MB OC Report :: EVGA 790i Reference

[3oh6]

if your borking OSs then it is likely memory or memory related. what SPP voltage are you running? can you run high FSB with memory un-linked at 800MHz type thing without borking an OS. the first 2x1GB kit of memory i started clocking on this board had me corrupting OS every second boot until i figured out what the board liked. then, the first 2x2GB kit of memory i clocked had me in the same boat...again, once i found out what the memory could handle, i can control issue. i also find Vista will go to shyt a lot easier than XP x64...pretty much why i am clocking this Mushkin kit on x64 now that i am really pushing it.

list a specific setting that you are having issues with (guaranteed to bork the OS with a couple of boots/reboots), along with all your voltages, memory timings (secondary as well), etc...and i will try to repeat it on my board. should be much easier than trying to diagnose the entire FSB range.

*BTW, Mushkin Ascent 2x2GB CL6 clocking almost done. they scale right up to 2.20v (actual) and have officially spanked the 2x1GB PC3-16000 Ballistix that are in my signature for dual 32M SPi at 6-6-5

[loonym]

Ok, thanks for the reply, I've only been running linked so you've given some great things to try. I also have a 2x2gb gskill kit so I'll play with both. Just found and flashed xfx P06 bios so this evening I'll play around and post back.

[3oh6]

Ok, thanks for the reply, I've only been running linked so you've given some great things to try. I also have a 2x2gb gskill kit so I'll play with both. Just found and flashed xfx P06 bios so this evening I'll play around and post back.

sounds good...but jumping through BIOSs can just add to the confusion, P06 hasn't been good to EVGA users from what i have read. i haven't ran it yet though as P05 has been good to me...until tonight. CL7 clocking really weird with this Muskin kit.

[twwen2]

Wow. That re-defines the concept of a review for me. Thanks so much for the in-depth testing. My hat's off to you!

[mpower1001]

Is it possible to get a link to these mushkin ascents. Thanks

[loonym]

I'm really liking this board and the x3360 that I just got back from intel rma is a cherry. It's the first yorkfield I've had that didn't top out at 475fsb. Benching at 500*8.5 with a 2x2gb gskill hz kit and 1.33 vcore now and it still feels like it has more to give. And btw 3oh6, you were right on with your comments about the bios. I quickly switch back to P05 after briefly trying the P06. It didn't seem to be very tolerant of large fsb boosts and I was greeted with a lot of bios safe boots. I still haven't tried to tighten timings up much until I get more accustomed to some of the advanced ram settings but it will come. I think I'll live with the vdroop for now. It doesn't seem all that bad (approx .048v) and I don't trust my soldering skills or my eyesight enough to try the mod at this point. But to me that droop doesn't seem any worse than any of the other boards I'm running so I'm not sure what all the fuss is. Thanks again for a great thread, I keep referring back here at every step and it's been very useful.

[3oh6]

thanks guys, gald some of the info here is helping you loonym. that is the whole point of my OC Reports. to basically provide a ton of screenshots with as much info as possible at all kinds of settings. just so others can see what is working for someone else. and don't hesitate to ask for elaboration on something that i might not have mentioned. sometimes there is just too much information to put up while keeping it organized.

Is it possible to get a link to these mushkin ascents. Thanks

here ya go...
http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/...ail.asp?id=669

i will post up the dual 32M results early next week when i get home.

[pumbertot]

thanks Pellepel...as for the backplate crushing components, i haven't seen a single instance of this in any forums yet. i was almost positive this would creep up when i first got this board but apparently the standard backplate that so many use for blocks/heat sinks (like the one for the Ultra-120 int he pics) doesn't cause a problem. the EVGA forums is full of people whining about issues with their boards but not one has said anything about crushed components back there...perhaps they aren't seeing them and that is the source to some of their problems, but not likely.

if you are thinking of jumping into the 790i you definitely want to have a stroll through the EVGA forums as well as maybe XFX if it exists to see what you are getting into. a lot of it is user error and newer OC'rs not knowing what they are doing but there are definitely some issues with this board. i admittedly only bench with the board, but there are some quirks with FSB and voltages that i tried to explain here. SLI has never been a problem for me and with enough work on GTL and FSB voltage, gaming at higher FSBs isn't an issue either. those seem to be the major problems people are having from what i see. with that said, my benching consists of stability testing with games, Prime, OCCT, HCI memtest, and all kinds of SPi and 3DMark work for memory reviews and what not, so it sees pretty close to a regular 24/7 rigs type of work. HTH

voltages for all the SPi SS are there in the monitoring software or a small text file that is open in the SS. the 3D benches there isn't but they are going to be about the same at the various FSBs.

GTLs aren't documented and i couldn't list them all but for the most part i have been really simple with them. -80/-80 up to about 500FSB+/-, -110/-110 up to 550FSB+/-, and -155/-155 above 550FSB. for 24/7 stability, that is a different story and going over to the + side has provided some success for stabilizing COD4 around 450FSB.

apparently the pencil vDROOP doesn't work or is hit & miss at best. have a look here...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=181677

the thread is getting long and old so maybe start at the back with the newer information. but my guess is that the resistance gets lowered so much that doing it with a pencil is all but impossible because we are lowering the resistance with the VRs to almost zero...which the pencil just can't do, and definitely not with any kind of precision. i actually advise against the pencil mod because you would surely lower resistance to 0 in order to get the vDROOP eliminated and that just can't be good...but i don't really know for sure so take my opinion, and that is all it is, for what it is worth. i am a lazy cat and still haven't taken disconnected the vDROPP VR on my board to find out what it is actually set at to eliminate vDROOP. maybe this week will be the week

maybe im blind but i can not see any sign of voltages in SS for anything other than vcore. im having a hard time getting anything above 400mhz fsb stable for blend test. ive tried various spp,vtt and mcp voltages. this is underclocking the cpu and mem to rule them out. p05 and p06 BIOS.

[3oh6]

maybe im blind but i can not see any sign of voltages in SS for anything other than vcore. im having a hard time getting anything above 400mhz fsb stable for blend test. ive tried various spp,vtt and mcp voltages. this is underclocking the cpu and mem to rule them out. p05 and p06 BIOS.

all of the screenshots are just thumb-nails, you have to click on them for full size...perhaps that is why you can't see the rest of the information. there is a small text file open where i have voltages listed in the full size screenshots like in the bottom corner of this one...

http://www.3oh6.com/forum_posted/rev...8-7-6-18-1.png

keep in mind, i am using a dual core processor so if you are running a quad, things might be different. i have never had a quad in any of my systems so i have no experience at all with them. HTH

[Solarfall]

WOW 3oh6 what a fantastic overcloking report !! .. it really shows that you have put a lot of effort into this ..

[pumbertot]

all of the screenshots are just thumb-nails, you have to click on them for full size...perhaps that is why you can't see the rest of the information. there is a small text file open where i have voltages listed in the full size screenshots like in the bottom corner of this one...

http://www.3oh6.com/forum_posted/rev...8-7-6-18-1.png

keep in mind, i am using a dual core processor so if you are running a quad, things might be different. i have never had a quad in any of my systems so i have no experience at all with them. HTH

feel kind of stupid now.
thanks mate, yes its a dual here, will give those Vs a try.

yes great thread.

[Loser777]

Nice review, wish I had that kind of luck with my 750i SLI FTW.

[3oh6]

thanks guys...it is just a shame that this NVIDIA 790i chipset doesn't appear to be able to handle vMCH for extended periods of time. i have finished up the OC Report on the 2x2GB Mushkin Ascent PC3-12800 CL7 kit, but it was cut short due to the fact that my board appears to be going south. i have had the NB cooled by water pretty much the whole time it has run since the vMCH volt mod, and i have never gone over 1.65v with it but it has spent an extended amount of time at 1.63v vMCH which appears to be enough to degrade the MCH over the length of a couple months. let this be a lesson to you all, treat these 790is gently or they will die...i think Gautam can attest to this as well

either way, here is what the incredible Mushkins were able to do on this board. the CL6 clocking is particularily impressive as it was the last set of benches i did with this board...

This is an entirely fresh section of this MB OC Report and it will solely deal with the clocking and compatibility of 2x2GB kits of memory clocking. This seems to be the hottest topic surrounding motherboards these days as a lot of users are going the 4GB route. I will keep a diary of sorts of the work I have done with 2x2GB kits on this board so don't mind the vacancy right now, this section will get some tenants rather soon. Starting off with a little Mushkin Ascent 2x2GB PC3-12800 action...this kit of memory is a review sample sent directly from Mushkin and used in a review for HardwareCanucks.com. If you want to see more results from this memory, including full stability testing, just fire me a PM or ask in this thread.


The Mushkin Ascents are a very solid 2x2GB DDR3 offering I have found, and they absolutely love the 790i, in fact, a little too much. Here is the dual 32M SPi breakdown of what they were able to achieve on this board.


At first glance you may think that I am not done with the clocking of this kit...well, that is complete the opposite. To be truthfully honest, this board is done all together. The initial results up to 2.01v were from when I was still completing the review of this memory. I then came back to them specifically for this section, but after the CL6 testing, in which the memory absolutely took off...the board stopped cooperating. It still runs fine and all, but getting clocks north of 500FSB seems to be an issue now. Further more, CL7 is clocking worse than it ever did. I have taken a break from this motherboard for now in hopes it just needs a rest but I have a feeling this MB OC Report has gotten all of the results it is going to.

Here are the screenshots to accompany the results posted above. In all of the screenshots, voltages and all settings should be visible for those interested:

6-6-5-X 1T / 6-5-5-X 1T:
NVIDIA 790i:
Click link for full size screenshot...
740MHz :: 1.86v | 775MHz :: 1.91v | 800MHz :: 1.96v | 820MHz :: 2.01v | 850MHz :: 2.10v | 880MHz :: 2.20v
As mentioned, at CL6, this memory not only surpassed my PC3-16000 2x1GB kit, but did so with less voltage and continued to scale with voltage as far as I was willing to go with it. At one point, I was ready to solder the Maximizer to the EVGA board just to go further with voltage on this kit but decided against it. At an impressive 880MHz 6-6-5, this kit had no problems running dual 32M and likely could do single 32M at close to 890MHz.


7-6-6-X 1T:
NVIDIA 790i:
Click link for full size screenshot...
875MHz :: 1.86v | 895MHz :: 1.91v | 916MHz :: 1.96v | 930MHz :: 2.01v
These above screenshots weren't origianlly intended for the 32M OC Report of this kit but after the review and the CL6 clocking, the board went south so I wasn't able to re-do the CL7 dual 32M clocking and also wasn't able to push past 2.01v. It is a shame because at the pace this kit was going, 970MHz+ looked to be a possibility at 2.20v or less.

8-7-6-X 1T:
NVIDIA 790i:
Click link for full size screenshot...
975MHz :: 1.86v | 1000MHz :: 1.91v | 1000MHz :: 1.96v | 1010MHz :: 2.01v
It is the same story for the CL8 clocking. I only went up to 2.01v to ensure I didn't damage the memory before the review was finished and the plan was to really push them for this report. We might also be looking at the limit of this particular 790i sample as the gains really slowed down above 1.96v with both 1.91v and 1.96v showing similar clocks, just with tighter timings on the higher volts. Even still, 1000MHz at 8-7-6 with a 2x2GB kit for dual 32M is quite nice, especially for a PC3-12800 kit.

[eternal_fantasy]

That's an amazing kit of memory 3oh6, only if they are sold here in the UK...

[loonym]

Too bad about the board but I got some more good advice from your sacrifice, thanks. Very impressive memory kit as well. I am getting similar nice results from a gskill 2*2gb hz kit. And I'll never put my c6 ocz flex xlc kit in the 790i ever again. They were the source of any corruption I've had, even to the point of corrupting the mbr on a spinpoint 32mb cache drive with just 7-7-7-24, which by the way was the absolute best I can squeeze from them if I want to enter the same windows install more than once. Zero corruption issues at any timings from the gskill hz even if I get stupid with them.