Help overclocking (775 - Q6700)

[d3fu5i0n]

I'm not very experienced in overclocking.

My rig specs are the following:

ASUS P5Q Premium (BIOS 2406)

Intel Q6700 2.66GHz stock (Currently at 3.33GHz)

2x Sapphire HD 5770 @ Stock 850/1200 Non-Reference

Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU heatsink (and Antec 900 case with an added 120mm side panel fan, as this is overclocking, cooling is an obvious importance. All fans are at low (not including GPU and CPU fans)).

2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800MHz @ 4-4-4-12-3T 2.0V running at 800MHz

XFX 650W XXX PSU

So I've got my Q6700 from 2.66GHz to 3.33GHz, with the VCore at 1.25.

Since the RAM is linked to the FSB, if I want to get rid of as much of a bottleneck as possible I need to get the CPU to 3.6GHz (An experienced overclocker and benchmarker on YouTube told me that is what I should put it to) it runs at 865MHz when the CPU is at 3.6GHz, this causes instabilites, 1 core on the CPU not fully functioning, or a BSOD. I can get the RAM to 799/801MHz (or if I run the FSB to NB link at 333 or 400 (can't remember) I can set it to 800), with the CPU set to 4GHz, but the CPU will not run and either the Motherboard wil auto 'C.P.R. ~ what ASUS calls it', or I'll have to end up taking my top graphics card out to move the CLEARCMOS jumper over [yeah I'm not lucky enough to have a button

] and having to reconfigure the whole BIOS again [not much of an issue].

I've even tried the voltage at 1.45 and it still just won't run. I've also heard putting a 775 CPU over 3.6GHz rapidly shortens it's lifespan. I want it to last as long as possible (as I only get money for X-MAS and my B-Day ~ college and my work is at charity shops).

Can I OC better? and What to do?

P.S. It's my first post, and glad to be part of the OC3D community.

 

[tallun123]

alright mate

i have the p5q deluxe board with a q 9650 @ 4.2ghz with 1.325vcore but before this i had the q6600 @ 4ghz what are your settings at the moment? bios settings you are useing i can try n help you

 

[d3fu5i0n]

Excuse any mistakes here, on my phone.

I stated most of my changed settings in the first post. It's about all of them. Even that guy on YT is a little confused as temps are fine. Idles at around 27C at 3.33GHz, load at around 54C. These are winter temps.

 

[marsey99]

its your ram mate, you need to drop the ram ratio to 1:1

 

[d3fu5i0n]

its your ram mate, you need to drop the ram ratio to 1:1

What settings do I need to change? Are you talking about the RAM for the CPU being at 3.6GHz?

 

[marsey99]

as you increase the fsb it also increases the ram, thats why its at "865MHz when the CPU is at 3.6GHz" now unless you give the ram more voltage or loosen its timings i dont think your going to get much more from them.

i dont know your bios as well as tallun because he has the board but the option you want will change the ram speed to the same as the fsb.

 

[d3fu5i0n]

as you increase the fsb it also increases the ram, thats why its at "865MHz when the CPU is at 3.6GHz" now unless you give the ram more voltage or loosen its timings i dont think your going to get much more from them.

i dont know your bios as well as tallun because he has the board but the option you want will change the ram speed to the same as the fsb.

That's where I'm confused, the fsb is going to be around 1320mhz, my ram won't run at that. And I've tried the slightest voltage increase, that's a no go.

 

[marsey99]

ah your getting confused by asus and their infinite wisdom.

they show the qdr and ddr figures in the bios not the base clock.

so what you see in the bios is 4x the fsb and x2 the ram.

1320 is 330 fsb and for a 1:1 ratio you want you ram at 330 or 660 ddr.

 

[d3fu5i0n]

ah your getting confused by asus and their infinite wisdom.

they show the qdr and ddr figures in the bios not the base clock.

so what you see in the bios is 4x the fsb and x2 the ram.

1320 is 330 fsb and for a 1:1 ratio you want you ram at 330 or 660 ddr.

No that was a guess, the bios shows the bc. Its at 333 and the multi is at speed step bv goes to x10, thus 3.33GHz

 

[marsey99]

ah sweet, that makes it easier.

then what speed does it show your ram at?

there will be an option near it to change it to 667mhz.

 

[d3fu5i0n]

ah sweet, that makes it easier.

then what speed does it show your ram at?

there will be an option near it to change it to 667mhz.

Ah, I see the fsb is 1333. 667x2=1333

Two things. 1, won't apps and games load slower? (I guess by the clock being lower, I could speed it up by lowering the timings). 2, The bios stated lower than 800mhz for the ram could cause issues. (the reason I didnt lower it before.

 

[d3fu5i0n]

Ah, I see the fsb is 1333. 667x2=1333

Two things. 1, won't apps and games load slower? (I guess by the clock being lower, I could speed it up by lowering the timings). 2, The bios stated lower than 800mhz for the ram could cause issues. (the reason I didnt lower it before.

I just realised, i talked about the cpu being at 3.33ghz. The bc would be at 360 for 3.6ghz

 

[marsey99]

imo your best trying to just oc 1 componant at a time, so by dropping the ram speed for now you take that out of the equation and you know any crashes and failed posts are due to the cpu/nb.

once you know the limits of the cpu you can then drop the fsb and increase the ram ratio and find its limits safe in the knowledge that any crashes have nothing to do with your cpu.

then you get to test the variations of high cpu multi/low fsb/high ram ratio or low cpu multi/high fsb/low ram ratio to see which combo gives the best system for you.

 

[d3fu5i0n]

imo your best trying to just oc 1 componant at a time, so by dropping the ram speed for now you take that out of the equation and you know any crashes and failed posts are due to the cpu/nb.

once you know the limits of the cpu you can then drop the fsb and increase the ram ratio and find its limits safe in the knowledge that any crashes have nothing to do with your cpu.

then you get to test the variations of high cpu multi/low fsb/high ram ratio or low cpu multi/high fsb/low ram ratio to see which combo gives the best system for you.

Okay, I've just tried some stuff. Yeah the BIOS says if under 800MHz (RAM Clock) then it may not post due to the spec violation (that's what I was saying before, but I don't know why they have all the list of 'compatible DIMMs in the manual'

).

Anyway, I got the cores all to stay on, I just had to (aside from pushing the VCore up) enable the Ai MEM OC Charger. I just tried it and it seemed to work.

Thanks for all your help though. Some things that I hope to remember for the future. And by the way... isn't QDR for LGA 115x, and 1366?

 

[tallun123]

I just realised, i talked about the cpu being at 3.33ghz. The bc would be at 360 for 3.6ghz

hi mate ive had a play around with my bios (p5q celuxe) for 3.6ghz you need a 400 base clock this will allow you to set your ram to 801mhz

heres some settings for you to try

AI overclock set to manual

cpu ratio set to x9

fsb set to 400

pcie set to 100

fsb strap set to 333mhz

dram set to 801mhz

set your dram timings to your rams spec

refresh cycle time set to 50

trtp set to 8

try these settings for your voltages cpu @ 1.25v(3.6ghz) 1.325v(4ghz)

0.635

0.635

1.74

1.40

1.96 dram voltage make sure you set to your rams specs

1.40

0.635

1.10

1.50

load line callibration enabled, cpu spread disabled, pcie spread disabled n cpu margin enhancments set to optimized you may want to play about with these voltages as most of these settings are for my 4.0/4.2ghz overclock if you want to try for 4ghz then you will need to up the vcore volts hope this helps

 

[d3fu5i0n]

hi mate ive had a play around with my bios (p5q celuxe) for 3.6ghz you need a 400 base clock this will allow you to set your ram to 801mhz

heres some settings for you to try

AI overclock set to manual

cpu ratio set to x9

fsb set to 400

pcie set to 100

fsb strap set to 333mhz

dram set to 801mhz

set your dram timings to your rams spec

refresh cycle time set to 50

trtp set to 8

try these settings for your voltages cpu @ 1.25v(3.6ghz) 1.325v(4ghz)

0.635

0.635

1.74

1.40

1.96 dram voltage make sure you set to your rams specs

1.40

0.635

1.10

1.50

load line callibration enabled, cpu spread disabled, pcie spread disabled n cpu margin enhancments set to optimized you may want to play about with these voltages as most of these settings are for my 4.0/4.2ghz overclock if you want to try for 4ghz then you will need to up the vcore volts hope this helps

It's alright, my CPU just won't take 4GHz, and it's overkill - the optimal setting is 3.6GHz

For 3.33GHz I need 1.25Volts for stable.

I've got it at 1.34250 for 3.6GHz at the moment (I'll try and lower that a bit more later).

I stated, 801MHz in my first post about the 4GHz for the CPU

LoadLine Calibration is already enabled. 2.0Volts is the RAM spec, I stated that (well I didn't exactly say 'these are the RAM specs') I replied to Marsey that any slight voltage increase lead to a BSOD with C.P.R.

I also stated in my first post that as I don't really get any money aside from X-MAS and my B-Day, I want to make it last as long as possible (I don't mean leaving it at 2.66 Stock

)

I also replied to Marsey, that I've sorted it all.

Cheers though

Really, thanks. Without all these bits of help, I wouldn't have tried sticking on the MEM OC Charger. What does it actually do? The manuals for the motherboards are always stupid and never actually tell you in simple terms what they do? Is it like LoadLine Calibration but for the DIMMs?

 

[d3fu5i0n]

It's alright, my CPU just won't take 4GHz, and it's overkill - the optimal setting is 3.6GHz

For 3.33GHz I need 1.25Volts for stable.

I've got it at 1.34250 for 3.6GHz at the moment (I'll try and lower that a bit more later).

I stated, 801MHz in my first post about the 4GHz for the CPU

LoadLine Calibration is already enabled. 2.0Volts is the RAM spec, I stated that (well I didn't exactly say 'these are the RAM specs') I replied to Marsey that any slight voltage increase lead to a BSOD with C.P.R.

I also stated in my first post that as I don't really get any money aside from X-MAS and my B-Day, I want to make it last as long as possible (I don't mean leaving it at 2.66 Stock

)

I also replied to Marsey, that I've sorted it all.

Cheers though

Really, thanks. Without all these bits of help, I wouldn't have tried sticking on the MEM OC Charger. What does it actually do? The manuals for the motherboards are always stupid and never actually tell you in simple terms what they do? Is it like LoadLine Calibration but for the DIMMs?

I have 1 issue now though (I think).

Of course, Crysis (Warhead) plays at max settings - 1920x1080 + 4xAA at 60FPS and above (Quite a bit higher than previously).

But Bad Company 2 is having lower framerates than when the CPU was at 3.33GHz (now it's at 3.6GHz), by a lot! Why?

Temps are fine - in BC2 the CPU won't go above 50C (any of the cores), and the GPUs won't go above 60C (and the GPUs can't be 'too hot', as they were of course at the same clocks before).

EDIT: I went to my 3.33GHz BIOS profile, and actually the framerate is a little lower.

Though to be sure, what are your opinions for my CPU to clear any bottlenecks with two 5770s? As I said, I've been told by a very experienced overclocker and enthusiast that 3.6GHz will do it.

 

[marsey99]

cpu bottlenecks, i hate this phrase to tell you the truth.

yes a faster cpu will get more out of your (/everybodies) gpu setup but you can always say this, a 4.5ghz i7 will be better for a gtx580 than a 4ghz one. you have a quad core so its not going to be starving those gpu of data but at the same time if (again its these big ifs :/) it was faster, or a better cpu it would get more out of them

i will tell you about a guy i was gaming with the other day, he was moaning about how his new gpu was not much better than his old one and he had wasted his money. he had just got a 5870 as an upgrade from a 9800gt which is a nice step up imo but he was only getting around 20 more fps at the same settings. i asked him about his ram and cpu, as you do, and he said he has 4 gb of ddr2 (ok i thought so have i, thats enough for gaming) but didnt want to say more than an amd cpu. after a few minutes of moaning it turned out he had a sempron 3400

now that is a cpu thats going to hold pretty much any gpu above the mid range back and what i would call a bottleneck not a fast dual or quad core cpu.

 

[d3fu5i0n]

cpu bottlenecks, i hate this phrase to tell you the truth.

yes a faster cpu will get more out of your (/everybodies) gpu setup but you can always say this, a 4.5ghz i7 will be better for a gtx580 than a 4ghz one. you have a quad core so its not going to be starving those gpu of data but at the same time if (again its these big ifs :/) it was faster, or a better cpu it would get more out of them

i will tell you about a guy i was gaming with the other day, he was moaning about how his new gpu was not much better than his old one and he had wasted his money. he had just got a 5870 as an upgrade from a 9800gt which is a nice step up imo but he was only getting around 20 more fps at the same settings. i asked him about his ram and cpu, as you do, and he said he has 4 gb of ddr2 (ok i thought so have i, thats enough for gaming) but didnt want to say more than an amd cpu. after a few minutes of moaning it turned out he had a sempron 3400

now that is a cpu thats going to hold pretty much any gpu above the mid range back and what i would call a bottleneck not a fast dual or quad core cpu.

I did say 'EDIT'

But, didn't he even think that a Sempron is like the lowest CPU you can get for an AMD platform? He may as well have spent the money on a new CPU and would've probably got more frames out of the 9800GT than he is now with the 5870 and the Sempron.

Are you sure that if it was 'faster' I'd get more frames? I know it would probably run Physics better as the CPU essentially drives the Physics. But then the GPUs would become the bottleneck right, and I'd only be increasing heat on the CPU and having to increase voltages which'd shorten it's lifespan by a lot (my first comment, the reason I don't want to go too high). It was a VERY experienced overclocker and enthusiast on YouTube who told me 3.6 is just right for two 5770s. I hope he won't mind me mentioning his name (it'll only help get more viewers anyway

). It was Arvutihull on YT if you've heard of him. Great OC'er

He got a 920 rock solid stable at 4.8GHz and that was only D0 stepping as well. And he's only got a Noctua U12P.

 

[marsey99]

sorry man, it was 3.30am and i was falling asleep so i kinda strayed ot :|

without knowing what the bios is set to at both speeds this is a stab in the dark but if 3.6 is 9*400 and 3.3 is 333*10 i think that you might of just gone up a strap on the nb and that has lost you some performance. as i dont know your board all that well i dont know where the straps are, i dont know where they all are on mine but i do know i have 1 at 500 fsb as i get a drop there from 499 and i need to get to 520 again to get the same performance as 499. along with going up a strap you might of gone up a performance level or 2 on your ram aswell. try seeing what memset says your ram timings are on both and test the memory bandwidth with aida64 or sisoft because this might be a case of where faster isnt always faster.

performance will go up until the board (and ram) needs to drop its timings and then you lose some, now this is like a bottleneck for your cpu as while its working faster it still needs to wait for the board and ram to feed it. if this is the case you could try a lower cpu multi and higher fsb again but that might need you to drop the ram timings to 5-5-5-15 so they can do the mhz you need them to.

its the fine tuning like this that causes the most headaches, as sometimes dropping a couple of mhz can give you better preformance even if logic says it shouldnt. you need to ballance the speed with the latency (for the nb and the ram) to get the best results.