Help getting over 300

D

Docmhz

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 19, 2006
Messages
420
I've been running for a couple months now at 2.7 ghz on my Opty 165. I did not write down the stepping on this chip, I was too excited to get it installed. I've tried a couple times to get over 300 fsb on my DFI NF4 Ultra-D, but it starts to get unstable at about 305. Now I understand this may be the upper limits of my particular chip and combination, but I thought I'd post my settings and see if there are any of you that might have some suggestions.

Here are my genie bios settings:

FSB Bus Frequency............................. 300 MHz
LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio....................... Auto
CPU/FSB Frequency Ratio....................... 9
PCI eXpress Frequency......................... 100

CPU Voltage .................................. 1.400v
LDT Voltage .................................. 1.30v
ChipSet (NF4) Voltage ........................ 1.60V
DRAM Voltage ................................. 2.60v
+0.03 if not 3.2V ............................ enable

Memclock (DRAM Frequency) .................... 166
1T/2T Timing (Command Per Clock).............. 1T
CAS Latency (Tcl)............................. 3T
RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd)..................... 4T
Min RAS# active time (Tras)................... 8T
Row precharge time (Trp)...................... 3T
Row Cycle time (Trc).......................... 11T
Row refresh cyc time (Trfc)................... 16T
Row to Row delay (Trrd)....................... 3T
Write recovery time (Twr)..................... 3T
Write to Read delay (Twtr).................... 2T
Read to Write delay (Trwt).................... 3T
Refresh Period (Tref)......................... 3120
DRAM Bank Interleave.......................... Enabled

DQS Skew Control.............................. Auto
DQS Skew Value................................ 0
DRAM Drive Strength........................... Normal 3 or 4 (called Level 6 or 8 in other bios')
DRAM Data Drive Strength...................... Level 2
Max Async Latency............................. 8ns
DRAM Response Time............................ Normal
Read Preamble Time............................ 6ns
IdleCycle Limit............................... 256
Dynamic Counter............................... Disable
R/W Queue Bypass.............................. 16x
Bypass Max.................................... 7x
32 Byte Granularity........................... Disable (4 Bursts)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comments, pointers, tips are welcome!!
 
Do you know what the max speed your motherboard and processor will do individually? i.e. place a huge divider on your RAM, lower the HT link, drop the multi, and see what HTT the mobo will do. Then restore the multi, and start cranking the HTT to see what the proc will do.

I noticed that your LDT/HT link speed is set to auto...does that mean that it will drop the speed as it should? Otherwise you'll want to keep it under 1000mhz (the ldt multiplier*htt=HT link speed)
 
LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio....................... Auto

should be LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio....................... 3x

Always remember to keep that number multiplied by your fsb under 1000mhz. Don't worry if it is under 1000 just dont let it go over as it does not effect performance at all, just stability if it goes over 1000.

::EDIT::

I have the same board, and with my corsair RAM, this did not necessarily effect stability but it improved my PI score by 1sec by dropping my Tras to 0 from its default state.

You also might consider bumping up your Vcore to 1.5. I know with my 148 it does not raise the temps much, not sure about how hot the dual cores run, but as long as your temps are under 70C at load your fine. :D
 
What the person above said, bump up your volts a bit and instead of auto set it to 3. I had the same problem a few days ago and found that my HTT was set to auto (5x). and instead of 70C load, 60 is the tops you should go, he must have had a typo there
 
Docmhz said:
I will try that later tonight, thanks!
Click to expand...

If you'd like something to refer to, this is the best guide out there (in my opinion). Report back with those results!
 
Thanks everyone, I had checked the HTT in CPU-Z and it reports around 900 or so, so I'm guessing it dropped it to 3x. I will change that manually later. Cpu's run about 40c under load, so I'll try some voltage also.
 
Docmhz said:
Thanks everyone, I had checked the HTT in CPU-Z and it reports around 900 or so, so I'm guessing it dropped it to 3x. I will change that manually later. Cpu's run about 40c under load, so I'll try some voltage also.
Click to expand...

Oh wow, if they're only at 40C under load, it sounds like you can pump a helluva lot more voltage in there.

Now that I look at the setting up above, you've only got it at 1.4v! You can easily go to 1.5, maybe 1.55 depending how the temps look then. Good luck!
 
I'm hoping it's normal that one core runs hotter than the other? Not much mind you, but 3-4 degrees C?
 
Tylerdurdened said:
What the person above said, bump up your volts a bit and instead of auto set it to 3. I had the same problem a few days ago and found that my HTT was set to auto (5x). and instead of 70C load, 60 is the tops you should go, he must have had a typo there
Click to expand...


60 is a good bet, but no it was not a typo, Opteron chips are rated to 70C
 
Docmhz said:
I'm hoping it's normal that one core runs hotter than the other? Not much mind you, but 3-4 degrees C?
Click to expand...

Thats completely normal
 
1.60V chipset

up the voltage on the chipset. i have noticed on my sli-dr that lower voltage on the ltd and chipset cause instablility on 300+ htt OCs
 
What should the startup VID be set at, and how does that differ from the CPU VID? And, does anyone use the special VID control? i.e. 104% or 110%?

I had to use 1.5 on the VID and 110% on the special to get it to boot at 320, any higher than that and I got reboots before XP would start.

That gave me 1.58 volts according to CPUZ and that seems high to me, but maybe I'm wrong. I didn't have a chance to stress test it with Prime or anything.

Am I going in the right direction?
 
the special VID is a multiplier of your vcore...

so 1.55vcore x 1.10% = 1.705vcore

you are lucky you didnt fry the thing...

go over to DFIs website and download the manual and read the thing. also over at DFI-streets there is a OC thread.

holly crap man.

also the startup is just to get in the bios I set it to the closest thing to my vcore settings.

do not go above 1.6vcore and use a calculator please.....


also what PSU do you have? if it read 1.58 in CPU-Z that is way to low for what you had it set for and your PSU might not be a good enough one for that mobo
 
Same PSU as you have. Funny thing is, the bios reported 1.6v when I had it set at 1.5 and 110%. I never went to 1.55.
 
I agree, I only had it there to boot into windows. I'm beginning to think that I'm at that proverbial sweet spot already. I'll keep fiddling of course. :D
 
Yea, I have noticed that most opterons like to stay between 2.7 and 2.8 with the stock voltage. I have heard of a few miracle stores of 3.0+ but those are few and far between. Even after putting my 148 at 1.5V I can only manage 2.9 stable (As seen in sig). The only way for it to be stable at 3.0 is if I do a major Vcore increase to 1.63V and even then it is not TOTALLY stable and it idles at 45C. :eek:
 
How do I get Prime to run two instances? I found where to set the affininty, but how do I launch a second one?

Thanks!
 
Docmhz said:
How do I get Prime to run two instances? I found where to set the affininty, but how do I launch a second one?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Just use Orthos which is prime95 underneath the more attractive GUI, and lets you load multicore processors with one instance.
 
I'm pretty sure to load 2 instances you open up two prime95 windows and make sure that they are each set to a different core and then just run them. I'm no expert about it, but that would seem like the only logical way to do it. Now how exactly you go about setting them each to their own independant core is a different story...I think that Prime95 has an option in it to determine where it goes within its own program. However, I think there is also a way to specify in the process manager in windows which programs go on which cores if I am not mistaken.
 
kill4killin said:
I'm pretty sure to load 2 instances you open up two prime95 windows and make sure that they are each set to a different core and then just run them. I'm no expert about it, but that would seem like the only logical way to do it. Now how exactly you go about setting them each to their own independant core is a different story...I think that Prime95 has an option in it to determine where it goes within its own program. However, I think there is also a way to specify in the process manager in windows which programs go on which cores if I am not mistaken.
Click to expand...

In order to do it with Prime95 (the original) you need both programs to be in different folders. Just use orthos though, it's a version of prime95 designed to run on dual core systems.
 
I have a ultra-D and I couldn't get a good OC without that hacked bios *this post would be more helpfull if I could remember the bios name* OC workbench maybe?
 
[H]'er, please try to remember the name of this BIOS. I would be very interested in trying it. If you can remember it please post it up, I'm sure plenty of people would be interested.
 
I think I'm stuck at 2.7, unless I want to pump almost 1.6v to the core to get to 2.8. I don't think it's worth the added heat and possible damage to the chip. I'm going to try some different multipliers to see if I can get a better combination. I'll keep posting.
 
Ill try that Tmods bootable cd. it sounds interesting. But I'm not farmiliar with loading hacked bioses, if the bios does not work, it does not corrupt hard drive data right?
 
I've never had an issue with HDD corruption after a bios flash. I've been running the 7-04 BTa bios for quite some time now. But I guess with all things, YMMV.
 
What does his BIOS add exactly? And how can it help getting a higher OC in the first place?
 
Tylerdurdened said:
What does his BIOS add exactly? And how can it help getting a higher OC in the first place?
Click to expand...

I'd suggest looking at this thread at DFI Street. It should tell you what you want to know.
 
I would recommend you proceed with caution when using those BIOSs.

I used the modded BIOS that was labeled modded BIOS in the CD and it worked excellent...or so I thought. I was able to top my motherboard out at well over 300mhz on stock voltages. However, when it crashed and rebooted, windows would not start for more than 30-60 seconds. It blue screened and rebooted. The error the blue screen gave me, come to find out, had something to do with a driver accessing a part of the memory that was not accessable. I narrowed it down to my video drivers, however, even in safemode, every time I tried to so much as touch the drivers or any part of the graphics card. The system blue screened. The BIOS did something to change the way the PCIe card was interefaced or something and windows DID NOT like it one bit. Even after flashing to several different BIOSs the only remedy for the problem ended up being a re-install of windows.

USER BEWARE!
 
Docmhz said:
I'd suggest looking at this thread at DFI Street. It should tell you what you want to know.
Click to expand...
Doesn't really say anything about the features on the first few pages. No way I'm reading 19 pages to find tiny bits of info
 
Well, I don't know that I know enough about what is different about it, but most everyone on the DFI forums are using it, including the moderators. That's a good enough endorsment for me, although as the poster above just went through, YMMV.

I've been using it for close to a year now and haven't had any issues with it.
 
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