I've had my PC for several months now and I thought it was about time that I pushed the overclock on my CPU. I have an FX 8320 and I've been running it at 4.2ghz but I want to see how much I can overclock it so I was wondering whether Wendell would recommend Prime95 or Aida64 to test the stability of my overclock. I was also wondering, how long does it take to determine whether the overclock is stable when using one of these programs?
AIDA64 all the way.
Prime95 is an outdated test. On the new Intel CPUs it causes them to throttle and generally isn't a very good test of stability on any platform. Plus it can even damage your CPU by making it draw more power than you specified.
As for time that is really your call. I let mine run for quite a while if the temps are good just to be sure. Overnight sometimes longer.
He uses Aida64, it puts on more realstic loads. I use both Prime95 to test the power of a CPU cooler
Prime95 from my understanding is only dangerous if you use it with non default settings. Where you can change the voltage draw and other settings. Otherwise it is just an unrealistic stress test. I still use it as I dont want to spend money on AIDA64
No, if you use it, keep an eye on your voltage. It spiked mine .2v before I stopped it, ran the default settings.
I use prime95 for stability testing because it is a violent program. However the temperature reads with it will be much higher.
any and all fine tuning temperature and stability will be done with aida64 here.
also, the newer intel parts should not be used with prime because of the tweaks prime does with voltage.
Thanks. I guess I'll be avoiding Prime95 then just to be safe
I have never seen my voltage spike higher than what I set it to in the bios. Personally never seen it on any other system I have stress tested ether.
Prime95 is still my go to for testing on complete stability, otherwise I use y-cruncher. As far as I have been able to learn the voltage spike is caused by avx operations. Not a big concern for me unless I am stress testing.
Agreed. if there is any threat of instability. Prime95 will pick it out. Obviously dont run it for hours on end but a short run of 10 mins keeping an eye on voltage and temps will be enough to make sure a new system is stable, Temps are ok even for an extreme case that is prime 95. The hottest I ever see my system is under Prime95. 4.9GHz, 98 degrees. Stable. I never see it get that hot in any other program. the closest I have seen is 82 while folding/mining and rendering. And that was on a Hot Australian day after hours of constant processing at 100%.
Would 4.5Ghz be considered a good overclock on an FX 8320? After fiddling about with my motherboard's UEFI settings, I set my CPU's frequency to 4.5ghz and ran Aida64 for two hours testing CPU, FPU, cache and system memory. The temperature stayed constant at 52 degrees and the computer didn't have any errors. I didn't change the voltage in my motherboard's UEFI and in Aida64 it showed that the voltage stayed at about 1.400v. Is this a good and stable overclock?
System Specs:
- CPU: AMD FX 8320
- GPU: Gigabyte Windforce GTX 780 GHZ Edition
- CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i
- MOBO: ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0
- PSU: Corsair HX 750
- RAM: ADATA XPG V2 8gb (2x4gb) 1600mhz
- SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series SV300S37A/120G 2.5" 120GB
- HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 2tb
What CPU are you running? I read that AMD chips aren't supposed to run hotter than about 60°C and Intel's Haswell chips aren't supposed to run hotter than 73°C.
Good job. Most FX parts can hit 4.5 and further. I run a FX6350 @ 4.7
you could probably hit higher with some voltage tweeks.
Yours seems stable. the voltage is good (lower = better) and the temps are very acceptable.
Stay the hell away from Prime if you have Haswell. It will melt things. Aida is a much better program anyway.
-On Haswell-
I've seen the same thing on multiple systems I have stability tested. Looking on the net quickly shows the consensus that Prime95 is NOT a good stability tester. The issues with the voltage are well documented.
I have a 4770k remember
Well your voltage monitor must be off. Google it.
Using CPUID and a few other tools I use to monitor my system, I have not seen anything and when I google the subject, Some say its dangerous while others say its dangerous because it has the tools to change the voltage. I will check again when my system returns.