Has my 920 really degraded this fast?

[Odai]

Hello,

I'm currently having issues with my i7 build.

Up until recently, I was using a 920 @ 4.5GHz with an 8800 Ultra VGA. The vcore was about 1.38V. Before that, the CPU was at 4.4GHz, with a vcore of about 1.31V. Both configs were stable. I got the CPU in November.

However, the 8800 fried a few weeks ago, and I replaced it with a 5770. Since then, I've had BSOD's over and over again. Strangely, the error messages are different, not the "a clock interrupt was not...." BSOD which indicates lack of vcore and CPU instability. However, I can still restore stability by reverting to my old OC (4.4GHz) and increasing the voltage by 4 notches, up to 1.35V. This is despite upping the VTT to 1.35V from the 1.25V I used to use.

Has my CPU really degraded so fast that it requires that much extra voltage? I've heard of cases where a CPU needs an extra .01V or so to maintain stability after a while, but not this much, and not after so little time. Or could it be the new VGA has introduced new problems?

All of the testing has taken place under Orthos CPU test, and IBT Linpack.

I'd really appreciate any advice.

[prava]

I'm not sure, but ATI uses more power from the mobo than NVIDIA, which could mean that your voltage on your cpu drops a little more and that's why you need more voltage. BTW, are you talking about voltage @ full load?

[Odai]

Hello,

Thanks for your fast reply.

The voltages don't seem to behave differently using the ATI card. The voltages I mentioned are the settings in the BIOS. Under load, the vcore seems to be boosted by 0.03V, just as it always has using this Asus R2E.

[DAK1640]

Agreed, probable cause is power draw...

[Rudster816]

What kind of cooling are you on? If your temps are abnormally high for long periods of time I could see this happening. Although its odd that it happened the same time your video card died. Maybe a power surge killed your GPU and damaged your CPU slightly? PSU going bad?

If your PSU suddenly went bad, or a power surge caused it to, a large amount of ripple could probably cause this.

The CPU gets most, if not all, of its power from the 8 pins to my knowledge, so the 5770 drawing more power from the PCIE slot shouldn't be a problem.

[Odai]

Hello,

I'm using water.

The instability gets worse when the temps rise to about 80C. If I turn up the fans though, I can get it down and the instability goes away. So far, it's still stable using the 1.35V setting.

I'm using surge protection on my hardware.

Before the card fried, I was getting BSOD's every now and then. However, I can't tell whether it was the card startin to go, or whether the CPU was already degrading.

[CryptiK]

Have your ambient temperatures increased during the time of ownership? It often happens that people get a stable overclock in winter, then query increasing instability as the weather becomes warmer.

The new card may also be loading the PSU harder (I'm not sure on power usage figures of either card), causing issues. What PSU do you have and how old is it?

[Odai]

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

Would the case temperature matter much? I am using water cooling, so most of the heat is transferred to the water which is pumped to the radiator outside the case.

The air inside the case feels cool too.

I'm currently using a Corsair HX850 PSU, purchased in November.

If there was a power issue where the vcore voltage would drop under load, wouldn't I see it using the Asus LCD poster? The voltage behaves exactly as it has always done, according to the information displayed on that.

[Odai]

Hello,

I've just tried swapping the new VGA for an old 2600XT (much less power) I have, and I get exactly the same problems.

[lowfat]

Have you done any troubleshooting to narrow down the problem? Like dropping the CPU clock to see if the memory is the issue, etc? It definitely isn't because the HD 5770 is pulling more power, because it doesn't. The 8800Ultra has a high power consumption AFAIK.

[overclocking101]

ummm "ati uses more power than nvidia from the mobo" <<that statement is rubbish. the HD5XXX are very power efficient more so than the 8800's were. damn near every pci-e card uses the same amount of juice from the pci-e slot its the psu that does or does not get the added power draw. 300w i believe is pci-e 2.0 spec the 5970 draws just barely under that the 8800's draw around 200-250w IIRC the 5770's consumes LESS power than the 8800's and thats a fact. sounds like degredation but it could be something as simple as more processes taking cpu resources or windows corruption. hard telling not knowing.

EDIT: no offense meant at all by this statement.

[Odai]

Hello,

Thanks again for the input.

So far, the only thing I've tried is increasing the vcore. Increasing the vcore by .04V solves the problem. I assumed that vcore is voltage applied only across the cores of the CPU, and that it had nothing to do with memory?

I'll try dropping the vcore back to 1.31V again, and dropping the CPU multiplier a couple of notches.

I've also just done a clean install of Windows 7 (using the "quick format" default option that is used by the windows installer), so that (I hope) should rule out any software issues.

I would have simply assumed it's just degradation, but the size of the additional voltage required is staggering, compared to other reports of CPU degradation. It's only been a few months.

[HDCHOPPER]

IMO check your PSU with DDM under load... the 8800 going south makes me think this...