post your BIOS settings for "Advanced Chipset features" I'll try to help you.

Why not run some benchies now to see how your system is performing, so you can measure any performance gains resulting from new settings. Ex. Aquamark for graphics, Sisoft Sandra for memory and cpu benchies.

Fern