Considering reducing actives cores for better performance - FX 8350

[Joeyob32]

Hey guys,
Hope you are all keeping well, just wondering if I could pick yer brains a little.

I have a system with an FX 8350, currently OC'd at 4.4ghz with a hyper TX3 Evo, idling at 40 and ramping up to 79-ish under severe load.

I've been reading lots of articles today about how disabling cores reduces temps - allowing more overclocking, and was wondering if anyone had any experience with this?

I really don't see the need for 8 cores just yet, 4 cores at a higher clock would surely be more beneficial?

Correct me if I'm wrong, please!

Thanks!

 

[tingety]

currently OC'd at 4.4ghz with a hyper TX3 Evo, idling at 40 and ramping up to 79-ish under severe load.

I've been reading lots of articles today about how disabling cores reduces temps - allowing more overclocking, and was wondering if anyone had any experience with this?

I'll mention I have that exact CPU, and have ran my own tests like this on it. I disabled 4 cores and had it sitting as a Quad Cores and was noticing very little performance increase or decrease. The other cores are only there if you have multi-thread applications that use them. So it's currently only there if you need them. But also the TX3 Evo Cooler is not the best cooler, I suggest moving to the Coolermaster 212X, it's only a small upgrade but it drops the temps down significantly. Even with the small 200mhz overclock.

Also, from my experience. The Piledriver series does not seem to have the same defects as it's previous Bulldozer architecture, and so when disabling other cores. You won't see any difference at all in terms of performance or temperatures. So it's best to just leave them as is.

As mentioned, try moving to the CoolerMaster 212X, as its cooling temperatures on an OC'd 8350 for the price level, is virtually undefeatable.

Thank you,
Tingety.

 

[Joeyob32]

Thanks for that, so just to clarify, you havent been able to clock it higher at all with the cores disabled?
Thanks for the advice on the cooler too, I've grown to hate Prime95 like nothing else, having read other people with similar setups result - I even noticed one day that the CPU fan had just stopped working entirely. Had to plug it out & back in to get it going again! If it werent for the case the whole thing would've fried for sure!

 

[tingety]

so just to clarify, you havent been able to clock it higher at all with the cores disabled?

I was able to push it at most 300Mhz higher using the CoolerMaster 212X before it was becoming too hot to warrant any potential performance increases. And 300Mhz more is not substantial enough to stunt half a CPU either, at least in my opinion.

Haha, yeah I think it's time to start moving to a new cooler.

Thank you,
Tingety.