XFX 790i help

I'll start of by saying hello te everyone I'm new to the Forum.

I know there so many questions on this board having the same problems as me, but I've tried everything I could think of.

Basically my XFX 790i is giving me stability problems. I have a 9450 quad-core not being overclocked at the moment, BGF GTX-280. Now the RAM is what I believe has been giving me the problems. I had Patriot Extreme perfomance DDR3 1333. I've tried many different timing setting and voltages. I did get increased stability with looser timing and higher voltages but 2 1/2 hours isn't exactly what i was looking for. I have taken that memory back and got the Patriot Viper Epp 2.0. Now the computer store screwed up and gave 1gb sticks instead of the 2 so I can't really test it since I'm running 64-bit vista. I will be returning those and going to newegg to get something other than Patriot.

I guess I'm just curious if anyone knows if EPP 2.0 is worth it, what RAM works good with this board, if it could possibly be my memory controller on the board, or it it could even be (please no) my processor?

I've been working this for 2 weeks now so any help is greatly appreciated.

Welcome to O/C Forums

I would recommend the Gskills Newegg Linky Stay away from Patriot as there's been issues with that brand and certain boards.

There's been issues with every brand and certain boards.

I can't comment on the 790i and DDR3, but the Patriot DDR2 EP and Viper series RAM I owned was rated for and worked flawlessly with the 680i and 780i. I would not be surprised if Patriot used the 790i for testing their DDR3.
I know this isn't your memory, but just for reference: http://www.patriotmemory.com/company/news/newsp.jsp?source=126
They like to optimize for, and validate with, NVidia's latest chipsets for some reason. It's been like that since I can remember.

OP - How do you really know it's the RAM anyway?
I mean with everything I've read and heard about the 790i since it's release, I'm surprised that you think it's the RAM and not something to do with the board. Not that the 790's not a good board, but it kinda reminds me of my 680i when it first came out. Pulling out my hair for a week or so, until I found the right information on some forums.

I'm not 100% sure its the memory to be honest. From what I have read it seems memroy errors with DDR3 and and the 790i gives you these types of lockups. I also did get better stability with some memory tweaks which also led me to believe it could be the RAM. I just hope its not the memory controller on the board or my processor. I'm thinking about returning the XFX board and getting a EVGA as it seems they are having less problems. I don't really want to drop down to 780i cause I'd like to stay with DDR3 if possible but I might have to.

I hear ya, I just dropped alot of cash on DDR3 and a new board too, I'd hate to drop back unless I absolutely had to.

baditude_df said:

There's been issues with every brand and certain boards.

I can't comment on the 790i and DDR3, but the Patriot DDR2 EP and Viper series RAM I owned was rated for and worked flawlessly with the 680i and 780i. I would not be surprised if Patriot used the 790i for testing their DDR3.
I know this isn't your memory, but just for reference: http://www.patriotmemory.com/company/news/newsp.jsp?source=126
They like to optimize for, and validate with, NVidia's latest chipsets for some reason. It's been like that since I can remember.

Click to expand...

I'm going by what I've read and what I've been thru with Patriot and my setups.
Yes I'm sure there's been issues with every brand of ram and evry brand of mobo as I can personally state from my own personal expieriences. Nothing is 100% trouble free

Are you running the P05 bios ?
If not, you will need to update to it.

Deanzo said:

Are you running the P05 bios ?
If not, you will need to update to it.

Click to expand...

Good advice.
BIOS and driver updates were responsible for transforming my POS 680i into a board that could get 4.0GHz out of my Q6600. It's almost always a sure fire way to get rid of some pesky growing pains.

Nebulous said:

I'm going by what I've read and what I've been thru with Patriot and my setups.
Yes I'm sure there's been issues with every brand of ram and evry brand of mobo as I can personally state from my own personal expieriences. Nothing is 100% trouble free

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Yes, of course. I was sure that's what you meant, just the same as what I was doing. No prob.
What RAM worked the best with your DDR2 setups?

baditude_df said:

Yes, of course. I was sure that's what you meant, just the same as what I was doing. No prob.
What RAM worked the best with your DDR2 setups?

Click to expand...

So far for me:
Gskill
OCZ
Corsair Ballistix (older dbl sided stuff)

I've had problems with:
Patriot
Geil

Yeah I'm runnig the P06 update actually. I think it made it worse to be honest.

Nebulous said:

So far for me:
Gskill
OCZ
Corsair Ballistix (older dbl sided stuff)

I've had problems with:
Patriot
Geil

Click to expand...

Hmmm, well I hope my new Gskill 7-7-7-18 - 1600 DDR3 will perform the way I want it to. The last set of GSkills I had were the old DDR500 2x1GB Kit. They were champs for sure.

colinmsmith53 said:

Yeah I'm runnig the P06 update actually. I think it made it worse to be honest.

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Yuck. Sry to hear about that bro. Try one of the brands of RAM that Nebulous recommended then. Might be your best shot.

get rid of the patriot ram, I have the same board and I could not get that crap ram to work well. It is rated for 1.5V and It needed 1.9V to run stable at 2x2GB and even then i had some lockups.

I bought some Corsair 1333Mhz DDR3 and it works flawlessly.

I've found that OCZ DIMMS seem to work best with my 790i .. Also, P05 over P06 .. P06 game me stability problems worse then with the P05 ..