GA-EP35-DS3P seems to require Extreme Performance setting to OC!

[John2777]

OK, I'm a newbie to overclocking, but not a total idiot... at least I don't think so...

I have a GA-EP35-DS3P mobo, paired with a Q6600 (SLACR), Xigmatek S1283, and 2 GB of Patriot Extreme DDR2 1150 memory. My setup works fine at STANDARD performance setting at 266X9. But when I try to OC, I am usually able to boot OK, but Prime 95 usually errors out in seconds, or perhaps a minute or two. But when I enable the EXTREME Performance setting in the BIOS, everything is fine and it will run up to increadible speeds. The TURBO performance setting also will NOT allow my mobo to run without errors in Prime 95.

For example, I was using the following settings:
333x9
PCIe=100
Voltage manual=1.3125
Memory settings (manual) 5-5-5-15
Memory speed 800 (or any setting)

Now, this will always boot into XP, but if the performance setting in the BIOS is either STANDARD or TURBO, it will error out in Prime 95 in seconds. In fact, I can't seem to get any decent overclock with out using the EXTREME setting, because of errors in Prime 95. But... when the BIOS is set to EXTREME, it will run Prime 95 for perhaps hours with no problems, even though no other changes are made.

So, I guess I would like to know exactly what the EXTREME Performance setting does for my mobo, because I would choose to do all my settings manually. I may be missing something, but I can't figure it out. On the other hand, the EXTREME performance setting does a great job and I have no problem using it, but from what I can tell most people would prefer to go manually to have better control.

I am using the newest released F4 BIOS. Comments, advice, insights, and opinions are welcome!

 

[John2777]

Another For example....

My system has been running at these settings with the EXTREME Performance in Bios for over 2 hrs on Prime 95:

9x350
PCIe=100
memory divider =3
voltage-manual=1.3128 Cpu-Z reads 1.280
Memory timing-manual=5,5,5,15

This setup will run only several seconds in Prime 95 with either the STANDARD or TURBO settings before it errors out.

 

[xeizo]

The "Performance Settings" on Gigabyte-boards changes the "perfomance level" of the chipset, which is a RAM-timing related setting. I can't tell in which way this changes on your particular board, but you can monitor the changes in the program "MemSet" by booting at all three settings and take notice how the readings in "MemSet" differ. Then you have the answer to what´s changing. I guess that you somehow force a looser memory timing by choosing "Extreme", and therefore the oveclocking potential will be substantially greater.

 

[John2777]

xeico,

That was a great idea. I downloaded the program and ran it on a 2nd computer with the same mobo and a Q6600 (SLACR), but GSkill DDR2 1066 memory and the Intel CPU cooler. I was able to boot into all three performance settings, Standad, Turbo and Extreme.

Well, all the settings on MemSet were the same on all three Preformance settings, except the MemSet Performance Settings.

Standard 8
Turbo 6
Extreme 5

Most of the settings in MemSet corresponded to settings in the Gigabyte BIOS. So, the MemSet Performance setting and the Gigabyte Performance Setting appear to reflect the same option, except that the Memset has 1-16 as options, and Gigabyte only give three options: 8, 6 and 5, which are labeled Sandard, Turbo and Extreme settings.

I earlier had the GSkill memory in the 1st computer and I think it Over Clocked fairly well on the Standard setting. So, I guess I'm starting to think that that perhaps these settings may be different for different memory. I don't think the Patriot memory is on the recommended list for Gigabyte.

MemSet has quite a few more Performance settings. But I'm thinking it could be dangerous to change a performance setting in MemSet that is not available in the BIOS. Or is it? Any thoughts?

What performance settings are you using in your setup? Anybody?

 

[xeizo]

Of those three settings, only "8" is regarded as a safe setting. The other two are both extreme and require excellent hardware and a lot of luck to be able to run while oc'ing. I would use nothing but the "8" option for overclocking. The other two options might be fun to experiment with on a setup without or only a slight overclock. Use "8".

BUT, you get the opposite reaction from your system. It is more stable @ "5", which is not logic unless something else also changes inside the chipset when you change those settings. It might be some internal strap that changes to a more relaxed state = more stability. It might require some search to find exactly what.

Or it might be your memory, as you suggest. Not all memory are compatibe with all mobos.

You can see the performance difference between the three settings in Everests cache & latency benchmark, you get ~1GB/s extra bandwith @ read with the extreme option. But also(normally)a less stable system.

 

[John2777]

Well, the performance settings are a bit puzzling. I got home awhile ago and my computer with the Patriot Extreme memory was still running Prime 95 at 3.15ghz on the extreme setting for 7 hours. So, I stopped the test, installed Memset and checked the settings. The performance setting was 5.

So, I rebooted, went into the BIOS, changed the setting to TURBO, saved to CMOS and rebooted. The computer posted OK, then went into Windows XP, but automatically rebooted when it hit the desktop. That tells me it wasn't stable. I have no idea why? So, I never found out what the performance setting was at TURBO, but I imagine it was 6. I am starting to think this is possibly a memory issue the Gigabyte board may have with Patriot Extreme memory. But it is strange... in overclocked settings it only wants to use extreme performance settings.

Obviously, I don't have a problem running the comuter at performance level "5", as long as it is stable. I went ahead and bumped up the FSB to 360 (3.24ghz) as I am looking for the fastest and most stable settings at about 1.285 vCore voltage. Just trying to get all the free megahertz I can with my Q6600. So, I guess I'll just keep working this setup and see how things go...