Overclocking log

Next I wanted to find the limiting clock of my RAM.

Here are the changes:
HTT Multi.: 3
vcore: 1.45
HTT: 230Mhz
CPU Multi.: 8
RAM Divider: 1:1
RAM Core: 2.6v
RAM Timings: 2.5-3-3-11 2T

So as to not let the CPU limit the RAM i underclocked it. I hit the ceiling at 460DDR, any past this and i was getting BSODs all over the place. So i left it at 460DDR which showed no errors in memtest after 10hrs.

I tried tightning the timings to 2-3-3-11 2T and this was also giving me BSODs so I settled that this was my bog standard, TwinMOS RAMs limit.

I then wanted to test the CPU at a HTT of 230Mhz.

Here are the changes:
HTT Multi.: 4
vcore: 1.45
HTT: 230Mhz
CPU Multi.: 11
RAM Divider: 1:1

This gave me a CPU Freq of 2530Mhz, a HTT of 920Mhz and the RAM at its limit of 460DDR.

Ok I was going to increase incrementally, but i'm a bit of an impatient overclocker (this is a day of overclocking and stress testing, i hope to be at my systems limit by tomorrow )

I had planned to test my system at 2.6Ghz, but as the system wasn't showing much, if any temperature spikes at 2.5Ghz, i went to 2.7Ghz

Here are the changes:
HTT Multi.: 3
vcore: 1.5
HTT: 270Mhz
CPU Multi.: 10
RAM Divider: 5:6 DDR333 (for my system DDR450) a drop of 5Mhz but...
RAM Timings: 2.5-3-3-11 1T :eek: ... I went for 1T
RAM Core: 2.65v (i don't even know if that extra .05v will make a difference)


I ran memtest86, test 5, 6 and 8 for 20 passes each (from reading around these seem to be the most relevant stress tests for errors) No errors. I then ran OCCT, no errors. During OCCT the system at full load hit around 47'c. I promised myself i wouldn't venture much past 50'c on a 90nm core, so i was glad it settled at that. At idle it sits nicely at 39'c.

My only worry with these changes was the 1T setting on the RAM, before my system would randomly restart itself, spewing out some spurious errors in the log, i assumed it was my RAM set at 1T so I changed it bacl to 2T just to be safe. But it passed all the tests this time, so it might of been something else that remains to be seen.

Here are the screenshots, i'll run 3Dmark06 tomorrow to see what improvement there has been. I'll probably leave my system at 2.7Ghz for a while, at least until i get a better cooling setup for the CPU. I'll but a table together of the benchmark improvements. I'm actually amazed at the improvement 1T gave me. At present settings my RAM is shifting an extra 2000MB/s over the stock settings.

I'm not really sure what you mean by stepping? It has a stepping of 1 in my CPU-Z screenshot, and a revision of SH-E4 (wtf?) I don't understand what this is actually telling me, i thought these where just revisions made when bugs where found with this particular type of CPU. What relevance does it have to overclocking?

I found this document on AMDs website, but its obscure as to what exactly the codes mean

Here is my 3Dmark06 score, oh yeah, an overclock of about 20% on my CPU and an increase in performance of my RAM of 50% and I get an extra 250points in 3Dmark, i thought at least i'd break the 3000 mark, ah well.

but is there a reason to take the stepping into consideration when OC'ing? I think the only reason the 3Dmark score for my graphics card went up was because i was clocking it at 425 core and 1200 memory

I lowered the vcore to 1.43 and my load temp dropped 5'c. At full load it hits around 43'c. I'm going to try 2.8Ghz probably today and see if it remains stable. I'm using stock cooling and a few extra fans in the system. They must be working since my system temperature rises a few degrees when i turn their speed down.

I'm not interested in a new CPU just yet, ive only had this one a few months. Maybe if I push this one too far i'll give you a shout. I haven't hit this CPUs limit yet, I just like to leave a few days between overclocks to make sure the temperature stays stable

I found this linke as well: Athlon 64 OC Optimizer it's pretty basic, but it saves a few seconds doing the calculations myself.

Yeah like you said, luck of the draw. I'm surprised myself. The RAM has been the biggest surprise though, can't believe the performance i'm getting out of bog standard RAM. The temps have shown little or no sizeable increase, so i'm thinking a few 4000+'s slip through and get marked down as 3800+ and 3700+. I wonder what the cut off point is? If its performance or temperature of the chip?

Just wondering. What BIOS setting would affect the temperature of the chipset on the mobo. I mean it has a fan on it so i'm guessing it suffers from heat, but is there anyway of overclocking it? I'm not really sure what it does, as i assumed it was the northbridge until i was told the northbridge is now on the die (doh!)