Official MSI P7N Diamond (780i) Discussion/Review/Overclock/Guide/BIOS Thread

[nugzo]

Anybody else noticed inconsistent or lower than expected 3dmarks with the diamond? Ive had this board running for a few weeks now and cant match my SIIF scores. i consistently scored 19,500 with tri-sli with my striker, but with the diamond i havent been able to even hit 18,500. Same issues with 3dmark vantage. I was hitting 20k with the physics drivers with the asus and cant break 18,500 with the diamond. On 3dmark06 i always pay close attention to the very first framerates that pop up on the first test, i could normally come close to guessing final score by the first couple of numbers. On the striker i would get 120-130 fps on the first couple of frames, but with the diamond i get 100-110. Another strange issue is if i change the resolution to 1920x1200 i get a couple of frames higher than @ the default 1280x1024. I wonder if it has anything to do with the diamonds SLI bridge(s)? The striker has 1 solid 3-card bridge. The Diamond u have the single bridges.

Diamond: Striker:

[loonym]

I don't really have anything to compare my 3dmark scores with except orb and hwbot scores and I've been able to do ok although I don't have any tri capable cards. Next week I'll have a 790i setup but that hardly seems a fair comparison. Interesting thought about the bridge though. I'll rummage through my junk and see if I have a solid type that will fit the slot spacing.

[loonym]

So i'm here with this cpu at 3.4 (340 x 10) with good temps (it's priming at 61°C max) but very high voltages (1.41 in bios and everest reading 1.34 in full load). So i'm wondering if it is safe try to get higher. I've always been told that a safe voltage for this cpu is 1.45 for air cooling, but i never went so far as my last cpus didn't need such a voltage, the last q6600 required me 1.425 to get to 3.6 Ghz (on an asus rampage formula, my 2nd rig) but theese days it's so hot that i had to set it to a safe 3.2 Ghz and still getting 67°C in full load.
So the question is: would you put 1.5 or 1.55v on a q6700 with air cooling as long as temps remains under 70°C?

I do understand about summer temps being a problem, still ideally you should try and get temps down. I haven't run a q6700 but it seems like I was right around or perhaps a little under 1.5v set in bios for a q6600 to be stable @ 3600mhz. I think next week I'll put a q6600 back in the P7N so I can free up a york for playing on other boards.

[AaronYuri]

Anybody else noticed inconsistent or lower than expected 3dmarks with the diamond? Ive had this board running for a few weeks now and cant match my SIIF scores. i consistently scored 19,500 with tri-sli with my striker, but with the diamond i havent been able to even hit 18,500. Same issues with 3dmark vantage. I was hitting 20k with the physics drivers with the asus and cant break 18,500 with the diamond. On 3dmark06 i always pay close attention to the very first framerates that pop up on the first test, i could normally come close to guessing final score by the first couple of numbers. On the striker i would get 120-130 fps on the first couple of frames, but with the diamond i get 100-110. Another strange issue is if i change the resolution to 1920x1200 i get a couple of frames higher than @ the default 1280x1024. I wonder if it has anything to do with the diamonds SLI bridge(s)? The striker has 1 solid 3-card bridge. The Diamond u have the single bridges.

Diamond: [IMGhttp://img297.imageshack.us/img297/8817/capturevo6.jpg[/IMG] Striker: [IMGhttp://xtreview.com/images/mio%203%20way%20sli%20bridge%209800%20GT.jpg[/IMG]

You could try using the Striker's SLI bridge. If the score doesn't come back, then try some different drivers. If drivers don't work, I'll see if there is some tri-SLI problem with the P7N.

[nugzo]

You could try using the Striker's SLI bridge. If the score doesn't come back, then try some different drivers. If drivers don't work, I'll see if there is some tri-SLI problem with the P7N.

Cant use the striker bridge or else i would have from the beginning. Theres an extra slot between the first 2 cards with the P7N. Since my earlier post i swaped motherboards and re-installed vista. As expected my scores returned to what i remembered. Now i will take the Striker bridge off and use the 3 msi bridges. I did use the X-fi that came with the P7N though. I had to cut the corner off of the PCB with a dremel to make it clear the NB, but it works and sounds better than the asus solution. Changing bridges now and will post back in a few.

[nugzo]

Its not the bridge. This screenshot is the with the MSI bridges on the Striker. The striker is definitely faster than the Diamond. Both b3nchmarks were ran using the specs in my sig. Well actually the MSI was was runing at 4208mhz instead of 4200.

[loonym]

I see over 4.4ghz in the striker bench.

[nugzo]

I see over 4.4ghz in the striker bench.

Negative. C'mon loonym, your slippen you know how 3dmark misreads. It only reads what the default multiplier is. I wish this cpu would run @ 4400. This is the screenshot from my earlier benchmarks on page 32 with the diamond. It shows 4442 in 3dmark06, but to the right you see how everest reads it, 4207.

[BababooeyHTJ]

I just formatted my hard drives and removed my raid array. I was playing HL2 Deathmatch and I had a crash with looping sounds in HL2 (with my stripe). I have had stuttering with looping sounds in the past. I read on a steam forun that that is most likely a memory problem. I think this is because of the faster page files on the stripe that would cause it not to crash on the array. I have my voltage set to 2.1, my north bridge set to 1.35, and timings set to 4-4-4-12. What could be wrong? I am going to run a prime blend over night to see if it stays stable.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Also my ram is set to a 1:1 ratio @ 450mhz. Thanks

[BababooeyHTJ]

Sorry 850mhz

[loonym]

1000 points is a huge difference for 2 780i boards lined up side by side. There has to be some explanation or difference besides just Asus/MSI.

[aelgen]

Yay! I think that I'm close a solution now!

My computer was running prime95 and a looped movie in VLC(xvid) all night long and didn't reboot once. Later it rebooted when I was downloading the latest ubuntu via torrent to the other hard drive (I've removed the raid for testing purposes). It reboots every time I run torrent downloads to hard drives other than the system drive. (tried with two other sata hard drives and same result)

What might this indicate? Sata trouble? 'Cause I didn't install any drivers than the nforce thing and ethernet drivers.

[panheimer]

So i'm still looking for a decent oc with this board and it's getting more and more difficult. Yesterday i've tested this config:
cpu to 3.4 ghz (340 x 10)
fsb 1360
RAM 850 (4-4-4-15 1T)
CPU Volt +0.150 (vid 1.265)
NB Volt 1.3
CPU GTL 0.833
FSB Term 1.250
I've left this config to run prime (blend test) all night long (about 7 hrs) and when this morning i woke up I saw prime95 was still running without any error, then checked everest saved log for temps (the max registered was 63°C) and decided to play GRID: the PC shuts down and restarted within 10 min of playing! So the after the pc rebooted, tried another game (assassin's creed) and got another reboot. Tried a run of 3dmark, left it crunch for and hours but no errors, nor crasches, nor reboot. Surfed on the web for a couple of hour and still no errors. Tried a third game, Wolrd in Conflict and another shut down within 5 min of playing.
So I can do everything with this config but not gaming! Tried to reinstall windows, checked hardware installation, wire connections, temperatures...tried to up CPU and nb voltages, changed CPU GTL and FSB Term values, enabled NB GTL but still can't be able to find a solution.
What's happening? I think It's no a PSU fault, as i've got 1 kw to spare, and my 2nd 8800 ultra is installed on the 2nd rig ('till 4870x2 comes out).
Help please!

[AaronYuri]

I have to agree with loonym. I don't see how two mainboards with the exact same chipsets can get such a score difference. Run them both at stock...

[nugzo]

I have to agree with loonym. I don't see how two mainboards with the exact same chipsets can get such a score difference. Run them both at stock...

Well believe it. I had the diamond installed for a lil over a week and i must have ran 100+ benchmarks with different OC settings on 3 different windows installs with different video and chipset drivers. I tried everything because i wanted to keep the diamond because of being able to us my Xonar with tri-sli. As soon as i yanked it and re-installed the striker my benchmarks jumped back up to what i posted. My 9800 GTX's will be sent off starting monday back to EVGA for step-up to GT280's. When they arrive i will try the Diamond again with the GT's. I may keep the diamond anyways because the loss of the 1k vs the awesome sound of the Xonar is worth the synthetic benchmark loss. I didn't see any noticeable loss in games with the Diamond, only the synthetic benchmark loss. I havent ran either of them at stock settings so i dont have numbers for stock. I will run them at stock settings once the new cards get here. I will also do single and dual card runs on both.

[BababooeyHTJ]

I ran prime small pft for an hour and a half with no errors and then ran a blend for six hours with no errors. I was playing bioshock and noticed occasional stuttering during heavy action. I also see alot of texture popup in crysis and flight simulator x. Could this have been a disk fragmentation issue? What would cause the texture popup issues or is that just normal in those games? I have seen both issues at any settings I have had in the process of tweeking my pc. Any utilities or recomendation would be greatly appriciated.

[Leeroy]

Finally flashed to Beta BIOS 1.21 to get rid of this damn video corruption error

Video corruption seems to be gone, but when i run in SLI games get the corruption !

But at least it doesn't lock the PC up, i can exit the game and corruption goes once i'm back to desktop

Done a fair bit of reading on it, has anyone had any luck fixing it with drivers ?

Cheers

[loonym]

Finally flashed to Beta BIOS 1.21 to get rid of this damn video corruption error

Video corruption seems to be gone, but when i run in SLI games get the corruption !

But at least it doesn't lock the PC up, i can exit the game and corruption goes once i'm back to desktop

Done a fair bit of reading on it, has anyone had any luck fixing it with drivers ?

Cheers

What drivers are you using? for my gf7 and 8 series cards I use either 169.21 or 169.28 in xp64. I think there's really nothing special in any of the 170 series drivers for older cards.

[loonym]

BababooeyHTJ, those are quite possibly the 2 most demanding games there are. I don't play either of them so I can't speak as to what's normal but I know prime stable doesn't always equal 3d stable, especially when it comes to system intense games like the 2 you listed. You say you've tried a variety of tweaks so I'm thinking you've probably experimented with drivers as well. Do any of the newer or beta gforce driver sets seem to help at all? What size monitor are you using? The stuttering you mentioned in heavy action @ bioshock sounds like you vid ram is geting a good workout You have a nice cpu clock, are you clocking the 9800 too? Save your penies and buy another... nvidia prices are dropping fast so it's not so much of a stretch as it was a few weeks ago. The 9800gtx is already down to $199 and who knows what could happen in another month the way things are going now in the card world. I think if you can sli you'll see such a huge improvement in your games. THe ones you mentioned are some of the ones that come to mind as scaling really, really well in sli.

[loonym]

nugzo, I can't compare any of my scores to yours because, 1) I am running strictly quads 2) I can't tri sli
I will point out that the major difference in those scores is SM3 and I'm not sure why you have such a huge difference in that one section of the test but the only explanation that makes sense is different driver level tweaks or other variables in each run.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Thanks loonym. I have my 9800stx clocked to 800 core 1200 memory and 2025 shader can run ati tool for a half hour no errors. I am using driver 175.16 and there is a new offical and beta driver out that I have tested breifly (175.19 177.39) I have heard bad thing about them but I plan to do some more testing on my own now. I plan on geting another 9800 for sli soon crysis should run great other than the popup it runs really smoothly on high @ 1680 x1050. Do I really need anti virus protection? I think that and my firewall cause me alot of these problems I dont really surf the web on this pc.

[loonym]

Do I really need anti virus protection? I think that and my firewall cause me alot of these problems I dont really surf the web on this pc.

YES!!!
Just disable it when you play, or try something different if you think it's an issue.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Is there an antivirus you recommend? I am using mcaffe right now.

[loonym]

I kind of like kapersky. Lot's of people swear by AVG.