Can't get memory to go to full potential...

[earwicker7]

I was able to achieve a stable (20 min of LinX) overclock with a BCLK of 148 (any higher and I'll get to where the voltages will require new cooling solutions, which will probably result in eventual watercooling lol) and a Clock Ratio of 25X. These are the following stats, using Slaymate's template:

Bios Template
•Mother Board (Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9)
•Drivers (all current)
•Bios (5fg )
•CPU (i7-980X)
•CPU Cooler (stock)
•Memory ( G.Skill Trident+ Turbulence II 12GB (3 x 4GB) DDR3 2000)
•PSU (Silverstone ST1500 1500W)
•GPU (2 x XFX ATI Radeon HD 5970 2 GB)
•Drivers (Catalyst 10.11--drivers only)
•Operating System (Windows 7 64-bit)


Frequency Control
•CPU Clock Ratio (25X)
•CPU Host Frequency/BCLK (148)
•MCH Strap (???)
•CPU Uncore Frequency (2960 MHz {X20})
•CPU Clock Skew (0 ps)
•Spread Spectrum (???)
•PCIE Frequency (Auto)
•OC Recovery (???)

Here are some Frequency settings that weren't mentioned, as I couldn't find all of the ones requested:
QPI Clock Ratio (Auto)
QPI Link Speed (5.32 GHz)
Extreme Memory Profile (Disabled)
PCI Express Clock Drive (900 mV)
CPU Clock Drive (800mV)
IOH Clock Skew (0 ps)


Memory Feature
•Memory Speed (10X)
•Memory Control Setting (???)
•Memory Frequency (1480)
•Channel Interleave Setting (Auto)
•Rank Interleave Setting (Auto)
•Memory Low Gap (???)
•tCL Setting (8)
•tRCD Setting (8)
•tRP Setting (8)
•tRAS Setting (24)
•tRFC Setting (72)
•Command Rate (2)

Some Memory settings that weren't mentioned:
Performance Enhance (Expert)
DRAM Timing Selectable (Auto)


Voltage Control
•Load Line Calibration (Enabled, Level 1)
•CPU VCore (1.275V)
•CPU VTT/QPI DRAM Voltage (1.175V)
•CPU PLL VCore (1.800V)
•DIMM Voltage (1.640V)
•DIMM DQ Vref (???)
•QPI PLL VCore (1.140V)
•IOH VCore (1.100V)
•IOH/ICH I/O Voltage (1.500V)
•ICH VCore (1.100V )
•PWM Frequency (???)

There was one Voltage setting that wasn't mentioned:
PCIE (1.500V)


CPU Feature
•Intel SpeedStep (Disabled)
•Turbo Mode Function (Auto)
•CxE Function (???)
•Execute Disable Bit (Enabled)
•Virtualization Technology (Disabled)
•Intel HT Technology (Enabled)
•Active Processor Cores (All)
•QPI Control Settings (???)
•QPI Link Fast Mode (???)
•QPI Frequency Selection (???)

Here are some that weren't mentioned:
CPU Enhanced Halt--Disabled
C3/C5/C7 State Support--Disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor--Enabled
Bi-Directional PROCHOT--Enabled


So, having established my max BCLK, I thought I'd mess around with getting my memory up to its max frequency of 2000. With that in mind, I changed the above settings to the following:

BCLK (143)
MULTIPLIER (26X)
CPU FREQUENCY (3.71)
MEMORY MULTIPLIER (14X)
MEMORY FREQUENCY (2002)
UNCORE MULTIPLIER (28X)
UNCORE FREQUENCY (4004)
QPI LINK SPEED (6.86--AUTO)
MEMORY LATENCIES (9-9-9-24-74-2)

The results... infinite reboots with no POST. I had to reset my BIOS (not as bad as it sounds, as my motherboard has eight save slots for the BIOS settings, which is awesome AS LONG AS you enable the option to write these to your hard drive... if this isn't enabled, you lose everything, which I found out the hard way during a BIOS flash... lesson learned). I then tried knocking down the memory/uncore multipliers to 12X/24X. Same result. I then tried using the Extreme Memory Profile, which put the CPU Frequency in the neighborhood of 3.45 or so (didn't write it down, unfortunately), and the memory at 2002. Same result.

Basically, it seems like I cannot push my memory in any way other than by raising the BLCK... any other stuff results in no POST.

Any ideas? I should have much more headroom than what I'm getting.

PS--Slaymate, I know you recommended me boosting some voltages for more stable dual-GPU overclocking; I haven't forgotten this, I just want to do things one step at a time, so I'll boost those once I start applying a GPU overclock.

 

[Slaymate]

I advised those settings for, multi-gpu stability, not for stabilizing the gpu for overclocking the gpu's but for stabilizing the gpu's for overall system stability. You need to adjust them now, as I advised, not later.

Increasing the memory speeds up to 2000MHz will require an increase in the memory controller voltage, whether your cpu is overclocked or not. The CPU VTT/QPI DRAM Voltage is the memory controller voltage, for 2000 MHz you'll probably need to bump this up to approximately 1.4v or a little higher. Since the memory controller is built into the cpu, raising this voltage will also increase the cpu sore temperatures.

I strongly advise you to leave the memory at 1600 MHz if your overclocking the cpu, until you get a decent heatsink or water-cooling loop. Or you should reduce the CPU Clock Ratio back down to 25X and see if that helps (but you still need to increase the memory controller voltage).

 

[earwicker7]

Gotcha on the GPUs... I missed that part. Those are all northbridge settings, right? When you're increasing those voltages, is there a way to monitor the temperature in the same way you can monitor the CPU temperature, and if so, what are the safe temperatures?

I'm going to start doing research on the watercooling

 

[Slaymate]

HWMonitor should list your system temperature, if I could see a screenshot.

It would be easier if you would quit making a new thread for every question you have. If you just had one thread going I could simply look through the pages.

 

[earwicker7]

Sorry about the multiple posts... bad habit lol.

Here's a screen capture of HWMonitor... I collapsed the CPU and GPU temps to make it fit on one screen, as I already have ways of monitoring them.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Let me know if that's too small to read. EDIT: Never mind, you can click on the image and get the full size... d'oh!

 

[Sean W.]

i dunno about anyone else, but i cant read the numbers even in the full size pic, but maybe thats because im at a lower resolution ( my rig took a dump on its self and im on my old computer again )

 

[Slaymate]

I can't read it either. Why did you make it take up the whole screen? We don't need or want to see the whole screen, just the HWMonitor box like this.

 

[earwicker7]

I'm horrible when it comes to anything involving manipulating pictures

Did the two of you click the screencap on this webpage, and then click it again once you are at imageshack? If you don't click on it the second time, it stays small and unreadable. If you click it a second time, it should be very easy to read.

Let me know if the two of you have clicked on it twice and you still can't read it, and I'll try to get a better image.

 

[Slaymate]

Yes I did, I use imageshack myself.

 

[Sean W.]

same here, cant read it mate :/