# Overclocking my NB Frequency



## paoloandre

hi guys, i joined here for this specific purpose and i hope you can help me out as i don't want to touch a thing until i get a go signal from someone with experience in these stuff.

i overclocked my cpu FX-8350 to 4.7ghz stable and im not pushing it anyfurther now, now the next project is that i have read that overclocking NB frequency will improve my rig's overall performance while not raising the CPU temp. I heard that it should be atleast 3x the dram frequency(i have no idea why) so mine is DRAM Freq 933.3Mhz so i want to reach atleast 2800Mhz NB Freq

i have no experience in overclocking anything aside from CPU and GPU so please guide me like you are guiding a grandmother









CPU FX-8350
MOBO Asrock 990FX Extreme 4
RAM Corsair Vengeance 1866 (4x2)8GB
PSU Corsair VS 650

current NB Frequency is 2200MHz

what infos do i need to post and what is my first/next step?









thanks in advance for helping a noobie









edit: and yes, i have tried reading other stuff but i believe it is time to make one for my specific rig.


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## MrThatGuy

AFAIK increasing the CPU-NB speed on bulldozer/piledriver does not have nearly as much of a boost in performance as it did with the Phenom II's. Whoever said that raising your CPU-NB speed doesnt raise CPU temps is also wrong, getting it stable when overclocking will certainly require extra voltage and will increase your temperatures quite a bit since you are raising voltage to the memory controller and L3 cache.


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## paoloandre

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MrThatGuy*
> 
> AFAIK increasing the CPU-NB speed on bulldozer/piledriver does not have nearly as much of a boost in performance as it did with the Phenom II's. Whoever said that raising your CPU-NB speed doesnt raise CPU temps is also wrong, getting it stable when overclocking will certainly require extra voltage and will increase your temperatures quite a bit since you are raising voltage to the memory controller and L3 cache.


so is the info that it could be as high as the CPU voltage false? because if i remember correctly what i've read, it wont raise the temp since the voltage would be in the same phase or something like that with the core voltage. I think i cannot afford to raise extra temps since my underload in IBT and Prime95 is at marginal 61.5C.


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## mikeo01

The internal northbridge on the chip (CPU/NB) is a separate part to the cores. The CPU/NB is the memory controller and it requires it's own voltage.

It can also be overclocked since it's a separate component on the chip die, you could say. Because of this it will raise temperatures and it will cause different stability issues.

Try get those temperatures down first (play with the bus clock and voltages) before getting the CPU/NB up because AMD chips seem to get a bit shaky over 55c I have found.


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## MacLeod

The CPU/NB bumps really help out Phenom II chips but dont do a whole heck of a lot for FX chips. HT Link helps FX chips though a little despite not doing anything for Phenom chips. Go figure.

I played with all sorts of values and kinda came to figure that 2400 MHz for both CPU/NB and HT Link is about right. They seem to work best when theyre at the same speed but anything much over 2600 MHz on the CPU/NB really doesnt show much benefit and from what I read, a lot of boards wont even POST with the CPU/NB higher than 2600. Mine will but only with a LOT of voltage.

4.7 GHz is a screaming overclock for a 8350 so Id just bump the HT Link and CPU/NB up to 2400 MHz and be done with it. If youre wanting more of a challenge, try to get it stable with Cool N Quiet running. That is a little more difficult but if you can pull it off, its worth it. With it running, your idle cores will be sitting at around .9V and 1.4 GHz. Thatll make things a lot cooler in your case.


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## paoloandre

so 2400 for ht,cpu/nb is enough? so raising those stuff, which voltages do i touch if found unstable? i cannot play with FSB because it screws memor right? i mean i know nothing about those stuff and the timing stuff.


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## mikeo01

As suggested above.

With CPU/NB overclocking you touch the CPU/NB voltage. With HT overclocking you *don't* touch any voltage, unless you know what you are doing. The HT voltages are sensitive so if you can't get your HT link up voltages won't do you any good.

As for getting power consumption down as mentioned above, you'll need to learn how to use the offset voltage.

By the way FSB overclocking isn't really too difficult, basically you up it from 200 and change the RAM, HT link and CPU/NB multiplier until they are back to stock. As for the timings they are on your RAM, ?-?-?-?. Mines 9-9-9-24 for example.

NOTE: Here's a good guide I followed when I was overclocking my BD for the first time (since then I went back to Phenom). It's the same procedure with Piledriver.


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## EniGma1987

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MacLeod*
> 
> 4.7 GHz is a screaming overclock for a 8350 so Id just bump the HT Link and CPU/NB up to 2400 MHz and be done with it


I thought stock speed for HTT was 2600MHz, so going to 2400 is a downclock.


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## paoloandre

thanks mike, that is the best guide i have seen so far, but on the other note, i think enigma is correct too?


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## MacLeod

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *EniGma1987*
> 
> I thought stock speed for HTT was 2600MHz, so going to 2400 is a downclock.


Yes it is but for some reason, this Bulldozer/Piledriver architecture works best when the HT Link and the CPU/NB is running close to the same speed. Stock HT Link speed is 2600 MHz but the stock CPU/NB speed is 2000 MHz. If you can get 2600 MHz for both, thats fine but anything above that doesnt seem to show any improvements and Ive read a lot of FX chips that have trouble POSTing with the HT Link any faster. So getting them both to the 2400-2600 range with both running as close to the same speed is what youre after. These clocks dont work like CPU base clocks in that the faster they are, the better they perform.


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## paoloandre

ok this is weird, when im running on stock settings, my HT link is 2600, but when i overclock my cpu (just touching multiplier and vcore) my ht link goes down to 2000, it is on default (auto)

why is that happening, i found that my stock settings are HT link is at 2600 and NB Freq at 2200


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## ffejster25

MSI 970a-g46
AMD FX 6300 Zalman 7500 fan
8 GB G Skill 1866 CL8 9-9-24 2T 1.5v
MSI GTX 480

my mobo by default sets the RAM at 1600. I clocked the timings and voltage myself as it was advertised. I was told by MSI tech to bump up CPU-NB voltage myself so I set it at 1.27v after I OC'd the RAM. my mobo also sets the HT link frequency at 2400 mhz and the NB frequency at 2000 MHz. later I saw on my bios application in windows when I highlighted the CPU-NB ratio it said it should be equal to or greater than the HT link ratio. set on auto is 2400 so I am guessing 12 is the ratio so I set the same for the NB and it changed to 2400 on the frequency which isn't something I can select its text is darker colored from the things I can select in the bios which those are bright white. and there is no read out in the bios health status thing or anywhere else that says NB frequency is now 2400 MHz so I try cpu-z and it still says 2000 MHz it doesn't change no matter what so im not even sure if that worked or not??? my temps are the same it would seem. so I feel like I should just drop my HT link speed if I cant up the NB. if it absolutely has to be the same. only thing over clocked in bios is my NB frequency supposedly, and my RAM. only voltages I changed is DRAM to 1.50 and CPU-NB to 1.27 not even sure what it was before. everything runs great. just the same as it did when I cleared the CMOS and it was all default. RAM at 1600 and HT at 2400 and NB at 2000. even like that it was the same as I have it now. only thing that changed was wprime time and cinebench scores. no increase in frame rate at all or boot speed is same. opening and using programs are the same too


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## Synister

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *paoloandre*
> 
> so is the info that it could be as high as the CPU voltage false? because if i remember correctly what i've read, it wont raise the temp since the voltage would be in the same phase or something like that with the core voltage. I think i cannot afford to raise extra temps since my underload in IBT and Prime95 is at marginal 61.5C.


AMD just upped the Max core temp to 70­°C for max safe operating temp... Go look a few pages back in the FX-8XXX thread, or go download the new AMD OverDrive (now shows distance to Thermal Limit, instead of current core temp!)

Also, as said above, NB overclocking is no where near the gains it was with Deneb / Thuban.

iirc HT offers way more bandwidth than needed - no really benefit to OCing it!


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## incubated

i'm getting a little frustrated with my oc/setup. i'm on fx-6300 on m5a97 r2.0. it's sitting at 4.4ghz with 2400mhz on cpu/nb. the offsets are 0.185 and 0.125 respectively. my ram is 2133mhz g.skill with 10-12-12-31 timings, but after a while i was getting some weird slower loading icons on the taskbar, and such. windows is freshly installed on ssd.

i get weird issues when encoding a video. occasional freezes here and there. i have since downclocked the ram to 1866 with auto timings. it felt like it was a bit better, but i still get weird errors in camtasia where the explorer folders are all black and it won't save.

i ran amd stress test for about 6 hours, and it was fine. is the ram too fast for the 2400 clock or what? how do i know if the culprit is the cpu/nb or the vcore?


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## Synister

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *incubated*
> 
> i'm getting a little frustrated with my oc/setup. i'm on fx-6300 on m5a97 r2.0. it's sitting at 4.4ghz with 2400mhz on cpu/nb. the offsets are 0.185 and 0.125 respectively. my ram is 2133mhz g.skill with 10-12-12-31 timings, but after a while i was getting some weird slower loading icons on the taskbar, and such. windows is freshly installed on ssd.
> 
> i get weird issues when encoding a video. occasional freezes here and there. i have since downclocked the ram to 1866 with auto timings. it felt like it was a bit better, but i still get weird errors in camtasia where the explorer folders are all black and it won't save.
> 
> i ran amd stress test for about 6 hours, and it was fine. is the ram too fast for the 2400 clock or what? how do i know if the culprit is the cpu/nb or the vcore?


AMD OverDrive's Stability test is pants tbh - it just doesn't create enough of a test for errors. Use IntelBurnTest AVX version, http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/intelburntest.html or Prime 95 64-bit (newer versions will show a line of text indicating it is optimised for Bulldoser archi when running stress tests)

Start with Ram at Stock for now, with 1.2 V or 1.25 V CPU/NB voltage (helps ensure ram is not the stability killer)

Then test your CPU using IBT AVX on a minimum of 'High' start with 10x passes, and move to 20x once you're fine tuning your OC. Keep your CPU NB set at stock while working out the CPU's limits. (it doesn't give a huge benefit like it did with phenom / thuban - and can be tweaked once your CPU, then RAM overclocks are stable.)

Try the above, and just ensure CPU Package / Core temps are below 70°C

Let us know how you get on so we can help more!


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## EniGma1987

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *ffejster25*
> 
> later I saw on my bios application in windows when I highlighted the CPU-NB ratio it said it should be equal to or greater than the HT link ratio.


This was only an issue on older processors. I cant remember if it was the Deneb and Thubans, or if it was just Zambezi's that had the issue. It was too long ago to remember for me but anyway one of those designs had a problem where if the HTT speed was higher than the NB core speed then the CPU would freak out and crash. Normally it was an issue where the CPU couldnt POST because you set this stuff in the bios. It would require a bios reset to fix and set properly again. I am thinking it was the deneb architecture that had this... because I remember those ones responded VERY well in performance increases to NB core speed OCs but hardly at all to HTT OCs and they also were able to get up around 3GHz on the northbridge. FX processors are opposite where they respond better in performance to HTT OCs, and also they have a higher default HTT speed that should put their stock speed above the default NB core anyway.


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