Throttling on stress test
Throttling on stress test
Hey everyone, just checking a few details. Here’s a quick recap:
- Antec 1100 case with various fan upgrades
- Amd fx-8150 bulldozer (stock 3.6ghz) paired with a h55 "water cooler" and dual cougar fans (2 mmh2o pressure) drawing air in
- Gigabyte 7870 OC edition GPU
- 16GB 1600MHz Corsair Vengeance RAM
- 1TB HDD, likely around 5200rpm
- ASUS 970 Extreme3 MB drive
My old PC can’t run the maximum settings anymore. I’ve been tweaking the BIOS multiplier and trying to manage temperatures during hot summer days. Recently, I switched my multiplier to 18.5 in BIOS, pushing it up to 4.2GHz. The temperature was a problem (reaching close to 70°C on the socket and around 50°C per core), so I tried lowering the voltage. It kept dropping below 1.4V. Then I noticed I could disable cores in BIOS and switch to 6 cores to handle heat better, since games don’t seem to use nearly 8 cores.
Currently, I’m running at 4.25GHz on 6 cores with a voltage of 1.375V. I haven’t tried lowering the voltage yet, but it might help. Temperatures on Prime95 are stable at 62°C on the socket and 45°C per core. Both readings match what CoreTemp and SpeedFan show.
I’m considering this a solid starting point. Previously, I was getting higher temps at 3.8GHz with all 8 cores. One concern is occasional slowdowns where the clock drops briefly before recovering. Is this thermal throttling? I’ve disabled Cool & Quiet and similar settings. Did these temperatures meet recommended limits? Could this be related to the Prime95 test?
It's probably due to some VRM throttling and voltage droop when under load. You did the correct move by disabling two cores and increasing clock speeds, though. The VRM components are a vulnerability (they'll slow down around 50% load) and the water cooler doesn't provide any extra airflow to help cool them.
madmatt30 :
Its more than likely a bit of vrm throttling + vdroop under load.
You've done the right thing disabling 2 cores & pushing clocks for more performance IMO.
The boards vrm's are a weak point though (they'll throttle at 50c or so) & a water cooler offers no secondary airflow to cool them down.
Thanks for the replies, guys! So far I'm back up to ultra settings at 1080 and getting 70-100 fps so far on WoW. Previously it was lagging a bit on the higher settings so I had to set it down lower, and the game said it recomended even lower settings at just medium for everything. Although I didn't have a way to monitor fps. But a definate improvement nontheless and hopefully it'll be ok for Forza when it finally comes to pc.
As for cooking for the board itself, there's also a fan mounted on the back of the case behind the mb that I have pulling air out. So in total the case has two 120mm intakes for the front and two 120mm for the side, as well as the rad mounted pulling air from the rear 120mm slot. Then there's a 200mm fan up top and the 120mm behind the mobo to exhaust.
Would anyone recomend different settings or otherwise? Like I said, I'm new to all this so I'm probably missing something. Maybe should I back down the voltage until the lowest value that it won't crash at? To save more heat still?
I have another question for you all. It seems I still had C6 enabled, which would have caused the throttling, I think. I disabled it before, but I might have forgotten to remove it when resetting the BIOS. My mistake—I should have double-checked again :/ Now that I’ve rechecked everything and it’s set correctly, I’m seeing max ghz and voltage even when idle. From what I understand, this is the proper configuration. But... why? The extra clock and voltage show 8*C more (around 42-43) on the socket and CPU while idling at 4.2ghz with 6 cores and 1.375v. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but doesn’t it seem like revving your car at 5k rpm when sitting idle? Could I try a more stable overclock? I haven’t tried it yet. But what temperatures should I aim for to ensure longevity? Perhaps setting up Turbocore again would help, or is this another restriction?
I understand what you're suggesting, but I believe the idea is to set the turbo as the maximum clock speed and around 3ghz with it off. I can adjust the turbo clock, though I'm not sure what its purpose is. I thought it would help by ramping up during load and slowing down when idle or watching something. Since most of the time I'm sitting idle or streaming, keeping it running at high speeds wastes energy and generates more heat, which could wear it out faster. My concern is whether I'm misinterpreting its function. I'd prefer to revert to a lower turbo setting before it activates. I've been experimenting with clock speeds and voltages to see what works best, and I plan to share my findings later. Regardless of the adjustments I make or disable, I still notice it throttles down to a multiplier of x7 until temperatures drop slightly. No matter the settings, once the socket temperature reaches around 60 degrees (based on core temp max I've seen), it reverses like that. It doesn't get excessively hot during gaming, but I'm unsure if pushing it higher is safe or effective. I tried disabling the turbocore feature in AMD Overdrive and have set everything to off in BIOS. So far, these settings seem stable.
4.2ghz @ 3.75v 6 cores – Keeps around 60-61°C, throttles after a few minutes of use. Core temps just under 50°C. Idle temp at 40°C.
4.4ghz @ 4.25v 6 cores – Reaches about 62°C and then throttles again. Core temps hit 50°C. Idle temp at 43°C.
I'm struggling to find any benefit from keeping it constantly clocked high. Until I discover a better reason, I'll lower it back to 4.2ghz and gradually increase it again. Maybe I'm overdoing the cooling, but my temps seem fine while others with higher clocks get hotter. It's not like it spikes to 70+ with this setting. My thoughts on this? Lol
My mobile has the chance to adjust the turbo clock too, so I considered setting it as the "max." But that was more just a suggestion from you than a concrete plan. It’s not the direction I’m heading now. However, I’m struggling to make the CPU slow down during idle like before I turned it off completely. Even under stress testing, it still reduces speed as expected. I’m starting to give up on this mess. Now my idle temperatures are higher for the same performance. I guess I’ll just give up and maybe a strong reset would help.
Hi! I just wanted to let you know I discovered something during my searches. When I bought the board, I had no prior knowledge about mobos and relied on recommendations. Given that I've been throttled despite my clock speeds, how serious is the risk of keeping it at that level? Would it likely cause damage since games probably won't push it as hard as prime? Should I go back to a setting where even prime wont throttle it?
There is no genuine danger, nothing will be harmed since any throttling measures will remain very strict.