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

[slim142]

The Black Slots do 1801 and up.

On the eVGA and XFX (reference boards) use the black slots, on the SIIE use the blue slots for 1800+.

I am pretty sure the S2E has 4 high bandwidth slots, not just 2.

So if I have 4 RAM sticks, I will have inestability problems with the sticks on the white slots if I use the SIIE OC to (For example) 2000Mhz?

[GAR]

Do you guys think X-FI and 4gb of memory has something to do with this???? im going to try it when i get home from work.

[RealTelstar]

I think the issues of the x-fi w/4 gig were long ago resolved...

[evildimitris]

NVIDIA was made aware of a possible corruption issue reported by Anandtech. NVIDIA has been in contact with Anandtech and is aggressively pursuing any possible causes including extreme FSB overclocking along with certain types of high speed memory. According to all data collected thus far this appears to be a highly isolated issue. This article will be updated as needed if any issues are isolated.


http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/n...p?p_faqid=2166

[Broly]

So if I have 4 RAM sticks, I will have inestability problems with the sticks on the white slots if I use the SIIE OC to (For example) 2000Mhz?

You're going to have trouble on any board when you overclock 4 sticks of ram to 2000 mhz. I know the striker 2 extreme's slots are all 4 high bandwidth (meaning all 4 can do ddr3 2000). Whether you wanna call their bluff or not is up to you. It seems nvidia's product specifications are statements that are meant to be challenged to see if they're bluffing.

[loonym]

MSI is also advertising 4 slots ddr3 2000, wish they'd bring it to market.

[slim142]

You're going to have trouble on any board when you overclock 4 sticks of ram to 2000 mhz. I know the striker 2 extreme's slots are all 4 high bandwidth (meaning all 4 can do ddr3 2000). Whether you wanna call their bluff or not is up to you. It seems nvidia's product specifications are statements that are meant to be challenged to see if they're bluffing.

I know thats a challenge, but I just want to know what can I expect if I buy 2 more sticks (4 in total).
Does 4 sticks usually mean more voltage to the NB and more RAM voltage?

[Broly]

No, it will require just the SPD/EPP values. It's the stress on the controller and if it can handle that speed for all 4 sticks. With a striker I bet it'll be okay because this thing is tough (It's 100 more for a reason, not just a "rebadge") as nails. You shouldn't even bother with 2000 mhz stuff anyways man because it's just massively overclocked 1333 with compromised Latencies.

[slim142]

I know, Im not buying 2000Mhz memories, is just that I might want to try to OC them to those speeds just to test them :P

[Broly]

You'll be able to hit them, very likely. Just don't expect prime stability lol.

[slim142]

Oh well -.-"

[Broly]

Hey man, you push hardware THAT hard sometimes you ask for it. Personally I think the striker extreme is a tough mother, and it probably will work because DDR3 uses low volts.

[slim142]

Well yeah my goal is to have my 1600Mhz RAM to run at 1800 since I will have my FSB at 450Mhz (hopefully), but might want to try how it feels to run it at 2000mhz

[tekjunkie]

OK Guys(and gals), I am getting somewhere here. I found out that my Qx9650 can do 4GHZ @ 1.344V(1.375 BIOS with LLC) vcore. The stability problems that I was having(With the system lockup) seems to be RAM related. I am currently running RAM @ 1780 1:2 @2.04V. Passed prime for about an hour now.



I also tried 410x10, but it required 1.408V(1.425V BIOS with LLC) vcore.




@GAR, try 2.04V for your RAM. It could be your RAM or it could be because of the PCIE overclocking, try lowering your PCIE frequency(I believe it was @ 125).

ALso, I don't understand how the tjunction could be greater than core temps. I think everest is reading it wrong or soemthing.

[tekjunkie]

Once I am done priming, I intend to run 3dmark06 in a loop for testing
3D stability. I will post back the results.

[slim142]

The thread has been inactive in the last 2 days. Did everybody give up their boards already? :P

[BenchZowner]

Nope.
But I'm doing some stuff that need to be done in a day or two

[GAR]

OK Guys(and gals), I am getting somewhere here. I found out that my Qx9650 can do 4GHZ @ 1.344V(1.375 BIOS with LLC) vcore. The stability problems that I was having(With the system lockup) seems to be RAM related. I am currently running RAM @ 1780 1:2 @2.04V. Passed prime for about an hour now.



I also tried 410x10, but it required 1.408V(1.425V BIOS with LLC) vcore.




@GAR, try 2.04V for your RAM. It could be your RAM or it could be because of the PCIE overclocking, try lowering your PCIE frequency(I believe it was @ 125).

ALso, I don't understand how the tjunction could be greater than core temps. I think everest is reading it wrong or soemthing.

Hey bro, my pci-e was at 100 when i got the problems, also i lowered my ram frequency for now just to keep the system stable, well see what happens with the next bios release, i hope memory problems get sorted out.

[tekjunkie]

I guess I spoke too soon.(Goes and sits in a corner). . I left it to prime when I slept and sure enough woke up to find out the system was frozen. . Now, I have dropped my VTT to 1.2 per 5010. Let's see how it goes.

[slim142]

Have you guys read about the upcoming 790i FTW? Sounds promising...

[saaya]

NVIDIA was made aware of a possible corruption issue reported by Anandtech. NVIDIA has been in contact with Anandtech and is aggressively pursuing any possible causes including extreme FSB overclocking along with certain types of high speed memory. According to all data collected thus far this appears to be a highly isolated issue. This article will be updated as needed if any issues are isolated.


http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/n...p?p_faqid=2166

highly isolated issue... sure...
50% of the people that voted here have corruption issues, and this isnt about xtreme fsb and memory ocing... we are talking about 400 and 450fsb and 1600 and 1800 mem speeds here...

Broly, it IS possible to get 500fsb+ and 2000mem speed+ stable on 790, it just doesnt work on all boards and seems to be very tricky to tweak, while on x48 its easier. after all nvidia advertises the 790 as THE enthusiast chipset which can reach higher fsb and mem speeds than other chipsets... but all the sudden it turns out most of the chipsets actually oc worse than intel chipsets, and even the best ones nvidia can churn out are at best, as good as intel x48 chipsets or maybe slightly better, depending on the clock speeds your running.

and now nvidia is saying its an isolated issue with extreme overclocking?
doesnt nvidia say 790 officially supports ddr3 2000?
that was the main selling/marketing point from what i remember...
so now officially the max is 1333fsb with 1333 mem and 1600fsb with 1600 mem is already extreme overclocking?

[slim142]

highly isolated issue... sure...
50% of the people that voted here have corruption issues, and this isnt about xtreme fsb and memory ocing... we are talking about 400 and 450fsb and 1600 and 1800 mem speeds here...

Broly, it IS possible to get 500fsb+ and 2000mem speed+ stable on 790, it just doesnt work on all boards and seems to be very tricky to tweak, while on x48 its easier. after all nvidia advertises the 790 as THE enthusiast chipset which can reach higher fsb and mem speeds than other chipsets... but all the sudden it turns out most of the chipsets actually oc worse than intel chipsets, and even the best ones nvidia can churn out are at best, as good as intel x48 chipsets or maybe slightly better, depending on the clock speeds your running.

and now nvidia is saying its an isolated issue with extreme overclocking?
doesnt nvidia say 790 officially supports ddr3 2000?
that was the main selling/marketing point from what i remember...
so now officially the max is 1333fsb with 1333 mem and 1600fsb with 1600 mem is already extreme overclocking?

Highly agreed with you saaya.
Why is eVGA preparing another 790i when the current one has problems is what I dont understand...

[GAR]

highly isolated issue... sure...
50% of the people that voted here have corruption issues, and this isnt about xtreme fsb and memory ocing... we are talking about 400 and 450fsb and 1600 and 1800 mem speeds here...

Broly, it IS possible to get 500fsb+ and 2000mem speed+ stable on 790, it just doesnt work on all boards and seems to be very tricky to tweak, while on x48 its easier. after all nvidia advertises the 790 as THE enthusiast chipset which can reach higher fsb and mem speeds than other chipsets... but all the sudden it turns out most of the chipsets actually oc worse than intel chipsets, and even the best ones nvidia can churn out are at best, as good as intel x48 chipsets or maybe slightly better, depending on the clock speeds your running.

and now nvidia is saying its an isolated issue with extreme overclocking?
doesnt nvidia say 790 officially supports ddr3 2000?
that was the main selling/marketing point from what i remember...
so now officially the max is 1333fsb with 1333 mem and 1600fsb with 1600 mem is already extreme overclocking?

Agreed.

[evildimitris]

Lets see another one post about the nf790i chipset problems and what nvidia answer to us......



Nvidia released a brief announcement admitting that its latest nForce 790i
chipset for Intel CPUs cause data corruption under overclocking conditions.

The problem was reported by many enthusiasts that tried to overclock a 790i-based system
by changing the processor system bus (PSB) as well as the memory clock speeds.
Reports indicated that this procedure could lead to data corruption on hard disk drives.

"Nvidia has received reports of data corruption when using certain high speed memory and overclocking
the front side bus," Nvidia admitted. "Our engineers are currently investigating
this issue and as soon as we have more information, we will provide an update," the company said.

Apparently, Nvidia is preparing a new BIOS update to fix the problems related to the most
expensive chipset around.

Consumers had also experienced similar issues in the past caused by the Nvidia nForce 4 based
motherboards.

Nvidia's 790i platform is designed for current and next-generation Intel CPUs,
including those that support a 1600MHz frontside bus (FSB). It supports DDR3 memory,
PCI Express Gen 2.0, and the new Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA) communications protocol
for the real-time monitoring and control of PC components. The nForce 790i Ultra SLI MCP
is also certified to run 2-Way, 3-Way, and Quad SLI GPU configurations.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------
EVGA 790i Ultra
QX9770 4.05 ghz - 1.42v
2GB shellshock DDR 3 1800 mhz 7 6 6 21 1T - 2.0v
2XGeForce 9800GTX SLI
SoundBlaster X-Fi elite pro
3x150gb wd Raptors Raid-0
2x1TB Seagate Raid
Tagan 950 watt
Watercooling

[golfjam]

I got another S2E and no corruptions problems anymore. But I can't get any stable oc on this thing. I've played around w/ all voltages and all I get is fail on Prime in less then 1 min and BSOD, every single time for the past 4 days no matter what fsb set. My Q6600 did 400x9 or 450x8 on P35, X38 and 780i before without a sweat but this is ridiculous. And to keep it worse, after reading this forum carefully for the past 2 weeks, I'll probably get random freeze if I finally get it running.