Awesome Llano Overclocking Tool

[Mathragh]

Hi guys!

I just wanted to share this awesome overclock with you lot, and inform you of this really nice new overclocking tool at the same time!

I managed to overclock my GF's lappy with an AMD A6-3410MX APU from 1,6GHz with 2,3GHz turbo, to 2,2GHz with a massive 3,1GHz turbo!
Also, the 2,2GHz overclock is managed with a lower voltage than the voltage it used running at 1,6GHz.

I did this with a overclocking tool called FusionTweaker, which lets you manually set the multiplier and voltage for each different P-state the APU has(it even includes 2 P-states for the North bridge, though I'm not sure that part of the program is fully functional)
The default voltage for P-state 1(the highest non-turbo P-state) at 1,6GHz was 1,1125 volts, but the overclock of 2,2GHz was managed with a voltage of 1,0625.
I could go even higher than 2,2GHz, but even at a lowered voltage, it already got about 3 degrees hotter than without the overclock, so i decided to play it safe and leave it at 2,2GHz and 1,0625V.



Below are some screenies:

Here I overclocked and undervolted only the P1 state (from 1,6GHz at 1,1125 volts to 2,2GHz at 1,0625 volts).

After that I wanted to make sure the APU didnt get too hot with both the CPU and GPU part at max load. I did this by running prime95 at 4 threads and running furmark burn-in at the same time

Then I tried out the max stable turbo frequency. I managed the Turbo speed of 3,1GHz by simply leaving the turbo voltage at stock, and increasing the multiplier untill the system began to get unstable when running prime95 at just 2 out of 4 threads. With only 2 threads loaded by prime95, both CPU-Z and FusionTweaker reported the cores still switching to the turbo state. I figured that this would be the best way to test turbo stability(as opposed to running prime95 at all 4 cores, since then the turbo doesnt seem to be kicking in anymore).

So, I am a happy person!(and so is the GF ), and the best part about this overclock is that it doesnt even really increase the temperature of the APU in a significant way (about 3 C max).

I havent yet had the time to undervolt those other P-states in order to reach better battery life, but these results promise alot for that aswell!

Also I'd say this overclock promises some nice performace improvements for everyone with a Llano APU!

Furthermore, I'm open for any suggestions or requests regarding this overclock, as i'm actually not really a veteran overclocker, and always willing to learn more



UPDATE:
I managed to get the Idle clocks down from 800MHz to 500MHz, I found this the lowest I could go without noticing the slowdown.
The 500 Mhz clock only needed a puny 0,65V to be stable, instead of the stock 0,9375V at 800MHz.

This is gonna do alot for idle power use and battery life!


EDIT: Upping the multiplier doesnt seem to work for all desktop Llano APU's.

PS
For everyone interested, I read about FusionTweaker for the first time here, and its downloadable here. The first link also contains a link to a tweaking utility for brazos. The Brazos tweaking utility is limited to tweaking the voltage only.

 

[Mathragh]

For anyone interested,I finalized tweaking the P states.

Things ended up being alot greater, including a performance increase of about 18-30% at about the same power use, and battery life improvement from ~5 hours to about 6,5H.

These are the P states I found being the most optimal, and stable for about 2 weeks now.

Stock mult volt Custom mult volt
P0 23 1,3500 P0 31 1,3500
P1 16 1,1125 P1 22 1,0625
P2 15 1,0875 P2 16 0,8875
P3 14 1,0625 P3 14 0,8500
P4 13 1,0250 P4 13 0,8250
P5 12 1,0000 P5 12 0,8000
P6 10 0,9625 P6 10 0,7625
P7 8 0,9375 P7 5 0,6500

Edit: Sadly, I cannot seem to get the layout any better.

 

[Zen_]

Very cool little app! I didn't know about it, and it's working really well with a desktop A4-3400 I just built. I tried doing a minor O/C with the base clock without much luck, but with this the multiplier is fully unlocked and I really like that you can adjust the full range of p-states so it still idles at minimum power. Just tried 3.2 GHz on P0 and it went no problem.

Now I'll have to try some tweaking with the E-350 in my X120e too!

 

[Mathragh]

Very cool little app! I didn't know about it, and it's working really well with a desktop A4-3400 I just built. I tried doing a minor O/C with the base clock without much luck, but with this the multiplier is fully unlocked and I really like that you can adjust the full range of p-states so it still idles at minimum power. Just tried 3.2 GHz on P0 and it went no problem.

Now I'll have to try some tweaking with the E-350 in my X120e too!

Awesome! a 500Mhz overclock without any hassle is great =D what voltage are you on at your P-0 state btw?
I wonder how much you can tweak it further^^

Also, good luck with the E-350 tweaking

Edit: I also suppose the thread should be renamed to something more appropriate, as mobile llano chips dont seem to be the only chips benefitting from this, and the unlocked multi is also a fairly important factor

 

[Zen_]

Attached is what I set to start with...can't seem to find any stress test or CPU temp monitoring apps that work with these chips.

This actually works a lot slicker that EFI tweaking. When I messed around with the base clock in the EFI, something went haywire with the APU multiplier (EFI showed 47x and so did CPU-Z), thin black horizontal lines appeared on the desktop, and I had to reflash the EFI. I like how this starts as a service in the OS so nothing is messed around with through the boot process.

 

[Mathragh]

Did you try prime95 for stress testing? worked great for my chip.
Also, the newest version of HWmonitor (downloadable from cpuid.com) should support bulldozer chips.

 

[Yo_Wattup]

so this works with all llano apus?

and can you oc with a mobo that has oc disabled in bios?

 

[Mathragh]

so this works with all llano apus?

As far as I know, yep.

and can you oc with a mobo that has oc disabled in bios?

Also, yep!

However, I dont think the NB part of the chip(including the graphics part) can be tweaked with this.

 

[Yo_Wattup]

And it loads up on startup good? you tried shutting and stuff?

 

[Mathragh]

And it loads up on startup good? you tried shutting and stuff?

Yeah, as long as you set everything up correctly, it works like a charm.
Its been running for 2-3 weeks now on my GF's lappy, and it works great

 

[Yo_Wattup]

Yeah, as long as you set everything up correctly, it works like a charm.
Its been running for 2-3 weeks now on my GF's lappy, and it works great

Cool. Thanks heaps for the link, I'm currently overclocking my girfriends A8-3800 as I type. So far up to 3.1Ghz from 2.4Ghz.

 

[Mathragh]

Awesome man! thats quite an OC already!

Just make sure things dont get too hot, you might want to test the OC with both the CPU, and the GPU part fully stressed.

 

[Yo_Wattup]

good idea, currently at 50C with just the cpu at 100%, I thought as long as I don't go too far above that, I should be right for the whole apu, but it wouldn't hurt to stress the gpu i suppose.

 

[Yo_Wattup]

currently at 3.6ghz... 50C.. will gpu test when I get a blue screen (IF I get a blue screen at this rate... it just keeps going up and up!)

EDIT: and now somehow its cooled to 48C

DOUBLE EDIT: Seems the multi only goes up to 36, and can't change the BCLK. Well that's me then. 3600mhz it is. I ain't complaining.

 

[Mathragh]

currently at 3.6ghz... 50C.. will gpu test when I get a blue screen (IF I get a blue screen at this rate... it just keeps going up and up!)

Whoah man, thats some awesome overclock !

Are you using CPU-Z to verify that you actually have all 4 cores running at that speed?

EDIT:

Have you tried upping the multiplier of the P0(turbo) state aswell?

You might get some more out of that one?

Also, if it is suddenly cooling down, one prime thread might have had an error, also proving the CPU isn't stable at the frequency. You might want to watch Task manager closely for any core to drop down on load. This error might also explain why the mult wont go any higher

 

[Yo_Wattup]

Whoah man, thats some awesome overclock !

Are you using CPU-Z to verify that you actually have all 4 cores running at that speed?

EDIT:

Have you tried upping the multiplier of the P0(turbo) state aswell?

You might get some more out of that one?

Yes and yes. 36 is max. Tried lowering the divider of the NB to up the gpu frequency but doesn't seem to let me.

Now going for as low volts as possible, currenlty at 1.224V according to CPU-Z, and 45C. My 2500k with a Noctua NH-D14 idles at 38C, these temps are ridiculous. Yeah, I'm officially impressed.

 

[Flanker]

amazing stuff

 

[Mathragh]

Yes and yes. 36 is max. Tried lowering the divider of the NB to up the gpu frequency but doesn't seem to let me.

Now going for as low volts as possible, currenlty at 1.224V according to CPU-Z, and 45C. My 2500k with a Noctua NH-D14 idles at 38C, these temps are ridiculous. Yeah, I'm officially impressed.

Very nice!

To be honest, I dont really get why these chips are clocked and volted so incredably docile.
It seems like they could've easily clocked these Llano chips a lot better, or let them suck quite a bit less power at stock.
I mean, my GF's lappy with her A6-3410MX can consistently do with 0,2V less then whats been given at stock, then there is your chip which apparently performs even more amazingly once tweaked right.
I wonder wether all chips clock this good, and if so, I wonder what the reason is behind these stock volts and speeds while there seems to be much more performance to be had across the whole product line.

 

[Yo_Wattup]

Also, if it is suddenly cooling down, one prime thread might have had an error, also proving the CPU isn't stable at the frequency. You might want to watch Task manager closely for any core to drop down on load. This error might also explain why the mult wont go any higher

Yep, task manager and my windows gadget both say all cores at 100%, and have been since i downloaded the program which is when I started running prime.

At 1.160V according to GPU-Z and fusion tweaker! Coretemp says 41C.

It's getting hard to believe. But all the programs' stats relate to each other.. did I get a good chip maybe?

 

[Mathragh]

Yeah, apparently .
Thats incredible! and also makes my question in my former post even more true.

Have you also tried putting other kinds of load on it?

Also! quite important note: When you undervolt your P-states, make sure the voltage of the lower P state is never higher than the voltage of a higher P-state( For an instance, P1@1,2V and P2@1,3V).
If your higher P state has a lower voltage then a lower P state, the 'Make permanent' thingy wil bug, and the process wont start correctly.
So, make sure your P-state voltages make sense! ^^

 

[Yo_Wattup]

Very nice!

To be honest, I dont really get why these chips are clocked and volted so incredably docile.
It seems like they could've easily clocked these Llano chips a lot better, or let them suck quite a bit less power at stock.
I mean, my GF's lappy with her A6-3410MX can consistently do with 0,2V less then whats been given at stock, then there is your chip which apparently performs even more amazingly once tweaked right.
I wonder wether all chips clock this good, and if so, I wonder what the reason is behind these stock volts and speeds while there seems to be much more performance to be had across the whole product line.

Same reason they underclock every chip: either to make the higher-end chips appear much faster, or my personal opinion; so that when the other manufacturer releases a higher clocked cpu, they can easily compete.

And thanks for the P-State voltage tip... When I get a BSOD Ill do some other tests, one thing at a time.

 

[Mathragh]

Same reason they underclock every chip: either to make the higher-end chips appear much faster, or my personal opinion; so that when the other manufacturer releases a higher clocked cpu, they can easily compete.

Yeah, but still, your clockspeed is way higher than the highest binned chip, and the voltage way lower, the same goes for the mobile chip in my gf's lappy.

 

[FlanK3r]

awesome man, can u show some comparsion before and after OC (benchmarks)???

 

[Yo_Wattup]

Still lowering volts, temps gone up from 41-44 though... (that desktop gadget there is running off coretemp for temps)

awesome man, can u show some comparsion before and after OC (benchmarks)???

Good idea, I wasn't planning on doing benches because it's my girlfriends rig, but I suppose, why not? Will have to wait till tommorrow though.

 

[Mathragh]

Perhaps the jump in temps is from the voltage jumping higher when the processor momentarily jumps to the p0 turbo state