(20 votes, average: 4.10 out of 5)
Loading ...Breaking it down with Pete Hardman in our secret lab
Does your PC have overclock potential? Our new AMD PhenomTM II processors certainly do, and to showcase this I ventured over to our super secret lab buried deep inside the bowels of our Austin campus to prove the point!
Picture long hallways of unmarked doors, the hum of machinery, people milling about eyeing you up and down, wondering who you are and why you’re there. Now imagine a dream job for an enthusiast, one where you have almost limitless access to silicon, hardware and time to hone your craft. This is the life of Pete Hardman, one of AMD’s in-house overclocking gurus!
Pete comes into work every day, passes through the “MI6″ type security barriers, enters his lab and proceeds to break records the world may never ever know about (at least that’s what he tells us)! All in a day’s work I say!
You may have seen some of the insane things we’ve done with Dragon platform technology and liquid helium, both at CES and with our friends in Finland. But for this blog we’re going to keep it simple and break down a ‘tried and true’ method for getting more performance out of your AMD Phenom II processor.
Check out his classy nameplate
Pete's work desk - a little unorthodox to say the least
Pete and I took the new AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor and walked it through a proper overclocking methodology using AMD OverDriveTM software*. Here are the steps we went through in detail:
Overclocking 101
Step 1 – Figure out your goals, small increase or one shot big gain? Power efficiency, is it important? Going for a full system max overclcok? Find the limits?
Step 2 – Procure the right hardware and software.
Our test system:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition quad-core processor
ASUS M4879T Deluxe DDR3 Motherboard
4G Corsair DDR3 Memory
ATI RadeonTM HD4870 X2 GPU
Thermalrite Ultra 120 Extreme “TRUE”
2 – 120mm high volume fans
Software add-ons:
Step 3 – Prep system – thermal paste the CPU, mount your air cooling solution as per guidelines. Keep the thermal paste to a nice thin amount; this will be beneficial once the heatsink is applied and pressure is added.
Step 4 – Power on system and boot to the OS – Install AMD OverDrive software*
Step 5 – Change frequency; make small incremental changes to the systems multiplier.
Once you have made your frequency multiplier changes, run a benchmark like Cinebench or 3DMark® to check for stability. Adjust frequency using stock voltage first before increasing voltage.
Step 6 – Increase multiplier and redo step 5 until the benchmark does not complete.
Step 7 – Once you have established the ‘ceiling’ in terms of frequency at stock voltage, do a cold reset/reboot.
Step 8 – Now increase voltage; this should also be done incrementally. You need to know how the voltage scales with frequency. As you increase voltage, frequency should increase, but there is a limit where too much voltage will start to reduce frequency; this is the “Sweet Spot” – find it!
Step 9 – Make a small 50mv increase, now retry the benchmark at the same frequency you previously failed at.
Step 10 – Continue to increase frequency at the new voltage until you find a fail case (meaning your computer hangs or blue screens).
Step 11 – Once you have a fail case at the new frequency, increase the voltage another 50mv and redo Step 10
Step 12 – Once you have established a threshold on voltage and frequency, we now move to the Northbridge and we make those changes via BIOS
Step 13 – Restart and enter BIOS
Step 14 – Click on CPU/NB Frequency and make an increase; we went from 2G to 2.4G which is a large jump and ended up at 2.8Ghz.
Step 15 – Continue to make incremental increases until you have a fail.
Step 16 – Take the results from steps 5, 8 and 12 and put them all together into a total system overclock. CPU cores, Voltage and North Bridge frequency all overclocked to establish a high performing PC experience
Overclocking can be a lot of fun; I personally like to do a moderate overclock and leave my system at that performance level. Pete, on the other hand, is pushing the boundaries of silicon every day. Chances are you are wondering what frequency we ended at, well, the results may vary, and what Pete and I achieved may not be representative of what everyone can do. With that caveat clearly stated, our final frequency was 4.2G on air without overclocking the memory. Not bad considering we did not spend a lot of time tweaking, we simply followed the steps above that delivered a good 1 Ghz OC.
*And remember kids, AMD’s product warranty does not cover damage caused by overclocking, even when enabled via AMD OverDriveTM software.
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
(4.65 out of 5)
#1 by Dennis - April 22nd, 2009 at 21:41
Nice little write up there…Ive considered OC a bit in the past but I have never found a reason to really try it, hell I bought my opteron because of its OC ability, but have yet to find the need to push it. It is nice to see that that theses chips have a nice overhead even if Ill never use it its nice knowing I can…
Kinda like having a Bugatti Veyron, youll probably never drive it @ 200mph but if the need arises you can get there..
#2 by wpeltola - April 22nd, 2009 at 23:02
Cool writeup with easy to follow instructions! I’ve always been interested in playing with overclocking, but never really took the plunge.
I should have a little wiggle room with my current system, so I’ll give it a try and see how it goes. Thanks!
#3 by Nate Supplee - April 23rd, 2009 at 08:14
Great work log Ian. That chip looks like it has amazing potential, even on air cooling.
Any chance we can see you pair this with a GPU and see what kind of before and after scores you get in 3DMark Vantage?
#4 by xfloggingkylex - April 23rd, 2009 at 19:18
I had a question about overdrive 3.0.
On my system I am getting much lower scores than with the previous version. my 940 is scoring right at 8k while clocked to 3.6, where normally this would be well over 10k.
has something changed or is this a bug in the program?
Also, is the 955 processor you used hand picked? Because you’re score is quite a bit higher than any of the new reviews out at the moment.
#5 by Surya Adi Nugraha S - April 24th, 2009 at 03:08
I want it too. I’m glad to see the performance of AMD Microprocessor. But it is valuable to me? I think i want more features from your platform that your company offers. Like hardware multichannel sounds (remember AMD InterWave the best sound chip in mid 90’s), HDMI Input, USB 3.0, native Gigabit Ethernet, WIFI with Bluetooth, Terrestrial Digital TV Tuner, Wireless USB, WIMAX/3G and contactless smart card. I want to see these features will be offering from your company chips products so these features will be common. I want to see more valuable AMD platform rather than to keep up for the performance with your competitor (both microprocessor and graphics). If your company offering the first industry contact less smart card for personal computer platform I bet this will become successful because contact less smart card have been widespread uses. Your company will become more successful with this because people will use them for online transactions and since digital tv have been implemented in your country combined with digital tv there will become more widespread uses for digital content distributions because there are offline media to bought this, that is contact less smart card that distributed by the content provider company.
#6 by Nico - April 26th, 2009 at 20:19
Hello.
Kinda klicked my way into this site.
Been looking on the internet for som sulution to a problem im having, and kinda dont know where to turn.
Its a big cry for help…so just ignore it or read on.
If there is anyone who can help me solve this issue i could even pay a little fee or something.
Anyways here it goes:
When ever i play random games (New once) i get black screen and it keep blinking in black colours.
Only way to kill it is to ALT F4 the game.
Iv been searching the web for sometime now and it seems like ALOT of people got this problem and none knows the the core to the problem.
Got a AMD 9650 Qcore 2.31ghz
2gb RAM
ATI Radeon 4850 512 ram card.
ANYONE got ANY kind of info about this pleeease send me an email.
(Sorry for the poor english)
/Nico
#7 by Peter Andrew - April 27th, 2009 at 05:44
First I would like to Congrats you for this, Thanks for sharing with us Ian McNaughton, Great work man.
#8 by Marcusklaas - May 3rd, 2009 at 18:00
What’s up Surya. I think those features you talk of are actually more of a manufacturer decision. They get to decide what the put on the board. Atleast, most of them. Things like gigabit ethernet will actually come with the 800 series of chipsets. Also, if you want all those features, you can just implement them with the use of PCI cards. I do not believe there is such a big market for those features to justify putting them on boards by default.
Regards,
Marcus, Netherlands
#9 by Stephen Paul - May 5th, 2009 at 07:41
Thanks for posting Log Ian,
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor seems really good for the purpose of overlocking. It is nice to see that these chips have a nice overhead even if Ill never use it its nice knowing.
I will definitely try this, so that I can see how it goes.
#10 by Shaheen L. - May 5th, 2009 at 19:17
I just got this CPU and i’m very happy with it, first time OC though. Does anyone know the most ideal and safe OC settings with the stock fan and cooling. I have 2 40mm fans and 1 120 mm fan an all aluminum case.
Thanks if you can help.
I would greatly appreciate it.
#11 by mark` - May 6th, 2009 at 18:21
my AMD Phenom2 X3 720 is running @ 3.4ghz.
i put my old AMD s939 x2 4800+ stock cooler on it, because it’s a better design than the new one.
“i must say these chips run really cool, even under the sea level where i live! @ 25celcius 80% humidity it doesn’t go above 50 Celsius with the stock cool tin, in the summer it’s like living in a swamp GO HOLLAND!”
#12 by Ditch - August 19th, 2009 at 15:36
@mark`,
HI,
I have the same processor and I am trying to get to its most OC.
I use AMD Overdrive and have the multiplyer on 15.5, if I try 16 I get a blue screen and its restarts.
How are youre settings, what did you change to get to a 3.4 GHZ?
Thanks,
Ditch
#13 by Ty - May 16th, 2009 at 20:57
Thank you for posting this! Just bought a 955, and I haven’t had an AMD in years, but the price/perf and hopefully the longevity of the AM3 socket swayed my buying decision. The only bad thing is I’ve gotten rusty in my AMD OC’ing, was having limited success and have been looking for some good basic walkthroughs to see what everyone else was doing. Again, thank you!
#14 by Casinorezensionen - June 2nd, 2009 at 03:25
is also preparing for a Monday launch of its new platform built around the new Phenom processors and the 700 series chipsets. While we are hearing nice things about the flagship 790FX chipset that will also be launched next week, the expectations are all about the processors, especially because it will give current AM2 socket motherboard owners the possibility of swapping and upgrading to the new generation of CPUs without having to change additional components.
#15 by Michael - August 8th, 2009 at 17:03
I have a question in regards to overclocking.
My question is I have AMD X4 920 on a Asus MB model #M3N78-EM. I want to OC it but have no idea where I should start. It’s Windows Vista Ultimate. I have OCZ 8 GB of DDR 2 on my board now. Using the onboard viedo card. Thanks for your help.
#16 by Matt - August 24th, 2009 at 22:30
I am trying to overclock a 955 Black Phenom ii in an asus m4a785td-v evo. I also have ocz flex ii ddr2000, but do not know how to achieve max performance with the retail fan limits. Can someone please give me some tips..?
#17 by Luke - August 28th, 2009 at 22:51
im gong to over clock my phenom II x4 955 3.2G. i have liquid cooling and six fans in my haf cool master full tower; how high do think i could over clock with out it getting too hot? i only need a rough estimate
#18 by Ian McNaughton - September 3rd, 2009 at 15:52
Not sure I can answer that, my answer would be very subjective, but I would think you could hit 4G without any major isues, but again, it all depends on cooling, bios, multipliers and voltage…
Let us know how it works out for you…
#19 by Daniel - September 18th, 2009 at 07:52
Hi Ian and thanks for making an great guide witch is easy to follow … thou i have a little problem understanding one of the steps and i was hoping u could elaborate on it
Step 8 – Now increase voltage; this should also be done incrementally. You need to know how the voltage scales with frequency. As you increase voltage, frequency should increase, but there is a limit where too much voltage will start to reduce frequency; this is the “Sweet Spot” – find it!
i found my max FREQ to be 3.6 ghz(x18) at stock 1.35 voltage on vcore ( it fails at 18x but runs on 17.5x) now how do i detect the sweet spot … do i increse the voltage with 50 mv and run the bench test again and keep doing it until it doesnt fail ?
jepp im noobish at this but ill appriciate the help
Regards
Daniel fron denmark
#20 by Ian McNaughton - September 18th, 2009 at 08:18
sounds like you have found the voltage sweet spot… What is you multiplier at?