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I7 970 results

M

musky

[H]ard|DCer of the Year 2012
Joined
Dec 14, 2009
Messages
3,154
As you may or may not know, I just got a new I7 970 last week, and got it up and running yesterday evening. I did some tweaking on it this morning, and this is what I came up with. The system is

I7 970
Gigabyte X58A UD3R
3 x 2GB OCZ Platinum PC1600
Cooler Master Hyper N520 w/ 2 80CFM Delta fans (not exactly an HTPC... :))
Corsair TX750 PSU
Whatever HDD I had - I think it is a 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM

After I finally got my HSF seated well, I ended up with 4.242GHz (202 x 21), memory at 1616MHz triple channel 8-8-8-20-2T. The memory/blck will go to 1688/211 (was stable at 19 x 211), so there may be a little more left. Vcore is getting up there (1.3375V), but temps are still in the mid 70s. I may mess with it a little more later today. For now, I am pretty happy with it. I'll post some number once I get a decent unit. Right now, it is showing over 26K ppd on a 6701 that was 60% complete while the system was at 3.2GHz and has a few hours of downtime while I was messing with the machine this morning.
 
Soo much for this chip not being a good overclocker! post the numbers on the slow wu's too 22,000ppd on a 2671?
 
Looks like you are off to a great start. Do you have the Deltas running at full speed to get those temps?
 
My buddy showed me his black label Deltas, I've never actually owned any myself....I've just seen them on and off. Never thought I'd mutter this sentence but...I didn't ever think I'd be afraid of a computer fan. :D
 
These are the 92mm x 25mm Deltas, so they aren't quite that bad. I still wouldn't stick my finger in them...

I'm holding steady at 203 x 21 = 4263MHz at the moment, 1.33V actual Vcore, temps are 77C max.

P6701 (our favorite) - 4:28/frame, 26420 ppd
 
musky said:
These are the 92mm x 25mm Deltas, so they aren't quite that bad. I still wouldn't stick my finger in them...
Click to expand...
I have two 80mm Deltas on Intel passive sinks and they are as bad as Kendrak posted, but I installed fan guards so they're safe, LOL.

P6701 (our favorite) - 4:28/frame, 26420 ppd
Click to expand...
That's crazy and at least double the best PPD I've seen so far with my systems...
 
It bounces around a little, but it is still holding right at 4:30 and 26K ppd. Not bad at all. If it makes it through this unit without issue, it is going to bigadv.

It started impressing me running LinX for stability testing. The SR-2 was the last one I was tuning, and it was ridulously fast through 20 passes (I think it actuall was under 4 minutes at the current clock speed.) This thing wasn't all that much slower, finishing in a little over 4 1/2 minutes. For comparison, my best I7 920 @ 4GHz would get through it in just under 6 minutes.
 
have you found the blue screen mark yet? would be way cool if this thing would do 4.4
 
I'm getting close to a Vcore/temp limit right now with my current air cooling. It still isn't quite stable at 4.26, although I may have it now with my last Vcore bump. I'm at 2 1/2 hours folding with no crash. I can probably hold a couple more Vcore bumps, which will get me close to 4.3 on air. I'm looking at water cooling now as a possiblility, which may get me pushing 4.4 stable. We'll see. It will get into Windows at 4.4 (22 x 200) right now, but crashes out as soon as you do anything. I'd love to see 21 x 210 or 211 stable, but I am going to need some better cooling to do it.
 
musky said:
I'm getting close to a Vcore/temp limit right now with my current air cooling. It still isn't quite stable at 4.26, although I may have it now with my last Vcore bump. I'm at 2 1/2 hours folding with no crash. I can probably hold a couple more Vcore bumps, which will get me close to 4.3 on air. I'm looking at water cooling now as a possiblility, which may get me pushing 4.4 stable. We'll see. It will get into Windows at 4.4 (22 x 200) right now, but crashes out as soon as you do anything. I'd love to see 21 x 210 or 211 stable, but I am going to need some better cooling to do it.
Click to expand...

Excellent results Musky...I hope amdgamer sees your o/c and gets jealous so he stops babying that beautiful 980X he has:D...If you wanna go water on the cheap and easy buy my Exos;).

 
P6066 (didn't catch it in time to set the -bigadv flag) - 1:52/frame, 36460 ppd.

Which Exos is this? Does the block fit socket 1366? It does look like an easy way for water cooling.
 
ccityinstaller said:
Excellent results Musky...I hope amdgamer sees your o/c and gets jealous so he stops babying that beautiful 980X he has:D...If you wanna go water on the cheap and easy buy my Exos;).

Click to expand...

Those are incredible overclocks considering that i've read two reviews that were unable to break much past 3.8ghz. I know one was Anand, but that guy got overclocks so horrible when he tested the 980x that Intel called him up to ask him whats up!

As i've told you guys, i'm a wuss. Perhaps i'll become a bit more brave after I build up my comfort level.

musky said:
It bounces around a little, but it is still holding right at 4:30 and 26K ppd. Not bad at all. If it makes it through this unit without issue, it is going to bigadv.

It started impressing me running LinX for stability testing. The SR-2 was the last one I was tuning, and it was ridulously fast through 20 passes (I think it actuall was under 4 minutes at the current clock speed.) This thing wasn't all that much slower, finishing in a little over 4 1/2 minutes. For comparison, my best I7 920 @ 4GHz would get through it in just under 6 minutes.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it bouncing around as my Gulftown did the same thing. Even though I started with the bigadv flag from the beginning after stability testing using the IBT, the first unit folding2 ever drew was a 6701, and the TPF's bounced a lot.

Now that folding2 has been on bigadv, TPF's are almost exactly the same between each frame.
 
amdgamer said:
Those are incredible overclocks considering that i've read two reviews that were unable to break much past 3.8ghz. I know one was Anand, but that guy got overclocks so horrible when he tested the 980x that Intel called him up to ask him whats up!
Click to expand...
If Intel did that then the processor(s) were not cherry picked and likely from a bad batch. That or there was something off with the testing platform which I think is more likely. Everyone has a bad day at one time or other. These chips look every bit as killer performers as their bigger brethren from what musky has reported thus far, and he got it at a good price compared to what they sell here. :cool:

As i've told you guys, i'm a wuss. Perhaps i'll become a bit more brave after I build up my comfort level..
Click to expand...
What's your OC up to now? Can you push it just a wee bit higher...?
 
amdgamer said:
As i've told you guys, i'm a wuss. Perhaps i'll become a bit more brave after I build up my comfort level.
Click to expand...

I approached this strictly from the standpoint of getting the highest bclk and memory speed I could, then adjusting the multiplier up to get a final speed. You will notice that I am running at a 21x multiplier, even though the chip will go to 24x. I'd rather use the lower multiplier and higher bclk. Our boards will do the higher bclk without issue.

I can walk you through what I did with all of my current settings if you want since we have the same board I believe. The only thing I have way out of spec right now is Vcore and Vtt. I was at either 3.8 or 4.0 GHz on 1.25V Vcore and Auto Vtt, which is a nice overclock on pretty low Vcore. You can leave yours at stock if you are not comfortable bumping it up and still get up around 4GHz, especially with your 980x.
 
P2685 - 22:14/frame, 55342 ppd, and that is with a crash last night and a couple hours downtime.

Are you kidding me? This thing is a beast! That is only a little more than 3 minute/frame higher than my SR-2!
 
musky said:
P2685 - 22:14/frame, 55342 ppd, and that is with a crash last night and a couple hours downtime.

Are you kidding me? This thing is a beast! That is only a little more than 3 minute/frame higher than my SR-2!
Click to expand...

That is incredible...With the right shopping skills, you could probably build two i970 systems for the price of a mid-upper end Xeon SR-2 system...No the blocks won't 1366, but you can get a cheap Enzotech block from NewEgg cheap;)

As i've told you guys, i'm a wuss. Perhaps i'll become a bit more brave after I build up my comfort level.
Click to expand...

C'mon we can do some comfort level building sessions [H]ard style lol...All you gotta do is raise that beautifully unlocked multiplier and go to town...4hz shouldn't be too scary...:p
 
Damn those are some nice results... now I'm seriously tempted.... Hmm....
 
20% into the P2685 and times are holding steady at 22.13/22.14. It has been running for 6 hours now without crashng, so I think I can call it stable at 4.263 GHz on air.
 
musky said:
I approached this strictly from the standpoint of getting the highest bclk and memory speed I could, then adjusting the multiplier up to get a final speed. You will notice that I am running at a 21x multiplier, even though the chip will go to 24x. I'd rather use the lower multiplier and higher bclk. Our boards will do the higher bclk without issue.

I can walk you through what I did with all of my current settings if you want since we have the same board I believe. The only thing I have way out of spec right now is Vcore and Vtt. I was at either 3.8 or 4.0 GHz on 1.25V Vcore and Auto Vtt, which is a nice overclock on pretty low Vcore. You can leave yours at stock if you are not comfortable bumping it up and still get up around 4GHz, especially with your 980x.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer. At this time I really have no choice but to leave it where it is right now since I just don't have the time. So so busy.........
 
Power usage update - I just hooked the kill-o-watt up to this thing, and it is pulling 309W. Great effiiciency for the ppd.
 
Here is how you make an SR-2 look bad. Cowgirl is the SR-2, Gulftown is the 970.

http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/gulftown.png

These are two different units, and the P2682 is the second worst bigadv out there now, but still, 67K out of a hex core is impressive...
 
Yeah, that's pretty amazing. My I7 980x is at 3770 right now (145x26) and it's getting 55+K PPD on the P2685 and 2686, but on the 2684s, which it's currently running, it's only around 32K PPD. Even better no core is going over 53 celsius with a Zalman CNPS 10X Flex heat sink on it.

This is the only place my Opteron 6168x2 box is beating the Core I7 980x, as it gets over 40K on P2684 with -smp 24 and just under 40K at -smp 22.

But considering the cost of entry, and power usage being similar, the I7 980x/970 x58 combo is pretty darn nice, and no need for more than 3 DIMMs vs. the 8 I have in the Magny Cours setup!

And the best part is, if one of your boxes goes down, it's not like you lose all the PPD, like you would with one central multi CPU server-type setup/SR-2.

I think I'll put my Prolimatech on it and see where I can get it to as long as it stays in the 70s with LinX. You have motivated me!

musky said:
Here is how you make an SR-2 look bad. Cowgirl is the SR-2, Gulftown is the 970.

http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/gulftown.png

These are two different units, and the P2682 is the second worst bigadv out there now, but still, 67K out of a hex core is impressive...
Click to expand...
 
10e said:
I think I'll put my Prolimatech on it and see where I can get it to as long as it stays in the 70s with LinX. You have motivated me!
Click to expand...
Why in the 70s? There's no reason to try and keep the temperature so low.
 
Zero82z said:
Why in the 70s? There's no reason to try and keep the temperature so low.
Click to expand...

I'd rather keep the chip on the cool side because it is going from a PC with no GPUs folding to one that will have two or three, so LinX gives me an idea of temperatures I'll see after I make the transition in a few weeks. And since the mobo is moving with it, I won't have to try and re-adjust later.

I figure 75 to 78 celsius is ok for me in LinX, and I should be able to get 4.0Ghz out of it easily in that scenario. I tend to do that with I7 920s as well. I have three that will hit 4.0Ghz but two of them only get driven to about 3.85 (203*19) and fold at an average of about 69 - 72 celsius. Reason being is that they are getting to that point where additional voltage is generating more heat than performance.

But we'll see. Different chip, different ballgame.
 
With all this craziness about SR-2s and L5640s, I almost forgot my poor neglected 970. I picked up a Cogage True Spirit for it and moved it over to my Antec 300 case. With the True, I got an amazing 12C temp drop. So, I figured what the heck, lets see what it can do. Right now, I am at 4.326 (21 x 206) and still barely breaking 70C. I do believe it has a little more left in it. I'm going to drag it out of the basement tomorrow and see how loud it is. If it is tolerable (and I think it wil be), I'll stil it up in my bedroom and keep pushing it. I see 4.4 on air in my future... :)
 
lehmann said:
you have that antec full of fans? meaning 3 intakes 2 aghaust
Click to expand...

Yep. The side intake is a Scythe Slipsteam 110 CFM. The others are the Tri-powers that came with the case, on the high setting. Everything is on a 4 channel fan controller.
 
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