AMD Athlon 760k enters "limp mode" with two cores at 4.6GHz
AMD Athlon 760k enters "limp mode" with two cores at 4.6GHz
I chose to boost my performance, so I attempted to overclock the new 760k processor. It has been running smoothly up to 4.6GHz, and achieving around 20CB in Cinebench for every 0.2GHz. But reaching 4.7 or 4.8 forced me to slightly increase the voltage, which stopped the crashes immediately. Nevertheless, each test dropped from 350CB to 200CB. I looked up some advice and was directed to download AMD Overdrive. It turned out that cores 0 and 1 were hitting their x48 multiplier, while cores 2 and 3 were stuck in a "limp mode," maintaining the same temperature and voltage but capping at 1.8GHz. Someone suggested simply adding more voltage, which I tried but it didn’t help.
Specifications:
AMD Athlon 760k at 4.4GHz base, capable of reaching 4.6-4.8GHz with overclocking
CoolerMaster Masterliquid 120
Custom MOSFET and choke heatsinks
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-DH3 Rev 3.0 BIOS vF9
DIYPC Silence-BK with two 120mm front, one 120mm rear, Masterliquid 120 @ rear.
8GB DDR3 Kingston HyperX 1866mhz in slot labeled "Slot 1" on MB, appears as "Slot 3" in software, and is the farthest from the CPU
EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC 2GB
1TB WesternDigital Black drive
CoolerMaster Masterwatt 750
Confirmed that the 8-pin power cable for the CPU is connected to the CPU power connector, as mentioned in other discussions.
MrGuy04 shared his experience with overclocking his AMD Athlon 760k processor. He managed to reach stable speeds up to 4.6GHz and achieved around 20CB in Cinebench for every 0.2GHz. However, attempting to push it further to 4.7 or 4.8 resulted in crashes, prompting him to look into AMD Overdrive. He discovered that certain cores were stuck at a lower multiplier due to voltage limitations, which affected performance. After some research, he decided to increase the voltage but found it didn't resolve the issue.
I chose to boost my performance a bit, so I attempted to overclock my new 760k processor. It has been running smoothly up to 4.6GHz, and achieving around 20CB in Cinebench for every 0.2GHz. But when I reached 4.7 or 4.8, I realized I needed to slightly increase the voltage, which stopped the crashes immediately. Nevertheless, the performance dropped from 350CB to 200CB each time I ran it. After some research, I found AMD Overdrive and was directed to download it. It turned out that cores 0 and 1 were reaching their x48 multiplier limit, while cores 2 and 3 were stuck in a "limp mode"—maintaining the same temperature and voltage but with a multiplier of 1.8, preventing them from exceeding 1.8GHz. Another forum thread suggested simply increasing the voltage, which I tried but it didn’t help.
Specifications:
AMD Athlon 760k at 4.4GHz base, reaching up to 4.6-4.8GHz with overclocking
CoolerMaster Masterliquid 120
Custom MOSFET and choke heatsinks
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-DH3 Rev 3.0 BIOS version F9
DIYPC Silence-BK with two 120mm front, one 120mm rear, Masterliquid 120 @ rear.
8GB DDR3 Kingston HyperX 1866mhz in slot labeled "Slot 1" on MB, appears as "Slot 3" in software, and is the farthest slot from the CPU
EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC 2GB
1TB WesternDigital Black drive
CoolerMaster Masterwatt 750
I have verified that the 8-pin power cable for the CPU is connected to the CPU power connector. Other users mentioned this.
It seems those cores entered "limp mode" because they were either overheating too much to sustain the voltage and multiplier, or they simply lacked the capability to handle it. I tried lowering the clock speed as much as possible without triggering the limp mode, and also reduced the voltages to help manage temperatures.
I chose to boost performance, so I attempted to overclock my new 760k. It has been running smoothly up to 4.6GHz, achieving around 20CB in Cinebench for every 0.2GHz. But when I reached 4.7 or 4.8, I needed to slightly increase the voltage, which stopped the crashes immediately. Nevertheless, the performance dropped from 350CB to 200CB each time. After some research, I was directed to download AMD Overdrive. It turned out that cores 0 and 1 were reaching their x48 multiplier limit, while cores 2 and 3 were stuck in a "limp mode," maintaining the same temperature but a reduced multiplier of 1.8, preventing them from exceeding 1.8GHz. Another forum thread suggested simply increasing the voltage, which I tried but it didn’t help.
System details:
AMD Athlon 760k at 4.4GHz base, capable up to 4.6-4.8GHz with overclocking
CoolerMaster Masterliquid 120
Custom MOSFET and choke heatsinks
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-DH3 Rev 3.0 BIOS vF9
DIYPC Silence-BK (2x 120mm front, 1x 120 rear), Masterliquid 120 @ rear.
8GB DDR3 Kingston HyperX 1866mhz in slot labeled "Slot 1" on MB, appears as "Slot 3" in software, located farthest from the CPU
EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC 2GB
1TB WesternDigital Black drive
CoolerMaster Masterwatt 750
Confirmed that the 8-pin PSU CPU power cable is connected to the CPU Power connector. Other threads mentioned this.
It seems those cores entered "limp mode" because they were either overheating too much to sustain the voltage and multiplier, or they simply lacked the capability to handle it. I tried lowering the clock speed to the highest possible without triggering the limp mode, and reduced the voltages to manage temperatures. So far, temperatures remain acceptable. I suspect I’ve reached the processor’s limits.
I chose to boost my performance, so I attempted to push my new 760k to overclock. It has been stable up to 4.6GHz and consistently scores around 20CB in Cinebench for every 0.2GHz. But reaching 4.7 or 4.8 forced me to slightly raise the voltage, which stopped the crashes but caused a drop from 350CB to 200CB each time. After some research, I found AMD Overdrive and learned that cores 0 and 1 were hitting their multiplier limits while cores 2 and 3 were stuck at 1.8GHz due to a "limp mode." Others suggested increasing the voltage, but that didn’t help.
Here are my specs:
- AMD Athlon 760k, base 4.4GHz, turbo up to 4.6-4.8GHz
- CoolerMaster Masterliquid 120
- Custom MOSFET and choke heatsinks
- Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-DH3 BIOS v3.0, version F9
- DIYPC Silence-BK (2x 120mm front, 1x 120mm rear), Masterliquid 120 @ rear
- 8GB DDR3 Kingston HyperX 1866MHz in slot labeled "Slot 1" on MB, appears as "Slot 3" in software, farthest from CPU
- EVGA GeForce GTX 950 SSC, 2GB
- 1TB WesternDigital Black drive
- CoolerMaster Masterwatt 750
- Confirmed 8-pin PSU to CPU power connector
I suspect the cores entered "limp mode" because they were either overheating too much to sustain the voltage and multiplier, or they simply lacked the capability to run at those speeds. I tried lowering the clock speed to the highest possible without triggering limp mode and reduced voltages to manage temperatures. So far, temperatures remain acceptable. It seems these cores might have a defect on the die, causing them to slow down at high speeds. Just try running it at 4.7GHz.