Overclocking my FX-8350 / Asus Crosshair V Formula - Z

[willburstyle06]

So I Achieved an stable overclock of 4.6Ghz on my FX 8350 chip.
Tested it by playing GTA V for a couple hours at Max 1080p settings and CPU Core temps never went about 56 degrees Celsius




My settings
Cool'n'Quiet - Disabled
C1E - Disabled
SVM - Disabled
Core C6 State - Disabled
HPC Mode - Disabled
Amp Master Mode - Disabled
AMD Turbo CORE Technology - Disabled
CPU LLC - Ultra High (75%)
CPU Current Capability - 130%
CPU Ratio - 23.0
Core Voltage -1.380V
Temps - 19 °C Idle / 56 °C under Load
CPU Fan - Noctua NH-C12P SE14 140mm SSO 1200 RPM
PSU- Corsair HX 750 Gold Rated
GPU- R9 290X Sapphire Vapor-X OC 1100/1400


My question is how much more should I push the overclock on air with my particular CPU Fan. I feel like 4.6Ghz without actually changing the core voltage means I have a pretty good chip ( The default voltage was between 1.365-1.380 When I changed LLC and CPU Current Capability it seems to have stabilized it at 1.380). I know your supposed to increase the CPU Ratio until your computer is unstable or crashes and then increase the voltage by .010 and keep going until the core temps reach unsafe levels at around 62-68 °C. Whats causing some confusion on my part is I'm seeing on other forums and posts on here people can not reach a stable of overclock of 4.7-4.8 with out the core voltage being around 4.4-4.5 which would be a huge increase from where I'm currently at. The other problem I'm concerned about running into is my PSU not being able to supply enough Power with both my CPU and GPU overclocked. I have 750w to play with but my GPU a R9 290X is already overclocked to 1100/1400 so how much headroom do I have left?

[willburstyle06]

So I went ahead and tried to push it a little farther to 4.8Ghz


Booted into windows at around 1.4V but it would crash immediately, was still crashing till I got around 1.416V but odd things were happening. Firestrike quit in the middle of the test and GTA V also crashed. I increased to the voltage to 1.425V and it seems stable now but oddly cpu-z and hwinfo both still have the voltage at 1.416. I have it set to manual in the bios settings not offset but no matter how much I increase it it stays at 1.416

*issue solved by turning up LLC to extreme now sits at a constant 1.425V currently stress testing right now

[elesde]

The PSU should be up to the task no question with a solid build quality and 60A on +12V. I have my doubts about the CPU cooler though especially under heavy load with LLC extreme.

Have you tried running a CPU stress test to determine stability under OC? I doubt that GTA V stresses all cores constantly 😄
With LLC on ultra high and APM disabled you are giving the CPU already much more voltage than it would have stock under load.
4.6 @ 1.38 sounds like a nice OC to me and 56° are good as well with a little safety margin.
Another question would be how much does the case heat up when the OCed GPU is stressed, added to that the heat from the CPU and probably higher ambient temps in summer...

You can also try to OC the CPU/NB a little from the stock 2200 and up the HT link back to 2600, should give a few % more performance 😃
For permanent usage I would also activate C&Q and maybe even C1 & C6 (as long as it does not cause instability) to save power.

What really helped me with my FX chip on an Asus board is this guide: http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

[willburstyle06]

I have been using that exact guide for my overclock. I'm running Prime95 right now while monitoring temps to see if it is truly stable at 1.426V. Not sure If I wanna mess with a FSB overclock yet since that requires a lot more fine tuning. So far getting low 60's for temps in the testing whats the Max upper limit temps for this chip before it starts to do damage.

[elesde]

Just be careful with LLC extreme, would be a shame to kill such a nice clocking chip 😄

[willburstyle06]

I did not want to set it to LLC Extreme but with LLC on Ultra High it wouldn't raise the core voltage past 1.416. I was setting the voltages manually so I'm still confused on what the problem was.


Passed an hour of Prime95 with max temps hitting 66°C no errors. Max temps while gaming were about 59°C