Gigabyte X38T-DQ6 Results Thread - Along with DDR3 help!!

**dominick32** · 10-21-2007, 07:57 AM

These are all just preliminary results. You guys need to give me a few days to play around. But so far, I am very happy with my new X38. The Gigabyte DQ6T-ddr3 does 515 FSB right out of the box so far. I did not have to change MCH or southbridge voltage at all and no tweaking was required. C1E, TM2, and all CPU options have been disabled in the Phoenix Bios. I must say this is the first motherboard that I have ever used that was simply plug and play to a 515 MHz FSB. Even the P5B required major tweakage for 515 personally. This board is a pleasure to work with. My first initial test after installing Vista was trying out 7 X 515 @ 1.4vcore. Everything worked out great and vista was browsable and functioning great.

After trying out the initial FSB test I am now currently running the system COMPLETELY stock 9 X 333, and the memory is at 1300 mhz 9-9-9-20 (well below its rated 1866). The reason for this is because I would like to get some preliminary STOCK crossfire results.

RIG:
Gigabyte DQ6-T
E6850
2 X 1GB Patriot DDR3 1866mhz rated 9-9-9-20 (1.9 volts)
2 X Sapphire HD 2900 XT's in Crossfire with all 32 lanes!!!

The packaging of the board was exceptional. All shiny and perty:

Here are some pictures after adding the crossfire 2900XT's. I was surprised to see plenty of air and space between the two 2900XT's. I was expecting a crossfire sandwich and was pleased to see a little more space than expected. As you can see, each card comes with a single dongle to connect to its CF counterpart:

I just finished setting up cooling for my rig. I have a slightly modified Koolance EXOS2 with short access tubing directly to the CPU. The waterblock I currently chose for this setup is an Apogee GT. Bios CPU idling temps at 1.40 vcore = 29*C.

Some pictures of the Phoenix bios provided by Gigabyte for the X38:

**dominick32** · 10-21-2007, 07:57 AM

Here is a screenshot of the Overclocking Options in Bios:

Here is my first preliminary 3dmark05 shot on the new 32 pipe crossfire setup.

STOCK 3.0GHz, FSB STOCK, 2900 XT's STOCK:

Man, I love this board. 520 FSB out of the box with no tweaking whatsoever.

7 X 520 (1.47vcore) CPU @ 3.65 GHz
I got the ram at close to 1600 MHz now.

Time for a little high FSB 3.65 GHz benchies.

7 X 520 FSB (3.65Ghz) Please note, this motherboard has been benching for the last hour straight without a hiccup. Stock voltage on everything except for vcore!!! I will say it again, this board has been a pleasure to work with.

Again, these are crossfire results with completely stock core/mem clockspeeds:

3DMARK 05

3DMARK 06

Aquamark:

Had my first little glitch with the board. I spent about 2 hours running benchies and during my last 3dmark03 bench the rig froze up on me. I restarted and went back into bios to check my temps. CPU temp was 35, and NB was 51*C. Since this is a passively cooled motherboard, and I had been running 520 FSB for about 1 hour and 1/2, I knew this was NB related.

Tried to restart the rig, and it wouldnt restart. Kept giving me power to the mobo, but no post. So, I started to panic, swapping sticks, jumper clearing cmos and removing battery to no avail. Last resort putting a room fan directly in the case and cooling down my NB. Got the temps back down to 30*C on the NB (at least thats what I checked after she booted right back up).

It was a scare but these Gigabytes definitely need some form of active cooling at 500FSB plus. I need to figure something out tomorrow with fan placement. Back to 9 X 333 for the time being.

The first CPU/mobo stability test was a huge success. 3.76 GHz @ 1.48vcore, Othros Stable Overnight for 5 hours:

Just started working on 3.87 GHz. I'm going to leave orthos on for the day today:

UPDATE
Any DDR3 guys out there? I am extremely new to DDR3 and how what dividers they may or may not enjoy. For some reason last night, I could not get these sticks stable at anything over 1666 MHz, and they are rated at 1866 (8-8-8-20). I tried different multipliers with completely different dividers and of course I manually set voltage and timings. It just will not post when the ram is higher than 1666. Cant figure this crap out yet. Any help would be a benefit.

UPDATE
What a wonderful night! I download Gigabytes updated bios for my motherboard. It offered enhanced memory and cpu overclocking stability as per gigabytes website.

I download the bios, erase and flash which was completely successful.

On the next reboot, its bricked!!!!! I now have a dead mobo. More headaches, and shipping costs + rma time on my watch and out of my wallet..

This absolutely blows. I heard there was a rumor about the first production of these boards not accepting bios flashes. Now we find out.

UPDATE
IM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!
I swore to myself I would give it until this morning to decide to RMA or not.
Last night, I took the CMOS battery out and pulled the plug on the rig, left everything like that overnight. Woke up this morning, TOOK OFF WORK!!!!, lol.

Plugged the battery back in, plugged the rig in. Fired right up!

Close call .... More benchies to come today fellas..

UPDATE

I got a nice little comparison for everyone.

Ran the FEAR in game benchmark about 5 minutes ago.
I am extremely impressed with this CF setup.

New Scores
E6850 @ 3.96 GHz, 2900 XT Crossfire @ stock core/mem
FEAR, Maximum, Maximum Settings 1024 X 768
210 FPS Average

My Old Scores
E6700 @ 4.00 GHz, 8800 Ultra @ Stock core/mem
FEAR, Maximum, Maximum Settings 1024 X 768
150 FPS Average

HIGH RES SCORES:
E6850 @ 3.96 GHz, 2900 XT Crossfire @ Stock Core/mem
FEAR. Maximum, Maximum Settings 1600 X 1200
120 FPS Average

**dominick32** · 10-21-2007, 07:58 AM

Rattle. Got those 3d results for you bud.

E6850 @ 3.84 GHz 8 X 480 1.53v
Ram @ 740 mhz
CF 2900's @ 803/888 24/7 conservative (normal fan speed)

3dmark03 - 63120
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=5571635

3dmark05 - 26152
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=3565367

3dmark06 - 16962
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=3466606

Fear in game benchmark.

1024 X 768
Maximum, Maximum Quality
207 FPS Average

1600 X 1200 High Res
Maximum, Maximum Quality
118 FPS Average

**dominick32** · 10-21-2007, 07:59 AM

Now here is my question to you Xtreme Guys:

I am actually having problems with the memory.

Memory is Patriot Extreme DDR3 1866
Rated Timings 8-8-8-20 , 1.90 volts

It will run at 1866 MHz 8-8-8-20, 1.93volts and boot no problem. It will run a few benchmarks, but spontaneously BSOD's and creates memory dumps. It runs absolutely flawless up to around 1740 MHz right now. So I currently have the rig at 8 X 480 - 3.84GHz which passes Orthos for 12 hours ram/cpu blend priority 10. But, 1740 MHz is a whole 126 MHz less than the premium that I paid for these sticks.

How can I get these sticks to run stable?
I have the F3h bios, and I am using the D 400mhz strap.

**newls1** · 10-21-2007, 08:28 AM

With my prior gigabyte motherboard's, I've found that BIOS updates make such a **HUGE** difference for ram. Wait for g-byte to release yet another BIOS update for the board, or even further down the road BIOS updates, as im sure it is BIOS related and NOT faulty ram. These X38's are so new, just give it time.

**dominick32** · 10-21-2007, 08:51 AM

This is what I am praying happens. Fixed with a new bios release.

What strap to you suggest running? A,B,C,D ?

**cadaveca** · 10-21-2007, 09:07 AM

try 2.1v for ram.

Might work, might not. Is alot tho, mind you.

**dominick32** · 10-21-2007, 09:11 AM

Originally Posted by cadaveca

try 2.1v for ram.

Might work, might not. Is alot tho, mind you.

Yeah,
I already tried up to 2.2volts.
No success.

**cadaveca** · 10-21-2007, 09:12 AM

then it's bios, IMHO.

**dominick32** · 10-21-2007, 10:20 AM

Anybody have any secondary timing recommendations.
I tried looser primaries: 9-9-9-20, 10-10-10-20
Tried more voltage: Up to 2.2v
Tried all of the MCH straps, D 400mhz strap is the only successful boot strap.

1840 mhz produces 8 errors every series of test #5
1800 mhz produces 2 errors every series of test #5
1740 mhz loops test # 5 with no errors

Here is a bios shot of my secondary timings. Does anyone have any recommendations for stability here?

**dominick32** · 10-21-2007, 07:14 PM

After tweaking the friggin bios for about 6 hours tonight I think I finally knocked out this gremlin of ram instability. A few things I learned about the Patriot Extreme 1866:

#1 Put a fan directly in the viscinity of the sticks, preferably blowing right on top of them.
#2 Do not increase voltage even a hair higher than 1.90v or a hair lower than 1.9v. If you put them higher than 1.90 they will overheat and create instability, even when active cooling is used. If you put them below 1.90v they will refuse to post at any frequency higher than 1500 mhz.
#3 Bump up MCH voltage at least .15 volts

And finally, the most important step to achieving stability on this DQ6 was adjusting skew control in the bios. After massive amounts of research on google about the functions of skew control and the connection between ram and cpu delays to high frequency performance it looks as though a skew of 150 to 300ps is best suited for this ram.

Using those steps I was able to finally get these puppies memtest and vista stable. Check out the bandwith in Everest: Almost 11,000 MB/s

**walste** · 10-22-2007, 02:14 AM

Dominick32> Plz post your bios settings, i have the exact same board but mine want go over 400FSB, se the rest in sign

**Hornet331** · 10-22-2007, 02:49 AM

wow nice work dominick, keep it up.

im looking forward for this board when the qx9650 arrives, so its a good thing that somone makes such efforts to see whats possible with this board.

**walste** · 10-22-2007, 03:03 AM

I have now tryed all the 3 bios that gigabyte have on there page, still no go in oc.
can´t get over 400FSB, there must be something i miss, but i have tried meny meny hours now.

enyone know what the hell i´m doing wrong, i have tested ALL the diffrent voltages for ALL the different things but still no go.

Need help plz, maby i will rma it and go with the asus board, but they are not in store here before 6/11

**m4tr1z** · 10-26-2007, 06:43 AM

Very n1 test of our mainboard and the patriot memory....

...after i read this .... i searched a bit.... and maybe found something n1 for u

try to test this beta bios its called X38T-DQ6 F3i and its optimised for PDC memorys and higher FSB frequency.

http://rapidshare.com/files/65331428/X38TDQ6-F3i.rar

would be n1 when u will show me your results down here or send me a pm.

**dominick32** · 10-26-2007, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by m4tr1z

Very n1 test of our mainboard and the patriot memory....

...after i read this .... i searched a bit.... and maybe found something n1 for u

try to test this beta bios its called X38T-DQ6 F3i and its optimised for PDC memorys and higher FSB frequency.

http://rapidshare.com/files/65331428/X38TDQ6-F3i.rar

would be n1 when u will show me your results down here or send me a pm.

Who produced this beta bios? I dont want to brick any mobos now. Thanks for the help!

**dominick32** · 10-26-2007, 12:21 PM

UPDATE

Very dissapointed. Just got in the Corsair Dominators 1800 (the same sticks Anand Tested to 2040 mhz @ CAS8, and 1972 mhz @ CAS7)

Guess what, I am getting exactly the same problem as the patriots. That means it is definitely a mobo or bios issue. :bang head

Same exact problem, 1740 to 1760 mhz (7-6-6-15) is absolutely fine. But take the sticks up to 1800 mhz (stock rated frequency) and it produces errors in memtest. My patriot sticks performed exactly the same: 1740 mhz was fine, but 1800 mhz also produced errors in memtest.

I will be trying out that F3i beta bios tonight. Hopefully this will fix this, otherwise I am definitely going to yelling at Gigabyte.

Dom

**dominick32** · 10-26-2007, 03:36 PM

UPDATE
Issue still remains with the new f3i bios.

Currently in vista at 1740 mhz....

**Benny Lodewijk** · 10-26-2007, 07:56 PM

@dominick32 : i have this board too and trully i'm satisfied with the performance, i'm using Team Xtreem DDR3-1333 and 1600 2GB kit. I think the problem because the memory runs @ 1T CMD (according to your screenshot). You can try it @ 2T. Hope it help.

Some screenshot of mine

DDR3-1500 8-8-8 1T (1.85 volt)

DDR3-1600 8-8-8 2T (1.95 volt) if i force it to 1T, sometimes BSOD happen.

**Hornet331** · 10-27-2007, 01:37 AM

hmm yeah im also thinking about this, usually intel chips run 2t and not 1t.

**Sailindawg** · 10-27-2007, 04:30 AM

@Dominick

Great job so far, any chance you may have a quad core sitting around? I'd like to see how well this board runs a quad core.

Keep up the good work!

**dominick32** · 10-27-2007, 05:28 AM

Guys, 1T and 2T does not make a difference. I have tried both settings.
You guys are not running at 1800 mhz, you are running at 1600 mhz. My sticks have no problem at this frequency either.

Like I said, with Both the Patriots and the Corsairs this board is limiting my maximum mem frequency to 1740 mhz.

**dominick32** · 10-27-2007, 05:47 AM

Just to show you, DDR3 is actually made to be used at 1T:

**dominick32** · 10-27-2007, 06:17 AM

Guys, the thing thats pissing me off beyond belief is this:
I currently am using the ram in Windows and pi'ing at 1760 mhz 7-7-7-20
Using memtest, it is 100% completely stable at 1760 mhz, but go 1 bump higher to 1780 mhz and you have 75 errors PER TEST in Test #5 and the sticks are totally unstable. With my experience with memory in the past it just doesnt happen so dramatically like this. Especially when the sticks are rated for DDR3-1800.

1760 = fully stable (zero errors in memtest #5 loop)
1780 = unstable in windows (75 errors PER TEST in memtest #5 loop)

It has to be the motherboard. This is killing me right now.