Amd fm2 overclocking guide

* Note: Before continuing, we want certain positions and warnings to be clear. Profesonal Review as well as the manufacturers of the hardware and software used in this review (and in your home) are not responsible for the malfunction that may have been caused by incorrect handling. This type of adventure is always at the risk and expense of the people who use it, accepting and understanding these warnings.

At this point, we will list the hardware and software used before the battle begins.

System and components:

- Asus F2A85M-Pro FM2 motherboard.

- A10-5800k @ 3.8 / 4.2Ghz processor.

- 2x4Gb G.Skill TridentX 2400Mhz 10-12-12-31.

- Antec Küler H2O 620 + 2x Corsair 120mm.

- OCZ Modxstream 700W Modular source.

- Corsair M4 128Gb Sata3 HDD.

Software and applications:

- Windows 8 64bit Pro operating system.

- CPU-Z and GPU-Z.

- OCCT, latest version, for burn test.

- AMD Overdrive.

Of course, before starting it is convenient and we almost take it as a mandatory requirement, to know your hardware, because not all boards are like this, nor can all processors be as good as other units. You have to be conformist and patient, overclocking takes time and a lot of testing.

Under my experience with these Apus, there are two key concepts and they are, having a good heatsink since it will be crucial to keep temperatures at bay because having integrated graphics and x86 cores, temperatures are generally quite high, and the second is to have a motherboard in good condition. The ideal boards are those based on the A75 and A85x chipset that have up to 6 power and digital phases like the one used in this guide.

Continuing with the knowledge of the hardware and investigating, this processor has a maximum working temperature, a figure of 74ºC for everything, that is, integrated graphics (IGP from now on) and CPU. We must also know the maximum working voltage, which although there are many opinions and official figures, it is not convenient for 24/7 to use more than 1.50v for the CPU and 1.3V for the APU, that is, the IGP.

Remember that each Apu processor (and generally all) is different and one will never go up the same as the other, just as neither will an A8 of an A10 model since they are different voltages and number of shaders.

Well, having clear these first guidelines, we are going to offer you different methods to overclock your platform. CPU overclock, IGP overvoltage and voltage multiplier (classic), BCLK (more complicated) and software (for beginners).

The first thing, before starting is to put the last bios of your motherboard to have the last support that has been applied to it, such as compatibility with memories, processor, etc., which can be seen in the first capture. Already in the second we observe the basic adjustment values such as the APU multiplier, NB Frequency, GPU Boost, memory latency control etc.

We leave you a screenshot with the serial processor, to have a starting point reference. We see that the frequency is in its sleep mode, the IGP is also at 800Mhz and we see that the NB Frequency (memory controller speed) is also relaxed, at 1500Mhz. These Apus handle the NB variably, with 1500Mhz at its lowest and 1800Mhz at its highest working state.

Almost all the plate manufacturers offer an overclock of the house, adjusting conservative values but very effective for people with no experience or less demanding. In this case it is called "Oc Tune", in Asrock "Xboost" or in Msi "Oc Genie". By applying it in our system and restarting, the value reached from this unit has been 4300Mhz for the CPU and 950Mhz for the IGP, average figures that will give the team a boost. We leave you some screenshots to check it. They normally apply voltages or series, 1.45V or slightly higher.

Incidentally, we have applied the memory configuration to its native form, 2400Mhz and their respective latencies. This step is important no matter what you have, put them manually to have optimal stability and final performance.

* Note: To overclock we don't necessarily need memories like these, which although they are more effective in freeing up memory bandwidth, they also have a higher cost and some 1600Mhz or 1866Mhz will serve to tighten the CPU and the IGP.

Overclocking the CPU:

As standard, Apus like this one, handle high voltages (it's totally normal) like 1.45v since in its Turbo mode it reaches the excellent frequency of 4200Mhz.

Now the first thing we are going to do is go back to the bios, to the CPU configuration section and manually apply a value of 45 to the multiplier to raise the frequency to 4500Mhz without even touching the voltage, and restart the system.

If everything goes as it should and the system starts without problems, it is that the voltage is sufficient up to that point, now we must pass a stress test to the CPU like the one described at the beginning, the OCCT, which will put 100% our processor to test its stability. Before we leave you a screenshot to check the first results on the CPU-Z.

Remember that to increase the multiplier of the processor, you must have an A10, A8 or A6 that has its " K " finish, since they are the only ones that we can move said multiplier at pleasure. If, on the other hand, you have a normal unit, such as an A8-5500 or A10-6700, you should go to the BLCK overclocking section.

Now, we will open as we said the OCCT and we will use the configuration that comes by default in the "CPU" tab and we will apply the value that is unmarked as standard, called "AVX Capable Linpak" and run the test.

Several things can happen, depending on the team we have. Either it works wonderfully and we can leave it about 25 ~ 40 minutes to check its reliability, or it will give an error automatically stopping the test. If this is your case, we will have to restart, go to the bios and apply a little more voltage, always little by little, for example 1, 465v. Another way to do it would be to start from lower, 4400Mhz (multiplier at 44) and check the stability from there.

Remember that you have to check that the temperature NEVER exceeds 75ºc, this being its highest recommended point.

Our A10 was able without problems with the series voltage to continue the entire test at 4500Mhz by passing the tests. On the other hand, just as we were lucky in that sense, it has been impossible to raise it more than that frequency, giving failure in the aforementioned test to more than 4600Mhz, nor with 1.5v, a figure that for 24/7 is not convenient to exceed. So that's the maximum overclock for our unit.

Observations to take into account

These processors, when they are high frequency and are at 100%, tend to relax the frequency momentarily and begin to oscillate, thus not keeping their handwritten frequency of 4500Mhz or the number you reach.

To solve this issue, there is a method, and that is by opening the AMD Overdrive, we go to the " Clock / Voltages " tab, we see that there is a box that says " Control Turbo Core ". Well, we go in, deactivate the Turbo and accept the configuration. Here the Overdrive will close and that dance of frequencies will disappear leaving the performance intact, at the cost of slightly raising the temperature, which, as you know, is a maximum of 75ºC (never forget it).

After making this point clear, the next will be to choose the type of overclocking that we want based on its use. What do I mean by this? It is very simple. Taking as a reference that the global temperature of the processor should not exceed 75ºC, we realize that this directly affects the CPU and the IGP.

I highly recommend focusing on:

Overclock the CPU because we are going to use it more than the IGP or on the contrary we will use a dedicated graph.

Overclock to the IGP specifically, because it is always better to do it, since in games without dedicated graphics, we will get the best performance.Overclock mixed, taking into account that we will make an average balance for a little use of everything.

After completing this reference, we are going to give more priority to the IGP and the entire system via BCLK.

Overclock to IGP (Integrated Graphics Card)

This processor having the multiplier unlocked, it is easy to increase the frequency of the integrated graphics. For this part we have lowered the CPU speed to 4200Mhz stable instead of 3800Mhz plus the Turbo to prioritize the IGP and not alter the temperatures excessively.

Again in the bios, we find the following section:

As we see, in the "GPU Engine Frequency" we choose the final frequency of the IGP as if it were the CPU but with values that we cannot get out of there. To go little by little, the next trend would be to go at 1013Mhz and so on until you find the stable limit.

Like the CPU, the IGP will also need an extra voltage, and in our case there is the following section.

Initially the voltage of the APU is 1.2V, and it is the one that directly affects the IGP. As a starting measure, applying up to 1.25V is a good starting point without putting any component on the board or processor in check. Just apply that value and start the system.

If everything has gone as it should, the system will start and we will load our program to check the graphic stability, the OCCT. We open the " GPU " section and put a resolution of 1280 × 720, " Shader Complex " to the maximum and run it. If after 10 minutes the system has not stopped, temperatures are in place and we obtain stability, it is time to continue increasing the speed of the PGI, which in our case is to go to 1086Mhz.

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We will try to leave the voltage of the previous configuration, 1.25V. After having done the same and trying to pass the OCCT, the image froze and we had to restart (or the controller fails, but do not worry, it is normal), so we had to apply a higher voltage value, testing from 1.26 to 1.30V and there we found the necessary stability.

We leave you some screenshots of the operation of the configuration and tests of the OCCT.

From the GPU-Z, sensors tab, we can see the temperature and have it monitored.

It is up to this frequency that our A10 has reached, a remarkable figure of 1086Mhz, which is 286Mhz more than what comes standard, considerably increasing performance. Unfortunately the next bios figure of 1169Mhz is too high even with more voltage.

From now on, we are going to do a more advanced overclock, using multiplier, BCLK, NB Frequency, and other values to slightly tighten the overclock already achieved.

Advanced overclocking via BCLK for CPU and IGP

Overclocking using BCLK implies increasing the speed of the entire system, that is, we will directly increase the base clock of the CPU, the IGP, the NB Frequency and the DDR3 memory and that is why we must be extremely careful with it, not to forget no value.

Generally for the Apus, there are two reference values for the BCLK that are " 113 " and " 125 ", which are, so to speak, those that are most in harmony with each other. After knowing the limits and operation of our A10, we have directly applied a value of " 125 " (although I recommend starting with "113). It is also worth noting that we will leave 1.45v applied manually as voltage to the CPU.

You will wonder, in what proportion does everything increase? It is very simple. Having increased the base clock from " 100 " to " 125 ", we have applied 25 % to the rest of the values, or what is the same, each point we raise is 0.25 more.

Listing with example:

IGP 800 x 0.25 = 200. 800 + 200 = 1000Mhz. NB Frequency 1800 x 0.25 = 450. 1800 + 450 = 2250Mhz. DDR3 memory 1866 x 0.25 = 466. 1866 + 466.5 = 2333Mhz

You have to be careful too, because the NB Frequency also increases and quite a lot, reaching 2250Mhz with that BCLK configuration and I do not recommend that it exceed 2000Mhz so that there are no instabilities. Going from 1600 ~ 1800Mhz to 2000Mhz will give some improvement but more, it is not necessary. For this we will put the figure of 1600, manually.

This is how the configuration would look before changing the NB Frequency:

As we see, the IGP has automatically passed to 1000Mhz, the NB as we see until the mentioned 2250Mhz (just so you could see the increase) and after lowering the CPU multiplier to 34, it stays at the good 4250Mhz.

At this point, I recommend doing a stability test of both CPU and IGP (separately of course) and check that we can continue to tighten the system more.

Now it is time to correct the NB and apply a slightly higher value to the IGP, since when the BCLK is raised, the multiples change and we can not jump as high as before, this time with the same voltage of 1.30V at 1118Mhz.

Finally, we see how the NB when lowering it to 1600 with the increase of the BCLK stays at a generous 2000Mhz and the IGP at the speed mentioned above. Again, touch a GPU stability test to check that everything is going as it should.

Performing a BCLK overclock tends to give a slightly higher performance, since by increasing all the values, they benefit the final experience obtained in games and applications.

For this type of overclocking, there are many motherboards like ours that offer certain extra configurations to improve the stability of the system, not that it is necessary but it can give the last push we need to reach an optimal figure of performance.

It affects the voltage control, its stability, and increases and improves the stability of the CPU, although in our case, in figures such as exceeding 4500Mhz for the CPU they had no effect.

As final additions, I want to remember that you should bear in mind that an overclock to the tuntun can do more harm than good, and it is always advisable to retrace your steps when you reach certain frequency figures. What does this mean? That we can have random restarts, playing or working, or simply torturing some component, because by increasing the frequency they also heat up and suffer more from the feeding phases of the plate.

That is why it is important before starting any overclock, to know your hardware, your intentions and its limits. Always go little by little and be conformist with what you get. Not for wanting 4800Mhz and 1200Mhz in the IGP, it implies that we can achieve it.