GIGABYTE DS3 FAQ by CrazyJohn /FAQ on 1st page/

[Omastar]

Slacker, it appears a lot of people were having X-Fi compatibility problems with F6, so I flashed back to F5 and it seems to have fixed the problem. Another possible solution is raising the PCI Bus Latency from 32 (factory set) to 64 or 128. To get to PCI latency, just do Ctrl+F1 in BIOS as usual, and it's under PCI/PnP Configurator or whatever.

If raising PCI latency doesn't help, flashing to F5 seems to be the best solution for now. F6, in my opinion, is still too new, even in its final release, to be assumed as stable as F6 (September 6th). Wait for F7, I suppose, to see if the problems in F6 are fixed without having to flash to an earlier BIOS.

But F5 gave me the same overclock as I had with F6, so meh.

[darkandlong]

Lil problem here.

I am able to o/c to this:

But after that i cant raise FSB...

1st i thought it was my memory (DDR2-667) but then i raised the mem divider to 4:5 and i was able to do that (timings are AUTO):

I have to say i didnt try to do more. Maybe ram can do better...i ll try later. But that is not the case.

All voltages are in NORMAL mode. Tried to raise manually Vdimm by 0.4 but i got a FAILED msg in bios.

Why PC cant hold more FSB than 430 in 1:1???Am i missing something here?

It could just be the limit of your chip. 3.4 GHz is pretty good. If you think you're at a FSB wall, lower the multi and go from there.

[crspyjohn]

Does everyone put there pci-e to 100 or should it be auto? If i put auto and overclock will it like destory the card?

[SnakeEyes]

Does everyone put there pci-e to 100 or should it be auto? If i put auto and overclock will it like destory the card?

I always lock it in at 100, and seems most people do or anywhere from 100 - 110. I'm not sure about destroying the card, but I'm sure locking it down would help your overclock and stability...

[Dazog]

I leave mine set to 100

and F6 is stable as F4 for me.

Can't wait to see what F7 will bring.

[crspyjohn]

gah i had a c2d for a month then sold it and been without one for a week!~!!! i cant take it

[bofors]

Does anyone know the specified amperages of the DS3's fan headers?

I am thinking about using some meaty Delta fans, but want the montherboard to control their noise. I can not find the specification in Gigabyte's DS3 manual.

[TheForce81]

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=125050

My overclock on a Gigabyte DQ4@DQ6 F5 BIOS, not bad for a stock voltage system Orthos small FFT at max 50c! Will try to go even further, but I'd like to know if it stays stable at this speed for a longer time.

[snips]

It could just be the limit of your chip. 3.4 GHz is pretty good. If you think you're at a FSB wall, lower the multi and go from there.

Well I lowered the multi and FSB went up a little with devider 1:1....around 445...Normal volatges and timings...

So i CAN raise the FSBmoire than 430, memory CAN handle more than 870Mhz (430 fsb), but i cant seem to pass the 3.44 in 1:1....
And....since cpu is watercooled i doubt it is the upper limit of it. Should i "touch" FSB and VMCH voltages?

[HeadShotWI]

Can someone with a 7950-gx2 let me know what they are using for PCIE frequency and PCIE voltage? I am dual orthos stable but I am having lots of strange video problems OCed FSB to 400. I dont think its my memory or processor becuase I can run dual prime/orthos for hours without problems as well as PI calculations and temps are just fine. My video seems flakey though. Sometimes windows doesn't completely load on reboot(freezes at windows splash screen) or loads to a blank black screen. I have a feeling it is related to my video card rather than processor/memory.

Also occassionaly on a reboot my whole bios boot screen is got weird scrambly characters and colors.

[chaos30]

Can someone with a 7950-gx2 let me know what they are using for PCIE frequency and PCIE voltage? I am dual orthos stable but I am having lots of strange video problems OCed FSB to 400. I dont think its my memory or processor becuase I can run dual prime/orthos for hours without problems as well as PI calculations and temps are just fine. My video seems flakey though. Sometimes windows doesn't completely load on reboot(freezes at windows splash screen) or loads to a blank black screen. I have a feeling it is related to my video card rather than processor/memory.

I got the same problem, try setting the PCIE frequency to 100 or 105, 105 seem to work better for me. I get less blank black screen when i play game and alt+tab to window.

[Glyphic]

I have an issue, not sure when it started doing it, but for some reason whatever I set my fsb to in the bios, like say, I set it to 400, when I reboot it reports it as 399, and it says the same in windows. wtf? f6 bios, and it worked fine before.

[remorema]

does anyone have DVI issues?

I have a ds3 and a x1800xt, and is I use DVI cable i get no image at all. either in bios or windows, i get no image output trought the DVI.

if i use dvi to VGA converter, it works fine.

I tested this vga card in p5wdh and p5b and it works just fine.

is there any bios or some setting to solve this problem?

i'm using lastest bios on site. F6

[The_Hardstylez]

know anyone of this board boot with subzero temps ?

Some board are reading ~255degrees when the cpu is under subzero and don't boot because the bios thinks the cpu is to hot.

[Dublin_Gunner]

I got the same problem, try setting the PCIE frequency to 100 or 105, 105 seem to work better for me. I get less blank black screen when i play game and alt+tab to window.

I have the same issues, even at stock speeds/voltages.

Play a game for a few minutes, and it completely locks up. Have to hard re-boot, but most of the time doesnt display anything, or locks up getting into windows

[crspyjohn]

Subzero! Ur Chip Is Freezing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Brainstew]

I just got a DS3 and some fruity things are happening.

1) My onboard sound isn't working, windows says it doesn't even exist. It is set to "auto" in the bios. In sound and audio devices under the audio and voice tabs it says no playback devices.

2) In the bios it says my E6600 has a multiplyer of 6 and an of 100mhz. On cpuz it says that the cpu is 6x277. It should be 6x400, in system properties it says it is a 2.4 ghz cpu.

3) My temps in the bios are reading low to mid 70s idle, this can't be right.

If anyone can help me out it would be greatly appreciated.

[Cranox]

know anyone of this board boot with subzero temps ?

Some board are reading ~255degrees when the cpu is under subzero and don't boot because the bios thinks the cpu is to hot.

No problems with subzerotemps

[Paladin]

does anyone have DVI issues?

Do you have BIOS set to PEG graphics first? Tried pushing the button on your LCD to switch from analog (VGA) to digital (DVI)?

I've had real "rocket scientists" not try the second one and claim the computer or monitor was broken...

[newls1]

Slacker, it appears a lot of people were having X-Fi compatibility problems with F6, so I flashed back to F5 and it seems to have fixed the problem. Another possible solution is raising the PCI Bus Latency from 32 (factory set) to 64 or 128. To get to PCI latency, just do Ctrl+F1 in BIOS as usual, and it's under PCI/PnP Configurator or whatever.

If raising PCI latency doesn't help, flashing to F5 seems to be the best solution for now. F6, in my opinion, is still too new, even in its final release, to be assumed as stable as F6 (September 6th). Wait for F7, I suppose, to see if the problems in F6 are fixed without having to flash to an earlier BIOS.

But F5 gave me the same overclock as I had with F6, so meh.

Exactly! I had the same XF-I issue w/ the F6 BIOS. I tried raising the PCI latency to 64 and 128 and nothing helped. Today I switched back to the F5, and seems to be OK again. Thank god My OC was still stable (458*7) I primed for 1 hour (dual SP2004) then played FEAR for awhile, KNOCK ON WOOD, all seems good again. I didnt really like the F6 BIOS, caused me more issues then it was worth.

[A||uSiOn]

F5 for DS4 helped me out big time

I can now do 3.2Ghz 1.28V and 3.6Ghz 1.45V

[remorema]

Do you have BIOS set to PEG graphics first?

nop, going to try that ASAP.

Tried pushing the button on your LCD to switch from analog (VGA) to digital (DVI)?

yep, done that. but no success.

tkx for helping. going to try that peg first to see if it works.

[Dublin_Gunner]

I just got a DS3 and some fruity things are happening.

1) My onboard sound isn't working, windows says it doesn't even exist. It is set to "auto" in the bios. In sound and audio devices under the audio and voice tabs it says no playback devices.

2) In the bios it says my E6600 has a multiplyer of 6 and an of 100mhz. On cpuz it says that the cpu is 6x277. It should be 6x400, in system properties it says it is a 2.4 ghz cpu.

3) My temps in the bios are reading low to mid 70s idle, this can't be right.

If anyone can help me out it would be greatly appreciated.

1. Installed Azalia drivers?

2. E6600 has multi of 9. Should be 9x266, not 6x400

3. Your CPU is probably clocked itself down due to the temps. Re-install your HSF, something is obviously wrong.

[remorema]

nop, going to try that ASAP.

didnt work

i dont get image trought DVi output no matter what config i use.
i'm going to try other bioses to see if i can solve this problem.

[SilentGlider]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but can someone provide a basic overview of how much impact memory timing has on system performance. I'm running my DS3 at a mild overclock with the clock frequency increased from 266 to 320 Mhz so my E6600 is running at 2.88GHz. I've also set the memory multiplier (or whatever it's called) to 2.66 so my Corsair XMS 6400C4 memory is running at 851MHz (51Mhz over the stock speed of 800MHz). I have all of the memory parameters in BIOS set to auto except for the DIMM voltage which is set to +0.2 so the memory is running at 2.0 volts.

When I check the memory settings using CPU-Z it indicates that the memory timings are set to 5-6-6-20 whereas the memory is rated to run at 4-4-4-12. The system seems to be running perfectly at the current settings but I'm wondering if it's worth the trouble to try running the memory at a slower speed (i.e. change the multiplier to 2.5 so the memory is running at 800Mhz) and start playing around with the settings for timing or is it better to run it at the faster speed with the current timings.

Thanks in advance for your help and I'm sorry if I got any of the terminology wrong (I'm new to overclocking and still trying to make sense of all the variables involved).