Question CPU/NB Voltage and others

[Bobbrugge]

How do I know if I need to raise other voltages besides my main CPU voltage to either avoid a bottle neck or get stability out of an overclock? Are there signs and symptoms?

I have my DRAM voltage set to auto. I intend to leave it that way. I don't know what to think tho. The XMP profile sets the voltage to 1.67. The advertised max voltage is 1.65. My thought is leave it alone! But I am afraid I am going to fry something. Should I lower the voltage? Should I copy the settings but take it off the xmp profile and manually set the timings and such?

The rest of my voltages seem to be related to the North Bridge. I think once I start adjusting them I am really going to let the cat out of the bag as far as headaches and mystery issues. I also fear that if I don't raise all or some of these other voltages to match my new CPU voltage, I am never going to be able to optimize my rig, which will create unnecessary heat, and frustration.

If I can figure out how, I will create a signature with my specs in it. Not sure they matter for these questions, but if they do:
asus 970 pro gaming/ aura MOBO
AMD FX 6350 CPU
CLC 280 AIO
2x8 GB DDR3 RAM @ 2133
MSI Radeon r9 270 OC GPU
1500W PSU.
Its all old, I don't care. I play old games.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Ive been running alot of motherboards with ddr3 (intel) for up to 1.65v for years and this has not caused any issues. I would say set it manually to 1.65v this is usually fine for 2133mhz, actually im currently running few systems 2400mhz / 2133 Mhz / and 2275mhz with only 1.65v so no more is needed.

This is however INTEL not amd, i have no idea about your memory controllers abilities.

What vccio / vtt / imc voltage does the XMP profile set for 2133mhz, that might be a issue?

Wow 1500w psu, atleast your not running out of power for the OC

 

[Bobbrugge]

What vccio / vtt / imc voltage does the XMP profile set for 2133mhz, that might be a issue?

Sorry it took 6 months to get back to this conversation. my AIO seems to be kicking butt and I don't have any stability issues.
My HDD raid array did crash the other day right after the big update, but I don't think the update crashed it.
I don't know what any of these voltages are or how to find them on my MOBO. Can you explain what they are and what they do?
My temps are low and my system is stable at 4.5Ghz at 1.45V. The advertized boost is 4.3. I have had it to 4.9 but am super afraid of frying something I can't afford to replace. I would like to crank it back up to 4.9 but need to feel secure that I am doing it safely, or as safely as I can.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

With amd you probably see "soc voltage" instead of VTT. I do not have any advice for overclocking amd processors sadly. About ddr3 voltage 1.65-1.67v is still considered fairly safe. If someone can tell more about AMD fx series IMC quality, and what kinda dram voltage it can handle would be appreciated.

 

[Karadjgne]

Ddr3 can go upto 1.8v.

The 1.65v ram was original release ram, right after having used DDR2. It wasn't until somewhat later that DDR3 refinements allowed the voltages to be dropped to 1.5v and for a few models, as low as 1.35v (not including DDR3L). There's no difference between amd and Intel for these generations, you'd have to go back several years, back to when Intel ran low-density ram, and amd ran either low or high density ram, back in the days of DDR and pre lga775.

Motherboards are different. As are cpus. Most times xmp settings worked perfectly stable, but xmp IS considered an overclock, so there is no guarantee it will be stable, just that it's attainable. This can mean you may need to bump dram voltages, nb voltages, system agent voltages or any combination, especially if the cpu itself is overclocked.

XMP on my lga1155 worked fine at 1.5v to get the rated 1866MHz. To get stable ram with a cpu locked core OC of 4.6GHz (i7-3770K with 3.8GHz turbo/3.4GHz base) I needed to manually bump dram voltage to 1.55v.

A bump from 1.65v to 1.67v isn't an issue. AMD memory controllers weren't as strong as the Intel versions.

With an FX cpu, you should not be concerned with temps, the cores do Not contain thermal strips, so temp readings as such cannot exist. There's only 2 programs qualified to give temp advice, and thats AMD Overdrive and Coretemp, set for Thermal Margins.

Because there's no accurate way to read temps, Thermal Margins are used instead. These are a amount of thermal headroom left in the cpu. It's a complex algorithm comprised of loads, voltages, usage, core usage, bandwidth usage and a bunch of other readings, all rolled up into a number. With that, the number itself is not important, it's what the number represents that is. A TM of 40 doesn't mean you have 40°C left, it means you have @ 40°C of workload left. The higher the workload, the faster that number gets smaller. 40's is idle or low usage, 30's is light usage, 20's is gaming usage, 10's is heavy usage and under 10 is pushing your luck.

It's like when ppl count from 10 to zero. They never actually stick to a perfect second, you always get to 3, 2½, 2, 1½, 1, ½, ¼, ⅛... and it takes another 15 seconds or more just to count down from 3. Thermal margins work the same.

The core temp for many same gen Intels was around 100°C. For the FX, it's 62°C. (as measured from jury rigged engineering samples by amd techs/engineers). But there's no way for a consumer to guage that temp. So you'll often see ppl with idle temps of 8-18°C, and load temps pushing 70+°C, non of which are accurate. Or in some cases, even physically possible unless they live in Alaska or Siberia and the pc was sitting next to an open window in the winter time.

Using thermal margins will tell you if you are pushing any OC too high. As long as you stay within safe voltage boundaries for that cpu/motherboard, I've seen ppl push FX upto 5.4GHz, But that was on a FX 4100 with a 280mm AIO, so cooling wasn't an issue.