Overclocking: "linpack_xeon64.exe has stopped working"

[earwicker7]

I'm working on my overclock, and was able to get my BCLK to 145 and do a 20 minute run of LixX with a couple of voltage adjustments, so I went to the next step and raised the BCLK to 150. LinX immediately gave me the following message: "linpack_xeon64.exe has stopped working". I was hoping someone might give me an idea of which voltage needs to be bumped to avoid this message.

I'm going to use Slaymates questionairre to give the details.

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 (150)
•MCH Strap (???)
•CPU Uncore Frequency (3000 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 (5.4 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 (1500)
•Channel Interleave Setting (Auto)
•Rank Interleave Setting (Auto)
•Memory Low Gap (???)
•tCL Setting (10)
•tRCD Setting (10--Auto)
•tRP Setting (10--Auto)
•tRAS Setting (28--Auto)
•tRFC Setting (122--Auto)
•Command Rate (1--Auto)

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


Voltage Control
•EVGA VDroop Control/Load Line Calibration (standard)
•CPU VCore (1.26250V--stock is 1.25625)
•CPU VTT/QPI DRAM Voltage (1.175V)
•CPU PLL VCore (1.800V)
•DIMM Voltage (1.500V)
•DIMM DQ Vref (???)
•QPI PLL VCore (1.140V--stock is 1.100 )
•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:
QPI Clock Ratio (Auto)
QPI Link Speed (5.4 GHz)
CPU Enhanced Halt--Disabled
C3/C5/C7 State Support--Disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor--Enabled
Bi-Directional PROCHOT--Enabled

 

[Slaymate]

I'll look this over when I get home from work.

 

[Slaymate]

At your present BCLK and memory speed (1500 MHz) you should change the latencies to:

•tCL Setting (8)
•tRCD Setting (8)
•tRP Setting (8)
•tRAS Setting (24)
•tRFC Setting (74)
•Command Rate (2)

Even reduced latencies (your present settings) can cause overclocking problems. You may even be able to run them at 8-8-8-21-54-1T.

I would try changing these voltages to start with, but keep your eyes on your temperatures. You really need to invest in a good heatsink.

•Load Line Calibration (Enabled)
•CPU VCore (1.275v to 1.3v) I wouldn't go over 1.3v with the stock cooler and that maybe to high.
•CPU VTT/QPI DRAM Voltage (1.175V)
•CPU PLL VCore (1.800v)
•DIMM Voltage (1.65v)
•DIMM DQ Vref (???)
•QPI PLL VCore (1.140V--stock is 1.100 )
•IOH VCore (1.3750v) - for dual gpu stability
•IOH/ICH I/O Voltage (1.65v) - for dual gpu stability
•ICH VCore (1.25v ) - for dual gpu stability
•PWM Frequency (???)

 

[earwicker7]

Do the settings you mentioned for dual gpu stability have anything to do with the voltage setting in MSI Afterburner? It's already been bumped a bit, so I don't want to end up frying the card if it's a redundant setting.

Is there a formula for setting the latencies? The reason I'm asking is that I'll eventually want to have the memory at 2000, since that's what it's rated for.

Just to be safe, I don't want to bump all those voltages at once... is there an order in which I should do them?

Temps still max out in the low 60s... I'm planning on getting water cooling at some point in the near future, so a new heatsink is probably not money well spent.

One last thing... Load Line Calibration is one of the only things that shows up in my BIOS as "Are you really, really sure you want to do this? It's not too late to back out. Seriously, you should think twice!" Of course, that's not exactly what it says, but it is in really big, red letters. How safe is it?

Thanks!

 

[Slaymate]

Do the settings you mentioned for dual gpu stability have anything to do with the voltage setting in MSI Afterburner? It's already been bumped a bit, so I don't want to end up frying the card if it's a redundant setting.

No

Is there a formula for setting the latencies? The reason I'm asking is that I'll eventually want to have the memory at 2000, since that's what it's rated for.

The lower the number, the faster the latency is. When your memory is running slower in MHz you can usually apply faster latencies (lower numbers). When you start increasing the memory speed, closer to 2000 MHz, you'll need to slow down the latencies (higher numbers). At 2000 MHz you should set your latencies to 9-9-9-24-74-2T (2N and 2T are the same).

Just to be safe, I don't want to bump all those voltages at once... is there an order in which I should do them?

I would set them all at once.

Temps still max out in the low 60s... I'm planning on getting water cooling at some point in the near future, so a new heatsink is probably not money well spent.

At what speed are you at with this temperature and is it now stable? If it's not stable then the low 60C temperature means nothing.

One last thing... Load Line Calibration is one of the only things that shows up in my BIOS as "Are you really, really sure you want to do this? It's not too late to back out. Seriously, you should think twice!" Of course, that's not exactly what it says, but it is in really big, red letters. How safe is it?

It's the very 1st thing I always enable.

VDroop is the flucuation in voltage that the cpu needs as it changes load states. When VDroop Control is disabled or Line Load Calibration is enabled, the CPU VCore voltage setting is a minimum value that may flucuate under load. When VDroop Control is enabled or Line Load Calibration is disabled the CPU VCore voltage is a maximum value the system trys to keep constant at idle or load. I recommend disabling VDroop Control for Air Cooling as the system will run cooler under idle conditions. I only recommend enabling VDroop Control for systems pushing maximum speeds with Water or a more Extreme Cooling Option.

EDIT:
Until you get your CPU overclock stable you should NOT overclock your GPU. While your GPU overclock may appear to be stable, if it's even a little unstable or pushed to it's limit it can cause cpu overclocking problems.

 

[earwicker7]

Aha, I think the whole Line Load Calibration enabled is the opposite of VDroop Control enabled has me confused... I'll need to check when I'm at home, but I'm on whatever the BIOS has at stock, which is the safe one, so it's probably already where you told me to put it.

The low 60s temp was with a stable BCLK of 145.

I always turn off the GPU overclock when I'm testing the CPU overclock... I figure that, once both of them are stable, I'll throw them together and go from there.

 

[Slaymate]

Line Line Calibration is usually disabled by default, but you should enable it.

 

[earwicker7]

Just so I'm clear... enabling it is good for air, because it will keep it cooler? There are three settings... standard, level 1 (slightly adjusts vdroop), and level 2 (moderately adjusts vdroop).

 

[earwicker7]

At your present BCLK and memory speed (1500 MHz) you should change the latencies to:

•tCL Setting (8)
•tRCD Setting (8)
•tRP Setting (8)
•tRAS Setting (24)
•tRFC Setting (74)
•Command Rate (2)

Even reduced latencies (your present settings) can cause overclocking problems. You may even be able to run them at 8-8-8-21-54-1T.

One more thing... G.SKILL lists the following stats: CAS Latency 9-9-9-24-2N. Is this what they recommend at 2000, or what they recommend pre-overclocking? I'm guessing the former, otherwise the numbers are confusing me lol. Just want to make sure.

EDIT--Never mind, I realized you answered this in a subsequent post