Here is some advice for doing a small overclock.
Here is some advice for doing a small overclock.
No, really not. Prime95 with small FFTs uses a steady state workload that follows Intel's official specs, not some crazy destructive mad scientist experiment. This has nothing to do with my fellow moderator and author of the Intel temperature guide, Computronix. It is completely unrelated to my knowledge base. Funny though. If you cannot run this system at full load without staying below 80°C, then your cooling system is failing or there are too many overclocks for that amount of cooling. Sometimes, lowering voltage might help stay cool while still running stable, but other times it won't work well at all. It could also just be a bad piece of silicon. Or maybe it's simply an unrealistic overclock. ALL CPUs should be able to run a 100% steady state workload for 15 minutes and stay within recommended thermal limits. For Intel and Ryzen processors, the main limit is usually 80°C, while older FX processors must keep ten degrees above their TJmax margin. Actual "temperature" readings on FX platforms are useless because they won't be accurate at either end of the spectrum. There IS a way to roughly match remaining thermal margin to a standard number, but it's pointless when all you really need to know is that Overdrive or Core Temp shows you have 30, 20, 10, 5, or -5 degrees of safety margin. My problem with Aida64 is that it does not present a steady state load that pushes the CPU hard enough like Prime Small FFT, OCCT small dataset, or Heavyload. Running Aida64 to check thermal compliance is like standing on a rainy porch trying to test an umbrella. While this guide is specifically for Intel Core-i platforms, there is plenty of good info in there that applies to any modern consumer platform. How To - Intel CPU Temperature Guide Update: February 9th, 2025 Preamble The topic of processor temperatures can be very confusing. Conflicting opinions based on misunderstandings about terminology and specs leave users unsure how to check cooling performance. This guide offers...
I hear that there is a problem with the FX Series chips getting too hot, so how can I safely overclock them without letting them get way too hot? If Coretemp isn't showing the real temperature and AMD Overdrive isn't working either (I thought it showed me the right temperature?), I'm going to try to find a good voltage and temperature for 4.5 GHz and stop there. It seems pretty stable at 4.4 GHz with 1.35 volts, but if that goes wrong, we'll just stay put and not change anything else.
I have a problem with my video ID. Even though both AMD Overdrive and Core temp show 1.3375V right now, when I set it to 1.37V in BIOS, they don't match up. Are these numbers just lying or is something blocking the VID from changing? Prime95 crashes during stress tests at 4.5Mhz while I keep boosting Vcore by 0.01V each time and watch my heat carefully.
AMD DOES display the cooling headroom. If you check Overdrive, the number gets smaller when the CPU heats up; it does not go higher. You can also view thermal margin under Options > Settings > Advanced by checking the box labeled "Show distance to TJmax in temperature fields".
VID is not VCore. These two things are totally different from each other. VID stands for Voltage Identifier. It is the voltage level that the CPU asks the motherboard's VR (voltage regulator) to provide it. This request starts when the CPU turns on, and it can change if the CPU goes into power saving mode like C1E or EIST features. Each CPU has a specific maximum VID number set by the factory while they are at full speed. If you turn off power saving features like C1E or EIST, those settings disappear completely, and the CPU's VID will stay fixed at its highest possible value forever.
VCore is the actual voltage that flows from the motherboard to the CPU. This can happen automatically when using features like C1E or EIST... or it can be manually set by a user for something called overclocking (OC). When you do an OC, the manual VCore setting might be higher or lower than what the VID shows on the motherboard. About how we read voltage: VID is just information inside the CPU's memory, while VCore is the real voltage number. Normally, checking voltage with software isn't very accurate; there can often be a difference of ten percent to twenty percent off from the true value.