Overclocking
My temperatures
amdgpu-pci-2d00 edge: +62.0°C (crit = +100.0°C, hyst = -273.1°C) (emerg = +105.0°C) junction: +83.0°C (crit = +110.0°C, hyst = -273.1°C) (emerg = +115.0°C) mem: +66.0°C (crit = +100.0°C, hyst = -273.1°C) (emerg = +105.0°C) PPT: 134.00 W (cap = 135.00 W)
54/53
Utilites
- AIDA64
- CPU-Z (classic version) for checking RAM configuration
- GPU-Z for checking GPU connection
- HWiNFO64, for sensor monitoring
- Cinebench
- 3DMark Time Spy (the free version) / Unigine Heaven for general benchmarking
- OCCT, Prime95, FurMark, Cinebench for stress testing
- FurMark
- Memtest86 to test RAM
- testdisk, rlab
- crystal disk info + CrystalDiskMark - hard drive check, shows the smart data
- windows memory diagnostic test
- event viewer and device manager for issues.
- device manager
- bios cpu temp and voltages
- hwmonitor
- dxdiag
- clinfo
Stress testing with stress-ng
RAM benchmark guide
Highly recommend anyone doing this to run benchmarks to make sure they’re a ctually getting a performance increase. The reason is because when you let the mobo set the latency CAS by leaving it at AUTO, then it’ll push your CAS to stupid numbers. I mean sure, you might be able to push your 2666 mhz to 3400 mhz but that nice 16 CAS you were sporting probably jumped up to something ridiculous. Doesn’t do much good if your CL, Trcd, Trp etc are in their 30s. There’s a good chance you’re actually killing your performance.
What you can do however is do what is suggested here, up your voltage, up your frequency and leave everything at AUTO and then run CPU-Z to find out what timings the board set your sticks at, then go back into the bios and manually set those numbers, then start bringing them down bit by bit to see if you actually can get a performance boost to run stable. Remember to run benchmarks to compare actual performance between settings. Otherwise, you’re just guessing and making assumptions when the reality is, you might actually be making things slower/worse.
Edit: To pull an example from this video, for his memory to achieve approx the same performance as his stock (non-overclocked) settings at a frequency of 3400hz, his CAS would have to be at minimum, CAS 22. It’s a shame he didn’t run CPU-Z because I’d be willing to bet his mobo set his CAS closer to 28-30+. I mean, nobody is going to buy 3400mhz memory when their clock numbers are 32,34,34,68.
My advice for “simple” overclocking is to up the voltage by about 0.15 (or even 0.10 if you’re running cheapish RAM. It’s always better to err on the side of caution when you’re uncertain), leave your frequency alone, go into your timings, lowering each of them by 1 and reducing your tRAS by about 2 or 3 and then check for stability. If you can load into Windows, that’s a pretty good sign. If it’s stable after running a stress test for a decent amount of time (I prefer Prime95 for about an hour but OCCT is probably okay too), you have a successful OC that’ll actually be a performance increase. Now you could stop there and call it good but if you want to try to squeeze more out of your memory, you can start tightening the clocks one at a time (Starting with your CAS then going down the line one at a time) until you find a setting that’s unstable, then go back to the last bootable setting and stress test for stability. Whenever it’s unstable, simply back up to the previous setting and test again, backtracking until you find the most stable setting. Eventually, you’ll find that sweet spot at which point you’ll be successfully overclocked with an actual performance increase.
Now if you want to OC your memory to the absolute best performance, you’ll probably eventually have to mess with boosting the frequency but at that point, things get way more complicated. Simply leaving things at AUTO is not likely going to net you any extra performance (and more likely lose you some). This is why for beginners, I suggest leaving your frequency alone, up your voltage a bit and see how much you can tighten your timings. I hope this helps.
Throttling
In Linux you can use these commands to detect CPU thorottling:
- Get max frequency, for example 4464000 (4464 MHz).
- Monitor current frequency, if it is less than max frequency, then throttling is happening.