Introduction

Our readers are probably familiar with the overclocking potential of AMD Phenom II processors. We have published many tests, reviews and comparisons, various detailed guides that allow you to get similar results at home (for example, " ").

But for our tests on Socket AM2+ or AM3 platforms, overclocking AMD processors with extreme liquid nitrogen cooling we used models Black Edition Phenom II, and for good reason. These unlocked processors are specifically aimed at enthusiasts who want to squeeze the most performance out of their CPU purchase.

But this time we will focus on overclocking a processor with a locked multiplier. And for our task, we took the triple-core AMD Phenom II X3 710, which costs about $100 () and runs at a nominal frequency of 2.6 GHz. Of course, it cannot be said that the processor lacks performance in normal mode, and three cores provide good potential. However, the processor multiplier is locked, so overclocking it is not as easy as the Black Edition models (the Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition model with an unlocked multiplier runs at 2.8 GHz and costs from 4,000 rubles in Russia).

What is a multiplier locked processor? You will not be able to increase the multiplier above the standard value, and also, in the case of AMD processors, also the CPU VID (voltage ID).

Let's look at the standard formula: clock speed = CPU multiplier x base frequency. Since we cannot increase the CPU multiplier, we will have to work with the base frequency. This, in turn, will lead to an increase in the frequency of the HT (HyperTransport) interface, northbridge and memory, since they all depend on the base frequency. If you want to update terminology or frequency calculation schemes, we recommend that you refer to the article " Overclocking AMD Processors: THG Guide ".

To cool the retail version of the Phenom II processor, we decided to abandon the “boxed” cooler included in the package and took the Xigmatek HDT-S1283. However, in hopes of overclocking the processor as much as the Black Edition, we wanted to find a motherboard that could deliver a high base clock. Based on our comparative testing of motherboards for AMD processors The winner in this area is the MSI 790FX-GD70, so it should allow us to push the limits of AMD's air-cooled CPU.

In this article, we will look in detail at different methods of overclocking a processor with a locked multiplier, including regular overclocking through the BIOS, through the AMD OverDrive utility and through the proprietary MSI OC Dial function. motherboard 790FX-GD70. We will consider all three methods in detail, compare their ease and the results obtained. Finally, we'll run some small performance tests to evaluate the gains from overclocking the CPU, Northbridge (NB), and memory.

In each overclocking scenario, we first disabled Cool'n'Quiet, C1E and Spread Spectrum in the BIOS.

This is not always required, but when determining the maximum base frequency, it is better to disable all these functions so as not to understand the reasons for unsuccessful overclocking. When increasing the base frequency, you will probably have to reduce the CPU, NB and HT multipliers, as well as the memory frequency, so that all these frequencies do not reach the limit value. We will increase the base frequency in small increments and then run stability tests. In the BIOS 790FX-GD70, MSI calls the HT base frequency "CPU FSB Frequency".

That was our plan, but first we wanted to see what the "Auto Overclock" option in the BIOS could do with the stock 200 MHz base clock. We set this option to "Find Max FSB" and saved the BIOS changes. The system then went through a short reboot cycle and within 20 seconds booted up to an impressive base clock of 348 MHz!

Click on the picture to enlarge.

After successfully confirming the stable operation of the system at these settings, we realized that the base frequency value would not be a limitation for this combination of CPU and motherboard.

Now it's time to start overclocking the processor. In the Cell menu we set the values ​​back to the standard ones. We then set the multiplier to 8x for "CPU-Northbridge Ratio" and "HT Link speed". The FSB/DRAM divider was lowered to 1:2.66, memory latencies were manually set to 8-8-8-24 2T.

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Knowing that the CPU would be stable at 3.13 GHz (348 x 9), we immediately went to the base frequency of 240 MHz, after which we passed the stability test. Then we began to increase the base frequency in 5 MHz steps and test the stability of the system each time. The highest base frequency we got at stock voltage was 265 MHz, which gave us an impressive 3444 MHz overclock without increasing the voltage.

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Reducing the HT multiplier to 7x did not allow for more overclocking, so it was time to increase the voltage. As we mentioned above, the CPU Voltage ID value is locked and cannot be raised above 1.325 V, so in the BIOS you can set the CPU VDD Voltage from 1,000 to 1.325 V or set the automatic value to "Auto". However, the CPU voltage of the motherboard can still be changed by setting the offset relative to the CPU VID. The offset is set in the MSI BIOS by the "CPU Voltage" parameter; there, for a processor with a VDD of 1.325 V, values ​​of 1.005-1.955 V are available.

We set the CPU voltage to a rather modest 1.405 V, after which we continued to increase the base clock frequency in 5 MHz increments, reaching a maximum stable value of 280 MHz, which gave a processor frequency of 3640 MHz, an HT Link frequency of 1960 MHz, a northbridge frequency of 2240 MHz and 1493 MHz for DDR3 memory. Quite normal values ​​for long-term use of a 24x7 system, but we wanted to achieve the best.

We continued testing by lowering the northbridge multiplier to 7x and then increasing the CPU voltage to 1.505 V. The actual CPU voltage dropped to 1.488 V during load tests. At this voltage, the Phenom II X3 710 processor reached a stable frequency of 3744 MHz with a base frequency of 288 MHz. In our outdoor testbed, the CPU temperature during the Prime95 stress test was around 49 degrees Celsius, which is 25 degrees above our room temperature.

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If you are not familiar with the AMD OverDrive utility, we recommend that you read the article " Overclocking AMD Processors: THG Guide". Today we will immediately switch to Advanced mode to the "Performance Control" menu.

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Overclocking a Black Edition processor using the AOD (AMD OverDrive) utility is quite simple, but now we are dealing with a locked multiplier. First we need to reduce the NB and HT multipliers, as well as the memory divider. The "CPU NB Multiplier" parameters on the "Clock/Voltage" tab, as well as the "Memory Clock" on the "Memory" tab, are highlighted in red, that is, they will change only after the system is restarted. Remember that the HT Link frequency cannot be higher than the Northbridge frequency, and changes to these "white" multipliers are not carried out automatically after a reboot, unlike the "red" values. We avoided this problem by making changes to all these values ​​in the BIOS in advance.

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We quickly discovered that changes to the base frequency using the AOD utility were not carried out even after pressing the “Apply” key. This can be seen if you compare "Target Speed" and "Current Speed".

To start overclocking, you must first change the base frequency in the BIOS to anything relative to the default 200 MHz. Any value will do, so we just set it to 201 MHz.

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Having done the aforementioned overclocking preparations, we began to increase the HT frequency using AOD in 10 MHz steps. Everything was great until we unexpectedly hit the 240 MHz threshold. After which the system either hung or restarted. We did some fine tuning and then found that the problem started after 238 MHz. The solution turned out to be setting the base frequency to 240 MHz in the BIOS. Then we raised the base HT frequency in 5 MHz steps, after which we again hit the 255 MHz level. After setting 256 MHz in the BIOS and booting, we were able to get the same maximum frequency at stock voltage as before.

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Note that due to CPU locking, the CPU VID slider is already set to a maximum of 1.3250 V. To raise the CPU voltage, you need to use the CPU VDDC slider to set the offset voltage. In addition to setting the CPU VDDC to 1.504 V, we increased the NB VID and NB Core voltages to 1.25 V. This allowed us to increase the base HT frequency to 288 MHz without any problems.

Click on the picture to enlarge.
Click on the picture to enlarge.

Besides the fairly rich multiplier and voltage settings in the BIOS, the MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard has other overclocker-friendly features. Notice the keys and OC Dial located on the bottom of the board. The power and reset keys will be useful for those testing the system outside of a PC case, and the pressed-in Clear CMOS key (Clr CMOS) is also more convenient than a regular jumper. The MSI OC Dial function consists of an OC Drive knob and an OC Gear key. They allow you to change the base frequency in real time.

The OC Dial function is activated through the "Cell" menu in the BIOS. The OC Dial Step can be increased if needed, but we used the default 1 MHz step. The "OC Dial Value" indicates changes made with the OC Drive knob. The "Dial Adjusted Base Clock" value indicates the current base clock, that is, the sum of the FSB Clock + OC Dial values.

Again, we prepared for overclocking by lowering the NB and HT multipliers in the BIOS, as well as the memory divider. The OC Drive knob can be turned while on the BIOS screen, but under operating system The OC Gear key serves as a switch. After holding the OC Gear for a second, the indication will appear and the OC Drive will begin to operate. The knob has only 16 positions, which allows you to increase the base frequency by 16 MHz in one turn. After completing the adjustments, pressing OC Gear again turns off the function, which is recommended to protect stable operation.

We started overclocking by turning the OC Drive knob and monitoring the base clock and other clocks in CPU-Z. However, after the next change, the system automatically rebooted. Entering the BIOS, we found that the reboot occurred after the same 239 MHz base clock that we were having trouble with in AMD OverDrive.

After this small glitch, the system booted into Windows without any problems at a base frequency of 239 (200 + 39) MHz. We continued to increase the OC Dial value up to 65 MHz, then a voltage increase was required.

We increased the voltages and decreased the multipliers. Under Windows, we controlled the OC Dial knob in 10 MHz increments. The system began to crash after reaching the base frequency of 286 MHz, while the OS refused to boot when the “OC Dial Value” was greater than 86 MHz.

After setting the CPU FSB frequency to 250 MHz, we loaded the OS again. This time we were able to increase the base clock value using the OC Dial knob all the way up to our maximum stable level of 288 MHz.

Squeezing out more performance: fine tuning

With the Phenom II X3 710 running at a respectable 3744 MHz clock speed, it's time to squeeze some more performance out of the system.

We started by overclocking the northbridge, which improves the performance of the memory controller and L3 cache. By setting the "CPU-NB Voltage" to 1.3 V and the "NB Voltage" to 1.25 V, we were able to increase the northbridge multiplier from 7x to 9x, giving a northbridge frequency of 2592 MHz.

A further increase in voltage still did not allow loading Windows with a 10x NB multiplier. Remember that due to the base frequency of 288 MHz, each increase in the NB multiplier results in a 288 MHz increase in the northbridge frequency. The chipset's heatsink remained fairly cool to the touch, but reaching 2880 MHz at the northbridge would certainly require increasing the CPU-NB voltage more than we wanted. In this regard, Black Edition processors certainly offer greater flexibility. Using a combination of a multiplier and a different base clock, we could get a higher northbridge clock speed with a similar CPU overclock. For example, at a base frequency of 270 MHz, the system worked completely stably with a northbridge at 2700 MHz, but without the ability to increase the multiplier, the CPU overclock dropped to just over 3500 MHz.

Of course, you can get a small performance boost by increasing the frequency of the HT Link interface, but 2.0 GHz already provides enough bandwidth for such a system. Here, increasing the HT multiplier to 8x will increase the clock speed of the HT Link interface by 288 MHz, which will lead to 2304 MHz - higher than we usually set, and stability will certainly be lost.

Instead of wasting time increasing the HT Link frequency, we decided to overclock the memory. In this case, the 1:3.33 divider would cause our Corsair DDR3 modules to run too high at 1920 MHz, so we decided to look into latency. We found that latencies of 7-7-7-20 gave completely stable performance in the Memtest 86+, Prime95 and 3DMark Vantage tests. Unfortunately, the Command Rate 1T parameter gave a stable four cycles of Memtest 86+ without errors, but led to a loss of stability in 3D tests. The result of our subtle overclocking is shown in the following screenshot.

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Although we manually set the memory latencies for the current overclocking test, additional tests showed that the "Auto" settings did not affect the results. With a memory divider of 1:2.66, setting the DRAM Timing delays in the BIOS to the "Auto" position led to the 9-9-9-24 mode. Interestingly, “Auto” delays with a 1:2 divider resulted in a 6-6-6-15 mode, and at this frequency the 1T Command Rate parameter gave stable operation.

In the performance tests we'll look specifically at our overclocking efforts. First, we'll look at what kind of performance boost comes from increasing the northbridge frequency alone, then we'll study the impact of memory frequency and latency on performance.

Test configuration

Hardware
CPU	AMD Phenom II X3 710 (Heka), 2.6 GHz, 2000 MHz HT, 6 MB L3 cache
Motherboard	MSI 790FX-GD70 (Socket AM3), 790FX / SB750, BIOS 1.3
Memory	4.0 GB Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D, 2 x 2048 MB, DDR3-1333, CL 8-8-8-24 at 1.65 V
HDD	Western Digital Caviar Black WD 6401AALS, 640 GB, 7200 rpm, 32 MB cache, SATA 3.0 Gbit/s
Video card	AMD Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5, 750 MHz GPU, 900 MHz GDDR5
power unit	Antec True Power Trio 550W
Cooler	Xigmatek HDT-S1283
System software and drivers
OS	Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, 32-bit, SP1
DirectX version	Direct X 10
Display Driver	Catalyst 9.7

Tests and settings

3D games
World In Conflict	Patch 1009, DirectX 10, timedemo, 1280x1024, Very High Details, No AA / No AF
Applications
Autodesk 3ds Max 2009	Version: 11.0, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV)
Synthetic tests
3DMark Vantage	Version: 1.02, Performance Preset, CPU score
Sisoftware Sandra 2009 SP3	Version 2009.4.15.92, CPU Arithmetic, Memory Bandwidth

Overclocking modes
	Stock	Stock VCore OC (standard without voltage boost)	Max OC (maximum with voltage increase)	Tweaked OC (maximum after fine tuning)
CPU core frequency	2600 MHz	3444 MHz	3744 MHz	3744 MHz
Northbridge frequency	2000 MHz	2120 MHz	2016 MHz	2592 MHz
HT Link Frequency	2000 MHz	2120 MHz	2016 MHz	2016 MHz
Memory frequency and latency	DDR3-1333, 8-8-8-24 2T	DDR3-1412, 8-8-8-24 2T	DDR3-1546, 8-8-8-24 2T	DDR3-1546, 8-8-8-24 2T

Performance Results

This article was intended to be more of an overclocking guide rather than a performance test. But we still decided to run some tests to show the performance gains after our overclocking efforts. Pay attention to the table above, which provides a detailed explanation of each test configuration.

In the Sandra Arithmetic test, results increase after increasing the CPU clock speed, and fine-tuning overclocking (Tweaked OC) did not show any benefit from an overclocked northbridge.

On the other hand, overclocking the northbridge gives a significant increase in memory bandwidth. Thin overclocking (Tweaked OC) is in the lead, and a slightly lower frequency of the north bridge at maximum overclocking (Max CPU OC) gave lower results than when overclocking with stock voltage (Stock Vcore OC).

Overclocking our Phenom II processor resulted in a noticeable increase in 3DMark Vantage CPU test scores. The additional bandwidth due to the acceleration of the northbridge significantly increased the result.

World in Conflict is very CPU dependent. We tested it at a low resolution without anti-aliasing, which allowed us to set very high detail, but at the same time we did not run into the performance of the Radeon HD 4870 GPU. It is not surprising that as the CPU frequency increases, we get an increase in the minimum and average frame rates (fps). But pay attention to the significantly better minimum frame rate after overclocking the northbridge. The performance of the memory controller and L3 cache are very important for this game, since overclocking the northbridge gave the same 6 fps increase in the minimum frame rate as overclocking the CPU at 1100 MHz.

Overclocking the CPU significantly reduced rendering times in 3ds Max 2009. Memory bandwidth is not so important here, since overclocking the northbridge gave a gain of only one second.

All tests were performed after setting the latencies to 8-8-8-24 2T in the BIOS. In the charts, we used the "Tweaked PC" fine overclocking settings with frequencies of 3744 MHz for the core, 2592 MHz for the northbridge and 2016 MHz for the HT interface. We tested the four stable memory operating modes that we discussed in the article.

In the CPU arithmetic test we don't see any difference. However, low latency turned out to be slightly better than high frequency operation.

Here we see that the throughput increased after increasing the memory frequency. With a divisor of 2.66 we see very little difference between Auto (CAS 9), CAS 8 and CAS 7 low latency modes.

Our two manual modes are the leaders here, although the difference in the 3DMark Vantage CPU test is negligible.

Scaling in World in Conflict seems almost perfect, with minimal delays leading the way, which gave an increase of 1 fps in the minimum and average frame rates. Note the noticeable drop minimum frequency frames when the memory frequency decreases.

Stricter memory lags on an overclocked system did not result in any gains in rendering time for 3ds Max 2009.

Overclocking without increasing voltage gives a nice increase in performance compared to stock settings and at the same time much better efficiency than with maximum overclocking (with increasing voltage). Also, please note that the performance gains from increasing the northbridge frequency are not "free".

Some readers like to overclock without increasing the multiplier, which allows them to enable Cool'n'Quiet technology without a noticeable loss of stability.

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Conclusion

The Phenom II X3 710 processor delivers impressive performance for its $100 price tag (). However, locked multiplier and Voltage ID values ​​result in a loss of overclocking flexibility compared to Black Edition processors. However, if you get motherboard, overclocking-friendly (like MSI 790FX-GD70), then the X3 710 can achieve the same core clock as other air-cooled Phenom II processors.

Of course, your overclocking results may vary. This is especially true for overclocking a processor with a locked multiplier by increasing the base frequency. If you're planning on overclocking a locked Phenom II processor on a budget, we recommend that you carefully select a motherboard that allows you to add bias to the CPU VID voltage and can handle a higher base clock. However, if you plan to overclock the processor on an inexpensive motherboard or want to get the most out of the CPU on an enthusiast motherboard like ours, it is better to pay another $20 and take the Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition processor (from 4000 rubles in Russia), work with which is much easier.

AMD's OverDrive utility has been quite useful in the past for overclocking Black Edition processors, but in this configuration it is no longer as ideal. Of course, none of the problems we encountered were critical, but we wouldn't recommend doing any serious overclocking with AMD OverDrive on our CPU-locked motherboard. However, the utility is still useful for monitoring voltages and temperatures, or even for preliminary testing of small changes in the base frequency, in order to then enter them into the BIOS.

MSI's OC Dial technology isn't flawless either, but it worked better in our case than AMD OverDrive. In addition to the "Auto Overclock" option to find the maximum base frequency (Max FSB), MSI OC Dial technology can save significant time when you need to quickly change the base frequency. The most big problems will be with how to get to the MSI OC Dial adjustments after installing the board in the case, since in systems with a bottom-mounted power supply and with several video cards it will be quite cramped.

As a result, if we consider overclocking a locked processor, then it is impossible to bypass or replace the settings through the good old BIOS. Thanks to easy navigation and a wealth of multiplier and voltage adjustments, the 790FX-GD70 board showed its best side. Whether you use the OC Dial feature or AMD's OverDrive software utility, overclocking a locked Phenom II processor will still start and end in the BIOS.

Good day, fellow overclockers and future overclockers, as well as just readers.

In this article I will write how to overclock the AMD Phenom II x4 965BE processor. I am not going to put forward this scribbling as the only, unique and error-free instructions for overclocking. I tried to write it as simple and in clear language. All conclusions and recommendations here are based on my personal experience and observations, as well as numerous FAQs on overclocking forums, reading and analyzing various articles on overclocking, and, of course, sharing experiences when communicating on various overclocking forums.

In this article you will not find any philosophical reflections on the nature of overclocking, its goals and objectives, etc.

Here I will share my experience in overclocking in simple, ordinary language and give a number of recommendations and tips.

I warn you in advance that the article is intended for computer-literate people who more or less understand the slang of computer scientists, who can independently disassemble/assemble from components system unit who understand and distinguish processors at least by their names, know their main characteristics, know how to get into and dig a little into the BIOS, but nonetheless- those who do not understand (poorly understand) or are just beginning to understand in acceleration.

Already experienced people, they won’t find anything new from this article - except that they can “shake up” their memory a little and point out to me the errors they found.

Now about the errors. Since I am a human, I can make mistakes. The more you notice them, the better. Write here and I will correct them. With your help, this article can become even better and more informative. If you think that I have not sufficiently covered some issues, write too.

In fact, I should have written this instruction a long time ago - two or three years ago. For one reason or another, this did not work out. The main reason, of course, is mighty laziness. Moreover, there are still people who are interested in overclocking processors with a hairdryer2.

As expected in any article on overclocking - discamer :

Let me remind you that you act at your own peril and risk. I am not responsible for your manipulations (after reading my article and not mine either) with your and not your computer and for the subsequent negative and positive consequences.

The reason for creating this article is that newbies contact me for advice on overclocking processors, specifically the AMD Phenom II (hereinafter simply referred to as Phenom2). Another thing to take into account is that I remember my younger self, when I couldn’t do anything and didn’t know anything. And I didn’t even know about the existence of such guides.

A little about myself [ I strongly recommend skipping this part, because it does not bring anything useful].

[By the way, a question for everyone - maybe this part should be deleted? Maybe the article doesn’t need it at all?]

I started overclocking for the first time since 2008 - my first processor Intel Pentium Dual Core E 2160 , on my own - without reading the relevant materials or knowing anything - surprisingly even to myself, I gradually overclocked the bus to ~2400 MHz - then I didn’t even know that the voltage on the core needed to be increased. But all the same - the motherboard was frankly UG with a poor BIOS, which only allowed changing the bus, but the voltage was locked. Then I bought a good motherboard at MSI(I don’t remember the name after years ago) and it seems (as it seemed to me then) an excellent cooler at least - outwardly, as it seemed to me then Asus Triton 75 which in fact turned out to be bullshit and overclocked with increasing voltage to ~3300 MHz. Then I bought what was expensive in those days Zalman CNPS 9700 A LED. At that time, I didn’t even realize that mosfets tend to heat up when the voltage increases, and I didn’t know anything at all about how the processor is powered, what temperature limits and throttling are, what FACs are, etc. - in general, with the Internet in our In those days everything was very sad in the city.

Accordingly, then I did not read any articles or forums because there was no Internet. I had to learn everything myself through experience - slowly, but surely. It's just amazing that I didn't burn anything then. The reason for this was most likely that I was unknowingly using a slow acceleration technique. I had no idea about stability testing processor and memory. I didn’t even know that they overclock the video card :-)

Along the way, I was forced to overclock the RAM - there is only one FSB, you understand. A year later I changed the platform to AMD, purchased an overclocker (as it seemed to me then) memory kit Kingston HyperX 1066 MHz, mother Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P(by the way - a great motherboard), and the processor PhenomII x 3 710 2600 MHz. Especially for overclocking. Only then did I start reading (only reading and then only from time to time) the site overclockers.ru

Over time, the mother changed to Gigabyte GA-890XA-UD3- also an excellent overclocker's mother. Now I’m wondering why I changed my mother - the north bridge is the same in both cases 790Х, southern with S.B. 750 changed to S.B. 850 . In fact, there was no difference.

I went through three processors, stupidly buying and selling one by one (in our city there is still no store that would practice such a wonderful feature as “moneyback”) PhenomII x 3 710 , one processor PhenomII x 3 720ВЭ- and all this for the sake of obtaining the treasured ones, as it seemed to me then 4 GHz. Did not work out. As I now understand, the first revisions of PhenomII were to blame. All of them were steadily broken down to full-fledged PhenomII x 4 . But their maximum frequency ceiling was different - from 3400 to 3700 MHz. Dancing with a tambourine around BIOS, voltages, etc. etc., including in the mode of disabling several cores, did not help. As a result, I bought a 6-core one that was freshly released and had already reduced its prices a bit PhenomII x 6 1090 BE. So he immediately took a stable 4000 MHz at an acceptable voltage without any fuss. I went into Windows at 4100-4200 MHz, but there was no stability. By the way, for this purpose I changed the cooler to a “folk” one, which was very popular (and still seems to be) then Scythe Mugen 2 Rev . B(thanks to the vote at that time on the overclockers.ru forum - “The best tower cooler”).

Having received the coveted 4 GHz on Phenom2, my interest in overclocking decreased somewhat. And I thought that it would be nice to move to the then latest socket 1155 - and, having sold the hairdryer2, I bought a processor Intel Core i 5 2500 K. By that time, I had become friends with one store and went through three such processors and found “the same percentage” that gave a stable 5 GHz in the air.

To do this, I ordered the then top-end motherboard from the same store MSI P 67 A - G.D. 80 (only six months later an expensive one came out Big Bang Marshal). But then I saw a wonderful board - ASRock P 67 Extreme 6 ( B 3) - I immediately took it - only because of the 10 internal sat ports (at that time I had just 10 pieces of 3.5" hard drives). Again, there were great buttons clear _ cmos , power , reset(I sold the MSI GD80). Also in the same store I ordered and took the then best cooler in the world =) ThermalRight Silver Arrow- which is still the best, if you put a couple of points on it TR T.Y. -150 . Since stable 5 GHz (at the recommended 1.40 V) had already been conquered, I set the processor to the “economical” 4200 MHz at 1.32 V. What's strange, after six months it stopped holding 5 GHz, despite the magic of digging in the BIOS. Well, okay - it happens, I thought about it and happily forgot about it.

Then, over time, I took it for tests Noctua N.H. - D 14 , TR Archon, Well Zalman CNPS 10 X Flex, “for reference”, so to speak. And he wrote Three Kings...

Over time I got more Archons, in total I had five of them. I borrowed a couple more pieces from the store - the total became seven. And I wrote a Comparison of the Seven Archons...

And then several people wrote to me that it would be nice to cover the topic of overclocking processors with a hairdryer2. This is what we will talk about.

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So - let's return to our ram phenoms.

So, you have a phenom2 x4 965BE processor. Let me remind you that the letters BE means Black Edition, that is, multipliers unlocked upward, mainly CPU and CPU/NB.

You must also have a good processor cooler and a good motherboard. This the necessary conditions For safe and stable acceleration This is especially important when there is a heavy load on the processor for a long time.

IMHO, whether a particular cooler is suitable for overclocking can be determined in two ways:

You can determine whether a motherboard is suitable for overclocking offhand, like Chaynikov - by the presence/absence of radiators on the power circuits, also called mosfets ( field effect transistors, field workers). Also, the suitability of the motherboard for overclocking can be directly determined by number of phases nutrition processor. The bigger, the better.

A power supply with somewhat excess power is also needed - since after overclocking the processor begins to consume more energy. I spoke about this in more detail. I strongly recommend reading it to avoid any “unnecessary” questions.

Overclocking the processor is, in theory, very easy. We have a phenom2 x4 965BE processor, which has a nominal multiplier of 17 and, therefore, a nominal clock frequency of 17 x 200 MHz = 3400 MHz. The nominal voltage of the processor is 1.40 V.

There are two ways to overclock a processor: via bus and via multiplier. More about them below.

1. Bus acceleration. How to do?

The nominal bus frequency is 200 MHz. By increasing it, we can increase the final processor frequency. For example, let's increase from 200 MHz to 230 MHz. Then, with a nominal processor multiplier of 17, we have a final frequency of 17 x 230 MHz = 3910 MHz. And we got an increase of 3910-3400 = 510 MHz.

But, it’s just that the processor at its rated voltage (equal to 1.40 V) will not take this frequency of 3910 MHz - there simply won’t be enough power for the processor to operate at this frequency. Therefore it is necessary A little increase tension. I took the frequency of 3910 MHz only as example, since for each processor acceleration ceiling individual, as well as voltage, at which the percentage will take this frequency.

Let's take three identical processor - let's say, the first of them will easily reach 4 GHz, at a voltage of 1.46 V.

The second processor, also let’s say, will master 4 GHz only with strong “stoking” - a voltage of 1.50 V.

And the third processor, let’s say, will take a maximum of 1.38 GHz - no matter how much we increase the voltage.

Conclusion: overclocking is a lottery. Each processor has its own overclocking potential.

Before overclocking, through the BIOS, turn off all energy saving features. These BIOS functions work on automatic, independently setting the processor supply voltage and its frequency. The purpose of these energy saving technologies- save energy when the computer is idle by reducing the multiplier to 4 (4 x 200 MHz = 800 MHz) and the voltage supplied per percent, therefore reducing the overall power consumption of the system.

It is not uncommon for an overclocked processor to not work correctly due to these features. Therefore they should be turned off.

In the BIOS they are hidden under names Cool " n " quiet, and C 1 E- they should be put in position.

Photo energo-enabled

1.1. Bus overclocking method

1. We go into the BIOS. We reset everything to default using the F2 or F5 or F8 or F9 key, etc. - each motherboard has its own way. We save and exit.

2. We go into the BIOS.

Let's look at the part that is responsible for overclocking. In my case it looks like this:

Let’s remember (for beginners, you can write them down on a piece of paper) these numbers:

Current CPU Speed- current processor frequency.

Target CPU Speed- processor frequency that we set at the moment.

Current Memory Frequency- current frequency random access memory.

Current N.B. Frequency- the current frequency of the memory controller built into the processor and the third level memory cache (L3), also called CPU/NB. It is this frequency that decides at what speed the processor and RAM will “talk”. The CPU/NB frequency can also be overclocked - and the increase from it is more noticeable than with a similar overclocking of the processor itself.

Current HT Link Speed- current frequency of the Hyper Transport bus (hereinafter referred to as HT), which connects the northbridge and the processor. Although initially the real frequencies of the CPU/NB and HT are equal, the effective speed (more precisely, the bandwidth) of the HT bus is so high (5.2 billion messages per second) that it does not even need overclocking.

In addition, its architecture is such that the HT frequency cannot be higher than the CPU/NB frequency. Therefore, only the CPU/NB should be overclocked, and the HT frequency should be left at its nominal value of 2000 MHz.

3. Now we begin to fix the necessary parameters:

A.I. Overclock Tuner- we set it to , that is, we transfer automatic acceleration to manual mode. This allows us to control the bus frequency.

CPU ratio- convert the processor multiplier from to , using the “plus” and “minus” keys. That is, we fix/fix the nominal multiplier so that the BIOS does not “accidentally” change it automatically.

CPU Bus Frequency- we set the processor bus to a nominal 200 MHz.

PCI - E Frequency- PCI-E bus is fixed at nominal 100 MHz.

Memory Frequency- we fix the memory frequency at the native 1333 MHz.

CPU / N.B. Frequency- we fix the frequency at native 2000 MHz.

HT Link Speed- We also fix it on the native 2000 MHz.

CPU Spread Spectrum- set to - disable the feature that reduces EMI from the computer, this gives stability during overclocking. Why - we read.

PCI - E Spread Spectrum- we also put it in - purely for reinsurance.

EPU Power Saving Mode- energy-saving technology from Asus, which allows you to regulate the power consumption of motherboard components. As I wrote above - in a state of overclocking - all sorts of “energy saving” options are evil, so we put it in .

Then come the voltage adjustments (subsection Digi + VRM) - here we touch only those that are directly responsible for controlling the processor voltage. This:

CPU Voltage Frequency- move from position set to - for manual voltage adjustment.

CPU & N.B. Voltage-translate from to - this allows you to manually directly indicate the voltage of the processor. In the mode, the voltage of the processor is indicated by the offset (plus or minus) relative to rated voltage, which is, as can be clearly seen in the photo - 1.368 V. And such adjustment is of no use to us - it only confuses beginners more.

CPU Manual Voltage- using the “plus” and “minus” keys we fix the rated voltage - 1.368750 V.

This is how we fixed all the nominal voltages of the computer so that no BIOS automation could change them. Save the BIOS and reboot.

4. Let's go to the OS.

Download and install the most fresh/latest versions programs:

- CPU - Z- to monitor the state of the processor - the multiplier and the final processor frequency, as well as its voltage.

- Core Temp- to monitor the processor temperature.

- Lin X- a program to create maximum load on the processor. This program loads the processor with a system of linear algebraic equations, which evenly load all processor cores to capacity, since they are well parallelized.

For more or less accurate testing of processor stability on the specified combination [frequency CPU - voltage CPU ] In principle, it is enough to specify 10 runs in the LinX program settings, using more than 50% of the total RAM. With 8 GB of memory, I recommend using 5 GB of memory.

In the picture below, I indicated, as you can see, 10 runs using 1 GB of memory (1024 MB). MiB (mebibyte) is the same Russian megabyte - 2 20, but according to the IEC standard. So there is no difference and there is no need to be afraid.

5. Open CPU-Z, Core Temp and Linx. We place them next to each other so that they do not interfere with each other.

We launch LinX in 10 runs.

Afterwards we reboot.

6. We go into the BIOS.

And we increase CPU Bus Frequency from 200 to 210 MHz.

How can you notice the parameter Target CPU Speed simultaneously increases to 3570 MHz. Those. We overclocked the processor to this frequency from the nominal 3400 MHz.

Memory - 1399 MHz.

CPU/NB and HT - 2100 MHz each.

Under the word " not much different" means that they fall within (+/-) 100 MHz of the nominal frequencies.

7. Let's go to the OS.

We launch LinX in 10 runs.

To make a photo!!!

And we look at the maximum temperature the processor warms up to. We remember the processor performance in Gflops.

Afterwards we reboot.

8. We go into the BIOS.

And we increase CPU Bus Frequency from 210 to 220 MHz.

How can you notice the parameter Target CPU Speed simultaneously increases to 3740 MHz. Those. We overclocked the processor to this frequency from the nominal 3400 MHz.

The memory became 1466 MHz.

CPU/NB and HT became 2200 MHz.

Therefore, so that the memory frequencies do not rise too high relative to the nominal 1333 MHz, we reduce it as in the pictures below (this can also be done with the plus and minus keys) to 1172 MHz.

We launch LinX in 10 runs.

And we look at the maximum temperature the processor warms up to. We remember the processor performance in Gflops.

Afterwards we reboot.

10. We go into the BIOS.

And we increase CPU Bus Frequency from 220 to 230 MHz.

How can you notice the parameter Target CPU Speed simultaneously increases to 3910 MHz. Those. We overclocked the processor to this frequency from the nominal 3400 MHz.

At the same time, memory, CPU/NB and HT frequencies are also increasing.

Memory - 1225 MHz.

CPU/NB and HT - 2070 MHz each.

The frequencies of memory, CPU/NB and HT do not differ much from the nominal ones - so we do not touch them.

We save and reboot.

11. Let's go to the OS.

We launch LinX in 10 runs.

And we look at the maximum temperature the processor warms up to. We remember the processor performance in Gflops.

Afterwards we reboot.

12. We go into the BIOS.

And we increase CPU Bus Frequency from 230 to 240 MHz.

How can you notice the parameter Target CPU Speed simultaneously increases to 4080 MHz. Those. We overclocked the processor to this frequency from the nominal 3400 MHz.

But at the same time, memory, CPU/NB and HT frequencies are also increasing.

The memory became 1279 MHz. We don’t touch it, since it falls within the range of 1333 MHz (+/-) 100 MHz.

CPU/NB and HT became 2160 MHz.

We reduce the CPU/NB and HT frequencies to an acceptable 1920 MHz. Let me remind you that the nominal frequencies of CPU/NB and HT are 2000 MHz.

Thus, when overclocking via the bus, we must constantly ensure that the CPU/NB and HT memory frequencies do not stray too far from the nominal ones. I'll explain why later.

We save and reboot.

13. Let's go to the OS.

Oops! Suddenly there is blue screen death - this means one thing - for a given processor frequency ( 4080 MHz) exposed CPU voltage in BIOS (according to clause 3) - 1.368750 V- lacks.

Press the button reset and reboot.

14. We go into the BIOS.

According to step 3, we find the parameter CPU Manual Voltage- and again using the “plus” and “minus” keys we increase and fix the voltage - 1.381250 V.

We save and reboot.

To be continued tomorrow.

The "" tab has only two groups, the first of which is General(general) is responsible for the basic characteristics of memory.

• Type- type of RAM, for example, DDR, DDR2, DDR3.
• Size- memory capacity, measured in megabytes.
• Channels #- number of memory channels. Used to determine the presence of multi-channel memory access.
• DC mode- dual-channel access mode. There are chipsets that can organize dual-channel access in different ways. The simplest methods are symmetric(symmetrical) - when each channel contains identical memory modules, or assymetric when memory is used of different structure and/or volume. Asymmetric mode is supported by Intel chipsets starting with 915P and NVIDIA since Nforce2.
• NB Frequency- frequency of the memory controller. Starting with AMD K10 and Intel Nehalem, the built-in memory controller received separate clocking from the processor cores. This item indicates its frequency. For systems with a memory controller located in the chipset, this item is inactive, as can be observed.

Next group - Timings. Dedicated to memory timings, which characterize the time it takes for the memory to perform a certain typical operation.

• CAS# Latency (CL)- minimum time between issuing a read command ( CAS#) and the start of data transfer (read delay).
• RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD)- the time required to activate a bank line, or the minimum time between sending a signal to select a line ( RAS#) and a signal to select a column ( CAS#).
• RAS# Precharge (tRP)- time required to precharge the bank (precharge). In other words, the minimum time for closing a line, after which a new bank line can be activated.
• Cycle Time (tRAS)- the minimum time the line is active, that is, the minimum time between the activation of the line (its opening) and the issuing of a precharge command (the beginning of closing the line).
• Bank Cycle Time (tRC)- minimum time between activation of lines of one bank. Is a combination of timings tRAS+tRP- the minimum time the line is active and the time it closes (after which you can open a new one).
• Command Rate (CR)- the time required for the controller to decode commands and addresses. Otherwise, the minimum time between issuing two commands. With a value of 1T, the command is recognized for 1 clock cycle, with 2T - 2 clock cycles, 3T - 3 clock cycles (currently only on RD600).
• DRAM Idle Timer- the number of clock cycles after which the memory controller forcibly closes and precharges an open memory page if it has not been accessed.
• Total CAS# (tRDRAM)- timing used by RDRAM memory. Defines the time in clock cycles of the minimum signal propagation cycle CAS# for the RDRAM channel. Includes delay CAS# and the delay of the RDRAM channel itself - tCAC+tRDLY.
• Row to Column (tRCD)- another RDRAM timing. Defines the minimum time between opening a row and an operation on a column in that row (same as RAS# to CAS#).

System MSI board The P35 Diamond is a high-end model based on the Intel P35 platform, which not only contains the latest hardware, but also has overclocking potential. Everyone knows that BIOS is the soul of the motherboard, which determines its functionality and performance.

Below is the BIOS setup menu for the P35 Diamond motherboard. All performance-related functions, with the exception of peripherals, system time, power management, are located in the "Cell Menu" section. Those who want to adjust the frequency of the processor, memory or other devices (for example, graphics card bus and South Bridge) can use this menu.

Attention: Overclocking performance depends on environmental conditions, so we cannot guarantee that the following settings will work on every motherboard.

Remember, if you are not familiar with BIOS setup, it is recommended to use the "Load Optimized Defaults" option. optimal settings) to quickly complete setup and ensure proper system operation. Before overclocking, we recommend that users first boot the system with "Load Optimized Defaults" and only then perform fine tuning.

Cell Menu section of the P35 Diamond motherboard

All settings related to overclocking are located in the "Cell Menu" section. These include:

D.O.T. control (dynamic overclocking technology control)

Intel EIST (Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology)

Adjust CPU FSB Frequency

CPU Ratio CMOS Setting (setting the processor frequency multiplier)

Advanced DRAM Configuration (special dynamic memory settings)

FSB/Memory Ratio (ratio of FSB and memory frequencies)

PCIEx4 Speed ​​Controller (PCIEx4 speed control)

Adjust PCIE Frequency (PCIE bus frequency)

Auto Disable DIMM/PCI Frequency ( automatic shutdown DIMM/PCI clock speed)

CPU Voltage (CPU supply voltage)

Memory Voltage

VTT FSB Voltage (VTT FSB supply voltage)

NB Voltage (North Bridge supply voltage)

SB I/O Power (South Bridge input/output power)

SB Core Power (South Bridge Core Power)

Spread Spectrum (clock frequency spectrum limitation)

The user interface of the "Cell Menu" section is very simple and groups similar functions; Users can match similar functions and make settings step by step.

Before overclocking, set the "D.O.T. Control" and "Intel EIST" functions to Disabled (enabled by default). These features must be disabled to allow custom processor and system bus voltages to be set. After completing these settings, the "CPU Ratio CMOS Setting" option will appear.

Adjust CPU FSB Frequency:
After loading the optimized settings, this function will automatically detect and display the CPU frequency. For example, for an Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 processor, the value "333 (MHz)" will be shown here. Frequency setting can be done number keys or the "Page Up" and "Page Down" keys. During the adjustment process, the value shown in gray "Adjusted CPU Frequency" will change according to the set frequency.




CPU Ratio CMOS Setting (setting the processor frequency multiplier):
Depending on the nominal frequency of the processor used, for example, 1333MHz, 1066MHz and 800MHz, the range of multipliers will be different. Usually the frequency is reduced to a minimum, which increases stability and ensures successful overclocking.




Advanced DRAM Configuration (special DRAM settings):
This item is intended to configure delays in the memory operating cycle. The lower the corresponding value, the higher the speed. However, the limit depends on the quality of the memory modules used.

Advice:
If you are using conventional overclockable memory modules available on the market, we recommend that you select Cell Menu > Advanced DRAM Configuration > Configure DRAM Timing by SPD and set the latter to Disable. . Next, 9 additional items will appear that will enable users to achieve better memory performance.



FSB/Memory Ratio (ratio of FSB and memory frequencies):
This setting determines the relationship between FSB and memory frequencies. If it is set to "Auto", the memory frequency will be equal to the processor FSB frequency. If it is specified by the user, follow the rule 1:1.25. For example, a 1333MHz processor with DDR2-800 memory, then 1333MHz / 4 x 1.25 x 2 = 833MHz. The DDR2 memory frequency will be 833MHz.




Advice:
To meet the wishes of overclocking enthusiasts, MSI has created a special mode in the "Cell Menu" - "Power User mode". Just press "F4" and the hidden menu will appear. The "Power User mode" menu items are focused on memory settings and include the SCOMP and ODT values.









Adjust PCIE Frequency:
Typically, PCI Express bus speed does not have a direct relationship with overclocking; however, fine-tuning it will also help with overclocking. (The default setting is 100, it is not recommended to increase it beyond 120 as it may damage the graphics card.)


CPU Voltage (CPU supply voltage):
This point is critical for overclocking, but due to the complexity of the relationships, finding the best setting is not easy. We recommend that users set this value with caution, as incorrect settings may damage the processor. According to our experience, if you have a good fan, there is no need to set the CPU voltage limit. For example, for the Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 processor, it is recommended to set the voltage in the range of 1.45~1.5V.


Advice:
The P35 Diamond motherboard uses DDR3 memory modules. According to the JEDEC definition of DDR3, its frequency range is between 800 and 1600 MHz. The standard values ​​are 800, 1066, 1333 and 1600MHz. Therefore, when installing some special DDR3 modules, we recommend that you set the minimum FSB/memory frequency ratio, and fine-tune the memory supply voltage to achieve success.

VTT FSB Voltage:
To provide similar supply voltages to all main devices, the VTT FSB voltage must also be increased. The increase should not be large so as not to cause a negative effect.


NB Voltage (North Bridge supply voltage):
The Northbridge plays a decisive role in overclocking, as it is important for maintaining the stability of the processor, memory and graphics card. This is achieved by increasing its supply voltage. We recommend that users fine-tune this setting.


SB I/O Power (South Bridge input/output power):
The South Bridge manages the connection of peripheral devices and expansion cards, which have recently played an increasingly important role on the Intel platform. The ICH9R's standard supply voltage is 1.5V, which determines the voltage setting for I/O devices. We recommend increasing the voltage to 1.7~1.8V, which will improve stability collaboration Northern and Southern Bridges, and will also help with acceleration.


SB Core Power (South Bridge Core Power):
Previously, the South Bridge was ignored during overclocking, but with increasing supply voltage it increases performance.

In addition, remember that MSI in the supply voltage settings highlights their different values ​​in different colors: gray corresponds to the standard value, white means a safe value, and a dangerous value is highlighted in red.

Adviсe:
MSI warns you to check fan speed and temperature frequently. Good cooling plays a decisive role during overclocking.

Attention:
The P35 Diamond is a powerful motherboard that provides a full range of overclocking features and system protection. If three unsuccessful overclocks in a row, the system will automatically install standard settings BIOS for reliable system booting. Before overclocking, make sure that each component is able to withstand its mode. MSI is not responsible for any damage caused by failed overclocking. This article is for informational purposes only.

Once all settings are set, we recommend saving them using the "User Settings" function in the BIOS menu, which makes loading settings easier and also allows you to set default settings if overclocking fails. The user can save two sets of settings and select the required one.

In the User Settings section, "Press Enter" to save the BIOS settings.

If overclocking fails, users still have the option to enter the User Setting section to set more appropriate parameters to restore normal operation.

How to overclock P35 Diamond motherboard

Earlier than expected, the Intel platform entered the era of DDR3 memory. DDR3 memory has lower operating voltage, heat dissipation and higher clock speed. It has better overclocking efficiency than DDR2. However, the chipset and memory modules still do not have an overclocking environment, and this limits the potential of DDR3.

The MSI P35 Diamond motherboard from MSI comes with DDR3 memory and looks very similar to the P35 Platinum. It has greater potential than its predecessor. The P35 Diamond motherboard can support Intel 1333MHz multi-core processors and use 1066MHz DDR3 memory modules for outstanding performance ().

When overclocked, the P35 Diamond has the same excellent overclocking performance as the P35 Platinum, but with some differences. Thanks to DDR3 memory, users have the ability to fine-tune certain components, such as supply voltage and frequency ratio, which will affect overclocking results. Finally, we'll take a closer look at the subtleties that you should keep in mind when starting overclocking.

Adviсe:
Overclocking increases the voltage of the main devices, and they generate more heat than usual. Therefore, cooling becomes an important issue during overclocking.

Attention:
OS is a software environment that any computer user comes into contact with every day. The stability of the OS determines the performance of the system. We recommend that users set the default settings during OS installation and do not enable any overclocking or optimization features.

Together with system board P35 Diamond we used Intel processor Core 2 Duo E6850. Memory modules provided by Corsair CM3X1024-1066C7 DDR3-1066, Nvidia GeForce 8600GTS graphics card, HDD Western Digital WD740ADFD.

Memory modules Corsair CM3X1024-1066C7 DDR3-1066/7-7-7-21/1024MB/1.5V

DDR3 memory has lower operating voltage, heat generation and higher clock speed, which provides better overclocking performance. When installing memory modules, setting the supply voltage is important.

Standard BIOS setting:

Window view of the program for determining system parameters (CPU-Z 1.40):

The next step is to enter the "Cell Menu" section in the BIOS. Next we set the frequency to 450MHz, frequency multiplier 8, which guarantees stability. According to the P35 chipset specification, as the CPU frequency increases, the memory frequency also changes. Therefore, to achieve stability, we change the FSB/memory frequency ratio to 1:1.

The following image shows the operating parameters we measured (depending on the surrounding conditions)

After completing the settings, you can press "F10" to save the settings and click "OK" to restart the system with the new settings.

Typically overclocking focuses on increasing the processor frequency, which reduces stability but remains a widely used technique. Below is the performance improvement achieved by overclocking.

According to the results, the performance improvement is about 5% and the system is very stable. Of course, users can determine the settings for their environment through step-by-step selection.

Of course, our readers know everything about overclocking. In fact, many CPU and GPU reviews wouldn't be complete without looking at overclocking potential.

If you consider yourself an enthusiast, forgive us a little basic information - we'll get into the technical details soon.

What is overclocking? At its core, the term is used to describe a component that operates at higher speeds than its specifications in order to increase performance. You can overclock various computer components, including the processor, memory and video card. And the level of overclocking can be completely different, from a simple increase in performance for inexpensive components to an increase in performance to an exorbitant level that is normally unattainable for products sold in retail.

In this guide, we'll focus on overclocking modern AMD processors to get the best performance possible given the cooling solution you choose.

Choosing the right components

The level of overclocking success depends very much on the system components. To begin with, you will need a processor with good overclocking potential, capable of operating at higher frequencies than the manufacturer normally specifies. AMD today sells several processors that have fairly good overclocking potential, with the "Black Edition" line of processors directly aimed at enthusiasts and overclockers due to the unlocked multiplier. We tested four processors from different families of the company to illustrate the process of overclocking each of them.

To overclock a processor, it is important that other components are also selected with this task in mind. Choosing a motherboard with an overclocking-friendly BIOS is quite critical.

We took a pair of Asus M3A78-T motherboards (790GX + 750SB), which not only provide a fairly large set of functions in the BIOS, including support for Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC), but also work perfectly with the AMD OverDrive utility, which is important for squeezing the most out of Phenom processors.

Choosing the right memory is also important if you want to achieve maximum performance after overclocking. Where possible, we recommend installing high-performance DDR2 memory that is capable of operating at frequencies above 1066 MHz on AM2+ motherboards with 45nm or 65nm Phenom processors that support DDR2-1066.

During overclocking, frequencies and voltages increase, which leads to increased heat generation. Therefore, it is better if your system uses a proprietary power supply that provides stable voltage levels and sufficient current to cope with the increased demands of an overclocked computer. A weak or outdated power supply, loaded to capacity, can ruin all the efforts of an overclocker.

Increasing frequencies, voltages and power consumption will, of course, lead to increased heat dissipation levels, so cooling the processor and case also greatly influences the overclocking results. We didn't want to achieve any overclocking or performance records with this article, so we took rather modest coolers priced at $20-25.

This guide is intended to help those users who are less experienced with overclocking processors, so that they can enjoy the performance benefits of overclocking their Phenom II, Phenom or Athlon X2. Let's hope that our advice will help novice overclockers in this difficult but interesting task.

Terminology

Various terms that often mean the same thing can confuse or even frighten the uninitiated user. So before we go directly to step by step guide, we'll look at the most commonly encountered terms related to overclocking.

Clock speeds

CPU frequency(CPU speed, CPU frequency, CPU clock speed): the frequency at which CPU computer (CPU) executes instructions (for example, 3000 MHz or 3.0 GHz). It is this frequency that we plan to increase in order to get a performance boost.

HyperTransport channel frequency: frequency of the interface between the CPU and the northbridge (for example, 1000, 1800 or 2000 MHz). Typically the frequency is equal to (but should not exceed) the northbridge frequency.

Northbridge frequency: frequency of the northbridge chip (for example, 1800 or 2000 MHz). For AM2+ processors, increasing the northbridge frequency will lead to increased memory controller performance and L3 frequency. The frequency must be no lower than the HyperTransport channel, but it can be increased significantly higher.

Memory frequency(DRAM frequency and memory speed): The frequency, measured in megahertz (MHz), at which the memory bus operates. This may include either a physical frequency, such as 200, 333, 400, and 533 MHz, or an effective frequency, such as DDR2-400, DDR2-667, DDR2-800, or DDR2-1066.

Base or reference frequency: By default it is 200 MHz. As can be seen from AM2+ processors, other frequencies are calculated from the base using multipliers and sometimes dividers.

Frequency calculation

Before we get into the frequency calculations, it's worth mentioning that most of our guide covers overclocking AM2+ processors such as the Phenom II, Phenom, or other K10-based Athlon 7xxx models. But we also wanted to cover the early AM2 Athlon X2 processors based on the K8 core, such as the 4xxx, 5xxx and 6xxx lines. Overclocking K8 processors has some differences, which we will mention below in our article.

Below are the basic formulas for calculating the above-mentioned frequencies of AM2+ processors.

• CPU clock speed = base frequency * CPU multiplier;
• northbridge frequency = base frequency * northbridge multiplier;
• HyperTransport channel frequency = base frequency * HyperTransport multiplier;
• memory frequency = base frequency * memory multiplier.

If we want to overclock the processor (increase its clock frequency), then we need to either increase the base frequency or increase the CPU multiplier. Let's take an example: the Phenom II X4 940 processor runs with a base frequency of 200 MHz and a CPU multiplier of 15x, which gives a CPU clock speed of 3000 MHz (200 * 15 = 3000).

We can overclock this processor to 3300 MHz by increasing the multiplier to 16.5 (200 * 16.5 = 3300) or raising the base frequency to 220 (220 * 15 = 3300).

But it should be remembered that the other frequencies listed above also depend on the base frequency, so raising it to 220 MHz will also increase (overclock) the frequencies of the north bridge, the HyperTransport channel, as well as the memory frequency. On the contrary, simply increasing the CPU multiplier will only increase the CPU clock speed of AM2+ processors. Below we'll look at simple multiplier overclocking using AMD's OverDrive utility, and then head into the BIOS for more complex base clock overclocking.

Depending on the motherboard manufacturer, BIOS options for processor and northbridge frequencies sometimes use not just a multiplier, but a ratio of FID (Frequency ID) and DID (Divisor ID). In this case, the formulas will be as follows.

• CPU clock speed = base frequency * FID (multiplier)/DID (divisor);
• northbridge frequency = base frequency * NB FID (multiplier)/NB DID (divisor).

Keeping the DID at 1 will take you to the simple multiplier formula we discussed above, meaning you can increase CPU multipliers in 0.5 increments: 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, etc. But if you set the DID to 2 or 4, you can increase the multiplier in smaller increments. To complicate matters, the values ​​may be specified as frequencies, such as 1800 MHz, or as multipliers, such as 9, and you may have to enter hexadecimal numbers. In any case, refer to the instructions for the motherboard or look on the Internet hexadecimal values to indicate different FIDs of the processor and northbridge.

There are other exceptions, for example, it may not be possible to set multipliers. Thus, in some cases, the memory frequency is set directly in the BIOS: DDR2-400, DDR2-533, DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 instead of selecting a memory multiplier or divider. In addition, the frequencies of the northbridge and HyperTransport channel can also be set directly, and not through a multiplier. In general, we don't recommend worrying too much about these differences, but we recommend returning to this part of the article if the need arises.

Test hardware and BIOS settings

Processors

• AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition (45 nm, Quad-Core, Deneb, AM2+)
• AMD Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition (65 nm, Quad-Core, Agena, AM2+)
• AMD Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition (65 nm, Dual-Core, Kuma, AM2+)
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Black Edition (65 nm, Dual Core, Brisbane, AM2)

Memory

• 4 GB (2*2 GB) Patriot PC2-6400 (4-4-4-12)
• 4 GB (2*2 GB) G.Skill Pi Black PC2-6400 (4-4-4-12)

Video cards

• AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2
• AMD Radeon HD 4850

Cooler

• Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
• Xigmatek HDT-S963

Motherboard

• Asus M3A78-T (790GX+750SB)

power unit

• Antec NeoPower 650 W
• Antec True Power Trio 650W

Useful utilities.

• AMD OverDrive: overclocking utility;
• CPU-Z: system information utility;
• Prime95: stability test;
• Memtest86: memory test (bootable CD).

Hardware monitoring: Hardware Monitor, Core Temp, Asus Probe II, other utilities included with the motherboard.

Performance testing: W Prime, Super Pi Mod, Cinebench, 3DMark 2006 CPU test, 3DMark Vantage CPU test

• Manually configure Memory Timings;
• Plan Windows power supply: High Performance.

Remember that you are exceeding the manufacturer's specifications. Overclocking is done at your own risk. Most hardware manufacturers, including AMD, do not provide a warranty against damage caused by overclocking, even if you use AMD's utility. THG.ru or the author are not responsible for damage that may occur during overclocking.

Introducing AMD OverDrive

AMD OverDrive is a powerful all-in-one overclocking, monitoring and testing utility designed for motherboards based on the AMD 700 series chipset. Many overclockers do not like to use a software utility under the operating system, so they prefer to change the values ​​​​directly in the BIOS. I also usually avoid utilities that come with motherboards. But after testing the latest versions of the AMD OverDrive utility on our systems, it became clear that the utility is quite valuable.

We'll start by taking a look at the AMD OverDrive utility menu, highlighting interesting features as well as unlocking the advanced features we'll need. After launching the OverDrive utility, you are greeted with a warning message, clearly stating that you are using the utility at your own risk.

When you agree, pressing the "OK" key will take you to the "Basic System Information" tab, which displays information about the CPU and memory.

The "Diagram" tab displays a chipset diagram. If you click on a component, more detailed information about it will be displayed.

The "Status Monitor" tab is very useful during overclocking, as it allows you to monitor the processor clock speed, multiplier, voltage, temperature and load level.

If you click on the "Performance Control" tab in the "Novice" mode, you will get a simple engine that allows you to change the PCI Express (PCIe) frequency.

To unlock advanced frequency settings, go to the "Preference/Settings" tab and select "Advanced Mode".

After selecting the "Advanced" mode, the "Novice" tab was replaced by the "Clock/Voltage" tab for overclocking.

The "Memory" tab displays a lot of information about memory and allows you to configure delays.

There's even a built-in test to quickly evaluate performance and compare it with previous values.

The utility also contains tests that load the system to check the stability of operation.

The last tab "Auto Clock" allows you to perform automatic overclocking. It takes a lot of time, and all the excitement is lost, so we didn’t experiment with this function.

Now that you're familiar with AMD's OverDrive utility and have set it to Advanced mode, let's move on to overclocking.

Overclocking via multiplier

With the 790GX motherboard and Black Edition processors we used, overclocking using AMD's OverDrive utility is fairly easy. If your processor is not a Black Edition processor, you will not be able to increase the multiplier.

Let's take a look at the stock operating mode of our Phenom II X4 940 processor. The motherboard base frequency varies from 200.5 to 200.6 MHz for our system, which gives a core frequency between 3007 and 3008 MHz.

It is useful to run some performance tests at the standard clock frequency, so that you can then compare the results of an overclocked system with them (you can use the tests and utilities we suggested above). Performance tests allow you to measure performance gains and losses after changing settings.

To overclock a Black Edition processor, check the "Select All Cores" checkbox on the "Clock/Voltage" tab, then start increasing the CPU multiplier in small steps. By the way, if you don’t check this box, you can overclock the processor cores individually. As you overclock, be sure to keep an eye on temperatures and constantly run stability tests. Additionally, we recommend making notes regarding each change where you describe the results.

Since we were expecting a solid boost from our Deneb processor, we skipped the 15.5x multiplier and went straight to the 16x multiplier, which gave the CPU core clock at 3200 MHz. With a base frequency of 200 MHz, each increase in the multiplier by 1 gives an increase in clock frequency of 200 MHz, and an increase in the multiplier by 0.5 - 100 MHz, respectively. We performed stress tests after overclocking using the AOD stability test and the Small FFT Prime95 test.

After running Prime 95 stress tests for 15 minutes without a single error, we decided to further increase the multiplier. Accordingly, the next multiplier of 16.5 gave a frequency of 3300 MHz. And at this core frequency, our Phenom II passed through stability tests without any problems.

A multiplier of 17 gives a clock speed of 3400 MHz, and again stability tests were completed without a single error.

At 3.5 GHz (17.5*200) we successfully completed a one-hour stability test under AOD, but after about eight minutes in the heavier Prime95 application we got a blue screen and the system rebooted. We were able to run all of our performance tests on these settings without crashing, but we still wanted our system to get through the 30-60 minute Prime95 test without crashing. Therefore, the maximum overclocking level of our processor at a nominal voltage of 1.35 V is between 3.4 and 3.5 GHz. If you don't want to raise the tension, then you can stop there. Or you can try to find the maximum stable CPU frequency at a given voltage by increasing the base frequency in one megahertz increments, which for a multiplier of 17 would give 17 MHz at each increment.

If you don’t mind raising the voltage, then it is better to do this in small increments of 0.025-0.05 V, while you need to monitor the temperatures. Our CPU temperatures remained low, and we began to gradually increase the CPU voltage, with a small increase to 1.375 V resulting in Prime95 tests running at 3.5 GHz completely stable.

Stable operation with a multiplier of 18 at 3.6 GHz required a voltage of 1,400 V. To maintain stability at 3.7 GHz, a voltage of 1.4875 V was required, which is more than the AOD allows to set by default. Not every system will be able to provide sufficient cooling at this voltage. To increase the default AOD limit, you should edit the AOD .xml parameters file in Notepad, increasing the limit to 1.55 V.

We had to raise the voltage to 1,500 V to get the system to work stably in the 3.8 GHz tests with a multiplier of 18, but even raising it to 1.55 V did not lead to stable operation of the Prime95 stress test. The core temperature during Prime95 tests was somewhere in the region of 55 degrees Celsius, meaning we hardly needed better cooling.

We rolled back to the 3.7 GHz overclock, and the Prime95 test ran successfully for an hour, meaning system stability was verified. We then started increasing the base frequency in 1 MHz increments, with the maximum overclock level being 3765 MHz (203*18.5).

It is important to remember that the frequencies that can be obtained through overclocking, as well as the voltage values ​​​​for this, change from one processor sample to another, so in your case everything may be different. It is important to increase frequencies and voltages in small increments while performing stability tests and monitoring temperatures throughout the process. With these CPU models, increasing the voltage does not always help, and processors may even become unstable if the voltage is increased too much. Sometimes for better overclocking it is enough to simply strengthen the cooling system. For optimal results, we recommend keeping the CPU core temperature under load below 50 degrees Celsius.

Although we were unable to increase the processor frequency above 3765 MHz, there are still ways to further improve system performance. Increasing the frequency of the northbridge, for example, can have a significant impact on application performance, since it increases the speed of the memory controller and L3 cache. The northbridge multiplier cannot be changed from the AOD utility, but this can be done in the BIOS.

The only way to increase the northbridge clock speed under AOD without rebooting is to experiment with the CPU clock speed with a low multiplier and a high base frequency. However, this will increase both the HyperTransport speed and the memory frequency. We'll look at this issue in more detail in our guide, but for now let me present the results of overclocking three other Black Edition processors.

The other two AM2+ processors are overclocked in exactly the same way as the Phenom II, with the exception of one more step - enabling Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC). The ACC function is only available on motherboards with AMD SB750 Southbridge, such as our ASUS model with the 790GX chipset. The ACC feature can be enabled in both AOD and BIOS, but both require a reboot.

For 45nm Phenom II processors, it is better to disable ACC, since AMD states that this feature is already present in the Phenom II die. But with 65nm K10 Phenom and Athlon processors, it is better to set ACC to Auto, +2% or +4%, which can increase the maximum achievable processor frequency.

Standard frequencies.

Maximum multiplier

Maximum overclocking

The screenshots above show the overclocking of our Phenom X4 9950 at the stock frequency of 2.6 GHz with a 13x multiplier and a processor voltage of 1.25 V. The memory frequency is crossed out because it was set to DDR2-1066, and not to the DDR2-800 mode that we used for overclocking. The multiplier was increased to 15x, giving a 400 MHz overclock at stock voltage. The voltage was increased to 1.45V, then we tried ACC settings on Auto, +2%, and +4%, but the Prime95 could only last 12-15 minutes. Interestingly, with ACC in Auto mode, a 16.5x multiplier and a voltage of 1.425V, we were able to increase the base frequency to 208MHz, which gave a higher stable overclock.

Standard frequencies

Maximum overclocking without increasing voltage

Maximum overclocking without using ACC

Maximum overclocking

Our Athlon X2 7750 operates at a standard frequency of 2700 MHz and a voltage of 1.325 V. Without increasing the voltage, we were able to increase the multiplier to 16x, which gave a stable operating frequency of 3200 MHz. The system was also stable at 3300 MHz when we increased the voltage slightly to 1.35 V. With ACC disabled, we increased the processor voltage to 1.45 V in 0.025 V increments, but the system was not able to operate stably at the 17x multiplier. It crashed even before stress testing. Setting ACC for all cores to +2% allowed Prime95 to run for an hour at 1.425 V. The processor did not respond well to voltages above 1.425 V, so we were able to get a maximum stable clock of 3417 MHz.

The benefits of enabling ACC, as well as the results of overclocking in general, vary significantly from one processor to another. However, it’s still nice to have such an option at your disposal, and you can spend time fine-tuning the overclocking of each core. We didn't see any significant overclocking gains from enabling ACC on either processor, but we still recommend checking out our 790GX review where we took a closer look at ACC and where it made a more significant impact on the Phenom X4 9850's overclocking potential.

BIOS options

Our maternal Asus board M3A78-T has been flashed latest version A BIOS that contains support for new CPUs and also provides the best chance of successful overclocking.

To begin, you need to enter the motherboard BIOS (usually done by pressing the "Delete" key during the POST boot screen). Check your motherboard's manual to see how you can clear the CMOS (usually using a jumper) if the system fails the POST boot test. Remember that if this happens, all previously made changes such as time/date, GPU off, boot order, etc. will be lost. If you are new to BIOS setup, then pay close attention to the changes you make, and write down the initial settings if you cannot remember them later.

Simply navigating the BIOS menu is completely safe, so if you're new to overclocking, don't be afraid. But make sure you exit the BIOS without saving any changes you've made if you think you might accidentally mess something up. This is usually done by pressing the "Esc" key or the corresponding menu option.

Let's dive into BIOS Asus M3A78-T as an example. BIOS menus vary from one motherboard to another (and from one manufacturer to another), so use the manual to find the appropriate options in your model's BIOS. Also, remember that the available options vary greatly depending on your motherboard model and chipset.

In the main menu (Main) you can set the time and date, and the connected drives are also displayed there. If a menu item has a blue triangle on the left, you can go to a submenu. The "System Information" item, for example, allows you to view the BIOS version and date, processor brand, frequency and amount of installed RAM.

The "Advanced" menu consists of several nested submenus. The "CPU Configuration" item displays information about the processor and contains a number of options, some of which are best disabled for overclocking.

You will probably spend most of your time in the "Advanced" menu item "JumperFree Configuration". Manual setting of important settings is ensured by switching the “AI Overclocking” item to the “Manual” mode. On other motherboards, these options will probably be located in a different menu.

Now we have access to the necessary multipliers that can be changed. Please note that in the BIOS the CPU multiplier changes in steps of 0.5, and the northbridge multiplier in steps of 1. And the HT channel frequency is indicated directly, and not through the multiplier. These options vary significantly between different motherboards; for some models they can be set via FID and DID, as we mentioned above.

In the "DRAM Timing Configuration" item you can set the memory frequency, be it DDR2-400, DDR2-533, DDR2-667, DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066, as shown in the photo. In this BIOS version you will not need to set the memory multiplier/divider. In the "DRAM Timing Mode" item you can set delays, either automatically or manually. Reducing latency can improve performance. However, if you do not have completely stable values ​​of memory latencies at different frequencies at hand, then during overclocking it is very reasonable to increase the latencies CL, tRDC, tRP, tRAS, tRC and CR. Additionally, you can get higher memory frequencies if you increase tRFC latencies to very high values ​​such as 127.5 or 135.

Later, all the "relaxed" delays can be returned back to squeeze out more performance. Reducing one latency per system run is time-consuming, but worth the effort to get maximum performance while maintaining stability. When your memory is operating outside of specifications, run a stability test with utilities such as the Memtest86 boot CD, as unstable memory performance can lead to data corruption, which is not desirable. With all that said, it is quite safe to give the motherboard the ability to adjust the latencies on its own (usually this will set fairly “relaxed” latencies) and focus on overclocking the CPU.

Advanced overclocking

In this case, the adjective “advanced” is not very appropriate, since, unlike the methods discussed above, we will present here overclocking through the BIOS by increasing the base frequency. The success of such an overclock depends on how well the components in your system can overclock, and to find the capabilities of each of them, we will go through them one by one. In principle, no one forces you to follow all the steps given, but finding the maximum for each component can ultimately lead to higher overclocking, since you will understand why you are running into one or another limit.

As we said above, some overclockers prefer direct overclocking through the BIOS, while others use AOD to save testing time by not having to reboot every time. The settings can then be manually entered into the BIOS and try to improve them even further. In principle, you can choose any method, since each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Again, it would be a good idea to disable the Cool"n"Quiet and C1E, Spread Spectrum and automatic fan control systems in the BIOS, which reduce fan speed. We also turned off the "CPU Tweak" and "Virtualization" options for part of our tests, but did not find a noticeable effect on any of the processors. These features can be enabled later if required and you can check if they impact system performance or the stability of your overclock.

Finding the maximum base clock speed

Now we'll move on to the techniques that owners of non-Black Edition processors will have to follow to overclock them (they cannot increase the multiplier). Our first step is to find the maximum base frequency (bus frequency) at which the processor and motherboard can operate. You will quickly notice all the confusion in the naming of the various frequencies and multipliers, as we already mentioned above. For example, the reference clock in AOD is called "Bus Speed" in CPU-Z and "FSB Frequency" in this BIOS.

If you plan to overclock only through the BIOS, then you should lower the CPU multiplier, northbridge multiplier, HyperTransport multiplier and memory multiplier. In our BIOS, lowering the Northbridge multiplier automatically reduces the available HyperTransport channel frequencies to or below the resulting Northbridge frequency. The CPU multiplier can be left as standard and then lowered in AOD, which makes it possible to further increase the CPU frequency without rebooting.

For our Phenom X4 9950 processor, we selected an 8x multiplier in the AOD utility, since even a 300 MHz base frequency with such a multiplier will be lower than the standard CPU frequency. We then raised the base frequency from 200 MHz to 220 MHz, and then increased it in 10 MHz steps up to 260 MHz. We then moved to 5 MHz steps and increased the frequency to a maximum of 290 MHz. In principle, it is unlikely to increase this frequency to the limit of stability, so we could easily stop at 275 MHz, since it is unlikely that the northbridge will be able to operate at such a high frequency. Since we were overclocking the base clock in the AOD, we ran AOD stability tests for a few minutes to ensure the system was stable. If they did the same in the BIOS, then simply being able to boot into Windows would probably be enough good test, and then we would do final stability tests at a high base frequency to make sure.

Finding the maximum CPU frequency

Since we already reduced the multiplier in AOD, we know the maximum CPU multiplier and now we already know the maximum base frequency we can use. With the Black Edition processor we can experiment with any combination within these limits to find the maximum value of other frequencies, such as the northbridge frequency, the HyperTransport channel frequency and the memory frequency. For now, we will continue the overclocking tests as if the CPU multiplier was locked at 13x. We will look for the maximum CPU frequency by increasing the bus frequency by 5 MHz at a time.

Whether overclocking via BIOS or via AOD, we can always go back to the base clock of 200 MHz and set the multiplier back to 13x, which will give a stock clock speed of 2600 MHz. By the way, the north bridge multiplier will still remain 4, which gives a frequency of 800 MHz, the HyperTransport channel will operate at 800 MHz, and the memory will operate at 200 MHz (DDR2-400). We will follow the same procedure of increasing the base frequency in small increments, performing stability tests each time. If necessary, we will increase the CPU voltage until we reach the maximum CPU frequency (by enabling ACC in parallel).

Maximum performance gain

Having found the maximum CPU frequency of our AMD processors, we have taken a significant step towards increasing system performance. But processor frequency is only part of overclocking. To get maximum performance, you can work on other frequencies. If you increase the voltage of the north bridge (NB VID in AMD OverDrive), then its frequency can be increased to 2400-2600 MHz and higher, and you will increase the speed of the memory controller and L3 cache. Increasing the frequency and reducing RAM latency can also have a positive effect on performance. Even the high-end DDR2-800 memory we used can be overclocked above 1066 MHz, increasing voltage and possibly reducing latency. HyperTransport channel frequency generally does not affect performance above 2000 MHz and can easily lead to instability, but it can also be overclocked. The PCIe frequency can also be slightly overclocked to around 110 MHz, which can also provide a potential performance boost.

As all mentioned frequencies slowly rise, stability and performance tests should be carried out. Setting up different parameters is a lengthy process and may be beyond the scope of our guide. But overclocking is always interesting, especially since you will get a significant performance boost.

Conclusion

Let's hope that all our readers who want to overclock an AMD processor now have a sufficient amount of information on hand. Now you can start overclocking using the AMD OverDrive utility or other methods. Remember that the results and exact sequence of actions vary from one system to another, so you should not blindly copy our settings. Use this manual only as a guide to help you discover the potential and limitations of your system for yourself. Take your time, don't increase your pitch, monitor temperatures, perform stability tests, and increase the voltage a little if necessary. Always carefully probe the safe overclocking limit, since a sharp increase in frequency and voltage blindly is not only a wrong approach for successful overclocking, but it can also damage your hardware.

The last piece of advice: each motherboard model has its own characteristics, so it doesn’t hurt to familiarize yourself with the experiences of other owners of the same board before overclocking. Advice from experienced users and enthusiasts who have tried this motherboard model in action will help you avoid pitfalls.

Addition

We tested another copy of the AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition processor, provided by the Russian representative office of AMD. It ran successfully at 3.6 GHz when we increased the supply voltage to 1.488 V (CPUZ data). It seems that 3.6 GHz is the threshold level for most processors at air cooled. We successfully overclocked the memory controller to 2.2 GHz.