AMD FX-8320 core speed hiccup

[pEcy]

Hello Everyone,

I recently bought a new computer with the following configuration:


Processor: AMD FX-8320 (8 Core x 4GHz TURBO) 8MB Black Edition;
Cooling: Cooler Master - 103
Memory: 12GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM Kingston;
HDD: TOSHIBA 1TB 7200rpm 64MB SATA3
Motherboard: ASRock sAM3+ 970 PRO3 R2.0;
Graphic card: AMD RADEON R9 280 3GB GDDR5;
Power supply: Cooler MASTER 600W BLACK
OS: Windows 7 Professional x64

After a few weeks of gaming (Crysis 2 / WoW etc.) all the games had an FPS "hiccup" during gameplay. (when the FPS drops down to 5-10 for a few seconds and than goes back to 40-60). First I thought it's the game but I downloaded an app that monitors the hardwares and here is what I found:

you can see here at the clock section that the clock speed is 3692.20 MHz and the Multiplier (whatever it is) 18.5 which is more then enough for me.

although on this picture:

you can see that the speed dropped down to 1397.00 and the multiplier to 7.

It doesn't matter if a game is running in the background or not, every 30-60 sec or so it happens.

Any suggestion/solution from anybody is more than welcome

Thank you very much,

pEcy

 

[coolcole01]

its a power saving feature go in to bios and disable cool and quiet and it should run full tilt all the time

 

[pEcy]

its a power saving feature go in to bios and disable cool and quiet and it should run full tilt all the time

Thank you very much for the quick answer it did the thing now it runs smooth and flawlessly

 

[coolcole01]

your welcome bud

 

[pEcy]

it happenes again. not sure since when because I wasn't using it for a few days but now it has the same problem. Also I just noticed on the screenshots, that the core-voltage also drops down from 1.32 to 0.84.

 

[coolcole01]

go into your power settings in windows and make sure your settings are at high performance

 

[coolcole01]

also this might help
http://www.overclock.net/t/1202751/amd-fx-cpu-throttling-fixes-please-sticky

 

[pEcy]

I know it's really old topic but I didn't want to open a new thread so hopefully someone can help me here.

I have read several topic on forums including this and I think I finally figured out what is my problem.

My ASRock sAM3+ 970 PRO3 R2.0 was unfortunately a really bad choice as it has only 4+1 power phase not 8+1 which I have no idea what it means but it's not enough. The VRM is overheating on heavy CPU load (GW2/Diablo3) but other games that do not need CPU that much (Witcher 3) are running nice. To solve it I will either have to buy a new motherboard which I can't at the moment, cool down the VRM with selfmade cooler/big cpu cooler enough to cover the VRM as well OR underclock/undervolt my CPU.

At the moment I can't buy watercooling with huge fans, so I will try to do the third option. Many topics say it is a good option to undervolt the CPU as it won't pick up that much power and about 10% downvolting/underclocking can cause 5-15C temprature drop which sounds really good.

Unfortunately I'm completely noob on volts and frequencies fields and don't know how can I "play with it until you get it stable". Some topics even said it worth to shut down 2 of 8 cores until new board/better cooling.

So the question is: can you please give me a step-by-step on how to undervolt my FX-8320 by ~10%? If I could use 6 cores at 3.2GHz instead of 8 cores at 3.7GHz that would be more than enough until I can buy something better/bigger.

Many Thanks,
pEcy

 

[r_ward_87]

I know it's really old topic but I didn't want to open a new thread so hopefully someone can help me here.

I have read several topic on forums including this and I think I finally figured out what is my problem.

My ASRock sAM3+ 970 PRO3 R2.0 was unfortunately a really bad choice as it has only 4+1 power phase not 8+1 which I have no idea what it means but it's not enough. The VRM is overheating on heavy CPU load (GW2/Diablo3) but other games that do not need CPU that much (Witcher 3) are running nice. To solve it I will either have to buy a new motherboard which I can't at the moment, cool down the VRM with selfmade cooler/big cpu cooler enough to cover the VRM as well OR underclock/undervolt my CPU.

At the moment I can't buy watercooling with huge fans, so I will try to do the third option. Many topics say it is a good option to undervolt the CPU as it won't pick up that much power and about 10% downvolting/underclocking can cause 5-15C temprature drop which sounds really good.

Unfortunately I'm completely noob on volts and frequencies fields and don't know how can I "play with it until you get it stable". Some topics even said it worth to shut down 2 of 8 cores until new board/better cooling.

So the question is: can you please give me a step-by-step on how to undervolt my FX-8320 by ~10%? If I could use 6 cores at 3.2GHz instead of 8 cores at 3.7GHz that would be more than enough until I can buy something better/bigger.

Many Thanks,
pEcy

Disabling 2 cores doesn't really save much power at all. My housemate has an 8320 and disabling 2 cores only saves around 7w at 4ghz. (His 8320 pulls 145w full load running prime95 and disabling 2 cores it ran at 138w.) however undervolting is a great option.

i had the same problem with my old m5a78 board with a 3+1 vrm section. I ran my 6300 at stock clocks but only 1.24v under load and the temps dropped quite substantially, and throttling was reduced greatly.

go into your bios and check your cpu voltage section. You will either have an offset/Auto or manual setting. Im pretty sure the standard voltage for an 8320 is around 1.31-1.35 depending on the binning, but most can run at 1.25v at stock clocks. Either negatively offset by 0.0125v and run prime or occt until you start to fail. Or lower your vcore by the same margin manually (ie 1.3125-1.30-1.2875) and so on until it starts to fail workers on Prime 95. Run a test after every deduction of vcore until you fail.

if you are having trouble post back with your bios settings and i will give you some help. if you are unsure of Prime i can give you a link

 

[madmatt30]

Disabling 2 cores ,& disabling turbo mode will be enough to drop near .1 volt on your CPU left at automatic mode.
That will make a big difference to throttling - & yep the asrock pro is an awful board for an 8 core.

Dropping a tower or water cooler on makes matters worse as it removes any secondary vrm cooling (in this respect the stock amd cooler does a better job)

A raijintek Pallas would swamp the entire vrm area with fresh air & is about the best cooling solution for boards like hours (use it myself on a little Asus m5a78 board with a fairly heavily over clocked 6300 & vrm temps NEVER get above 28c)
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/raijintek-cpu-cooler-0r100004

 

[pEcy]

Thanks for the quick reply!

AMD Turbo Core Technology was already disabled so I haven't changed that.
I have found CPU Active Core Control where I changed it from All Cores to Six Cores.

Sorry i didn't understand the second part :S shall I drop down CPU by .1 volt or is it good now? If I have to drop it down by .1 volt where and how can I do that in the BIOS? There are just too many voltage control (DRAM, CPU offset, NB, HT, CPU VDDA, PCIE VDDA, SB) not sure which one to change. I guess DRAM would be my 12G 1600 MHz RAM and PCIE would be my VGA although I don't know the rest of it.

 

[pEcy]

ahh. I might understand it now. if I disable 2 cores and turbo core, that will drop down CPU by .1 volt with default auto settings which should be enough. right?

 

[madmatt30]

^ exactly that mate yes
Hopefully

 

[pEcy]

It didn't help. well maybe a bit but didn't solve the problem completely. Is there any way to lock the CPU speed at a stable point? Maybe around 3.2 or 3.3 GHz? If it couldn't go above it than maybe it would stop eating my precious Volts like a starving dog and stop overheating. Or I could go down to 3.0 with 8 cores? Or it wouldn't help at all :S

 

[madmatt30]

Changing the multiplier to 16 will give 3.2ghz max.

Really though I would have thought dropping 2 cores would do the job.

Whats your voltage showing in cpu-z now??
Its entirely possible you can drop the voltage a tad more manually but its that long since I've used an msi board In not sure of the exact steps in your bios.

 

[pEcy]

CPU-Z still says it's core voltage is 1.232V and I'm pretty sure it was exactly the same before shutting down 2 cores. What am I doing wrong? Shall I attach screenshots/pictures? If so what should capture?