Why cant i go over 2.4??

[darufe]

Well i gave up trying to hit ovr 2.4 a couple months ago on my opteron 165
but now that i feel like i cant play any new game with high settings i really feel the need to up the speed a bit.

Voltage doesnt seem to affect my max stable overclock for some reason?
Im perfectly stable at 2.35ish even severly undervolted (like 1.2x104% vcore)
Yet i cant get anything past 2.4 even at 1.5vcore
core temp is respectable from what ive read up to 70 is ok (i reach 69 full load running orthos)
im using a lapped xp-120 on a naked chip with AS5 and some 120mm fans
I`m thinking the ram/bios or something could be querky?

I also get rather odd visual distortions when loading both cores at 2.4+ghz
kinda like dead pixels on a lcd screen? could this be a sign of ram/mem controller failure? or what could cause that?

im using a dfi lanparty ultra and 2gigs of gold ocz ddr500 ram

im trying to hit over 2.4 of course with an ugly low mem divider ldt multi is at 3x
cpu9x
added 1 notch to ldt volts and chipset volts

anny suggestions?

 

[Moto7451]

Well 70 is aright but it will hurt your overclock. Figure that for every 10°C lower your CPU is you gain 3% speed. If at load your CPU ran at 40°C you're looking at a 9% increase or 2.6GHz. Granted thats not guaranteed, but its not good to run your CPU at 70° anyways (and this is coming from a guy who has no qualms running 1.8v through his 90nm CPU ).

 

[darufe]

hmmm

thanks for the reply
ive tried a few new things.

switching back to orange slots
tried 1 stick of ram
going on even slower divider
pumping volts volts volts
bios update

and....
mem settings i found on the net for ultra slack UCCC timings (non ocz tho)

i just did a 30 min prime stable at 270fsb with 1.27vcore
this is all preliminary but thats a major leap considering i wasnt even 3 minutes stable at any voltage at 20 fsb earlier
im thinking either the mem slots where a problem or the timinds are more important then the dividers themselves?

who knows

 

[atm743]

thanks for the reply
ive tried a few new things.

switching back to orange slots
tried 1 stick of ram
going on even slower divider
pumping volts volts volts
bios update

and....
mem settings i found on the net for ultra slack UCCC timings (non ocz tho)

i just did a 30 min prime stable at 270fsb with 1.27vcore
this is all preliminary but thats a major leap considering i wasnt even 3 minutes stable at any voltage at 20 fsb earlier
im thinking either the mem slots where a problem or the timinds are more important then the dividers themselves?

who knows

it may be the ram

i have about the same ram and i cant get my 4200+ over 2.6 i can hit 2.5 but but anything over that is unstable

i have it at 2.49 now

 

[darufe]

ya i have a feeling it has something to do with the ram
either something about the dividers or i think i remember something about voltage from the cpu leaking over to ram?
it would explain why more voltage = less stable (with good temps all the same)

im testing orthos atm at 275fsb (15minutes into it)
had to loosen mem timings a bit that didnt do much
but reducing vcore and putting vdimm to 2.5 (minimum)
seems to have helped alot since again 2 reboots ago i was barely 2 mins stable at 275
45/48c loaded core temps reported in core temp beta 0.94
the ram gets pretty hot in a short amount of time too
maybe (altho from what ive heard its not worth it but) MAYBE some better ram cooling
and for sure better chipset cooling

 

[LoneWolf121188]

Did you try running memtest? Also, make sure your PCI bus lock is on. In my experience, if you start to level off at 2.4 when you know the chip is capable of a lot more, its usually cuz you forgot the PCI bus lock. I know I've done it!

 

[darufe]

hmmm
im pretty sure i locked it since thats one of the first things to do (learned the hard way on a intel rig..my first oc)
but as i recall overclocked pci/pcie bus was more data corruption then it was prime crashing?
ill recheck tho thanks for the suggestion

so far my max stable oc is at 275fsb wich is a little better then before but after fidling around i noticed that the mem timings are directly related to this yet cant seem to understand exactly what setting goes with what?
After loosening all my timings trying to get stable at 280fsb everything just got worst
i went back to 275 and was still unstable with those timings.
change back to the timings i got on team xtreme's support forum and i was stable again?!

And so far this stable oc is at 1.2vcore 104% wich is still pretty low considering the spec is what 1.35 1.4?

I also noticed that the timings i used are fine at 275 using the first divider.
going to the 166 divider doesnt get me any more stability?

So....stop me if im wrong but could this all be about fine tuning the extra bazillion ram settings for dfi/amd boards? drive strength dqs and all those things wich i have no clue whatsoever as to what they do and how they work?

if anyone has any ideas where i could read up on exactly how those settings work and what to watch out for the info would be much apreciated!
or a brief compilation of what goes with what? like i dunno drive strength should go to X setting if Y setting is used somewhere else and so on.

Cuz its really a shame to see this thing stable at 2.5 ghz@ 1.2vcore
It doesnt make sense that i cant go any higher with any voltage changes...or atleast makes no sense to me.
Course its not a BAD oc but still why stop there if i can potentially squeeze out a few hundred more mhz out of it

 

[QuietIce]

Just to recap ...
275x9 w/183 divider (247 MHz) is good
280x9 w/166 divider (229 MHz) isn't good
I just don't see how it can be the RAM if you've got the voltages turned down that far.

You do have your HT multi at 3X?

Have you checked your power readings in BIOS? You've got a good PSU there but you never know ...

 

[||Console||]

Why do you keep saying your runnign @ 1.2 . If it is 1.2x104% it will be higher will it not ? I never used a dfi board but the x% sounds like overvolting so you arent using only 1.2 Plus Y are you working off the over vol function Y not use more of the regsettings then overvolt only a bit vs 104% . using the overvolt might be hurting your over clock

 

[AlabamaCajun]

You should be able to run up to 2.6 at almost no VCore bump. You do need at least a 400 watt psu. Get more airflow through the HS and out the case, you should be in the 38-49C range. Mine stays at 39C Max, see sig. Ram can get in the way, even on dividers be sure to relax the last number or precharge.

 

[darufe]

Why do you keep saying your runnign @ 1.2 . If it is 1.2x104% it will be higher will it not ? I never used a dfi board but the x% sounds like overvolting so you arent using only 1.2 Plus Y are you working off the over vol function Y not use more of the regsettings then overvolt only a bit vs 104% . using the overvolt might be hurting your over clock

wich is more precisely 1.248volts still undervolted.

 

[darufe]

Just to recap ...
275x9 w/183 divider (247 MHz) is good
280x9 w/166 divider (229 MHz) isn't good
I just don't see how it can be the RAM if you've got the voltages turned down that far.

You do have your HT multi at 3X?

Have you checked your power readings in BIOS? You've got a good PSU there but you never know ...

yes ht multi is at 3x

and the point im trying to make on the 275 and 280 marks is that 275 is UNstable with the timing setting i had loosened. I didnt make any other changes in there.

Why in hell would 275 be perfectly stable with say 3-4-4-8 180 divider
and unstable at say 3-5-5-15 whatever divider?

3-4-4-8 180 275fsb tested up to 30mins (quick test)
looser timings any divider cant even run 2 minutes

I'm REALLY suspecting something about the mem controller.
then again im just a noob to amd overclocking so i may be completely wrong but imo it has "something" to do with the ram or how the cpu interacts with the ram? transport bus? some sort of sync issue between the 2? iunno

Like i said previously id really love to find more in depth info on the non standard ram settings (drive strength and all that stuff you dont find on non dfi non amd rigs)

 

[darufe]

You should be able to run up to 2.6 at almost no VCore bump. You do need at least a 400 watt psu. Get more airflow through the HS and out the case, you should be in the 38-49C range. Mine stays at 39C Max, see sig. Ram can get in the way, even on dividers be sure to relax the last number or precharge.

what prog are you using to monitor temps? ive noticed coretemp doesnt give me readings anywhere near what some other progs are getting me. and what do you mean change the last number or precharge? what settings more precisely?