Modded DFI NF4 Ultra breaks 12k in 3D05 !!

What a sweet board! I was sick of waiting around to find a DFI SLI in stock, so I picked up the DFI NF4 Ultra and did the mod. It was as easy as they say.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=24570&stc=1

I'm using a buddy's Giga SLI bridge until the DFI bridges I ordered show up:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=24572&stc=1

Space is much tighter for water cooling on the DFI versus the Asus:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=24571&stc=1

This system is nothing compared to the serious cascade guys, but not bad for a 24/7 gamer. The extra fan action is for hard benching only. I like that the DFI BIOS allows for fan speed adjustments as well so that the rig is quiet as well as fast.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=24574&stc=1

And here's my best so far with the new mobo:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...id=24573&stc=1

New personal bests all around:

3D05: 12,070 http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=583951

3D03: 25,744 http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3701354

I may be just gettin warmed up too. This board is allowing for my all time best CPU and mem clocks.

well done mate, surely you'd get an evan bigger score if you got a proper SLi board

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Originally Posted by Jamo

surely you'd get an evan bigger score if you got a proper SLi board

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No, not at all. With the modded chipset the Ultra mobo is exactly the same as the DFI NF4 SLI. There is no difference.

That said, if folks want guaranteed SLI support, they really should get the SLI mobo to begin with. DFI/Nvidia will be making the mod impossible/difficult soon. LOL...I wouldn't have even tried the mod in the first place if I could have found an SLI in stock somewhere:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mdzcpa

No, not at all. With the modded chipset the Ultra mobo is exactly the same as the DFI NF4 SLI. There is no difference.

That said, if folks want guaranteed SLI support, they really should get the SLI mobo to begin with. DFI/Nvidia will be making the mod impossible/difficult soon. LOL...I wouldn't have even tried the mod in the first place if I could have found an SLI in stock somewhere:)

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Great results -as always- mdzcpa!

I'm sure i've read somewhere that moddet SLI setups like yours only performs 90 % of real SLI.

However right now i dont have anything to back it up, i will return if i find it hehe :D

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Originally Posted by Pejsen

I'm sure i've read somewhere that moddet SLI setups like yours only performs 90 % of real SLI.

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I think what you are referring to is the ability of some of the Ultra boards to run in "dual video mode." This is when there are two 16x PCI-E slots on the board but when they are run in psuedo SLI (dual video) they run at x16/x2 istead of the x8/x8 like they should under true SLI.

However, when you actually mod the chipset to be recognized as an NF4 SLI, then you get 100% SLI support and run in x8/x8. The key is the mobo needs to be laid out to support SLI and that DFI used the same PCB design for both the Ultra and SLI boards.

Here's what Anandtech said:
"Our little bit of very easy modification had "turned" the Ultra chipset into SLI. We no longer had driver limitations and performance was now exactly the same as the performance that we achieved with a normal SLI chipset"

You can see the whole write up HERE

You probably read this at anandtech:

"About six weeks ago, MSI showed an nForce4 ULTRA motherboard with a regular x16 PCIe slot, plus an open-ended x4 PCIe slot. Those who saw the demos said that MSI was running two matched video cards in what they called a "semi-SLI mode", which ran at about 90% of the performance of normal nVidia SLI."

However that's not what Mdzcpa is running. By converting the chip from ultra to sli along with the presence of 2x16 PCI-E slots he's running sli at 100%. I've modded my dfi ultra-D as well, but only have one PCI-E vid card and no bridge yet. The bios & nvidia drivers all report the chipset as an nForce4 SLI now though.

wow nice stuff and congrats on breaking 12k :)

@ mdzcpa and TimoneX

You're absolutly right both of you :D

It was that article i was thinking about.

My bad!

Nice mod and nice 05' score :toast:

Nice mod, yeah I wouldnt be surprised if they made the SLI mod impossible soon
I planon doing it to my board once i get funds for a second card though ;P

Congrats my friend

excellant stuff there! what gpu blocks are you using? I didn't think my mcw50 would fit in there.

BTW looks like blueremy will have to fake out another score to get on top hugh!?

excellent. Very impressive 24/7 reliable rig.

C

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Originally Posted by LikwidKool

excellant stuff there! what gpu blocks are you using? I didn't think my mcw50 would fit in there.

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Those are indeed MCW50 blocks.....and there is absolutely no room to spare. In fact, I needed to use an exacto knife to reduce the height of the rubber nub on the back plate of the lower card to make room. It's tight!!

To update, I've already beaten those scores and pushing for more. I'm going to keep pushing on though and leave some in scores reserve:)

Thanks for the kudos everyone :toast: This has to be one of my best gaming rigs yet. I played United Offensive for 3 hours last night without a hiccup at the same settings I used to run the 12,070 in 3D05. The only change was kicking the AA to x8 and AF to x 16 @ 1600x1200. Now that's load of gaming goodness!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mdzcpa

No, not at all. With the modded chipset the Ultra mobo is exactly the same as the DFI NF4 SLI. There is no difference.

That said, if folks want guaranteed SLI support, they really should get the SLI mobo to begin with. DFI/Nvidia will be making the mod impossible/difficult soon. LOL...I wouldn't have even tried the mod in the first place if I could have found an SLI in stock somewhere:)

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no problems with nforce drivers???

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Originally Posted by Mrki

no problems with nforce drivers???

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None so far. Used the WHQL 66.93, 71.25, and 71.40.

I also use the SLI Application Selector to enable SLI on games onther than what Nvidia has officially included support for. This also works fine.

mdzcpa

can you pls bench at 2900mhz an 400/1100 3dmark01,03 and 05 ...

i will bench too with my msi diamond sli. i will know if ultra loose performance.

mrki

Very nice :)

Congrats! :toast:

Very nice rig...


How's 2048x1536 max settings?

Reason i ask is that in a few months i'll be getting one of those Nec/Mitsu 22" CRT.

I'm wondering how we will be able to tell if the board will be moddable or not. Will the chipset look different? As well can any harm be done if the mod doesnt take but is still attempted?

Awesome score!
:toast:

Nice Job Mike :toast:

Good to see the DFI doing well in SLI mode as well as with a single card. I was wondering how it would do. Nice:)

OPP

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mrki

i will bench too with my msi diamond sli. i will know if ultra loose performance

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There is no point to this. Once you close the bridge on the Ultra chip it becomes an SLI chip...its as simple as that. Anandtech already did all the testing and the performance between the modded Ultra and the SLI is exactly the same. Its already been proven. See the link above.

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Originally Posted by cantankerous

I'm wondering how we will be able to tell if the board will be moddable or not. Will the chipset look different? As well can any harm be done if the mod doesnt take but is still attempted?

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I'm not really sure what Nvidia/DFI will do to make the mod more difficult or impossible, so its hard to say what to look for. If you use something reversable like a pencil mod or conductive grease (like I did) to close the bridge, then there would be nothing harmed by trying.

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Originally Posted by OPPAINTER

Nice Job Mike :toast:

Good to see the DFI doing well in SLI mode as well as with a single card. I was wondering how it would do. Nice:)

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Thanks for the kudos...it means alot coming from one of the top dogs:D

Yep, there is no doubt that the DFI board is awefully strong in SLI mode. I found zero difference in overclockability between single card and SLI operation. That's a solid mobo for sure!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mdzcpa

Thanks for the kudos...it means alot coming from one of the top dogs:D

Yep, there is no doubt that the DFI board is awefully strong in SLI mode. I found zero difference in overclockability between single card and SLI operation. That's a solid mobo for sure!

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Wow, I was just thinking, I've known you longer then I've known anyone else on this forum, besides Player0 I think.
No need for the Top Dog formalities.:D

OPP

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OPPAINTER

Wow, I was just thinking, I've known you longer then I've known anyone else on this forum, besides Player0 I think.
No need for the Top Dog formalities.:D

OPP

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LOL...yeah I know, but it sounded good for all those guys that don't know that you and I go all the way back to the days of soldering cache divisors on the old classic Slot A Athlons. Boy has time flew by :eek:

http://smly.org/smly/clap.gif Awesome score! http://smly.org/smly/clap.gif

Wooh !

Impressive as always, Mike.

I generally find your results the most relevant and inspiring, as your machine is a great indicator of what moderate cooling, off-the-shelf parts, and old-school tuning ability can bring you. I love the bleeding edge benchmarks as well, but theyre hardly something to judge a 24/7 system by. ;)

Anyways, keep it xtreme. :cool:

mdzcpa, pls do some 3dmark2001 too.

very good score, beat 12,1k??????;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hallowed

I generally find your results the most relevant and inspiring, as your machine is a great indicator of what moderate cooling, off-the-shelf parts, and old-school tuning ability can bring you. I love the bleeding edge benchmarks as well, but theyre hardly something to judge a 24/7 system by.

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Thanks! Although I still enjoy benching when a new system comes together, I made a conscious decision a few years back to push my systems as "real" working PCs rather than sprawling specific purpose benching rigs. I thought the challenge of building and running a 24/7 usable system was more fun and rewarding as I am a big gaming guy as well as OCer. Shooting for the best of both worlds kinda thing:)

But, don't get me wrong, I still appreciate the incredible overclocks the cascade guys get. That is some amazing work as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by marius7

mdzcpa, pls do some 3dmark2001 too.

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I give it a whirl. SLI does not really shine much with such an old benchmark, but I've got some SLI driver tweaks that might help. I try to get some results posted tonight.

Great thread! Your posts are always very entertaining and enlightening.

I'm looking at the pics and I see 2 80mm fans sitting on top of the memory and northbridge. Since you're using TCCD you're probably not drawing volts off the 5v line via the jumper setting. Are the temps on those sticks high enough to warrant using fans? How much voltage are you using on the memory and chipset? Is the other fan just to help the stock northbridge or the video cards memory? Are you using both fans to cool the board in general?

The reason I'm curious about the fans is that I was playing with my DR over the weekend and had some strange temps. I was cooling with a Thermalright 948U for some initial air-cooled tests with my new 3500+. Just the mobo sitting on a box so ambient temps were low. I started with some TCCD just to see how high the CPU and FSB would go. (FSB was great but the CBBID as expected was weak) Then I swapped out the TCCD for some BH-5 and goosed up the 3.3 line a bit with the OCZ PSU. Immediately I could feel (yes I felt it w/o touching the board) a dramatic change in the amount of heat, not so much from the dimms but the northbridge. Rather than continue testing I decided on the BH-5 until I can get it in a case where I can use some brackets to get some extra cooling on the board. Can you share any heat issues you might have had with the board? Thanks.

Mike, I used your setting of 11.5x287(on your Gskill LE review) on my neo2...24/7 for months :D Always an indicator of 24/7 max. stable overclock.
Thanks :toast:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mdzcpa

LOL...yeah I know, but it sounded good for all those guys that don't know that you and I go all the way back to the days of soldering cache divisors on the old classic Slot A Athlons. Boy has time flew by :eek:

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Hehehe I still got one of them, a 750 doing 1ghz :D

Cheers

Gundamit, I think the fan that he has on the memory/mosfets is entirely worth it. I am running pretty much the same setup (GSKILL TCCD) and without a fan there (2.9VDIMM) I can only do 300 1:1. With a fan there I am at 315 1:1 24/7 stable. I played WOW for over 6 hours straight this weekend @ 315 1:1 without as much as a hiccup.

Great Board MDZCPA! Awesome results! I am another that did the mod and with the Ultra-D's great overclocks and (modded) SLI ability I improved my 3dmark01/03/05 scores over the already good Gigabyte SLI board.

D

nice! congrats mike! :toast: :)

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Originally Posted by gundamit

I'm looking at the pics and I see 2 80mm fans sitting on top of the memory and northbridge. Since you're using TCCD you're probably not drawing volts off the 5v line via the jumper setting. Are the temps on those sticks high enough to warrant using fans? How much voltage are you using on the memory and chipset? Is the other fan just to help the stock northbridge or the video cards memory? Are you using both fans to cool the board in general?

Can you share any heat issues you might have had with the board? Thanks.

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The fans are there purely for benching stability. Its hard to tell from the pics, but these fans are 80mm wide, but only 10mm thick, and run at only 3000rpm, so they are very quiet.

I put them there for two seperate reasons. First, the fan on the memory is only precautionary at the moment. I'm currently putting only 2.8v to 2.9v to the dimms so heat really isn't a big issue at all. However, as I plan on moving the memory up beyond 300mhz 1:1 I know I'll need more voltage so I'll be ready to go with the fan already in place. The TCCD does indeed take more voltage on this board than it did on my NF3 boards, but the results speak for themselves. The Dimms are rock stable and don't seem to mind the voltage...and I think the fan does help at 3v and above. Running in the 265 to 280 range, the fan isn't really needed. Running at 300 and above, it helps.

The second fan is soley to provide cooling for the video card memory. The GPUs are water cooled, and the memory is cooled with BGA Ramsinks. Because the cards are co close together, airflow is poor without any extra fans. Again, I'm using a silent 80x5mm quiet fan. The Ramsinks and fan were worth another 30mhz on the memory over the stock memory heatsink.

I haven't found any real trouble hot spots on the board. I may find some warm spots that need cooling as I continue to press the board up to new limits though. We'll see.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OPPAINTER

Wow, I was just thinking, I've known you longer then I've known anyone else on this forum, besides Player0 I think.
No need for the Top Dog formalities.:D

OPP

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good to see youve forgotten all the people that were cheering you up back from icronticforums :rolleyes:

Very nice.

It good Ultra mod to SLI.


:toast:

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Originally Posted by Voodoo|Minion

good to see youve forgotten all the people that were cheering you up back from icronticforums :rolleyes:

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Eric and I go back a long way before the icrontic days, so don't take offense:)

Congrats mdzcpa,

Nice score and well done. Mine is just a few days away so anxious to see what kind of torque it has, small question if I may, you mentioned that you ordered a SLI bridge from DFI ? Do you by any chance happen to have a part number? And was your order confirmed?

I ordered through a friend here on XS from a distributor in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, I don't have all the details as I relied on him to buy them and ship them to me. I ordered a few extra so PM me if your are interested and I might be able to help.


BTW, I've put a little cushion on the 05 WR:

12,153 http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=593372

I'll be trying things out with the whql 66.93 over the weekend when I have more time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mdzcpa

I'm currently putting only 2.8v to 2.9v to the dimms so heat really isn't a big issue at all. However, as I plan on moving the memory up beyond 300mhz 1:1 I know I'll need more voltage so I'll be ready to go with the fan already in place. The TCCD does indeed take more voltage on this board than it did on my NF3 boards, but the results speak for themselves. The Dimms are rock stable and don't seem to mind the voltage...and I think the fan does help at 3v and above. Running in the 265 to 280 range, the fan isn't really needed. Running at 300 and above, it helps.

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Thanks for the info. It squares with what I'm seeing. On my DFI LPUT mobo I tested single OCZ TCCD 512 sticks, one went slightly over the 300fsb mark and the other slightly under at 2.9v. On the new DR I snapped off 20 loops of Memtest test #5 2x512 at 300fsb 3.0v, but I had to place 80mm fans on top and on one side of the dimms to keep them cool. Northbridge was getting quite warm despite the NB bios setting at 1.5v. Strange how OPB's TCCD runs 292 with 2.6v, but mine needs 2.9v to get to the same place. Maybe its the type of PCB OCZ used, but you and dnavarro both have GSkill TCCD that also seems volt hungry.

I may be looking at getting another gig of TCCD (GSkill) soon, but not before I replace my craptastic CBBID 0451 3500+ which failed Prime at just under an hour set at 289x9 1.61v.