AMD Overdrive help - Thermal Margin

[ksells]

Hi guys,

I'm not sure if I fully understand the Thermal Margin feature on AMD's Overdrive. At the moment, my thermal margin fluctuates between 40-55c. Since my CPU is an A8 6600k (which has a maximum temperature of 74c), am I right in thinking that the thermal margin means my actual CPU temperature is 74c minus 40c = 34c??

Thanks in advance

 

[Karsten75]

yes.

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2122665/understanding-temperature-amd-cpus-apus.html

 

[ksells]

Thanks

 

[resjack]

You need to use some good old common sense as well. If it doesn't look right, question it.
AMD Overdrive shows that my 860K on a Crossblade Ranger has a thermal margin of 39c at a full load with Prime95. That's telling me that my cpu is running 35c with an ambient temperature of 29.5c. My Noctua NH-U14S is good, but not that good!

 

[ksells]

Yeah, I only started using Overdrive yesterday because HWMonitor said my CPU is running at 95c when gaming, which was a bit concerning yet hard to believe considering that a) the Max temp is 74c, b) I'm using an aftermarket cooler that is attached properly, and c) the case feels barely warm - surely I'd be able to feel 95c!

 

[resjack]

Yesterday I received a new 860K for another build I'm doing. I decided to pop it into my current MoBo just to see if there is a difference in performance.
Interestingly, Overdrive started giving me temps that actually agree with other monitoring programs and seem much more believable. It's now giving me a thermal margin of about 14C at max load. I've also been able to increase my overclock from 4.3GHz to 4.5GHz (so far) with substantially less voltage. It looks as though my previous cpu was a bit of a dud. It was never stable with anything over 4.3.