AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer Overclocking On Ubuntu Linux

The "fam15h_power" driver with its support for the new Bulldozer registers to show the estimated CPU power consumption is indeed next to useless. Like said before, it constantly just shows a 125W reading regardless of Cool 'n' Quiet, etc. When overclocking the CPU to 4.42GHz and upping the voltage, 125W was still displayed. When running her at 4.7GHz, the reported CPU power consumption was 14.3 Watts, which is obviously far from being correct.

The AMD water cooling kit does a good job, but I also don't put as much faith in the integrated thermal sensor when idling, as I've found that to also be inaccurate, but under load tends to report more accurate results.

The USB-based WattsUp AC power meter was interfacing with the Phoronix Test Suite to report the AC power draw for the system. Running the FX-8150 at 4.70GHz caused the power consumption to go up by 100 Watts.