Plowing ahead with Bulldozer

X3 Terran Benchmark Default Settings.

1100T at 4.2GHz
X3Terran1100T42GHz.jpg


FX8120 at 4.6GHz
X3TerranFX812046GHz.jpg


To put this in perspective, my Core i7 965EE at 4.5GHz averages over 140fps with all graphic effects at max settings in this benchmark.

Note:

Should have mentioned that all tests are running a pair of HD5870's in Crossfire - the GTX590's are definitely going in the Intel rig.
 
I understand exactly how you feel. As the saying goes hindsight is 20/20, I've made bigger mistakes than this over the years :eek: This time is different though because I don't really feel that AMD can be trusted going forward.

I Agree, I have ever since the Athlon 64 days built myself AMD rigs, times are changing, x79 system for me i feel :)
 
Dang Mizzou. Crushed dreams build character ya know. I think you'll be okay. Vantage scores are a bit depressing. What will be your configuration if you're moving your 590's to your wintel rig?
 
I Agree, I have ever since the Athlon 64 days built myself AMD rigs, times are changing, x79 system for me i feel :)

Sure looks like a better alternative unless I can interest you in a slightly used Bulldozer rig ;)

Dang Mizzou. Crushed dreams build character ya know. I think you'll be okay. Vantage scores are a bit depressing. What will be your configuration if you're moving your 590's to your wintel rig?

If crushed dreams build character then I'm one h#ll of a character right about now :)

For the 590's I'll be sticking with my ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution X58 running a Core i7 965 EE and Corsiar Dominator 1600 DDR3. It clocks up to 4.5GHz on air so I'll go ahead and put it underwater and go for broke.
 
Would like to know your vantage scores. I'm thinking of adding a 3rd 580, would take 3 weeks to finish the addon. AquaGrafx blocks take at least 2 weeks to ship over seas.
 
Would like to know your vantage scores. I'm thinking of adding a 3rd 580, would take 3 weeks to finish the addon. AquaGrafx blocks take at least 2 weeks to ship over seas.

Looks like you've got enough processor to make Tri-SLI worthwhile, from what I've seen around the forums nVidia scales well up to three. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it posted higher benchmarks than the dual GTX590's. Will be a few weeks before I'll have time to mess with the Intel rig but will post some results when I get it all together.

Have done a little more tweaking and think I've got the FX8120 pretty stable at 4.7GHz, looks like 4.8~4.9GHz should just about pull about even with the 1100T :( Thinking 4.8GHz might be possible since everything is acting normal at the current overclock. Definitely glad that I didn't spend even more money on the FX8150.

FX81203dMarkVantage47GHz.jpg


For what it's worth, this isn't a flying gas can overclock ... still running full services with all external devices active. Really not having any trouble with the temperatures yet, under sustained load hitting just above 57C. That's according to AMD Overdirve, temperature reporting is all over the map with Core Temp and AIDA64 so I'm going with AOD since it's the highest.
 
Is this the only bench you have run other than X and PC Mark 7?

I ask because consistant throughout the launch day reviews was the BD getting close to the Vantage CPU score you have @ 4.7, @ 3.6Ghz.
and the OC score being about 4k higher.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...md-bulldozer-fx-8150-processor-review-14.html

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150-processor-review/15

I think you may be running into APM application power management, It keeps the board at stock TDP during OC'ing by throttling cores back to preserve the 125w limit. Kit Guru ran their review using the UD7.

From KitGuru BD review:

It is worth pointing out that the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 has no bios setting to disable APM (Application Power Management). Without this disabled, the motherboard will maintain the TDP limit when overclocking or overvolting above the limits. As a result APM will throttle some of the cores back to lower Pstates during heavy, multithreaded workloads reducing performance.
turbo-core-fix-300x230.png


To get around this, we have to use AMD OverDrive software (above). We enable TurboCore, apply, then disable TurboCore … this in effect also disables Application Power Management.
(Special thanks to Sami Makinen for lending us some of his expertise to work around this issue).
 
was it the APM?

Had to be, I'm doing a video recode right now and all the cores are still constant. Prior to that the cores were constantly kicking back to a cpu multi of 14 at a 2.8GHz clock. Is yours still on schedule for tomorrow? Thanks for the help too.

vCore is at 1.525 in Bios.
at 69C with all cores at about 75% loading with the recode.

This may help stabilize the overclock, will be doing some more experimentation with voltages.
 
Had to be, I'm doing a video recode right now and all the cores are still constant. Prior to that the cores were constantly kicking back to a cpu multi of 14 at a 2.8GHz clock. Is yours still on schedule for tomorrow? Thanks for the help too.

..yeah..I am an Over-clocking genius...:p:haha:

Yep, It's in Mpls now and on time.

you will probably like the 3DMark11 score as well.

This may help stabilize the overclock, will be doing some more experimentation with voltages.

also did you set load libe calibration to 'extreme'? this is helping quite a lot with BD oc's
 
The screen I sent was from KG. I was told by a tech at Gigabyte that the LLC is a CPU function so I dont see it. He said it may be a ' hidden feature' so it may require holding down CTRL + F1 at the splash screen to activate. He is sending me an email to confirm. I will forward it as soon as I get it. I thought I had seen it and set it previuosly, but I may have been thinking of my Asus crosshair Formula V.
other than that 4.8 looks good. i am very interested in your temps as the Silver Arrow runs within a degree of the H 100 depending on fan arrangement. Looking forward to how this thing does in 3DSMax 2012, AVS, Photoshop CS5, and Adobe suite.
 
After doing the AOD turbo core sequence my temperatures jumped quite a bit, will double check after getting this all sorted out. Just about every temperature monitor is giving different readings, Core Temp and AIDA64 are both reading well below what AOD reports ... sometimes over 10C variance. I'll give the Ctrl+F1 sequence a shot.
 
After doing the AOD turbo core sequence my temperatures jumped quite a bit, will double check after getting this all sorted out. Just about every temperature monitor is giving different readings, Core Temp and AIDA64 are both reading well below what AOD reports ... sometimes over 10C variance. I'll give the Ctrl+F1 sequence a shot.


well it must have worked then :) I have found AOD to be very consistent with the BIOS...as a matter of fact, thats where it takes it's reading from. well I will look you up as soon as the Gigabyte tech gets back to me.
 
Things are looking much better with the AOD work around. Currently at 4.7GHz with vCore at 1.5375 with no other voltages adjustments needed. Idling at 30C with load temperatures topping out just under 62C. Good news is that I enabled C1E and Cool and Quiet and am still stable, that drops the idle temperature down to the mid 20C range. Under load the Corsair H100 kicks the fans into high gear and lets you know that it's busy :)

Seeing a major improvement in video recoding times now that the cores are stable, substantial boost over the Phenom II X6 1100T. Since that's the main goal I had for Bulldozer am feeling much better about things now. Will probably drop back to 4.6GHz for everyday overclock, less voltage and much quieter.

Load Temps Before AOD Fix - Went to 62C After Fix (Sorry about the scaling)
FX8120Thermal-2.jpg


Idle Temps After Turning C1E and Cool & Quiet Back On - 30-32C when disabled.
BulldozerIdleTemps.jpg
 
Encoding, video recording, and other applications that utilize multi-cores is the one area that I have read where Bulldozer consistently shines. It actually can compete with the 2600 in this realm.

Your own experience bears out Bulldozers one strength. Thanks Mizzou for the benchwork and reporting your finds.
 
Encoding, video recording, and other applications that utilize multi-cores is the one area that I have read where Bulldozer consistently shines. It actually can compete with the 2600 in this realm.

Your own experience bears out Bulldozers one strength. Thanks Mizzou for the benchwork and reporting your finds.

My pleasure, am looking forward to Red's results since I'm pretty sure he'll top my numbers :) It appears that the FX8120 starts catching stride from 4.5GHz and above but I think you'll definitely need a good cooling solution to keep it stable at those clocks.
 
Mizz sounds like you are liking that new BD rig glad you do even if BD wasn't what we all expected. I like that the BD chips clock very close to SB chips that is kinda nice now i just wish i had a 6 core or 8 core intel chip for my rig so that i had better video recode times but i guess ill just stick with what i got.
 
Last night I had the friend that I sold the Phenom II 965BE run a recode from Mpeg-2 to AVC (mp4) on a rather challenging 2.5 hour video stream. Complete with all audio tracks and available subtitles tt took the 965BE 39 minutes to complete compared to 20 on the FX8120. More typical video streams are running 13-15 minutes on Bulldozer versus 20-25 on the 1100T which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Good thing, since for better or worse I'll be running this processor for a while.
 
My pleasure, am looking forward to Red's results since I'm pretty sure he'll top my numbers

...same CPU, same Motherboard, why would you think that?....oh yeah...Photoshop.:haha::p

still waiting for the ups guy.
I am really surprised with the C1E and cool & quiet being on. thats great though. so are you having to do the APM work around every restart?
 
...same CPU, same Motherboard, why would you think that?....oh yeah...Photoshop.:haha::p

still waiting for the ups guy.
I am really surprised with the C1E and cool & quiet being on. thats great though. so are you having to do the APM work around every restart?

The power management is a big plus, so far so good. I tried doing the save AOD parameters at reboot and had to fight my way back into the bios, wasn't pretty. So for now just flipping it at start up, let the computer go to sleep last night and had no problems waking it up this morning :cool:
 
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