PI Black 4GB (2x2) OC'ing help

[genetix]

would be good to stay at 1:1 and that's one hell of an speed.

I got to admit. I would be curious if that board can run an 1800Mhz on those speeds at 900Mhz at memory and ~3,8Ghz on cores and no wonder SPP's running hot on 10GB/s that's translating 1/3 faster memory read out than X48 Intel or even P45. Wouldn't be surprice, if you actually would have to slow down memory just to keep stable and temperatures on bareable level 10GB/s is pretty much already on limit while your Q9550 can bunch up easily 3,6-3,8Ghz.

[MarcAntony]

Well I can tell you that I know of people from the EVGA forums who do run this board at 1800fsb. But typically, they are the very seasoned overclockers and who know how to make adjustments midstream en-route to attaining a number like 1800.

For me, I've kind of set a goal of 1666fsb. I'm told that 1666fsb is a very attainable number that can be reached without having to give obscene amounts of power. In fact, one fella has told me that I should be able to attain 1:1 1666fsb without raising any voltages if I can properly adjust the board's GTLVREF lanes.

This is supposedly a very tedious process, but by doing so will allow the 780i to reach huge speeds without requiring totally absurd amounts of power.

So now you've got me interested in attempting an 1800fsb, but I know it won't happen overnight. I need to really learn how to manipulate the GTLVREF lanes first. So I'll be playing with that this weekend and report back.

[genetix]

Well, I run 1 core below your spec and running at 1800FSB. I also run same memory as you. Only real question would be how well that board is stable for other components.

[MarcAntony]

I found these and thought you might be interested. Some other random RAM test pics I've come across of 780i users:

[MarcAntony]

The one thing I see here is that these guys must have better cooling than I do. My CPU idles at 37-38c at its current configuration (3.40ghz and 1.3625VCore). His idles at that same temp at 4.00Ghz with a 1.5v VCore

But my gosh, look at that MCP = 60c 0_0 Whoa

[genetix]

Those setups seems pretty idiotic, if you ask me. Hell that core cannot take over 1.36v actual without burning. NOT even on water cooling plus I'd sure love to see what the NB volts are on those, hehe. No way in hell that memory is stable.

But I was simply curious, so, perhaps those readings answered what I was asking.

[MarcAntony]

Shewww! lol

I'm glad to hear you say that because I couldn't imagine giving my system that much juice.

I think at 1:1, I will be lucky to reach 1700fsb. I'll be shooting for 1666 this weekend, though. I'll run some bench's and post pics when I do it.

So in Windows (actual), how much VCore do you believe I should not exceed? 1.35v?

Right now I'm reading 1.34v in Windows with 1.3625v BIOS - but under load, it drops to 1.29-1.30v. Which is why I'm considering the pencil mod

[MarcAntony]

Hey, one question regarding timings. I was reading this thread on timings and see where it recommends 4.4.3.10 for 2 sticks (which is what I'm currently using) and 4.4.3.14 for 4 sticks (which I do have a 2nd set of this RAM, just not using it atm).

Should I stay with 4.4.3.14 or try out 4.4.3.10 do you think?

[genetix]

I'd say stay with the 4-4-3-14 the idea of having higher tRAS is to make room for the memory when there is enough memory to work with. 10 is not too low, but it'll do you no good. We are talking about ~20MB/s from near 9500MB/s total changes here. tRP as 3 is quite low as 3 in general and I'd change even that to 4, if you have stability issues at some point it's still not large enough change to affect the realistic speeds.

If you wanna work with this further on to actually gain some, hmm """Unbalanced speed"""(probably best words) you should look at tRRD -1T, Combined tWR at 14-15T total (Check tWR on OS to see combined) dump tWTR to 3(s) 4(d)(or general 6-7T) and tRTW at 7 and add everything on board based twisters and tweaks to maximum. check what the Read Delay says or the so called Performance Level test on Windows with something like 'MemTest 4.1b' When the system freezes after change you know it's low enough, lol..

[MarcAntony]

Aloha,

Not sure if genetix is still around, but if so, I have something to show you and get your thoughts on. After you helped me get everything setup nicely, I tried for a while to hit 1800fsb, but was unable to do so and be stable.

For quite a while I kept everything at 1600fsb (1:1) 800Mhz RAM & 3.400Ghz CPU
With timings of 4.4.3.14.

Then recently, I started playing around with things again and due to not having much luck with higher FSB, I started playing around randomly (bad lolol - I know) with RAM timings and found out I was able to be perfectly stable at 4.3.3.14. I ran some Everest bench tests with it and came up with some nice results. Furthermore, I passed OCCT, Prime95 12hrs, and 20x of IBT - perfectly stable.

So then I started thinking greedy and decided to push it even further to 4.3.3.10 and see what that could do. So far, with these timings I've only had time to pass OCCT, but yet have attempted the most rigorous Prime95 12+ hr blend. But I did 2 more bench tests with these 4.3.3.10 timings and heres the results of each configuration:

Everest Benchmark Pics

If you look at the picture, the one test I ran at 4.3.3.14 is the far-left picture.

The middle picture and the far-right picture are both from 4.3.3.10 tests.

The interesting thing is I can't completely tell which is better than the other, but due to the latency.....it seems 4.3.3.14 performed......better.

The one factor that I may have overlooked was the advanced timings while testing with 4.3.3.14 - I forgot to take a screenshot of the full timings. But with the two 4.3.3.10 tests, I did take a snapshot of the full timings here:

Full Timings


I would like to try and see how far and how much performance I can eek out of these sticks and am curious to get some feedback on my tests. For a set of RAM that cost me $39.99......these things are awesome!

GJ GSkill

[MarcAntony]

Ok, looks like genetix is no longer around.

Anyone else care to make any suggestions for timings adjustments I could attempt to squeeze out more performance at 800Mhz?

I have a backup set (2x2Gb) of this same RAM sitting by the PC in case something goes wrong with these, so I would like to really push these as far as possible - but would like to have some reason to go with the rhyme.....

[WheeDrive]

I think at the rate your going your not going to be happy until you cook everything in your case. So i hope you have more than some ram sitting around. Although it could be an excuse to build a new rig which in that case i would star purchasing parts now then push what you have to the limit. Any way i have no real exp. in OCing and wish you good luck on your quest for speed and power:-)

[MarcAntony]

Nah, it sounds more reckless than it is. My load temps on CPU are still sub-60c at full Prime95 load and SPP & MCP are both cool and stable.

And yes......I've been eyeing an i7 build for some time now, so that definately has something to do with my newfound adventurous spirit I suppose ; )

[genetix]

I'm here time to time reading some topics. Nice benchmarks there.

The problem is the motherboards are going to get 'old' at somepoint at least most asus boards will require in time more voltage and what comes as an really surprise issue in some point to your window is compined stress level being unstable. What I mean by this is that when you use Graphics, power a lot of USB, OC your CPU to top notch and you use the RAM as very very tight latencies with sometimes like me higher voltages + higher speed like 1800FSB would be 900Mhz on DDR2. the Northbridge is in so huge stress that it'll not be stable on this low at the end or at least require such voltage that cooling is gonna need an effort.

Long story short. When you test an decent OC and GPU OC compination perhaps test it in full I know Prime95, etc etc tests pretty well, but bunch also something like Furmark + IBT together running in full RAM see what that says. Those all needs to work clean when you're gaming or working something really hardware stressful (where I could also add to this that too much testing is also bad. I mean enjoy the speed also while we have it is really relaxing for time to time, hehe.).

Anyway, as for 2 cents your results are really greatjust don't think they'll last forever without being 'degraded'.

-edit-

oh, and one more thing. what you really should be looking after is tRD. That is the only value in everything what needs to be in order also called 'Performance Level'. That restricts why you cannot do an over 1:1 setup with higher read speeds out of memory while write and copy speeds increase like next sunday.