waht to enable/disable on the 970 Gaming Motherboard (overclocking)

[Agent Wolf]

hey everyone, what are the main things i should disable/enable on the msi 970 gaming motherboard for overclockin? im currently in the bios menu, the chip is an AMD FX-8350 but within a few months i will be changing my board and going for an intel but thats later, for now ide like to know what i need to do for ocing.

 

[The Grox Empire]

First you need aftermarket CPU cooler. Get Cryorig H7 it's the best for it's price. If you already have good aftermarket then we can discuss much further

 

[Agent Wolf]

First you need aftermarket CPU cooler. Get Cryorig H7 it's the best for it's price. If you already have good aftermarket then we can discuss much further

i actually have a watercooling system in my rig, i had it put in since i knew i wanted to do overclocking.

 

[The Grox Empire]

First you need aftermarket CPU cooler. Get Cryorig H7 it's the best for it's price. If you already have good aftermarket then we can discuss much further

i actually have a watercooling system in my rig, i had it put in since i knew i wanted to do overclocking.

If you already have Custom Watercooling you can overclock to 4.7 ghz easily even 5 ghz for not high amount of work just follow this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

 

[Agent Wolf]

First you need aftermarket CPU cooler. Get Cryorig H7 it's the best for it's price. If you already have good aftermarket then we can discuss much further

i actually have a watercooling system in my rig, i had it put in since i knew i wanted to do overclocking.

If you already have Custom Watercooling you can overclock to 4.7 ghz easily even 5 ghz for not high amount of work just follow this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

thats for an asus motherboard, not an 970 gaming, settings are different in the overclocking screen

 

[Poprin]

You need to do a little research first, it's not something that can really be answered in one line. But you want to try to set as many of your auto voltage settings to their recommended standard. So you have a base to work from. Disable turbo core, as you are likely going to be overclocking above this initially. Lots of people will suggest disabling cool n' quiet and application power management (APM) but I personally leave these on. Unless you are overclocking just to get big numbers it's not worth pushing it to the absolute max. Personally when tweaking GX systems I aim to overclock to about 200mhz above turbo speed but across all cores with a voltage decrease rather than increase. 9 times out of ten you can achieve this and it will run faster, quieter and more economical than standard.

Also with a 970 chipset and a 125w chip I would definitely be concentrating on undervolting because that sucker is going to toast up those VRM's.

 

[Poprin]

If you already have Custom Watercooling you can overclock to 4.7 ghz easily even 5 ghz for not high amount of work just follow this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

I wouldn't be pushing those kind of overclocks on a 970 board, unless your idea of performance is 10 second bursts of processing power followed by thermal throttling. I'm guessing by watercooling you are talking about a watercooled CPU. Which is going to help but your main limiting factor on that board is going to be socket and VRM temps.

 

[Agent Wolf]

You need to do a little research first, it's not something that can really be answered in one line. But you want to try to set as many of your auto voltage settings to their recommended standard. So you have a base to work from. Disable turbo core, as you are likely going to be overclocking above this initially. Lots of people will suggest disabling cool n' quiet and application power management (APM) but I personally leave these on. Unless you are overclocking just to get big numbers it's not worth pushing it to the absolute max. Personally when tweaking GX systems I aim to overclock to about 200mhz above turbo speed but across all cores with a voltage decrease rather than increase. 9 times out of ten you can achieve this and it will run faster, quieter and more economical than standard.

Also with a 970 chipset and a 125w chip I would definitely be concentrating on undervolting because that sucker is going to toast up those VRM's.

ill give a list of whats auto and disabled:
adjust CPU Ratio: [Auto]
CPU Smart Protection [Enabled]
CPU Core Control [Auto]
AMD Turbo Core Technology [Disabled and grey'd out]
DRAM Frequency [Auto]
DRAM Timing Mode [Auto]
Setup Software P-stare limit [Auto]
CPU Voltage [Auto]
DRAM Voltage [Auto]
CPU-NB Voltage [Auto]
NB Voltage [Auto]
SB Voltage [Auto]

thats the OC settings in the Bios menu.

 

[The Grox Empire]

If you already have Custom Watercooling you can overclock to 4.7 ghz easily even 5 ghz for not high amount of work just follow this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

I wouldn't be pushing those kind of overclocks on a 970 board, unless your idea of performance is 10 second bursts of processing power followed by thermal throttling. I'm guessing by watercooling you are talking about a watercooled CPU. Which is going to help but your main limiting factor on that board is going to be socket and VRM temps.

No what i think are he having full watercooling setup whic means VRM also water cooled

 

[Agent Wolf]

If you already have Custom Watercooling you can overclock to 4.7 ghz easily even 5 ghz for not high amount of work just follow this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

I wouldn't be pushing those kind of overclocks on a 970 board, unless your idea of performance is 10 second bursts of processing power followed by thermal throttling. I'm guessing by watercooling you are talking about a watercooled CPU. Which is going to help but your main limiting factor on that board is going to be socket and VRM temps.

No what i think are he having full watercooling setup whic means VRM also water cooled

The watercooling was bought for £70 and its covering the CPU only i need to buy seperate waterblocks for my dual graphics cards, but they should be fine since their maximum safe temp is something like 80 degrees, as for fans, the rad has two 120mm fans and there are 4 other fans working since they came attached to the case i bought.

 

[The Grox Empire]

If you already have Custom Watercooling you can overclock to 4.7 ghz easily even 5 ghz for not high amount of work just follow this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

I wouldn't be pushing those kind of overclocks on a 970 board, unless your idea of performance is 10 second bursts of processing power followed by thermal throttling. I'm guessing by watercooling you are talking about a watercooled CPU. Which is going to help but your main limiting factor on that board is going to be socket and VRM temps.

No what i think are he having full watercooling setup whic means VRM also water cooled

The watercooling was bought for £70 and its covering the CPU only i need to buy seperate waterblocks for my dual graphics cards, but they should be fine since their maximum safe temp is something like 80 degrees, as for fans, the rad has two 120mm fans and there are 4 other fans working since they came attached to the case i bought.

With the VRM can overheat on chipset 970 it's not possible to overclock

 

[Agent Wolf]

If you already have Custom Watercooling you can overclock to 4.7 ghz easily even 5 ghz for not high amount of work just follow this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

I wouldn't be pushing those kind of overclocks on a 970 board, unless your idea of performance is 10 second bursts of processing power followed by thermal throttling. I'm guessing by watercooling you are talking about a watercooled CPU. Which is going to help but your main limiting factor on that board is going to be socket and VRM temps.

No what i think are he having full watercooling setup whic means VRM also water cooled

The watercooling was bought for £70 and its covering the CPU only i need to buy seperate waterblocks for my dual graphics cards, but they should be fine since their maximum safe temp is something like 80 degrees, as for fans, the rad has two 120mm fans and there are 4 other fans working since they came attached to the case i bought.

With the VRM can overheat on chipset 970 it's not possible to overclock

ive just been reading and aparently its a 6+2 VRM and i also have a switch on the board that has been labled as Slow Mode

 

[The Grox Empire]

If you already have Custom Watercooling you can overclock to 4.7 ghz easily even 5 ghz for not high amount of work just follow this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

I wouldn't be pushing those kind of overclocks on a 970 board, unless your idea of performance is 10 second bursts of processing power followed by thermal throttling. I'm guessing by watercooling you are talking about a watercooled CPU. Which is going to help but your main limiting factor on that board is going to be socket and VRM temps.

No what i think are he having full watercooling setup whic means VRM also water cooled

The watercooling was bought for £70 and its covering the CPU only i need to buy seperate waterblocks for my dual graphics cards, but they should be fine since their maximum safe temp is something like 80 degrees, as for fans, the rad has two 120mm fans and there are 4 other fans working since they came attached to the case i bought.

With the VRM can overheat on chipset 970 it's not possible to overclock

ive just been reading and aparently its a 6+2 VRM and i also have a switch on the board that has been labled as Slow Mode

actually you need 8+2 VRM for overclock FX 8350

 

[Agent Wolf]

If you already have Custom Watercooling you can overclock to 4.7 ghz easily even 5 ghz for not high amount of work just follow this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

I wouldn't be pushing those kind of overclocks on a 970 board, unless your idea of performance is 10 second bursts of processing power followed by thermal throttling. I'm guessing by watercooling you are talking about a watercooled CPU. Which is going to help but your main limiting factor on that board is going to be socket and VRM temps.

No what i think are he having full watercooling setup whic means VRM also water cooled

The watercooling was bought for £70 and its covering the CPU only i need to buy seperate waterblocks for my dual graphics cards, but they should be fine since their maximum safe temp is something like 80 degrees, as for fans, the rad has two 120mm fans and there are 4 other fans working since they came attached to the case i bought.

With the VRM can overheat on chipset 970 it's not possible to overclock

ive just been reading and aparently its a 6+2 VRM and i also have a switch on the board that has been labled as Slow Mode

actually you need 8+2 VRM for overclock FX 8350

just overclocked to 4.7Ghz and running prime95. all cores seem to be working for now, this shouldnt be possible on a 6+2 VRM board right?

 

[Poprin]

just overclocked to 4.7Ghz and running prime95. all cores seem to be working for now, this shouldnt be possible on a 6+2 VRM board right?

It's not set in stone what it can and can't do. 8350's are 125w TDP processors and they on average draw a lot of power. But what I kind of like about AMD FX chips is no two are the same, this holds true for many other chips but I find the FX range to be particularly variable. I also find in general that they are over volted as standard (as in they will run on much less volts than auto without fault) In my experience, you can definitely overclock on a 970 board it's just that often the VRM's will overheat leading to thermal throttling. This is where it will down-clock and down-volt your CPU to cool the VRM's causing a performance drop. The key is finding the sweet spot of performance v's power draw. That what I mean by, don't just go for big numbers. Test your performance using benchmarking software because just because the number is bigger doesn't always mean it's going faster!

 

[Agent Wolf]

just overclocked to 4.7Ghz and running prime95. all cores seem to be working for now, this shouldnt be possible on a 6+2 VRM board right?

It's not set in stone what it can and can't do. 8350's are 125w TDP processors and they on average draw a lot of power. But what I kind of like about AMD FX chips is no two are the same, this holds true for many other chips but I find the FX range to be particularly variable. I also find in general that they are over volted as standard (as in they will run on much less volts than auto without fault) In my experience, you can definitely overclock on a 970 board it's just that often the VRM's will overheat leading to thermal throttling. This is where it will down-clock and down-volt your CPU to cool the VRM's causing a performance drop. The key is finding the sweet spot of performance v's power draw. That what I mean by, don't just go for big numbers. Test your performance using benchmarking software because just because the number is bigger doesn't always mean it's going faster!

well, its a good thing that i bought 3DMark then, to test such a thing.