OC'ing QX9650

i have been trying to find the divider "thingy" you guys have been talking about to do with the ram. All ive been able to find which could be anything to do with that is called the SYSTEM MEMORY MULTIPLIER which is used to SET MEMORY FREQUENCY BY DRAM SPD DATA. The options for this section of the bios are

2.00

2.40

3.20

3.33

4.0+

2.50

3.00

4.0~

with extra info on the right stating

+ is 800 strapping

~ is 1066 strapping

# is 1333 strapping

Other than that i have been unable to find something else which i can see that would enable me to change anything to do with this.

Any futher help or advice about this would be appreciated:wavey:
 
thanks... that is making things very much clearer for me but have you any idea as to the setting i should be using out of the options i have shown that are displaed in the bios dram setting???
 
name='pegasus_ted' said:
thanks... that is making things very much clearer for me but have you any idea as to the setting i should be using out of the options i have shown that are displaed in the bios dram setting???

What about the dram settings?? What does it offer in way of settings?

SET MEMORY FREQUENCY BY DRAM SPD DATA. ?? I wouldn't know. Each mobo has stuff worded slightly differently.
 
here are shot of my bios if these will help at all, unfortunately no matter how i did it it said invalid jpg's and i tried them as screenshots but got the same so i put them in zip file and wahlahhh no probs. There is 3 pics in there from my bios screen the 3rd one is of the settings screen i mentioned before.

any help would be welcome
 

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Before you can really play around with the memory ratios you need first to be able to unlink it. Some bios don't allow you to unlink it and its set in stone what ratio gets used. Some again don't allow you to unlink it but do give you maybe half a dozen preset choices like 1:1, 1:2 etc etc.

And trust me if the whole system is set to run 1:1 it will produce a faster system then a ratio such as 4:3. You can hit problems though when you attempt 1:1 as things like maybe the NB (Northbridge) struggle under the higher FSB, sometimes increasing voltage can help othertimes you need to address cooling.

You may have your memory running at 533Mhz but data entering and leaving the ram would only be travelling 403Mhz. In many case it doesn't even work like that, you could set your memory to squillion Mhz, and it would show this in the bios, but it would only be running at 403Mhz. If you can work on memory timings you could and should notice a difference. Saying that I would recommend looking at faster ram, because you are overclocking you current ram doesn't leave much room for expansion.

Sometimes it can be easier to understand a lot to do computing if you can somehow translate it, into a real life scenario;

Imagine a straight road with a speed limit of 403Mph (FSB) every car (Your Data) is travelling at that speed. Then all off a sudden the speed limit increases to 533MPH (Memory Speed) everyone floors it. A few cars can't handle the new speed and begin to crash, seconds later the speed limit drops again to 403, everyone slams their breaks on and again, a few cars start to skid and crash. By the end of the road their are a lot less cars then what started off which in computing could lead to instabilities, bsod etc.

Now for memory timings imagine on that fast part of the road their is a toll booth. It takes you 5ns to take money from your pocket, 5ns for the system to register your money and then 5ns for the gate to open and let you carry on with your journey.

The whole process might only take 15ns but in computing this is a lifetime. So you then go into tuning the whole system. You start to keep all your change on the dashboard the system FSB is overclocked to speed up the register, knocking a couple of ns off the time and then you fit twin tubro motors to the barriors now they open 2ms faster so your timings where 5-5-5 but now they are 4-4-3 the whole process is faster and the traffic isn't held up as long.

Hope you catch my drift. Your best bet is to read up on CAS/tRCD/tRP/tRAS understand what each does and then have a play.
 
I’m telling you now that my RAM performs must faster in real calculations at around 575MHz with a FSB of 400MHz with the divider at 4:5 than it does with FSB and RAM at 400MHz with a 1:1 ratio. You can tell that just by adding a few MHz to your RAM even above your FSB and doing a SuperPi calculation.

I know for stability and performance in an ideal world you would use a 1:1 ratio but that just isn’t possible to get the overclock I want on my CPU to use a 575MHz FSB! No motherboard would take that FSB so it would be impossible.

If you could get to the exact same overclock with either a ratio of 1:1 or something different then obviously 1:1 is the better choice there but if using a divider offers you the only option to get your higher clocks then it is the way to go. I wouldn’t lose potential overclock just to keep the divider at 1:1 put it that way.

As for timings.. Going on my experiences and the many, many reviews I’ve read. The vast majority show that MHz over timings shows the highest gains. Again not 100% of the time but a hell of a lot. I aim for the fastest stable overclock I can get and then tighten the timings a notch or two.
 
Can`t remember for the life of me where the study was done (might even have been here) - but some1 did a fsb/ratio/ram/cpu study.

Pretty indepth from what I remember.

Came out with something to the effect of; for benching the higher fsb for ram was a winner; in real life situations having crappy ram and an extreme cpu, there was little difference.

If some1 can find that link, I`ll be happy to revisit it, and I may be remembering wrong, but I`m sure that`s what I got from it.

Good speed and flexible ram mainly good for locked multiplier cpus. (as u could probably assume)
 
name='Rastalovich' said:
Can`t remember for the life of me where the study was done (might even have been here) - but some1 did a fsb/ratio/ram/cpu study.

Pretty indepth from what I remember.

Came out with something to the effect of; for benching the higher fsb for ram was a winner; in real life situations having crappy ram and an extreme cpu, there was little difference.

If some1 can find that link, I`ll be happy to revisit it, and I may be remembering wrong, but I`m sure that`s what I got from it.

Good speed and flexible ram mainly good for locked multiplier cpus. (as u could probably assume)

I was thinking the same about the benchmarks but SuperPi is just a long arse calculation. Surely that gives some indication as to how your ram is actually performing for real.

I saw a pretty decent comparison too... Like you, not sure if it was here or not.
 
Well i guess im just gunna have to wait a couple of weeks to get the cash to enable me to buy some ddr3 to try and get higher, hopefully thew faster ram will give me the improvement im looking for.

until the it looks like im stuck under 20k 3d '06b and plus 10 secs superPi

and minus 4ghz :(:(:(

as soon as i get faster ram im gunna up my chip to 4ghz cause at the min im running @ 3.666 ghz and idle temp is 40c, 50-55 under full load so it looks like i got the headroom with my HS&F to get 4 and still be in the clear heat wise :) :wavey: :yumyum:
 
pegasus_ted said:
CPU: Intel Core2Quad QX9650 @ 3667mhz - 11 x 333mhz rated FSB 1333

Mobo: GIGABYTE EP35C-DS3R

GPU: EVGA 9800GX2 1024MB

RAM: CORSAIR VALUE SELECT 4 x 1GB 5-5-5-15 @ 667 MHz

PSU: EZ 650W

Cooling: ASUS TRITON 79 AMAZING

OS: Windows XP PRO Service pack 3

3DMARK '06 18874

SM 2.0 Score 7473

SM 3.0 Score 8393

CPU Score 5927

SuperPI 1M 12.6405secs

Wprime 32M 10.983

I've only just caught this thread sorry.

First things first I have seen 3 problems for you to get large benchmarks: CPU speed, RAM and amount of RAM.

I know you know about your CPU so i'm just gonna say keep plugging away at it as it will hit 4G you just have to be patient. I can only do first 3/4 tests in 3DM06 at 4GHz before it crashes or BSODs as i'm uncomfortable with higher voltages than i currently have (yes i'm a wuss).

11x 450MHz 1800MHz FSB 1.6vCore 1.4PLL (still in green for my Striker II voltage checker). 11x 425MHz 1700MHz 1.5vCore 1.3PLL. 10x 450MHz 1800MHz 1.45vCore. Those are most most common settings but hot weather means I have to knock them back sometimes.

Corsair Value RAM this was a disaster from the get go. It won't take the heat and they are basically rejects for other RAM sets so most won't go up by much. You will find a good improvement even if you just get higher speed ones let alone good timing. DDR3 is the way to go though but prices are still too high. Here is the set i have my eye on.

Windows XP x86 is famous for its inability to accept 4Gb of RAM as well as address it. Highest i've read that windows has actually addressed is 3.5Gb which does make sense given the original XP HDD limitation for installation that you had to registry hack when it first came out. Improvement of 2Gb in slot when not all is being addressed by XP almost sod all single digit change in 3DM06. Whip out RAM put coloured dots on them and run 3DMark with two sticks in all colour combinations. Highest scoring sticks get to stay rest on eBay.

Highest 3DMark06 i've had is 19115 @ 3.825GHz (as above) and stock 8800GTXs in SLi. Clicky feel free to look through my other pics which show my benching progress.
 
ram

well today i managed to buy some of this : Corsair 2GB 2 x 1GB XMS3 DDR3 DHX C9 PC3-10666 for £80 of ebay well 73 plus 7 p&p is this stuff any good and do you think it'll give me the 4ghz im wanting
 
It will surely be a boost.. 4Ghz, maybe. All down to testing really.

But it will hopefully give you some head room.
 
Its a step in the right direction certainly. It is 1333MHz like mine and I can boot a 4GHz but anything but idle makes me go BSOD. I also only paid £40 for my OCZ 1333MHz gold stuff and when its back in stock I will be buying the 2000MHz for £140. Just hope the timings on that Corsair stuff is damn FAST.

Is 4GHz in your sights? Yes without a doubt.

Will your cooling keep up at 4GHz? :S Thermal limits of your AC are melting.
 
Timings are pretty good for DDR3 same as my OCZ stuff. 55C under load? Thats good stuff you can probably get it further then with a some more volts but can i check that is FULL load by Orthos or Prime95 right?
 
well ive taken a screen shot for your but for some reason no matter how i save the bloody things it keeps telling me invalid file for upload so the only way i can do it is by zipping it up.

in the pic if you look im xfering files from drive to drive, working several sites running prime, checking emails, and also folding at the same time and it only just getting to 59-60c. just doing things like prime dont really lift it by mu from the 40+ that it usually sits at...

this what u was looking for???
 

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You might be able to push a little further but you really are nudging it now mate. Your certainly doing well though. 70C should be your cut off temperature though so push until you see this on CoreTemp. Be gentle and you'll probably get into the 3.8 range. I would suggest fiddling with the multiplier too. Above 11 usually means a BSOD so try 10 and 11 for your FSB speeds and you might found one is more stable for better OC.
 
they think its all over... It is now

much thanks for all your input everybody to do with this thread. Unfortunately i wont be needing any extra help on this as i had an interesting situation occur last week. Having clocked it up to 4ghz and having it running very stable, i then decided to see if i could get a little extra out of it so up it went to 4.02ghz and i started benching whilst having my dinner. Halfway through the nature bench in 3dmark 06 my power supply decided to blow up and after buying a new psu and fitting it with much searching and swearing i unfortunately found that when the psu went BANG-FLASH-SMOKE it had decided to take my chip on its death bed trip with it. Everything else in the case was fine it just took the most expensive bit ive got with it lol so now im on a q6600 until i se if i can get it replaced...

So ends my sob story... Any appropriate sympathetic comments and farewells for my chip can be left below.

Many thanks :wavey: :worship:
 
Strange, I normally find that when a psu goes it normally takes the motherboard first, then the ram. CPU is usually the lest thing to go,

Sorry to hear about your loss.:(
 
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