Not so New, Newb asking for OC input. on newest rig.

[Lupiron]

Wow, this got lost, and I wouldnt run the swap file with less than 4 gigs.
Windows is a memory hog, and doesnt like it, from what I have tested, but thats Vista anyways.

--Lupi

 

[immagikman]

Well so far I have been running the 32bit XP partition with no swap file, but I havent really done any gaming. I do have a G15 keyboard and run the applet that displays CPU and Memory utilization. So far I dont seem to use more than 30 to 40% of memory. The real test is to see what happens when I try to run a game for a few hours.

 

[lucuis]

Couldn't you disable the swap file, onl for vista and leave it on for xp?

Anyways question for Lupi. My q6600 has a VID of 1.2375. What kind of max stable overclock and settings should i be able to achieve. I'm alrdy at 3.45ghz on my xfx 680i mobo with a loaded vcore of 1.312. So i'm just curious as to how far i could go.

Temps are already an issue, i think, so for now i'm good at this speed. But if for whatever reason i can reach a higher clock...curiosity strikes.

Also do you or anyone else now the limit on the system temp. My mobo passes 55C on prime small fft. I'm thinking it might be running hot. Therefore i may reseat the hsf.

one final question. Assuming i don't overclock further, which would leave my RAM @ 766mhz 5-4-4-15 2T, do you think i might be able to achieve 1T? I haven't been able to find i link to anyone that has tried. RAM is OCZ Platinum xtx 6400.

 

[immagikman]

Yes the Vista and XP partitions have their own swap files and yes I can change them independantly. I have been letting it run for almost a week with no swap file in the XP partition so far so good. This weekend I will do some gaming tests.


As for the Q6600 temps. I believe the max safe temp for the chip is 71c, I have mine OC'd to 3.2 right now and am not seeing any temps higher than about 53c under load. Im using a CNSP7000 or 9000 cooler cant see the labels while its running.

 

[ziegemon]

Immagikman,

A couple of words about the 9800gtx. Please forgive me if I'm telling you some things you already know, I'm pretty new at this stuff myself.

1. The fan bug. There is a bug with nvidia drivers/bios for the 9800gtx that when it gets over 60C the fan reverts to an automatic 35% speed. This bug trumps any software fan control that I've seen. The only current fix I've found is actually modifying the wiring on the card, which is beyond my willingness to mess with. Nvidia, and EVGA have both recognized this problem and they have said that it will be resolved in the next round of nvidia software that's released. I would advise not OC'ing the card for anything other than short benchmark runs, until that's resolvled.

2. The good news: The card can OC like a champ, and once the fan can be set to stay at high percentages, I think the cooling is going to be more than adequate. I have had success around 810/1800/1200. I haven't been able to do any long time runs at those settings, because I'm afraid of the high temps, but it runs 3dmark06, and plays crysis with no artifiacts in the short times I've tried it. That OC, granted about 1500ish points in 3dmark06 for me.

3. Software If you are using the newest NVIDIA ntune software to manage your gpu clockspeeds, it works well for that, but please avoid the interactive bios tab for your MB, that can screw up pretty easy, I had to reset by jumper when I tried to use it. Noob mistake on mypart. EVGA has a nice tool for overclocking nvidia gpus. Rivatuner is a good tool. Once you find where the three clocks are, and the fan tab, if you're an ametuer like me, that's all you need. Any of the three softwares I've mentioned work fine for setting the clocks. I'm sure some of the other more experienced guys could probably suggest a few other tools.

4. For me the GPU seemed to be bottlenecked by my processor(Q9450) up to about 3.4 Ghz. I got about 4kof 3dmark gains going from stock 2.66 to 3.2, but the returns diminished between 3.2 and 3.4, and diminished even more between 3.4 and 3.6. 3.2-3.6 gained less than 1000 more points, most all of which were cpu score. I haven't tried anything over 3.6 because, again, I have a phobia of thermometers, and only air cooling. Bottom line is I think you'll get just about all you can out of the 9800gtx at 3.2 with your q6600, without worries of cpu bottlenecking.

5. I'm a noob, this post comes only from my personal experience with my current rig. I highly advise getting additional opinions on these issues, but I hope something above can be helpful for you.


Z.

 

[Lupiron]

Lucuis, Thats a decent VID! They are not to common.
1.2375 is an easy 3.6. Maybe even 3.7 prime stable.
I ran a 1.2625 at 1.5000 Loaded @ 3.8 for 2 weeks with zero errors, it just wasnt prime stable.

I'd just do the 3.6, especially if you are fine with 3.45.
Loaded VCore wont be much more than it is, and the heat should go up maybe a few c at the most.

If I had to guess, loaded at 1.3500 should be more than enough! And well within' intel specs!

So far there has been 1.2250, and 1.2000 thats lower than yours!

Guess who has the lowest one??



--Lupi

 

[Lupiron]

Oh, I guess it would help if I mention that Prime stable after 3.6 gets harder and harder to reach. At 3.6, its easy, stepping much past it, and remaining prime stable is hard!

If you investigate my VID threads, you will see why, but its to much typing again! Lets just say there is something we will call High VID syndrom. You see it as you near 3.6 on the high VIDs. High VIDs wont get prime stable much past 3.6.

Low VIDs can only get 3.7-3.8 prime stable, and then it takes ALOT more VCore than you would imagine! For instance, my q6700 runs at 3.6 @ 1.300 Volts loaded. To reach prime stable FOR THE FISRT TEST as I didnt go past it yet. (Thats like 17 mins, but a fair assumption of stability when it usually takes 30 seconds to Blue Screen, lol!)

To reach 3.8 stable in prime I needed 29 or so Bios VCore notches!!!!!!
1.440 Loaded. Just to get 200 Mhz! And the first 1 Ghz was only like 10 or 11 total bios VCore notches.

So, stability is in the eyes of the beholder/user. I know you can run all day long with zero errors and not be prime stable! Because Prime and such is the only thing that can crank that much juice out of your chip. Look at the VDroop. You can hit 100% with out much droop at all while doing normal junk, yet when you load small ffts it DRAINS current as the processor is forced to use only its Lev 2 cache for instructions, making that data loop that cranks so much power from it!

And then the more VCore you use, the less efficient it becomes, and then the more heat it makes, which makes the electricity even less efficient! So its a weird spiral thingie that happens!

Keep it cold, and they are happy. I had a 1.3250 VID q6600 at 3.6 @ 1.420 VCore! All because my core temps were 56 c. If it was 62 c, it would have blue screened. (as an example.)

--Lupi

 

[lucuis]

Thank you for all that info

Anyways, i plan on leaving things as is, atleast for now. I got it prime stable currently, and temps reach 71c so that's as far as i wanna take it. And i think my mobo gets really hot too, it passes 55c during prime.

I still can't figure out why it tuns so hot. I've reseated my heatsink and it seemed to help some, but i see people running 1.4v loaded at temps lower then mine. At this point i'm considering water on the chipset and cpu.

btw ambient temp is kinda high at about 26-30c. No thanks to 3 computers, 4monitors, a heated snake cage, and heated fish tank ><

 

[immagikman]

As usual thanks for the wonderful information Lupiron and Lucius

To Ziegemon:

1. Great heads up, it explains the problem I have been having with Fan Control. Im with you, I dont mind tinkering but I dont want to mess with physical alterations to the hardware such as manually making jumpers or wiring.

2. Yes I have had really good luck jumping the clocks up on the 9800GTX above the Super Clocked rates on Factory OC'd units. Not sure how this will affect the life span though.

3. I do have the latest Nvidia software but I thought there was a bug with it since I had problems with the GPU Clock, but now that you explained that. I will have to revisit the issue once the Fix has been released.

4. I didnt pay that close attention to my gains for each adjustment but here is what I do recall. Q6600 and 9800GTX at stock settings I was getting something like 12.4k 3dmark06. When I OC'd the CPU from 2.4 to 3.2 I saw 3dmark06 of 14.5k, and when I OC'd the GPU to 775/1930/1201 I saw 3dmark06 of 15.575k

5. I live and work with Enterprise level UNIX systems, but tinkering with this Wintel stuff is kind of new to me, I know basic electrical theory and electronics but have never really tried to push a system to these kinds of limits before. So I guess in some ways most of us are new in some manner

 

[ziegemon]

I've recently downloaded the beta driver 175.16. It seems to have allowed the fan to maintain speeds over 35%. I'm going try running some overclocks when I get home.