Official eVGA 780i Discussion/Review/Overclock/Guide Thread

[101]

FF is not an acronym for anything, it's just the highest 8 bit number. The post code byte counts up, so naturally the last one is used for when it's finished.

I am really enjoying my 780i, only problem I have is the A0 warm reboot error hole at 1625-1725MHz. Don't have time to waste doing the RMA dance more than once.

Hard to beat 8GB of cheap DDR2 while they flush the channel for DDR3, enjoy it while you can. No sense fretting over the impending 790i release as the only reason to own a 780i is for SLI, and you're not going to be system RAM BW limited in games anyways. It remains to be seen if the integrated nforce 200 bridge will make a difference. Or even if it's card to card features will matter at all until an actual new GPU comes out instead of more rehashed crap from 18 months ago.

[malik22]

Is there any difference with the XFX 780 board?and does the NB get really hot the fan they supply doesnt look too good.

[golfjam]

My first mobo was DOA and my replacement is doing fine. Oc'ed to 3.6 but 3.2ghz is the sweet spot for silence. I decided to switch from a Maximus Formula X38 after a huge dissapointment with HD3870 Crossfire. No increase in perfomance after 7.11, 7.12 and 8.1 . Got a single 8800GTS G92 instead. I was so impressed that I decided to go SLI. Not really necessary to be honest, Crossfire or SLI doesn't increase FPS as much as people think. But no regrets, COD4 looks beautiful in 28" LCD @ 1920x1200 maxed out. CoH is really impressive w/ detail model maxed out.
Anyway, the board itself is ok. It does what its supossed to do. I don't like the layout but maybe because I was so used to Asus boards. But I get an occasional BSOD, related to Nvidia drivers (nvgts.sys). I've been lazy and didn't try to fix it but I did some research in other forums and found out that it's not only me. Some say it's driver (mobo or video), bios, raid... whatever. And it only happens in XP, Vista 64 runs perfect. Funny thing is if it doesn't crash in the 30 sec. after load, I'm good to go. Ran Prime95 2x, 3.6 and 3.2ghz,for 9+ hours. I sincerely hope this mobo won't give me headaches like previous 680i chipset, but if it does, who cares? I'll step-up to 790i DDR2 or just sell it.

[malik22]

My first mobo was DOA and my replacement is doing fine. Oc'ed to 3.6 but 3.2ghz is the sweet spot for silence. I decided to switch from a Maximus Formula X38 after a huge dissapointment with HD3870 Crossfire. No increase in perfomance after 7.11, 7.12 and 8.1 . Got a single 8800GTS G92 instead. I was so impressed that I decided to go SLI. Not really necessary to be honest, Crossfire or SLI doesn't increase FPS as much as people think. But no regrets, COD4 looks beautiful in 28" LCD @ 1920x1200 maxed out. CoH is really impressive w/ detail model maxed out.
Anyway, the board itself is ok. It does what its supossed to do. I don't like the layout but maybe because I was so used to Asus boards. But I get an occasional BSOD, related to Nvidia drivers (nvgts.sys). I've been lazy and didn't try to fix it but I did some research in other forums and found out that it's not only me. Some say it's driver (mobo or video), bios, raid... whatever. And it only happens in XP, Vista 64 runs perfect. Funny thing is if it doesn't crash in the 30 sec. after load, I'm good to go. Ran Prime95 2x, 3.6 and 3.2ghz,for 9+ hours. I sincerely hope this mobo won't give me headaches like previous 680i chipset, but if it does, who cares? I'll step-up to 790i DDR2 or just sell it.

Im about to do the same thing sell of my 3870 what a dissapointed they are is the fan supplied sufficient for the NB? and I heardthe 790I is ddr 3 only.

[golfjam]

Im about to do the same thing sell of my 3870 what a dissapointed they are is the fan supplied sufficient for the NB? and I heardthe 790I is ddr 3 only.

2 versions: DDR2 and DDR3, speculation around the web but makes a LOT of sense.
I forgot to mention. MCP gets hot, over 90C. Included fan is a joke. Noisy and ineffective. Got another one on Egg and reapplied Ceramique on SB/NB/MCP. Temps are down to reasonable 50C.

[Gunslinger]

Found the cause of my instant "FF" at boot up. I had a dead 8800GTX.

[GAR]

I thought it meant 'Fist F*ck', considering some users get that with no POST.


My E8400 is at 400FSB for now, but with 8GB of RAM and 1.30V on NB.

i wont believe you enless you show me an 8 hour prime shot, blend.

[malik22]

2 versions: DDR2 and DDR3, speculation around the web but makes a LOT of sense.
I forgot to mention. MCP gets hot, over 90C. Included fan is a joke. Noisy and ineffective. Got another one on Egg and reapplied Ceramique on SB/NB/MCP. Temps are down to reasonable 50C.

Thx for the response what size fan will fit the NB 40mm,60mm?
and does the thermalright ultra extreme fit on this mobo.

[GAR]

in a closed case, ive never seen my NB over 60c even after heavy loads, if your NB temps exceed 70c you should take the heatsink out and replace the thermal compound.

[Khaotic]

.01 you mean?

Thats not bad at all.

From waht I have seen from other sites, the e8400 plays just fine on it.

Yes, I sure did. Spent WAY too much time trying to read things to small for my 38 year old eyes. Anyway, I did manage to score a pretty decent E8400. Going by the idea in another thread, going for wafer number, my last 2 digits are 03. Microcenter let me pick through their selection until i found something I liked. Of course, they all knew "batch number" but i guess their employees aren't big XS readers.
Anyway, I'm still adjusting motherboard voltages to peg down a stable overclock. I can Prime, and I can SuperPI, but running 3DMark 06 sometimes throws it for a loop. I've only got a pair of old eVGA 8800GTX SLI'd up at the moment.

So, with this vDroop pencil mod - are you folks just layering the pencil lead on that resistor, or are you going back and making an ohm reading and trying for a spefic impedance? So far, I've just layred the stuff on there......

[Khaotic]

4gb, 4 sticks or 2sticks, you need atleast 1.5v on the NB, thats pretty much up to the memory controller on the board you get, i have had a 780i who couldnt pass prime blend on anything above 333fsb, which was a broken NB, this board i have now is pretty good memory overclocker at high fsb, with the nvidia chipset at higher fsb its harder to get higher frequency form 4gb of memory.

When you say high FSB overclock..... how high is high?
I've got an E8400 and a 2x2 set of G.Skill DDR2-1000. With crappy timings (5-5-5-15) my board can chug along with a 450 FSB (1800) and 500 (1000) Mem bus. I've not gone through the headache of trying to get a 1:1 @ 500 yet.............

[malik22]

thx Gar does the thermalright ultra extreme have any problems fitting on this board? and is there a difference between the evga and xfx does one oce better?

[shawn1998]

Thx for the response what size fan will fit the NB 40mm,60mm?
and does the thermalright ultra extreme fit on this mobo.

60mm fan fits nicely on the nb. I used a Vantec Stealth 60x25mm and tie wrapped it to the nb sink. Looks decent, cools better (5-6c temp drop) and is waaaay quieter than the stock (blow dryer).

[Thorvald]

Well what a difference over my Striker Extreme MB. I was able to clock 3.6 using full auto settings without any issues.

Brought my 3DMark03 score up to 79241 and my 3DMark06 up to 18007, not bad.

Now to start messing with the settings and see what I can really get out of this MB.

Cheers

[malik22]

60mm fan fits nicely on the nb. I used a Vantec Stealth 60x25mm and tie wrapped it to the nb sink. Looks decent, cools better (5-6c temp drop) and is waaaay quieter than the stock (blow dryer).

Thx do you think this delta fan will fit with a thermalright ultra extreme 120 for the cpu
http://www.pc-cooling.ch/product_inf...oducts_id=2743
its a 60x38mm pushing 50cfm.

[saphirex7]

Hi
This thread at the EVGA forums on alternative NorthBridge cooling might be of interest
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=213483

So my rig has been running for 5 days so far (waiting for all of the parts to assemble) and I am running at stock speeds so far....Any advice on setting up a slight O'clock?

Thanks
SaphireX

[joe.denice]

Found the cause of my instant "FF" at boot up. I had a dead 8800GTX.

Same as me!

[Robilar]

I have had my Q6600 on the EVGA lock up a few times in the last several weeks without explanation. Hours of gaming no problem. All of sudden hard lock. this is with my chip only running at 3.2 (8x400) and ram at 800mhz. I thought it might be video card or software related but one of the times it locked up and I rebooted I got a disk boot failure error (I only have a single hdd, no raid). After rebooting again it went into windows.

I've orthos'd 3.2 and 3.6 for hours without issue and my temps are definitely not an issue (cpu cores never above 52c, MCP 51-52c under load) so I am pretty puzzled.

Any ideas?

[Robilar]

Hi
This thread at the EVGA forums on alternative NorthBridge cooling might be of interest
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=213483

So my rig has been running for 5 days so far (waiting for all of the parts to assemble) and I am running at stock speeds so far....Any advice on setting up a slight O'clock?

Thanks
SaphireX

Too much work, try an antec spotcool instead. Better temps (it has a 3 speed controller) and installs in 10 seconds).

http://www.overclock.net/3167191-post3.html

[radical]

Specs as follows:

eVGA 780i SLI 775 Rev. A1
Intel Kentsfield Q6600 L727A
2x OCZ PC2-6400 Vista Performance Platinum Dual Channel DDR2 800 @ 5-4-4-15(4GB)
eVGA 8800 GTS SSC 640Mb
3x WD Caviar SE16 500GB RAID-5
2x SH-S203B 20X SpeedPlus DVD Writer.

Currently running XP SP2 (and patches).

I did find out one thing for sure. The system seems pretty stable right now after getting all the patches and BIOS updates up to current. I still get a Blue screen every now and then, but there is a definite pattern - If I am accessing the DVD drive in explorer and eject a disk - that is when the OS will sometimes Blue screen. It never happens any other time. As long as I know this, I will avoid doing it, but it appears to be some kind of bug with the driver/controller/drives.

And yes, I updated the DVD drive BIOS too, it was a couple of revs less than current. I have updated the board to P3 BIOS rev as well.

FYI

[radical]

The BSOD says something to the effect of "nvgts.sys" crashed.

rad

[GAR]

This has been said more than a few times in this thread, the nvidia drivers seem to be the issue with the BSOD in XP, VISTA, has no BSOD problem........to fix this dont install the media shield drivers while installing the chipset drivers, something to do with raid and sata cd-rom drives.

[lopri]

i wont believe you enless you show me an 8 hour prime shot, blend.

My mistake. Somehow I mistook vFSB as vSPP. Still, vFSB=1.3V and vSPP=1.4V. I will dig up a Prime shot. I normally don't run Blend, though. Always LargeFFT because I think it stresses the memory controller (not the memory) most.

[lopri]

This has been said more than a few times in this thread, the nvidia drivers seem to be the issue with the BSOD in XP, VISTA, has no BSOD problem........to fix this dont install the media shield drivers while installing the chipset drivers, something to do with raid and sata cd-rom drives.

As a matter of fact, that was the biggest trouble I went through with 680i. Even without RAID, it wasn't uncommon that I get a file corrupt or BSOD. After the initial Prime (I am not aiming a high FSB overclock with this setup, rather a quiet gaming machine.. as much as possible) I setup a RAID0 with 2 x Raptors for OS/Apps, and RAID1 with 2 x 500GB for data. Plus 2 x DVD-RW's. All off of the 6 SATA ports rooted in MCP. I also have both ethernet ports hooked to gigabit switch. Between the LAN and RAID, I constantly move/copy variety of files and folders. Install/uninstall and defrag. So far the stability of storage subsystem is leaps and bounds better than that of 680i. (Granted I am running my rig outside a case with extra cooling on MCP)

[lopri]

The BSOD says something to the effect of "nvgts.sys" crashed.

rad

A quick Q for you: Did you install the RAID driver before/with the OS, or after the OS installation?