AMD FD9370FHHKWOF manual

AMD FX Processors U nleashed | a Gui de to Performance Tuning w i th AMD Ov erDrive and the ne w AMD FX Processors[...]

2 Disclaimer The information presen ted in this docu ment is for in formational purposes only and may contain technical inaccuracies , omissions and ty pographical errors. The information conta ined herein is subje ct to change and may be rendere d inaccurate for many reasons, including but not limited to product and ro admap changes, co mponent an[...]

3 Introduction Systems based on the platform technology codenamed “Scorpius” may be tuned to deli v er added system perform a nce. The AMD FX™ CPUs and th e AMD 9-series chipset motherboards offer an exci ting amount of performance tuning options, incl u ding potential overclocking headroo m. Note that eac h processor and c h ipset is differe[...]

4 Glossar y of Terms HyperTrans p ort™ Referenc e Clock (H T ref. clk) : The bas e cloc k for various clock domains on t he AM D “Scorpius” pla tf orm technology. H T r ef. clock is 200MHz by default. CPU, CPU NB, H T L i nk and Memory c locks are all link ed to HT ref. clock. HT ref. clock adjustment is a go od tool f or fine tu ni ng the va[...]

5 Glossar y of Terms – c ont inued CPU / CPU NB Voltage OFFSET: Most AMD “Scorpius” p latfor m technology m otherboards have a BIOS opt i on that allows Voltage ad j ustments beyond th e C PU V ID Voltage range. This voltage offset is added on top of the VID v a lue. Voltage off se t could be ne gative or positive. Actual vo ltage level = CPU[...]

6 AMD OverD r ive™ utilit y The AMD OverDrive™ utility is a comprehensive utili ty for p erformance tu n i ng , system monitoring a n d testing. PLE A SE NOTE THAT THE A MD PRODUC T W A R RA NTY DOES NOT COVER D A M A GES C A US ED BY RUNNING C O MPONENTS OUTSIDE OF SPECIFIC A TION. Download from AMD Game! W eb site - http:/ / sites.amd.com /us[...]

7 Figure 1, presented above sho w s all t h e available clock/voltage t u ni ng options available in the AMD Over Dr ive™ util ity . The processor, northbridge, PCIe and memor y can all be adjusted to obtain an optimally tuned system. Detailed description of Figure 1 ( A MD Ov e rDrive utility screenshot): Current clock sp eeds (1) This section o[...]

8 Memory Tuning Figure2: A M D OverDri v e™ uti lity Mem ory Tuning Memor y ti ming adjustments ( 1) The items circled with red color ca n directly affect the overall system performance. Reducing t hese values can improve the performance / l o wer memory clock tuning margin whereas using h i g her values can enable higher memory clock sp e eds (b[...]

9 AMD OverDrive™ utility Stability Te st The AMD OverDrive™ u tility features an impressive s y stem stability assessment. The “Stability Test” tab under “P e rf ormance Control” incorporates AMD’ s CPU test algorithms to stress the CPUs worst-case scenario. The test c o nsists of various parts that can be set to run only on a specif [...]

10 AMD “Sco r pi us” plat fo r m – Pe rf ormance T uning Sugges tions CPU Core Clock P erformance Tunin g CPU core clock is the most important i tem to a djust for the advanced users w hen t uning t h e perf o rmance of the system. The CPU Clock speed has a big impact on overall s y stem perf ormance. The following s teps explain how to de te[...]

11 The ke y set tin gs i n t h e W indows® XP, W indow s Vis ta® o r W indows 7® ope rating system to adjust bef ore overclocking t he CPU: • Close all ma j or applications and background tools and sav e any open doc u ments • Set OS t o “High performanc e ” mode v i a “Contr ol Panel / Power Options” • Close any t hi r d party har[...]

12 CPU NorthBridge Perfor mance Tuning The CPU Nort hBridge ( CPU NB) clock s pe ed det ermines the efficiency and b andwidth capacity of the Memory controller. L3 cac he runs at this frequency as well. CPU N B p erformance t uning gives a m easurable boost f or overall s y st em performanc e . In par ticular it can reduce t he M emory latency an d[...]

13 Figure 7: A M D OverDrive™ util ity H T ref. clock sl ide r 5) Run a st ab ility test b efore increasing the HT re f. clock to another level 6) Adjust CPU NB VI D voltage slid er in A OD if there were any stability issues (in 0. 0 50V steps – th e AMD FX-8150 C PU may requ i re 1.300…1. 375V CPU NB Volt ag e to reach the full perf ormance [...]

14 CPU NB performance tuning through the BIOS menu: 1) Set the CPU NB clock speed up to the n ext avail able value (example: if 1800 MHz / x9 is the def au lt and NB clock test i n g v i a AMD OverDr i ve utility was OK at 2000MH z t he n set CPU NB BIOS item to 2000MHz / x10 now) 2) Set CPU NB Voltage to a known st a ble v a lue (based o n the N B[...]

15 Memory Performance tuning – AM3+ / DDR3 PLEASE NO TE THAT THE A MD PRODUCT W A RR A NTY DOES N OT COVER DAMAGE S CAUSED BY RUNNING COMPONENTS OUTSIDE OF SP ECI F I CATION INCLUDING DA MAGES CA USED BY OVERCLOCKIN G (EVEN WHEN O VER CLOCKI NG IS ENABLED WITH THE AMD OVERDRIV E UTILIT Y ) . Memory clock speed is tied to H T ref. clock w it h cer[...]

16 A dva n ced Memor y tuning examples : The f ollowing BIOS settings may i mprove the Memor y per formance tuning margin and enable operation at the higher memory c lock modes (DDR3-1866…2400). Figure 9: Ex ample setti n gs for DDR3-1866 memor y cl o ck mode ( 2 DIMMs, one DIMM pe r channel)[...]

17 Figure 10: E xample settings for DDR3-2133 memo r y c lock m ode (2 D IMMs, one DIMM per channel) The fo l lo w ing memor y timing fine tune parame ters that may furt her improve the c l ock margins and/or stability: Figure 11: Memo r y cl o ck fi n e tuning param e ters NOTE: “Address/CMD Setup T i me” & “Address/CM D Fine Delay” ?[...]

18 HyperTransport™ (H T) reference cl ock HT ref e rence clock value h as no direct impact on s ystem perform a nce. Th erefore the max i mum a mount of HT reference clock tuning is not required in ord er t o get the h i ghest perform a nce. HT ref. clock can be used t o fine tune and dial in t he other k ey cloc k values on the AMD “ Scorpius?[...]

19 AMD “Scorpiu s” P la t f orm T echnology – P erfo r ma nce T uning T arget s The fo l lo w ing t a ble lists some p ossible results f or an unlocked AMD FX -8150 CP U as well as t h e optimal voltage values for most AMD “Sc o rpius” platf orm tec h nology systems. Note that t hese results are st ri ctly estimates based on overclocking [...]

20 ATTRIBUTION © 2011 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All ri g hts reserved. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, ATI, the ATI logo, , AMD OverDrive and combinations there o f are tr ademarks of Advanced Mi c ro Devices, Inc. HyperTransport is a li cen s e d trademark of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium. PCIe is a registered trademark of PCI-SIG. W indow[...]