Overclocking AMD Phenom II X6 1090t

[brickrd]

Hi. I'm a complete newbie to overclocking and looking to get my 1090t up to 3.8-4.0, mostly for gaming purposes.

I've read that, if you're just starting out, all you need to play with (for this CPU anyway) are the multiplier and voltage, so that's all I've done. Multiplier is set to give me 3.8 gigs and voltage is at about 1.4.

Problem is, CPU-Z is showing core speed 800 mhz and a multiplier of 4, which is the stock 3.2 ghz speed. However, it does reflect my change in voltage: http://gyazo.com/f48c6008748c85752e9c3fc8d6dc5653.png

So far I have tried disabling Cool n Quiet and changing Windows power settings to Performance, but no effect. Newbie that I am, I have no idea whether the problem is with CPU-Z's display or my attempt at overclocking.

I'm running Windows 7 Pro and my motherboard is an ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO. http://gyazo.com/2c18848be602126c56e07c70f9d138c8.png

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[saint19]

Hi brickrd and welcome to Tom's forum.

1- Read the 4ryan6 overclocking guide for BE CPUs
2- Dissable Cool'n'Quite, C1E support and Turbo Core on BIOS. (Here is your 800MHZ problem)
3- List all the specs of your rig.
4- What temps do you get? Use HWMonitor to know that temps on idle and load, you can use prime95, LinX, OCCT and y-cruncher as stress test program.

 

[brickrd]

Thanks for the replies. The video was helpful, but even when I try to replicate all the settings used in the video I get the same issue

Saint, I actually did read that guide, but I read from other sources/forums that this processor is easy to overclock for a beginner who doesn't want to fine-tune by just upping the multiplier and the voltage and leaving everything else be, so I wanted to try that first and avoid playing with too many different things at once. Do you disagree with that?

I disabled Cool n Quiet earlier, I found C1E was already disabled, but I couldn't find a setting for Turbo Core in the BIOS. There was a setting called "unleashed mode" under something like "advanced clock settings," but I'm not sure if that is related.

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447

power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231318

Let me know if I'm leaving out any specs you need.

HWMonitor gives me 35c on all cores right now, I'll try a stress test too and post the results. I also tried earlier running 3dmark11 but crashed about 30 seconds in, which I assumed was because I didn't overclock correctly.

 

[saint19]

You will NEVER get the rig stable using the same settings that other user, even if both have the same components.

Try rising the CPU multiplier to get 3.6GHz without change any other thing, don't change voltage too. Test the rig with those settings, at stock voltage exist a high posibility that can be stable.

 

[brickrd]

Thanks. I've been running prime95 stress test "blend" for about 10 minutes and my cpu temp seems to be topping out around 44c. Now I'm going to reboot into BIOS and try 3.6ghz like you said. Any ideas for how I can figure out disabling turbo core? I've googled around and the only answer I ever see is "go into your BIOS and disable it." I already did that and wasn't able to find a setting for it...

 

[saint19]

I can't find that option in your BIOS, pretty strange. Test the rig with the stress test program, while you test it check the CPU frequency in CPU-Z should be 3600MHz or pretty similar.

 

[brickrd]

Running the stress test now, CPU usage is at 95-100% but CPU-Z still shows 800mhz 4.0 multiplier. The only difference is before I reset everything in the bios, I was getting 803.5mhz, now it's exactly 800. Tiny difference so I'm not sure if that means anything.

 

[saint19]

For some reason, Cool'n'Quite is enable yet.

 

[green300]

0602 bios new enough ? (2005)

 

[brickrd]

Thanks saint for your help and everyone else for their replies too, I had the same thought as green300 and decided to take a chance updating my bios. New bios includes Turbo Core option and the overclock is showing up in CPU-Z--still have to test out stability but for now I'm happy. Thanks again, guys.

 

[saint19]

Good news. Did you dissable Turbo core, C1E, Cool'n'Quite right?

 

[ahthurungnone]

One thing to keep in mind is that almost all software will never utilize 6 cores. Intel is wise to this which is why the new Sandy Bridge processors are only quad cores. We buy hexa-cores to measure our EP.

So you may simply want to leave the Turbo core option on but change the max multiplier setting to 20x (or 4.0Ghz) and bump the voltage to 1.375 during this multiplier setting. The processor will then only run overclocked settings when needed which keeps your temperatures down except for the brief moment all 6 cores are needed.

I can get all six cores to run at 4.1Ghz stable but it made no noticeable difference in overall system performance versus the above method.

Also, be careful running Prime95 all the time. You are possibly affecting the long term life of your processor by testing. Just a word of caution. Let me know how it goes.

 

[ahthurungnone]

Also, I wouldn't change the frontside bus or PCIe speeds. This affects other components and is not recommended.

 

[brickrd]

Update: I've been experimenting for the past couple of days and have been able to get to 3.8 stable. 4.0 usually results in intermittent crashes during gaming, especially in Bad Company 2, easily the most graphics-intensive game I play.

The main issue I've encountered is core temps. At 3.8, stressing all six cores takes me into the low-mid 60s, which I feel is too high. However, actual gaming so far hasn't taken me over the high 50s. I've long understood the fact that more cores aren't automatically better (and subsequently aren't fully stressed) if they aren't being used/optimized properly, so my next line of thinking is how much weight should I be putting in my stress test temps as opposed to the max temps I see after a lengthy gaming session?

In seeking to lower my temps, I consulted with my brother about airflow physics and decided on buying a couple of extra 120mm fans for my case. It's a cooler master and has a lot of porous areas where fans can be installed, but if there's no fan in those slots he said it's just going to screw with the airflow. Here's the case itself if anyone's interested http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137 I also discovered that the front-mounted fan that cools my hard drive bays was never plugged into the motherboard and thus never did anything in the nine months I've had this computer. Didn't do much for my CPU, but took about 10c off the HDs. Whoops.

Ahthu, thanks for the advice. I've actually been going back and forth between using Turbo Core with everything at stock settings and overclocking to 3.8 to test out the difference, but it never occurred to me that I could use them both in tandem. This seems like an interesting solution for me, especially given my temp issues. I'm going to try it out that way. Thanks also for the advice re: stress tests and other BIOS settings. As a novice I'm not huge on lengthy stress/stability tests; I usually run them only for a few minutes and prefer to test mainly through practical application (i.e. running the applications I actually run). Overclocking is fun, but as far as I'm concerned, the simpler the better. If I can get solid results and a little extra performance for free, I'm happy. I'm not looking to test my technical chops or burn out my brand new $230 computer equipment at 4.2+ gigs.

 

[brickrd]

Best answer selected by brickrd.

 

[gamoniac]

I am glad I saw this discussion. I have the same mobo (Asus M4A785TD-V EVO), CPU (Phenom II X6 1090T), and ATX case (CoolerMaster CM690) as brickrd does, except with DDR3-1600 RipJaws memory. I have been trying to push my 1090T to 4Ghz without luck. Previously, I was only able to OC to 3.8Ghz on all 6 cores with stability (200Mhz x 19 CPU multiplier) but the temperature was higher than I would like; within 20 min of Prime95, I reached 60C, even with all fans on highest RPM. Note that the upper limit of the current batch of Phenom II X6 temperature is 62C.

Unsatisfied, I searched around and found this discussion thread. I had always disabled turbo-core technology when OC. After reading this thread, I decided to give it a shot and have great success (Thanks for the suggestion, ahthurungnon). Now have my regular CPU multiplier set to 18X (3.6Ghz) and Turbo-core multiplier (ratio) set to 20X (4Ghz). Using AMD Overdrive Utility (AOU), I can see that this works perfectly; some core goes to 4Ghz when needed. My CPU temperature now tops at 52C on full load during stability test. And that is with fans running at the lowest RPM. If I crank up all 5 fans (including CPU fan), the temperature tops at 49C. That is sweet.

The only peculiarity I am seeing is that, sometimes more than 3 cores reaches 3.7Ghz, according to AOU (turbo core should kick in for 3 of the six cores, supposedly), although that does not seems to cause any issue.

One note to add is that, when turbo core technology kicks in, it adds 0.15V automatically. So you definitely don't want to have you CPU over voltage set any higher than 1.375 as suggested by ahthurungnon in an early posting. I will try to see if I can get away with even lower CPU voltage, or set it to auto. There is an excellent overclocking article on xbitlabs ( http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-phenom-ii-x6-1055t-overclocking_3.html#sect0 ). All AMD phenom II overclockers should read it, IMO.

Thank you very much for all that contributed to this discussion. You help me find the perfect solution I have been looking for -- high frequency, stability, low temperature, and low noise. Happy Overclocking!

 

[saint19]

This topic has been closed by Saint19