Overclocking a Phenom II

[Rennn]

My cpu is causing annoying performance issues in a few games. Most games are fine, but my favorites are the ones that my cpu can't run! lol. Oblivion, Dark Souls, etc are all being limited by my cpu. Next time I'll be going Intel. My 3.2Ghz quad core performs like it's 2.5Ghz.

 

If possible, however, I'd like to overclock my current cpu because I don't have the money for a new cpu and mobo. I know it might not be possible to overclock, given that my mobo is still the same one that came with my pc when it was prebuilt, but I'm going to post detailed information about my cpu and motherboard. Hopefully I'll be able to overclock my Phenom II.

 

If someone could give specific instructions on what programs and/or methods to use to (hopefully) overclock my cpu, that'd be great. A link to a page relevant for this hardware would also be good.

AMD Phenom II X4 955

Cores 4

Threads 4

Name AMD Phenom II X4 955

Code Name Deneb

Package Socket AM3 (938)

Technology 45nm

Specification AMD Phenom II X4 955 Processor

Family F

Extended Family 10

Model 4

Extended Model 4

Stepping 3

Revision RB-C3

Instructions MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, AMD 64

Virtualization Supported, Enabled

Hyperthreading Not supported

Fan Speed 2402 RPM

Bus Speed 200.9 MHz

Rated Bus Speed 1004.6 MHz

Stock Bus Speed 200 MHz

Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.

Model M4N68T-M-V2 (AM3)

Version System Version

Chipset Vendor NVIDIA

Chipset Model GeForce 7025

Chipset Revision A3

Southbridge Vendor NVIDIA

Southbridge Model nForce 630a

Southbridge Revision A2

System Temperature 40 °C

BIOS

Brand American Megatrends Inc.

Version 0702

Date 01/26/2011

Voltage

+12V 11.881 V

+5V 5.040 V

CPU CORE 1.392 V

VIN3 1.644 V

VIN4 2.220 V

+3.3V 3.267 V

VIN6 2.076 V

VIN7 0.528 V

VIN8 1.680 V

PCI Data

Slot PCI-E

Slot Type PCI-E

Slot Usage In Use

Bus Width Unknown

Slot Designation PCIEX16

Slot Number 0

Slot PCI-E

Slot Type PCI-E

Slot Usage Available

Bus Width Unknown

Slot Designation PCIEX1

Slot Number 1

Slot PCI

Slot Type PCI

Slot Usage Available

Bus Width 32 bit

Slot Designation PCI1

Slot Number 2

Slot PCI

Slot Type PCI

Slot Usage Available

Bus Width 32 bit

Slot Designation PCI2

Slot Number 3

Edited January 6, 2013 by Rennn

[Vagrant0]

My cpu is causing annoying performance issues in a few games. Most games are fine, but my favorites are the ones that my cpu can't run! lol. Oblivion, Dark Souls, etc are all being limited by my cpu. Next time I'll be going Intel. My 3.2Ghz quad core performs like it's 2.5Ghz.

 

I have the same exact CPU model, not overclocked, never noticed an issue with processing on either of those games. Darksouls specifically should run perfectly fine since the game was designed around Xbox360 specs. Oblivion should actually be running lightning quick, or possibly even too quickly, even if you have a few process heavy mods. The bottleneck must exist elsewhere.

[Rennn]

Edit:

Nevermind, you're probably right. I just benchmarked Morrowind, Skyrim, and Natural Selection 2. The first test was at the standard (for a first generation GC) 700mhz core frequency. The second test was with my 460 GC overclocked further, to 800mhz. Framerates rose between 5-8 with my video card overclocked. I haven't tried Oblivion or Dark Souls, but it's looking more like my graphics card is just the bottleneck.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Rennn

[Illiad86]

My boyfriend had the same chip as well, he got it up to 3.8GHz. But yeah, like Vagrant said, it's probably something else that's bottlenecking your system.

[Aegrus]

That is very odd. Rennn and I have about the same cpu (mine is a 6 core, but the extra 2 shouldn't affect anything), and I have performance issues in Dark Souls and Oblivion, but pretty much no other games.

 

I don't see what else might be bottlenecking me. I have a 560 sc 1GB (which, incidentally, is enough VRAM to run Skyrim HD 2k with a smooth framerate) and 8 gb of 1600 mhz RAM, which should be more than enough for the 1600x900 resolution I game at.

 

Renn's 460 sc shouldn't be bottlenecking Oblivion or Dark Souls- one is a straight console port, the other several years old. His RAM is pretty epic, so I don't see that negatively affecting anything.

 

I know I have close to a 100% performance difference in DA:O when I use one cpu core as opposed to four. (From 80 fps all the time with 4 cores, down to about 35 with 1)

[Alithinos]

I have a Phenom 2 555 which is a dual core at 3.2 ghz and I never had issues with Oblivion.

Along with my 4gbs of RAM and HD 6850 I can run Oblivion at 1080p with Ugrids to load=9 and 8x SSAA,16x anisotropic and the largest textures mod that Nexus has,and still never have frame rate problems. :mellow:

 

Where the cpu indeed is a limiting factor though is in Skyrim. I can max everything else and use 2048x2048 textures,but I have shadows on the lowest possible setting. With Shadows on High when I'm in Riften the game becomes unplayable and even crashes. :confused:

 

 

Now on overclocking: I oc'ed my own piece and made it run at 3.5 ghz without even changing the number of volts or the cpu cooler.

First I tried with the official AMD's overclocking tool 'Overdrive' so I can run a few tests with it and check temps.

Since I saw that everything was well,I made the overclock through the BIOS of my motherboard so it is constant,and that was it.

 

 

I've looked for the specs of your graphics card. I imagine that you run games on the native resolution of your monitor which is 1080p,right ?

Well I have a more powerful graphics card than yours,but I don't think it's the cause of your problem. You see while according to the stats my graphics card is 50% more powerful,yours is powerful enough to still being able to play Oblivion at 1080p maxed.

 

What you don't write on your signature though is the hard drive you have. Don't underestimate the importance of the storage drive. Oblivion and Dark Souls are games that are constantly load the world as you play without loading screens. If your hard drive is slow,the game will lag no matter how fast your CPU or GPU are.

 

Assuming you already know or can easily learn the appropriate info,here is a check guide to determine if there is a limiting factor because of your hard drive:

 

Drives with 5600 RPM: Too slow,very much lag.

Drives with 7200 RPM: Moderate lag.

Drives with 10000 RPM: Less lag.

Solid State Drives: No lag.

 

Now not only the kind of drive is of importance,but also the connection protocol.

 

SATA 3: Newest protocol,lowest latency

SATA 2: Most common used on average PCs protocol.Moderate latency

SATA 1: Has stopped being produced for years. If you are still using this,its time to upgrade.

IDE: This is even older protocol. You should upgrade ASAP!

 

But that's not even all of it. The amount of free space on your drive can also affect performance.

 

100% ~ 50% free space: optimum performance.

50% ~ 15% free space: slow performance.

15 ~ 0% free space: Performance is so slow that it is recommended to always let 15% of your hard drive empty.

 

p.s. I imagine you already know that neither Oblivion nor Dark Souls can make use of 100% of your processor's power because they are software limited so they can only 'see' 2 cores,right ?

Edited January 16, 2013 by Alithinos

[Rennn]

Yes, Oblivion mostly uses 1 core. Dark Souls uses 2, ofc.

I'll have to check my HDD though. It's 7200rpm with only about 10% of its space left. And you're right; Oblivion and Dark Souls make extreme use of the HDD. It's strange that I never thought of that before. Thanks, maybe I'll get an SSD for Dark Souls and Oblivion, and either way I'll certainly be clearing some space on my HDD.

Edited January 16, 2013 by Rennn