AMD FX 8120 3.1 GHz (Rookie needs help!)

[Enpi]

Hello, I have read the Bulldozer overclocking Guide. But I would like some personal advice regarding my hardware and what clock frequency I should aim for as I don't wish to do more then I need. My main reason for overclocking is to improve my FPS in ArmA 2 as I sit around 20-30FPS in large ACE Battles while playing ArmA.

I know ArmA 2 has crappy optimization and I have done every little tweak to try and boost it. If there are any other guides that are recommended that I should read please link me them. I am not rushing in to overclocking as I want to know exactly the correct manner before I even think about attempting it as I have never dabbled in it before and I don't want to screw it up.

So some general advise on what I should read up on first would be great as it seems like a lot to take in. Thanks for the help and sorry if I sound like a complete noob!

My Specs

CPU: AMD FX 8120 3.1 GHz Eight Core Black Edition
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14PE
Motherboard: Gigabyte 9990FXA-UD7
Ram: Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz
Power Supply: Jeantech Storm 700W ATX
Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 4GB
Storage: Samsung 840 SSD

 

[ObscureParadox]

Luckily you have a very good cooler and motherboard there to push that chip to its limits.

Now unfortunately Arma 2 is a very CPU dependent game and you'll need an intel chip for some really decent frames.

However back on topic. What I would do is I would set the CPU "Core" voltage to 1.45v and up the CPU multiplier to 45x. Hopefully that should be stable.

After that I would go about overclocking the northbridge to around the 2.8GHz mark which should only require for you to increase the CPU-NB multiplier to 14x.

If you need any more help on pushing it further after that then let me know. I'm going to be playing around with the UD5 tonight so I'll be able to give you more help on BIOS settings than I normally would with these kind of things.

 

[barnsley]

You could try this for cpu optimisation in arma 2, however you might want to do research on it as I have only ever done the equivalent on arma 3.

 

[Enpi]

Luckily you have a very good cooler and motherboard there to push that chip to its limits.

Now unfortunately Arma 2 is a very CPU dependent game and you'll need an intel chip for some really decent frames.

However back on topic. What I would do is I would set the CPU "Core" voltage to 1.45v and up the CPU multiplier to 45x. Hopefully that should be stable.

After that I would go about overclocking the northbridge to around the 2.8GHz mark which should only require for you to increase the CPU-NB multiplier to 14x.

If you need any more help on pushing it further after that then let me know. I'm going to be playing around with the UD5 tonight so I'll be able to give you more help on BIOS settings than I normally would with these kind of things.

Thank you for the reply. Bear with me but what are the result of your settings you suggested will that leave me at a comfortable OC or right at the end of my threshold?

Thanks Barnsley but I have already maxed out my Startup Parameters for ArmA 2, I also have ArmA 3 which seems to run flawless without them.

 

[Mgutierrez33]

Given my recent experiences with AMD overclocking you need pretty robust cooling to even move past 1.4V. I use an H100i with two quiet edition fans on it, and at 1.4V I am pretty much at the safe temperature limits on a 4.5 Ghz overclock (22.5x multiplier). When you stress these cores the widely accepted thermal threshold is 61C per core. Anywhere beyond that and you CAN run the chip, but I wouldn't.