Trouble getting a Q9550 to 3.74 GHz

H

haffey

Gawd
Joined
Oct 6, 2008
Messages
539
Right now I'm sitting at 3.7 GHz, stable in both Prime and IBT. Temps are not even near being an issue. 435 x 8.5 = 3697.5 MHz.

I'm looking to OC to at least 3.8 GHz or even 4.0 GHz if I can get that high, but just raising the FSB to 440 (3740 MHz) makes the system a few minutes into both Prime and IBT.

Here are the settings I attempted to use. Hardware monitor screenshots provided because of Vdrop:

P5120006.jpg

P5120007.jpg

P5120008.jpg

P5120009.jpg

P5120010.jpg


Specs:
Q9550 E0
Asus P5E (Rampage Formula BIOS 0803)
2x2 GB Corsair Dominator PC2 8500 (stock timings 5-5-5-15-2T, stock voltage 2.1V)
 
Last edited:
Could you make your screen shots a little smaller?
 
Try setting your RAM to 1:1 with the FSB (DDR2-880) and see if that helps at all. You may be running into a memory limitation, even though your RAM is rated at DDR2-1066.
 
Definiately go with the memory recommendation of 1:1. After that you can probably bring the memory voltage down to 1.9v. I would also recommend a different FSB strap if the memory downclock doesn't work. Try the 266Mhz or 400Mhz strap. You can probably also experiment with lowering the northbridge voltage back down if that is successful. One more thing, you might be able to get by with less cpu voltage. Try 1.275, that is what my Q9550 runs at clocked to 3.8Ghz.
 
I'll keep all those suggestions in mind this afternoon. Someone suggested the following too:

you're gonna need a lot more Vcore and PLL voltage. You should be using >1.4Vcore in CPU-z and 1.9V PLL. Also play around with the CPU GTL ref. voltage.
Click to expand...
 
haffey said:
Someone suggested the following too:
Click to expand...
Those suggestions are ridiculous. You shouldn't need anywhere near 1.9V for the CPU PLL, and such a high voltage may even be harmful. Also, the recommended safe voltage for 45nm Core 2 CPUs is 1.4V maximum, meaning you shouldn't exceed 1.4V in CPU-Z.
 
Okay, I'm at 3.8 GHz (stable, I *think*) with 1.344 VCore. Should I attempt to make that mad dash to 4 GHz, or should I be happy with 3.8 GHz and start lowering my VCore?
 
Depends. Is your chip a C1 or an E0? If it's an E0, then it's worth attempting to hit 4GHz since you probably can do it.
 
some fine tuning of the VTT and PLL could help you lower main core voltage but maybe not.
 
Kinda hoping that ive got a decent overclocking chip, cant get a chance to do any tweaking as i have to get round to updating the bios on my p5q deluxe. Hoping to reach 4ghz on air, used to run a q6600 at 3.8ghz but purchased a q9550 EO at a nice price to try out.
 
Never mind. It wasn't stable. It ran Prime for almost a day but froze up in L4D. I don't really know what to do any more.
 
setter said:
Very nice;) have you pushed it any higher, and what are your load temps like?
Click to expand...

High of 51C right now, but I only tested it for 10mins with IBT, as with 8GB of RAM it takes a long time to run. So once my case heats up and all and if it was not pretty cool in my house I'm sure the temp will go up a bit. Highest I have gone is 4.25GHz, temps were not really bad, but I had to run my NB pretty hot and so I didn't keep it there for long.

4f66cf0d.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top