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

[Broly]

You're also running 24 TRAS man. I'm running 20.
That's huge.

I lowered VTT and it's giving me the same result. I ing hate when 1 or 2 cores don't live past a few mins. I am trying to figure out how to fix it.

[slim142]

tekjunkie, if you get your system estable when you wake up, please post your BIOS settings as Im not really into mV and the GTReF lines and I wouldnt really know what to do in case problems happens.
Btw Ill be using a Q9450

[Logos]

Thermaltake Armor+ (Waiting for ESA edition, getting tired of waiting)

off topic:
saw in your sig...
slim if you really want the Armor+ you might just as well buy the non-ESA version now. You might be able later to buy the ESA module - it's just a card/panel to plugin fans + PSU USB connector etc... Not one hundred percent sure this will be sold separately but honestly, ESA is just about NVidia propaganda imho. You can get most of the info (except the PSU though) through other panels and software.

Actually Siverstone even make some ESA panels:
http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...MD01-ESA&area=

hope that helps

[hifiking]

I got my evga board back from step-up today. I took 4 weeks, so while I have been waiting I have seen all this bad stuff happeing. So I hoped mine would be OK. But with an E8400, 2x8800GT and Kingston 1600 7-7-7-20 2GB it's not stable at stock. It crashes in CoD4 after 2 mins. I have tried a lot of gtlf volts, and vtt's. But 10 mins of CoD 4 is the most i can get out of this board. And that was with Vtt 1.35 and -0.25mv. Lowering the ram to 1333 doesn't do diddily, nor do any vcore. I will continue to try combinations of volts, but I was looking forward to play some games after 4 weeks without a computer. Is there any hope P03R2 is better than P04?

[tekjunkie]

You're also running 24 TRAS man. I'm running 20.
That's huge.

I lowered VTT and it's giving me the same result. I ing hate when 1 or 2 cores don't live past a few mins. I am trying to figure out how to fix it.

tekjunkie, if you get your system estable when you wake up, please post your BIOS settings as Im not really into mV and the GTReF lines and I wouldnt really know what to do in case problems happens.
Btw Ill be using a Q9450

BOOYEAH!!!I finally nailed it. 14 hours of being prime stable @445 FSB for 4GHZ on my QX9650. It looks like my QX9650 likes somewhere around .64x and .65x GTL.



@ Broly, I am ruuning 18 TRAS with my Gskills 2x1GB sticks. I am getting my OCZ EB 4 gb sticks which was RMAEd Monday.

@Slim, Hang on buddy, let me reboot and see the exact GTL settings. On top of my head it's like -31mV and -32mV, but let me makse sure. Also, your mileage may vary with your yorkie.

[5010]

I got my evga board back from step-up today. I took 4 weeks, so while I have been waiting I have seen all this bad stuff happeing. So I hoped mine would be OK. But with an E8400, 2x8800GT and Kingston 1600 7-7-7-20 2GB it's not stable at stock. It crashes in CoD4 after 2 mins. I have tried a lot of gtlf volts, and vtt's. But 10 mins of CoD 4 is the most i can get out of this board. And that was with Vtt 1.35 and -0.25mv. Lowering the ram to 1333 doesn't do diddily, nor do any vcore. I will continue to try combinations of volts, but I was looking forward to play some games after 4 weeks without a computer. Is there any hope P03R2 is better than P04?

Lower your VTT, thats on the brink for any 45nm CPU... use 1.1-1.2VTT then find your proper GTLVREF's from there.

[hifiking]

Ok, I have been trough 1.2 aswell. Will try 1.1 now.

[tekjunkie]

Ok, here are my settings for 445FSB prime stable for 14 hours with no errors on any cores.

QDR/RAM=1780 Unlinked
PCIE1/PCIE2 = 100
SPP<-> MCP= Auto
vCORE=1.375(1.344 in windows per cpuz)
Loadline =Enabled
vTT = 1.28
PLL=Auto
vDIMM=1.9
vSPP =1.46
vMCP = 1.55
CPU GTL_REF0 = -29mV
CPU GTL_REF1=-32mV


I am gonna run 3dmark06 in a loop, to see how 3D stable I am.

[Broly]

Oh, I'm running linked... I care about that setting alot.

[slim142]

off topic:
saw in your sig...
slim if you really want the Armor+ you might just as well buy the non-ESA version now. You might be able later to buy the ESA module - it's just a card/panel to plugin fans + PSU USB connector etc... Not one hundred percent sure this will be sold separately but honestly, ESA is just about NVidia propaganda imho. You can get most of the info (except the PSU though) through other panels and software.

Actually Siverstone even make some ESA panels:
http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...MD01-ESA&area=

hope that helps

Yes, I was thinking about that because Im really tired of waiting and im getting my stuff next week and with no case, Im nowhere since I wont have anywhere to put my stuff. Thermaltake said they will NOT sell the ESA module separately but I been thinking about it and is just a fan controller with fan readers which Im probably gonna use once or twice.

Ok, here are my settings for 445FSB prime stable for 14 hours with no errors on any cores.

QDR/RAM=1780 Unlinked
PCIE1/PCIE2 = 100
SPP<-> MCP= Auto
vCORE=1.375(1.344 in windows per cpuz)
Loadline =Enabled
vTT = 1.28
PLL=Auto
vDIMM=1.9
vSPP =1.46
vMCP = 1.55
CPU GTL_REF0 = -29mV
CPU GTL_REF1=-32mV


I am gonna run 3dmark06 in a loop, to see how 3D stable I am.

Ok so you lowered the REF0 to -29 and the REF1 to -32, since we have yorkies, this settings might also work for me in case I run in trouble. What I want to know, what are the default settings for REF0 and REF1? Because what I plan to do is to lower those settings by -5 until I find the spot. Also, do you manually imput this or does it show you a panel with options? like -30, -29, -28 etc etc

BTW, Congrats tekjunkie nice job now show to us that you are 3D estable and also might want to run some other benchies to be 100% sure

[5010]

EVGA 790iU 24/7 Stable settings w/Q6600 + 2GB Micron D9GTR + SLI 8800 (G80)
Computer been on for 2-3 weeks, gaming, DLing, Watching HD + looping it all night every night, web surfing, formatting HDDs, transferring 350GB around just for fun etc etc.. NO HANGS/Freezes or BSODs in XP or Vista Ultimate under any circumstances.

Q6600 G0 @ 3.55GHz
444 /1777FSB x 8
Linked and Synced
P1 + P2 Enabled
Timings: 7-7-7-21-1T (All other sub-timings auto)

CPU Vcore: 1.50 (Bios)
FSB VTT: 1.35
Memory: 1.95V
SPP: 1.40V
MCP: 1.50V

GTLVREF +35mv all lanes (works at +%2.6 - +%2.7 no matter the VTT all the way down to 1.20VTT and even upto 1900FSB)

Virtualization: enable
All other CPU features: disabled

[slim142]

Hey 5010, thats a golden mobo... or should I say a patient user with goals accomplished
Couple of questions
Do you keep your FSB at 444 because it wont boot at higher FSBs speeds or because it gives you corruptions/bsod after 444?

For Q6600, I think you need to increase GTLREFs 0 and 1 and for Yorkies and Wolfys you need to decrease them right?

[Broly]

Hmm I got a stable 3dm06 of 20487 with 1600mhz FSB synced with 10 multi.
ing prime

[5010]

Hey 5010, thats a golden mobo... or should I say a patient user with goals accomplished
Couple of questions
Do you keep your FSB at 444 because it wont boot at higher FSBs speeds or because it gives you corruptions/bsod after 444?

For Q6600, I think you need to increase GTLREFs 0 and 1 and for Yorkies and Wolfys you need to decrease them right?

Neither actually, I set 1777FSB / 7-7-7-21-1T as a sort of "personal goal" before I even got the board in my hands, I find it's good to have something to work toward. Besides that, I wanted to make it absolutely 100&#37; 24/7 commercially warrantiable so that I can reproduce these settings on PC's I'll be building in the future at work, one failure in this respect is a complete failure. Another reason is that 1.95V is about as much as I feel comfortable with giving the RAM on a 24/7 Basis aswell as 1.50Vcore on the CPU, atleast while on air cooling alone.

However I have mapped some preliminary stability settings at 475/1900FSB linked and synced w/ P1 & P2 @ 1T but the board or perhaps the P04 BIOS dislikes a 7X multiplier and using 8-9X gets the CPU zipping along pretty fast for air alone to consider it as 24/7 and warrantiable. Might end up going that route for my own rig here since I plan on replacing the RAM and CPU anyways but in all honesty I'm very pleased to have achieved my goals and except for benching there's really no use in getting my CPU/FSB any faster since when benching CRYSIS @ 1900FSB I saw *0 performance improvement over my current settings I cant really justify any real world performance gains over the reduced life expectancy of my components by going any higher

Stay tuned though I may just defeat 1900FSB for the fun of it

--

As for the GTLVREFs - I personally found that I had to adjust all lanes equally to attain the best stability but yes Kentsfields do tend to like a higher ratio while yorkies and wolfies like it lower.

[Big Myke]

I can be rock stable with 3dmark06, OCCT...but Orthos is pissing me off. I finally got to the point of being rock stable with OCCT for hours and hours but orthos just doesn't like my system. changing my VTT/GTLs got me stable with OCCT.

[Broly]

5010 what's version 2 of the 790i?

[5010]

5010 what's version 2 of the 790i?

CPU-Z reads the board as "132-CK-NF79 | 2"
w/ Chipset Rev. B1

[Broly]

Mine says B1 but not version 2. Mine's an S2E so i dunno

[tekjunkie]

Yes, I was thinking about that because Im really tired of waiting and im getting my stuff next week and with no case, Im nowhere since I wont have anywhere to put my stuff. Thermaltake said they will NOT sell the ESA module separately but I been thinking about it and is just a fan controller with fan readers which Im probably gonna use once or twice.



Ok so you lowered the REF0 to -29 and the REF1 to -32, since we have yorkies, this settings might also work for me in case I run in trouble. What I want to know, what are the default settings for REF0 and REF1? Because what I plan to do is to lower those settings by -5 until I find the spot. Also, do you manually imput this or does it show you a panel with options? like -30, -29, -28 etc etc

BTW, Congrats tekjunkie nice job now show to us that you are 3D estable and also might want to run some other benchies to be 100% sure

3dmark06 stable for 3 hours. It pissed me off when it the driver crapped out on me the first time, but when I looked @ ntune, I realised thta SLI was disabled and I enabled it and everything worked fine. I don't know why disbling SLI would crap the driver out.

3DMark06 with gfx @ default




3DMark06 with moderate OC of the gfx

[Coupa]

Ok so you lowered the REF0 to -29 and the REF1 to -32, since we have yorkies, this settings might also work for me in case I run in trouble. What I want to know, what are the default settings for REF0 and REF1? Because what I plan to do is to lower those settings by -5 until I find the spot. Also, do you manually imput this or does it show you a panel with options? like -30, -29, -28 etc etc

Its in intervals (dunno of how much, ive never really been bothered to check).

And i have a Q9450, and ive tried literally every GTLref in the negatives from when it literally wont boot, to the minimum value closest to 0, and still i freeze 10 minutes in to Call of duty 4/Crysis.

[Broly]

Lol my values never have frozen. Just don't prime stable. Screw prime

[hifiking]

I got the version 2 board. I have been using cod4 as a stability test, and it freez in max 10 min regardless of gtrlf or vtt. So I continued to other tests. OCCT at least 20 min stable, stopped it myself
3DM06 gfx tests 20 min stable, stopped it myself
memtest86, 20 min stable, stopped it myself

The only way I can freez this board is CoD4, or hours of occt/orthos might do it, but as long as cod4 freez I know there is a problem. I am gonna try some OC now.

My 1600 Kingston memory does 2000 at 8-8-8-20-1T and 2.1v, but performance is best at 1600 7-6-6-12-1T

[saaya]

Why you wish I get a bad board

was jk man

Not really. I cannot run my memory at its standard 1600MHz at any timings.

damn :/
are you sure its not the mem tho?
does it work fine on another board or 50mhz lower or higher than 1600?

You're also running 24 TRAS man. I'm running 20.
That's huge.

dude, tras doesnt really have an impact at all...

I got my evga board back from step-up today. I took 4 weeks, so while I have been waiting I have seen all this bad stuff happeing. So I hoped mine would be OK. But with an E8400, 2x8800GT and Kingston 1600 7-7-7-20 2GB it's not stable at stock. It crashes in CoD4 after 2 mins. I have tried a lot of gtlf volts, and vtt's. But 10 mins of CoD 4 is the most i can get out of this board. And that was with Vtt 1.35 and -0.25mv. Lowering the ram to 1333 doesn't do diddily, nor do any vcore. I will continue to try combinations of volts, but I was looking forward to play some games after 4 weeks without a computer. Is there any hope P03R2 is better than P04?

wow... kingston bins very lose... so the mem should def be fine...
not even 1600 or 1333? i mean lets say its a config problem, and if configured rght you can get the board stable... but thats not ok... how many hours is it supposed to take tweaking to get the system stable at stock? :S

and you disabled p1 and p2, right?

Ok, here are my settings for 445FSB prime stable for 14 hours with no errors on any cores.

QDR/RAM=1780 Unlinked
PCIE1/PCIE2 = 100
SPP<-> MCP= Auto
vCORE=1.375(1.344 in windows per cpuz)
Loadline =Enabled
vTT = 1.28
PLL=Auto
vDIMM=1.9
vSPP =1.46
vMCP = 1.55
CPU GTL_REF0 = -29mV
CPU GTL_REF1=-32mV


I am gonna run 3dmark06 in a loop, to see how 3D stable I am.

sweet, finally some good news
thanks for sharing your results

EVGA 790iU 24/7 Stable settings w/Q6600 + 2GB Micron D9GTR + SLI 8800 (G80)
Computer been on for 2-3 weeks, gaming, DLing, Watching HD + looping it all night every night, web surfing, formatting HDDs, transferring 350GB around just for fun etc etc.. NO HANGS/Freezes or BSODs in XP or Vista Ultimate under any circumstances.

Q6600 G0 @ 3.55GHz
444 /1777FSB x 8
Linked and Synced
P1 + P2 Enabled
Timings: 7-7-7-21-1T (All other sub-timings auto)

CPU Vcore: 1.50 (Bios)
FSB VTT: 1.35
Memory: 1.95V
SPP: 1.40V
MCP: 1.50V

GTLVREF +35mv all lanes (works at +%2.6 - +%2.7 no matter the VTT all the way down to 1.20VTT and even upto 1900FSB)

Virtualization: enable
All other CPU features: disabled

nice!
thanks for sharing!

I don't know why disbling SLI would crap the driver out.

either your not 100% stable or... the nvidia driver just crapped outlike they tend to do
dont forget the statistics microsoft released showing one 3rd of all reported vista crashes were caused by buggy nvidia drivers

im going to update the first post of the 790 corruption thread now
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=183119

[hifiking]

I ran OCCT for 20 min at 500 FSB now, a temp sensor in this board is drunk, 93C with E8400 and 1.35vcore?

Using gtlvref -0.1 and -0.05 and 1.35vtt.

I am doing some idle stability testing now, just browsing folders and reading mails. At 550 FSB I get 4E boot code and half the bios post screen. Suppose the cpu want some ice for that.

[nuclearjock]

Ok, here are my settings for 445FSB prime stable for 14 hours with no errors on any cores.

QDR/RAM=1780 Unlinked
PCIE1/PCIE2 = 100
SPP<-> MCP= Auto
vCORE=1.375(1.344 in windows per cpuz)
Loadline =Enabled
vTT = 1.28
PLL=Auto
vDIMM=1.9
vSPP =1.46
vMCP = 1.55
CPU GTL_REF0 = -29mV
CPU GTL_REF1=-32mV


I am gonna run 3dmark06 in a loop, to see how 3D stable I am.

I tried your settings as posted here, but there's one concern.

While cpuz reports 1.344v vcore, everest and Asus probe II both report 1.42v.

LLC enabled overvolts ~.05v on my board, and 1.42v is kinda the scary region for 45nm, (at least that's what I've read so far).

I'd be careful in that voltage region, I like to stay below 1.37 with LLC enabled which will give me a rock solid 3.8 which I'm happy with.