Investigations into Socket 939 Athlon 64 Overclocking
by Jarred Walton on October 3, 2005 4:35 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Test Configuration
9000 words into the article, and we still haven't even given you benchmarks or tested settings. Hopefully, we've managed to convey something of the complexity involved in overclocking. If you already knew all of the preceding material, think of it as a quick refresher course. If you're new to overclocking and skimmed most of that, your success in overclocking is going to be limited. Patience is a major component for any overclocking endeavor. Skimming a guide, finding some tested numbers, and plugging them into your BIOS may work fine, but more likely, you'll have periodic instability and you'll be stuck as to what needs to be changed in order to fix the problem. Now, we're finally ready to give you our test setup and the settings that we used for the various overclocks.
Our system configuration is definitely targeting value rather than the high end. The OCZ RAM is decent, but the remaining parts are mostly mid-range. We've listed the current prices in the above table, and we're looking at about $900 without the monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and power supply - assuming that you use the included PSU in the Antec case. Dropping to value RAM can cut another $70 from the price. While a slightly nicer PSU isn't a bad idea, the OCZ 600W is overkill for non-SLI setups, for sure - which is why we list it as an alternative. If you're looking at running an Athlon 64 X2 with 2x1024MB of RAM and dual 7800GTX cards, we've seen an overclocked setup actually break the 400W mark, so 600W might not be a bad idea in that case.
The graphics card is going to be something of a limitation, as the X800 Pro is certainly not going to compete with a high-end card like a 7800GTX. For the cost, though, it's really not a bad choice. The X800 GT and GTO cards also look good, priced at under $200. Since we're looking at a value-oriented overclocking setup, running a high-end graphics card that eats up more than half the total cost of the system is a bit extreme. However, we'll try to get some benchmarks in a future article looking at exactly that sort of setup. For gaming, at least, the GPU is going to be the critical factor in reaching high frame rates
Because of the GPU limitation, we're going to be testing at 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768. We'll also test many of the titles with 4xAA enabled, which should serve as a reality check. Even with a super fast CPU, many games are going to be completely GPU limited with the X800 Pro when we run 4xAA, especially at resolutions 1024x768 and above. Frankly, we wouldn't bother enabling 4xAA unless you can at least reach 1024x768 anyway.
9000 words into the article, and we still haven't even given you benchmarks or tested settings. Hopefully, we've managed to convey something of the complexity involved in overclocking. If you already knew all of the preceding material, think of it as a quick refresher course. If you're new to overclocking and skimmed most of that, your success in overclocking is going to be limited. Patience is a major component for any overclocking endeavor. Skimming a guide, finding some tested numbers, and plugging them into your BIOS may work fine, but more likely, you'll have periodic instability and you'll be stuck as to what needs to be changed in order to fix the problem. Now, we're finally ready to give you our test setup and the settings that we used for the various overclocks.
| AMD Overclocking System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 512K 2.0GHz (939) - Retail | 190 |
| Motherboard | DFI nF4 INFINITY | 95 |
| Memory | OCZ Rev. 2 Platinum (TCCD) 2-2-2-5-1T | 162 |
| Video Card | (PowerColor) X800Pro PCIe | 224 |
| Hard Drive | Seagate SATA 250GB 7200RPM 8MB 7200.8 NCQ | 109 |
| Optical Drive | NEC 3540A Black (OEM) | 45 |
| Case | Antec SLK3700-BQE | 90 |
| Bottom Line | 915 | |
| Optional Parts | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Memory | OCZ Gold VX PC-4000 2x512MB 2-2-2-8 @3.3V | 183 |
| Memory | PC-3200 2x512MB Value CL2.5 | 85 |
| Power Supply | OCZ PowerStream 600W | 190 |
Our system configuration is definitely targeting value rather than the high end. The OCZ RAM is decent, but the remaining parts are mostly mid-range. We've listed the current prices in the above table, and we're looking at about $900 without the monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and power supply - assuming that you use the included PSU in the Antec case. Dropping to value RAM can cut another $70 from the price. While a slightly nicer PSU isn't a bad idea, the OCZ 600W is overkill for non-SLI setups, for sure - which is why we list it as an alternative. If you're looking at running an Athlon 64 X2 with 2x1024MB of RAM and dual 7800GTX cards, we've seen an overclocked setup actually break the 400W mark, so 600W might not be a bad idea in that case.
The graphics card is going to be something of a limitation, as the X800 Pro is certainly not going to compete with a high-end card like a 7800GTX. For the cost, though, it's really not a bad choice. The X800 GT and GTO cards also look good, priced at under $200. Since we're looking at a value-oriented overclocking setup, running a high-end graphics card that eats up more than half the total cost of the system is a bit extreme. However, we'll try to get some benchmarks in a future article looking at exactly that sort of setup. For gaming, at least, the GPU is going to be the critical factor in reaching high frame rates
Because of the GPU limitation, we're going to be testing at 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768. We'll also test many of the titles with 4xAA enabled, which should serve as a reality check. Even with a super fast CPU, many games are going to be completely GPU limited with the X800 Pro when we run 4xAA, especially at resolutions 1024x768 and above. Frankly, we wouldn't bother enabling 4xAA unless you can at least reach 1024x768 anyway.
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Furen - Monday, October 3, 2005 - link
Actually, Winchesters are pretty bad overclockers. They were even worse overclockers than newcastles and clawhammers back when they came out, which is why the FX-55 was clawhammer based rather than Winchester based.ksherman - Monday, October 3, 2005 - link
hmmm... Im running a 3000+ winchester, and ive got it to 2.56GHz... thats quite an over clock if you ask me... you would probably be the first person I have EVER say that the winchesters do not OC well...ksherman - Monday, October 3, 2005 - link
is there any performance hit when using memory dividers? I have heard that there is, as the memory and CPU are running on different frequencies... and is it better to keep you RAM @ DDR400, and use dividers or run the RAM @ DDR480?ShadowVlican - Monday, October 3, 2005 - link
so i'm guessing basically, A64's prefer low latency than high frequencyJarredWalton - Monday, October 3, 2005 - link
Pretty much. If you think about it, 10x240 with DDR333 setting is actually identical to 12x200 with DDR400 setting. The RAM is at DDR400 in either case. The difference between a 960 MHz HT speed and 1000 MHz HT speed is... well, if you measure more than a 1% difference, I'd be surprised. :)Wesley Fink - Monday, October 3, 2005 - link
Memory dividers DO make a difference in performance on the Intel platform, where the memory controller is in the chipset and latency is relatively high. Basically, the architecture derives memory ratios with added overhead which can definitely impact performance, and 1:1 memory ratio is best.However, the memory controller on the Athlon 64 is on the processor and memory frequencies are derived from HT on the A64, without adding overhead. That means, theoretically, memory dividers should have NO impact at all on Athlon 64 memory performance - everything else being equal (which it rarely is).
ksherman - Monday, October 3, 2005 - link
well i decided to go for the RAM dividers... upto 2.56GHz, memory using the 5/6 divider (DRAM/FSB) RAM @ DDR466 @ 2-2-2-7 3.3V! was at 2.13Ghz, since I didnt want to use memory dividers. so a nice jump in speed! now I just got to find do some benchies! BTW- I am using a DFI Ultra-D and it is the greatest board I have ever owned! havent done the SLI mod yet, but I dont need toksherman - Monday, October 3, 2005 - link
hmm... guess if i read the WHOLE article... ;-)good article though! I highly reccomend the 'Value VX' RAM aka OCZ Value RAM, since when you put enough voltage into it (3.2V in my case) it overclocks like a charm! Im getting DDR 480 with tight timings (not EXATLY sure, but something 2-2-3-8 1T)
Garyclaus16 - Monday, October 3, 2005 - link
Well,...the article states that there have been performance hits with higher dividers. Best way to find out with yourself is to do your own benches! No two systems will overclock exactly the same, so the best way to figure something out is to try it on your own..Aquila76 - Monday, October 3, 2005 - link
If your RAM will run stably at DDR480, leave it. I had to drop mine down becase there's some issue with the mobo higher than 250MHz.