Phenom II 955 vcore and heat issue.

[Nautiques]

Hey, I recently bought a new PC. And my specs are as following:

- Corsair vx450w PSU
- AMD Phenom II x4 955
- Corsair XMS3 1600MHz DDR3, 2x2GB, CL9
- Asus GTX 560 Ti (Stock clock)
- ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 Motherboard

I'm using the stock cooler from AMD currently, and running my CPU @ 4013.5 MHz it's getting too hot. Idle temps are 49, and during full load the temperatures peaks at 69 °C (!). I haven't experienced a single crash, and I'm running games such as a Crysis 2 Demo with all settings maxed out very smoothly. Well, to the point. I think the heat issue comes from the high vcore, witch is left on Auto. I'm looking to know how I can manually set my vcore on this motherboard. It's obviously not as simple as just typing in for example 1.425. If I do, the field turns red and says 0.70000? Well, I would very much like to know of a way to decrease the vcore as much as possible until I find the perfect spot.

 

[deimos3428]

As the third screenshot shows, you're in "Offset" mode, so the value you're keying in is how many *addtional* volts the CPU will receive, above and beyond whatever the default might be.

That's why 0.7v is the highest offset it'll let you set. (And that's way, way too high...which is why it's red. Don't do it.) If you want to key in a specific value manually (not a bad idea), switch the Manual mode.

That said, it looks like the motherboard's done all the work for you. 4.0Ghz at 1.464v sounds like a very good result to me, it's unlikely you'll be able to drop vcore all that much and stay stable. Try it I guess, but don't expect miracles.

What you do need at this point is better cooling. 69C for a 955 isn't advisable at all and the idle is quite high, too. Before you run out and get a better HSF, first make sure the case is getting enough airflow. What case are you using? How much do the temperatures drop if you take off the side panel and point a desk fan at it?

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Maximum safe temperature for the Deneb core is 62 degrees according to AMD. You're asking too much of your stock cooler. You could probably lower the vcore easily, but you're not going to be stable at 4GHz with less than 1.425 volts anyway. In fact, if you really stressed the CPU using a program like Intel Burn Test or OCCT Linpack, you would probably find it needs more voltage to be stable. If you want to overclock more than a little bit you need an aftermarket cooler. Coolermaster Hyper 212+ (always recommended in these forums) is inexpensive but effective.

To directly answer your question: In the BIOS for my ASUS motherboard, I use the + and - keys to adjust voltages.

 

[Nautiques]

Thanks for the replies, yes I know the stock cooler is not made for much overclocking, if any at all. So I'm looking to buy a Noctua nh-d14 as soon as I get the money. Well, that's the thing here, using the + or - keys on the numpad in bios while Voltage is selected does nothing

I'm using an ATX Cooler Master case, wich is very small. I mounted an extra 12mm Mist fan, so I have a total of 3 12mm fans in the case. I do not have a desk fan to test. I ran 3Dmark Vantage and recieved the score 21211. No artifacts and all settings default. CPU Temp peaked again @ 69°C. I don't have the balls to try Prime95 in fear of killing my CPU haha! Well, hopefully with a new CPU Cooler I can keep full load temps under 58°C

 

[Nautiques]

Managed to boot @ 1.416 volt no less, thanks all! Testing some GTA IV now, max temp gone down from 69 to 65. No crashes, this will be nice with a new cooler. Seems as if my CPU has potential to clock way over 4.0ghz, personally I haven't tried anymore.

 

[deimos3428]

Managed to boot @ 1.416 volt no less, thanks all! Testing some GTA IV now, max temp gone down from 69 to 65. No crashes, this will be nice with a new cooler. Seems as if my CPU has potential to clock way over 4.0ghz, personally I haven't tried anymore.

Yeah, looks like you've got a pretty good chip there.

 

[Nautiques]

A drastic improvement I'd say, hah! Ordering a Hyper 212+, can't wait to run this clock 24/7

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Make sure when you get the 212 to run some torture tests. In my experience there's a big difference between what voltage the machine will boot at and what will be stable under a few hours of Prime95 or (especially) Linpack.

 

[aigomorla]

Make sure when you get the 212 to run some torture tests. In my experience there's a big difference between what voltage the machine will boot at and what will be stable under a few hours of Prime95 or (especially) Linpack.

you mean Vdroop?

Basically the idle voltage, and voltage at load will change depending on how well your board was made.

If you have stuff like load line calibration, or vdroop control in bios, you can usually get away with vdroops.

Since the voltage your playing with is moderate, if you have a LLC or vdroop control i recomend u use it.

You might notice your cpu will be a bit more stable under load.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

you mean Vdroop?

Basically the idle voltage, and voltage at load will change depending on how well your board was made.

If you have stuff like load line calibration, or vdroop control in bios, you can usually get away with vdroops.

Since the voltage your playing with is moderate, if you have a LLC or vdroop control i recomend u use it.

You might notice your cpu will be a bit more stable under load.

I wasn't thinking of vdroop or LLC in particular... OP just mentioned that he was afraid to run Prime with the stock HSF, so I assumed he hadn't run any stress tests. He also said that he was able to boot the machine at 1.416 v "no lower", so I would hazard a guess that it's not all that stable at such a low vcore and 4GHz.

 

[Nautiques]

You're right, it wasn't stable at 1.416 vcore, I actually had to turn it up to 1,430 to finish 3dmark. With 1.416 vcore my fps during the graphics test were cut in more than half, and bsod during the first CPU Test. However, no problems at current voltage, other than my crappy stock cooler