Why the GTX470 was right for me.

[Wreckage]

Wow 70+ posts for the sake of one guy getting a card. Wreckage must be more important for you guys than you want to believe.

I'm like a superhero here.

Congrats on your new card(it is new isn't it?) /thread

Yep installed it last week. Just in time for Cataclysm. Maybe I should post about the stack of old ATI cards I just got. That thread might get 500 posts. The X1950pro looks brand new. :thumbsup:

 

[RussianSensation]

Back in the summer when there was still cashback I grabbed a 470 for the same price with the cashback and some rebates and price markdown at TD.

:thumbsup: That deal also included Cryostasis, Mafia 2 and Just Cause 2

My 470 is quieter than my 4890 used to be.

 

[Wreckage]

:thumbsup: That deal also included Cryostasis, Mafia 2 and Just Cause 2

My 470 is quieter than my 4890 used to be.

Well I guess that more confirmation of what I have been saying. I already have Cryostasis but I would love to have gotten Mafia 2 and Just Cause 2. My card did come with a free game but nothing that top shelf.

 

[Maximilian]

I imagine it arriving in the mail was like the classic romance of two people running through the field with arms outstretched. I'm sure you two will make a perfect match.


Thread-crapping is not acceptable.

Moderator Idontcare

A bit like this?

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/1535/wreckage.jpg


Thread-crapping is not acceptable.

VC&G posting guidelines

Mod challenges are kinda not cool either: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30891996&postcount=36

Moderator Idontcare

 

[RussianSensation]

With the fan at 50% I hear little or nothing and 52% at the worst at 81c (100% load). Of course the overclock is only 700 on the core but case air flow must really help.

True. I never cared about case airflow until I upgraded to the Azza case. How hot a card runs depends a lot on the case and most people don't realize this.

In my case, under default driver settings, the EVGA 470 runs 10*C lower at idle than it does on Anandtech's TestBench. That's a lot considering we are talking about idle difference...

You can imagine the difference at load when using a case with poor airflow vs. one with great airflow. So I wouldn't start jumping to conclusions that all 470s run hot and loud. I haven't changed the TIM yet. I have been planning to do so.

 

[tyl998]

Seems you and BFG got the worst gtx470 card in existance?

Or you both use that baby Antec 300 case for a high powered card.
Relax I was kidding.

What's wrong with the Antec 300 case?

 

[toyota]

What's wrong with the Antec 300 case?

nothing. he was just kidding because it was brought up a while back in a thread I had made about my gtx470 experience. the 300 actually has pretty good airflow.

 

[tyl998]

Hmm...then why do my dual 460s idle at the mid-40s at best and my CPU idles at the low 40s at best? I have a ginormous CPU too.

 

[toyota]

Hmm...then why do my dual 460s idle at the mid-40s at best and my CPU idles at the low 40s at best? I have a ginormous CPU too.

based on how you worded that, I have no idea what you are actually asking.

 

[Dangerer]

the gtx 470 was even more right for me at a price of 158 AR this past BF

 

[tyl998]

based on how you worded that, I have no idea what you are actually asking.

I left out "Cooler" after the word "CPU." I'm asking about my system's idling temps in Celcius.

 

[RussianSensation]

Hmm...then why do my dual 460s idle at the mid-40s at best and my CPU idles at the low 40s at best? I have a ginormous CPU too.

What are your idle CPU voltage / idle CPU clock speed?

A lot of people don't realize how large the difference is between cases:

"Our last case was an Antec P182, outfitted with four fans (two front intakes, one top exhaust, and one rear exhaust). It stayed around 46 degrees Celsius, except under load when it spiked to 50 or 51 degrees. The AZZA Solano 1000 peaks at a frosty 38 degrees under load; in the BIOS before booting, it's normally around 32 degrees. That's with a pair of Radeon HD 4870's inside." - ExtremeTech

 

[tyl998]

I'm away from my home computer right now. Power saving options are are and stepping are off. LLC is on, and I think my idle Vcore is around 1.328-ish on CPU-Z. CPU speed idles at 4.2 ghz.

 

[RussianSensation]

I'm away from my home computer right now. Power saving options are are and stepping are off. LLC is on, and I think my idle Vcore is around 1.328-ish on CPU-Z. CPU speed idles at 4.2 ghz.

Well that explains it! Why don't you enable power saving options? Does it not work with your motherboard and still let you retain the overclock? There is a Dynamic Vcore feature on Gigabyte boards that lets you reduce vcore at idle and the board will automatically boost the vcore when needed for the overclock to a level you specify.

 

[tyl998]

How do I use this Dynamic Vcore option?

As for Power saving options, I was told that they interfere with getting a stable overclock...

 

[RussianSensation]

How do I use this Dynamic Vcore option?

There's a new Dynamic Vcore option in the Advanced CPU Voltage Settings. To enable it, set the Vcore voltage to "Normal" and then add or subtract the amount needed to reach your target Vcore voltage that you now use for your overclock. For instance, my original Vcore in BIOS was set to 1.3125v for my 3.9ghz overclock. Now, when I set the Vcore to "Normal", it is set to 1.25v. Therefore, I have to set the "Dynamic Vcore Voltage" to +.0625v which results in my target voltage of 1.3125 = 1.25v + .0625.

CPU Vcore = Normal (nominal voltage of 1.25V)
Dynamic VCore (DVID) = +0.0625
Effective CPU Vcore at Load = still 1.3125V (now able to lower voltages in idle mode to 0.9600V)

*** Dynamic VCore does not work if CPU VCore is set to Auto or to an actual voltage number. Therefore, to get Dynamic VCore to work in idle mode when CPU is manually overclocked, the CPU Vcore MUST be set to Normal first *** Don't forget to set all Voltage Power Saving technologies (i.e., C3-C7 states, EIST, etc. ) to Enabled.

What this option does is set your idle voltage lower than originally (if you have power savings features enabled). For example, my original CPU-Z idle voltage was 1.248v and now it is 0.960-0.9760v. The load voltage is unchanged at 1.312V. It's a nice feature to have.

As for Power saving options, I was told that they interfere with getting a stable overclock...

Not necessarily. Enable C1E, EIST and SpeedStep, and if you have a stable overclock, nothing should change, except the processor won't be running as hot at load. :biggrin:

 

[tyl998]

Right now I have C1E, EIST, and SpeedStep disabled, and I'm using Dynamic Vcore. So my Vcore starts at 1.328 and will only go up from there? Yeesh I'm also currently running Intel Burn test and my cores are reaching 100C!!!! Time to restart and try power saving options. Or turn up fans.

 

[RussianSensation]

Right now I have C1E, EIST, and SpeedStep disabled, and I'm using Dynamic Vcore. So my Vcore starts at 1.328 and will only go up from there? Yeesh I'm also currently running Intel Burn test and my cores are reaching 100C!!!! Time to restart and try power saving options. Or turn up fans.

If your final Vcore right now to be stable at 4.0ghz is 1.328, this means you need to start from your normal vcore (stock at 2.8ghz the processor came with) which may be anywhere from 1.19-1.25V and you only need to add +0.1300 or +0.078V. You understand? (Normal stock Vcore + Dynamic Vcore adjustment needed when overclocking = Total Vcore needed for 4.0ghz) Reset the BIOS to defaults so you can see what the Normal Vcore is.

Enable all those power saving technologies because otherwise it's not going to work properly since the CPU will never downclock in idle!

 

[tyl998]

Oh I see...the true "normal" can't be seen unless I first de-OC my system. I've enabled the power saving features and my current Normal is 1.19375 and my Dynamic is +0.15625. Right now just browsing the web my speed is down to 2.4 Ghz and the CPU-Z displayed Vore is 1.104. I'll try to find my true Normal and change my values.

By the way, are these values fine as well? Vtt: 1.335 and CPU PLL: 1.840

 

[RussianSensation]

Oh I see...the true "normal" can't be seen unless I first de-OC my system. I've enabled the power saving features and my current Normal is 1.19375 and my Dynamic is +0.15625. Right now just browsing the web my speed is down to 2.4 Ghz and the CPU-Z displayed Vore is 1.104. I'll try to find my true Normal and change my values.

By the way, are these values fine as well? Vtt: 1.335 and CPU PLL: 1.840

You are getting there I believe Vtt < 1.40V is safe for 1366 processors, but not for 1156 processors; so you should be fine. Message Aigomorla to double check as he is the 1366 processor guru on our forums. The PLL is fine. Just remember it's very simple. Whatever you had set in the BIOS for a stable overclock before, that's what you'll back into with Dynamic Vcore. So if your normal is 1.19375 and you needed 1.350V in the BIOS before, then your +0.15625 is correct! If you needed only 1.328V in the BIOS, then Dynamic VCore of around +0.13425V would be sufficient.

I believe the processor should go far below 2.4ghz. Hmm...but hey it's already progress.

Go to this screen and check stock Vcore when booting into BIOS with defaults:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/picture/?src=/images/mainboards/gigabyte-ga-x58a-ud3r/bios_02_big.png

Make sure every single one of these is set to Enabled including C3-7 states (except Turbo Mode, I imagine you don't use that for 4 cores @ 4.0ghz ):
http://www.xbitlabs.com/picture/?src=/images/mainboards/gigabyte-ga-x58a-ud3r/bios_05_big.png

 

[tyl998]

Wierd. After I un-OC'ed my system my "Normal" voltage went UP to 1.26250, so now I have it at that and my dynamic at +.08750.

And my processor is still only going down to 2.4. Sometimes it jumps suddenly to 2500. I'm using Real Temp 3.6 to monitor my clock speed in real yime and occassionally to goes from 200x12 to 200x12.5 or even 200x13. CPU-Z doesn't show any such fluctuations though. Wierd.

Idle Vcore now down to 1.024, and my idle temps dropped by 5C yay! Still, 37C at idling is a bit high...

EDIT: Update. My system is now UNSTABLE and Prime95 crashed sometime between 5 and 30 minutes of running (I went away). I think I need to increase my Dynamic Core or something. It only went up to 1.264 under load instead of up to what I had in the past. Wierd...I'll need to play around with it some more.

 

[RussianSensation]

EDIT: Update. My system is now UNSTABLE and Prime95 crashed sometime between 5 and 30 minutes of running (I went away). I think I need to increase my Dynamic Core or something. It only went up to 1.264 under load instead of up to what I had in the past. Wierd...I'll need to play around with it some more.

Ya that shouldn't have happened. Whatever your initial VCore at load was is what it should be after you apply Dynamic adjustment. It may be that you didn't apply enough +Vcore. Do you have the latest bios version installed?

 

[sxr7171]

Does this mean that my 2 GTX 460 1GBs are obsolete already?!? I just bought them 2 months ago.

Me too and I don't see anything that makes me want to upgrade.

 

[Wreckage]

Me too and I don't see anything that makes me want to upgrade.

I don't think a pair of 460's will be obsolete until DX12 comes out. Even then you might still get another year out of them.

 

[tyl998]

I don't think a pair of 460's will be obsolete until DX12 comes out. Even then you might still get another year out of them.

When do you think DX12 will come out? I plan to keep my 460s for 3 years or so. Hopefully the GTX660 will have come out by then. I like skipping generations.

Ya that shouldn't have happened. Whatever your initial VCore at load was is what it should be after you apply Dynamic adjustment. It may be that you didn't apply enough +Vcore. Do you have the latest bios version installed?

My "Normal" Vcore value keeps changing, but I think it always settles to around 1.19350 if I use overclock settings instead of the 1.26 in Optimized Defaults settings.

See, when I used the 1.26 Normal Vcore value, my Dynamic adjust is less than if I used the 1.19350 Normal Vcore value, so I was underclocking for the speed I was going for (4.2 Ghz). Now that I've set my Dynamic back to +.15650, every seems fine again.

My idle temps are 4 to 5 degrees lower at 36, 37C, and it doesn't quite get to 100C when I run Prime95 for 15 minutes. Intel Burn Test still gets it to 100% however. Even after I have my fans turns onto max.

I have the FB Bios. I tried FC, but it crashes on me whenever I try to access the EIST function, so I just went back to FB which works just fine.