Need help extending my FX-6300 overclock

[EchohcE]

FX-6300
Gigabyte 970A-UD3P motherboard (8+2 power phase)
Corsair H90 aio cooler
8gb DDR3-1866 RAM

Current BIOS settings (MIT>Frequency Settings)

Northbridge(FSB) 200
other northbridge(can't remember specific name): 2600
HT Link: 2600
CPU Frequency: 23.5 (4.7ghz)
CnC On
Turbo On (gigabyte restarts twice when its off, very annoying)
HPC On
APM Off
LLC Medium

Voltages (MIT>Voltage Settings)
CPU vCore: 1.25v
CPU vCore Offset: 0.1867-something(two ticks up from .175, two ticks down from .200)
Northbridge: 1.75v(directly under CPU vCore Offset)
Northbridge Offset: .175
NB Core(near the bottom): 1.2v

In HWMonitor I see the cpu voltage as 1.401ish volts. My temps are 45-50 C, quite good. Problem is, one of my cores keeps dying on Prime95, so it's unacceptably unstable. If I up the voltage to 1.428 or so, the temps jump up 5 degrees. 4.8 is impossible without pumping the voltage near 1.5, which I won't do because it puts the temps near 60 on water cooling.

Do y'all think I've hit my cpu's sweet spot at 4.6, or should I be ok with upping the voltage a bit? Or is the core dying due to something I'm not seeing?

 

[Dunlop0078]

Thats about what I get, I can do 1.42v 4.6ghz stable and 1.45v 4.7ghz stable to go any higher than than that I need to jump up to 1.48v or higher and in my opinion that is just not worth it. Leaving turbo on may cause instability and it will screw with the clocks I bet thats why you have a core failing in prime95. I keep LLC at very high but thats only recommended if you have a quality psu. Also try northbridge frequency at 2400mhz, my computer wont even boot if set it to 2600mhz, leave ht link at 2600.

This guide might be helpful it was for me when I first got into this stuff: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

 

[EchohcE]

That's what I figured. Since you're considered an AMD expert, got another question for you: Is syncing the HT Link and Northbridge speeds actually worth it, or can I lower their speeds and get a higher cpu frequency?

 

[Dunlop0078]

That's what I figured. Since you're considered an AMD expert, got another question for you: Is syncing the HT Link and Northbridge speeds actually worth it, or can I lower their speeds and get a higher cpu frequency?

I actually edited that in above. My pc wont even boot with northbridge frequency at 2600mhz, I use 2400mhz and have no problem with it. From what I have read performance increase from increasing ht link and northbridge frequency beyond stock settings is minimal at best, im not really sure how it will affect your ability to overclock the cpu but since it keeps me from booting it may cause some kind of instability. I would lower it to 2400mhz and re run your prime95 test and see if that core is still failing.

 

[madmatt30]

If you're prepared to save that profile as a backup (you should have already) & start afresh .

Set the ram to 1600 MHz, set the fsb to 203 (ram will be slightly overclocked)
& then use the multiplier from there , you can normally hit higher clocks at slightlynless voltage than with the fsb at stock 200.

 

[EchohcE]

I had to pump up the CPU-Northbridge voltage to get both at 2600, and it did result in higher temps. I'll try lowering them both down to 2400 next, hopefully I can get 4.7 locked in. My cpu at 4.4 is already in the 81st percentile according to Passmark, though I'm not sure how broad their sample base is. According to them, my FX-6300's single-core performance beats an i5-4590, so I can't wait to see what 4.7 can do.

 

[EchohcE]

If you're prepared to save that profile as a backup (you should have already) & start afresh .

Set the ram to 1600 MHz, set the fsb to 203 (ram will be slightly overclocked)
& then use the multiplier from there , you can normally hit higher clocks at slightlynless voltage than with the fsb at stock 200.

My FSB won't let me go up to 205 without throwing an almighty fit. It's very, very finicky for some reason, so I've learned to just leave it alone.

 

[madmatt30]

203 is less than 205 mate & upping fsb you have to down clock ram first .
203 fsb with ram set at 1600 will give ram speeds of 1890mhz or so , easily doable on most 1866 sticks at xmp stock latencies.

 

[EchohcE]

My FSB only goes up in increments of 5.
Also, I just learned that I can't lower my CPU Northbridge and HT Link speeds at all if I want my computer to boot. This makes absolutely no sense, since they're both running above stock speeds.

I'm currently running 1.45v max with all the power saving stuff like CnC turned off. Hopefully it'll pass Prime95.

UPDATE: 4.7@1.44v, almost an hour in P95 Small FFTs with no problems. Temps have stabilized at 52-53, which is more than acceptable, gives me roughly 8 degrees of padding.