DFI LAN Party UT NF680I LT SLI-T2R 1T 3d benching

Been working close with Tony, getting this thing up and high, have cracked ddr1000 1T cas 4, just need some work in finding stability, that is in sync mode btw @ 500fsb.

In any case, the best performance point according to Tony, and confirmed for me via my own experience is to run fsb at 1900-1920 in Sync mode, giving around ddr 900 to 917 1T. I'll leave the explanation of that stuff to the man who found the performance point via a lot of toil (Tony), since I don't believe in ripping off another man's work or IP and calling it my own.

Board boots out of bios @ 500fsb and above, I have not yet tried to find the maximum, as i have been concentrating on the performance point...

So Kudos, to Tony, Bingo13 and Rgone, Jimmy and Oskar who have worked tirelessly to get this board rocking hard. Those of you who will have the board for benching will soon find out that there are definite advantages to Oskar not picking up a reference design board ;)

Back to the fun part this board is crazy fast, bear in mind I'm not even a great bencher or tweaker, I leave that stuff to the big boys.

Latency in everest is around a sweet 40.7 ns on the 1900fsb run, obviously 3d mk 03 won't make full use of the latency, but well maybe fun times and an indicator for the super pi fans especially 32m...

Components of interest that were used

X6800
NB water cooled with DD Chipset Cooler
2 GB OCZ Reaper 9200
SS cooling on cpu...
2x 8800 GTX @ 625/1000 NO LOD used at all, or any other tweaks, staright XP install, no tricks, hacks cheats or funky undisclosed cooling other than the SS unit.





first up a 1760fsb run in sync mode,

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/1300/71392we9.jpg



and another @ 1900fsb

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/9015/71144mi0.jpg

fastest for me with this CPU and board...not all will do 500fsb so you need at least a 9 multi IMO

975 1T ;) Reaper 9200.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/st...75-1T_6700.PNG

Good to see this board can be a top performer in the right hands! How it will do in my hands, is another matter, yet to be seen :)

quad core ocing ... can it do 400+fsb??

I have not popped in my quad yet will try soon, if required I'll even send it to Tony..

Regards
Raja

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theteamaqua

quad core ocing ... can it do 400+fsb??

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Yes... I am working on the Quad core now with a specific Quad BIOS from Oskar.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theteamaqua

quad core ocing ... can it do 400+fsb??

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my X3210 is running right now 8x400 on it @1,35Vcore .... more as soon as i have more tests completed ...

Where can we get the latest BIOS from? I'll be in need of the best quad core bios tomorrow.

Exciting stuff guys, thanks for keeping the thread updated frequently!

Tony...so not all boards are capable of 500fsb or not all cpus will run 500fsb even with multiplier turned down?

Can you run >533 unlinked with 1T. My best bandwidth and latency times were at these settings and they stay 24/7 stable on Striker. That will make my decision to switch to this board.

Wow, 533 @ 1T, what timings do you run to keep that 24/7 stable? In anycase very impressive!

How would it be compared to Coolalers QX6800 @ 450FSB?
I´d like to see QX6700 OC.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kain XS

How would it be compared to Coolalers QX6800 @ 450FSB?
I´d like to see QX6700 OC.

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well give Bingo13 and me some time, and we should have something, fwiw if we find 450 you'll find they really do 450, I can't speak for results from previous bios's and users....;)

regards
Raja

another 03...


http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2518/71676he7.jpg


01

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/7296/84172pp6.jpg

no LOD used in either run, 165 drivers and gpu's @ 625/1000




a 1m -1 core switched off...

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/5995/1m10984vs7.jpg

the NB chipset is the key to doing 500fsb, most will run 480 or so with a few doing 500 and higher. My board will do 480 no problem...500 no way but with the strap change at 500 that goes a lot looser why would i want too?.

raja hinted at 450fsb...sync mode, trust me thats where you want to run the board ;)

you guys are all fixated with 500+fsb, you really should be looking at where the boards make the best speed and buy the cpu to suit.

fully agree man, the latency that you can hit easily at 1900-1920 just simply rocks in sync mode. I am finding myself getting into the top 30 on the bot with stock gpu clocks...

regards
Raja

http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=163


Tony's guide....


btw sync clocking is sweeter on the reaper pc9200 than my cellshock cas 4 ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Roger_D25

Wow, 533 @ 1T, what timings do you run to keep that 24/7 stable? In anycase very impressive!

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4-4-4-5, 4-4-3-5 for benching.

Takes 2.3v on Dominator 8888. 2.34 on OCZ TI 8000

Been running for a few months that way. Have some screenshots on imageshack somewhere. Latency is 37.5 and Bandwidth is 128xx. I had some bandwidth shots narrowly to 13k at 1100, but timings need to be looser to get that high.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raju

http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=163


Tony's guide....


btw sync clocking is sweeter on the reaper pc9200 than my cellshock cas 4 ;)

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Also it is not sync clocking. I learned along time ago that OCZ is doing something with their SPD to run 1T different.

Flash SPD from an OCZ stick on your cellshock and it will increase.

Most of my sets were dieing around 960-970 sync, then I flashed OCZ SPD and got another 100-130 mhz :).

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/3...1trockscm2.jpg

Trick is 7:9 strap is very fast and very stable. That is the only bandwidth shot I can find. Sandra bandwidth of 9000 is pretty good, I believe I got up to 9,300 when I was really tweaking it though.

this is boot from bios, about to bench so more later...

QX6700

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/7020/450fsbap2.jpg


this board is all about gtl ref tuning for quads...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raju

this is boot from bios, about to bench so more later...

QX6700

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/7020/450fsbap2.jpg


this board is all about gtl ref tuning for quads...

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If that is Mr. Wu's result on fixing the quadcore issues on the 680i boards, I'm sold. I am tired of working on this IN9 32X

qx6700 450 fsb, 3d bench...


untweaked ram stock clocks of 625/1000 on cards @ 4ghz cpu speed...



http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/8...ad19999jg5.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raju

qx6700 450 fsb, 3d bench...


untweaked ram stock clocks of 625/1000 on cards @ 4ghz cpu speed...

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you have pvt! ... :)

upped pcie's to 131mhz and spp-mcp to 270, same configuration as above....


http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/4536/20106nt0.jpg

3DMark 06 score's greatly benefit from quad core cpu's I see.:)

Please try unlinking ram and show 1050+ mhz. I would like to see the comparision.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Nemesis

3DMark 06 score's greatly benefit from quad core cpu's I see.:)

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yeah they sure do, there is a strap change @ around 460 fsb on the quad bios, I have benched at 467 now with a drop of 900 points in 06 at a higher cpu clock...


Bingo13 will post his air stuff here hopefully so that users running air can know what to expect too, that will cover both sides of the fence, and show what the board will do when cooling is lifted and what is realistic too for 24/7 use and a majority of users...


regards
Raja

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raju

yeah they sure do, there is a strap change @ around 460 fsb on the quad bios, I have benched at 467 now with a drop of 900 points in 06 at a higher cpu clock...


Bingo13 will post his air stuff here hopefully so that users running air can know what to expect too, that will cover both sides of the fence, and show what the board will do when cooling is lifted and what is realistic too for 24/7 use and a majority of users...


regards
Raja

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Hmm this board may require some reconsideration for quadcore owners. A Q6600 will be great with a board that can do 450FSB. I'm going to be using a Peltier Cooler so I'm hoping 4ghz 3DMark stable is attainable :)

any idea on release date or cost?

this board is fast for quad, I think the 06 score is pretty darn good for 625/1000 @ 4ghz...

regards
Raja

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yoxxy

Also it is not sync clocking. I learned along time ago that OCZ is doing something with their SPD to run 1T different.

Flash SPD from an OCZ stick on your cellshock and it will increase.

Most of my sets were dieing around 960-970 sync, then I flashed OCZ SPD and got another 100-130 mhz :).

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/3...1trockscm2.jpg

Trick is 7:9 strap is very fast and very stable. That is the only bandwidth shot I can find. Sandra bandwidth of 9000 is pretty good, I believe I got up to 9,300 when I was really tweaking it though.

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So how is it not Sync...did I tell the SPD to only run async????


Trust me its sync...and I tuned the SPD for cas5 at high clocks so how does this make the ram clock better at cas4???

setup and hold times...that what you need to look at ;)


BTW these don't make it run aync by default ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yoxxy

Please try unlinking ram and show 1050+ mhz. I would like to see the comparision.

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its slower...maybe bios issue, maybe on purpose, hard to tell at this time.

For me 1900 to 1950FSB sync on a C2D is the sweet spot, all the performance is here and the lowest access latency. Above 2000 there is a huge change in ram performance and the access latency gets a lot higher.

So you can all want to see 500fsb+ etc but you would do your selves a lot of good and clock around 1900 1T sync as its faster ;)

I have a feeling that statement is going to fall on deaf ears...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony

its slower...maybe bios issue, maybe on purpose, hard to tell at this time.

For me 1900 to 1950FSB sync on a C2D is the sweet spot, all the performance is here and the lowest access latency. Above 2000 there is a huge change in ram performance and the access latency gets a lot higher.

So you can all want to see 500fsb+ etc but you would do your selves a lot of good and clock around 1900 1T sync as its faster ;)

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someone's gotta beat the drum of truth, I prefer to call it searching for more refined overclocks rather than a brute force approach...

tnxs for sharing raja.. :)

:woot:

guys.. wait for a couple of bios .. and this board will fly.. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raju

someone's gotta beat the drum of truth, I prefer to call it searching for more refined overclocks rather than a brute force approach...

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QFT... it's too much about brute force bragging rights sometimes!

BTW, I just got my board powered up with stock coolers. Need to run memtest to ensure everything is ok, then I'll swap over to water and start working this board.

Just wanted to once again thank everyone for their hardwork and devoted time for testing on this board! It should help many people who choose to read it get their boards dialed! Plus like others have already posted, this new concept of "refined clock" rather than all-out brute force is absolutly true, even on other motherboards! Looking forward to reading more posts guys, keep it up!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raju

yeah they sure do, there is a strap change @ around 460 fsb on the quad bios, I have benched at 467 now with a drop of 900 points in 06 at a higher cpu clock...


regards
Raja

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Hi Raja, what is the max fsb u have hit using quadcore? is 475 fsb achievable?

i am thinking of getting this if it can run 450 x 8 24/7 and 475 at least for benching :) pls advise :cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by erwinz

tnxs for sharing raja.. :)

:woot:

guys.. wait for a couple of bios .. and this board will fly.. :)

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dfi took so much time to complete the board. why now there should be a bios that fix theese elementary issues ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BAR*B*Q

dfi took so much time to complete the board. why now there should be a bios that fix theese elementary issues ?

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The fact that the board works fine right out of the box seems to be getting lost on folks...they are just fine tuning it with the input and effort of these fine gents before it is available in mass...

With these last minute tweaks "you" will be able to download a spiffy new bios that will help you "overclock" the minute you hit the power switch...not make the board usable (which it already is). Joe num nutz can by this board right now and fire it up without any "elementary issues". These guys are just trying to make it better so cut em' some slack...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by erwinz

tnxs for sharing raja.. :)

:woot:

guys.. wait for a couple of bios .. and this board will fly.. :)

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This seems to be a common battle cry now a days for 300.00+ MB's :fact:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OldGuy

Joe num nutz can by this board right now and fire it up without any "elementary issues". These guys are just trying to make it better so cut em' some slack...

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Hey, stop referring to me as "Joe" :p: :D

Seriously, it's true... how many ASUS products ship completely "usable" :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rithina

Hi Raja, what is the max fsb u have hit using quadcore? is 475 fsb achievable?

i am thinking of getting this if it can run 450 x 8 24/7 and 475 at least for benching :) pls advise :cool:

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That will be really tough on air. This board requires you to increase vCore on the Quads above 400 FSB. I have to run at least 1.5125V at 9x420 or 1.5250V at 8x450, normally my particular CPU will run those same speeds at 1.45~1.475 on the EVGA 680i, or the 965 boards. Just something to be aware at this time, otherwise, once tuned, damn fast board. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bingo13

That will be really tough on air. This board requires you to increase vCore on the Quads above 400 FSB. I have to run at least 1.5125V at 9x420 or 1.5250V at 8x450, normally my particular CPU will run those same speeds at 1.45~1.475 on the EVGA 680i, or the 965 boards. Just something to be aware at this time, otherwise, once tuned, damn fast board. ;)

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thanks for the info.. i need abt 1.48v (vdroop) to run 3.6 stable and 1.55 for 3.8 benching using water on 965.. u using the DMM to measure the vcore i suppose for this mobo?

The performance point is below 460fsb (on the quad bios), remember that, this has been mentioned above already, I have already run 467fsb without issue, and benched 06. However 450'ish is faster than 467 due to the strap change. Oskar has manipulated strap change points, romsip table for various cpu's to get the best from them, we're beginning to see his tuning manifest into real world performance.

To get the best from quad you have to tune gtl intently, even 1 digit out is a hang up during XP load or a blue screen, so it's a tweakers board for sure, those who have the patience to go for at it, undeterred by multiple reboots finding the sweet spot, this is GTL tuning at it's finest, completely follows the TTR article on GTL tuning.


I think all us guys have thoroughly enjoyed using this board since Oskars new beta's were sent to us to test, once we worked out how the bios has been tuned for Sync mode and gtl ref tuning for quads - every cpu is different in gtl and drive strength settings. Bingo's quad likes weak cpu drive, my quad likes strong drive . On dual core I can use weak or strong and adjust the nb voltage to run the board either way, remember to keep an eye on Tony's guide on TTR for tips as they will be updated the more we find...


regards
Raja

Exciting stuff... Classic DFI too. :rocker:

Obviously, we're all waiting on the latest BIOS now! :stick:

I have been unable to find the strap change point as of yet, the latency seems to scale with fsb from 1600fsb upwards (have not gone lower), so it could be my 467 fsb run was just unstable, which can happen when out on the ragged edge..

regards
Raja


edit found 450 is sweet checked cpu scores in 06...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OldGuy

The fact that the board works fine right out of the box seems to be getting lost on folks...they are just fine tuning it with the input and effort of these fine gents before it is available in mass...

With these last minute tweaks "you" will be able to download a spiffy new bios that will help you "overclock" the minute you hit the power switch...not make the board usable (which it already is). Joe num nutz can by this board right now and fire it up without any "elementary issues". These guys are just trying to make it better so cut em' some slack...

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hey kids listen to OldGuy.. :)

hahaha..tnxs OldGuy for pointing it out.. :)

what i said was prolly very sorrowfull or maybe just clueless :)

but what i understood so far is that this board cant perfrom 2T and unsynch very well. this seem to me like an "elemantary" issue that cant be just fixed plainly ?!

for me ram performance is very imortant so im a little worried. but i want this board anyways. :rolleyes:

1t in sync is the jugular on this particular board, I have ran 1050 2t async vs 1t sync at ddr 900 or so on the quad bios, the 1t has access latency 5ns lower with better bandwidth. You would need to go in excess of ddr 1200 to get close on the latency. It's not always about bandwidth, each individual application has it's requirements. 1T sync fulfils, great bandwidth and lower access latency, upshot of both methods (1t vs 2t sync/async) when driving hard is of course vdimm. Back to reality, as Tony said 1600fsb or so in sync with cas 4 timings (lowering requirements of vdimm vs cas 3), would be a good option for 24/7 use..


regards
Raja


450 is def sweet for quad benching, going over will bring a performance penalty...

EDIT: Solution to the problem below is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

Anyone here running Vista x64 on this board?

I could not get it to install... BSOD at various points during the installation. (3 tries)

Vista x86 installs no problem. The only odd hardware I have is the crappy MX4000 video card I use for bench testing but it has a driver included in x86 so it should also have one in x64.

still new on the ground vista is bound to have problems for a while, hopefully the guys using vista x64 here at XS will have some workarounds for you..

Personally I won't be switching Vista until forced to do so, and I think that won't be before the end of the year for me at the very least..


regards
Raja

depends on the chipset strap...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raju

depends on the chipset strap...

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And RAM sync performs better than unsync'd... at least that's what the guru's have determined so far with this board. This is a great read...

http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=159