Opeteron 144 with 2GBHZ - trouble aligning the stars

[Howland]

The good news:

I have an Opty 144 (0546) that overclock stable at 2.7ghz 300x9. Passed SuperPrime, OCT, and Prime 95 (8 hours). DFI Ultra-D

The not-so great news:

The g.skill 2gbhz DDR 500 "only" overclocks to about 264. I tried the test that gs tech recommended about raising the HTT in windows to the point it starts erroring and it just can't hit 265, let alone 270. Also used GS timings, and others that have been posted.

My problem:

If I use a 9/10 divider I can't reach 270, and with a 5/6 divider my ram drops way down to 245.

So I can

A) Be happy with what I have.

B) Find a way to increase the RAM speed (tried going up to 2.63 and 2.70 voltage). I have 6/23 BIOS, but not sure if I have -1 or not. How can I tell?

C) Use a 8.5x divider. I think I read that this is not recommended, but I could put the HTT to 318 and use a 5/6 divider to put me at about 264. I think I could get that to work. Anybody try this?

 

[Fallengod]

Option A: for $100 alex!


Id stick with what you have. Just fyi, using a divider is hardly any performance difference. I kept my opty 144 on a 5:6 divider at 2.6ghz. So the memory ran at 241mhz or so. Its fine man. Youre good at what you got.

Some may disagree but I still say dividers are great. It hardly makes a difference running 1:1 or 5:6. But it lets you not worry about which ram you buy as much. Not to mention easier on the memory.

 

[Mogadon]

Run with the divider, CPU MHz > RAM every time, especially with the A64's and their on die memory controller.

If you can get the 8.5 multi to work then great, otherwise just keep the RAM at 245 and tighten up the timings, it's a no brainer really.

 

[5t3v0]

We have the same cpu & ram & the same problem. I dont know what the limit of my HZ is but it is less than 270MHz. At least you have the DFI board with the 9/10 divider. I have to make do with the 5/6 divider which means underclocking to 229MHz. I'm a bit disappointed but then I bought PC4000 to ensure I could get at least 229MHz which isnt something you can guarantee with 2Gb of PC3200 just now. Getting 1:1 would have been a bonus but the divider is working well and I have at least tighted timings up to 3-3-3-6. Sandra & Everest memory benchmarks are fractionally down compared to my GeIL 1Gb kit at the same frequency & tighter 2.5 TCL, but game performance is the same. Now at least I have 2Gb running at 229MHz and no more stuttering in games.

BTW, using the 8.5 multi will not give you 265Mhz memory frequency, but 245MHz, the same as you already have. This is because the memory frequency is calculated as the cpu speed divided by the rounded up result of the cpu multiplier multiplied by the dram ratio, or in other words:

Memory Frequency = (HTT x CPU mutilplier) / CEIL(CPU multiplier x (HTT : DRAM ratio))

This is why .5 multis arent recommended - because the memory speed will be lower than expected.

 

[Howland]

thanks Stevo, I think I will try to tighten it up a bit. I guess the trade-off for getting a good CPU (2.7ghz on stock) is getting "average" ram. Ironically I was planning on buying an Epox (not SLI), but bought the DFI in a Monarch combo deal. Turns out I couldn't use the 9/10 anyway.

I think I will try the 3-3-3-6 timings. The GS Technician at ExtremeSystems also said that 2.5-4-4-5 might be possible as well.

 

[5t3v0]

Still that's a very nice overclock on the cpu & the memory is only 5MHz under its default. With my disapointing overclock, the 9/10 divider would have been very handy. Dont want to swap boards?

Here's the full list of my timings if its any help. The DFI board will have more options than this though. You can get some help on these from this page on DFI Street

CPU Frequency = 280
CPU Multiplier = 9
DRAM Divider = 166 (5:6)
DRAM Frequency = 229
CPU voltage = 1.55v
DRAM voltage = 2.6v
Chipset voltage = 1.5v
Command Per Clock (CPC) = 1T
CAS Latency Control (Tcl) = 3
RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd) = 3T
Min RAS# active time (Tras) = 6T
Row precharge time (Trp) = 3T
Row Cycle time (Trc) = 7T
Row refresh cyc time (Trfc) = 13T
Row to Row delay (Trrd) = 2T
Write recovery time (Twr) = 2T
Write to Read delay (Twtr) = 1T
Read to Write delay (Trwt) = 3T
Refresh Period (Tref) = 7.8µs
R/W Queue Bypass = 16
Bypass Max = 7
32 Byte Granularity = Disable
DQS Skew Control = Disable
DQS Skew Value = 0
Read Preamble Time = 5.0ns
IdleCycle Limit = 16T
Max Async Latency = 7.0ns
Dynamic Counter = Enable

 

[BadThad]

Did you try increasing the ram voltage?

 

[5t3v0]

Originally posted by: BadThad
Did you try increasing the ram voltage?

I tested up to 2.9v but had worse stability at higher volts. These G.Skill are notorious for being bad performers at high voltage.

 

[couppi]

That's strange... I have the g skill 2gbhz and it hits 283, which is also as high as my cpu and board will go. Some people hit 290ish. Maybe loosen up all timings? It's not exactly made to run at timings that fast, only get high clocks. The higher the voltage, the more errors it will have, so don't raise voltage.

 

[markkleb]

I am so jealous of you. My 144 is lucky to hit 1900.
Dam micro mobos that have no adjustments. lol

 

[5t3v0]

couppi, any chance you can post all your timings as a list like I posted above? I'd really like to see how you are getting 283MHz.

 

[Howland]

Originally posted by: couppi
That's strange... I have the g skill 2gbhz and it hits 283, which is also as high as my cpu and board will go. Some people hit 290ish. Maybe loosen up all timings? It's not exactly made to run at timings that fast, only get high clocks. The higher the voltage, the more errors it will have, so don't raise voltage.

Its my understanding these chips don't like a lot of voltage anyway.

I tried a few different settings that people recommended. Loosened everything up. I am going to try the 702-1 BIOS too.

If I could get to 270 I would be happy with my 9/10 divider, but if not, I'll just take what I can get.

I wouldn't mind seeing your settings if its convenient for you

@Mark - It stinks that you have no dividers. That chip should hit 2.4ghz easily (probably 98% hit between 2.5ghz-2.9ghz). You either need a board with some dividers (the DFI's are popular around here), or some fast ram like the g.skill HZ. Or a different cpu.

 

[5t3v0]

timings for overclocked G.Skill HZ, anyone?

 

[Howland]

Don't really want to pimp another site but you can check here and here.

 

[5t3v0]

Good work. Hell would have frozen over waiting on couppi

Edit. Meant to say that its going to have to wait until Sunday to try these out for me as I have my nephew up for the weekend and he's going to want to be gaming on the pc the whole time.