AMD 9850 X4 Overclocking!

[Tho Jo Smale]

Ok yesterday on the 13th, I purchased a brand spanking new 9850 X4 as a drop in replacement for the m2n32-sli Deluxe and a Zalman 9700 cooler.

After several bios updates as the newest bios 2001 and 1903 both seemed buggy on the memory side of the equation.

I finally settled on bios 1802 which works great.


After a little tinkering I'm typing this at 200X15= 3.0Ghz.....without much fuss or muss. Running dual instances of orthos to test stability.
I've booted vista as high as 3.2 ghz on stock volts....now I'm just working towards overall system stability.

All this without touching the vcore.


I'm happy with the results especially for a drop in replacement in my 590SLi mobo.


Please post comments/question and or Feedback

Thanks,


JC

[Lfctony]

You need to update your sig...

[Tho Jo Smale]

Thanks Lfctony,


Sig updated.

[Redeemed]

Great proc! I'm looking to get one my self in the near future. Only thing- check your temps. Last I heard there's a problem with the 9850 and your mobo (same mobo as mine) where the temps are reported WAY wrong. I'm interested in whether this has been resolved or not.

Anyhow, I know a guy that had one and got it to 3.5 on water with extreme ease. I'm sure with enough tinkering, proper cooling and RAM you could get it to 3.2-3.5 on air and have it stable.

[Tho Jo Smale]

@ Redeemed,


The mobo temp sensor shows my proc. at 52'C in bios.


Core temp reads 33'C Idle and 51'C w/ 2 instances of orthos 100% load on 4 cores.


The Zalman 9700U is extremely good a keeping this thing cooled off.

I've pretty much settled on 3.0Ghz with 1.275 Vcore it's pretty much as fast as my 6400+ and it's got 2 additional core for multi-threaded goodness.


JC

[bacon12]

Nice to hear another phenom @ 3ghz.

[Redeemed]

Cool. Glad to hear that things got sorted out with that chip and this board. I was gonna' get a new mobo when I got the 9850... I might not now.

[Tho Jo Smale]

Update:

Ok, It seems the Phenom cannot run my ballistix at the default EPP timings of 4-4-412-2t so I've had to loosen them up to 5-5-5-15-2T....which I'm not happy about.


But on the otherhand I've been able to get it 100% prime stable with less than stock vcore at the 3.0ghz indicated in my sig. Idle temps 33'C Full load on 4 cores 46'C


I'm very very pleased with my $260 phenom.....especially since I'm selling my 6400BE for $120 and my GeminII for $30.

Total cost of upgrade including the Zalman. $195

[ASUSEN7900GTX]

so how dopes a phenom @3.0Ghz do against a E8400 ing ames and stuff?

is it worth going to AMD from Intel?

[Tho Jo Smale]

Originally Posted by ASUSEN7900GTX

so how dopes a phenom @3.0Ghz do against a E8400 ing ames and stuff?

is it worth going to AMD from Intel?

Honestly I don't know...I haven't used an Intel CPU in about 6 years.

I had a 6400 Black edition Running at 250*13 for 3.25ghz before the phenom.....I've noticed that in some areas the 9850 @ 3.0ghz is slower than the dual core AMD 6400 @ 3.25ghz but the overall "snappiness" and speed of the system seems to have increased substantially.

Steam and CS:S now load about 10 seconds quicker....and it only took 25 seconds with the 6400+.

If you Currently have a S775 Mobo I would not recommend any AMD CPU.

For me this was a bios flash drop in updgrade from dual to quad core. (pretty much a no brainer)

Thanks,


JC




Update:
After many hours in Memtest86 I've finally settled on:

3.0ghz 200X15
Ram @ 800mhz 4-5-5-12-1T(that's right cmd rate on)
vdimm 1.8v
vcore 1.30v
all other settings stock except PEG Link mode= Disabled

Idle temp 28'C Full Load temp 44'C (Lower temps today the thermal compound must've cured)

note: the system was several hours prime stable with a vcore of 1.275, however OCCT would crash in less than 1 minute(OCCT more demanding than prime??????), this led me to increase vcore until I could easily complete the OCCT testing system. Memory stability was confirmed using several passes of test 5 and test 8 from a Memtest86 boot cd. Since the system will easily boot windows @3.2 and 3.3ghz I'm sure that with additional vcore and better cooling the chip would break 3.5ghz. Overall I'm extremely pleased with the results

[Redeemed]

Yeah, AMD has a good chip with these Phenoms. There not a Core2... but they aren't too far behind either. I'm looking forward to what they can do with the AM3 platform.

[Tho Jo Smale]

Yeah, Black edition FTMFW! as Doc would say.

Simply boot up....increase multiplier.....reduce vcore.....increase vcore till stable.


It's definitely a win.


JC