Overclocking: AMD A-8 6600k

[Ioime4190]

I have a BIOSTAR A88MQ motherboard, XFX Radeon R7 360 2GB GDDR5, 8GB Ballistix DDR3 1600.

I am new to overclocking, and from what I know and see it is different depending on your specs.

My current processor is a 3.9GHz, and I am shooting for 4.4. From what I have seen it shouldn't be a problem, but I want to do it the right way and would like some input.

Thanks

 

[JCLDJB]

Hi there,

Firstly, the motherboard you have is very poor for overclocking so, whatever you do, be careful!
Get Open HWMonitor and you can view the VRM temps when stressing the system.
AMD Overdrive as well (but try to edit in BIOS first, I doubt you will have options to modify the CPU multiplier seeing as that motherboard doesn't have heatsinks on VRMs, but if it doesn't, you should be able to with AMD OverDrive.

Get Prime95 for stress testing too.

And finally, to overclock, you'll need an aftermarket cooler as your stock cooler will not handle it & there is no guarantee you will get anywhere to 4.4ghz (due to the CPU die lottery).

Now for the fun stuff.

Disable the AMD Turbo Core, and C6 State along with P-State Limit & AMD Cool'n'Quiet? - disable all those things in your BIOS.

Crank your fans up to max in the BIOS and save those settings, so you start your PC with fans maxed out (this will avoid you editing anything, and then waiting until Windows fully loads to turn up the fans, ovoiding any potential overheating.)

AGAIN - do not attempt this with the stock cooler, you will not get very far at all and you seriously risk frying your CPU.

Once you've disabled all those features, and if you cannot edit the CPU multiplier in your BIOS, load up AMD Overdrive and select the CPU section, you'll get a slider bar.

Increase multipleir 1 increment at a time, without changing the voltage yet, and then reset, stress test with Prim95 while monitoring your temps (a good 15-20minutes testing is enough to see if you're stable or getting runaway temps)

If your temps are fine and Prime95 doesn't show any error from an unstable system, go up another notch and reset, stress test, repeat....repeat.

Do this until you get an unstable system, then and only then start increasing the voltage a little bit, same process, reset, stress test.

You ceilings are (AMD Overdrive's - CPU section - Thermal Margins, if between 0C-10C, then you are between 0C-10C close to the highest temp limits).
I believe it's about 70-72C, but you really want to keep it under 60-65C for any long period of time (the lower the better).

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - Whatever you do, do not jump from 36x -> 40x/42x/42x, and/or tweak voltage higher in one go, you could immediately destroy your system, within minutes...

Your system was not really designed for overclocking, the CPU, yes, but the motherboard, no... so do so at your own peril.

Still, I believe that you should be able to get some performance out of this.

And also, what PSU do you have?

If you don't have an aftermarket cooler, get something like the CM 212 Evo, cheap and extremely effective.

And good luck!

Submit your results here for us to see.

 

[Ioime4190]

Thank you for all the information, but why exactly is my mobo bad for OC'ing? Also my PSU is an EVGA Supernova 650 G1.

Edit: what about the frequencies?

 

[JCLDJB]

Thank you for all the information, but why exactly is my mobo bad for OC'ing? Also my PSU is an EVGA Supernova 650 G1.

Edit: what about the frequencies?

Hello again.

It is bad because there are no heatsinks on the MOSFETs, and it has a low power phase design.
the power phase goes like, 3+1 / 4+1 / 4+2 / 5+2 etc....
Suppose all the MOSFETs are of the same quality, if you have X amount of power being sent to 3 separate MOSFETs, that power gets divided into 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3, meaning they each take 33% of the power.
However having 4 or 5 or 6, and you spread the load/power = heat between more of them.
It load/voltage sharing, the more the better, but the quality of MOSFETs also matter.

Usually for overclocking you want a higher power phase than that board because you'll be introducing MORE power to the motherboard than it was designed to handle, and if the load is already stretched between them, you risk overheating something.


Don't get me wrong, this isn't the end of the world, you can still try the overclocking instructions I provided above, and you may very well be pleasantly surprised, just don't expect it to be absolutely awesome, like an A88X board might do, for example.

That PSU is fine if you look at your build as a whole, decent budget system.

What was your question about the frequencies?
3.9Ghz -> 4.4Ghz ?

3.9Ghz is your stock speed.

4.2Ghz is your Turbo speed, so you know it handles that at least.

When you disable all the options, including Turbo in the BIOS, then just go from 3.9Ghz -> 4.0Ghz, stress test it with Prime95, then if all OK, go up to 4.1Ghz, and do the same.

Until you get errors, with Prime95, only then should you increase the voltage a little bit at a time.

Before you do any of that, firstly just run Prime95 with AMD Overdrive open, do stress test on clock speeds (3.9Ghz) and monitor your CPU temps and Thermal Limits, post those here as unless you have an aftermarket cooler, you may not get the higher frequencies you want because you'll reach your thermal limit before then.

 

[Ioime4190]

My base clock speed is 100. It's max is 127. If I'm not mistaken the only reason to change that is during testing if the multiplyer begins to cause instabilities, no?

I see you said an A88X board would do, but I believe that's what I have. (Full name: BIOSTAR A88MQ FM2+ / FM2 AMD A88X (Bolton D4) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard)

Also, my RAM default is 1600MHz. Would I be able to get that to 2144? Is it a bad idea/worth it?

I don't currently have aftermarket cooler so I am aware I need to get one. But when does temperature start to cause damage? I know 40C is ideal, and 70C is high, but when does damage actually start to occur?

Thank you for your time and very informational replies

 

[JCLDJB]

My base clock speed is 100. It's max is 127. If I'm not mistaken the only reason to change that is during testing if the multiplyer begins to cause instabilities, no?

I see you said an A88X board would do, but I believe that's what I have. (Full name: BIOSTAR A88MQ FM2+ / FM2 AMD A88X (Bolton D4) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard)

Also, my RAM default is 1600MHz. Would I be able to get that to 2144? Is it a bad idea/worth it?

I don't currently have aftermarket cooler so I am aware I need to get one. But when does temperature start to cause damage? I know 40C is ideal, and 70C is high, but when does damage actually start to occur?

Thank you for your time and very informational replies

Apologies about the board.

Remember that changing the BCLK from 100Mhz to anything higher will increase just about everything on the board (RAM, PCI-E slot, Northbridge, everything!) so if you are going to increase that, then do it first, before overclocking anything else, and in small increments.
as you have a 'K' version of that CPU, you should have an unlocked multiplier, so try the CPU multiplier before the BCLK, as you may see more benefits but bench both to be sure.

Just be careful with the Base Clock, any increasing literally increases every component on the motherboard & the weakest will fail first, the CPU multiplier just deals with the CPU so less risky, as long as you don't go crazy.

I would much rather just change the multiplier with a bit of voltage eventually.

About the RAM, increase from 1600Mhz to 1866Mhz, reset & see if PC starts, if so, then go up a notch to 2133Mhz - if using BCLK OC, do they BCLK first, then the RAM, in fact set the RAM to 1333Mhz before, to be safe.

I would recommend doing multiplier first with RAM rather than touching the BCLK, as even your GPU will receive an overclock using BCLK...

 

[Ioime4190]

Remember that changing the BCLK from 100Mhz to anything higher will increase just about everything on the board (RAM, PCI-E slot, Northbridge, everything!) so if you are going to increase that, then do it first, before overclocking anything else, and in small increments.
as you have a 'K' version of that CPU, you should have an unlocked multiplier, so try the CPU multiplier before the BCLK, as you may see more benefits but bench both to be sure.

Just be careful with the Base Clock, any increasing literally increases every component on the motherboard & the weakest will fail first, the CPU multiplier just deals with the CPU so less risky, as long as you don't go crazy.

I would much rather just change the multiplier with a bit of voltage eventually.

About the RAM, increase from 1600Mhz to 1866Mhz, reset & see if PC starts, if so, then go up a notch to 2133Mhz - if using BCLK OC, do they BCLK first, then the RAM, in fact set the RAM to 1333Mhz before, to be safe.

I would recommend doing multiplier first with RAM rather than touching the BCLK, as even your GPU will receive an overclock using BCLK...

I learned a bit more after I responded last. (Mainly by doing) but my CPU's Default voltage was 1.399, which from research I see is pretty high. Especially for stock speed.

I was able to lower it to 1.25V, and OC from 3.9GHz to 4.1GHz.

Everything started up, and my thermal margin was around 70C.

After running stress test for about 20 minutes or so my Thermal margin was between 31C and 34C the whole time.

I am still on stock heatsink and fan, but these are pretty good results right?

Edit: I tried overclocking the ram, and it says max is 2400MHz.

I changed it from 1600 to 1866 along with setting proper timings, and it crashed on startup. I tried raising the DRAM voltage up, continuing to crash even at max voltage (1.675V)

Is there a reason it can't be OC'd at all? Even though it says max is 2400MHz?

 

[JCLDJB]

Hello again.
For the RAM. There is no guarantee you'll be able to get to the higher frequencies.

Have you tried it at 2133mhz instead of 2400?
Most RAM. Even basic RAM can get to 1 increment higher than the stock. After that is anyones guess.
I would reduce the voltage. Keep it as low as you can for that clock speed. If at max voltage you can only get 1866mhz stable then it isn't bad.
Try 2133mhz with more loose timings.

About the CPU. Your thermal margins are not bad.
Yes it is normal for it to automatically choose a higher voltage than what is required. Good thanks though managed to lower it and still get 4.1ghz.
But considering you're on a stock cooler. You may want to not go too far.
The lower temps you can keep it at the better.
How does it feel to be able to tweak your system?
I find it addictive.. Find your limits. Either ghz stability. Voltage. Thermal.
If you're happy with your setup. Run prime95 for the same length of time you would have a gaming session. If 2-3hrs. Run it that long and monitor temps. If they will creep up slowly. But if you're still in double digits of thermal margins. You can consider it a safe overclock.
For the RAM really. What timings did you choose?

 

[Ioime4190]

I have to say honestly, I love computers, and I've been doing stuff for years, but this is the first time I've had the right equipment (minus aftermarket cooler) TO overclock. Since I started I can't stop lol.

I was actually able to get it to 4.2GHz on same voltage. My thermal margins didn't move though, and I haven't had any errors/crashes

I tried OC'ing my ram again, but I changed more than just that so I'm not entirely sure if the ram caused the errors, and I don't believe it was. I have to try again.

I have my timing at stock, but manually put in. My ram timings are 9-9-9-24

Also, from experience what is the best temp monitor? At this point all I've been using is AMD overdrive to monitor thermal margins, because I get different temps from every other software I have used. I understand why, but is there anything more accurate?

 

[amtseung]

The faster the overclocks, the looser the RAM timings. While overclocking the CPU, I'd leave the ram timings at factory, at least for the time being. When you're done hooning your CPU, then come back and tighten up the RAM timings.

AMD Overdrive is the single most reliable temp monitor for AMD CPU's because they send the temp signal differently even between different families of AMD CPU.

 

[Ioime4190]

What exactly does loose,tight timings mean?

 

[amtseung]

Loose timings means higher latency, so bigger ram timing numbers. Tighter timings is the exact opposite.

 

[Ioime4190]

How do you know how much to change them?

 

[amtseung]

It's pure guesswork. Just leave it all on auto for the time being, and you can manually tune them back up after you've finished extracting everything from the CPU.

 

[JCLDJB]

one important factor is on your 9-9-9-24
The 4th one should usually be higher than the previous 3 combine.

9+9+9 = 27, and you've put 24..so that could be one factor.

Also RAM failures as quite distinctive, your PC simply doesn't start, and beeps.

However as amtseung said, try to OC everything else first, then try to push the RAM timings 'tighter' as stated.

Whether or not you'll see a difference between higher frequencies with looser ram timings (2133Mhz with 11-11-11-33).
Or lower frequAencies with tighter ram timings (1666Mhz 7-7-7-21).
This will depend on benchmarks done, but the difference may be minimal, compare to the OC'ing of your CPU, for example.

Also, AMD Overdrive is the most accurate temperature monitoring software for AMD CPUs.

Anything else (such as, Open HWMonitor or others) may simply scare you with their false readings.

However, I don't know if Biostar provide their own software to monitor the motherboard & control the fans, specifically, but I have MSI's Command Centre which serves its purpose well for this.