Core i7/X58 Overclocking Thread

[Drwho?]

People you are all posting awesome overclocks... but what about the Overspeed Protection? Shouldn't it limit your OCs to 100A and 130W (except for Extreme versions of course)? If not, how can it be possible?

I am to be VERY VERY clear, there is not Overspeed Protection, we have a BIOS setting to bypass the PCU control of Current and Power. On smackover, it is call "CPU VR Current Limit Override", and it will allow you to bypass the thermal and courant limites on the Core i7 920 ans 940. Who ever claim the otherway around did not read the specifications enough hehehhe
we have recommanded to the motherboard makers to follow our steps.
So, relax, and don't worry ...

Francois

[davewolfs]

I am to be VERY VERY clear, there is not Overspeed Protection, we have a BIOS setting to bypass the PCU control of Current and Power. On smackover, it is call "CPU VR Current Limit Override", and it will allow you to bypass the thermal and courant limites on the Core i7 920 ans 940. Who ever claim the otherway around did not read the specifications enough hehehhe
we have recommanded to the motherboard makers to follow our steps.
So, relax, and don't worry ...

Francois

I guess Tom forgot to read the manual? So with that said, is there any reason to get a 940 over a 920?

[Drwho?]

I guess Tom forgot to read the manual? So with that said, is there any reason to get a 940 over a 920?

well, scroll up on the top of the page, and read the title ....
Xtreme what?

[davewolfs]

well, scroll up on the top of the page, and read the title ....
Xtreme what?

Do any other boards support the functionality of disabling this 130W throttling, btw wtf is a smacker board

[Drwho?]

Do any other boards support the functionality of disabling this 130W throttling, btw wtf is a smacker board

I think so, we did recommand this few months ago.

[bingo13]

Do any other boards support the functionality of disabling this 130W throttling, btw wtf is a smacker board

You can turn it off on the MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, DFI, and Foxconn boards.

[chuckbam]

Originally Posted by davewolfs
Do any other boards support the functionality of disabling this 130W throttling, btw wtf is a smacker board .

You can turn it off on the MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, DFI, and Foxconn boards.

OK, lets say you want to keep the Overspeed Protection enabled. What is the 130 watts TDP? Does that translate into a vCore volt? I was looking at the P6T Deluxe bios from the pdf and only see the vCore setting. Can someone please help me with this. There is something I must have missed.

Also, I can't find the detail Intel processor specifications for the 920. What is the core voltage range?

[Blacklash]

Anyone heard when the DFI X58 mobo supposed to hit retail in the United States?

[Postal Dude]

OK, lets say you want to keep the Overspeed Protection enabled. What is the 130 watts TDP? Does that translate into a vCore volt? I was looking at the P6T Deluxe bios from the pdf and only see the vCore setting. Can someone please help me with this. There is something I must have missed.

Also, I can't find the detail Intel processor specifications for the 920. What is the core voltage range?

With a Max TDP of 130w set it doesnt take much calculation to decide where the limit is. If your using 1.3v then it will limit at a maximum current of 100A

[managerman]

Hello All..

It has been a while since I have posted anything...but I have a few "goodies" I have just received and have begun playing with. I have attached some pictures of the benchmarks so far..

The "goodies":

ASUS P6T Deluxe Bios 0804
Core i7 965XE @ 1.45v
12Gb Patriot DDR3-1333 @ DDR3-1680 9-9-9-24 1.64V
EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 SLI Overclocked 705/1560/2200
2 WD Raptor RAID 0
Custom Water

Here is a summary of what I have found:

1.) So far I have a 4.2 Ghz overclock stable (so far) I am sure it is not Prime 95 24/7, but it has handled what I have thrown at it. I am running 12GB Patriot DDR 1333 @ 1680 9-9-9-24.

2.) Core i7 runs hot even on a custom water system....I am using the Swiftech Apogee GTZ 1366 with a 3x120 Radiator...At 4.2 the cooling is becoming overwhelmed about 10 minutes in to 100% load... Temps around 100C I think I need a 4x120 radiator....will be looking into the Feser 4x120....

3.) Running 12GB seems to pose no problem.

4.) There are so many new options for frequency amd volatge settings...it is going to take a while to determine what to mess with and what not to...

More to come this week...

[sulu17]

Hi Guys,

I just got this combo and am trying to overclock it but i am not having any success.
I read the tread but I am still confused.
Can anyone walk me through the steps?

So far I enabled overclocking feature intel X58 board and enabled turbo mode and raised to turbo mode multi to 30 for all 4 cores.(Vcore to 1.35).I am just trying overclock the CPU using the multi and leave all of the other settings at default for now.

However in windows the multi is still stuck at 24, even with prime running.

Please help

[Astratuner]

Drwho? Apperently Intel didn't say something right if you ask Bith tech:


They say:

QPI/DRAM Voltage - 1.35V: This is poorly worded by Asus - it should read uncore or QPI/memory controller voltage so not to confuse it with the actual memory voltage. Increasing this is also necessary as it helps overclock the base frequency as the uncore area overclocks increase in relation to the CPU core overclocks. This voltage is tied to actual DRAM voltage - the two are directly connected on the motherboard. You'll need to increase this to keep the CPU safe.

While Asus and Intel (rightly) scare everyone (read: uneducated) into thinking that 1.65V on the DRAM voltage should be the absolute limit before you reach for the fire-blanket, all that's really needed it to obey this: keep the CPU uncore voltage within 0.5V difference of the DRAM voltage and there's no problem. Over this potential difference and you’ll greatly increase the chance of CPU death, but it certainly won't happen instantly in a big ball of fail fire if you make a mistake.

DRAM Voltage - 1.66V: This is the closest to the 1.65V the Corsair Dominator DIMMs wanted and it's within the 0.5V Uncore difference.

If you are familiar with Intel systems, the best thing to do is treat QPI frequency like you would Front Side Bus and cranking up the QPI also levies another advantage - increased memory frequencies. Because the Core i7 920 uses the basic 4.8GT/s QPI frequency there is no option available here to adjust it, so you don't have to worry about it, however being able to see what its "final frequency" post-overclock would be incredibly useful.

A little extra differential amplitude because Asus claims in the BIOS that it helps with overclocking and perhaps turning off some unused features like Virtualisation is worth it as well, but keeping the pre-fetchers and HyperThreading on will improve performance.

We found that enabling the HPET (High Performance Event Timer), or as Asus label it, APCI 2, is critical for keeping the clocks on Core i7 CPUs accurate. Without it turned on, the multiplier jumps around crazily if we watch CPU-Z, but with it on, the multiplier reading is solid and the clock frequency only jitters very slightly according to fractional variations in the base clock.


Note the most important thing: While Asus and Intel (rightly) scare everyone (read: uneducated) into thinking that 1.65V on the DRAM voltage should be the absolute limit before you reach for the fire-blanket, all that's really needed it to obey this: keep the CPU uncore voltage within 0.5V difference of the DRAM voltage and there's no problem. Over this potential difference and you’ll greatly increase the chance of CPU death, but it certainly won't happen instantly in a big ball of fail fire if you make a mistake.

Is that true? That's the trick Anandtech also mentioned but not shared with us yet at the moment.

[Drwho?]

Drwho? Apperently Intel didn't say something right if you ask Bith tech:


They say:

QPI/DRAM Voltage - 1.35V: This is poorly worded by Asus - it should read uncore or QPI/memory controller voltage so not to confuse it with the actual memory voltage. Increasing this is also necessary as it helps overclock the base frequency as the uncore area overclocks increase in relation to the CPU core overclocks. This voltage is tied to actual DRAM voltage - the two are directly connected on the motherboard. You'll need to increase this to keep the CPU safe.

While Asus and Intel (rightly) scare everyone (read: uneducated) into thinking that 1.65V on the DRAM voltage should be the absolute limit before you reach for the fire-blanket, all that's really needed it to obey this: keep the CPU uncore voltage within 0.5V difference of the DRAM voltage and there's no problem. Over this potential difference and you’ll greatly increase the chance of CPU death, but it certainly won't happen instantly in a big ball of fail fire if you make a mistake.

DRAM Voltage - 1.66V: This is the closest to the 1.65V the Corsair Dominator DIMMs wanted and it's within the 0.5V Uncore difference.

If you are familiar with Intel systems, the best thing to do is treat QPI frequency like you would Front Side Bus and cranking up the QPI also levies another advantage - increased memory frequencies. Because the Core i7 920 uses the basic 4.8GT/s QPI frequency there is no option available here to adjust it, so you don't have to worry about it, however being able to see what its "final frequency" post-overclock would be incredibly useful.

A little extra differential amplitude because Asus claims in the BIOS that it helps with overclocking and perhaps turning off some unused features like Virtualisation is worth it as well, but keeping the pre-fetchers and HyperThreading on will improve performance.

We found that enabling the HPET (High Performance Event Timer), or as Asus label it, APCI 2, is critical for keeping the clocks on Core i7 CPUs accurate. Without it turned on, the multiplier jumps around crazily if we watch CPU-Z, but with it on, the multiplier reading is solid and the clock frequency only jitters very slightly according to fractional variations in the base clock.


Note the most important thing: While Asus and Intel (rightly) scare everyone (read: uneducated) into thinking that 1.65V on the DRAM voltage should be the absolute limit before you reach for the fire-blanket, all that's really needed it to obey this: keep the CPU uncore voltage within 0.5V difference of the DRAM voltage and there's no problem. Over this potential difference and you’ll greatly increase the chance of CPU death, but it certainly won't happen instantly in a big ball of fail fire if you make a mistake.

Is that true? That's the trick Anandtech also mentioned but not shared with us yet at the moment.

I am not going to comment on the opinion of every guy around the web ... just understand that many people think they discovered "the wheel" before anybody else.
We have an awesome product, and you can always find somebody who "think" he find the Jack pot.

i am not a marketing guy, I don't really look at the "wording", I am not native speaker ... it would be funny ... ;-)

[my87csx481]

....big snip....Note the most important thing: While Asus and Intel (rightly) scare everyone (read: uneducated) into thinking that 1.65V on the DRAM voltage should be the absolute limit before you reach for the fire-blanket, all that's really needed it to obey this: keep the CPU uncore voltage within 0.5V difference of the DRAM voltage and there's no problem. Over this potential difference and you’ll greatly increase the chance of CPU death, but it certainly won't happen instantly in a big ball of fail fire if you make a mistake.....little snip....

Can anyone confirm or deny this?