Author Topic: Help with overclocking amd 3700-kn8 ultra (Read 386 times)

WhiteHawk · « **on:** April 02, 2006, 08:56:23 AM »

Got the new rig up and running. It seems to be much smoother than my old one but pc mark 2004 only gives me about 500 extra points. Oh, well, having 2 good gaming machines in the den is great for lan gaming

. (bad for marriage:( ). Any how, I am trying to OC my athlon and I cant figure out how to keep from jacking the RAM up along with the CPU?? On my other computer, the BIOS allows me to ratio the CPU to the RAM so I can jack up the CPU and keep the RAM right at its normal frequency. Any advice? How do I know when to kick up the voltage to the cpu and or the ram?

Thnx,

specs below.

BTW for those interested in a intel AMD comparison. Its early in the game, but the AMD system seems quite a bit smoother, although it only gives me about 500 extra points on pc mark 2004, but i dont have raid or sata or anything like that. the AMD runs real quiet and real cool, that is the big difference so far.

Roscoroo · « **Reply #1 on:** April 02, 2006, 11:00:36 AM »

put win xp on a diet 1st .. I myself didnt install the stupid xp firewall on mine and it freed up alot of cycles .
Turn off "Cool n quiet"also . if that came with
I get the base line setting at stock timings then start bumping it
mine likes the 10.0 clock multi verse the 11 or 12 / .5

Dont go by my setup ... its different then yours

my 3500 is at

Clock multiplier x 10.0
HTT Bus Frequency 250.0 MHz (sometimes they dont like being set 250.0 or abouve )

CPU Clock Speed 2500 MHz

so its back to the good ole amd math

11.0 x 200 =2200
11.5 x 200 = 2300

166 = 333 ram
200 = 400
250= 500

the ram latency timings can be kinda wacked and very picky so id leave that stock for now and off to the forums you go .

Keep the ram down low because of its multiplication is sometimes way over on certian cpu's and mb's

the cpu voltages vary with type venice / winchester / ect cores usually dont go over 1.62 1.65v .. theres a few that are stuck lower 1.5volts
Also the cpu Temp 58-60C MAX on 64bits cpu's

Im seeing these things all over the place in settings so i aint gonna just toss an anser out .. theres mb bios updates too going on like crazy .

Go here first

http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=67749

http://forums.amd.com/

http://www.ocforums.com/

WARNING: Overclocking will void your warranty. Do so at your own risk!

WhiteHawk · « **Reply #2 on:** April 02, 2006, 11:12:41 AM »

thnx again roo. I got mine at 11x and 213. I am scared about pushing the ram, for some reason.

38ruk · « **Reply #3 on:** April 02, 2006, 08:44:17 PM »

The 3700's are excellent overclockers . When i was using air , i ran mine at 2.8mhz 24/7 . I f your worried about pushing the ram , just use the ram divider .

Here are the settings i used @ 2.8 255X11 Vcore was @ 1.4v (stock for a 3700) HT link was at 4X DONT forget the Hypertransport link , If you leave it at the 5X setting it will be unstable . The HT link needs to be kept around 1000mhz so for a 255fsb X4 = 1020mhz , mine is actually stable @1080 so there is some wiggle room . Since you dont want to push your ram , use the 166 (333) divider, it should put the ram around 210mhz ( cant remember exact number) , but seeing as your ocz is pc3700 i wouldnt worry about pushing it ,it's stock speed is 233mhz.

If you have any stability issues , you might have to add .25v to the vcore , mine didnt need it, but every chip is different. Just keep track of your temps , try and stay under 55c load . Alot of the 3700's ive seen on overclock.net are capible of 2.9 -3.0. ghz , remember the FX-57's are 2.8ghz stock , and are the same core that the 3700's have. Mine 3700 at 3ghz (cpuz link below ) beats my neightbors stock FX-57 in every gaming benchmark we have thrown at them , we have identical hardware Except CPU's .
GL 38

EDIT : Take it slow thou , you dont have to jump to 2.8 right away , im just letting you know what mine did stable on air . I would go 2-3 mhz at a time up to 230-235fsb, from there on up go 1-2 mhz at a time and test with prime95, superPI , or any bench your comfortable with .

WhiteHawk · « **Reply #4 on:** April 04, 2006, 05:05:34 PM »

ahhh, so i want to REDUCE my multiplier. That will allow me to jack up m,y CPU and keep my RAM down a bit?? I get it. i think.

38ruk · « **Reply #5 on:** April 04, 2006, 09:44:35 PM »

I dont reduce my multipler for the cpu , i leave it at 11 . To keep your ram lower you need to use the memory divider . In the bios where you set your memory setting , it will give you the option for 133 (266) , 166 (333) , 200 (400) . When using the 166 (333) divider , you can up the fsb of the cpu to lets say 250mhz. So your cpu is going to run 250X11 =2750 . If you kept the memory running full speed with the 200 (ddr400) setting the memory would scale with the cpu fsb and would end up running the ram at 250mhz

Now if you use the 166 (333) memory divider , meaning your underclocking you ram to start with , then adding the extra 50mhz overclock to it, your memory will run @ 200mhz . I know the math doesnt add up , thats because the 166 divider is actually 5/6th's divider .

Here’s a chart to help explain it from Travis at Vr-Zone who I believe had Oskar Wu’s help to develop it:

http://www.frontpage2000.family-net.org/jris/RamSpeed.JPG

Good luck 38

Roscoroo · « **Reply #6 on:** April 05, 2006, 12:46:33 AM »

thats the idea with the 64 bits ... id use the 166 (333) first normally because its the most stable .

our old 32 bit cpu's we always jacked the ram up .. but with the 64 it doesnt like the ram jacked and causes it to go unstable really fast .

Remember the amd's are like a Big block engine (lotsa torque .. but low rpm)
your Pent 4 is like a small block (tons of rpm to make power)

Thanks for steping in 38 .. I thought it was you that had the 3700 .

38ruk · « **Reply #7 on:** April 05, 2006, 02:21:06 PM »

Rosco , out of all the overclocking fourms and sites ive been to , i still havent seen too many that beat your 2500 barton overclock . I remember having to jack the ram way up , the xp's took a pretty big performance hit if you didnt. It would be nice if the new 64's took the heat the Xp's did, I remember not worrying till 75c lol. Fwiw, i gave my 2500 barton to my brother in law , and its still chuggin away @ 2400mhz 8) . 38

Roscoroo · « **Reply #8 on:** April 06, 2006, 12:42:24 AM »

that oc cost me the ram a week later... but it was a blast .. that cpu is still running to this day up at the machine shop @ 2.4 ghz . I thought for shure something on that one woulda went "poP" by now .. or even 3+ yrs ago when i did that . its still on water cooling though too and the hard drives arnt in the same case as the mainboard

my 2500 mbarton (this one im currently sluting the net on )is still working great also @ 2.4 ghz, 41c loaded on air. 85-100 fps in AH

I'd like to get a 3700 or 4400 for a home pc but we cant justify the cost .
at least at work my 3500 64bit screamer is partially covered in cost or id still be waiting . I aint got the time or the guts to try taking that 3500 to the Moon yet .. ... yet .... ...

WhiteHawk · « **Reply #9 on:** April 08, 2006, 08:13:30 PM »

ok, i get it. I got the RAM at ddr333 and the fsb at 230. It is kicking buttock in a big way! Im running at over 2.5 ghz and the RAM is at 180. 200 is normal so the ram is still underclocked, but man, this sucker is plowing through doom3 max res and graphics. Now I need a good AMD temp monitor program so i dont cook my sht. Any suggest appreciate.

MrRiplEy[H] · « **Reply #10 on:** April 09, 2006, 04:16:18 AM »

You give yourself a major penalty in performance if you run async fsb/ram. It should be well worth the investment to get high performance ram in order to run sync memory speeds (if you're into overclocking anyway).

WhiteHawk · « **Reply #11 on:** April 09, 2006, 07:50:55 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by MrRiplEy[H]
You give yourself a major penalty in performance if you run async fsb/ram. It should be well worth the investment to get high performance ram in order to run sync memory speeds (if you're into overclocking anyway).

Well, i get better benchmark doing it like this. I can get the RAM and the CPU up to 215 together and it blazes, but the benchmark is lower??? I dunno, Im an ameture OC'er. Isnt the benchmark the final judge? (PCmark2004).

MrRiplEy[H] · « **Reply #12 on:** April 09, 2006, 03:15:24 PM »

You should benchmark with game performance if you build for gaming. For office, oc is not advisable anyway. Nothing beats 100% stability while working.

38ruk · « **Reply #13 on:** April 09, 2006, 06:28:35 PM »

Whitehawk , As i stated above your memory has a stock rated speed of 233mhz or ddr 466. So at the full memory speed setting (400) and a 230fsb which your are currently running, that ram would still be underclocked by 3mhz . There's no reason for you to be using a ram divider with your current overclock. I know you stated earlier you didnt want to push the ram , but its a non issue with pc3700

MrRipley , IMO your arent getting a perfrmance penalty by running a ram divider with the new A64's as long as your your keeping your memory at its rated speed. Your just not getting the full overclock potental of running a higher FSB on the memory , and putting a heavier load on the memory controller. 38