720 unlocked and overclocked :)

[dacca]

hey everyone, just wondering how wise it is to overclock a 720be after you have unlocked the 4th core? when it was a tri core i had it at 3.8 with the voltage slightly upped, how wise is it to up the voltage though after unlocking the 4th core? i got it stable at 3.4 at the minute very happy, especially as gigabyte have just sent me a GA-MA790GP-UD4H in replacement of my ga-ma790fx-dq6 very happy, its a great board!
so yeah, if is it safe to up the voltage on this puppy? i got no way of checking the temps, but i can tell you that idle it is 40 degrees, thats checked in bios, i have zalman 9700 aftermarket cooling,
system specs

720 be unlocked to 4 cores overclocked to 3.4 stable

xfx hd4890 overclocked to 915 on the core clock and 1200 on the memory

zalman aftermarket cooling 9700

GA-MA790GP-UD4H motherboard

antec truepower 550

 

[Shadow703793]

Download CoreTemp. It will tell you the CPU temps. As for stability, 6-7+hrs of Prime 95 Small FFT with 6Hrs of blend will do.

edit: After a bit of digging, it doesn't look like CoreTemp will report temps for unlocked CPUs.

 

[dacca]

grr!!!, well ive been running 3d mark all day, and been playing crysis for around 3-4 hours, i presume this is enough to ensure stability? im not really fussed about upping it any further really, one thing i am trying to work out though, whats better? 4 cores at 3.4 gig? or 3 at 3.8? i know obviously 4 at 3.4 has more processing power, but 3 at 3.8 i get higher scores on 3d mark etc... confused

 

[dacca]

why isnt the rest of my signature showing?...... i have more written in it, but it stops there, guessing there is a limit to how many characters you can have? any way i can get more? how did you make that text box with ur system specs dude?

 

[El_Capitan]

1. 4 cores at 3.4 GHz is better than 3 cores at 3.8 GHz for running most applications and multi-threaded applications. Games aren't quite there yet. 4 x 3.4 = 13.6 GHz, 3 x 3.8 = 11.4 GHz.

2. You'll get faster 3d mark benchmarks because of your higher frequency. Having a 4th core over 3 cores doesn't benefit that much more even if it was at the same frequency.

Note: This is just my assumption from what I've studied, but anyone that's more technical in details could give you a better answer.

 

[dacca]

thanks man, that helps alot, i been thinking and i may set my clocks back down a bit i think, cuz the only reason i really messed with this stuff in the first place was cuz of 3dmark, and now its become an adiction, i think i will stick with 3 cores at 3.4 so i got loads of stability and low temps, i been getting some artifacting every now and again aswell, so may lower gcard clock a bit 2

 

[Shadow703793]

1. 4 cores at 3.4 GHz is better than 3 cores at 3.8 GHz for running most applications and multi-threaded applications. Games aren't quite there yet. 4 x 3.4 = 13.6 GHz, 3 x 3.8 = 11.4 GHz.

You CAN'T add the speeds of each core.

 

[El_Capitan]

1. 4 cores at 3.4 GHz is better than 3 cores at 3.8 GHz for running most applications and multi-threaded applications. Games aren't quite there yet. 4 x 3.4 = 13.6 GHz, 3 x 3.8 = 11.4 GHz.

You CAN'T add the speeds of each core.

I'm only adding speeds of each core to postulate the amount of processing capability. There's no reason I CAN'T. For example, if you have a Dual Core overclocked to 4.2 GHz and they're running at 100% utilization, and you have a Triple Core overclocked to 3.6 GHz and two cores are running at 100% utilization and a third is running at 67% utilization, you're better off with the Triple Core because you still have a core that has 33% utilization left for extra processing.