Overclock for Rome 2

[TheNewKing]

Hi, have heard about overclocking pcs but do not know or how to do this, can someone help me please.
Processor is AMD Phenom(tm) II X2 555 Processor, 3200 Mhz and
Graphics card is AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series 2gb

[Jopel]

Hi there,

First of all... do you have an aftermarketcooler for your CPU?
Second... you know the current idle and load temps of your CPU?

[TheNewKing]

hi, i bought this do not know if its a good cooler.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002CIDIPW/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

how do i find out the the current idle and load temps of my CPU?

[CanOmer]

Use Real Temp to measure heat: http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/
Use CPUz to see your PC specifications: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

This cooler you bought seems not good.

[Jopel]

Use Real Temp to measure heat: http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/
Use CPUz to see your PC specifications: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

This cooler you bought seems not good.

You beat me to it

[TheNewKing]

Use Real Temp to measure heat: http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/
Use CPUz to see your PC specifications: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

This cooler you bought seems not good.

real temp says does not support my prossesor

cpuz works but do not know what most the info is or means, i suck at computers.

sad to hear my cooler is not that good i bought it as the reviews were good and was only £10

[SamueleD]

real temp says does not support my prossesor

cpuz works but do not know what most the info is or means, i suck at computers.

sad to hear my cooler is not that good i bought it as the reviews were good and was only £10

Then I suggest you google some overclocking guides for your CPU, like this one, they will give you all the info you need in a much better way that we can do here.
For overclocking the GPU, if your GPU has the stock cooler I would suggest following this guide (but you can also google fo others), but not change the voltage and simply use the overclocking tool included in the AMD drivers, it's easy to use, you probably won't OC a lot, but even a little boost is always nice.
Check here for the max temps allowed for your CPU.

[Jopel]

Your cooler could be better, although it is not the worst worst
Download http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/ for that.

There you can see your temps in idle and load.
download for example OCCT to set your CPU @ work (other words to see temps under load).

Download a program called CPU-Z to see voltage (compare it with the ones OCCT indicates)

When done all this you have a indicating how hot your cpu runs and under which voltage
and if there is some room to OC left. When you have the info come back here.

What brand and type motherboard you have?

[Jopel]

Oh yeah, must be because you have an AMD Phenom (my last CPU had the same).
Well you could download HWMonitor http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

On the bright side of your cooler, it is indeed better then your stock cooler.
It is a good cooler for the money, but as with alot in this world, more money gains better equipment

You've OC-ed your GPU yet? Or this also needs to be taken care of?

[TheNewKing]

True.
I havent OC-ed my GPU i did this ages ago but my pc kept on overheating so i got scared and cancelled it.
Thats why i bought this new fan for rome 2, so would like to try again but i do not really kinow what to do.
here are my stats


i have ADM Vision engine control center i overclock using that right but not sure whaat settings to have

[Jopel]

Idle temps are nice.
You've downloaded and tried OCCT yet? This to see load temps

[TheNewKing]

Idle temps are nice.
You've downloaded and tried OCCT yet? This to see load temps

i tried OCCT but do not understand it

[Jopel]

i tried OCCT but do not understand it

@ OCCT you have in your main screen various options. Now try the first tab which says something like CPU test and press ONN
I'm @ work right now, so can't describe it as I would be

[alQamar]

how about a compendium in the OP?

Tips:
General:
- Please never OC with a stock AMD / Intel cooler they are only designed for the standard TDP level. OC raised TDP (energy consumption and heat)
- generally a OC ration of +20 % is mostly easy to achieve with good air cooling
- OC settings never work generic for everyone as mainboard and the CPU quality varies. You do not need a extreme expensive mainboard for OC like a sabertooth, fatality edition, or like that. More important is the chipset.
Sandy / Ivybridge needs a P67 or Z77 chipset to use the free multiplicator
Haswell needs a Z87 (currently also H87 is possible with a according BIOS patch but Intel may revoke this technically) to use the free multiplicator.

Risks:
- Can I damage my system due to overclocking? Generally no, unless you change CPU or chipset voltages. The entry level OC method I favour will not touch (RAISE) voltages and is thourougly safe.
Experimenting with manual raised voltages can brick your computer. This is someting for pros.
Insufficient cooling, see below may lead to higher component wear.

Temperatures:
- Do not drama about temps. You do not need a 70 € cooling solution to OC without danger of wear.
- Modern CPUs (not older than 5 years) all shut down or will not boot on too much OC. They all can stand temps up to 100°C easily. They all have an emergency shutdown for the CPU if the max spec temp is reached.
- You should never overclock laptops! The coolers are mostly weak to transport the current warm air out.
- However to lower the ambient temperature and especially power converters and solid capacitors aswell the CPU temp should not exceed 80°C on load.
The ambient case temp should be at 35 °C. HDD / SSD temps should not exceed 45°C. Normal temps for them are 30-40°C
The GPU temp under load of 78-80°C is pretty ok. Their limit is at 90-95°C

What happens if I am going to far (for Rome 2) in case of OC?
A bios reset (CLR_CRT) helps in emergency to start over again if the OC settings are too high. Do never OC RAM if it is not specified for it. Modern RAMS do use SPD or XMP profiles to determine ther maximum speed.

Modern BIOSes (last 4 years) even do a reset of wrong OC settings themselve and will boot up approximately 30 secs afer a failed OC attempt (black screen on boot). If you get blue screens or hangs of Windows on boot or after it lower OC settings at bit till it works stable. Prime 95 (max temp setting) is a good method to see if your OC works.

Fans:
- When installing fans obeye simple physics: 3/5 of all fans are not optimal installed. If possible use PWM fans only. If you need more case fans than you have plugs on the mainboard use Arctic F12 (120mm) PWM or according size coolers, they can be used in row. So e.g. 4 fans working at one PWM connector on the mainboard. Use standard or low power profile in the BIOS (e.g. Asus Q-FAN > Standard / Silent). PWM fans power up rotations automatically if needed.
Non PWM fans can only justyfied with different voltages or "expensive" aftermarket cooler controls, which is less accurate.
Misconfiguration of coolers do especially happen, if computer case has got cooler stacks at the top that are unsused. Install coolers on the top of the case instead of the rear to improve airflow as warm air goes up naturally while dragging it to the side costs more energy / fan speed and air pressure. (chimney effect). If you use top placed coolers in your case please mount your cpu fan according so he does blow into the top direction. 90% of all rigs have cpu coolers blowing to the back side which is not optimal and a lot still have top blowers (fan blows on the top of the CPU) that is messing warm air all over in the case. Standard coolers are top blower coolers aswell. The idea of this design is they cool the capacitor and power converters more directly but this is really not a good thing in practical and view of physics.
The "chimney / hot air out at top side of the case" strategy is the highest efficient method for air cooling / water cooling solutions.

- You do not need fans essentially that push in cool air, the cold air will find it's way by the coolers that push the hot air out (vacuum)
- Generally choose fans with low rotations and the bigger the better. Small fans below 120 mm are noisy and inefficent. 230 mm coolers are great stuff if you case can handle them. All rotation speeds below 1000 rpm are really silent. All speeds over 1500 rpm are really annoying.



Here are some working settings for an i7-950
Cooler: Thermalright Venomous X with a 120 Noctua fan,
Mainboard: Gigabyte board (M.I.T. settings)
BCLK 191
Core multiplier x21
XMP enabled, profile 1, DRAM voltage 1.60, watch out the DRaM multiplier, this one should be that that the DRAM frequency is NOT exceeding the RAM specification. In this case x8 for a 1600 MHz DDR3 (RAM depending NOT GENERIC)
all other things at standard settings

result an i7-950 working stable at 4.0 GHz, normal max frequency 3.33 GHz > +20 % OC.

Here are some working settings for an i7-2600K
Cooler: Arctic Freezer 13 / Freezer i30
Mainboard: AsrockA.I Overclocking: XMP or manual if RAM does not support XMP profile 1
(sync) all cores
Turbo ratio: up to x46
all other things at standard settings, EPU can be enabled with auto settings. It does not harm.
do not raise BLCK

result an i7-2600K working stable at 4.6 GHz, normal max frequency 3.8 GHz > +21 % OC.

Here are some working settings for an i7-3770K
Cooler: Arctic Freezer 13
Mainboard: AsusA.I Overclocking: XMP or manual if RAM does not support XMP profile 1
(sync) all cores
Turbo ratio: up to x45
all other things at standard settings, EPU can be enabled with auto settings. It does not harm.
do not raise BLCK

result an i7-3770K working stable at 4.5 GHz, normal max frequency 3.8 GHz > +18 % OC.

[alQamar]

finished my stuff now, perhaps use it for the OP

[Davius]

finished my stuff now, perhaps use it for the OP

Hi Sir, it would appear that with the Haswell 4770k, higher ram frequencies do better on the CPU benchmark, judging by your thread. Is it generally accepted that this will hold true for Rome II?

4 core CPUs with hyperthreading technology:
Intel Core i7-4770K, 4,5 GHz, Haswell C1, 22nm lithography, 84 Watts TDP, DDR3 2666 MHz CL11-13-13-35, Dual Channel: 52 FPS
Intel Core i7-4770K, 4,5 GHz, Haswell C1, 22nm lithography, 84 Watts TDP, DDR3 1666 MHz CL11-13-13-35, Dual Channel: 49 FPS
Intel Core i7-4770K, 4,2 GHz, Haswell C1, 22nm lithography, 84 Watts TDP, DDR3 1866 MHz CL9-10-9-30, Dual Channel: 48 FPS
Intel Core i7-4770K, 4,2 GHz, Haswell C1, 22nm lithography, 84 Watts TDP, DDR3 1800 MHz CL9-10-9-27, Dual Channel: 42 FPS

[alQamar]

this improvement happens generally independent from the application. But of course memory intensive applications like Rome 2 or video editingbenefit more than Windows itself.
A higher frequency BUT at SAME LATENCIES gives advantages. Speaking from price 2133 CL9 is the last affordable invest. 1866 MHz CL9 are "well-done"