Vcore Questions - Phenom 9850 BE O/C

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andocser

Weaksauce
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Jun 29, 2004
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I’m having a problem overclocking my rig as far as I’d like to.

I have a Phenom 9850 BE running in an MSN M2N-E (I know, it’s not a native AM2+ motherboard) The problem I am having is with my Vcore and getting an accurate indication for what it really is.

Right now my CPU is running @ 2.7Ghz (200 x 13.5), the Vcore in the BIOS is set to 1.400V, and I have the CPU Vcore Offset Voltage in the BIOS turned on which is giving me an extra 50mV.

My problem is that according to the hardware monitor in my BIOS my actual Vcore is 1.43V. According to CPU-Z and OCCT, however, my Vcore is 1.28V at idle and drops down to 1.216V when all four CPU cores are under full load.

My issue is that the CPU is not stable above 2.7 and I’m hesitant to turn the Vcore up much higher without knowing what its *actually* running at.

At this point I have two questions. Is there a way to tell if the hardware monitor in the BIOS is right or if CPU-Z is right? Also, is it normal to see a 0.2V difference between what I set in the BIOS and what CPU-Z actually shows, and if not is there a way to fix it.

If it helps to know, check my sig for complete system specs.
 
id say turn the offset thing off and see what happens first.. check to see if it changes in the bios monitor and in cpu-z.. if they match then thats your issue.. rarely have i actually seen where the offset works.. so see if that helps first before changing your voltage..
 
ya it sounds like a vdroop issue. CPU-Z is what I would believe. On my old 780i before I pencil mod'd it, I would set 1.5v in the bios, but CPU-Z would report 1.43, and even less under load.

CPU-Z is what you want to base it off off. Also, watch your temps, thats the most important part, as long as your temps are in line, you should be able to add a little extra voltage. I wouldnt be afraid to hadd 1.45v in the bios, but obviously in the end its up to you.
 
It's not very often I run across a piece of hardware that does everything it's advertised to do and does it without having to spend a week tweaking it.
The best advice I can give you is to stand out on the corner with your tin cup and save up for a ASUS M3A79-t Deluxe MB. I'm running the same CPU you are and at first I was using a ASUS M3A32-MVP, and like you I ran into a wall at 2.7Ghz-2.8Ghz range no matter how much V-Core I gave it.
I treated myself to the M3A79-T for Christmas and with the first 30 minutes after being powered it was setting very stable at 3.1Ghz where I'm currently running it.
That's a increase of 300Mhz with just a MB change.
Now as to you're current setup, that CPU will handle 1.46v-1.48v if you have good cooling.
 
Thanks to everyone who replied.

Sirmonkey - I tried turning the CPU Vcore Offset Voltage off in the BIOS and the only change was that my voltages in the onboard hardware monitor and CPU-Z both dropped about 0.05V but what the mobo's HWM reported was still about 0.2V higher than what CPU-Z reported. It looks like my Vcore offset works the way it's expected to.

Xenozx - Thanks for the advice. At my current settings Core Temp showed the processor steady at ~ 44 deg. while I was playing SupCom and I got it up to 48 deg. while running a 1 hour stress test with OCCT so it seems my temps are OK for now.

Just for giggles I tried swapping out my PSU (BFG GS-650) with an older one that I had sitting around (Antec TPII-430) to see what would happen. I found that with the other power supply I still got exactly the same results and there was about a 0.2V difference between what I set in the BIOS and what CPU-Z reported. Based on that I've come to the conclusion that the issue is /w my motherboard.

I was poking around Asus' website and I found a utility called PC Probe II which I installed and it agrees with the motherboard monitor (duh) that I'm actually running my CPU at a Vcore of 1.43. I also checked for a BIOS update but I'm running the latest version(1701), so unless there is an update put out to fix this issue I'll have to tweak my system keeping in mind that my actual Vcore may be the CPU-Z reading or the motherboard reading or something in between.

Thanks again for the replies everyone, and wish me luck. :)
 
-- UPDATE --

A couple days later I haven't been able to get past 2.7Ghz because I'm afraid to turn the CPU voltage up much farther in case Asus PC Probe / my mobo's monitor is correct.

In doing some more research I was able to find lots of cases of pepole complaining about discrepancy between monitoring programs but the complaints were usually beacuse the values they were seeing were .02V or .03V off. In my case I'm seeing discrepancies of .15V or more. This is very unsettling to me.

I attached a screenshot showing CPU-Z and OCCT giving a nearly identical reading for Vcore and Asus PC Probe II showing something very different:





Can anyone here tell me which utility I should believe and (here's the important part) why? My gut tells me that CPU-Z is correct because when I was running @ 2.7Ghz /w a Vcore of 1.400 + 50mV offset in BIOS my temps never touched 50 deg. but I'd like to *know* and not just guess.

Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can give me, I appreciate it.
 
The only advice I can give you is simply that I have always found CPU-Z to be accurate. Right now my bios, CPU-Z and Everest are within .01v of one another.
In reality considering some MB's I've owned Id believe CPU-Z before the BIOS.:)
You gotta believe in something so pick one and don't look back unless it shows something really wacko.
 
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