RD600 first look and general questions

[Eldonko]

Ive been doing PI comparos for a bit now, it's just taking a while since I cant tweek in windows. trc was the same iirc, all i did was up mem by 65 mhz and rerun PI. Might have been something on auto that im not aware of tho, will retest.

Ok thanks for the tip i will try again with a PCI VGA anyway RD600 is a little slow for SuperPi but its really fun to play with it.I didnt expect mine 6600 to reach 4.6GHz but it seems to be a good cpu...

I agree, it is a lil slower but all the extra bios goodies mak it fun anyway.

[Kallileo]

Interesting, got any PI comparos? Im having difficulties matching PI times I could run w/ P5B, seems about 1 minute slower clock for clock. I was thinking that async ram would allow more flexibility and the higher ram clocks would help but last night I tested the difference between 500mhz 4-4-4 and 565 4-4-4 and the delta was within MoE.

I have 18.1s 1M on DFI 975X/G,6400@3200MHz, Ram 4-4-4-8@800MHz. Another guy from a greek forum has 18s with 4300@3700(I'dont know about memory). Ppl say that you need to overclock around 3500MHz to go under 20s 1M.

[dasa]

looks like pci-e overclocking dosent work on this mb ive tried 100-200 which probably shouldnt work and there is next to no performance difference in 3dm06

[cadaveca]

pci-e is already overclocked, most likely to 120 or 125mhz, based on 3D performance.

[Eldonko]

I have 18.1s 1M on DFI 975X/G,6400@3200MHz, Ram 4-4-4-8@800MHz. Another guy from a greek forum has 18s with 4300@3700(I'dont know about memory). Ppl say that you need to overclock around 3500MHz to go under 20s 1M.

Not sure what people are doing that need 3500mhz to break 20 sec lol.. Out of curiosity I ran 1M @ 3200/400 4-4-4 like you and it is 16s not 18. That is also on a totally untweeked OS + 2T.

[dasa]

pci-e is already overclocked, most likely to 120 or 125mhz, based on 3D performance.

ok so the amd software that suggests its always set to 125mhz regardless of what its set to in bios is probably correct
i can live with 125mhz i guess but being able to change it in bios would have been nice

[p0tter]

I didnt have a hard time breaking 20. Fastest I got was a 15's, but that was before the board and my mem died.

[Eldonko]

I'm getting close to breaking 14s @ 3600, so it's not THAT slow..

[cadaveca]

nah, but you can pull 13's on 975. Liek i said, real-world performance is barely noticible. Is partially compounded by the slow RAID control, at least for me, but in the scheme of things, I'm not gonna miss 3-4FPS.

[dasa]

just had my first c1 error that clearing the bios didnt fix after only changing the ram from 400 to 401mhz not fun
but thankfully this fixed it till i put my second ram stick back in then i had the c1 error back so took it out booted swapped the sticks around and now its going again with both sticks fewf
http://csd.dficlub.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1222

i seem to be getting a real strange problem with this mb when overclocking the ram once i start getting near 500mhz (well i think thats what is doing it) although there is no errors in memtest if i go into windows the catalyst vpu recover will start resetting the gpu and clearing the bios dosent help the only way to get it working again is to lower the rams speed turn of the pc and disconnect the power for at least several minutes

looks like this things 24\7 speed may end up being
e6600@3.5 1.5v
2x1g 400mhz 33239 20 30 1t 2.35v 8 drive st
NB Core 1.42v
NB PLL 2.13v

managed
62k 3dm01
12650 3dm06
14.8s pi 1m
450fps css

thanks for your help in working this mad mb out

[Eldonko]

nah, but you can pull 13's on 975.

This is true but you also have to remember 400fsb on 965/975 is usually optimal in terms of strap settings, with rd600 or 680i you will have the same performance at 400fsb as you do at 500. So max ram and fsb should perform really well (in comparo) in the high end, for 1M anyway.

[cadaveca]

Don't forget I've long been an advocate of this chipset. I have been hyping people up about it(or at least trying) for about 18 months now...


Dasa...500mhz @ 400mhz FSB has the same issues on this board as does most 975 boards. the 4:5 ratio does not work well.(don't bother, i know it's not a precise ratio, but it's almost exactly the same as straps on 975/965 boards, just far more precise).

With 4:5 it takes 20cycles for a sync between FSB and membus. VERY high. Lower is better.


But, when @ say 499mhz ram...this ratio is not attainable...how many cycles beofre a sync, do you think?


Ram is a passive part...it does not modify that data sent into it, unless unstable. Soo, yes your ram can do 500mhz, most ram can, but the chipset in not capable of getting the FSB and MEMBUS in sync, causing catastophic failure, bios corruption, data loss, and all sorts of other nasties.

This is part of the downfall of having un-synced busses. we must jsut do out best to ensure that we can get close to the same default ratios that 965 and 975 can attain...1:1, 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, 3:5, 4:5, etc...

This means 400fsb EXACTLY...and 500mhz ram EXACTLY...but you cannot select 500, cna you? 499 or 502 only...and this is what "kills" boards. It actually seems to corrupt settings in the bios, and this is what leads to C1, no boot issues.

After getting a C1 PLEASE LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS IN BIOS!!!!!!! Do NOT fail to do this! nealh was a victim of this problem...could have saved it...but he gave up. I totally understand why he did...this board can be pretty frustrating at times, however, I NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER.

That's why I now, @ 30, can sit at home everyday watching you guys on here and other forums...and the same perseverence can take you just as far.

[Eldonko]

Don't forget I've long been an advocate of this chipset. I have been hyping people up about it(or at least trying) for about 18 months now...

Heh me too man, I was excited for this one as I was for Ultra D. Its just sad how everyone says the chipset is so bad and the board is slow and sucks etc. I wish I could swing an x6800 and a dewar right now, just to prove a point.

[Kallileo]

I didnt have a hard time breaking 20. Fastest I got was a 15's, but that was before the board and my mem died.

I have 16.8s 1M at 3400 with much slower memory than yours....

[p0tter]

@ Kallileo are you using RD600 ?

[Kallileo]

No. I bought RD600 but I haven't installed it yet. The result is on my DFI 975X/G.

[Aivas47a]

This is part of the downfall of having un-synced busses. we must jsut do out best to ensure that we can get close to the same default ratios that 965 and 975 can attain...1:1, 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, 3:5, 4:5, etc...

This means 400fsb EXACTLY...and 500mhz ram EXACTLY...but you cannot select 500, cna you? 499 or 502 only...and this is what "kills" boards. It actually seems to corrupt settings in the bios, and this is what leads to C1, no boot issues.

Cadaveca, first off thanks for your steady advocacy and support for this board. As I've posted before I'm having a great time with it but unfortunately there is not much in the way of expert guidance on the web .. outside this thread of course! ... since so many folks wrote the board off.

I wonder if you could help me understand better what you are saying on the issue of replicating dividers? I have been experimenting a little bit lately with this idea --- to see whether the board might perform better (using the Everest memory/cache benchmark tests) using fsb and ram speeds that match a typical standard divider (2:3, 4:5), but I haven't had time to check it thoroughly yet.

Are you saying it is a good idea to use nice even cpu/ram ratios (that makes intuitive sense to me)? But that using a ratio that is close (but not exact) can damage the board?

[cadaveca]

By even however, i mean divisible by one of the standard ratios.

4:5 means FSB divisible by 4, memory divisible by 5. You'll find "holes" in stability that relate directly to this.


It's not that the board will get killed, but it can EASILY corrupt bios "load last bootable setting" on boot if the "ratio" is pushed too far out of whack. Why it does this, well, i have my theories, but nothing concrete; but I CAN, however, make this issue happen "on demand", if you will.

[dasa]

cadaveca have you thought about making a guide

looks like your right about the fsb\mem i just tried 440fsb and was able to run the ram 520mhz no probs
looks like i have to keep the ram within ~90mhz of the fsb

and is it just e or dose this mb turn itself back on a lot of the time after being off 5sec to a min

[ThorLite]

On this board the only time i had C1 errors was when running SYNC and 1T running ASYNC i am having no problems at all......

[cadaveca]

lol. you and EVERYONE else. Does not make sense, does it? Does to me, however.

[Apollonas]

I can't deside what to do with this board?

I found it really cheap (100$) but after all this don't know if it's worth it.
I really dont care much for high scores on bences but rather for a stable 24/7 rig and not spending much.

HOW STABLE COULD BE THIS BOARD LET'S SAY AT STOCK SETTINGS?

I'm asking this because a lot of people around the forums seems to have issues with the board even at stock settings.

[jimmyz]

if stock is what you are after then there are better boards out there. this board is built for people like me who can't boot a system without making a quick pass through the bios to change stuff.
this board is stable enough at stock but it does definitely have some quirks.

[Apollonas]

if stock is what you are after then there are better boards out there. this board is built for people like me who can't boot a system without making a quick pass through the bios to change stuff.
this board is stable enough at stock but it does definitely have some quirks.

I understand what your are saying. I never said that I wont make mine bios tweaking. All i want to know is that if I choose to run this board at stock settings I wont be facing any major problems.

The reason I'm asking this is because if I buy it, I wont be using it for bences but for real work (3D render, animation ). That's why my big concern is if I can run this and be stable just to do my job.

I know that there are plenty of better mobos to get out there. The only thing that attracts me to this mobo is it's currently price.

[jimmyz]

it will run fine with default settings. it should be as reliable as any other.only issues i have with this board not related to pushing the envelope are :


1. sata opticals are not seen if using raid.
2. no native support for usb mouse, keyboard (need to turn on in bios and then it locks me out of bios) doesn't happen everytime but enough that when i tweak i switch to ps2 keyboard and mouse.
3. northbridge temps are terrible. they should have made a better solution.
4. post screen never reflects true settings for cpu or ram speed.