[SOLVED] i7-920: something is capping the multiplier at x17

Oct 28, 2019
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I'm overclocking my i7-920 to 166MHz. The motherboard is SERVER_MB ASUS|P6T WS PRO X58 R.

I've made all the necessary settings in the BIOS from what I can tell, but CPU-Z is still reporting the multiplier capped at 17x (2819MHz)
View: https://i.imgur.com/BkEpcjT.png
when it is instead "CPU Ratio Setting" is set to 21x in the BIOS. Even when I stress test, it's stuck at 17x. Even though the bus speed is shown correctly as 166.

The BIOS is reporting it correctly as 3.48GHz. My BIOS is up-to-date, SpeedStep is off, CPU spread spectrum is off, Turbo is on. Windows 10 power settings are set to high performance.

I've also tried turning Turbo off or on, no difference.

What else am I missing?

The one thing that I notice is CPU-Z still gives a range 12-22 in parenthesis, why would it give a range when I have it specifically defined?
 
Solution
I didn't think about the RAM, could that be the issue? This is what I have:

Well, only running 1066Mhz, so that is probably fine to configure the CPU with. Just something to keep in mind. I wouldn't think that would force the CPU multiplier in any way.

As for a 191Mhz BCLK, there are strange islands of stability to be found. From back in the day I recall some people running 220Mhz and getting 4.4Ghz and stuff. I'm sure they had to try a few CPUs before they got one that could do it.

Running my memory at 1.65 volts is what eventually killed my system. Sort of a soft kill, triple channel just refuses to work and the system will only take up to 8GB at a time (all the slots work too)

Eximo

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Pretty sure that is just the default range of the CPU. Only the first part reflects what should be the current speed.

Have you tried testing it with 17 and 21 set in the BIOS? If there is a performance difference then CPU-Z is just mis-reporting.

Does Windows concur with the 2.82Ghz speed? Any other tools report the same speed?
 
Oct 28, 2019
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In Task Manager, when stressed it reports the speed as 2.77 GHz and the "Base speed" as 2.67 GHz. This is when set to x21 in the BIOS.

So Windows seems to concur around that, because x21 should really be above 3.2 GHz.

I tried following this too: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-core-i7,2268-4.html

It all looks simple, I just don't understand why something is capping it at x17 in the OS when it supports higher and the BIOS stops at x21 (which makes sense).

What else could I be missing?
 

Eximo

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I'm not sure. I didn't have issues with my X58 board, but then it wasn't a 'professional' board. But since it is still aftermarket I don't see why it would have any limitations.

I used to run 161x23 with an i7-950 for 3.7 Ghz, and undervolted it. My problem was always getting the memory to run faster than 1600Mhz (At the time that was pretty much the fastest available.)

I still suspect a software problem, but I can't imagine what. Maybe try a BIOS reset and only change the BCLK, and memory speeds, see what that does.
 
Oct 28, 2019
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I'll try a BIOS reset when I can, sure.

For the memory speeds, that's DRAM Frequency in the BIOS correct? I've left that as "Auto", is that not the right way to set this?
 

Eximo

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No indeed. So on X58 the BCLK is tied directly to the memory speed in the form of a multiplier.

133Mhz x6 = DDR3 800Mhz
133Mhz x8 = DDR3 1066Mhz
133Mhz x10 = DDR3 1333Mhz
133Mhz x 12= DDR3 1600Mhz

Or what I was doing 161Mhz x 10 to get around DDR3 1600, which is as fast as I could get the memory to go. ($300 worth of memory at the time)

So if you had 1333 and were running 166Mhz you where pushing the memory to 1666Mhz, might be fine depending on the ram you have. DDR3-2400, 2666Mhz and even higher were available at the tail end. This was the first DDR3 platform.
 

boju

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These are my settings if want to try. 920 DO stepping, motherboard is a P6TDelux though but settings may be similar. Ram is made up of 3x 4GB 1600, had to lower freq for stability at 1.5v. Could probably go higher ram speed if i increased voltages up to 1.65v but it's been running great for many years and still is. Using a Noctua D12 cooler in an Antec 302 case.

Apparently Bloomfield likes odd multipliers so ive used 21*191 to reach 4.

SPEEDSTEP: DISABLED

CPU Ratio: 21
BCLK FREQ: 191
PCIE FREQ: 100
DRAM FREQ: 1149
UCLK FREQ: 2298
QPI LINK: AUTO

__


CPU VOLTAGE: 1.27
CPU PLL: 1.88
QPI/DRAM 1.27
DRAM V: 1.5v
C1E SUPPORT: ENABLED
HT: ENABLED
A20M: DISABLED
INTEL CSTATE: DISABLED
 

Eximo

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I didn't think about the RAM, could that be the issue? This is what I have:

Well, only running 1066Mhz, so that is probably fine to configure the CPU with. Just something to keep in mind. I wouldn't think that would force the CPU multiplier in any way.

As for a 191Mhz BCLK, there are strange islands of stability to be found. From back in the day I recall some people running 220Mhz and getting 4.4Ghz and stuff. I'm sure they had to try a few CPUs before they got one that could do it.

Running my memory at 1.65 volts is what eventually killed my system. Sort of a soft kill, triple channel just refuses to work and the system will only take up to 8GB at a time (all the slots work too)
 
Solution

boju

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Running my memory at 1.65 volts is what eventually killed my system. Sort of a soft kill, triple channel just refuses to work and the system will only take up to 8GB at a time (all the slots work too)

I've read running 1.65 should fine but also know Intel spec's 1.5. Your experience isn't a suprise to me. When this platform was released, DDR3 1.65 was all that was available for a bit. Silly times.