Overclocking the FX-8150 and GTX 760

[kwikvette]

Good Evening all!

So I've read up on a lot of answered questions here and it's helped but I might have missed something somewhere so here goes...

I want to overclock my CPU to alleviate it being somewhat of a bottle-neck to my GPU. Not looking for bragging numbers but more like, getting the best out of my current setup.

I will be using 3DMark advanced and OCCT for benchmarking/checking stability.

I also want to overclock my GPU because when I did for the short while, I noticed improvements in certain games however in Skyrim it glitched a couple of times.

My system consists of;
AMD FX8150 CPU cooled by an EVO 212
Asus M5A97 LE Mobo
EVGA GTX 760 2GB SC (super clocked)
G.Skill 8GB (2x4GB DDR3 1600MHZ)
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD
Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD
Corsair CX750-M PSU

 

[kwikvette]

What I should've mentioned, I did mess with the multiplier but immediately after I'd run into instability. I've read that I should 'up' the voltage but no one states in what increments.

I'd also like to add that I do have all 'power saving features' disabled. Everything from CPU-spread to Cores being disabled and everything in between.

 

[Calculatron]

While in the bios, with voltage selected, hitting "+" on your numeric pad should give a small bump to voltage.

 

[kwikvette]

I did just that and the increments were very small.

I'm sorry for being vague; my specific question is what would you recommend each 'bump' to be? Should I raise the multiplier (by .5) and run OCCT until it fails. Then add voltage in one single increment and run OCCT again?

I want to gain stability and also get the benefit of OC'ng my GPU/CPU. I noticed an increase in frame-rate when I played Skyrim and when my fiance played Sims 3. However, when I had that overclock I found it to be unstable when I ran OCCT. Overclocking is one thing but I want to make sure to have stability.

 

[Calculatron]

Short answer: Yes.

Although some things may be different, this is a very basic, straight-foward guide that you should be able to extrapolate from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MckeAmnDeTk
I would stick to multiplier-style overclocking only.

The quick and dirty of it is that you set your voltages and frequencies to manual. With the stock voltage, raise your multiplier up by 1x, making sure to do stability tests each time you raise it. When you start to hit instability, you'll have to bump up the voltage one, and run a test (rinse, repeat) until you're stable again. (Yes, by bump I mean just a single tap of the "+".) Rinse and repeat the whole process until you're either happy with your result, or until you've hit your voltage or thermal limit.

Your safe "maximum" core temperature is 61C. For voltages, anything above 1.45 is something to be wary of. 1.5V is getting scary. I don't recommend going that high.

EDIT: As it mentions in the video, load-line calibration (LLC) is pretty important as well; it just makes sure that the amount of voltage you're specifying is actually going to your CPU, since some voltage is naturally lost during the whole process.

 

[kwikvette]

Forgot to come back here but thanks for that!

Just feel like I stepped into a time machine; when I'd swap out the jets on a carb trying to get the right amount of fuel for that perfect a/f ratio while putting the car on the dyno for max power.

I'm at a comfortable 4.2ghz on air without exceeding 59C on the cpu socket (about 50C max core temp)@1.386V at full load. Noticeable difference in the way Skyrim plays.

 

[Calculatron]

Cheers!