Need help undervolting/underclocking AMD FX-8370

[cassith]

Hi,

I please need help undervolting/underclocking my AMD FX-8370 (Black box edition) because the temperatures are much too high. The problem lies with my motherboard (Asus M5A87) and insufficient cooling, and I know I should replace those, but I want to undervolt the processor for the mean time while I wait for funds to do so.

I also know that this might not be enough of a change to fix my problem, but I want to do everything for the mean time.

Everything works perfectly, only the temperatures are problematic (80C+).

Could someone please explain to me how I can do this, and what exactly I need to do/change?

Sorry, I'm totally new to this and don't want to go into this blindly and mess something up.

Don't know if it matters, but according to CPU-Z the core voltage is about 1.418 (highest I've seen) under load.

Thank you,

 

[AnonymousAndy]

Hello, welcome to the forums.

That motherboard should have no relation to your CPU reaching 80C, at stock clocks.
If your CPU was overclocked, that would be a different story but at stock clocks there should be no issue with the motherboard.
I'd be more than happy to find out what the real issue is with you, if you'd be willing to do some trouble shooting.
If not, underclocking/undervolting is very simple. Enter the BIOS, and navigate to the CPU settings. Reduce core clock and voltage accordingly. I'd suggest starting by just reducing the voltage a tad, until it becomes unstable, then you can step the coreclock down and start over with the voltage until you're satisfied.

 

[Geekwad]

This may be a helpful guide for understanding more in depth what BIOS adjustments are available, and what's possible:

http://www.amd.com/Documents/AMD_FX_Performance_Tuning_Guide.pdf

 

[madmatt30]

1.4v+ is way way way too high for a stock 8370 , your board may be overcompensating with llc.

That voltage is the sole reason for your high temps.

I assume the CPU came with the wraith max cooler which should be ample for that CPU at stock.

How are you reading temps exactly??

You should be using amd overdrive
http://www.amd.com/en/technologies/amd-overdrive

Its thermal margin (under CPU status) shows an offset readout from the chips max temp.

So anything above 0c under full load is OK (most people would aim for a margin of 10c+ )

If you're wary of bios settings them you can at least use overdrive to tinker & test.

Disable the turbo core option , drop the CPU voltage to 1.36-1.37 & run a stress test & check temps again

 

[cassith]

Thank you for the responses, and I'm currently going through that AMD Overdrive manual.

So dropping the voltage in AMD Overdrive, am I correct that I'm looking at the CPU VID slider?

 

[cassith]

UPDATE:

All I did was disable Turbo Core, and now it's running much better. So far the highest I've seen it go was 72C (CPU-Z HWMonitor) under stress, and max 1.34 volts.

If it doesn't get higher than this, can I game like this without worrying?

 

[madmatt30]

I'd say yes , turbo honestly does nothing in gaming scenarios - in fact it can give unstable performance a lot of the time.

Don't trust cpu-z for temps ,its good for voltage , use and overdrive for temps as I said before.

Overdrive actually has a built in stability test , run that , swap to CPU status tab & see what your thermal margin is like under full load.

 

[cassith]

I'd say yes , turbo honestly does nothing in gaming scenarios - in fact it can give unstable performance a lot of the time.

Don't trust cpu-z for temps ,its good for voltage , use and overdrive for temps as I said before.

Overdrive actually has a built in stability test , run that , swap to CPU status tab & see what your thermal margin is like under full load.

I see the thermal margin go from between 10-30. What is the deal range?