Journeys of overclocking an FX-8350

[kcducttaper]

I've got an FX-8350 sitting on my counter to replace my Phenom II x6 1100t that's overclocked to 4.0GHz in order to get a few more years out of my AM3+ socket. For those of you who will inevitably tell me to drop everything and upgrade to a different platform, please see yourself out now as I won't even bother entertaining those comments. Now then, I'll be swapping my processor out here in the next handful of minutes (if I can find some alcohol to clean my Hyper 212 cooler). Once I get booted up on the new processor, I'll leave it stock for a little bit before I start documenting my overclocking process here. I'm not necessarily trying to push it to the limit or anything - just trying to pick up few extra cycles. Wish me luck!

My current CPU-Z rig report can be found here:
https://valid.x86.fr/jkz5ug

[tacoshy]

did you also install Rivatuner?

[kcducttaper]

I reinstalled Forza Horizon 3 and it seems fine now. Go figure. Straight out of the box, I'm getting about a ~15 fps bump with the stock 8350 compared to the OC'ed 1100t. I think I'm starting to get confident enough to explore OCing my 8350 now. I think my target is 4.5GHz while supplying the processor enough memory to keep the cache full.

I'm referencing this video from JayzTwoCents. He starts off by bumping the frequency, so I think that also boosts memory speed to keep the caches full.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MckeAmnDeTk

[sawdust3d]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von tacoshy:

did you also install Rivatuner?

^this

If you install Afterburner, without Riva Tuner, many functions, including the OSD, are dissabled.

[kcducttaper]

I just ran a 20 minute Prime95 pull at 4.4GHz with no issues by bumping the bus speed from 200 to 220 (which also bumped my memory to 1,766MHz). All of my voltages are manually set to the default values and my max temp is 53c. Bed time.

[MA☝Omgwtfbbqstfu™]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von kcducttaper:

My bios noticed it had a new cpu and asked to do a reset by itself, so I did so. If I have to reinstall windows (and therefore reinstall all of my programs/games and lose my progress), I'm just sticking my 1100t back in there and selling my FX. It's not worth redoing the system from the software layer for a $65 CPU.

I just ran a Prime 95 run and it levels out at 40c.

When each new version of windows 10 comes out it basically does a reinstall, so no need to rush that, april update is soon.

[kcducttaper]

I got to thinking. As I'm creeping up my bus speed, how do I know if the CPU is causing instability vs the memory or something else? As I understand it, boosting my bus is boosting everything, so I'm not really sure how I'd pinpoint what component took a dump unless I just see a core drop in a P95 pull.

Also, what sort of increments are generally preferred when bumping the bus? Last night I went straight from 200 to 215, then 220. Are increments of 5 safe? I don't want to get too exuberant and burn something up.

[Snow]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von kcducttaper:

I got to thinking. As I'm creeping up my bus speed, how do I know if the CPU is causing instability vs the memory or something else? As I understand it, boosting my bus is boosting everything, so I'm not really sure how I'd pinpoint what component took a dump unless I just see a core drop in a P95 pull.

Also, what sort of increments are generally preferred when bumping the bus? Last night I went straight from 200 to 215, then 220. Are increments of 5 safe? I don't want to get too exuberant and burn something up.

Going FSB, CPU is likely to be the last thing to cause instability. If you want to see the problem - you've to spend some time OCing each thing one by one until it's unstable leaving other things at stock, writing down the instability point. Might take a while, but this way you'll have the most precise data to work with. Or just keep HT under 2200, memory around 2133, and CPU-NB under 2600, as there's no big performance gains over those numbers anyway. The problem of those numbers is some setup will achieve those with ease, and some may never. Every case is unique so you'll have to figure out for yourself anyway.
And yeah, there's nothing unsafe there. You've a nice mobo, it's very unlikely to burn or anything, and when OC fails - it's just unstable or removing to OC automatically. The worst that could happen - you'll have to remove the battery and put it back with PC unplugged to reset the CMOS manually, but I think your mobo can do this without outer help.

[kcducttaper]

Well, I just ran a 30 minutes P95 pull with nothing more than FSB boosted another 5 to 225.
I'm currently at :
CPU - 4.5GHz,
Max temp - 55c
Memory - 1,806MHz
CPU/NB - 2,475MHz
HT Link - 2,925MHz

[kcducttaper]

After running the settings above for ~2 hours of just web browsing and such, I was streaming a jazz station while I was doing other things and my PC froze up. It didn't blue screen, but it did that thing where it's frozen and sounds like it's playing the same 0.1 second sound clip every 0.1 seconds. I've bumped the voltage up on my memory by a notch. We'll see if that helps anything.

[upcoast]

Crank her up and fire up a demanding game, surfing the net won't tell you anything.

I'll also remind you that the imc is weak and prone to burn out.

[kcducttaper]

That's kinda my point though. It was fine during Prime 95, but locked up effectively at idle, which makes me think it's not CPU related.

Refresh my memory on what an IMC is. Isn't that a part of the CPU? Shouldn't that be fine as long as I keep temps under control?

[upcoast]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von kcducttaper:

That's kinda my point though. It was fine during Prime 95, but locked up effectively at idle, which makes me think it's not CPU related.

Refresh my memory on what an IMC is. Isn't that a part of the CPU? Shouldn't that be fine as long as I keep temps under control?

Internal Memory Controller yes it's part of the cpu and has been noted as weak for eons, old tech all the work has been done for you so it shouldn't be a journey but a short jaunt.

Imho 4400-4600 is the target at it'll depend on volts and luck of the draw, if you're hitting 55c now you're basically at the end of your jaunt unless you're on a suicide run then have at it.

https://www.techspot.com/article/932-amd-fx-8350-fx-6300-power-performance/

Not much to figure out but luck really ^.

[kcducttaper]

So far, everything is stock voltage and I hear the processor's thermal limit is around 63c, so I think I'm pretty safe.

I had bumped up my memory voltage by one notch to try to address the crashing, but it still crashed. I dropped that back down to stock and then bumped the CPU voltage up a notch. Still crashed. I'm wondering if I was overpowering something else on the board. I have voltage controls for other things too, but I don't know if bumping the voltages on other stuff by a notch is acceptable or not. I've just dropped my FSB back to 220 for now until I can gather more info on HT/NB overclocking and if it's worth it.

[Snow]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von kcducttaper:

HT Link - 2,925MHz

That's way above what you need, bring it down.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von kcducttaper:

I've just dropped my FSB back to 220 for now until I can gather more info on HT/NB overclocking and if it's worth it.

HT - not really, no, it just boosts %lows a little bit in some cases, but it's unlikely to give any notable boost past 2200, let alone your stock 2600. Thing's definitely holding back your OC at 2925.
CPU-NB - yeah, that thing definitely helps considering you overclock the rest. Most keep it between 2400-2600, past 2600 it's unlikely to help with non-extreme OC.

[ShadowLID]

My father in law has a AMD FX 8350 and runs FH3 no problem. Also the FX8xxx chips are still holding up very well in modern games yeah new chips are faster but for $65 you can't beat it! I have a AMD FX 8320E because my mother board only supported 95w CPUs but I got it to 4.3ghz super easy I've gotten it higher but to much voltage for me it's used as a backup gaming PC for when my niece and nephew come over.