Overclocking (update)

BloodBath

Ok you might remember I was posting before bitching about how I could not get a stable overclcok from my system.


So in an effort to try and narrow down what was causing the problem I removed one of the ram sticks and tried a 3.5 overclock. It still crashed so I swapped the Ram and tried again. She booted fine and ran 3dmark 2003.

So I began a proper overclcok session to see how high I could go thinking that maybe the other stick of ram was buggered. All was well until I tried 225 fsb(3.6ghz) then the crashing began again. So tried upping the voltage a little but to no avail. It ran 220 fsb at 1.5core. I went as high as 1.65 core at 225fsb but she still crashes during 3dmark.

Have it back down to 220fsb now and am running prime95 to see if it's completely stable. I am just stressing the processor atm and so far no problems although it's only an hour. C.p.u. temp is at 54C. A little high but still safe. I only have a case fan on the heatsink which explains the high temp but it's still ok.


Just wondering what test I should run in prime 95? Just the c.p.u. or the ram and c.p.u?


If it runs stable like this I will leave it at these settings and try with the other stick of ram to see if it's a ram problem although it shouldn't be.

I don't need to increase the ram voltage because it's 500mhz and currently it's only running at 440mhz so it shouldn't be causing any problems or is the higher fsb causing the problem?

Getting somewhere at last anyway.

BloodBath

neokenzo

Originally posted by BloodBath
Just wondering what test I should run in prime 95? Just the c.p.u. or the ram and c.p.u?

Run the Torture Test "Blend" for about 8-12 hours.

Adeptus Titanicus

Run the blend tests, so it gives the overall system a good workover.

Edit:
Ack, Neo beat me to it!

Gerry

You will get further with less sticks of ram.. its a tradeoff unfortunately. Though in your case it just sounds like one of the sticks is better than the other.

Sir Random

Have you tried the ram in slots 2 & 4 instead of 1 & 3?
I know some Abit users found greater stability using slots 2 & 4 for some reason.

BloodBath

Been running at 3.52 all nite so far no hiccups. I will put on prime95 before I go to bed and give it about 12 hours but it seems totally stable.

Ran some benchies.

9800xt @ 459/796
3.2c @ 3.52
Ram at 440

3dmark 2001 = 20173

3dmark 2003 = 7334

Completely stable. No artifacting.

BloodBath

Adeptus Titanicus

Nice O/C on the 9800! :cool:

I just couldn't break the 7k barrier on 3DMark03 (close at 6929!). Did you get that without any artifacts on the Rhino in the pixel shader test?

Sir Random

459/398 is an awesome o/c on the XT . Are you using an Arctic VGA cooler? If not, you should definitely get one as it'll keep your card much cooler and quieter and should also give you a few extra Mhz on the core. Also, fitting ramsinks could get your ram over 400Mhz.

BloodBath

Cheers using the standard sapphire cooling. Temps are hard to tell with the xt but I read it is actually about 20c below what it says in the overdrive menu.

In the pci slot below my card I have a vantec spectrum fan card blowing directly into the XT full blast as the speed setting is buggered. I'd have it lower if I could. A bit noisy but it does the job.

I reckon I could push the core higher but without knowing the exact temps of the core I don't want to risk it. Any higher with the RAM and I get artifacting. I've read that the RAM on the xt's is very hard to get any higher than 800mhz.

Still i've reached the level of performance I wanted to with the machine. Like to get the cpu higher but I don't think she will. I'm gonna try and pick up a cheap extreme edition on ebay during the summer. My RAM can go 100mhz faster. I'd like to get that to full speed too. Is their no Intel BIOS's that have a 4/5 divider or any way of getting it higher? Why do the manufacturers not accomodate for the higher RAM speeds? Pc 3200 is starting to get pretty dated.

BloodBath

Sir Random

Originally posted by BloodBath
Is their no Intel BIOS's that have a 4/5 divider or any way of getting it higher? Why do the manufacturers not accomodate for the higher RAM speeds? Pc 3200 is starting to get pretty dated.

BloodBath

Yeah, it'd be nice to have the 4:5 option but mobos don't officially support anything over DDR400, since 200FSB is the maximum bus speed for current cpus.
Maybe you could swap your ram for some PC3500?

I reckon I could push the core higher but without knowing the exact temps of the core I don't want to risk it

Have you tried using Rivatuner to read your gpu temps? What temps does the overdrive tab show? I reckon it's fairly hot already at 459Mhz.

BloodBath

Yeah the RAM is handy to have for a future comp though. It goes up to about 550mhz so when new stuff comes out I won't need to upgrade my RAM. Swapping it for pc3500 would be pointless.

I'd consider swapping my processor for a lower speed one like a 2.8 so I could get a higher fsb when overclocking so I could get the RAM faster.

The overdrive bar shows the temp as 60 idle and about 70 under load. This seems really high and was like this before I overclocked but I was reading the 9800xt's do not have a temp sensor on the core. I can't remember the exact article but the guy decoded the program and saw that they actually add 20c on to the temp. He was using software to test the temp and it was always exactly 20c less than the overdrive temp.

He mailed ati to ask them about it but they refused to answer. It must be true because 60 idle and 70 load is way too high.

I'm going to download rivatuner now to see what that says.

Apparently the core overclocks really well on the xt's just not the memory. I've seen the core at 550 with good cooling.


BloodBath