Overclocking Results:

stock max. oc processor speed: 2.4 ghz 3.14 ghz if you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers: Overclocking the CPU and Memory Overclocking the Videocard

Over the years, AMD has allowed enthusiasts a lot of freedom to experiment with components although things have tightened up slightly with the release of the Athlon64. Sadly, gone is the full multiplier access in AMD's mainstream products, complete multiplier control is only available in its super high end 'FX' processors.

Considering the amount of heat the Athlon64 X2 4800+ produces while under load (110Watts), it's a perfect opportunity to place it under the freezing Prometeia Mach II GT evaporator. I wanted to get the best performance possible, and as the test memory has been tested up to 270ish running 2-2-2-5 with 3.8V, we kept things running 1:1.

Right from the get-go the Athlon64 X2 4800+ started to have problems at 217 MHz.... weird. The system just kept BSOD'ing while booting WindowsXP. Increasing the CPU voltage to 1.35V seemed to stabilize that, and we were able to continue onwards with the overclocking. The CPU hit another snag at 236 MHz, and once more a voltage increase was the necessary solution. This time the voltage was bumped to 1.4V. At 243 MHz the system had problems POSTing and, you guessed it CPU voltage solved this problem.

To reach the 3.0 GHz mark, the voltage was increased further still to 1.5V. Of course since we were testing the Athlon64 X2 4800+ with a phase change cooler, the system was able to compensate for the increased heat output while still maintaining sub-zero temperatures. If you attempt overclocking with a standard heatsink, we do not recommend increasing the voltage this high. The Athlon64 X2 4800+ produces a heck of a lot of heat.

Never satisfied, we continued to increase the motherboard clock speeds, and in the end we could run the Athlon64 X2 4800+ at 3.14 GHz (262 MHz) 100% stable with 1.7V. As you will see shortly, overclocking did boost performance very nicely in the benchmarks. Be warned though, you had better have a very good cooling solution before attempting anything like this. Now, on to the benchmarks!

PCStats Test System Specs:

system 1 system 2 processor: intel pentium 4 540 intel pentium d 840 athlon64 4000+ athlon64 x2 4800+ clock speed: 16 x 200 mhz = 3.2 ghz 12 x 200 mhz = 2.4 ghz 12 x 262 mhz = 3.14 ghz motherboards: gigabyte ga-8anxp-d, i925x gigabyte ga-81955x royal dfi lanparty nf4 sli-dr videocard: msi rx800xt-vtd msi rx800xt-vtd memory: 2x 512mb crucial ballistix pc5300 2x 512mb corsair twinx3200xl pro hard drive: 74gb western digital raptor 74gb western digital raptor cdrom: msi x48 cd-rw/dvd-rom nec 52x cd-rom powersupply: vantec stealth 470w vantec stealth 470w heatsink: thermaltake jungle 512 prometeia mach ii gt (review) Software Setup WindowsXP WindowsXP 64 Intel INF 7.2.1.1003 Catalyst 5.6 WindowsXP WindowsXP 64 nVIDIA nForce4 6.53 Catalyst 5.6 Benchmarks SYSmark 2004 Business Winstone 2004 Content Creation 2004 SiSoft Sandra 2005 Cinebench 2003 (32/64 Bit) Maya Render Test ScienceMark 2.0 (32/64 Bit) Super Pi 1.1 Hexus piFast 4.1 POVray 3.1g PCMark04 PCMark05 3DMark2001 3DMark05 Comanche 4 UT2003 UT2004 Doom 3

Overclocked tests were run in the 32-bit WindowsXP environment only.