Started overclocking my Phenom 9850BE

[SlowSpyder]

I have a Phenom 9850 BE coupled with an MSI K9A2 Platnum and 4GB of A-Data Vitesta memory (2x2GB). I am using an Arctic Cooling 64 Pro for my CPU heatsink... I also have the stock AMD 4 heat pipe heatsink that I was thinking of trying just to see how much difference there is, but as of now I'm using the AC64Pro. Screen shot, for some reason Core Temp only sees the Phenom as a single core it appears.

Anyway, I finally got the system set up and started tweaking it. I ran everything at the stock speed and let 4 instances of Prime95 run using the max heat test, the results were pretty decent for a quad core I thought. The temp stuck right around 50C. I only ran it for about 20 minutes, I figured that would at least get the temps up, I know I need to run it much longer for a stability test, but I just wanted to see where the temps leveled out at. Not too bad for an acrylic case I guess.

I pushed it to 2.8ghz just using the multiplier (no HT change) and ran Prime again. I got an error on one of the cores after about two minutes. I gave it a bump in voltage (1.323v I think it was) and it ran fine again for the 20 minutes I tested it, but the temps got to 55C. Another screen shot if anyone cares.

I pushed it to 3.0ghz, but Windows would lock up at the desktop. I gave the voltage another nudge (1.373v) but it would still lock up at the desktop. 2.9ghz @ 1.373v resulted in Prime95 errors within a few minutes on one of the cores.

I didn't bump the voltage any further yet, I settled at 2.8ghz/1.323 volts for the time being since that seemed stable in the very limited testing I did, and the temps weren't too bad. I'm probably going to play around some more tonight and over the weekend, but had a few questions that I hoped I could get answered here.

What is a safe temp for a Phenom 9850BE, and what do you think the max safe voltage would be on air cooling? I assume I can go above 1.4volt, but want to see what others say. Since this is a 65nm processor, can it pretty much take the same voltages as a 65nm Athlon 64 dual core?

Also, I ran some benches. With my Radeon 2900Pro @ 800mhz/1600mhz (512bit) I ran Crysis at 1680x1050, all settings on 'High'. I know that's more of a GPU/overall system test, but I got a quite playable 25FPS on average. I'll drop the resolution and image quality and see how it runs soon.

I ran SuperPi @ 2.8ghz and got a typical non-AMD friendly 27seconds to 1m.

Well, any suggestions on the temps and voltages and if anyone has any other hints I'd appreciate it. I don't have a magic number I'm trying to get to, just seeing how far I can go just for the sake of doing it really.

Thanks in advance.

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
I have a Phenom 9850 BE coupled with an MSI K9A2 Platnum and 4GB of A-Data Vitesta memory (2x2GB). I am using an Arctic Cooling 64 Pro for my CPU heatsink... I also have the stock AMD 4 heat pipe heatsink that I was thinking of trying just to see how much difference there is, but as of now I'm using the AC64Pro. Screen shot, for some reason Core Temp only sees the Phenom as a single core it appears.

Anyway, I finally got the system set up and started tweaking it. I ran everything at the stock speed and let 4 instances of Prime95 run using the max heat test, the results were pretty decent for a quad core I thought. The temp stuck right around 50C. I only ran it for about 20 minutes, I figured that would at least get the temps up, I know I need to run it much longer for a stability test, but I just wanted to see where the temps leveled out at. Not too bad for an acrylic case I guess.

I pushed it to 2.8ghz just using the multiplier (no HT change) and ran Prime again. I got an error on one of the cores after about two minutes. I gave it a bump in voltage (1.323v I think it was) and it ran fine again for the 20 minutes I tested it, but the temps got to 55C. Another screen shot if anyone cares.

I pushed it to 3.0ghz, but Windows would lock up at the desktop. I gave the voltage another nudge (1.373v) but it would still lock up at the desktop. 2.9ghz @ 1.373v resulted in Prime95 errors within a few minutes on one of the cores.

I didn't bump the voltage any further yet, I settled at 2.8ghz/1.323 volts for the time being since that seemed stable in the very limited testing I did, and the temps weren't too bad. I'm probably going to play around some more tonight and over the weekend, but had a few questions that I hoped I could get answered here.

What is a safe temp for a Phenom 9850BE, and what do you think the max safe voltage would be on air cooling? I assume I can go above 1.4volt, but want to see what others say. Since this is a 65nm processor, can it pretty much take the same voltages as a 65nm Athlon 64 dual core?

Also, I ran some benches. With my Radeon 2900Pro @ 800mhz/1600mhz (512bit) I ran Crysis at 1680x1050, all settings on 'High'. I know that's more of a GPU/overall system test, but I got a quite playable 25FPS on average. I'll drop the resolution and image quality and see how it runs soon.

I ran SuperPi @ 2.8ghz and got a typical non-AMD friendly 27seconds to 1m.

Well, any suggestions on the temps and voltages and if anyone has any other hints I'd appreciate it. I don't have a magic number I'm trying to get to, just seeing how far I can go just for the sake of doing it really.

Thanks in advance.

First off, congrats on the Phenom setup! I'm quite pleased with mine. As for your Crysis frames thats not bad at all. In the same resolution CrossFired in HIGH I get 32FPS and in MEDIUM I get 52FPS. I'm running my 9600 at 2.6 at default vcore (1.200v). With a single card setup I get about 2-3 frames less in the Crysis benchmark. So, about 30FPS HIGH, 50 MEDIUM.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Everything is running on an Antec NeoPower 550 watt power supply... it has a controlled fan, it seems no louder then my dual core Opteron setup before it. I was a littled worried that with an overclocked quad and the R600 that I might have a power issue, but voltages look great.

I tried both the CPU and GPU test in Crysis, both seemed to score the same, not sure what the difference is. I used my buddies copy just to bench the system (I don't generally care for first person shooters, and this one seems pretty run of the mill to me) and just played the first level a bit. Once I am done benching it I'll remove it, it's just taking up HD space for me really. Looks pretty during the benchmarks though!

 

[bryanW1995]

try realtemp to see if you can get the temps right. you might have a problem with the sensor, however, I know that many intel quads (esp the newer 45nm version) have stuck/broken sensors.

edit: why are you running an older p95 version? v 25.6 automatically loads all 4 cores for you and runs in a single window. much much easier

 

[SlowSpyder]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
try realtemp to see if you can get the temps right. you might have a problem with the sensor, however, I know that many intel quads (esp the newer 45nm version) have stuck/broken sensors.

edit: why are you running an older p95 version? v 25.6 automatically loads all 4 cores for you and runs in a single window. much much easier

Ah, thanks! I just did a quick Google search and downloaded the from the first link. I'll look for a more up to date version, thanks!

 

[uribag]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
try realtemp to see if you can get the temps right. you might have a problem with the sensor, however, I know that many intel quads (esp the newer 45nm version) have stuck/broken sensors.

edit: why are you running an older p95 version? v 25.6 automatically loads all 4 cores for you and runs in a single window. much much easier

Ah, thanks! I just did a quick Google search and downloaded the from the first link. I'll look for a more up to date version, thanks!

Hi,

There´s a nice Phenom overclocking thread here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=183025

And here for your specific mobo (go to the last pages):

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...d.php?t=167447&page=74

As you´ll see there´s a lot more for overclocking Phenom than changing multis e voltages of the cores.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I've been reading up on overclocking this chip, even though it's easy to just change the multiplier to increase speed, it looks like the general consensus is that to get the most out of the Phenom I have to overclock the northbridge/imc/L3 cache. Right now I just have the multiplier at 14x for a nice easy 2.8ghz. I can boot at 2.9Ghz, but not 100% stable yet. 3.0GHz results in lock ups after the Windows desktop loads, I'll try more voltage after I get a better CPU heatsink.

I do have a question, what is a safe voltage to run the north bridge at? Right now I have it set at auto, but I intend to push the speed of the northbridge up, but I can't find what a safe max voltage is for it. I assume that pushing the northbridge also overclocks the L3 cache?