I thought I’d try an over clock on by AMD X2 3880+ CPU in an Asus A8N-SLI Premium, BIOS 1009. I’m new to the AMD crowd, but after my experience with the over clock on this CPU, I’m glad I made the switch form Intel on this platform. Time will tell what’s what later on, but AMD and NVIDIA (motherboard chipset and video cards) seem to have a pretty good platform.
On the motherboard side, I’ve had no issues with my Asus A8N. It seems that people do or don’t like this motherboard, about the same statement made about all the rest. One thing for sure, it DOESN’T like to load driver with the anti-virus software running. My old P4PE didn’t seem to care at all. This issue isn’t the board’s fault, they tell you this, and I ignored it. Loaded Nforce drivers off of the CD with PC-cillin on and hosed my PC. I had to reload XP.
Here is where I ended up, and I could do better, but not till some of you point some things out for me.
CPU Multiplier @ 9.0
FSB @ 255.3 MHz
PCI @ 33.3 MHz
HT setting @ 4.0
RAM @ DDR333 (166 MHz fundamental)
CPU V core @ 1.40 volts (didn’t touch any other voltages)
RAM @ 3, 8, 3, 3, 16, 18, 5, 3, (top down listing)
1T/2T memory timing @ 1T
From this, I calculate;
CPU = 9 x 255 MHz = 2298 MHz
HT link = (4/5) x (5 x 255.3 MHz) = 1020 MHz
RAM = (4/5) x (2 x 255.3 MHz) = 408.5 MHz (204 MHz fundamental)
My only “real” result is Doom 3, “Timedemo demo1” @ 1600 x1200 with AA @ 4X and high quality (not ultra high). Using two 7800GT’s in SLI, I record 91.2 FPS –91.6 FPS. This is a 10 FPS improvement from “stock”. It’s rare that a 15%@ over clock gets an almost 10% gain in performance. Well, at least with Intel CPU’s. This AMD CPU seems to really improve with over clock, and is WAY better than I’ve seen for a long time with Intel products. The CPU runs cool as a cucumber (not sure why cucumbers are cool) @ 37C to 43C based on the ASUS utility.
My questions are;
1.0 I guessed at the Ram settings of DDR333 (base frequency of 166 MHz) and cannot figure out how it winds up at 204 MHz. This end point is fine, because I’m using 2 Gig of Corsair PC3200 Value RAM, and don’t trust it much above 200MHz. I picked lots of RAM over speed to improve level load times. But if I want to push the CPU some more, can anyone tell me how to calculate the RAM’s fundamental frequency BEFORE I look at it in CPU-id AFTER I boot to windows?
2.0 This motherboard doesn’t like to boot if you set too aggressive memory timings, and you have to clear the CMOS to get back in the game. Yes, it’s supposed to default to safe timings on a failed boot, but it doesn’t with memory, at least not in my case.
3.0 My N-Tune utility warns me that my PCI is locked to the HT frequency somehow, even though I locked the PCI to the 33.3MHz setting in BIOS. What am I missing here? I gave up on N-Tune.
4.0 I’m so leery of the speed this CPU is getting, that I’m hesitant to go farther. Is a reliable 2400 MHz possible with air-cooling? I’m in 4600+ territories now (4400+ = 2.2GHz, 4400 = 2.3GHz, 4800+ = 2.4GHz). Some CPU’s are just hardy, is this one of those?
My observations are;
1.0 Even though the HT and RAM setting are a pain, it really is to the benefit of the system with locked multiplier CPU’s like the X2 3800+. And, it is a benefit to getting the most MHz out of your CPU, while leaving the RAM MHz alone. In my case, I used moderately good RAM, and can still push the CPU. Or, do both if you have good RAM. I just don’t get the RAM final frequency divider equation just yet. This is a nice touch that is finer tuned than my P4PE Intel set up.
2.0 I had the darn CPU 1.5 volts in one benchmark by accident, and it survived (whew!). That’s a huge increase from the 1.3875-volt stock setting.
YOUR COMMENTS?
I’m not an experienced AMD user, and mine is cooled with an Arctic Cooler 64 PRO heat pipe cooler (good but not water cool territory). Where have X2 3800+ users been with BIOS settings with this CPU? Granted, I have OK memory, so some of you will exceed what I can do based on memory speed, but if someone can help me figure out the memory divider riddle, I can work on the CPU and hold the Hyper Transport and memory in a safe zone (1000 +/- 200 MHZ on HT and about 200 MHz +/- 30 on RAM).
On the motherboard side, I’ve had no issues with my Asus A8N. It seems that people do or don’t like this motherboard, about the same statement made about all the rest. One thing for sure, it DOESN’T like to load driver with the anti-virus software running. My old P4PE didn’t seem to care at all. This issue isn’t the board’s fault, they tell you this, and I ignored it. Loaded Nforce drivers off of the CD with PC-cillin on and hosed my PC. I had to reload XP.
Here is where I ended up, and I could do better, but not till some of you point some things out for me.
CPU Multiplier @ 9.0
FSB @ 255.3 MHz
PCI @ 33.3 MHz
HT setting @ 4.0
RAM @ DDR333 (166 MHz fundamental)
CPU V core @ 1.40 volts (didn’t touch any other voltages)
RAM @ 3, 8, 3, 3, 16, 18, 5, 3, (top down listing)
1T/2T memory timing @ 1T
From this, I calculate;
CPU = 9 x 255 MHz = 2298 MHz
HT link = (4/5) x (5 x 255.3 MHz) = 1020 MHz
RAM = (4/5) x (2 x 255.3 MHz) = 408.5 MHz (204 MHz fundamental)
My only “real” result is Doom 3, “Timedemo demo1” @ 1600 x1200 with AA @ 4X and high quality (not ultra high). Using two 7800GT’s in SLI, I record 91.2 FPS –91.6 FPS. This is a 10 FPS improvement from “stock”. It’s rare that a 15%@ over clock gets an almost 10% gain in performance. Well, at least with Intel CPU’s. This AMD CPU seems to really improve with over clock, and is WAY better than I’ve seen for a long time with Intel products. The CPU runs cool as a cucumber (not sure why cucumbers are cool) @ 37C to 43C based on the ASUS utility.
My questions are;
1.0 I guessed at the Ram settings of DDR333 (base frequency of 166 MHz) and cannot figure out how it winds up at 204 MHz. This end point is fine, because I’m using 2 Gig of Corsair PC3200 Value RAM, and don’t trust it much above 200MHz. I picked lots of RAM over speed to improve level load times. But if I want to push the CPU some more, can anyone tell me how to calculate the RAM’s fundamental frequency BEFORE I look at it in CPU-id AFTER I boot to windows?
2.0 This motherboard doesn’t like to boot if you set too aggressive memory timings, and you have to clear the CMOS to get back in the game. Yes, it’s supposed to default to safe timings on a failed boot, but it doesn’t with memory, at least not in my case.
3.0 My N-Tune utility warns me that my PCI is locked to the HT frequency somehow, even though I locked the PCI to the 33.3MHz setting in BIOS. What am I missing here? I gave up on N-Tune.
4.0 I’m so leery of the speed this CPU is getting, that I’m hesitant to go farther. Is a reliable 2400 MHz possible with air-cooling? I’m in 4600+ territories now (4400+ = 2.2GHz, 4400 = 2.3GHz, 4800+ = 2.4GHz). Some CPU’s are just hardy, is this one of those?
My observations are;
1.0 Even though the HT and RAM setting are a pain, it really is to the benefit of the system with locked multiplier CPU’s like the X2 3800+. And, it is a benefit to getting the most MHz out of your CPU, while leaving the RAM MHz alone. In my case, I used moderately good RAM, and can still push the CPU. Or, do both if you have good RAM. I just don’t get the RAM final frequency divider equation just yet. This is a nice touch that is finer tuned than my P4PE Intel set up.
2.0 I had the darn CPU 1.5 volts in one benchmark by accident, and it survived (whew!). That’s a huge increase from the 1.3875-volt stock setting.
YOUR COMMENTS?
I’m not an experienced AMD user, and mine is cooled with an Arctic Cooler 64 PRO heat pipe cooler (good but not water cool territory). Where have X2 3800+ users been with BIOS settings with this CPU? Granted, I have OK memory, so some of you will exceed what I can do based on memory speed, but if someone can help me figure out the memory divider riddle, I can work on the CPU and hold the Hyper Transport and memory in a safe zone (1000 +/- 200 MHZ on HT and about 200 MHz +/- 30 on RAM).
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