X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[mikeyakame]

There are lower CPU GTL Ref ratios in Bios 0207, 0.61x 0.59x 0.57x, which found thanks to AlienGrey on Asus RF forum. Don't know if these themselves are useful, but what it does mean is the RF isn't locked to only the current GTL Ref ratios we have available as I had previously thought. If sufficient handles and index pointers, and string space are free in the 1B/21 module more can be added of course. I need to figure out how to get the offset for the instruction pointer to the stack which right now has me baffled.

Blindly disassembling the 1B module without complete understanding of how the bios is loaded is a task big for any man! I'm reading through the Architecture design guides from Intel as I go along and come up with questions and it's a long slow process. Loading the bios and setting up all the hardware and registers is such an enormous task. I respect the hardware engineers at Intel for writing all the assembly to do the core functions. 440KB 1B module equates to too many instructions, considering an instruction is kept at less than 2 bytes optimally! MOV EAX, 190h for example is equivalent of 2 bytes or 00-03h. Other part is trying to figure out which data is actually data, and which are instructions.

I think I'll be here doing this Dec 2009! Hell I'll keep at it though, since finding the instruction in the I7 bios that sets D_LCK bit in SAD register will mean we can set timings, qpi ratio, mem ratio, etc while in the OS! D_LCK locks the PCI Device Bus registers set out by the Rules for System Address Decoder. Simply put means all registers that can change bios settings for the IMC are read only until RESET once the bios sets that particular bit to 1.

I don't even know where to start there!

[Alien Grey]

Hi guys, this is my first post here at XS. More than 400 posts at ASUS Rampage Formula forum and not a single post here.

I hope to see a mod BIOS with the lower CPU GTL Reference Voltage settings in the future made by Mikeyakame. I'm still wondering if a CPU GTL Reference Voltage setting of 0.60X can get my Q9450 stable at an FSB above 465MHz with higher FSB termination Voltage that i need for the NB GTL Reference Voltage and without raising the CPU GTL Reference Voltage. I can get my Q9450 IntelBurnTest stable at 8 X 465MHz with CPU GTL Reference Voltage 0.63X, NB GTL Reference Voltage 0.67X and FSB Termination Voltage 1.16V. I need a FSB Termination Voltage of 1.22V to get the NB stable at 8 X 465MHz. This can only be done with the latest BIOS 0701. The BIOS releases before did not allow me to run it stable at FSB 465MHz. The highest i've got stable was 460MHz. The problem was that i couldn't raise the CPU GTL Reference Voltage without losing stability on the CPU. Maybe with a lower CPU GTL Reference Voltage setting i can get it stable above 465MHz.

I've contacted ASUS and asked them why they removed the lower CPU GTL Reference Voltage settings from the release BIOSes. I never got a straight answer from them.

Is there someone who knows how i can change my nickname here on the forum. I want to change it to Alien Grey. The registation did not allow me to use my nickname. I find this very annoying.

Keep up the good work Mikeyakame.

[Brama]

i ended up giving up since my current 4 x 1gb setup wont go beyond 1165-1170mhz no matter how finely i adjust the sec/ter timings and fine tune the dram controller / channel voltages. I believe if i could run 1200mhz on these sticks there would be a fighting chance to get close to 500 fsb stable on my board.

I have 4x1 Gb DRAMs and I have a lot of troubles to reach 1000 MHz, even if I was able to reach with 2X1 Gb more than 1150 MHz.

Do you remember what you changed in second/third block of memory timings and channel voltages?

Thanks,

[mikeyakame]

um, lemme see mate.

not sure what ICs were, possibly elpidas but they weren't too bad, only thing is the board delayed their skews like crazy due to ai clock twister. thats why such high advance skews, which are worse for mem bw but by time they balanced it all out dimm1-4 clock fine delay in everest were around 7-4-6-4 which is quite nice.

dram skew cha advance 150ps
dram skew chb advance 250ps

primaries
5-5-5-16-4-45-7-4
secondaries.
8-4-5-4-6-4-6
tertiaries
15-5-2-5-5

ai c/twist stronger
vdimm 2.24v (llc -> 2.34v lol)
dram cntr ref -30mv
chan a ref -10mv
chan b ref -20mv

thats off top of my head mate!
i'm running these g.skill 2x2gb 8800pi's at 1156 5-5-5-16-3-65-7-4 8-4-5-4-6-4-6 14-5-1-6-6 2.0v

[Alien Grey]

It would be nice to have CPU Clock Skew, NB Clock Skew and tREF timing available in the ASUS Rampage Formula BIOS.

Since all ASUS X48 boards have these available i see no reason why we can't have it available in our ASUS Rampage Formula BIOS.
At least one board has this available now with a BIOS update.

It's time that we start asking the ASUS Tech Support to do something and start working on the ASUS Rampage Formula BIOS.

[Brama]

um, lemme see mate.

not sure what ICs were, possibly elpidas but they weren't too bad, only thing is the board delayed their skews like crazy due to ai clock twister. thats why such high advance skews, which are worse for mem bw but by time they balanced it all out dimm1-4 clock fine delay in everest were around 7-4-6-4 which is quite nice.

dram skew cha advance 150ps
dram skew chb advance 250ps

primaries
5-5-5-16-4-45-7-4
secondaries.
8-4-5-4-6-4-6
tertiaries
15-5-2-5-5

ai c/twist stronger
vdimm 2.24v (llc -> 2.34v lol)
dram cntr ref -30mv
chan a ref -10mv
chan b ref -20mv

thats off top of my head mate!
i'm running these g.skill 2x2gb 8800pi's at 1156 5-5-5-16-3-65-7-4 8-4-5-4-6-4-6 14-5-1-6-6 2.0v

Well Mikey,
last night I obtained a 90% stability at 1067 MHz only loosing tRFC to 70.
I noted that A-Data SPD EPP has 68 as tRFC and I never tried so high value as OCZ run perfectly at 50. I tried 55 and 60, but never 70.
70 helped a lot but it is not still rock stable.

This night I will try a couple of configurations coming from your suggestions.

I let you know.......and thanks.

[Brama]

It would be nice to have CPU Clock Skew, NB Clock Skew and tREF timing available in the ASUS Rampage Formula BIOS.

Since all ASUS X48 boards have these available i see no reason why we can't have it available in our ASUS Rampage Formula BIOS.
At least one board has this available now with a BIOS update.

It's time that we start asking the ASUS Tech Support to do something and start working on the ASUS Rampage Formula BIOS.

I agree completely!

[Alien Grey]

The dutch ASUS Tech Support already knows about the problem if they have read the mail i've send to them.

I didn't get an answer back but i know they read it.

If more of you guys would ask the ASUS Tech Support to do something about the BIOS we might see some changes in the BIOS.

[Alien Grey]

Here's a link to a dutch site with the change log for the ASUS P5E64 WS Evolution.

Why can they have CPU Clock Skew and NB Clock Skew with a BIOS update and we can't on our ASUS Rampage Formula?

I think if more people asked the ASUS Tech Support to add it in the BIOS that we could have a good chance that they 'll do it.

[Zucker2k]

Here's a link to a dutch site with the change log for the ASUS P5E64 WS Evolution.

Why can they have CPU Clock Skew and NB Clock Skew with a BIOS update and we can't on our ASUS Rampage Formula?

I think if more people asked the ASUS Tech Support to add it in the BIOS that we could have a good chance that they 'll do it.

Could someone post the contact information for the relevant (preferably highly placed technical people in asus) department and we start bombarding them daily?

A-Grey, Maybe you can create a separate thread for this sole purpose to give this matter the importance it warrants. You can do a little write-up explaining why these features are important.

[Brama]

Well Mikey,
last night I obtained a 90% stability at 1067 MHz only loosing tRFC to 70.
I
I let you know.......and thanks.

Unfortunately my MCH is not able to drive such a mix of memories.

I was able to reach 1000 MHz but not rock stable.
I will work on it this WE but I am convinced that 1066 MHz is impossible to reach on my system.

Anyway, thanks for suggestions.

[Alien Grey]

Could someone post the contact information for the relevant (preferably highly placed technical people in asus) department and we start bombarding them daily?

A-Grey, Maybe you can create a separate thread for this sole purpose to give this matter the importance it warrants. You can do a little write-up explaining why these features are important.

Yes, we could start a new thread about this. My english is not so good to write it down like it should be. Perhaps Mikeyakame can do that, he can explain it better than me. If it's to technical i can try to explain it that everyone else can understand it. But i have to say that sometimes it's hard for me to understanding everything he writes. I don't know all the technical details and names.

I also like to see CPU GTL settings for each core.
Sometimes when overclocking a Quad it's better to use different GTL settings. Most of the time you can keep it stable with playing with the FSB Termination Voltage and CPU Voltage but on higher FSB it's more complicated and while three cores stay stable in Prime95 the fourth core can be unstable. Using a different CPU GTL setting than the other three cores might help to keep the fourth one stable to.

If we could contact someone from the ASUS Global Technical Support Department directly we have a chance that they will add it in the BIOS.

[Alien Grey]

If you want to know what CPU Clock Skew and NB Clock Skew can do and how important it is, take a look at Tony's post on th OCZ forum.
It's an explanation that everyone can understand. I can't write it down like that at least not in english.

How important is it? These are the most important settings to keep everything stable at higher FSB.

[Alien Grey]

Removed it. We don't need it anymore.

[MJR]

Does anybody know how to use Optical digital output from ASUS Rampage Formula, i have soundcard a Creative X-FI XtremeMusic and i bought a ZERO DAC preamp for my headphones and i would like to connect the preamp using Optical digital output but looks like is not working, anybody have any idea how to use it?

You have to use one or the other. In your sound options in windows, you'll have to set the default audio device to either optical or the soundcard (speakers)

If there is a way to use both at the same time, I'd love to know about it as well.

[Alien Grey]

I forgot to say that if the ASUS Technical Support answers back to you and they ask why you want all this to be changed in the BIOS?
Tell them that we bought this board as a performance board and payed good money for it and we deserve to have a good BIOS with every setting available to get the best performance and stability.

If you don't know what to answer on a question they ask?
There are a lot of guys among us that can help you to answer that question.

If you are a registered to other forums with ASUS Rampage Formula users give them the link to this page. Everyone who wants the best out of this board should fill in a technical inquiry.

[mikeyakame]

Just let me know and I'll be happy to write a confusing answer for them

[Alien Grey]

Question.

Is there someone who uses 8 Giga PC2-8500 memory on this board and can run this stable at 1066MHz?

[mikeyakame]

Should be a few guys here running that stable.

[doodah10]

8 Giga

[3lfk1ng]

Question.

Is there someone who uses 8 Giga PC2-8500 memory on this board and can run this stable at 1066MHz?

Yeah, 8gigs runs solid at 1066MHZ, but no higher.

[Alien Grey]

Damned, it would have been better if it wasn't stable at all. That way i could send a message again to the ASUS Tech Support that we need NB Clock Skew because of the problems with 8 Giga Memory at 1066MHz.
Perhaps someone can do it with 8 Giga Memory at 1100, 1150 or 1200MHz. I could do it myself but i'm not going to buy another 2 X 2 Giga G.Skill PC2-9600 to try to run it at 1200MHz.

[mikeyakame]

Damned, it would have been better if it wasn't stable at all. That way i could send a message again to the ASUS Tech Support that we need NB Clock Skew because of the problems with 8 Giga Memory at 1066MHz.
Perhaps someone can do it with 8 Giga Memory at 1100, 1150 or 1200MHz. I could do it myself but i'm not going to buy another 2 X 2 Giga G.Skill PC2-9600 to try to run it at 1200MHz.

HAHAH I love this guy Even I didnt consider this scenario but he's spot on We also need Dram Skews for individual Dimm slots too, CHA and CHB skews aren't completely controllable. AI Clock Twister determines what they will be even if you set Skews c orrectly.

[Alien Grey]

There is one problem we might encounter. The Tech Support is going to say that higher than 1066MHz is overclocking and that they don't support overclocking.
Than i would say:"On what page in the manual does it say that i can't use 8 giga of this memory on this board?" and "Why can't i use this 8 giga memory on my X48 RF board and the guys with a X48 RE can use 8 giga 1600MHz".

And than it will be silent and you won't hear from them again.

[Brama]

In my experience you need a high level contact in Asus. Bombing with emails the Tech Support is wasted time.
I had a very serious issue with a SAS controller not working at all after BIOS 401.
I was able to get a BIOS that corrected the issue only involving a friend of a friend that works at Asus Italy.

I am not too confident that they will even put a working minute on RF BIOS, unless they have to fix a real big error.

I hope I am wrong....