Seems like all the good threads always wind up getting side tracked into overclocking threads. So I figured I make one just for that purpose.
If your choice of a board will be made mainly for overclocking in mind. You should pick one that has those options available, to make it easier. You'll want to find one that has some sort of an AGP/PCI lock or working divider. Since the motherboad manufactures won't come flat out and tell you wants going on you'll have find out yourselves. Good thread on that
Here (
once you skip over the Oclocking posts)
Irregardless of how it works, the fact is that some boards will do well over 300FSB and some won't.
Secondly you'd want to chose a board that will allow you to change the multipliers. The A64s will not go over their default multi, but will go lower if the boards BIOS has that option available.(Cool&Quite) This will help you max out your CPU.
It would help if you had a basic understanding of how to overclock(google is your friend) This is mainly for the A64s because they are so different from the XPs. The main difference is that the memory controller is intergraded inside the CPU and not by the North Bridge. Also the AGP tunnel or HTT link doesn't go through the North bride either, this cuts down on latency for both, and is were the performance gains come from over the XPs clock for clock. There is no "FSB" for the A64s, it's just a clock generator for the CPU. I try to think of it as a more complex multiplier adjustment, as it's disconnected from the bus entirely. One other
big difference is, that the A64s do not seem to take
any performance hit running aysnc like the XPs do. Your RAM running at 230Mhz it's running at 230Mhz irregardless of if it's 1:1 6:5 or any other memory divider, that goes back to the "FSB" setting being more of a complex multiplier. And lastly, is the HTT speed. You'll have to lower it to get the most out of your system. Once again, there seems to be no performance hit by slowing it down. I've done alot of testing and found that only "synthetic" benchmarks benefit from the higher HTT speed, I think in part because they only test the theoretical performance and not actual performance. In real life apps and games, can't take advantage of the full bandwidth of AGP tunnel, so lowering it has little or no effect. Unless you want to see a big 3Dmark score. Other than the games, I also ran SPECView 7.1.1 to see if it effects Open GL graphics rendering.
Now for the fun part
Once you select the right board, going about overclocking it is pretty much the same as for the XP's except for a few extra steps. In no particular order, you find your Max CPU speed, Max memory speed, and Max HTT speed. The trick is to try to clock your memory as high as it will go, you'll most likely need multipliers for that unless you have some poor RAM, and you will need the memory divider because of the locked higher multipliers. I would suggest using
ClockGen for this, it'll save alot of reboots. We'll start with the HTT first because that's the easiest, and it will hinder your later efforts.
Max HTT
Lower your multiplier to say 6X or so, use the 3:2 RAM divider,raise your LTD voltage(if you can) use the highest HTT setting, and leave your "FSB" at 200. Start going up from there. The VIA boards should start running into trouble at 220 or so, the NF3 at 230 or there abouts. The reason is at MAX HTT, the NF3 is at HTTX3 and the faster VIA is HTTX4. Once you find the Max HTT, find the highest for the other LDT setting, x2,x1...
Max CPU
Set your HTT to the lowest setting, set your 3:2 RAM divider, Leave your 'FSB' at 200 and your multiplier to default(highest) Then have at it. You can raise your Vcore before this step to see how high the CPU will go. Yes I know you can leave it at default, but this is an overclocking thread
Max Memory
Set your HTT to the lowest setting,set your 1:1 RAM divider,lower your multiplier to 6X or so, leave your "FSB" at 200, (Optional)raise your Vdimm, get busy.
Once you know were the top speed of everything is, you simply mix and match to try to get the closest to all of them. The most important, performance wise, in order are, the RAM speed, CPU speed, and then the HTT speed. Remember the fun in overclocking comes from the journey, not the final destination
Since it seems to be quite important to the end results. It would be helpful to know what motherboards decided to implement multiplier adjustments in their BIOS. And also which ones have some form of 'Lock' or functioning 'Divider' for the AGP/PCI. If you guys could check to see if your multipliers work and which board your using, we can keep a list of the "haves" and "have nots". A screenie with a multiplier of 6X would be nice, would also be helpful if it had a 'FSB' setting over 300, that would go a long way toward the PCI Lock/Divider question. Sorta like this,
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A64 Motherboards List
I've taken the liberty to add a AGP/PCI lock column. To qualify, the board must do over 300-HTT, and be confirmed by clockgen. It doesn't
prove a lock, but is a nice feature to have.
Check these threads for some more tips and hint's for different boards.
http://forums.amdmb.com/showthread.p...hreadid=302140
http://forums.amdmb.com/showthread.p...hreadid=300022
http://forums.amdmb.com/showthread.p...hreadid=298192
http://forums.amdmb.com/showthread.p...hreadid=298192
If you don't see your motherboard listed let me know. If you see your board with a bunch of ?????? test it
Screenies over 300 always welcome, for the PCI question.
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How do you Overclock a A64?
Linear Mode
