Solved Overclocking FX 8120 - Can't get past 4.3K

[Bungee18]

New to overclocking.
I've been following some tutorials I found here, in OC.net and in Oveclockers.
I've been able to take my 8120 to 4.3K, 1.4V (CPUZ) at full load. Very stable with RAM OC'ed to 1866 10,11,10,27.
Temps are nice and low, 49C max (core temp) after 4 hours prime95 blend.
All power saving options are disabled. Turbo is disabled, cool'n'quiet is disbled.
LLC set to ultrahigh, NB LLC high, Phase extreme.
It was trial an error. With this settings I'm stable.

I'm only doing voltage and multiplier so far, since the other settings are kind of cryptic for me at this stage.

Turned RAM to default settings (1600 CL9), and tried increasing multiplier to 22x, doing small increment voltage adjustments. I didn't dare go beyond 1.46V.
Anything beyond 21.5x and I fail prime95 blend within a couple of minutes or get BSOD at boot.

I would like to get to 4.5K stable since I understand it is easy to achieve on an FX 8120.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

J

 

[Pedroc1999]

Have you tried adjusting the fsb (bclk)

 

[Bungee18]

No, I haven't, but I don't want to do FSB yet since it modifies all clocks together.
I want to be able to do it through multiplier. It seems that doing 22.5x on this processor shouldn't be difficult.
Thanks for your help Pedro.

 

[Pedroc1999]

Listen... Up the FSB up a bit, it will be the only way to get higher clocks, as long as you dont go mad.

All you ahve to do to get to 4.5 is up the FSB by 10, this will get you 4.515 GHZ. There will be no side effects to raising it to 210 and you could problably get it up to 4.7 by gradually changing in it to 220. If it doesnt boot then just clear the cmos and apply the last settings it booted with.


Raising the fsb a little bit wont hurt, it is the only way to reach higher clocks

 

[Solarstarshines]

My 4.5 overclock on the 8120 these are my results from Threads me and others made

http://www.sevenforums.com/overclocking-case-mods/221743-bulldozers-overclocking-cpus.html


Also some boards limit overclock

 

[Pedroc1999]

Do you agree that you need to up the fsb to reach that oc?

 

[Solarstarshines]

Do you agree that you need to up the fsb to reach that oc?

yup these chips love FSB

 

[Pedroc1999]

The world record uses 265+ if im correct.

 

[Bungee18]

Did FSB. Didn't work. Prime95 blend failed within the minute
Multiplier 21.5X, FSB 205.
Upped voltage to 1.425V, memory set to default values. Anything else I should be doing?
Thanks for your help.

 

[Pedroc1999]

Try to lower multiplier and increase fsb

 

[Dwarf]

It could well be that you have reached your CPUs own limit, and that is that. Not all CPUs can be overclocked as much as others, even units that originate on the same wafer can overclock differently.

 

[Pedroc1999]

Yes well said dwarf. When amd reached the world record they tried 12 chips sraight from amd from the same batch and the others didnt get even close to the good one

 

[Solarstarshines]

Did FSB. Didn't work. Prime95 blend failed within the minute
Multiplier 21.5X, FSB 205.
Upped voltage to 1.425V, memory set to default values. Anything else I should be doing?
Thanks for your help.

anything past or leading to 4.4ghz needs to be 1.44 to 1.45 your voltage is too low that is why you are failing prime voltage needs to be up to atleast that much

 

[Pedroc1999]

Take that advice. He has overclocked that very chip and has succeded to hit 4.5 using 20.5*220 and 1.49 if im correct.

 

[Solarstarshines]

Take that advice. He has overclocked that very chip and has succeded to hit 4.5 using 20.5*220 and 1.49 if im correct.

1.449 to be exact

 

[Pedroc1999]

Thanks for correcting me

 

[Bungee18]

Did FSB. Didn't work. Prime95 blend failed within the minute
Multiplier 21.5X, FSB 205.
Upped voltage to 1.425V, memory set to default values. Anything else I should be doing?
Thanks for your help.

anything past or leading to 4.4ghz needs to be 1.44 to 1.45 your voltage is too low that is why you are failing prime voltage needs to be up to atleast that much

Thank you Solarstashines and Dwarf. For some reason I wasn't getting notifications for this thread.
Solar, later I will try upping the voltage to the values you suggest. Will update when I'm done testing stability.
Right now I'm very tired from moving to a new case.
Tanks again,
J

 

[Bungee18]

Did FSB. Didn't work. Prime95 blend failed within the minute
Multiplier 21.5X, FSB 205.
Upped voltage to 1.425V, memory set to default values. Anything else I should be doing?
Thanks for your help.

anything past or leading to 4.4ghz needs to be 1.44 to 1.45 your voltage is too low that is why you are failing prime voltage needs to be up to atleast that much

Solarstashines,
Achieved 4.525K stable following your advice, but the thing got too damn hot, it touched 59 C after like an hour of p95 and it idles at around 38-39C vs 34C at 4300K. I need better CPU cooling for using this OC 24/7.
I'll stick to 4300K for everyday use till I get a better air cooler or go liquid.
Thanks for your help.
J

 

[Pedroc1999]

Were all glad to know that you achieved it! Solar had lots of success with that chip and i was sure that others would too.

 

[Bungee18]

Were all glad to know that you achieved it! Solar had lots of success with that chip and i was sure that others would too. May i suggest a coolermaster hyper 212 + or evo?

The one I have is way better than the hyper 212+ or evo, although it is cheaper.
Thanks for your help Pedro.