Gigabyte MA790FX DQ6

[Lightman]

under construction

----> OVERCLOCKING <----

If anyone is interested I've did quick NB/volt scaling test.

- 1.175V good up to 2.35GHz
- 1.225V good up to 2.5GHz
- 1.25V good up to 2.65GHz
- 1.275V good up to 2.7GHz
- 1.335V good up to 2.8GHz
- 1.4V good up to 2.94GHz for now ....




All tests done using 11x multi for NB because 12x multi is no boot for me. I wonder when Gigabyte will add positive voltage adjustement for NB in their BIOS. It's retarded to have 20x NB multi and no option to increase NBvCore

Quick comparison of memory subsystem using mBench (settings as on the screen above):

Access latency 45.7 ns

Read datarate (INT) 6737 Mb/s
Write datarate (INT) 4363 Mb/s

Read datarate (MMX) 8453 Mb/s
Write datarate (MMX) 4894 Mb/s

Read datarate (SSE) 8622 Mb/s
Write datarate (SSE) 8876 Mb/s

You can compare scores to ones from my previous posts. Difference is massive!!

On the other hand vCore regulation is PERFECT! This should be brilliant board to do LN2 or LHe testing. Max. vCore possible is 2.05V!! To get that high just set +0.500V in BIOS and then use AOD to add another 0.200V! Because board has 8+2 PWM design and is using 8Pin EATX power connector to feed it, going over 300W shouldn't be a problem

[Caveman787]

lightman how are temps with that 2.8 northbridge?

[BertM]

a compilaton of the benches i did on 3616 stock voltage.
this clock is only stable with very low ambient or water chiller.
first bench cpu photoworks from everest shows difference between (tlb bugged?) 9500 and oc'd phenom II.
it makes it look like a single core now.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=313

[Lightman]

Very nice benchmarks and creative way of showing them!

My CPU is almost identical to yours BertM! I mean, it can do 3.6GHz stock volts rock stable, but 3.65GHz needs 0.025V more to make it fully stable.
One thing to consider is that I'm running x64bit OS. I wonder what is the clock difference on new Phenoms between x32 and x64 now. Anyone with dual boot??

[BertM]

tx, , it was some creativity with paint shop pro, simple and fast.
cpu crashes above 36 degree with 3616mhz, if i stay below it will remain stable.
this is not close to possible anymore in normal room temp.
it could be that my alu waterblock is realy bad at low temps.
i have a hd and windows vista 64 ready but no time yet to install it.

[ryboto]

This morning I finally received my Phenom II X4 940BE!

Awesome power figures, I would be curious to know the undervolting ability of the 940 at 3.0ghz. How low can you push that vcore, and how does it influence power?

[Lightman]

Awesome power figures, I would be curious to know the undervolting ability of the 940 at 3.0ghz. How low can you push that vcore, and how does it influence power?

Ok!

All settings like before and at:
1.25V full load - wall 223Watt - this is fully stable
1.20V full load - wall 218Watt - this is fully stable as well
1.15V full load - wall 214Watt - this is not stable (crashed after 25 minutes of stress)

Hope that helps!

[Stuen4y]

If anyone is interested I've did quick NB/volt scaling test.

- 1.175V good up to 2.35GHz
- 1.225V good up to 2.5GHz
- 1.25V good up to 2.65GHz
- 1.275V good up to 2.7GHz
- 1.335V good up to 2.8GHz
- 1.4V good up to 2.94GHz for now ....

Really can you share with us(me) what are bios settings for the actual NB/volt? I'm using right now -0.0375V.

[Lightman]

lightman how are temps with that 2.8 northbridge?

I haven't took any SS but temps reported by AOD were pretty normal. 44C-48C full load depending on Core speed. Looks like between 2.2GHz NB and 2.8GHz there is only 1C-3C difference.

Really can you share with us(me) what are bios settings for the actual NB/volt? I'm using right now -0.0375V.

Of course
BIOS set to:
HTT 218MHz
NB multi 11x
NB vCore (memory controller in GBT BIOS) Auto
RAM 4x (DDR 800 to allow hitting high HTT)

That's about it.
Next in Windows I needed to open AOD and crank HTT step by step (usually by 10-20MHz). At around 250MHz HTT I needed to lower HT multi from 9x to 7x for stability.

Everything else is on that SS

I'm sending e-mail to GBT with strong request to add BIOS NB vCore options at least +0.250V, ideally 0.5V!

BTW when lowering NB vCore by -0.0375 power consumption is almost same as on nominal, so I can't see a point in doing that. I've played with this option and on my KillAWatt meter I've seen 1W difference by going +0.125V @2.4GHzNB

[G0ldBr1ck]

Ok who is gonna be first to use LN2 with this board and 940?

[ryboto]

Ok!

All settings like before and at:
1.25V full load - wall 223Watt - this is fully stable
1.20V full load - wall 218Watt - this is fully stable as well
1.15V full load - wall 214Watt - this is not stable (crashed after 25 minutes of stress)

Hope that helps!

awesome! Very good to know. So, that's ~15W savings from full load with 1.35v?

[Stuen4y]

I haven't took any SS but temps reported by AOD were pretty normal. 44C-48C full load depending on Core speed. Looks like between 2.2GHz NB and 2.8GHz there is only 1C-3C difference.



Of course
BIOS set to:
HTT 218MHz
NB multi 11x
NB vCore (memory controller in GBT BIOS) Auto
RAM 4x (DDR 800 to allow hitting high HTT)

That's about it.
Next in Windows I needed to open AOD and crank HTT step by step (usually by 10-20MHz). At around 250MHz HTT I needed to lower HT multi from 9x to 7x for stability.

Everything else is on that SS

I'm sending e-mail to GBT with strong request to add BIOS NB vCore options at least +0.250V, ideally 0.5V!

BTW when lowering NB vCore by -0.0375 power consumption is almost same as on nominal, so I can't see a point in doing that. I've played with this option and on my KillAWatt meter I've seen 1W difference by going +0.125V @2.4GHzNB

I really can't find NB VID in the bios, so you're using only AOD? And how are you saving this into bios, by hitting "Apply my last setting result when system boots" or?

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

This morning I finally received my Phenom II X4 940BE!

*snip*
First impression is very positive! Just look at LOAD power consumption between Phenom 9950 and 940. What's amazing is that at 3GHz old CPU needs as much juice in IDLE as new one FULL LOAD!
Then there is undervolting and another big surprise. This CPU can reliably operate at only 0.8V 1.2GHz. I have tried 1.4GHz but this ended up by BSOD.
In my short performance review I've tried to use applications different than rest of my colleagues. But even old games like Q2/Q3 and applications improved IPC by 5-15%! Newer applications which are designed with SSE and larger caches in mind can extract even greater boost from tweaks AMD did to Phenom II!
I'm really happy with my new CPU and finally I can utilize this great motherboard in a way I was intending from beginning.

Quick few words about OC. HTT clocking is much easier with new Phenom II, I've struggled to get 230HTT on older CPU, but 267HTT was quite easy with new processor. AOD is working great, except a bug with false clock reading, but this can be fixed by loading BIOS defaults. I'm still exploring limits of my sample on AIR, but so far 3.8GHz CPU 2.9GHz NB looks to be stable. 3.93GHz Cinebench stable for now and finally 4GHz+ only for SuperPi or other single threaded apps.

I hope you enjoyed my tests and that it will help few people make their minds!

You have no idea how awesome it is to an old Slipgater like myself that you benched a Quake game. Kudos to you, good sir.

[G.Foyle]

Lightman, be sure to turn Cool'n'Quiet and - IMPORTANT - set energy saving profile in Vista to Balanced - your idle power consumption should go below 100W.

[Oliverda]

GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (Socket AM3 and 790FX)

[G0ldBr1ck]

nice. another 8 phase.

It appears that this is one of 3 new Gigabyte AM3 models

[Stuen4y]

With all the upcoming am3 mobos and 925 coming in February, in addition there are no 940's in BG, so all the facts(and maybe the fate) tell me not to buy and 940 now and wait . BTW is there any release date for the mobos? I really like that GB get rid of those 8x PCI-E ports, nobody builds quad crossfire with 4 4850... I thought it will happen like this and I won't buy from the first denebs but I was hoping that my mind will stand at background.

[BertM]

the 940 wont work in there, wright ??

[Oliverda]

With all the upcoming am3 mobos and 925 coming in February, in addition there are no 940's in BG, so all the facts(and maybe the fate) tell me not to buy and 940 now and wait .

945 will come in april.

[Lightman]

Thanks for all kind words guys!

@ryboto:
Looking at default vCore of 1.35V and power consumption of 241W full load, your saving 23W on 1.2V

@Stuen4y:
No, you can't save it into BIOS. You need to use AOD to tweak settings from what BIOS allows you. That's why I want positive voltage regulation for NB in BIOS. With it you would be able to save much higher settings and boot with them.

Here is a pic of my BIOS settings:


And no, I'm not using "Apply my last setting result when system boots". I'm booting my comp on low speeds to save energy . So far I don't need 3.8GHz quad to browse my websites and watch StarTrek TNG

I'm usually idling @1.6GHz 1.1V (need yo find minimum stable voltage for that)

@THE JEW (RaVeN):

Oh yes! I spent loong hours at my school days fragging folks in Q2. First on P233MMX with Virge and then I've moved to K6-2 266 and Riva128 4MB SGRAM ! 800x600 OpenGL pownage!!

@xoqolatl:
It won't go below 100W! Not with all that stuff I've put into my computer
Minimum I can go is 169W idle.
BTW C'n'Q doesn't work for me on Balanced. Power Saving profile is working as it should but the other one all the time is full throttle. I need to investigate that. That's for Vista, XP x64 works perfectly with C'n'Q

[HeamothoraxUK]

Hi all,
F6 bios released. It says 2. Remove ET5, Smart CMOS function. Does anybody know what this is?

[BertM]

easy tuner 5, this was way more thrustwordy oc tool then aod for me, and it no longer works in f6d and i guess f6.
smart cmos i dont know.

[Lightman]

Today I've received response from GBT support regarding positive voltage regulation for CPU IMC (NB) and couple of other useful tweaks.

Answer - 708063
Answer : We will check if options will be suitable for this motherboard BIOS.

Sometimes we don’t add options just because of BIOS size possibly occupied by other functions.

We will update ASAP.

Regards,

GGTS

Keep the spirit up! There is a light at the end of this tunnel

[G0ldBr1ck]

good news indeed. Im thinking about moving my 920 to this board for some OC action but im afraid it wont be able to do the 306mhz HT that my Asrock board is doing.

BTW I just got a email from Gigabyte and they have updated the support on the DS5 model for the 920 and 940. Thats funny since this board would not support the 9850 and 9950.

[Lightman]

good news indeed. Im thinking about moving my 920 to this board for some OC action but im afraid it wont be able to do the 306mhz HT that my Asrock board is doing.

BTW I just got a email from Gigabyte and they have updated the support on the DS5 model for the 920 and 940. Thats funny since this board would not support the 9850 and 9950.

Probably because they have less wattage

Speaking about 920 on DQ6, without IMC voltage increase you won't push it very high. Assuming your NB will do 2.4GHz on stock volts and you want to keep it at 9x multi then limit would be 266MHz HTT.

Other than lack of that option, clocking on DQ6 is a blast!