nForce 790i SLI/Ultra chipset mobos - Reviews/OC/Guides

[dinos22]

I've just tested 3 different PCI Express BUS Frequencies and there's no sign of GPU Core or SPs overclocking at all.

PCIe 100MHz - PCIe 110MHz - PCIe 120MHz
3D Mark2001SE Nature: 530fps - 530.6fps - 530.1fps
AquaMark 3: 228097 - 228014 - 228097
3D Mark06 FillRate MT: 33100.978 - 33100.677 - 33100.783

what about SPP<->MCP Reference Clock MHz? did you leave it at 200 or clock it higher?

[GAR]

This is where im at so far, no corruptions that i know of, rock solid.

[eternal_fantasy]

This is where im at so far, no corruptions that i know of, rock solid.

I take it that your P1/P2 are enabled?

[tekjunkie]

This is where im at so far, no corruptions that i know of, rock solid.

Could you please post you settings. I am gonna try my S2E with my QX9650 tomorrow and your setting(s) will be a big help

[tekjunkie]

NVM, I think I remember having seen your setting in one of Natalia's threads.

[BenchZowner]

what about SPP<->MCP Reference Clock MHz? did you leave it at 200 or clock it higher?

( Ratio 5x ) SPP<->MCP Clock 210MHz

Yesterday I had a thought... "mid" & "high" memory overclocks seem to be triggering the corruption thingy... what if... the issue's sourcing from SPP to MCP data transfers ?

Yes, now we've got more things to test & see if they help in getting a stable corruption-free system

[BenchZowner]

what do you mean about the 9600GT and PCIe clocking seemed to have no affect you mean ? had to turn mine down most of the way (101)

Hi m8,

Exactly.
It looks like the 9800GTX doesn't "overclock itself" ( switch over to the PCIe BUS Frequency as reference clock ) with the PCI-Express BUS Frequency, like the 9600GT does ( raising the PCI-Express BUS Frequency with a 9600GT graphics card results in higher core clocks on the card since it's switching to and using the PCI-Express BUS Frequency as a reference clock ) [ the higher the PCI-Express BUS Speed the higher the graphics cards' GPU core clock frequency goes ].

Going from 100MHz to 110MHz and then to 120MHz should've affected the card's clocks enough to raise my scores ( about 2000pts in AquaMark 3 should've been gained ), but it didn't.
That's on a Striker II Extreme with BIOS v0601.

[TheGoat Eater]

Hi m8,

Exactly.
It looks like the 9800GTX doesn't "overclock itself" ( switch over to the PCIe BUS Frequency as reference clock ) with the PCI-Express BUS Frequency, like the 9600GT does ( raising the PCI-Express BUS Frequency with a 9600GT graphics card results in higher core clocks on the card since it's switching to and using the PCI-Express BUS Frequency as a reference clock ) [ the higher the PCI-Express BUS Speed the higher the graphics cards' GPU core clock frequency goes ].

well that is what I probably was experiencing... I am using some good clocks on the 9600GTs (845/2112/1000... in SLI) 3rd person on ORB BTW - waiting on my DICE Pot ... and new board (this morning)

[noobzed]

Nvidia ref P04 BIOS
XFX P04 BIOS

do you have the original reference bios P03, not the evga or xfx one, the nivida original ?

[manyga]

Hello!

I have a problem, i am installing the moyherboard eVga 790i ultra for first time, but I have some problems...

Already I have installed windows xp but now nothing loads me ... it does not leave me to enter..

I don't know that can happen...

Thank you very much

[GAR]

I take it that your P1/P2 are enabled?

Yes, they are both enabled.... @ TekJunie, here are my settings, but you should note that SE2 and eVGA boards act a bit different.....

fsb = 1800
mem = 1800 sync mode 8-7-7-24-2t 2.00V
cpuv 1.30v in bios
fsb = 1.30v
spp = 1.40v
mcp = 1.55v

pci-e = 120mhz
ht = 250mhz

all cpu settings disabled, spread spectrums disabled, 450 is the probably the best setting for this chipset and my cpu combo.

[jugeen]

do you have the original reference bios P03, not the evga or xfx one, the nivida original ?

unfortunately i don't. i linked them from XFX support.

[RLM]

@RLM, the ntune screen shot is from XP or vista? The nTune in my XP installation does is not giving me options to change voltages from windows.

It's in Xp mate. Download here http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_...ools_6.01.html

I believe I've read some complaints with these utilities, but no probs for me so far. You can also edit all your bios settings, but it needs a restart.

There some more info on ESA here

http://www.guru3d.com/article/mainboard/513/5/

RLM

[slim142]

This is where im at so far, no corruptions that i know of, rock solid.

Wow, GAR you one lucky guy. a Q9450 at 450FSB with 1.30v thats a nice OC. Hopefully mines will be like that
BTW, did you stop there because of temps or because it wont go higher?

( Ratio 5x ) SPP<->MCP Clock 210MHz :

Hey BenchZ, isnt more stable to keep the SPP MCP Clock speed to 200Mhz?, with 680i I remember it was best to just leave it on 200mhz, does it really make a difference on 790i?

[GAR]

Wow, GAR you one lucky guy. a Q9450 at 450FSB with 1.30v thats a nice OC. Hopefully mines will be like that
BTW, did you stop there because of temps or because it wont go higher?



Hey BenchZ, isnt more stable to keep the SPP MCP Clock speed to 200Mhz?, with 680i I remember it was best to just leave it on 200mhz, does it really make a difference on 790i?

Thanks.............honestly if FSB wasnt holding this chip back, i could see 4ghz on air easy

[slim142]

Well thats what I guessed. Dont worry, 45nm Quad @ 3.6Ghz is NOT bad
I think the highest I have seen is 500Mhz FSB but with lowered multiplier, something that doesnt bring good perfomance sometimes.

[GAR]

yeah im happy with my setup intill nehalem in mid 2009, is when i will upgrade again.....besides my video card.

[tekjunkie]

Yes, they are both enabled.... @ TekJunie, here are my settings, but you should note that SE2 and eVGA boards act a bit different.....

fsb = 1800
mem = 1800 sync mode 8-7-7-24-2t 2.00V
cpuv 1.30v in bios
fsb = 1.30v
spp = 1.40v
mcp = 1.55v

pci-e = 120mhz
ht = 250mhz

all cpu settings disabled, spread spectrums disabled, 450 is the probably the best setting for this chipset and my cpu combo.

Thanks

[slim142]

yeah im happy with my setup intill nehalem in mid 2009, is when i will upgrade again.....besides my video card.

Sorry to ask again but I just want to make sure now that you are 100% estable. With that setup and those settings w/ P1 and P2 enabled, are you getting good speeds (read/write) w/ everest benchies?

[dinos22]

i can answer that one for you man
YES!!!

[slim142]

i can answer that one for you man
YES!!!

Nice to hear that

What about the SIIE? Does enabling P1 and P2 fixes the low memory bandwidth after 420Mhz FSB w/ BIOS 0601?

[tekjunkie]

Is anybody running any kind of RAM 1T on the 790i. I am asking this because my Gskill F3-12800CL7D-2GBHZ arrived today and I ran Memtest @ the rated timing and speed of the RAM(1600 7-7-7-18 1T 1.9V)and I get a whole lot of errors in memtest. But, with the same setting in BIOS, except that I change it to 2T and then all the error goes away for 2 passes. Now I am running 1900 @7-7-7-18 2T @ 1.9V and I am on 98&#37; in memtest as I type this.


This is on the S2E with E3110.

[GAR]

i can answer that one for you man
YES!!!

He got it!!

But one thing that is not right on this board is when it goes into sleep mode, it crashes on you........i got a bsod after accidentally going into sleep mode.....it happened to me twice, and twice i got a bsod......anyone else get this???

[dinos22]

have you tried playing with those standby settings maybe
i don't use this board 24/7 and i don't use sleep mode any more

it's either on or off for me hehe

[skinnee]

i don't use sleep mode any more

it's either on or off for me hehe

+1 to that...sleep mode used to always give me problems, problems went away when I quit using it. Hibernation always seemed to work consistently.