Overclocking help for FX 6300

gx_saurav

Senior member
Dec 5, 2012
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Hello guys, I need some help for overclocking my AMD FX 6300 CPU. I am using it with Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard & Cooler Master Hyper 212X CPU cooler.


TL;DR
  1. Which method is recommended for overclocking? Is it setting everything manually in BIOS or using a software method like AMD Over drive?
  2. What is the safe temperature for a FX 6300? The maximum temperature I have reached on this CPU ever is 60C.
  3. How do I identify if my GPU or CPU is a bottleneck?
  4. Should I use AMD Cool&Quite or EPU power saving? I can set my PC to overclock when gaming via a reboot and BIOS profile too though.
  5. Are my overclocks & temperatures safe and good? What should I keep in mind when using my PC at this state?
Detailed:

I started with Auto tune available in Catalyst Control centre. It auto tuned my PC to 4.1 GHz at stock voltage. It reached 4.2 GHz too after increasing the voltage. So I stopped the tuning, it rebooted the system and after that I set the maximum frequency in Catalyst control centre to 4 GHz with default voltage.

After a reboot I disabled EPU power saving and Cool & Quite in BIOS. The system remained at 4 GHz at around 38C after a boot at idle and around 54C during load.

Then I enabled Asus EPU & AMD Cool&Quite so now when doing light weight work my CPU clock speed varies from 1.4 GHz to 4 Ghz automatically. When playing a game or stress testing it reaches 4 GHz automatically and stays there as long as there is a load.

When running 3DMark 2013 firestrike at 1080p preset, my GPU usage was around 99 to 100%. I think this means that my CPU is not bottlenecking my GPU.

Here are my temperatures after running Prime95 for about 7 Hrs. I left it to run overnight. The room temperature is around 29C here in India.

Prime95.jpg


I tried manual overclock in BIOS. For this I only changed the CPU multiplier to 20 in BIOS and left everything else at auto. The results were similar. I ran Prime95 for 2 hours and then closed myself as I thought it was enough.
 
Last edited:

bononos

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2011
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I think 'safe' is a misnomer when overclocking. Its like over revving and will shorten the lifespan of components.
EPU is an Asus m/b utility. Most people turn it off or don't install it.