Support for overclocking an FX-8300 in a 970A-D3P system
Support for overclocking an FX-8300 in a 970A-D3P system
Sorry for any mistakes in my English, it's not native.
Hello everyone, I own an FX 8300 and want to overclock the stock 3.3ghz to 4.2ghz, aiming to mimic the FX 8350 performance. The turbo speed is already at 4.2ghz, should I stick with the original settings?
I conducted some basic research and tried various methods—adjusted the clock ratio to 20.00 (running at 4.00ghz), turned off turbo mode, disabled cool & quiet, suppressed C1E support, kept SVM enabled, set CPU core control to auto, disabled HPC and C6 states, and maintained APM active. For voltage settings, I achieved a CPU Vcore of 1.37500V (though I’m unsure if that’s safe).
It worked fine for a short time; I played some games for a few minutes (time not precise).
But during stress tests with Prime95, my core speed dropped to around 3.xghz for a couple of seconds before returning to 4ghz. After a few minutes of stress testing, my PC would display a blue screen, but I haven’t tested that at 4.0ghz.
So, should I keep it stock or make changes? Thanks for your help, and sorry for any English errors.
My setup details:
FX 8300
970A-D3P (latest FD BIOS)
(2x) Kingston 8gb DDR3 1866MHZ (dual channel)
1050ti OC edition (dual fan, no 6-pin connector)
240gb SSD (Windows)
1tb HDD
CORSAIR 600W CX600 V2 80plus
CPU-Z & GPU-Z screenshots: http://prntscr.com/gvomv2
Have you verified the VRM temperatures on your motherboard? The D3P model is a cost-focused option and wasn't built for the FX8XXX series or high overclocking demands, let alone extreme settings.
What time is recorded during prime95? Which version are you using? Avoid the latest release with an FX CPU. I recommend prime95 version 26.6, as it lacks AVX instructions and provides better stress testing for an FX CPU. Your cooler isn't ideal; the temperature drop during prime95 likely means throttling due to excessive heat. This could also explain instability at 4.2ghz—at 1.375v the Vcore should easily handle it, but I question if your cooler can manage the heat generated by the CPU under those conditions.
The temperatures during prime95? Which version are you using? I wouldn’t opt for the latest release with an FX CPU. I’m looking for prime95 version 26.6, as it lacks AVX instructions and provides a more effective stress test for an FX CPU. Your cooler isn’t perfect, but the drop in frequencies seems to be throttling because of high temperatures. This might also explain the instability at 4.2ghz; a Vcore of 1.375v should suffice. I’m skeptical your cooler can manage the heat generated by the CPU under these conditions. After downloading version 26.6, I ran it for 10 minutes and observed: the multiplier fluctuates from 20.0 to 14.5 for about 3 seconds, then back to 20.0 for another 3 seconds. The CPU temperature starts at 23°C, rises to 50°C after a few seconds of stress testing, and stabilizes around 63°C. I should also note that your Northbridge is set to 2400MHz and Hyper Transport to 2600MHz.
63° represents an extremely high setting for FX processors. The maximum safe temperature is shown as 62°, meaning you might be harming your processor by allowing it to operate at such a high level. Aim to maintain temperatures under 60 C.
Have you verified the VRM temperatures on your motherboard? The D3P model is a cost-focused option and wasn't built for the FX8XXX series or high overclocking demands, let alone extreme settings.
Have you verified the VRM temperatures on your motherboard? The D3P is a cost-focused option and wasn't built for the FX8XXX series or overclocking, let alone high-end configurations.
Only having a 4+1 power phase setup might be restricting your overclock stability because it can trigger vdroop when the CPU is under stress.
I think I'll just leave it as-is and go stock, thanks everyone. <3