Overclocking this old one

summers50

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Jun 19, 2009
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So I have an AMD 3200+ Venice core, which is supposedly a very good overclocker. I've been reading about people on the net getting up to 2.8ghz easily, yet I can't make it past 2.5 ghz with 1.5 vcore...

I'm new to overclocking, and I've done all the digging on the net, with memory timings, cpu multiplier, htt. But I can't seem to figure out why it needs so many more volts to go further, because to be even remotely stable at 2.6, i have to raise the vcore to 1.6v

What gives? I don't think that big of a jump is needed to get 100 mhz higher. going from stock to 2.4ghz only needs me to raise the vcore by .05v
 

Zark Strife

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Nov 29, 2009
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I am in no means an expert however, doesn't Vcore scaling get very inefficient after the "ceiling" has been reached. This could explain why on .05 was needed to get to 2.4 and 1.6 is needed to go only 200mhz higher. What about your HSF?
 

summers50

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Jun 19, 2009
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I'm cooling it on stock, though I plan on changing it. temperature is 53 on load for 2.4ghz. The rule of thumb is not to go past 60C, depending on the CPU, and I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere 65 for this one. So if I lower the temp a significant amount, would it be possible to raise that "ceiling" ?
 
In my experience of trying to overclock these old processors is that you are lucky to get any more than about 10% extra out of them, AMD rate them very close to what they are capable of. And to get more than about 10% you have to go to very high voltages and extreme cooling which in my opinion is not worth it.