Overclock passes 8 hrs P95 @ priority 10, but fails 1min of LinX?[SOLVED]

[yottabit]

I don't agree, at all

In all my years of gaming I have hardly ever taxed a CPU more more than two cores (or even two threads going back to the days of P4) near 100% for the entirety of my multi-hour gaming sessions

I'm with you! My final stress test usually involves Prime95+FURMARK concurrently (although apparently I should be using OCCT as you all point out). Can't get much more worst-case than that. Just don't do it if you don't have a good PSU or it's GG

I remember back in my Athlon 64 days I was able to get "Game" stable overclocks waaay higher than anything that would pass a reasonable stress test

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

I don't agree, at all

In all my years of gaming I have hardly ever taxed a CPU more more than two cores (or even two threads going back to the days of P4) near 100% for the entirety of my multi-hour gaming sessions

Even now my most CPU intensive games will hardly push my quad core CPUs beyond 60% usage.

You must not have BC2. Or be very GPU limited.

 

[poohbear]

There is no guarantee that yo can go 200Mhz more. That's the whole point of overclocking being not guaranteed. Your chip could just simply not be capable of your 4GHz target.

My motherboard is also an AM2+ Gigabyte, MA785GM US2H. It can handle the power delivery just fine. Through an accident, I was able to determine that at 4.2GHz and 1.6Vcore, my thuban is stable.

I am not ruling out any other possible problems (for all we know, it could certainly be just a poor / faulty motherboard or PSU), but you can't say you "believe that OC is not guaranteed" and then come to a conclusion that just because you can reach X GHz easily, you must definitely be able to reach X+200MHz also.

Unless you are willing to buy a new motherboard and/or PSU for a mere 200MHz bump, the possibilities are:
1.) CPU limit
2.) Motherboard can't handle the required power for your target OC
3.) PSU can't supply enough power (I doubt this, especially since your GPU isn't active while stress-testing the CPU OC)

It's just 200MHz more. I don't think it is wise to make a gamble by buying a new board (or PSU) on the chance that your CPU might be able to do more.

i totally agree with all your points, but it just doesnt seem normal for the CPU to utterly fail for an extra 200mhz regardless of cooling, especailly since so many odd things are happening, i.e. LinX will simply reboot @ any overclock over 3500mhz regardless of vcore. another component must be the weaklink, & yes i suspect its the mobo as well. regardless of cooling it reboots in minutes at 1.5+vcore. Another problem is that i can't completely get it stable even @ 3800mhz with the CPU/NB @ 2800mhz, it fails after 4 hours of P95. Mind u it works perfectly fine in intensive games like Crysis, Shogun 2, BC2 etc, but i understand that failing @ around the 4 hour mark in P95 means somewhere its unstable. So its frustrating to seperately find my maximum CPU/NB overclock stable in P95, maximum stable CPU overclock stable in P95, and yet when i put them together the system becomes unstable regardless of how much i bump the CPU/NB & CPu voltages... I tested each of them as stable seperately, but together P95 Blended test reboots or 2 of the cores fail after a few hours. seems like something is up w/ my mobo then.

Now, I ofcourse wont be upgrading just to get those 200mhz, but if i find that Bulldozer would be a nice upgrade, then sure i'll go AM3+ route and squeeze out as much as possible out of it till i upgrade to Bulldozer. If not, then yes i'll stick w/ an unstable 3800mhz.

 

[poohbear]

btw, is it safe to assume that reboots in P95 "blended" test mean my mobo can't supply the CPU with the needed voltage and fails on cores in the same test mean that they do indeed need more vcore? i.e. a reboot means something's messed up w/ cooling or voltage regulation on the mobo, a fail on a core in P95 means it needs MORE voltage? thats a good summation yea?

 

[poohbear]

Well just to update this thread for people who find it through google....

i FINALLY got my overclock stable by using MUCH lower voltages than i expected:

1.35v for the CPU/NB @ 2800mhz
1.375 for the CPU @ 3800mhz

anything above that and my sys would reboot or fail, seems my CPU doesnt like or need higher voltages. Im also positive my mobo is simply not able to deliver the needed voltages as it was one of the earliest and budget oriented AM2+ mobos on the market when i bought it. Im sure if i get it with a decent AM3+ mobo it'd make my cpu fly... but we're talking an extra 200-300mhz here, so wont be upgrading until i see Bulldozer benchies.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback and i hope this thread helps someone else out there. cheerio!

 

[Blackops_2]

I had a similar problem and replaced my ram with a spare 4Gb i had laying around. Saying one stress test is more accurate than another is a matter of opinion. Testing your system with many stress test further validates your stability. Before i replaced my ram i had 10 rounds of Intel burn test on maximum and it wouldn't last an hour in Prime95 blend. Replaced the memory and now i'm going 20+ hours on prime 95 and 10 rounds of IBT. Yet lately i've gotten two BSODs while playing Coh with a friend. All in all it it's a long process and stability is measured by one's peace of mind. Some people think 8 hours p95 is enough because they wont be taxing their system for a straight 8 hours. I've done that with mine but haven't had success with the cpu in the long run. Had an opty 1210 stable @ 2.6 for 16 hours orthos and it died on me eventually. Results vary as do stress programs. Best bet is to stress your system with as many good stress programs as you can find then declare it's stable, rather than basing it off of one program or this is how I view it IMO.

 

[jvroig]

Well just to update this thread for people who find it through google....

i FINALLY got my overclock stable by using MUCH lower voltages than i expected:

1.35v for the CPU/NB @ 2800mhz
1.375 for the CPU @ 3800mhz

anything above that and my sys would reboot or fail, seems my CPU doesnt like or need higher voltages. Im also positive my mobo is simply not able to deliver the needed voltages as it was one of the earliest and budget oriented AM2+ mobos on the market when i bought it. Im sure if i get it with a decent AM3+ mobo it'd make my cpu fly... but we're talking an extra 200-300mhz here, so wont be upgrading until i see Bulldozer benchies.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback and i hope this thread helps someone else out there. cheerio!

Nice going! (and thanks for updating the thread even after you solved the problem yourself)

Now that you mention it, I actually have a similar experience, but I can't be sure if it was with my Phenom II X4 or X6 (I tinker with them so many times, I forget, and they both went to the same board). I already knew it was stable at such a setting (previous testing, weeks before that time), and it was even recorded in my OC log (a spreadsheet I keep to detail my historical attempts, useful reference). I upped the voltage a bit, then again, then again, growing more and more bewildered why it was unstable. Lowering the vcore solved it (turns out, I had a typo in the vcore record for that setting).