ASRock 970M Pro3 Overclocking with the FX8350

[lamb0985]

After much effort, I have decided to say the heck with OC'ing this motherboard. The best speed I could get was 4.4GHZ at 1.45V and although it was stable, the VRM throttling got the best of me.
I was hoping to see a pretty significant increase in speed, but overall I am happy at stock and really don't think it's wise to push the 4+1 VRM too much.

 

[Redneck5439]

What processor do you have? If you have a quad core or 6 core processor you should be fine for overclocking. If you have an 8 core, non "E" processor then you may be able to push a small overclock (like overclock to the turbo core setting) but your board is not really suitable for overclocking and therefor overclocking is not recommended. While your motherboard is technically "AM3+ FX 8 core ready" a FX 8 core processor of any kind should really have 8+2 power phase to get proper performance out of it.

If you have a FX 8 core processor (non "E") I would recommend to just run it at stock as overclocking at all just isn't advisable. If your processor is the FX 8320E or FX 8370E it is a 95W TDP processor and you can get away with a little bit more. The FX 8320E or FX 8370E should be able to overclock to at least the turbo core settings for the given processors and maybe bit more.

 

[lamb0985]

What processor do you have? If you have a quad core or 6 core processor you should be fine for overclocking. If you have an 8 core, non "E" processor then you may be able to push a small overclock (like overclock to the turbo core setting) but your board is not really suitable for overclocking and therefor overclocking is not recommended. While your motherboard is technically "AM3+ FX 8 core ready" a FX 8 core processor of any kind should really have 8+2 power phase to get proper performance out of it.

If you have a FX 8 core processor (non "E") I would recommend to just run it at stock as overclocking at all just isn't advisable. If your processor is the FX 8320E or FX 8370E it is a 95W TDP processor and you can get away with a little bit more. The FX 8320E or FX 8370E should be able to overclock to at least the turbo core settings for the given processors and maybe bit more.

Yes I forgot to write that it's the fx8350. On a side note, I put a small case fan over my north bridge vrm heatsink; dropped my temperatures on my socket by roughly 10 degrees. Also using the 212 EVO and my core temp rarely exceeds 40 under load in prime 95 at stock so I shall choose to be satisfied Thanks for your reply!

 

[Redneck5439]

What processor do you have? If you have a quad core or 6 core processor you should be fine for overclocking. If you have an 8 core, non "E" processor then you may be able to push a small overclock (like overclock to the turbo core setting) but your board is not really suitable for overclocking and therefor overclocking is not recommended. While your motherboard is technically "AM3+ FX 8 core ready" a FX 8 core processor of any kind should really have 8+2 power phase to get proper performance out of it.

If you have a FX 8 core processor (non "E") I would recommend to just run it at stock as overclocking at all just isn't advisable. If your processor is the FX 8320E or FX 8370E it is a 95W TDP processor and you can get away with a little bit more. The FX 8320E or FX 8370E should be able to overclock to at least the turbo core settings for the given processors and maybe bit more.

Yes I forgot to write that it's the fx8350. On a side note, I put a small case fan over my north bridge vrm heatsink; dropped my temperatures on my socket by roughly 10 degrees. Also using the 212 EVO and my core temp rarely exceeds 40 under load in prime 95 at stock so I shall choose to be satisfied Thanks for your reply!

The fan over the NB will help and they Hyper 212 EVO is a good cooler so your temps should be in check. The problem you are going to have is that your motherboard has 4+1 power phase and was really geared toward quad core processors, and can handle FX 6 core, but 8 core processors really need the 8+2 power phase. I wouldn't recommend trying to overclock the FX 8350 on a 4+1 power phase board. With that said you may be able to get it to overclock to its turbo core (4.2Ghz) but it is risky and I would have to advise against it as the processor will never be getting the proper power it needs to operate right.

Your best options would be to either run your processor at stock or upgrade motherboards to the 970 gaming board with VRM cooling and 8+2 power phase. An upgrade like that would enable you to overclock (most FX 8350s can get to 4.8Ghz) and give you better performance until you are ready for a full upgrade. If you wait till the end of the year, beginning of next year you would have the option of AMD Zen or Intel Skylake \ Kaby Lake. If you have the money to do a full upgrade now might be a good time to upgrade to Skylake and then you would have the option down the road to have an additional upgrade to Kaby Lake on the same motherboard.

 

[lamb0985]

What processor do you have? If you have a quad core or 6 core processor you should be fine for overclocking. If you have an 8 core, non "E" processor then you may be able to push a small overclock (like overclock to the turbo core setting) but your board is not really suitable for overclocking and therefor overclocking is not recommended. While your motherboard is technically "AM3+ FX 8 core ready" a FX 8 core processor of any kind should really have 8+2 power phase to get proper performance out of it.

If you have a FX 8 core processor (non "E") I would recommend to just run it at stock as overclocking at all just isn't advisable. If your processor is the FX 8320E or FX 8370E it is a 95W TDP processor and you can get away with a little bit more. The FX 8320E or FX 8370E should be able to overclock to at least the turbo core settings for the given processors and maybe bit more.

Yes I forgot to write that it's the fx8350. On a side note, I put a small case fan over my north bridge vrm heatsink; dropped my temperatures on my socket by roughly 10 degrees. Also using the 212 EVO and my core temp rarely exceeds 40 under load in prime 95 at stock so I shall choose to be satisfied Thanks for your reply!

The fan over the NB will help and they Hyper 212 EVO is a good cooler so your temps should be in check. The problem you are going to have is that your motherboard has 4+1 power phase and was really geared toward quad core processors, and can handle FX 6 core, but 8 core processors really need the 8+2 power phase. I wouldn't recommend trying to overclock the FX 8350 on a 4+1 power phase board. With that said you may be able to get it to overclock to its turbo core (4.2Ghz) but it is risky and I would have to advise against it as the processor will never be getting the proper power it needs to operate right.

Your best options would be to either run your processor at stock or upgrade motherboards to the 970 gaming board with VRM cooling and 8+2 power phase. An upgrade like that would enable you to overclock (most FX 8350s can get to 4.8Ghz) and give you better performance until you are ready for a full upgrade. If you wait till the end of the year, beginning of next year you would have the option of AMD Zen or Intel Skylake \ Kaby Lake. If you have the money to do a full upgrade now might be a good time to upgrade to Skylake and then you would have the option down the road to have an additional upgrade to Kaby Lake on the same motherboard.

Thank you for your response! I actually just built this system in January and now realize how old my processor is. However, it still suits my needs and I'm remaining hopeful that the 8 cores will become more useful as software progresses. I've contemplated buying a better board, but I'd also have to get a new case which together would run another couple hundred dollars. For now I'm just going to keep it as is and hope for the best. Thanks again

 

[Redneck5439]

I build custom computer systems as a side business. My personal rig is in my sig. I have all the parts I could easily just swallow the cost and build myself an i5 or an i7, problem is even with my own business I have to eat the cost of the parts when its for my own use and when the wife goes over the books.... I don't want to sleep in the barn, love my horses, have no desire to bunk with them...

I've upgraded my system probably 5 times starting with an old crappy Gigabyte board that couldn't even handle my then Phenom II 965BE to the rig I'm running now. I fully plan on getting at least 3-4 more years out of my current rig before making the next upgrade to a motherboard with DDR4 RAM (be it AMD Zen or Intel Kaby Lake, although the way that Intel loves to price gouge probably Zen - second generation).

I know I can wait at least the next 3-4 years for 2 reasons. 1. I enjoy gaming on my rig, and I realize that games are going to be heavily held in check by the fact that they are developed for and need to run properly on the console systems (Xbox One and PS4). I know that my computer system is far more powerful than either console and therefore will be able to game for the lifetime of the current consoles at far better resolution / settings. 2. I use my rig for a lot of video editing / rendering. For video editing and rendering my rig absolutely destroys more expensive i5 systems and my processor was $150 when I bought it so is literally half the cost of an i7 processor (so its an easy sell for my wife).

I know my current system is very viable for at least the next 3-4 years by which time Zen should be in second generation and we should all have alternatives in the high end CPU market which hopefully will drive prices down. Your FX 8350 although "long in the tooh" is more than capable of giving you the next 3-4 years with very good performance. I would recommend saying its a newer build to see if you can exchange your motherboard or outright sell your motherboard as a gently used part and get either the MSI 970 Gaming or GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P (rev. 1.0). The MSI 970 Gaming has support for crossfire / SLI and the GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P (rev. 1.0) has LLC support which will greatly help vDrop for improved overclocking - you should be able to max out an overclock with the GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P (rev. 1.0). They both have excellent VRM cooling and 8+2 power phase. They are the best "budget" boards available for getting the most out of the FX 8 core processors.

With either of those motherboards you will be able to overclock your processor, have true stability with it and teamed with a good GPU (GTX 960+, R9 280X+) will be able to game at higher settings than the consoles and will be able to get very good multi-threaded performance for applications such as rendering, video editing, streaming, ect... I would highly recommend just upgrading your motherboard and having a very viable system for the next 3-4 years (which realistically is all you can hope from any system).

 

[lamb0985]

Thank you for your reponses! I almost picked up the ASRock 990FX fatal1ty mobo since it's on special on newegg, but the reviews made me hold off on the purchase for now. I probably will end up going with the MSI board or maybe even the crosshair v from asus at some point in the future, but I'm going to hold off for a bit and see if I really want it bad enough to do those upgrades.
On a side note, my VRM temps are great and I ended up swapping my little 70mm fan for the 80mm fan from my stock heatsink (since it has PWM controls due to being 4pin). For now I am fairly content with my little system.