F3-16000CL9T-6GBTD and GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R

[rurifan]

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R
CPU: Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz
Memory: F3-16000CL9T-6GBTD
Power: 900W Supermicro

GIGABYTE's compatibility chart for this motherboard cites this memory as working in triple channel: http://www.gigabyte.us/FileList/Memo...-x58a-ud3r.pdf

When I populate the board in triple channel (3 DIMMs in the blue slots) the machine will not post. This is with the default BIOS settings; it does not enable the XMP profile by default.

Configured as dual channel using only two of the DIMMs I am able to boot the machine. I had trouble getting the bios to recognize one of the DIMMs. The BIOS would only see a total of 2GB even though CPU-Z would show both DIMMs present. I swapped out the second DIMM and the BIOS saw all 4GB.

I started with the default BIOS configuration then changed to the XMP memory profile.

I ran like this successfully with 4GB in dual channel for several days with a Vertex Turbo 60GB SSD and a 3ware 9690SA PCI-E card in the system.

After a few days I experienced major stability problems that seemed to be memory related (BSOD with IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, hangs, etc). I set BIOS "Performance Enhance" to Standard (did not improve stability). Then I tweaked the DIMM voltage up to 1.64 and have been running stable again for several days.

My major questions are:
1) Do you have a set of recommended timings/voltages for this RAM in this MB? I tried some settings you posted for other GIGABYTE MBs but my system would not post with them in dual channel.

2) What do you recommend I do to debug problem not posting at all in triple channel?

3) Does it make sense that the XMP profile default settings were unstable and I had to tweak the DIMM voltage up?

[Tradesman]

Have you tested each stick individually? If so and all test okay, I'd go for the tri-channel, but turn XMP OFF, and manually set the base timings 9-9-9-24, Command rate 2N, DRAM Voltage 1.6. May want to add a little extra voltage to the CPU/MC...also what kind of OC do you have on the 920

[GSKILL TECH]

BIOS should look like this:

CPU Clock Ratio - 17x for 2.8GHz
QPI Link Speed - AUTO
Base Clock Control - Enabled
BCLK Frequency - 167
Performance Enhance - Standard
Extreme Memory Profile - Disabled
System Memory Multiplier - 12

Uncore & QPI Features
Uncore Frequency - 4008

DRAM Timing Selectable - Manual

CAS Latency Time - 9
tRCD - 9
tRP - 9
tRAS - 24

Enter these for the other three as well.

Channel A Timing Settings

Advanced Timings
Command Rate - 2

Advanced Voltage Control
Load-Line Calibration - Disabled
QPI/VTT Voltage - 1.45V
CPU PLL - 1.900V

PCIE - AUTO
QPI PLL - 1.300V
IOH Core - 1.400V
ICH I/O - 1.600V
ICH Core - 1.300V
DRAM Voltage - 1.640V
Rest to AUTO

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[rurifan]

I solved the triple channel problem; it was my error. (I incorrectly thought the blue slots should be populated for triple channel. Oops.

So I am currently running all three DIMMs in triple channel and trying to achieve stability. I am not overclocking except for the slight bit the XMP profile produces.

I've been using the Everest System Stability Test to quickly check out the results of each set of BIOS options. Here's a summary of how that's gone. Bad = Everest reports "hardware failure" and stops. Good = Everest does not report any problems.

TRY1: Minimal tweaking
Performance Enhance: Standard
XMP Profile: Enabled
-> Result: Bad after a few minutes

TRY2: Minimal tweaking + voltage
Performance Enhance: Standard
XMP Profile: Enabled
DIMM voltage: 1.64
-> Result: Bad after a few minutes

TRY3: Major tweaks from GSKILL TECH on 2010/2/2 6:22
Some of the voltages suggested are shown pink (warning) in the BIOS.
-> Result: Bad instantly.
-> Shutdown/restart from windows cleanly, but machine would not post.
-> Resetting the CMOS didn't solve the problem immediately. I removed the power cable completely and waited around a bit, then it would post again. Nasty.

TRY4: BIOS defaults
Performance Enhance: Turbo
XMP Profile: Disabled
This selects 8-8-8-20-1T @ 1066 MHZ
-> Result: Good after 30 minutes.
-> Obviously achieving stability at this speed is not very satisfying.

Can you suggest a less aggressive set of timings to try?

[GSKILL TECH]

Try the following settings:

CPU Clock Ratio - 17x for 2.8GHz
QPI Link Speed - AUTO
Base Clock Control - Enabled
BCLK Frequency - 167
Performance Enhance - Standard
Extreme Memory Profile - Disabled
System Memory Multiplier - 12

Uncore & QPI Features
Uncore Frequency - 4008

DRAM Timing Selectable - Manual

CAS Latency Time - 9
tRCD - 9
tRP - 9
tRAS - 24

Enter these for the other three as well.

Channel A Timing Settings

Advanced Timings
Command Rate - 2

Advanced Voltage Control
Load-Line Calibration - Enabled
QPI/VTT Voltage - AUTO
CPU PLL - 1.900V

DRAM Voltage - 1.640V
Rest to AUTO

With this set, check to see what QPI/VTT is operating at. It is necessary to find the spot on voltage.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[rurifan]

TRY6: Major tweaks from GSKILL TECH on 2010/2/3 03:31 PM
Load-line calibration has no "Level 1" and "Level 2" settings. I chose Level 1.
QPI/VTT reports 1.555 while running
-> Result: Bad after 60 seconds or so.
-> Unlike any of the previous tries, Everest reported CPU throttling as the stability test progressed. It spiked massively just before the test reported failure. Thermal limits probably?

FYI, I am currently running in the following configuration:

TRY5: BIOS defaults @1600
Performance Enhance: Turbo
XMP Profile: Disabled
System Memory Multiplier (SPD): 12.0
This selects 8-8-8-20-1T @ 1600 MHz
-> Result: Good after 30 minutes.

[Tradesman]

If you run into further problems at your current settings, might want to kick Command Rate to 2T from 1T (or raise your tRFC a bit)

[rurifan]

Should I give up trying to run this memory stable at the advertised speed? The motherboard compatibility chart even claims this specific memory works at 2000mhz.

I'm happy just to be stable at 1600mhz for now, but it is frustrating to run premium memory below the rated speed.

[GSKILL TECH]

Did you enable C1E and TM? Post screen shots of your BIOS so I can see what you may have set incorrectly.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[rurifan]

Yes, C1E and TM on (by default). I'll need to play around a bit with a camera and see if I can get readable photographs of the BIOS screens. This machine has a junky old CRT hooked up to it that won't photograph well.

[BrettKP]

Careful to use the correct slots on GA-X58A-UD3R

[QUOTE]When I populate the board in triple channel (3 DIMMs in the blue slots) the machine will not post. This is with the default BIOS settings; it does not enable the XMP profile by default./QUOTE]

I just bought this board and assembled my system using the same Trident kit.

Please note, for this board for 3-Channel mode using 3 sticks, you must populate the WHITE slots 1,3,5, as shown in the user manual diagram on p16. I have seen discussions on other boards that using the blue slots is a common cause of flaky RAM behavior. The moral is don't pay attention to the color of the slots, just read the manual carefully.

I would suggest you clear your CMOS, power down the system and reinstall the RAM as shown in the manual.

The Trident kit worked like a charm for me on first boot at stock settings, and also worked using just the XMP profile 1 (all other settings to auto) to get the RAM to DDR3/2000 at 9-9-9-24, although CPU speed using the XMP is only 2717 MHz. (BCLK-143, QPI 5.1, Core Multiplier 19). I checked stability with one pass of memtest 86+. I was also able to achieve an easy 3154 MHz CPU speed by raising the multiplier to 21 on top of the XMP with no other changes.

I am trying to get my CPU up to a stable 3600 MHZ with the highest possible RAM speed, so am testing/tweaking, and would appreciate any suggestions from tech support or anyone else. My primary use for this is Video editing/transcoding with Sony Vegas 9 and Handbrake.

Hope your kit works if you use the right slots.

-Brett

My System:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R F1 BIOS
Core i7 920-D0
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
G.Skill Trident f3-16000CL9T-6GBTD
Corsair 850HX
CM Hyper-212 plus cooler, AS5
Lian Li Lancool K62 case
Radeon HD 5770

[rurifan]

Please note, for this board for 3-Channel mode using 3 sticks, you must populate the WHITE slots 1,3,5, as shown in the user manual diagram on p16. I have seen discussions on other boards that using the blue slots is a common cause of flaky RAM behavior. The moral is don't pay attention to the color of the slots, just read the manual carefully.

Yeah, I noted this in a followup reply here. It's a little confusing because of the way the slots numbers are interleaved. Gigabyte support sure was useless, I even told them what (wrong) slots I had the RAM in and they did not point it out!

I would suggest you clear your CMOS, power down the system and reinstall the RAM as shown in the manual.

I've been running with the 3 DIMMs in the white slots for a while now. Other than not being able to achieve the highest speed, it has been very stable.

The Trident kit worked like a charm for me on first boot at stock settings, and also worked using just the XMP profile 1 (all other settings to auto) to get the RAM to DDR3/2000 at 9-9-9-24, although CPU speed using the XMP is only 2717 MHz. (BCLK-143, QPI 5.1, Core Multiplier 19). I checked stability with one pass of memtest 86+. I was also able to achieve an easy 3154 MHz CPU speed by raising the multiplier to 21 on top of the XMP with no other changes.

Did you try any other kind of stability test? As I noted in some earlier posts, I was using the Everest stability test. It's interesting because it simulataneously stresses all the cores and the memory. I'm not sure how it works (it detects "hardware failure" cleanly and stops itself), but it was pretty reliable to detect bad configurations even when memory tests passed. I only tried the Win7 boot-time memory test though.

Hope your kit works if you use the right slots.

Maybe I should get back to tweaking to get the kit running at full speed. I got lazy before after too many failed attempts... :/

My System:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R F1 BIOS
Core i7 920-D0
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
G.Skill Trident f3-16000CL9T-6GBTD
Corsair 850HX
CM Hyper-212 plus cooler, AS5
Lian Li Lancool K62 case
Radeon HD 5770

Hardware comparison:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R F1 BIOS
Core i7 920-D0
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
G.Skill Trident f3-16000CL9T-6GBTD
SuperMicro hotswap '900W (1 + 1) Redundant AC to DC power supply w/ PFC'
Stock CPU Heatsink/Fan + 5x 6000rpm server chassis fans
SuperMicro SuperChassis 846E1-R900B
Gigabyte GV-NX84S512HP GeForce 8400
OCZ Vertex Turbo 60GB FW 1.4 on native SATA controller (boot)
3ware 9690SA-4I SAS controller
- 10x1TB in RAID6 on SAS controller (via chassis hotswap expander)
- 2x1TB as JBOD on SAS controller (via chassis hotswap expander)

[GSKILL TECH]

Disabling the C1E and TM can enhance stability. Those options are for non-overclocked situations. (DDR3-1333)

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[BrettKP]

Did you try any other kind of stability test? As I noted in some earlier posts, I was using the Everest stability test. It's interesting because it simulataneously stresses all the cores and the memory. I'm not sure how it works (it detects "hardware failure" cleanly and stops itself), but it was pretty reliable to detect bad configurations even when memory tests passed. I only tried the Win7 boot-time memory test though.

Hi Rurifan,
Yes, I was using Prime95 balanced stress test to check the stability of the overclock, and used PC Wizard to run some benchmarks and stress tests as well. When I first tried to overclock, I was getting errors in Prime95, but found that it was because even though my cpu temp was only at 43 deg, my cores were maxing out at 100 deg, which definitely causes errors.

In looking further, I think G.Skill really is only promising that this kit will run at DDR3-2000 at 9-9-9-24 timings and at stock cpu speed.. Others buy premium memory like this, and try to run them at lower speed with lower (tighter timings) which decreases latency, and if you do that you see some better framerate in games. Further, there are some reviews out there that say our triple channel memory on the LGA platform has plenty of bandwith at 1600 MHz frequency, for most applications. Since video transcoding is one of those things that responds to higher frequency, I decided to shoot for the 1800 MHz speed and lower timings, although I think I may be able to run at DDR3-2000 with a lower multiplier for memory and cpu. I think a lot of people just want to do a 4000 MHz overclock with 200 bCLK and 20 multiplier, but I think you have to push the QPI voltage a lot more to do that and have water cooling. Since I am using my PC as a workstation, I want it to last for extended video editing and transcoding, and don't want a shorter life on components.

In this forum in another thread, I described what I did to get my core i7 920 to 3600 Mhz with my Trident kit running at DDR3-1800 at 8-8-8-21-(CL-auto 1N)-(tRFC-auto 100) timings:
http://gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=4043&page=2

The machine is now working very well, and I have switched over to trying to learn all the features of Sony Vegas, and HD editing. It seems very much more responsive, yet stable, and running cool, so I won't push the overclock more until I get a chance to transcode a longer HD video clip.

Gigabyte support sure was useless, I even told them what (wrong) slots I had the RAM in and they did not point it out!

That reminds me, I contacted Gigabyte regarding whether I should flash my Bios from F1 to F3, but they said if my computer was working, they said I didn't have to have the latest BIO installed. Have you upgraded your BIOs? I was reluctant to do this, because a few years ago I killed my old Gigabyte motherboard with a bad flash using the @bios program. They recommended using Qflash if I decided to do it, but I just got all the settings working, and don't want to start over again.

[rurifan]

That reminds me, I contacted Gigabyte regarding whether I should flash my Bios from F1 to F3, but they said if my computer was working, they said I didn't have to have the latest BIO installed. Have you upgraded your BIOs? I was reluctant to do this, because a few years ago I killed my old Gigabyte motherboard with a bad flash using the @bios program. They recommended using Qflash if I decided to do it, but I just got all the settings working, and don't want to start over again.

I am still using the factory F1 BIOS. "Enhanced memory capability" is a vague statement about F3. :P

EDIT: I upgraded to the F4 BIOS to see what the enhancement was all about (I used @BIOS from Win7). It was not harmful but did not change anything for me. My setup remains unstable with the XMP profile defaults. Best I can get is 8-8-8-20-CR1 @1600 w/ CPU at stock 2.66ghz.

By the way, I experimented disabling C1E & TM, as gskill tech mentioned, without improvement.