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

[slim142]

I also have my reasons to make 790i a pos.
who could believe that it would take 2 months after release for NVIDIA to make this "somewhat" estable?

They were trying to make themselves look like they were better than anybody by saying 1800Mhz and 2000Mhz support... when they got everything wrong.

[aussie-revhead]

I didnt really buy this mobo for sli and Im not really keen on buying two video cards just to justify owning it if its not going to perform.

[Ozan Baseski]

Do you guys know a program for overclocking under windows? I have used Ntune with my previous Evga 780i but it didn't work with Evga 790. And there is not a clockgen or setfsb for Nvidia chipsets as far as I know.

[Tyke]

I also have my reasons to make 790i a pos.
who could believe that it would take 2 months after release for NVIDIA to make this "somewhat" estable?

They were trying to make themselves look like they were better than anybody by saying 1800Mhz and 2000Mhz support... when they got everything wrong.

What really annoys me is that in the Anandtech review of the S2E, he gets a QX9770 to run at 500FSB linked and synced with 8GB of OCZ memory!!!???

In the real world I don't know anyone who has even got close to this: in fact has anyone got any CPU stable at 500FSB?

[aussie-revhead]

Tyke - thats a pretty huge rig there , would you mind telling me how well it scores ?

Thats about 2 months of my pay there (if I didnt eat , didnt feed the kids or put petrol in the cars)

[Daark]

Daark - can you tell me why ? What made it a pos ? I have given up on my 790i rig - voltages are weird and its unstable even at 3.2GHz. At this stage Im still waiting for my qx but tracking hasnt been updated yet so its in transit somewhere .

Im not sure , but after the simplicity and good success I had with P35 I might give a P45 deluxe a go , unless thats been ruined too .

Head over to the EVGA forums and see a world of pain with these boards. Granted there is a few S2E people experiencing lockups but not as much as the EVGA owners.
From my understanding (and i could be wrong here) the EVGA is a pure reference board made by foxconn for nvidia and sold under EVGA branding. This is not the case with the S2E. Even when you look at SuperTalents site with nice DDR3 they say its for the 790i and that its only been tested on the Asus S2E.

Tyke,

I cant even get my board to post at 500Mhz FSB let alone put 8Gb in with the same config.
No matter how much you tweak GTL-REF (as they claimed) I doubt this is possible with the QX9770, its seems to be well understood 450 is about the most you can hope to expect from em.
took me long enough to get my system Prime95 Stable at 1800Mhz. Spookily we seem to be running exactly the same settings, wonder if this is about all we can get out of it, although I'm on air so limited to pushing any further anyways.

[Tyke]

Tyke,
I cant even get my board to post at 500Mhz FSB let alone put 8Gb in with the same config.
No matter how much you tweak GTL-REF (as they claimed) I doubt this is possible with the QX9770, its seems to be well understood 450 is about the most you can hope to expect from em.
took me long enough to get my system Prime95 Stable at 1800Mhz. Spookily we seem to be running exactly the same settings, wonder if this is about all we can get out of it, although I'm on air so limited to pushing any further anyways.

I can get 460FBS to post Ok, and memtest and Prime are Ok, but I get freezing when I install Crysis (I use an installation of Crysis as a good test of my system, as it seems to catch me out when everything else seems OK!!) Strange how Anandtech even posted a picture of the QX9770 at 500FSB, makes you think!!!

[Daark]

There's a lot to be said for 'cherry picked' engineering samples

I set out to hit 4Ghz with a low multiplier. I've hit that and am stable, Crysis plays nice (1920x1200 4xAA High Config '35fps) and performance is what I want it to be.

I'm also on air so have really gone as far as i can, temps are high 60's under Prime95 load and 37-40 on idle

Would've gone SLI 9800GX2's but am waiting for the next batch of GX20's before I do that, hopefully it'll be soon so I can use the EVGA step-up program

[DR3]

Daark - can you tell me why ? What made it a pos ?

After 3 bad Striker II's
Was able to crank one up;
475 FSB @ 11.5 for 4.987 Ghz.
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=367144

I went to the EVGA 790i Ultra.
The first one had a broken ceramic resistor so I did not even get a chance to turn it on.
The second was OK.
Was able to do a little with it, but nothing like the Striker II.
It had some electrical problems with the board and sent it back.
The third board I got was DOA, would not even boot.

So now I am back with the Striker II Extreme

In my opinion the EVGA 790i Ultra has the following problems:

1. Bad position of south bridge - with the EVGA it was right under the main PCIE-16 slot, Striker II is under the Third PCIE-16
2. EVGA has a non standard case plug so you have to change a case plug.
3. EVGA uses a jumper to reset the BIOS. Much harder than the push botton with Striker.
4. EVGA has a non standard mounting configuration. 10 instead of the standard 9 screws.
5. EVGA board base material seemed thinner than the Striker II
6. EVGA heat sinks did not seem to cool adequately at higher FSB speeds. Striker II much better.

This is what I can think of just off the top of my head.

[saaya]

sorry guys, dont have the time to catch up with this thread, but in case some of you still have corruption issues gary over at anandtech is kind enought to offer to forward your problems to nvidia.

However, we are still seeing reports on other forums with users having problems with the updated BIOS code. If you are one of the unlucky souls with this continuing problem then we would like for you to email us ( gary dot key at anandtech dot com ) with your configuration and settings. We will try to replicate your problem, but more importantly we will continue to work with NVIDIA to solve any remaining issues with this chipset in regards to data corruption.

thanks gary

[aussie-revhead]

This all sounds like poop to me, my next cpu will be my last shot at making this cpu work, then out it goes.

[aussie-revhead]

OK the dramas continue - after not running this pc for a week due to lacklustre results I tried it again tonight after upgrading my radiator and no boot with last code seen on the display being C1 , it appears that this mobo has decided it doesnt like my ram , or either of the two has expired.

Im going to try single sticks , but this is not looking good .



Edit: Nup it does it with either stick on its own too .

[DR3]

OK the dramas continue - after not running this pc for a week due to lacklustre results I tried it again tonight after upgrading my radiator and no boot with last code seen on the display being C1 , it appears that this mobo has decided it doesnt like my ram , or either of the two has expired.

Im going to try single sticks , but this is not looking good .



Edit: Nup it does it with either stick on its own too .

Hope it went OK.
You might want to also try the second slot instead of the first slot.
Sometimes it is a little more forgiving.

[aussie-revhead]

Hope it went OK.
You might want to also try the second slot instead of the first slot.
Sometimes it is a little more forgiving.

RLM suggested I do an overnight reset of bios and this morning it started up as normal , I loaded my safe profile 3Ghz 1.35v 1600Mhz 1.9v and its all fine stable and happy , so go figure.

[extremis]

So,

What is causing everyone to RMA their boards?

I tried to boot a copy of vista working on my X48 box, and it blue screened on boot. (unfortunately, it reboots immediately)

Next step was to reinstall. After it extracts all the files and reboots the first time, it blue screens on boot. (Same immediate reboot)

I have tried every setting for my Q9450, and my 12800 G.Skill 2x2GB Kit: auto, manual, low FSB, linked, unlinked... etc etc. I tried copying other people's profiles, and still blue screen.

Sometimes I can get it to boot a bit farther, but it will either say that it had encountered an error during install and needs to be reinstalled, or it won't boot all the way into the GUI after that first reboot upon install.

Is this something that I should consider RMA'ing for? Honestly, it seems like a hardware issue, but is this simply my inability to configure my bios?

BTW, I have tried 0402, 0704, and 0801 (which I am running now).

[aussie-revhead]

Is there a vdroop mod for these motherboards ? From bios setting to windows loaded voltage I am losing 0.1v , it makes my bios setting very high for what it really needs loaded.

RLM - Im currently priming my qx at 4ghz , is it easier on the mobo to clock with lower fsb and higher multi ? How does this affect vcore needed ? Is vcore at 333x12 going to be the same as 400x10 for example ?

[Leeghoofd]

Aussie to keep ya CPU a long time, don't leave them chipset voltage settings at AUTO plz... my 780i ruined my first QX for sure, the other 3 I tested remained pretty stable from a few days of burn in on decent PWM equipped mobo's... and that Vdroop is horrendous... really strange it is present on the 790i too...

For your multi/voltage question a higher multi with a lower FSB should be able to maintain the same speed with a it less voltage yes... eg I need 1.28 for 8 x 500 and only 1.265 for 9 x 450 to be small FFT stable... but there are always exceptions to the rule...

Good luck with ya quad mate, cherish it... as it costs heapssssssssssssss

[aussie-revhead]

PM coming mate , sooo many questions

[RLM]

Aussie I'll get back to you in a bit, with the settings I'm currently using for 4.2ghz.

Good call from Leeghoofd, as well. Personally I use 1.3v for CPU FSB.

You also might want to check out the 790i Black Pearl thread over on the EVGA forum/790i. Mr Natural has posted a link for the XFX P05 bios, and it gives better memory stability than the EVGA one.

RLM

[aussie-revhead]

Thanks mate

Since I left fsb at stock (love the unlocked multi) all the auto voltages stayed low too , so I set them manually in middle of green range just to make sure auto doesnt do anything silly .

[RLM]

Here you go

Chip QX9650 @ 4.200 mhz
Memory OCZ 8500 Gold Rated 1066 7-7-7-21-1t - Set 1680 7-7-7-22-1T @ 1.95 v

XFX Bios P05

System Clocks

**Frequency Settings**
CPU Freq, MHz 4.200.00 mhz
FSB Reference Clock, MHz 1680.00
CPU Multiplier [10X]
PCIe x16_1 & 16_2, MHz [100] 100
PCIe x16_3, MHz [100] 100
SPP<->MCP Ref Clock, MHz [200] 200

**HT Multiplier**

nForce SPP --> nForce MCP [5 x]
nForce SPP <-- nForce MCP [5 x]

**Spread Spectrum**

CPU Spread Spectrum Disabled
HT Spread Spectrum Disabled
PCIe Spread Spectrum(SPP) Disabled
PCIe Spread Spectrum(MCP) Disabled
SATA Spread Spectrum Disabled

FSB & Memory Config

FSB – Memory Clock Mode [Linked]
FSB – Memory Ratio [SYNC MODE]
FSB (QDR), MHz [1680.00]
Actual FSB (QDR), MHz 1680.00
x MEM (DDR), MHz Linked
Actual MEM (DDR), MHz 1680

P1 Enabled (Makes a big difference to bandwidth Enabled)
P2 Enabled

Memory Timing Setting

Memory Timing Setting [Expert]
x tCL (CAS Latency) [7] 7
x tRCD [7] 7
x tRP [7] 7
x tRAS [22] 22
x Command Per Clock [1T] 1T

** Advanced Memory Settings **

x tRRD [5] 5
x tRC [20] 20
x tWR [12] 12
x tWTR [25] 25
x tFAW [30] 30
x tREF [7.8us] 7.8us

System Voltages

CPU Core [1.55000 v] 1.47 v
CPU FSB [1.30 v] 1.30 v
Memory [1.95 v] 1.95V
nForce SPP [1.45 v] 1.45V
nForce MCP [1.65 v] 1.65V


GTLVREF Lane 0 [Auto] -50 mv
GTLVREF Lane 1 [Auto] -50 mv
GTLVREF Lane 2 [Auto] +00mv
GTLVREF Lane 3 [Auto] +00mv

CPU Configuration

Limit CPUID Maxval Disabled
x Intel SpeedStep Disabled
xPPM Mode [Native]
CPU Thermal Control [Disabled]
C1E Enhanced Halt State [Disabled]
Execute Disable Bit [Enabled]
Virtualization Technology [Disabled]

CPU Core 0 Enabled
CPU Core 1 [Enabled]
x CPU Core 2 [Enabled]
x CPU Core 3 [Enabled]

I've tested these settings with OCCT and they are 1 hour stable.



And one hour in Prime Blend. Note I'd recommend running Blend and OCCT. Previous tests with OCCT and large FTT in Prime, didn't pick up on errors that Blend did.



RLM

[RLM]

Aussie obviously this is what works for me, and just reference. Don't forget that you have .5 multipliers as well like 9.5. So you may well be able to squeeze a bit more bandwidth out of your RAM linked and synced

RLM

[aussie-revhead]

Thanks mate thats great. Yes I know thats a guideline , I learned that from my Maximus Formula , so many variables.

My gtlrefs on auto defaulted to -30,-30,0,0 and its lasting longer in prime with -20,-20,0,0 , what should I do here ? Why do two cores default different to the others ? And your cpu likes even more offset ?

[RLM]

That's the tricky one.lol I did think I'd found the perfect GTL refs of -110mv, -110mv, 0, 0 for mine. I can certainly get higher benches with those values.

However when it comes to stability testing it's a different ball game. For instance -110, -110 would give me better memory stability in Prime Blend, but would fail OCCT after about 30 minutes. Whereas Auto settings of -50mv, -50mv seemed to be the reverse of that. Passing OCCT, but bluescreening in Blend.

Make sure you do run blend, it's only something I've given real consideration over the last few days, and has had a significant impact on what I now consider stable settings.

Maybe stick with you're -20,-20 for now

RLM

[M@G!C]

Please take a look:

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_mem.html

Interesting to see, that according to this table, 790i ULTRA doesn´t support 2GB modules running at 1800Mhz and at 1800Mhz can only use 2 slots.
So in teory, if we want to run our memory at 1800Mhz,or more,we are LIMITED to 2GB!!!

i´m wondering if someone around here is running 4GB (2x2GB or 4x1GB) at 1800Mhz?