Athlon 64 2800+, is this a good OC?

ChrisAdan650 · Mar 12, 2005, 04:51 AM

I just built my sisters computer which consists of an Athlon 64 2800+ socket 754 cpu, 1 gig of Corsair PC3200 value ram, and a Chaintech Nforce3 250 VNF3-250 motherboard. I currently have these settings in the bios which have led me to run the cpu at 2.25 GHz. 1.HT Frequency=4x, 2. Dram config=166 3. CPU Overclock in MHZ=250 and 4. DDR Frequency=416. The ram could not be overclocked much higher than 216 mhz sadly so that is why I lowered the Dram config to 166 from it's original setting of 200. Is this a good overclock? Does this equal an Athlon 64 socket 754 3200+ or a 3400+ processor? What's the safest overclock known with this cpu with the stock heatsink and some Acrylic Silver 5? What's the breaking temperature point for the cpu? Thanks in advance

ChrisAdan650 · Mar 13, 2005, 05:23 AM

Any opinions? Well, the CPU Overclock is now at 256 and the ram is running at 226 mhz which has the CPU now running at 2.3 GHz. My sister is a hardcore gamer if you can believe that so the extra power will help. She will also either be running Windows XP 64-bit edition or the next version of Windows for sure so again, the extra power will come in handy. Since it is now overclocked to 2.3 GHz, does this cpu outperform the 3400+ socket 754 cpu?

El Kapitano · Mar 13, 2005, 05:45 AM

That's a pretty sweet o/c for a newcastle 754 but you'd have to run some cpu benchies and compare them against the reviews for the 3200/3400 to know for sure. I would have thought it would be pretty much there though.

Somnambulator · Mar 13, 2005, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisAdan650

I just built my sisters computer which consists of an Athlon 64 2800+ socket 754 cpu, 1 gig of Corsair PC3200 value ram, and a Chaintech Nforce3 250 VNF3-250 motherboard. I currently have these settings in the bios which have led me to run the cpu at 2.25 GHz. 1.HT Frequency=4x, 2. Dram config=166 3. CPU Overclock in MHZ=250 and 4. DDR Frequency=416. The ram could not be overclocked much higher than 216 mhz sadly so that is why I lowered the Dram config to 166 from it's original setting of 200. Is this a good overclock? Does this equal an Athlon 64 socket 754 3200+ or a 3400+ processor? What's the safest overclock known with this cpu with the stock heatsink and some Acrylic Silver 5? What's the breaking temperature point for the cpu? Thanks in advance

does that mean you're running out of sync? dont have an NF3 to compare technical terms, but your RAM and FSB/HTT speeds should be the same. if there is a setting in your RAM config page to set it to "1:1" or "1/01" or "same as FSB" or "syncronized" or something of that nature, you need that selected for best performance. take some CPU-Z screeshots to really let us know what you did.

btw, there are only i think 4 989 A64s: 2800+ 3000+ 3500+ and 4000+. 4000+ i believe is based on the FX chips and not really directly comparable to 3500+. but no, your chip probably cant compete with a 3200+ 939 OR 754 if your specs are as think they are. really need some screenies to see, but it sounds like yuour actually hurting performance even though your clock speed is *slightly* higher

ChrisAdan650 · Mar 13, 2005, 06:24 PM

I would have the FSB/HTT running at the same speeds if the ram was actually capable of hitting 256 like it is now. Anyways, here our some benchmark results using Sandra 2005 Pro.

CPU Arithmetic Benchmark

1.Stock settings 1.8 Ghz
1:1 ratio, ram=200, HT=200
Dhrystone ALU-7712 MIPS
Whetsone fpu/iSSE2 2953/3853 MFLOPS

2.Overclocked settings=2.3 Ghz
Ram=166 oc'd to 226, cpu oc at 256, cpu=2.3 Ghz
Dhrystone ALU-9884 MIPS
Whetstone FPU/isse-3786/4921 MFLOPS

Mutli-Benchmark

1.Stock settings 1.8 Ghz
Integer x4 aemmx/aSSE 17233
Floating-Point x4 iSSE2 18594

2. OC settings 2.3 Ghz
Ram=226, cpu oc at 256
Integer x4 aEMMX/aSSE 21994
Floating-Point x4 iSSE2 23582

Somnambulator · Mar 13, 2005, 07:15 PM

not a bad OC but you can do better. use this as an intro and keep working on it!

ChrisAdan650 · Mar 14, 2005, 12:48 PM

Seems like the limit is 261. Anything higher than that and I get random freezing or the computer fails to boot properly. The final Sandra benchmark scores are:

Sandra 2005 Pro

CPU Arithmetic Benchmark: Ram set at 166/4xHT
Ram=213.8, cpu OC at 261.3, cpu=2.352 GHz
Dhrystone ALU-10078 MIPS
Whetstone FPU/isse-3861/5016 MFLOPS

Mutli-Benchmark: Ram set at 166/4xHT
Ram=213.8, cpu OC at 261.3, cpu=2.352 GHz
Integer x4 aEMMX/aSSE 22425
Floating-Point x4 iSSE2 24196

Memory Bandwidth Benchmark:213.8/4xHT
Int Buff'd iSSE2=3241
Float Buff'd iSSE2 3241

Any advice on how I can maybe hit 2.4 Ghz? I think I'd need to hit 266 but anything higher than 261 gives me problems sadly. The motherboard I'm using is the Chaintech Nforce3 250 VNF3-250 with of course the Athlon 64 2800+ socket 754 cpu. Thanks for the replies so far!

Somnambulator · Mar 14, 2005, 04:16 PM

for starters, have you run Prime95 or Memtest or the Sandra Burn-In wizard to test for stability? just because you can boot into windows and dont have any windows freezeups doesnt mean your system is "stable". worst case scenerio, your sister is gaming in a match for whatever game and the computer locks up/restarts.

if the system is completely stable right now, try upping your voltages which will let you clock your ram, FSB/HTT. and total clockspeed higher. usually people find their max memory speeds 1:1 1st so they lower their Mult's in order to help eliminate the CPU as a factor. get your RAM up as high as it will go 1:1 and then work from there. youll probably have to loosen your RAM timings and raise your vdimm in order to achieve anything

ChrisAdan650 · Mar 14, 2005, 04:27 PM

Hey thanks for replying! I've ran the Sandra 2005 Pro burn in test about 70 times now and it has yet to freeze up on the current overclocked settings. I might have to ask my sister to buy a better heatsink or get better system cooling before I raise the speed anymore. The case only came with one 80mm rear fan but she just ordered a new 92 mm thermaltake fan so I plan on moving the rear 80mm fan to the front after I install the new fan so we'll see how it goes from there. Thanks for the suggestions and take care!