Can the AMD Athlon 64 processers be overclocked??

[gerrynicol]

I just ran Super pi again with the proc @ 2.5, 36 secs for 1M. Faster but does it sound right?.

Cheers,
Gerry.

 

[gerrynicol]

Quote:
Originally Posted by GSG-9
I think dual core computers should have a co-prosser chip to designate tasks between them, you would only get a 3/4 speed increase but it would make all your software work faster.

This wont work but I dont remember why..

It would slow the data throughput a bit, it's an extra step in the transfer.

 

[_33]

I just ran Super pi again with the proc @ 2.5, 36 secs for 1M. Faster but does it sound right?.

Cheers,
Gerry.

Holy be-headed jesus!! That's almost as fast as my ne at 2.8ghz (34 sec)! Yours is that fast mostly because of the ram timings. You're rocking'!!!

If I had the money, I'd get a dual core over my single core anytime.

 

[gerrynicol]

cool, iv'e still to push the core past 2.5, I might try now . will post findings in a while.

Gerry.

34 secs @ 2.6Ghz

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y281/Gerrynicol/34secs.jpg

 

[_33]

cool, iv'e still to push the core past 2.5, I might try now . will post findings in a while.

Gerry.

34 secs @ 2.6Ghz

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y281/Gerrynicol/34secs.jpg

Could you launch sisoft sandra and tell me what is your memory bandwidth? And would you have your CAS latency numbers available?

my CAS is at 2.5/3/3/8 and memory is running at a whopping 402mhz
My memory is so poor in performance I had to put it in 2T and put it to 2.85V instead of the default 2.6V. It's using Infineon chips, which I believe are total crap. If I had your memory, I'd be running 3Dmark2001se with a score of 30K+ and 3Dmark03 at 15K+

Also good to know is how hot is your processor at idle and at 100% usage?

Owwww... Just noticed you have water cooling......... LOL! Well, you'll probably make it to 2.8Ghz no sweat.

I just tought, really, I wouldn't be surprized if you could crank up your memory up to 550mhz while giving it a couple fraction of volts upwards and possibly reduce some timings.

Have you had any previous experience in working with a Lanparty board? I was just wondering what are de overclocking disadvantages of the A8N over the UT NF4 boards. I'd definately suggest you to upgrade your BIOS if you have and old one. Usually Abit has the tendency of fixing some performance and overclocking options for better compatibility. It's a win/win situation, as long as your system doesn't freeze while flashing.

 

[gerrynicol]

To start with, I had one of those ultra D boards, and had nothing but trouble
the board I have is basically the same as the fatality board, without the front panel o/c module and the active cooling on the NF4.

Will DL sisoft shortly and post results.

My mem was running 1:1 with proc @ 2.3, above that I set it to 333Mhz and with the o/c it's running 216Mhz with these timings: 2.5/4/5/6.

Temps, never really go above 35, so "should" be plenty headroom there lol.

EDIT,

K here is the result:


Sisoft - http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y281/Gerrynicol/membandwidth.jpg

Again I have never used this tool before, these any good?

3D05 - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1884448

3D06 - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=198859

Cheers,

Gerry

 

[_33]

To start with, I had one of those ultra D boards, and had nothing but trouble
the board I have is basically the same as the fatality board, without the front panel o/c module and the active cooling on the NF4.

Will DL sisoft shortly and post results.

My mem was running 1:1 with proc @ 2.3, above that I set it to 333Mhz and with the o/c it's running 216Mhz with these timings: 2.5/4/5/6.

Temps, never really go above 35, so "should" be plenty headroom there lol.

Your memory timings are odd. I propose you this: Put them to 3-2-2-8, and ramp up the MHZ. If you get memory failures, raise the voltage a bit. Without raising voltage, I am positive your memory will do 250mhz (500mhz) easily at those CAS settings. I was thinking, you coudl even do 2.5-3-3-7!!! Try it out!!! You got heat spreaders and very good memory modules, so really it would be a shame to have lower memory settings than average joe.

 

[gerrynicol]

Your memory timings are odd. I propose you this: Put them to 3-2-2-8, and ramp up the MHZ. If you get memory failures, raise the voltage a bit. Without raising voltage, I am positive your memory will do 250mhz (500mhz) easily at those CAS settings. I was thinking, you coudl even do 2.5-3-3-7!!! Try it out!!! You got heat spreaders and very good memory modules, so really it would be a shame to have lower memory settings than average joe.

Will Try these out, cheers.

I edited My last post with the results os sisoft.

Cheers,

Gerry.

 

[_33]

To start with, I had one of those ultra D boards, and had nothing but trouble
the board I have is basically the same as the fatality board, without the front panel o/c module and the active cooling on the NF4.

Will DL sisoft shortly and post results.

My mem was running 1:1 with proc @ 2.3, above that I set it to 333Mhz and with the o/c it's running 216Mhz with these timings: 2.5/4/5/6.

Temps, never really go above 35, so "should" be plenty headroom there lol.

EDIT,

K here is the result:


Sisoft - http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y281/Gerrynicol/membandwidth.jpg

Again I have never used this tool before, these any good?

3D05 - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1884448

3D06 - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=198859

Cheers,

Gerry

Wow, pays off to have PS/VS 3.0 in 3dmark eh? Anyway, your memory settings are holding you down. Your top end should be 8 GB/s, not 6. But 6 is still a little better than my "less that 5 GB/s"...

 

[gerrynicol]

I just tried adjusting my timings, no go. set the speed to 400, wouldn't boot up :shadedshu
Im going to get some new ram hopefully in a couple of weeks, the Gskill PC40002Gb set, cheaper than my current ram and should be the same speed.

Oh I did get the ram running at the following though: 2.5/3/3/6.

 

[_33]

I just tried adjusting my timings, no go. set the speed to 400, wouldn't boot up :shadedshu
Im going to get some new ram hopefully in a couple of weeks, the Gskill PC40002Gb set, cheaper than my current ram and should be the same speed.

Oh I did get the ram running at the following though: 2.5/3/3/6.

Hey, BTW I just changed my timings. I read somewheere some Infineon timings and started twiddling. I'm now at 3-3-3-5!!! 5.2 GB/s, yay!

 

[yogurt_21]

I'm now at 3-3-3-5!!! 5.2 GB/s, yay!

wow I've never seen anyone excited about a 3 cas latency before probably becasue at a 3cas latency you're operating at around a 60% efficientcy on the bandwidth. lol congrats *sarcastically*

 

[_33]

wow I've never seen anyone excited about a 3 cas latency before probably becasue at a 3cas latency you're operating at around a 60% efficientcy on the bandwidth. lol congrats *sarcastically*

#1 The memory bandwidth raised from 4.8gb/s to 5.2gb/s in general performance.
#2 Overall performance got increased
#3 I got about 40 parms to choose from in my memory settings
#4 Increased Mhz on memory
#5 I have the CHEAPEST DDR400 memory on the planet: Kingston KVR 35$/512MB sticks, and no not just cheap in price, but really cheap on overclocking and tweaking potential

 

[gerrynicol]

Thats cool, can they go any further? 2.5 maybey, what voltage are you using?.

 

[GSG-9]

Nope you can't, I had that exact stick with a Consar value ram stick, the consar stick was 2.5 and the Kingston was 3.
I could not push it that far.

 

[_33]

Thats cool, can they go any further? 2.5 maybey, what voltage are you using?.

2.55 volts, but I'm at 2T istead of 1T. 1T with Kingston KVR is incompatible with the Lanparty boards I heard, and I can confirm this hands down from day 1.

 

[yogurt_21]

oh well with 2t the cas isn't really a big deal then.

 

[laszlo]

yo dudes this wot my cpu is:

ADM Athlon 64 3200+
venice
socket 939
1.392v
core speed 2000.1 mhz
HTT 200.0 Mhz
L1 data 64 kbytes
L1 code 64 kbytes
Level 2 512 kbytes

Asrock S939 Dual SATA II M/B

wot software do i use to overclock it?

what stepping is your Venice E3 or E6 ?

 

[_33]

oh well with 2t the cas isn't really a big deal then.

If I had Corsair DDR550, of course I would be singing a different song.

Anyway, just found a new way of increasing CPU performance without increasing bus speeds and changing multipliers. Basically the technique is playign around with ROW REFRESH mechanism in the A64 memory controller.

Here's the 3 parms I've been playing with:
TRC (Row Cycle Time)
TRFC (Row Refresh Cycle Time)
TREF (Refresh Period)

my previous setting of 12-24-3072 gave me around 5.2GB/s L2 cache speed with an HTT of 312mhz at 3X. With the new values found 7-12-1536, I'm getting an L2 cache of 5.7GB/s with an HTT of 310mhz at 3X. Those numbers are from the memtest 1.65 in the DFI board.

In sisoft Sandra cache benchmark, I'm now getting 6.8 GB/s combined score, which I know is a little better than I had before since I'm getting quite close to the Pentium 4-E 520 cache speeds.

Try it out!

 

[gerrynicol]

Got the max out of my proc, 2.65Ghz was hoping for an extra half gig but hey ho never mind. 650Mhz oc is ok. Ran super pi, shaved 1 sec off my time 33secs.

Gerry.

P.S I can't get sandra working anymore, I tried uninstalling but that didn't work, really weird.

 

[_33]

Got the max out of my proc, 2.65Ghz was hoping for an extra half gig but hey ho never mind. 650Mhz oc is ok. Ran super pi, shaved 1 sec off my time 33secs.

Gerry.

P.S I can't get sandra working anymore, I tried uninstalling but that didn't work, really weird.

Well if you're really courageous, some people popped the top off their A64's and got an extra 100-200 mhz and specially lower temps. That could be your last resort before enhancing your cooling. That or maybe just try fiddling with your voltage and HTT ratios. It was written once; "do not overclock the htt much past 2 ghz." . I'm at 930*2, meaning 1860mhz in a ratio of 9X cpu / 3X htt.

Good luck!

I finally found the holy grail for my Kingston KVR. Right now I'm at CAS 2-3-3-4 and all memory tests passed. I'll tell you what I did!

 

[gerrynicol]

Those are fantastic timings m8!.

I don't think I will be "destroying" the 64 just yet, I have my HTT @ X4 with 250Mhz bus so am right on the button.

So whats your secret with the ram ????

 

[GSG-9]

Congrats ,33. The lowest I ever did get that ram was 2-4-3-4.

 

[_33]

Congrats ,33. The lowest I ever did get that ram was 2-4-3-4.

I noticed with the Kingston KVR with Infineon DRAM dated 01-2002, that the best they work in is at low voltage. I was able to gain significant bandwidth (15 - 20%) with low voltage and very tight latencies (2-3-3-5). Also, those types of memory with A64 need to have the DQS set to +127 to be well aligned for overclocking. Finally here's a snapshot from A64 Tweaker. Notice A64 Tweaker doesn't give the right values for the DQS. I have circled and put arrows to the elements that gave some small performance enhancements for my memory. But, really Kingston KVR is of the cheap slow crappy DDR400 dual kit land, and I just wanted to state that for people that don't have any idea. Give me OCZ or CRUCIAL, CORSAIR, G-Skill, Mushkin, and I'll be anihilating (aka obliterating) most PC2 P4 systems.

 

[_33]

Those are fantastic timings m8!.

I don't think I will be "destroying" the 64 just yet, I have my HTT @ X4 with 250Mhz bus so am right on the button.

So whats your secret with the ram ????

I am sure your ram can be tweaked. Use memtest86+ and work from a boot disk. Try to get some more speed out of those sticks. I promise wealth of speed boosts.

This is what I posted 2 pages earlier from sisoft Sandra

And you can see now, with the attached image from sisoft sandra, the new updated memory timings added a healthy 550MB/s all around performance. And I have to add that before it used to be more around 4.5GB/s.