8x or 9x multiplier? Hmmmm

Steven T

Member
Mar 4, 2007
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I'm using 8x multiplier on my e6600. I'm thinking if I use 9x I will be able to get a higher clock with lower temps. Is it worth it? I dont really understand the other factors involved when choosing between 8x and 9x multiplier numbers...
 

myocardia

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2003
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Use the 9x. C2D's aren't like A64's. When you lower the multiplier, it will affect your ability to overclock, because of the way the motherboard handles the RAM.
 

Steven T

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Mar 4, 2007
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What do you mean? It affects the RAM in what way?

I thought since I have it set "unlinked" and my ram frequency manually set to a number where I reach a 1:1 ratio everything is all good... no?

Actually I just tried x9 and in order to get the perfect 1:1 ram ratio I have to either underclock my ram or raise my fsb WAAAAY too high... :( hmmm Everything seems to work out just perfect on the 8x setting. The ram I have (patriot eXtreme 800) is meant to be pushed far beyond 800. With 9x it feels like I wasted my money on the ram since I cant do that :(

Maybe there's something I'm not quite getting?
 

f4phantom2500

Platinum Member
Dec 3, 2006
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well what are your settings? what can the RAM oc to? a 9x multi would mean less stress on the RAM, can the RAM not do the FSB that the CPU runs at with the 8x multi? If so, maybe you can loosen the timings, or put it at 9x and use really tight timings perhaps?
 

betasub

Platinum Member
Mar 22, 2006
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As usual, not enough info. Need to know the FSB speeds you are trying to run with the 8x and 9x multipliers. Motherboard and BIOS version would also be helpful.
 

Curr

Member
Mar 23, 2007
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Originally posted by: betasub
As usual, not enough info. Need to know the FSB speeds you are trying to run with the 8x and 9x multipliers. Motherboard and BIOS version would also be helpful.

Agreed!

Remember for a lower multiplier, you'll need a higher FSB to achieve the same OC. Some motherboards perform high fsb's quite well, others "hit the wall" sooner.

Most modern revisions of motherboards have enough memory scaling / divider options so that if you get DD2-800 memory, you will be fine no matter what the fsb.
 

Steven T

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Mar 4, 2007
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My motherboard is an Asus P5N-E. Here is a more detailed description of everything:

Core 2 duo E6600 w/ Noctua NH-U12F @ 3.4Ghz (low temps)
2x 1GB Patriot eXtreme DDR2 800 (I can push to about 1150) 4-4-4-12 and 2.187v
Asus P5N-E SLI (latest bios of course)
Antec 900 case
Raedeon X1650XT
1 Seagate SATA & 1 Seagate ATA
Windows XP Pro & Vista Home Premium (dual boot setup)

tested overnight stability in orthos/dual prime95 stress testing + about 6 hours of memtest and everything passes.

Multipier x8
Bus Speed 425 (rated 1700)


My main question is if I could get to 3.6 without having to use a vCore of like 1.47+. High vCore scares me even though temps are tolerable. When summer kicks in it's ganna be harder to maintain low temps (i think). Yes, i know going 2 3.6 wont offer much gain in real world performance but I'm just curious about all this stuff. I'm a noob.
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
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I thought it was pretty much gospel that if you wanted to find out the true DRAM limits, you'd drop the multiplier down a notch or two.

I'm also running the E6600, with Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1000's shown to run at the speeds between 800 and 1000 with a divider other than 1:1.

I'm only cataloging preliminary results at the moment, but running at 9x multiplier, 1520 FSB and 760 DDR appears to be a threshold of instability at latency timings that work fine at lower settings or at different FSB:DDR ratios. In fact, my 4,4,4,8 settings are supposed to be good on Crucial Ballistix DDr2-1000 up to about DDR2-850, according to the German review of the Crucials at Technic 3D, and my results are consistent with those results -- provided the system is not running at an FSB:DDR of 1:1.

But here's my own gripe, which should be posted in a separate thread.

MEMTEST86+ v.1.70 doesn't recognize the 680i chipset yet. That was "OK" for the time being, but now that I've dropped the multiplier to 8x, with the BIOS correctly posting the 8 x 380 = 3,040 or 3.04 Ghz, MEMTEST86+ still shows the processor speed as 9 x 380 or 3.42 Ghz.

It's been maybe six months or more since the 680i chipset hit the street, and you'd think the developers behind the MEMTEST86+ program would've updated it to (a) recognize the chipset and (b) report the correct processor speed.
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
16,359
1,895
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Also -- "and, actually" -- a lower multiplier should IMHO reduce temperatures, especially if it means reducing any VCORE set values. From whatever baseline the lower multiplier gives you, the temperature would begin rising again from that point with higher FSB settings.

Temperature rises linearly with speed in Mhz, and it rises with the square of voltage increases.

I'm currently trying to find the limits for my system with VCORE and memory voltage set at "AUTO."

Because some other gurus have discovered that my Striker board in even the later BIOS revisions over-volts "set" voltages across the board, I'm approaching limits from the lower end of voltages.

I see that some performance reviewers for my Crucial Ballistix didn't bother to do this -- they just set the VDIMM to the warranty limit of 2.2V -- never bothering to see what the memory would do at the lowest voltage settings. With this board, it's possible that a setting of 2.2 might result in a true voltage of 2.3V.