X48 Rampage Formula Preview.

[Alien Grey]

yes, I am the same. Thank you, i know you and mikeyakame deserve some credit for this bios release.

How did you get it stable with such a low voltage with 8 giga and LLC enabled?
Are you sure that it's 1.2V real for NB Voltage? Seems like a huge difference from 1.33V in the BIOS to 1.2V real.

[SoLoR]

North Bridge Voltage [1.33] real 1.2
FSB Termination Voltage [1.30] real 1.32

NB voltage is usualy undervolting for 0.01-0.03V, and FSB VTT is usualy undervolting for 0.08-0.09V, so that voltages are bit wierd unless you have compleatly special mobo made specialy for you

[OverDozeD]

Who has tested latest bios 0802 and how it works?

[mikeyakame]

Who has tested latest bios 0802 and how it works?

Read last 2 or 3 pages of thread and you have your answer.

[Alien Grey]

I finally figured it out what is going on with this BIOS.

The problem is the DRAM Clock Fine Delays. They can change after a reboot. What probably happens is that if you advance with 300ps and get a DRAM Fine Delay of 0T after a reboot something gets messed up and instead of advancing 300ps the DRAM Clock Fine Delays get delayed 300ps resulting in 14T.

This explains why Prime95 fails sometimes after a reboot.

Something else that I found is that it is necessary to have tREF in the BIOS that is calculated according to Intel specs.
With a closer tREF used that I should use for my memory speed I can run Prime95 + UT2004 almost an hour before I run into a General Protection Fault.

What I did is make some screen shots and send them to my contact at ASUS. I hope they can figure out what is going wrong.

[mikeyakame]

I finally figured it out what is going on with this BIOS.

The problem is the DRAM Clock Fine Delays. They can change after a reboot. What probably happens is that if you advance with 300ps and get a DRAM Fine Delay of 0T after a reboot something gets messed up and instead of advancing 300ps the DRAM Clock Fine Delays get delayed 300ps resulting in 14T.

This explains why Prime95 fails sometimes after a reboot.

Something else that I found is that it is necessary to have tREF in the BIOS that is calculated according to Intel specs.
With a closer tREF used that I should use for my memory speed I can run Prime95 + UT2004 almost an hour before I run into a General Protection Fault.

What I did is make some screen shots and send them to my contact at ASUS. I hope they can figure out what is going wrong.

DO you mean Intel or Jedec specs?

Jedec is tREF = REFI[ns] / CK[ns].

Intel just sets register space according to JEDEC timing specs.

I've found that with tREF = 4171T for 1066mhz on my DFI board that it doesn't leak memory over time like the RF did. Well once I adjusted CLK and DQ drive strength it seems better. My memory use is idling about 10% lower than it was in Windows 7 with the RF.

By the way FELIX amended Memset with auto tREF timing value according to frequency and it works great! I don't know if its public yet, but if you want a copy let me know and i'll email you it

Oh also the broken DRAM clock fine delay timings are the same since god knows what bios heh. That is the exact same problem I was complaining about to you a while back It changes on its own with no reason what so ever I have to keep advancing skew between resets. Thats the reason I asked Asus if they could have a read out of current skews in bios so we can tell when they are broken so we can adjust them heh. It's one thing being broken if they can't fix it, at least if we have a read out in bios we can know when to fix it without nuking our system or stability.

[greg.m]

After i had installed my new cpu and mobo i noticed that for the first time vista could read the real cpu speed(at least for a while) with the rampage.
But... after a blue screen i had everything went back to the old days - wrong cpu speed is displayed again. Vista read only the
multiplier again while it counts fsb @ 333(default) always. Do you have any idea why does that happen?
Is it this mobos issue or windows fault?

[Alien Grey]

DO you mean Intel or Jedec specs?

Jedec is tREF = REFI[ns] / CK[ns].

Intel just sets register space according to JEDEC timing specs.

I've found that with tREF = 4171T for 1066mhz on my DFI board that it doesn't leak memory over time like the RF did. Well once I adjusted CLK and DQ drive strength it seems better. My memory use is idling about 10% lower than it was in Windows 7 with the RF.

By the way FELIX amended Memset with auto tREF timing value according to frequency and it works great! I don't know if its public yet, but if you want a copy let me know and i'll email you it

Oh also the broken DRAM clock fine delay timings are the same since god knows what bios heh. That is the exact same problem I was complaining about to you a while back It changes on its own with no reason what so ever I have to keep advancing skew between resets. Thats the reason I asked Asus if they could have a read out of current skews in bios so we can tell when they are broken so we can adjust them heh. It's one thing being broken if they can't fix it, at least if we have a read out in bios we can know when to fix it without nuking our system or stability.

I mean Jedec. And yes I would love to have a copy with auto tREF. I'll try it to see if it works better with tREF timing value according to the frequency of my memory

I know you complained about the DRAM Clock Fine Delays but I used normal since BIOS 0408 and never had a problem with it until now with BIOS 0802. Normal doesn't work anymore for me because it's set at 6 and not at 3 that it was before. I can't even get it back to 3. I have to use 2 or 4.
Now that I have to use a different value than Normal I see it to that they change sometimes after a reboot. If I use Advance 300ps and I get 0T and after a reboot the BIOS delays them with 300ps and I get 14T.

Well I think I don't have to explain what happens after a while with the stability.

[mikeyakame]

I mean Jedec. And yes I would love to have a copy with auto tREF. I'll try it to see if it works better with tREF timing value according to the frequency of my memory

I know you complained about the DRAM Clock Fine Delays but I used normal since BIOS 0408 and never had a problem with it until now with BIOS 0802. Normal doesn't work anymore for me because it's set at 6 and not at 3 that it was before. I can't even get it back to 3. I have to use 2 or 4.
Now that I have to use a different value than Normal I see it to that they change sometimes after a reboot. If I use Advance 300ps and I get 0T and after a reboot the BIOS delays them with 300ps and I get 14T.

Well I think I don't have to explain what happens after a while with the stability.

It goes to hell

AI Clock Twister is at fault. That's as much as I know.

AI Clock Twister controls:

Channel A Cross Clocking Skews (fine clock delay/fine control delay/fine command delay)
Channel B Cross Clocking Skews (fine clock delay/fine control delay/fine command delay)
Channel A/B Common Clock Skews (common clock address strobe delay)

EDIT:

Side note get my Rampage back today. It's been tested for 4 hours by Asus and appears to be problem free. Lets hope this is the case. Might put it back in this weekend or whenever I get around to it!

[Alien Grey]

Side note get my Rampage back today. It's been tested for 4 hours by Asus and appears to be problem free. Lets hope this is the case. Might put it back in this weekend or whenever I get around to it!

Nice, did they fix something on your board?

It looks like the only way to have the DRAM Clock Fine Delays at the same value every system start or reboot is to use Auto for DRAM CLK Skew in BIOS 0802.
It s*cks but there is nothing we can do about it till ASUS fixes this in a new BIOS.

Edit:

Correction they aren't always the same at auto but the difference isn't that big.

[mikeyakame]

Nice, did they fix something on your board?

It looks like the only way to have the DRAM Clock Fine Delays at the same value every system start or reboot is to use Auto for DRAM CLK Skew in BIOS 0802.
It s*cks but there is nothing we can do about it till ASUS fixes this in a new BIOS.

Edit:

Correction they aren't always the same at auto but the difference isn't that big.

Fixed up the cpu contacts. Resoldered something around the clear rtc switch area of CMOS, some thing wasnt making good contact. They gave me a full cover southbridge heat sink too which I didn't know where to buy from. I'll attach pic shortly.

http://au.asus.com/999/images/products/2594/2594_l.jpg

Same as that SB heatsink basically.

[Alien Grey]

One hour Prime95+UT2004 stable with closer tREF value for my memory speed.

There is no doubt anymore that tREF should be set in the BIOS according to the memory speed.
In the second screen shot you can see UT2004 failed with the famous "General protection fault" while Prime95 is still running fine without errors.

This BIOS is excellent to see the importance of tREF and system stability if you know that with the same settings and tREF at default 3120T in the BIOS I can only run 10 to 15 minutes before I run in to a general protection fault.

[SirDaemon]

There is no doubt anymore that tREF should be set in the BIOS according to the memory speed.

How do you calculate the right tREF for a determined memory speed? Mine is currently at 590mhz - what would be the right tREF?

Currently testing my system at 1:1, already reached 590, but still not optimized. My goal is 600 but I don´t know if my OCZ FLEX II 9200 will reach it or if the Rampage will allow it.

[coo-coo-clocker]

And yes I would love to have a copy with auto tREF.

+1

Is it generally available? If not, can someone please point me to a copy?

[mikeyakame]

+1

Is it generally available? If not, can someone please point me to a copy?

Not sure if it is working 100% yet. A-Grey reported it isn't. Hard to tell for me anymore. Current DFI board I'm using has tREF self tracking, so it sets it correctly for DDR2 speed.

Formula for tREF is.

REF[T] = REFI[ns] / CK[ns]

where

REFI[ns] = Refresh Interval from SPD in nanoseconds, all performance dimms are 7.8us

7.8us * 1000ns = 7800ns
REFI[ns] = 7800

CK[ns] = Clock period in nanoseconds, 1000 divided by ddr2 io frequency, which is half the double data rate.

For 1066mhz
1000 / 533 = 1.86667ns

therefore

REF[T] = 7800 / 1.86667 = 4171T

Thats pretty much self explanatory

[minaelromany]

The 802 Beta BIOS seems to mess up my overclocking .... badly

I can't go back to 701 as Asus update tells me to use DOS and I don't have it

Am I missing something ? with 701 I did 3.66 for my Q6600 with 1.525 and memory at 1100 2.12v with PL07 , now , it is not stable at all

What are the best configuration for Q6600 ? or how can I go back to 701 from Windows ?

[mikeyakame]

The 802 Beta BIOS seems to mess up my overclocking .... badly

I can't go back to 701 as Asus update tells me to use DOS and I don't have it

Am I missing something ? with 701 I did 3.66 for my Q6600 with 1.525 and memory at 1100 2.12v with PL07 , now , it is not stable at all

What are the best configuration for Q6600 ? or how can I go back to 701 from Windows ?

You can't period. Only way to go back to older bios is through ms dos flashing tool AFUDOS and you have to boot from MSDOS floppy/flash drive to do that.

You cant just dial in same settings when bios options are added. Clear CMOS, set CPU Clock Skew to 100 or 200ps. NB Clock Skew normal, and make setting adjustments. Bios to bios changes occur and you can't expect stable settings from one to the next to be the same. It doesn't work like that. Sometimes you are lucky, other times when major changes happen you arent.

[minaelromany]

You can't period. Only way to go back to older bios is through ms dos flashing tool AFUDOS and you have to boot from MSDOS floppy/flash drive to do that.

You cant just dial in same settings when bios options are added. Clear CMOS, set CPU Clock Skew to 100 or 200ps. NB Clock Skew normal, and make setting adjustments. Bios to bios changes occur and you can't expect stable settings from one to the next to be the same. It doesn't work like that. Sometimes you are lucky, other times when major changes happen you arent.

Thank you very much for the reply

Can you tell me the settings you have for overclocking your CPU ?

I mean the exact settings and I can start from it and tweak them

I feel like a whole new experience of the Rampage is happening all over again and it was painfull at first but when everything was settled , I was very happy

[SoLoR]

It goes to hell

AI Clock Twister is at fault. That's as much as I know.

AI Clock Twister controls:

Channel A Cross Clocking Skews (fine clock delay/fine control delay/fine command delay)
Channel B Cross Clocking Skews (fine clock delay/fine control delay/fine command delay)
Channel A/B Common Clock Skews (common clock address strobe delay)

just find out that this is kinda general asus bug, its also there on my brothers p5k pro...

[Warpcore]

[QUOTE=mikeyakame;3663860]You can't period. Only way to go back to older bios is through ms dos flashing tool AFUDOS and you have to boot from MSDOS floppy/flash drive to do that.

I used the Asus update tool to downgrade the bios.Just open it up and choose options in the drop down menu.Then click next, put a check mark in BIOS downgradable.Click next again.Now choose update bios from a file and click next.Then it will work.

[Alien Grey]

The 802 Beta BIOS seems to mess up my overclocking .... badly

I can't go back to 701 as Asus update tells me to use DOS and I don't have it

Am I missing something ? with 701 I did 3.66 for my Q6600 with 1.525 and memory at 1100 2.12v with PL07 , now , it is not stable at all

What are the best configuration for Q6600 ? or how can I go back to 701 from Windows ?

With ASUS EZ Flash II that you can find in the BIOS under Tools you can always flash back to earlier BIOS versions. It's the most easiest way to flash your board safely. Do a Clear CMOS before you flash your board. The BIOS will give you a warning that it didn't find any settings after you did a Clear CMOS. Just hit F1 and enter BIOS setup to flash your board. After you flashed the board do a Clear CMOS again and don't load any overclock profiles that you stored from a previous BIOS. Loading overclock profiles from previous BIOSes screws up the settings. Put everything back manually.

[Alien Grey]

+1

Is it generally available? If not, can someone please point me to a copy?

No, it's MemSet version 4.0 and auto tREF isn't available.

[greg.m]

Here is something interesting with the new rampage(shipped with bios 0401) and QX9650.
Now with LLC enabled i dont get blue screens under idle anymore!
Before, with the old mobo(shipped with bios 0219) whatever i was doing i couldnt fix that problem.
After that i have come to the conclusion that the first rampage was the problem and i think that it has to do with the mfrdate. The old one was one of the very first made rampages and i think that thatswhy it had some faults.
I know that A-Grey has the same problem and ithink that its a good reason to rma that mobo. Its something unexcusable, a new top mobo for which someone pays a lot to has such a problem

Here is a scrnsht with my system @ idle for more than 8 hours without having any problem at all!:

[FrAN_oC]

Hi guys!

I am currently running a RF motherboard with a Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz.

It is stable at 450x8 1.41v.

The problem comes when I try to overclock my RAM. I own 2 kits of 2x1Gb G.Skill PC8500 with D9GMH inside. I bought them together, so pairing is not my problem. Also, I did tests with one kit each time, and I was able to run DDR2-1250 with 2.34v primestable.

When I plug all sticks in, I cant go ahead 1128mhz (No matter how much vDimm). I have been playing with skews, vNB, and PL, but nothing helps.

I wanted to reach 1200mhz. Where can I start playing? Any sugestion?

RGDS and thx!

NOTE: Sorry for my poor english, I'm Spanish

[Alien Grey]

Here is something interesting with the new rampage(shipped with bios 0401) and QX9650.
Now with LLC enabled i dont get blue screens under idle anymore!
Before, with the old mobo(shipped with bios 0219) whatever i was doing i couldnt fix that problem.
After that i have come to the conclusion that the first rampage was the problem and i think that it has to do with the mfrdate. The old one was one of the very first made rampages and i think that thatswhy it had some faults.
I know that A-Grey has the same problem and ithink that its a good reason to rma that mobo. Its something unexcusable, a new top mobo for which someone pays a lot to has such a problem

Here is a scrnsht with my system @ idle for more than 8 hours without having any problem at all!:

Is this with BIOS 0802 that you are using LLC?
I didn't try it with LLC enabled anymore since BIOS 0601. I don't really care that it doesn't work. For what I know it did work flawless with my Pentium D 840@4.2GHz on my board.
I should give it a try again with BIOS 0802. It seems that a lot of you guys are doing very well with LLC enabled and BIOS 0802. If that works now for me, well than ASUS did at least fix something that I've been asking for a long time. If it doesn't work it must be something else that makes my system crash with it enabled.

I hope they fix the DRAM Clock Skews in an other BIOS release and finally add tREF and perhaps do something about the CPU GTL Voltage Reference.