Off-Topic Thread

Serephucus

There might be boot info though. Did you have it plugged in when you installed Windows? If you did, and if it was on a more important port (port 0 vs. port 1, for example) Windows might have written boot information to it.

If that's the case, what's happening is that on boot, the BIOS checks the first boot device (the SSD) and finds nothing, so it moves onto the next one (the HDD) finds the boot info, and goes about its business. I'd be willing to bet that's what the couple of seconds of cursor blinking is.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/win7-windows-7-mbr,10036.html

The section on fixing the MBR here will tell you how to do it. At the very least you can check to see where the MBR is living at present.

FlyingIrishMan

Serephucus wrote: »

There might be boot info though. Did you have it plugged in when you installed Windows? If you did, and if it was on a more important port (port 0 vs. port 1, for example) Windows might have written boot information to it.

If that's the case, what's happening is that on boot, the BIOS checks the first boot device (the SSD) and finds nothing, so it moves onto the next one (the HDD) finds the boot info, and goes about its business. I'd be willing to bet that's what the couple of seconds of cursor blinking is.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/win7-windows-7-mbr,10036.html

The section on fixing the MBR here will tell you how to do it. At the very least you can check to see where the MBR is living at present.

No, the HDD wasn't put in until about two months after I got the PC.
Looking around I found its possible to put the M4 update on a disc. Boot the pc from that disc and it will update. Will try that when I get home.


www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176607

edit: Okay, had to download the iso version of the update and boot that off a disc but its finally updated, I hope that will fix the problem, will find out at 7pm if its fixed. :P

Squeaky the Squirrel

$1 customized mousepads, incl. shipping

Squeaky the Squirrel

The Most Mind-Blowing LEGOs in the World: Photos

ED E

Squeaky the Squirrel wrote: »

The Most Mind-Blowing LEGOs in the World: Photos

NO.


NO.


JUST NO.

Its LEGO. NO S. Nope. NEVER.

ShadowHearth

I have a few sets still to build. Arrived this Monday. Hopefully ill get some time to build at leasto ne this weekend!

BloodBath

Not too late to buy your amd shares people.

I'd expect share price to rise by as much as 20-30% today/tomorrow if Sony unveil the PS4 today.

ShadowHearth

BloodBath wrote: »

Not too late to buy your amd shares people.

I'd expect share price to rise by as much as 20-30% today/tomorrow if Sony unveil the PS4 today.

or go down by 90% if they just do this:

Squeaky the Squirrel

BloodBath wrote: »

Not too late to buy your amd shares people.

I'd expect share price to rise by as much as 20-30% today/tomorrow if Sony unveil the PS4 today.

Got the 8GB GDDR5 anyway, details still bit light.

http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2013/02/21/sony-announces-playstation-4/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/02/sony-reveals-the-first-official-details-of-the-playstation-4/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Technica+-+All+content%29

VenomIreland

Wish I had the N40L already, I tried looking in my garage for an old pc that was donated to me that I thought I still had, so I could mess around with FreeNAS and Ubuntu Server and see which I'd prefer to run on the N40L, but it had been thrown out

Gumbi

Thought I'd post here, seeing as I like you guys, and it's a pretty active forum

I've always had this "problem" with my 7950 (Sapphire 950mhz edition). At specific fan % the fans give off a seeming "scraping". I am currently OCing my card, so it has cropped up. I have the Core Clock at 1100mhz (up from 950) on stock voltages (1.013v) and it can run through a 15min furmark burn in and pass a 3d mark play-through (several graphics benchmarks). It does crash Crysis 3 after a few minutes so I might have to bump the voltages a bit.

The scraping sound was prominent at around 60% fan speed according to furmark, and I can replicate it at around 50 - 55% on MSI Afterburner (manual fan speed).

I can virtually remove this sound by putting my finger on the underside of the plastic shroud (the fans are pointing to the ground, the nail of my index finger would be facing the ground, just some perspective ). If I put pressure on the shroud, raising it slightly, the sound all but disappears.

Any thoughts as to what may be wrong? I read a stray comment online somewhere regarding this specific issue (scraping at a certain fan speed with this model of 7950). Should I be worried? Anything I can do about it? If I reseated my card it might be more firmly positioned so that I wouldn't have to remove the sound by placing my finger on putting upward pressure on the card (no that this would explain why the issue is occurring in the first place).

I have read that stress-testing/benchmarking programmes aren't fool-proof won't render an OC 100% stable, and that some games/other programmes might still crash your driver (no biggie, really) but I was surprised that my 1100mhz core clock on stock voltages, which passed a 15 min burn in on furmark @ 1080p (no MSAA) AND all the 3D mark graphics tests but still crashed after 2 mins of Crysis 3 (Side comment, wow Crysis 3 on low looks amazing @ 80 + FPS haha). Is this to be expected? I was just surprised by the relative immediacy of the crash considering the stress testing I did (not thorough necessarily, but thorough enough I thought so that it wouldn't crash so soon).

Here is a recording (iPhone quality, sorry, but the sound is heard quite clearly). This was recorded during the furmark burn in, fan speed according to burn in was at around 60%.

https://mega.co.nz/#!4hlhyRSB!VbGtqQTtLdjZCnDJ2SQfADePxisxWixunJll68jT1zk

NTMK

it sounds to me like the fan blades are clipping the plastic cover alright you could reseat it but the fan maybe off balance

id probably rma it tbh

Gumbi

NTMK wrote: »

it sounds to me like the fan blades are clipping the plastic cover alright you could reseat it but the fan maybe off balance

id probably rma it tbh

I'll take it out and see. For such a small thing it would seem wasteful to RMA. If it's clipping the side I should hear it at lower RPMs? Or definitely at higher RPMs. Which I don't. Hmmmm.

BloodBath

I'm sure it would be easy to fix with some sort of ghetto mod. Maybe the fan shroud is loose and is ratting at higher fan speeds. See if you can tighten or secure it with something. Hardly seems worth rmaing it for something minor unless you can't fix it.

As for the overclock most cards will do 1100 stable at stock voltage but some won't. Have you increased the board voltage to +20%. This just allows the card to use more power when it needs to which it will by increasing the clocks. It doesn't increase the voltages on the gpu or memory.

Gumbi

BloodBath wrote: »

I'm sure it would be easy to fix with some sort of ghetto mod. Maybe the fan shroud is loose and is ratting at higher fan speeds. See if you can tighten or secure it with something. Hardly seems worth rmaing it for something minor unless you can't fix it.

As for the overclock most cards will do 1100 stable at stock voltage but some won't. Have you increased the board voltage to +20%. This just allows the card to use more power when it needs to which it will by increasing the clocks. It doesn't increase the voltages on the gpu or memory.

I agree. I will definitely give a shot at just reseat it/seeing if I can't tighten something.

Well I will do more testing. Like I said I was surprised how quickly it failed the "Crysis 3 stress test" when compared to the fact that it flew through furmark and 3d mark smoothly. I'm pretty sure I had the power limit at 20%.

Regarding stock voltages, you are referring to specifically the stock voltages on my card? As far as I know, different models have different voltages (reference 7950 has 1.25, mine is a lot lower @ 1.013).I just played about an hour long session of Crysis 3 @ 1008mhz and it was fine. Card topped out at 65 degrees celcius which I think is sweet. (auto fan speed, at around 40% only).

More testing is in order I suppose

Thanks for your help as always.

Gumbi

Yep, crashed after about 5 mins in Crysis 3 again @ 1100mhz @ 1.013v. I'll try applying the power limit boost in CCC instead of Afterburner and see if that works. (Entirely illogical I know, but who knows?)

BloodBath

Why not up the voltage a little? I'm running at 1300mv for 1200/1550 clocks with a custom fan profile.

1.013 is very low voltage.

Gumbi

BloodBath wrote: »

Why not up the voltage a little? I'm running at 1300mv for 1200/1550 clocks with a custom fan profile.

1.013 is very low voltage.

I probably will 1050mhz on the core is stable on Crysis 3 on stock voltages. 1.013 is low, yes. I think I'll see what I can get @ 1.2v. Would you think this is a voltage that wouldn't affect the long term use of the card too much? I don't want to ruin the resale value.

Would I be right in saying that the memory and core (over)clocks do not affect each other? (Apart from heat, maybe). As in, if the MAXIMUM core clock I can get at stock voltage won't affect the maximum memory clock I can get at stock voltage (I change the memory voltage for this?).

Squeaky the Squirrel

Jeebus it's cold.

BloodBath

1.2v is very safe. you should be able to get about 1150 at 1.2

The gpu and memory overclocks will affect each other mainly due to the heat. Try keep the gpu below 70-75c load as they tend to become unstable higher than that when overclocked.

Max your gpu first then do your memory clocks.

Gumbi

BloodBath wrote: »

1.2v is very safe. you should be able to get about 1150 at 1.2

The gpu and memory overclocks will affect each other mainly due to the heat. Try keep the gpu below 70-75c load as they tend to become unstable higher than that when overclocked.

Max your gpu first then do your memory clocks.

Cool, thanks for the tips. Maybe I'll go 1.25 in that case I've been playing Crysis 3 maxed on (no AA, motion blur or lens flare) last while on 1050 and the fan only ended up being @ 45% and the temps only reached 66 degrees celcius, so I have plenty of headroom.

When I'm dong the memory clocks, should I nudge up the memory voltage appropriately? If so, what would be a safe voltage for the memory? It's currently at the stock speed, 1.6v.

BloodBath

I haven't touched the memory voltage on mine as I'm using Trixx which doesn't have memory voltage options.

You should monitor your temps with something like HWMonitor that will keep track of max temps while you play games. I think afterburner can do it as well but I'm not sure if it shows all the temps.

You need to keep an eye on the VRM temps as well. Try keep them below 80c.

Gumbi

BloodBath wrote: »

I haven't touched the memory voltage on mine as I'm using Trixx which doesn't have memory voltage options.

You should monitor your temps with something like HWMonitor that will keep track of max temps while you play games. I think afterburner can do it as well but I'm not sure if it shows all the temps.

You need to keep an eye on the VRM temps as well. Try keep them below 80c.

Good stuff, thanks.

Sarz91

Anyone used any of those Demciflex filters? Kind of sick of seeing all the dust in my pc.

Gumbi

It's stable at 1100mhz @ 1.038v (not necessarily as fine-tuned as it could be, though). When I alter the memory clock and run a quick furmark stability test, I get lower average frames, is this normal???

With AA I get an avergae of 61 FPS on Furmark (1080p) @ 1100mhz. I get around 54 when bump up the memory to 1400mhz. Also, as a side note, HWMonitor doesn't read my VRM temps, but GPUZ does (I haven't seen them go over 70 btw, so that's good, right?). However, when GPUZ is running in conjunction with Furmark, it affects the FPS. Down from 60 to about 55. Weird.

BloodBath

It shouldn't be lowering. Are you sure you have the board power set to max?

Have you disabled overdrive in CCC?

The ram on these cards is usually good for at least 1500 unless it also has some crazy low stock voltage like the gpu does.

Gumbi

BloodBath wrote: »

It shouldn't be lowering. Are you sure you have the board power set to max?

Have you disabled overdrive in CCC?

The ram on these cards is usually good for at least 1500 unless it also has some crazy low stock voltage like the gpu does.

I'm not using CCC to apply the overclock, I'm using MSI Afterburner. However, my settings in Afterburner are exactly replicated when I open CCC. When I open CCC, the Overdrive tab is accessible, power limit is at +20%. And my clocks are those set by Afterburner.

Gumbi

My bad, I think. I was going off the FPS given in the 5 sec warm up period, which inevitably drops, dragging down the avg FPS. Having said that, my FPS at 1100 core and 1500 mem is the same as 1100 core 1250 (stock) mem @ 41 FPS. IS this normal? Does memory only have small gains, or might it depends on the application running?

Gumbi

Gah! Nothin like inconsistency. Furmark immediately crashed "orange screened" when I ran it at 1550mhz mem. I rebooted and now I'm getting higher frames (toned it down to 1400mhz mem, at least for now), I think having chrome running was affectin my frames somehow??

Eboggles

Gumbi wrote: »

My bad, I think. I was going off the FPS given in the 5 sec warm up period, which inevitably drops, dragging down the avg FPS. Having said that, my FPS at 1100 core and 1500 mem is the same as 1100 core 1250 (stock) mem @ 41 FPS. IS this normal? Does memory only have small gains, or might it depends on the application running?

With the 7900 series, memory overclocking doesn't do a lot. For example, when I had my HD7950 at 1575mhz (from 1250) memory, I gained about 5% fps. That's a 26% increase in clocks for a measly gain so IMO it's not worth it.

Put up the voltage to 1.3, max out the fan, open up a can, turn on 3DMark11 and have a good time.

Try and get 1200mhz, and call it a day .