Post Your Overclock!

[Lens Pirate]

dont get me wrong, some of what you've said has merit....but its a little off for you to completely disregard ''prime'' as a viable app, its a tried & tested method.... proven to determine ALL OC's stability.

i personally dont use prime, i use Orthos...... this app is UBER intensive on ''priority 8 / blend & stress''

IMO, all in all....taking your rig to the brink of destruction, is not necessary for the majority of clockers....

I don't totally disregard Prime95 as a test at all. I used it everytime I start the OC process on any box. I used it as a base tool to determine if a particular CPU/FSB/MEMORY/Voltage setting merits further testing. I have just proven to myself that alone it does not ensure stability. No matter what it reports it simply does not use 100 percent of your CPU resources. But it is a good tool to find a starting point.

In final testing I MAX out all my subsystems at the same time to maximize heat and power consumption. My standard is that your machine should be able to run at 100 percent load accross all systems at once indefinately. 100 percent. Then you know your box is solid.

ALL PC's should be able to run at 100 percent...100 percent of the time. Other wise they are not designed correctly.

Overclocking is really just exploreing the margins or buffer built into design spec by manufacturers to ensure that the PC's can run under 100 percent load. I see no reason to lower the standard of reliability or performance to over-clock.

Once again in my mind its not "good enough", standard is 100 percent or failure.

 

[Wishmaster]

Linpack is my prefered stress test as it can find stability issue really fast. This saves time.
I think 10 passes of IBT is = to 12+ hrs of prime 95? something like that.

However, i have seen IBT stable for 25 passes, yet fail Prime 95 at around the 8-9hr mark.

Also, some issues showing up in games etc. common to stabilty issues.

I use IBT for quick testing.
When Ive met my goal,I let it run 15 passes.
If it passes that, then ill let Prime 95 run overnight just to double check (9-10 hrs.)

if it passes both, Im comfortable its stable enough.


Bottom line: No single stress test is ever 100% accurate.
you can double up (as i do) but thats still no guarantee your 100% stable. Although the chances are you have a stable system at this point, its still no def. guarantee.

If this is something that bothers you, the solution is very simple: Dont OC.

 

[mooneyham]

Mr. Mooneyham, thanks for the update. So far I can see setting 1.49V vcore to get 3.6 is OK in my case. I was wondering if that Vcore wasn't too much... but you had reached 1.65V? oh boy, you're really brave!

you got really impressive NB and temperature values. I will look for your cooler review.
I am supposing you can get these high NB values because you're choose DDR3 instead DDR2, is that correct?

BTW don't you have a 3dmark06 score of your 3.6GHz setup to post us? or your WEI scores?

Do you think its ok to get 55ºC fully load on the hottest ambient temp - 32C?
Thanks a lot!

1.65 is average for suicide runs, and it takes 1.55volts to get 3.6ghz with 1.55volts but i can up it to 3.8ghz but not sure if stable. its about 19-18c ambient with the s1284 with a scythe ultra kaze but it is a med-high range cooler, if you want the best get the corsair h-50, megahalems, or venmous-x. not sure if i got the higher cpu-nb speeds because of ddr3. i have a 3dmark 06 score but what is WEI? 55c is the average wall where temperature becomes an issue with stability.

3dmark 06 score =
13890 3dmarks
sm2.0 score 5797
hdr/sm3.0 score 6929
cpu score3232

 

[DBsantos77]

Phenom 720 unlocked to x4 and my G.skill ram OC

Attached. I'll show my 5850 when I get it in tomorrow.

The 720 is a stock tri-core @ 2.8ghz, managed to unlock it and ramp it up to 3.6 ghz on 1.44 vcore with 4 cores.

G.skill is 1333 8-8-8-21 1.6v stock, managed to OC it to 1600 9-9-9-24 1.65v.

Oh yeah and my northbridge is at 2.2 ghz from 2.0 stock. No voltage increase.

 

[hunuok]

Here are my results

 

[xXSevenXx]

What's Overclocking and how do you do it?

 

[pparks1]

Overclocking is taking a CPU that is designed to run at one speed (say 2.5ghz) and instead try to make it run at 3.4ghz. It's to boost performance and to get higher performance out of lower end processors. There are many ways to do it, but generally speaking it involved increasing front side bus speeds and increasing voltages on the motherboard to support the higher speeds. Pushing hardware faster causes more heat and heat causes problems. So, it's imperative to work at cooling the chip as much as you can. Not all CPU's are great overclockers...and no two overclock exactly the same. Generally you can overclock motherboards from systems you build yourself, while pre-built systems like Dells and HP's often cannot be overclocked as these functions of the motherboard are locked out to prevent users from dabbling and breaking the machine causing a warranty issue.

For me, I overclocked an Intel Q9550 CPU ($209 at the time) from 2.83Ghz to 3.2ghz. The Q9650 which is the same chip but running at 3.0ghz is $325 today....and mine is running a bit faster than that. So, all in all, not a bad bump in performance. Although I rarely do anything with the machine which would really demonstrate a noticeable improvement either.

 

[xXSevenXx]

Overclocking is taking a CPU that is designed to run at one speed (say 2.5ghz) and instead try to make it run at 3.4ghz. It's to boost performance and to get higher performance out of lower end processors. There are many ways to do it, but generally speaking it involved increasing front side bus speeds and increasing voltages on the motherboard to support the higher speeds. Pushing hardware faster causes more heat and heat causes problems. So, it's imperative to work at cooling the chip as much as you can. Not all CPU's are great overclockers...and no two overclock exactly the same. Generally you can overclock motherboards from systems you build yourself, while pre-built systems like Dells and HP's often cannot be overclocked as these functions of the motherboard are locked out to prevent users from dabbling and breaking the machine causing a warranty issue.

For me, I overclocked an Intel Q9550 CPU ($209 at the time) from 2.83Ghz to 3.2ghz. The Q9650 which is the same chip but running at 3.0ghz is $325 today....and mine is running a bit faster than that. So, all in all, not a bad bump in performance. Although I rarely do anything with the machine which would really demonstrate a noticeable improvement either.

Very interesting, alas I have a HP and I shan't bother then.
Thank you for an informative response.

 

[Nokternol]

Torture Tests

I have battle tested my OC at 100 percent load of all of all system drawing nearly 730 watts at the wall plug for hours! To do this I had to limit my OC to 3.8 Running only that weak sister of a test Prime 95 I could OC to 4.2 and still control heat.

How did you "Battle Test" your Overclock??

I had my CPU at 3.6Ghz (x4 940) for about 6 months based on it passing Prime and Orthos however when I tested it with AMD Overdrive a few months back it fell over in minutes.

This has resulted in my system being completely reset to stock. I will not keep the OC if it is unstable in anyway. Don't want it popping in the middle of a game.

I am well versed in the practices of overclocking however I do have the problem of not being able to find a proper torture program. Passmark's "Burn-in Test" is a nice all-round test but too light for testing an OC. "Heavyload" is a freeware tool I used which errored after 45 mins with an out of memory error due to the file size it got up to working with on my HDD.

I would appreciate any advice that can be provided on Torturing apps (Windows 7 tested) that would allow me to begin to push my core again.

I will be implementing a custom water loop very soon and want to return my clocks to their oc'd state but as previously stated I will not run them unstable.

Thank you in advance

Edit: I downloaded LinPack to look at it but it appears to be an Intel created Benchmark and not sure if the thread commands would be safe to run on my Phenom II

 

[Lens Pirate]

I have battle tested my OC at 100 percent load of all of all system drawing nearly 730 watts at the wall plug for hours! To do this I had to limit my OC to 3.8 Running only that weak sister of a test Prime 95 I could OC to 4.2 and still control heat.

How did you "Battle Test" your Overclock??

I had my CPU at 3.6Ghz (x4 940) for about 6 months based on it passing Prime and Orthos however when I tested it with AMD Overdrive a few months back it fell over in minutes.

This has resulted in my system being completely reset to stock. I will not keep the OC if it is unstable in anyway. Don't want it popping in the middle of a game.

I am well versed in the practices of overclocking however I do have the problem of not being able to find a proper torture program. Passmark's "Burn-in Test" is a nice all-round test but too light for testing an OC. "Heavyload" is a freeware tool I used which errored after 45 mins with an out of memory error due to the file size it got up to working with on my HDD.

I would appreciate any advice that can be provided on Torturing apps (Windows 7 tested) that would allow me to begin to push my core again.

I will be implementing a custom water loop very soon and want to return my clocks to their oc'd state but as previously stated I will not run them unstable.

Thank you in advance

Edit: I downloaded LinPack to look at it but it appears to be an Intel created Benchmark and not sure if the thread commands would be safe to run on my Phenom II

I am at a loss to advise you on AMD chips. I USE Prime 95 Linpac OCCT furmark and other back ground apps first by themselves then in combination to blast my OC. But I have always used INTEL chips.

 

[tranqueirex]

Mr. Mooneyham, thanks for the update. So far I can see setting 1.49V vcore to get 3.6 is OK in my case. I was wondering if that Vcore wasn't too much... but you had reached 1.65V? oh boy, you're really brave!

you got really impressive NB and temperature values. I will look for your cooler review.
I am supposing you can get these high NB values because you're choose DDR3 instead DDR2, is that correct?

BTW don't you have a 3dmark06 score of your 3.6GHz setup to post us? or your WEI scores?

Do you think its ok to get 55ºC fully load on the hottest ambient temp - 32C?
Thanks a lot!

1.65 is average for suicide runs, and it takes 1.55volts to get 3.6ghz with 1.55volts but i can up it to 3.8ghz but not sure if stable. its about 19-18c ambient with the s1284 with a scythe ultra kaze but it is a med-high range cooler, if you want the best get the corsair h-50, megahalems, or venmous-x. not sure if i got the higher cpu-nb speeds because of ddr3. i have a 3dmark 06 score but what is WEI? 55c is the average wall where temperature becomes an issue with stability.

3dmark 06 score =
13890 3dmarks
sm2.0 score 5797
hdr/sm3.0 score 6929
cpu score3232

Thanks again Mr. Mooneyham, that´s quality information for me since your values are in sync with mine.

WEI is the windows experience index. you can check my on my system specs info. its a easy way to compare specs... not so reliable but I dont want to spend your time.



QUOTING Lens Pirate:

"ALL PC's should be able to run at 100 percent...100 percent of the time. Other wise they are not designed correctly.
"


Mr. Lens Pirate (or any other who wants to help),

When I run prime95 I do clock monitoring with everest´s overclock tab.

As prime95 runs I can see minimal clock variations from 2.700 - 3500GHZ, but after 10 or 15 minutes I can notice a DROP from 200x16 to 200x4 giving me 800MHz only. that DROP remains only for a few seconds and go back again to 3500GHZ. prime95 looks unawared for that drop... everything seems fine including processor usage... I mean if I dont really pay attention on the everest monitoring I cannot see that variation.

so... here goes the question... it looks I am NOT running 100% ALL THE TIME. is that variations only happens with me / my system? can you guys be 100% positive your CLOCKS are 100% ALL THE TIME? in every second during prime95 stress test?

I think this drop is NOT temperature related or cool and quite related. also happens with other overclock settings: 200x16.5 (stock V) - 200x17.5 or 212*16.5 (+150mV).

should I live with that expecting I will never stress my pc like that while in a game? or should I move on my mother board and PSU?

comments will be appreciated.

first screenshot: 15 minutes of prime95 - clock fluctuates from 2700 - 3492.3 MHz

second ss: 17 minutes of prime95 - clock drops down to 200 - 798.2 MHz just for 10-15 seconds.

the core temp log show the 15 sec clock variation. what can be causing that?

 

[Wishmaster]

This:
IntelBurnTest v2.3 download from Guru3D.com



Watch your temps!!

100% CPU use does NOT mean the CPU is being fully utilized.
Only that it is running at full speed. 2 different things.

Alot of people hat this app because there 12hr stable Prime OC fails IBT in 2 minutes, and produces MUCH MUCH more heat.

 

[smarteyeball]

This:
IntelBurnTest v2.3 download from Guru3D.com



Watch your temps!! -definitely with IBT

100% CPU use does NOT mean the CPU is being fully utilized.
Only that it is running at full speed. 2 different things.

Alot of people hat this app because there 12hr stable Prime OC fails IBT in 2 minutes, and produces MUCH MUCH more heat.

OCCT / Orthos (based on P95) P95, IBT, Memetest86+ are all tools which have their strengths and weakness's.


The sad fact of Overclocking is that, none of them will ever 'fully guarantee' that an OC is ever 100% stable.

The best they can offer is clues that you're heading in the right or wrong setting adjustment direction or getting youas close to 100% stable you are ever going to get

Every OC'er develops their own techniques / favourite apps. Like everything, it all becomes a matter off personal preference.

 

[Wishmaster]

Well said

 

[Lens Pirate]

This:
IntelBurnTest v2.3 download from Guru3D.com



Watch your temps!!

100% CPU use does NOT mean the CPU is being fully utilized.
Only that it is running at full speed. 2 different things.

Alot of people hat this app because there 12hr stable Prime OC fails IBT in 2 minutes, and produces MUCH MUCH more heat.

I love this app. So much better than Prime95 for digging out weakness and crushing it. LOL

 

[smarteyeball]

This will do for now:





PS IBT is now at 2.4:
Download IntelBurnTest 2.4 - Stress your computer to find out how stable it is - Softpedia

 

[pestul]

Yeah, IBT's previous versions had bugs when you selected various thread configurations for multicore cpus in a 64bit environment. That said, I find it to be the most stressful test out there. Realtemp's sensor test was also very valuable at exposing weaknesses in a processor.

My current i7 920 overclock is: 4.05GHz @ 1.265V, 1.35QPI, 1.65V DDR on an ASUS P6TSE. Its 100% stable even with power saving features like C1E and Windows 7 Power Management enabled (clocks down to 2.5GHz). Good enough for me, since it runs a lot faster than any retail processor you can buy excluding a couple Xeon workstation chips.

I have my Radeon 5850 (sapphire) running at 900/1250 @1.1V during demanding games, and reverting to defaults for some games and desktop environment.

 

[Zen00]

No overclocking here, just posting my Super PI time of 24 minutes and 27 seconds for 32 million places. You can use that as a laptop basemark or something.

 

[Zahl]

Nice OCs guys, you made me jump to the i7 and I don't regret it I do wish I could run my ram at a full 2000mhz but my uncore will just not pass 3.6ghz mark no matter what

 

[defiance]

Only pic i have currently