[Solved] AMD FX 6300 or wait for Steamroller

[gx_saurav]

So it seems my Crucial RAM isn't over clocking friendly. It has XMP profile of 1866 Mhz but BIOS on automatic OC Tuner sets it to 1466 MHz only. Manually changing to 1866 fails to boot the PC.

I am back to running at stock CPU speed as then I can run my RAM at full 1866 MHz and I am not missing that 10% over clock by OC Tuner. GPU is back at factory default of 920 Mhz. Down the line in a year or two I will upgrade to over clocking friendly 16 GB RAM and then overclock.

I just ran two instance of CineBench. Here are the scores and temperatures.

 

[KingFatty]

Well, everything I've seen says you won't notice the difference in RAM settings between those two speeds, but you will notice the difference in CPU settings. It will hurt your computer more to sacrifice the CPU overclock, instead of sacrificing the memory overclock.

Can you compromise, and get stable operation of the RAM at 1600? But even so, 1466 RAM should be great for all applications.

You will feel the CPU overclock in games. But I can't think of any game that would benefit from the change in RAM speed between 1466 and 1866.

 

[gx_saurav]

Well, everything I've seen says you won't notice the difference in RAM settings between those two speeds, but you will notice the difference in CPU settings. It will hurt your computer more to sacrifice the CPU overclock, instead of sacrificing the memory overclock.

Can you compromise, and get stable operation of the RAM at 1600? But even so, 1466 RAM should be great for all applications.

I can try this but after some days. I am going for a vacation for some days so I will do all this and even my cable management once I return after a week.

I am looking at tutorials to run Crysis 3 benchmark right now to post results here. Will try doing that before leaving tomorrow.

 

[gx_saurav]

Couldn't run benchmark in Crysis 3 but used FRAPS. Frames go below 30fps when played at High settings at 1600x900. I just upgraded my PC and Crysis is again killing it. I am going to cry in a corner

I am now running Crysis 3 at High settings with some Advanced graphics settings which I don't care about to medium such as Lens flare etc and texture quality at medium. So far it is running fine.

Tell me something. In case of low performance what is more advised? Decreasing resolution or game effects? Playing the game at Medium settings and 1600x900 was giving me smooth playback though but I don't want to miss all those cool effects.

 

[KingFatty]

Not sure about Crysis 3 specifically, but in general a good effect to turn down is shadows. Sometimes shadows can put a big demand on your system, but turning down that setting is not too noticeable, so it's a good value to increase performance without hurting visuals too much.

 

[USER8000]

Crysis3 is quite demanding and I would also turn down shadows a bit. I have a faster graphics card(for Crysis3) than you and it can push it even if the resolution is set to 1680X1050.

 

[gx_saurav]

I came back from the vacation today.

I toned down shadows in Crysis 3. That helped. Right now I am getting ready for office so can't tweak much. I will do it in night.

 

[gx_saurav]

Hi Guys, I need some help again.

I have a 600VA UPS which was working fine with my old AMD APU based PC. It used to give backup for 5-10 minuets easily. But after upgrading to this new PC I am having problems. The UPS gives backup for 5 minutes easily when I am doing light weight work such as browsing, downloading etc and there is a power cut. It gives me enough time to hibernate my PC.

However, if I am playing a game and there is power cut it fails to give any backup and the whole computer shuts down. Without a power cut there is no problem and I am able to play games for as long as I want.

My UPS Battery is over 1.5 years old now. I am wondering if 600VA is enough to power my PC on load like playing games all by the UPS itself cos it is certainly enough when doing light weight work. If I want to buy a new one then how much VA I should ideally go for? I am getting a 800 VA UPS here for ₹ 50.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Couldn't run benchmark in Crysis 3 but used FRAPS. Frames go below 30fps when played at High settings at 1600x900. I just upgraded my PC and Crysis is again killing it. I am going to cry in a corner

I am now running Crysis 3 at High settings with some Advanced graphics settings which I don't care about to medium such as Lens flare etc and texture quality at medium. So far it is running fine.

Tell me something. In case of low performance what is more advised? Decreasing resolution or game effects? Playing the game at Medium settings and 1600x900 was giving me smooth playback though but I don't want to miss all those cool effects.

I would turn down resolution at a last resort only. Personally, I think running at non-native resolutions looks terrible. Maybe it varies from monitor to monitor depending on scaling, but on my 23inch dell it looks awful.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Hi Guys, I need some help again.

I have a 600VA UPS which was working fine with my old AMD APU based PC. It used to give backup for 5-10 minuets easily. But after upgrading to this new PC I am having problems. The UPS gives backup for 5 minutes easily when I am doing light weight work such as browsing, downloading etc and there is a power cut. It gives me enough time to hibernate my PC.

However, if I am playing a game and there is power cut it fails to give any backup and the whole computer shuts down. Without a power cut there is no problem and I am able to play games for as long as I want.

My UPS Battery is over 1.5 years old now. I am wondering if 600VA is enough to power my PC on load like playing games all by the UPS itself cos it is certainly enough when doing light weight work. If I want to buy a new one then how much VA I should ideally go for? I am getting a 800 VA UPS here for ₹ 50.

If you're running anything on the battery backup outlets other than your PC, don't. You won't be able to see your monitor (obviously) in an outage, but you might still have time to press the power button on the front of the PC for hibernation (reconfigure it if you need to). If money is tight you might just want to get a cheap second UPS for the monitor/router/modem/whatever, otherwise step up to a 1000VA UPS for room to grow.

 

[gx_saurav]

If you're running anything on the battery backup outlets other than your PC, don't. You won't be able to see your monitor (obviously) in an outage, but you might still have time to press the power button on the front of the PC for hibernation (reconfigure it if you need to). If money is tight you might just want to get a cheap second UPS for the monitor/router/modem/whatever, otherwise step up to a 1000VA UPS for room to grow.

I was thinking of buy a 800VA UPS. With a 60% conversation it should give 480W for some time and my PC uses less then 480W on load including the monitor.

But yea, 1000 VA will give 600W which is more then enough and will give me room to grow. Let me inquire about the cost of 1000VA in market.

 

[KingFatty]

I am curious, could you make your own UPS using a large truck or tractor battery, and a 1000 VA inverter connected to it, like you'd use inside your automobile? Then also have a trickle charger to keep the big car battery charged?

 

[gx_saurav]

@kingfatty

yeah, people do that here often as they are easy to replace in case the battery dies. However, I don't know how to make it and need something portable to carry when I shift my house soon. This is why I prefer to buy a branded one and avail service center facility if needed.

 

[gx_saurav]

I purchased a 1KVA UPS today from market. Cost me about $55. Right now it is charging at home so will need to see how much back up it will give.

It claims to give 700W and around 30 minutes backup on a typical PC. I think it should give around 20 minutes on my PC under full load.

Update: It has 2x7Ah batteries and is giving 10 minutes backup when playing games. It starts beeping around 8 minute.

When doing regular work, it is able to give 18 minutes backup. That is a lot then I expected. But anyway, I purchased it to support more then 400W clean when using so that it is giving.

 

[gx_saurav]

Guys, I wanted to know one thing as I am not able to get any definitive answer online.

Asus AI suite has this EPU which also reduced vCore when system is not in need of resources. Should I turn it on? I know that vCore helps in overclocking but is reducing advised when not using much power.

 

[KingFatty]

Are you talking about a feature in the BIOS settings, or is it an application you run under Windows?

I like to overclock but I also like to keep cool'n'quiet turned on and let my computer spin down it's fans etc. when idle, so I can browse the internet in near silence when I don't need the power. Usually, the motherboard already can reduce the vcore in those situations, because you set the voltage to increase only when overclocking, using offset. Here, I guess it's a similar strategy to reduce the vcore? The question is, does EPU reduce the vcore below stock? If so, you might want to run some tests to verify it's stable at those reduced frequencies. But if all EPU is doing is reducing voltage to stock values, I can't see how it would hurt, but then again, why use yet another application to accomplish something that may be easier done elsewhere (e.g., offset)?

 

[gx_saurav]

So this EPU is just like how it is in EZ BIOS. Auto, High performance and Max power saving. These are the options I see in the app.

To overclock, I just used "High performance" in Bios which ran CPU at 3.9 GHz stable. I did not do any manual overclock.

Now, here If I set this to auto then my system works cool and quite. When playing games all core run and fan also runs at over 1500RPM to cool the system on load.

I did not know about vCore so I asked.

 

[gx_saurav]

Hello again guys, need some help.

As I said earlier, I am looking to get a gaming grade sound card and headset. I originally wanted to go with a Sound Blaster Recon3D. It is low cost and enough for gaming on headsets with very good audio positioning. I checked this myself. But the problem is that I am out of PCIe X1 slots due to the big GPU fan. The other slot is so close to the fan that it will block all air intake inside the GPU.

Here is the current cable management in my cabinet.

I have narrowed down my choices to the following sound cards. I am going to use it with Creative Gigaworks T20 speakers, Razer BlackShark headset for gaming and Denon AH C360 from front panel for when needed.

1. Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer PCI - Old sound card but from the reviews I read, it is a very capable card with accurate audio positioning in games. Creative has released proper Windows 8 drivers for this so it should work fine.
2. Asus Xonar DG PCI - Very cheap and available here. I don't have any experience with Asus Sound cards and drivers although reading on the internet, people recommend using the Uni drivers instead of official Asus drivers as Asus drivers are buggy. This I cannot rely on for the next few years to come.
3. Sound Blaster Recon3D PCIe - Used this at a friend's home and it is very good even on my Razer BlackShark. However, this is PCIe so my problem mentioned above applies.

So, what should I do? Both X-Fi Xtreme gamer and Asus Xonar DG are costing me same here locally. Its just a choice I need to make. I can buy Recon3D too if it will work in second PCIe X16 slot meant for GPU.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

But the problem is that I am out of PCIe X1 slots due to the big GPU fan. The other slot is so close to the fan that it will block all air intake inside the GPU.

Why not just move the GPU to the second PCI-E slot? I'm pretty sure it still runs in x16 mode unless both slots are in use, in which case it will run in x4 mode.

Also, turn your CPU heatsink so your fan pulls air from the front of the case and not from the hot GPU.

 

[gx_saurav]

Why not just move the GPU to the second PCI-E slot? I'm pretty sure it still runs in x16 mode unless both slots are in use, in which case it will run in x4 mode.

According to Asus's website, the second PCIe slot works in X4 mode "only". But I am not able to find if this will only work with GPUs.

Also, turn your CPU heatsink so your fan pulls air from the front of the case and not from the hot GPU.

I will need to check if my fan can be turned around that way.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

According to Asus's website, the second PCIe slot works in X4 mode "only". But I am not able to find if this will only work with GPUs.

EDIT>> According to the manual, it may be x4 only. Sorry.

I will need to check if my fan can be turned around that way.

If that's a Hyper 212, then it definitely can. You just have to fold the clamps differently.

 

[gx_saurav]

Its a Hyper 212X but I think it has same mechanism as other Hyper 212. Let me see what I can do.

Any idea about the sound card? I read more reviews of Asus Xonar DG and even on HeadFi people are recommending it for headphone gaming. For movie and music over 2.1 Channel T20 it is already sufficient and good over onboard.

Just need someone's personal experience with these.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Just need someone's personal experience with these.

I haven't had a discrete soundcard since ~2007, so I can't offer any advice there.

 

[gx_saurav]

Ok.

I read more about Xonar DG and heard some audio positioning tests on Youtube to get an idea. Just ordered it for $ 25 here in India.

 

[gx_saurav]

Just received my new sound card. Will test it at home in night.

Also ordered Audio Technica ATH-AD500.