920 D0 Overclock, Have I reached the limit?

[Impuls]

Hey guys, I'm not sure if its just my luck of the draw or if i'm doing something wrong here.

I've read countless threads and guides on these fourms and others and I cant figure out why I cant go any higher then 3.99Ghz on this D0, unless this individual chip is not a good oc'er.

Maybe i'm doing something wrong? Im pumping way too much voltage to the core then i should be, but if i dont it wont even post.

My current Setup is
Cpu - i7 920 (d0)
Mobo - Asus P6TD Deluxe (latest bios)
Ram - 6 GB of OZC3G1600LV2G


My Bio's settings are as follows
----------------------------------------

Ai Tweaker

Ai overclock - Manual
CPU Ratio - 21
Intel Speedstep - off
BCLK - 190
PCiE Freq - 100
Dram Freq - DDR3 - 1523
UCLK Frew - 3047
QPI Link Data Rate - 6857

CPU Voltage - 1.35
CPU PLL Voltage - 190
QPI/DRAM Core Voltage - 1.35
iOH Voltage - 1.20
iOH PCIe Voltage - 1.50
iCH Voltage - 1.30
iCH PCIE Voltage - 1.50
DRAM Bus Voltage - 1.66
Load Line Calibration - Auto
Cpu Differential Amplitude - 800mV
Cpu Clock Skew - auto
Cpu Spread Spectrum - off
iOH clock skew - auto
PCIe spread spectrum - off



Advanced

CPU Ratio - 21
C1E Support - off
Hard Prefetcher - on
Adjacent Cahce Line Prefetch - on
Virtulization Tech - off
CPU TM Function - on
Execute Disable Bit - on
Hyperthreading - on
A20M - off
Speedstep - off
Intel C-State tech - off

Any advice? is it my chip or are my settings wrong? without so much core voltage it wont post. I hate putting so much voltage

 

[Anubis]

have you tried running the BCLK higher with the ratio lower?

 

[Impuls]

^yes

no post

if i do post when i play with the voltages i get BSOD almost right away

 

[GLeeM]

I cant go any higher then 3.99Ghz on this D0, unless this individual chip is not a good oc'er.

3.99 is a great OC with HT on!

 

[Impuls]

3.99 is a great OC with HT on!

I've seen some people with 4.2 air cooled and HT on. Wish i could get that. Im using a Coolermaster V8 for cooling.

I still dont think my vcore should be @ 3.50 volts. The majority ive seen are in the 2.xx volts.

Are my settings causing my vcore to go this high to be able to post or is it the chip itself?

 

[GLeeM]

if i do post when i play with the voltages i get BSOD almost right away

Most around here recommend to do changes in BIOS.

Are my settings causing my vcore to go this high to be able to post or is it the chip itself?

Both, LOL!
Sorry, if you do 181x21=3.8 how much vcore does it need?
But really it is the chip itself - technically, anything over 2.66 is more than you should expect. Practically, anything over 3.6 is great.

Remember - on the forums, you only hear about those CPUs that get better than great OCs (bragging).

No matter what advice you get or tweaks you do, in the end you are going to have to decide how high vcore you are willing to run at and then be happy with that OC.

Err ... Well ... actually, because you will choose at the high end, you will forever after worry that it is too high

 

[HumblePie]

It's hard to tell with overclocking. Sounds like it could be either the CPU or the motherboard. Heck, it could be the memory if you have the wrong divider.

I have an i7 920 I could get to 4.0Ghz prime stable on air with HT on. It would do 4.2Ghz but crash in prime. Mainly because temps would go to 90C and the system would just shutdown as I put that as the limit. Also, I am using a Noctua u12 heatsink. So it could be just luck of the draw with your CPU, or something else. Without being able to test it in multiple setups, such as a different motherboard, you'll never really know.

 

[Impuls]

Most around here recommend to do changes in BIOS.


Both, LOL!
Sorry, if you do 181x21=3.8 how much vcore does it need?
But really it is the chip itself - technically, anything over 2.66 is more than you should expect. Practically, anything over 3.6 is great.

Remember - on the forums, you only hear about those CPUs that get better than great OCs (bragging).

No matter what advice you get or tweaks you do, in the end you are going to have to decide how high vcore you are willing to run at and then be happy with that OC.

Err ... Well ... actually, because you will choose at the high end, you will forever after worry that it is too high

Sorry i meant i get BSOD a few seconds into windows. The voltages are done purely in Bios.

I can get away with 1.275volt if I run it @ 3.6ghz and my other voltages drop a tad. Past 3.66 ghz I have to dramatically increase my voltage.

I dont know... I mean is the jump really that high for the extra 300 mhz? Thats why i was wondering if my #'s are wrong or if its just the chip itself.

Thx for the reply Gleem

 

[Impuls]

It's hard to tell with overclocking. Sounds like it could be either the CPU or the motherboard. Heck, it could be the memory if you have the wrong divider.

I have an i7 920 I could get to 4.0Ghz prime stable on air with HT on. It would do 4.2Ghz but crash in prime. Mainly because temps would go to 90C and the system would just shutdown as I put that as the limit. Also, I am using a Noctua u12 heatsink. So it could be just luck of the draw with your CPU, or something else. Without being able to test it in multiple setups, such as a different motherboard, you'll never really know.

Im actually running the memory timing in auto.... I havnt messed around with the timings

 

[Axon]

That OCZ "Gold" RAM is notorious for killing overclocks - it certainly killed mine until I stabilized it. I couldn't run above stock until I figured it out. Now I can touch 4.2 under a Megahalem. If you can find the link to it on newegg or something, please post it here. I need to see the timings. BTW, you spelled it OZC and not OCZ

Anyway, assuming you have the same set I do: Timings must be 8-8-8-24 1CRT. 1.65v. Speed 1333 mhz. DO NOT let OCZ fool you. That RAM commonly will not run at 1600. Read these reviews: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-365-_-Product

 

[Alienwho]

What kind of temps are you getting with the Coolermaster V8? I have that as well and my D0 920 @ 3.66 sits at high 30's/low 40's on idle and high 60's/low 70's on load. This is with HT on. I haven't even tried going any higher because I like where I'm at right now.

 

[Impuls]

That OCZ "Gold" RAM is notorious for killing overclocks - it certainly killed mine until I stabilized it. I couldn't run above stock until I figured it out. Now I can touch 4.2 under a Megahalem. If you can find the link to it on newegg or something, please post it here. I need to see the timings. BTW, you spelled it OZC and not OCZ

Anyway, assuming you have the same set I do: Timings must be 8-8-8-24 1CRT. 1.65v. Speed 1333 mhz. DO NOT let OCZ fool you. That RAM commonly will not run at 1600. Read these reviews: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-365-_-Product

I had a feeling that may be the case, argh. Ill have to check it out! Thanks for the info. Yeah it was a type o

What kind of temps are you getting with the Coolermaster V8? I have that as well and my D0 920 @ 3.66 sits at high 30's/low 40's on idle and high 60's/low 70's on load. This is with HT on. I haven't even tried going any higher because I like where I'm at right now.

My cpu on idle is at 36c and high 50's on load. Prime/intel burn load its mid 70's.

too much voltage ><

 

[caboob]

Try setting your qpi data link from 6800 to 4800 (or lowest setting possible). You may maxed out the qpi bus since it's keyed to bclk.

 

[SHAQ]

What is the default voltage of the chip in the BIOS? Mine was 1.28v and I have to up it to 1.43v in the BIOS(1.408v in CPUz) to get to 3.9. 4.0 requires another voltage bump but isn't worth it.

 

[TheRyuu]

Yea, it seems with HT on you hit a wall pretty fast at ~4ghz. Right now mine is running at 3.8ghz (21x181) at 1.325v LinX (all/20pass) and some prime stable. RAM is running at DDR3 ~1800 (905mhz) 9-9-9-24. It didn't want to do DDR3 1600 (800mhz) at 7-7-7-20/24 so I said forget about that and just cranked up the frequency.

As far as voltages are concerned:
vcore - 1.325 (stock was 1.25 I believe)
VTT (QPI) - 1.34
IOH (NB) - 1.22
vram - 1.654
rest are stock.

Idle temps are ~40C, load temps ~60C probably thanks to the huge cpu cooler:

I could probably have a higher OC with HT off but some applications that I use make good use of it (25&#37; performance gains) so I'm leaving it on for now.

If anyone's got any suggestions on what the best course of action would be to try and bring this thing above 4ghz please do share. I figure I can pump the voltage all the way to 1.4 and the temps would still be good but I have reservations pumping 1.4v through a 45nm chip.

For the lulz, the amount of room between the hsf and ram:

 

[yh125d]

Try with lower ram/QPI multipliers, and/or HT off

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Shrug. When you read the 920/930 OC threads on XtremeSystems or HardForum, that's when you go WTF why can't mine hit 4.2.

@OP: There's the voltage you set in BIOS, and then there'st he voltage CPU-z reads out to you in Windows. You need to look at what it is when your CPU is in Windows idle and when it is under load. Those two values could be significantly lower than 1.35 V.

Almost any chip should be capable of 4 GHz with decent cooling. I know it's a wall for many, but you should be able to do it even if you have to pump to 1.3ish volts.

BTW my previous chip A717 maxed out around 4GHz if I set my limit to 1.35V in BIOS.

The key is that there's vOffset which takes me down to like 1.31V or so under idle, and under load it's more at like 1.28V. So remember it's not really running at 1.35V. But given that I set my limit at 1.35V, I was unable to do any higher than 192 BCLK, so I was topping out at 4.03 GHz.

 

[SHAQ]

1.3v isn't enough for 4.0 with HT for most chips. The i7's that can do 4.2 with HT under 1.3v are very rare. If 1.25v is BIOS stock it should be okay to go up to 1.4v but no more than that. At least try 1.35v.

 

[aigomorla]

your qpi data link is way too high.

Can you lower it?

 

[TheRyuu]

your qpi data link is way too high.

Can you lower it?

I have a question about this, it is safe to just pick the highest stable one (same on the uncore frequency, pick the highest stable one)?

Mine's running at 7900ish just fine which obviously is providing even more unneeded bandwidth then it already had.

 

[Makaveli]

That OCZ "Gold" RAM is notorious for killing overclocks - it certainly killed mine until I stabilized it. I couldn't run above stock until I figured it out. Now I can touch 4.2 under a Megahalem. If you can find the link to it on newegg or something, please post it here. I need to see the timings. BTW, you spelled it OZC and not OCZ

Anyway, assuming you have the same set I do: Timings must be 8-8-8-24 1CRT. 1.65v. Speed 1333 mhz. DO NOT let OCZ fool you. That RAM commonly will not run at 1600. Read these reviews: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-365-_-Product

This is why I went with Muskin memory for my i7 rig and totally skipped OCZ!