My SPECS, MY CHALLENGE, BIG BRAINS NEEDED!!!!!

Hey Folks,

New to the forum, in fact, new to the overclocking thing.

Specs:

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo
AMD 4800+ X2 Dual core CPU
Raptor 74G, 10,000rpm HD
2G dual channel RAM
Dual 3D Fusion 7800GTX GPUs
CPU and GPU water cooled

The nature of the challenge:

I've flashed the BI/OS with Aus' latest, DL'd the latest beta drivers for the GPUs (this was supposed to remedy the "temp too low" bug in the GPUs). Dual core is clocked up from 2.4 to 3.0 temp under load stays at 41'C. Using Phoenix Award BI/OS, and Jumperfree adjustment panel, have taken the CPU to 3.18 with no discernable temp change. Have clocked the GPUs up to 524MHZ and 1.36G respectively (the max the nvidia test allows) temp stays at 33'C under load. System temp stays at 38'C air cooled. PCI express is clocked up 10% to 110 MHZ. PCI frequency is set "To CPU"

I run another computer in the house. Both run Americas Army (video game) primarily. That comp is a P4 3ghz, ATI 9800Pro (clocked up to 398 Core and 364 memory). The FPS that I get on the latter is 10 greater than the former.

Also, I cannot hit the windows key to minimize the game without affecting the GPU performance with terrible artifacts and screen flutter (if the game will minimize at all, which is seldom). The game now freezes during play for 3-5 seconds, all under very low temp conditions.

I know I'm doing something wrong, but, for all the reading that I've done, can't find the culprit. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Baldy

do you have these problems with no overclock on your card/cpu/pci-e bus? Did id do it on stable versions of your graphics drivers?

also, when you compare FPS, are you running the game at the same resolution, aa/af and quality settings? there is just no way a 9800 can spit more frames than two 7800.

Have you burnt in your OC very well?
I suggest resetting everything to all the default settings via the BIOS and restart your OC. Make sure to burn in alot.

Check the timings and speed of the memory. Maybe you are having a memory problem. You can do this using memtest86 (I believe that is the name). If that doesnt tell you there is a problem then I would start slowing down one part at a time to stock and see if the problem goes away. If it does then you have found your problem.

Why are you overclocking the PCI express? I would start with that then try lowering the overclock of the graphics cards.

Welcome to the Forums

I am not a big fan of using beta drivers personally but the screen flutter would lead me towards a driver issue. Download NFR ( Nasty/ NVidia File Remover) Then uninstall your Video Drivers then run NFR reboot and reinstall the drivers clean.

veryhumid said:

do you have these problems with no overclock on your card/cpu/pci-e bus? Did id do it on stable versions of your graphics drivers?

also, when you compare FPS, are you running the game at the same resolution, aa/af and quality settings? there is just no way a 9800 can spit more frames than two 7800.

Click to expand...

I do not have the problems at stock settings.

I may have been running "highest" while the other comp is at "normal". But it still doesn't "feel" right.

Son1990 said:

Have you burnt in your OC very well?
I suggest resetting everything to all the default settings via the BIOS and restart your OC. Make sure to burn in alot.

Click to expand...

remebering that I'm a noob could you please explain "burning in" the OC.

JackNSally said:

Why are you overclocking the PCI express? I would start with that then try lowering the overclock of the graphics cards.

Click to expand...

To tell you the truth Jack...I did it because the option was available. I was told by another friend (and fellow OC noob) that the PCIe frequency is the rate at which the two cards communicate and share. Thus, I thought that may be my problem.

Could you elaborate on why you think it's not necessary?

Because it's running faster than spec. Sometimes you MAY see a SLIGHT boost in performance, but, 9 times out of 10 it'll just cause you problems. Think of it like running your PCI faster than stock. Your HDD's may get a slight performance boost, but, most of the time you will get corruption.

Increasing PCIe frequency slightly is only suggested for ATI cards. It usually just creates errors with NVidia cards.

As for burning in:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=341296&highlight=sents+burn

IWasHungry said:

Increasing PCIe frequency slightly is only suggested for ATI cards. It usually just creates errors with NVidia cards.

As for burning in:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=341296&highlight=sents+burn

Click to expand...

Thanks,

I'm not averse to trying the burn, but, if you've already OC'd the 2.4 to 3.2 and kept 41'c, is a burn necessary? Will it help, if I've already begun to push the limits of what the cpu can do?

Baldy

IWasHungry said:

Increasing PCIe frequency slightly is only suggested for ATI cards. It usually just creates errors with NVidia cards.

As for burning in:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=341296&highlight=sents+burn

Click to expand...

DL'd Burn last night. Started it up...it seems to only work one of the processors. Does anyone have experience with a dual core burn?

Baldy

Good point Baldy; I'm not too sure if it's possible (I've never done it on dual cores). Have you tried running 2 instances at once?

neat

4fbaldeagle said:

DL'd Burn last night. Started it up...it seems to only work one of the processors. Does anyone have experience with a dual core burn?

Baldy

Click to expand...

you have to open up CPU burn in twice. so two instances are up and running. You might want to check into getting Super_Pi to make sure your RAM is stable.

Son1990 said:

you have to open up CPU burn in twice. so two instances are up and running. You might want to check into getting Super_Pi to make sure your RAM is stable.

Click to expand...

I'll look into super pi and thanks for the two instance burn...i'll try it.

I was able to sidestep some of my problems by increasing cpu frequency but taking multiplier down from 12 to 10. Allowed me to minimize during gameplay and i don't get the boot failures or lockups.

So the multiplier seemed to be the trick...interesting. I always thought the multiplier was part of the FSB calculation, but my AI booster says my FSB is now 1040 with a cpu mhz of 2.6. I'm not sure I trust this AI Booster to be accurate, but, now I'd like to push things further so the burn is on (twice).

I'll let you know how I fare.

Found that if I reduce my multiplier, it helps stability. I've now clocked up the V on the cpu and staying stable under load at 41'C.