i7 920 Overclocking problem : 3.06Ghz WALL

Discussion in 'Die-hard Overclocking & Case Modifications' started by arxontas, Nov 24, 2013.

  1. arxontas

    arxontas Member Guru

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    Hello there!

    To begin with, I know my topic and rig are seriously outdated . Also this is gonna be a kinda lengthy post so thanks in advance for anyone that reads it/ helps me out :D

    I have owned this system for over 4 years now. The problem is that the cpu won't OC stable past 3.06Ghz, whatever bios settings i try( and i have tried a lot). If i set the speed over 3.06, the Mobo will POST ( Bios reads the correct cpu frequency) but i get a BLACK SCREEN right before loading windows - aka the system won't boot.

    Here are the settings that my system is perfectly stable at, 3.06Ghz( runs prime95 without error/BSOD for a couple of hours):

    AI Overclock Tuner : Manual
    CPU Ratio : 19
    Intel SpeedStep Tech : Disabled
    BCLK Frequency : 160
    PCIE Frequency : 100
    DRAM Frequency : 1603 Mhz
    UCLK Frequency : Auto
    QPI Link Data Rate : Auto

    DRAM Timings have been set manually to 9-9-9-24-2T, according to spec.

    CPU Voltage : 1.20
    CPU PLL Voltage : Auto
    QPI/DRAM Voltage : 1.30
    IOH, IOH PCIE, ICH, ICH PCIE on Auto
    DRAM Bus Voltage : 1.50 (according to ram spec.)

    Load Line Calibration : Disabled
    CPU and PCIE Spread Spectrum Disabled, all other stuff on Auto.

    I must say here that my cpu is cooled by a ThermalRight TRUE Black 120. Temperatures (for the above settings) are 35 Idle and 60 Full Load (Stress testing with Prime), so overheating isn't an issue. Also FYI my 920 has the D0 stepping


    Note 1: If I go for 16x200 ,3.2ghz, ram 1600mhz (20x160 works too) computer will run prime flawlessly for 1hr+, although it sometimes won't boot or it will act weird when in windows ( laggy, programs won't start etc. ). Although I find that increasing vcore to 1.25v stabilizes the system. Trying this now

    Note 2 : Yesterday, i managed to boot the system (once) at 3.4Ghz, using 17x200 and setting ALL voltages on AUTO. I ran prime for 10 mins and CPU-Z showed that the vcore was 1.36, which i find rather high btw . Today it wont even boot at 3.4, so went back to my 3.06 Settings


    Here is some other stuff I have tried, to no avail :
    -Low multiplier combined with high bclk( have even tried 14 and 15)
    -Ive played with qpi and cpu voltages A LOT ( have tried all the spectrum between 1.2 and 1.4 for vcore and 1.25 - 1.4 for qpi and many combinations between them )
    -Setting PPL, ioh and ich manually to their minimums
    -Setting QPI, Uncore and DRAM Frequencies manually at minimum(lowest multipliers)
    -Have also tried setting CPU Differential Amplitude to 800/900 and Cpu Clock Skew to 300ps, no luck



    After trying all these countless bios settings I am reaching to the conclusion that the problem lies within my motherboard ( bad luck of the draw maybe, wouldn't say faulty). So I was thinking of selling my P6T and buying a used Rampage III Extreme which would help me get to 4.0ghz( also getting the benefits of USB 3/Sata 3 ) as i dont plan to buy a new system for the next couple of years. Any thoughts on this/worth it ? Do you think that it may be the cpu's problem ?

    PS1: The problem has existed since i bought the computer, although i didn't bother a lot then. Let's say i have a lot of free time these days :p

    PS2: If you manage to find out some setting in bios that will get me higher than 3.2Ghz i will have a statue built for you :p
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2013
  2. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

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    Is it a C0 or D0 CPU?
     
  3. arxontas

    arxontas Member Guru

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    It is a D0, that's one of the reasons im so frustrated.
     
  4. BLEH!

    BLEH! Ancient Guru

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  5. Veteran

    Veteran Ancient Guru

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    All of your settings are wrong, that is why its failing.
    What cooling do you have?
    Edit i see that you have a TRUE black, i used to have one of those. Good cooler.

    Ok there are the settings you need to change... try for bclk around 3.8 for now.

    AI Overclock Tuner : Manual
    CPU Ratio : 21 (
    Intel SpeedStep Tech : Disabled
    BCLK Frequency : 160
    PCIE Frequency : 100
    DRAM Frequency : N/A Use bclk
    UCLK Frequency : change this to double of whatever the Dram frequency is, for example 1603=3206 or nearest equivalent.
    QPI Link Data Rate : Auto

    DRAM Timings have been set manually to 9-9-9-24-2T, according to spec.

    CPU Voltage : 1.33
    CPU PLL Voltage : 1.88
    QPI/DRAM Voltage : 1.35
    DRAM Bus Voltage : 1.65 (according to ram spec.) **** the ram spec 1.65 is fine i been doing it for years. 1.66 will take you into the redzone.

    Load Line Calibration : Enabled (Disabling this alone will fail even if everything else is right, very important).
    CPU Differential Amplitude..800mv
    CPU Clock Skew..300ps
    IOH Clock Skew..300ps

    IOH Voltage..1.15
    ICH Voltage..1.20

    C1E Support............................[Disabled]
    Hardware Prefetcher....................[Enabled]
    Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch...........[Enabled]
    Intel(r) Virtualization Tech..[Disabled]
    CPU TM Function..[Enabled]
    Execute Disable Bit...[Enabled]
    Intel(r) HT Technology.................[Enabled]
    Active Processor Cores.................[All]
    A20M...[Disabled]
    Intel(r) SpeedStep(tm) Tech...[Disabled]
    Intel(r) C-STATE Tech...[Disabled]

    Try that quick and dirty
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2013
  6. arxontas

    arxontas Member Guru

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    I know the post is lengthy but please read it .. I state almost everything there. I have a Thermalright True Black 120, temps are pretty low

    @BLEH! :Thanks, that looks like a lot of useful info, ill read it later when i have more time
     
  7. Veteran

    Veteran Ancient Guru

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    Dude i would have your cpu up to 3.8 within 10 mins fully stable:)
    I been using x58 for 5 years and i know these chips like the back of my hand.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2013
  8. arxontas

    arxontas Member Guru

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    I never questioned that, could you please elaborate ? :D

    EDIT: Im sorry i just saw your edited post, i will try these settings soon, thank you for the quick response
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2013
  9. arxontas

    arxontas Member Guru

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    @Veteran:

    I tried the exact settings you suggested, except for dram voltage which i set to 1.5v, because my ram kit is rated for 1.5v

    Good news! The system booted normally at 21x160(3.36ghz) and i was able to run prime flawlessly for 2hrs+. CPU Temp reached 82C at full load. When i set the BCLK higher though, the system wouldn't boot. I tried 180, 170 and 165 but i get the same black screen before loading Windows.

    Setting the BCLK at 180, I tried the following, none of which worked:
    -Increasing QPI voltage to 1.375, 1.4 , 1.45
    -Increasing vcore to 1.35, 1.361
    -Those two combined
    -Increasing IOH Voltage to 1.2
    -Disabling Load Line Calibration

    18x200 or 19x200 wouldn't work either.

    So it seems that i am having trouble getting past 160bclk. Any suggestions to go higher ? Thanks in advance
     
  10. Veteran

    Veteran Ancient Guru

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    What ram do you have?

    Try all of the above with load line enabled, you must keep this enabled!
    Also increase IOH voltage to 1.5, DO NOT GO ANY HIGHER ON THE VCORE atm. Use a multiplyer of 19 or 21, never use 18 or 20. Even numbers do not work on x58 regarding high overclocks.

    Make sure you turn off Intel speedstep and c1e, this is important.

    If your already at 82 degrees which is high for 3.36 then i suggest that you need to.....
    1.increase airflow to the case.
    2.Maybe reapply some TIM to your cpu.
    3.Get better cooling.

    Most d0 chips can hit atleast 3.8-4ghz on air with good airflow in the case. You seem to be hitting that brick wall very early on.

    Here is a thread i made years ago, until my rampage 2 extreme died 2 weeks ago i was at 4.4 ht on and fully stable which is awesome for a 930 even if it is on water. Also settings change depending on your motherboard and cpu. Its all about trial and error and many many hours of stability testing. This motherboard that i have now is ok, it does the job but its **** compared to my old r2e.

    Use these settings as a baseline to get an Idea.
    http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=337300
     

  11. arxontas

    arxontas Member Guru

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    My RAM kit is Gskill Ripjaws, model F3-12800CL9T-12GBRL. I got it one week ago by RMAing my last kit which was defective, so its brand new.

    Right now, im using the template on your previous post, sitting at 3.36 Ghz. I know my temps are rather high... I reinstalled my TRUE black just yesterday so thermal paste is brand new(and was applied well) and cooler is clean.

    Anyway ill check your thread and try experiment some more. If i get somewhere ill let you know.
    Thanks a lot for the help, maybe i have a bad chip after all
     
  12. synapz

    synapz Active Member

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    Too bad I didn't write down my OC settings for my old I7 920. All I remember was that I used 200 as BLCK and x18 as multiplier. 1.64v for RAM (@1604Mhz). I Think I had a CPU voltage at 1.3v. The OC was 3.8Ghz btw.
     
  13. Mr_Alexander

    Mr_Alexander Ancient Guru

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    Mine is CO and i have 3.6Gh with 1.37 voltage. I have it for four years too and I cannot pass 3.6 no matter what I do. Yours is DO so you should do it little bit higher. Set the BIOS settings as Veteran said. He helped me long time ago to get mine stable too.
     
  14. CPC_RedDawn

    CPC_RedDawn Ancient Guru

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    x58 is a little tricky to get used to with overclocking.

    I had an i7 920 C0 (not D0 which is a better overclocker) and had that stable 200x18 for 3.6GHz @ 1.29vcore, 1.3250 QPI/DRAM voltage, 1.25 IOH, 1.3 ICH, and 1.65v on RAM (which was rated for 1600MHz 7-7-7-21-1T@1.65v).

    I have it under a thermalright Ultra 120 extreme cooler and it never batted a eye lid for around 2 years with this overclock, was rock solid stable and temps after 6 hours Prime95 smallFFT and max temps were 68C across all four cores (some were lower but max was 68C).

    It would not do anymore than 3.6GHz and would require around 1.4v or higher to even get it to boot into Windows but would fail every test I through at it. Which is why I got my i7 960 D0 which is now rock solid 200x21 4.2GHz @ 1.38v (Vdroop hits 1.36v max with LLC on level 2).
     
  15. arxontas

    arxontas Member Guru

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    @Veteran: Are you sure about IOH 1.5V ? Isnt it too high? Its way inside the red zone. Do you mean IOH PCIE maybe ?

    I tried a lot of stuff today to get higher than 21x160 but it just doesn't work out :p I increased ioh to 1.2, 1.25 and 1.3, ich to 1.3 as RedDawn suggested and much more... system will deny booting into windows at anything past 3.36 ghz

    So now i tweaked my voltages for 3.36ghz a bit, I reduced my vcore to 1.31 and qpi to 1.331. That way i reduced max temp to 77C and system is fully stable. I guess I will have to settle with that.
     

  16. Veteran

    Veteran Ancient Guru

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    No i dont mess with the pcie lane voltage as its not needed. The settings i gave you are settings i have tried and tested myself and they work for me. You have to remember that each setup is different and requires many hrs of trial and hr. If your unsure of any settings then dont do it, keep things safe.

    To go from 4.3-4.4 took me around 30s of testing alone of different settings.
    Beings as my r2e broke 3 weeks ago, im done with x58 for now and i will soon be moving on to greener pastures. It was an awesome board combined with an awesome cherry picked cpu.

    Definitely the best cpu and mobo i ever owned lasting a whole 5 years and tbh if it wouldnt have broke i woulda carried on using it cause an upgrade wasnt needed ie: No gpu bottleneck at.
     
  17. Edamski

    Edamski Guest

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    Would you say these settings you quoted veteran would be a good set point to start with? (I've never over locked a cpu before) or would you need to have something tailored to my mobo, ram and cooling? Can't remember my mobo of the top of my head (been 3 years since I bought it haha) I'll look when I'm at my pc, ram is patriot 1033, cooling is provided by a corsair h20

    Sorry if some of that is obviously daft, been a while since I was up to date on it all
     
  18. Veteran

    Veteran Ancient Guru

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    Corsair h20 is just like an air cooler, infact some air coolers are probably better than it. Anyhow its better than the stock heatsink.
    You have a 920 is it a c0 or a d0?
    Dont really matter as these settings are good for both, try these...
    For 3.6 with Ht-on first.

    Ai Overclock Tuner.....................[Manual]
    CPU Ratio Setting......................[21.0]
    Intel(r) SpeedStep(tm) Tech............[Disabled]
    Xtreme Phase Full Power Mode...........[Enabled]
    BCLK Frequency.........................[172]
    PCIE Frequency.........................[100]
    DRAM Frequency.........................[DDR3-1379MHz]
    UCLK Frequency.........................[2758MHz]
    QPI Link Data Rate.....................[Auto]

    CPU Voltage Control....................[Manual]
    CPU Voltage............................[1.11875]
    CPU PLL Voltage........................[1.80]
    QPI/DRAM Core Voltage..................[1.20625]
    IOH Voltage............................[1.15]
    IOH PCIE Voltage.......................[Auto]
    ICH Voltage............................[1.20]
    ICH PCIE Voltage.......................[Auto]
    DRAM Bus Voltage.......................[1.64]
    DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHA...........[Auto]
    DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHA...........[Auto]
    DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHB...........[Auto]
    DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHB...........[Auto]
    DRAM DATA REF Voltage on CHC...........[Auto]
    DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHC...........[Auto]

    Load-Line Calibration..................[Enabled]
    CPU Differential Amplitude.............[800mV]
    CPU Clock Skew.........................[300ps]
    CPU Spread Spectrum....................[Disabled]
    IOH Clock Skew.........................[300ps]
    PCIE Spread Spectrum...................[Disabled]

    C1E Support............................[Disabled]
    Hardware Prefetcher....................[Disabled]
    Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch...........[Disabled]
    Intel(r) Virtualization Tech...........[Disabled]
    CPU TM Function........................[Disabled]
    Execute Disable Bit....................[Enabled]
    Intel(r) HT Technology.................[Enabled]
    Active Processor Cores.................[All]
    A20M...................................[Disabled]
    Intel(r) SpeedStep(tm) Tech............[Disabled]
    Intel(r) C-STATE Tech..................[Disabled]


    Some settings will differ slightly depending on your motherboard. Use this as a Guide and not Gospel. If your getting an unstable oc and failing, turn ht-off and try again. If your unsure of anything just ask..:)
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2013
  19. tsunami231

    tsunami231 Ancient Guru

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    wana come OC my D0? i i gave up trying to OC is after find out out that just 3.2ghz was unstable and month of trying to stablize it,Prime95 would never BSOD it ever not even after 6 hours, But Swtor would bsod and I would get some error code that point to voltage was wrong, and no amount of me messing with it ever fixed, Probably has something to do with bent pins i have on the x58 probably same reason why I Went threw 6+ ram kits before I found one that dont lose 1 of the 3 sticks at random or why if I run the ram past 1598 I lose 1 of the 3 sticks.None the less wana come OC it for me ? hah
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2013
  20. Edamski

    Edamski Guest

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    Yeah when I was buying it there was one or two air coolers getting better results but I just felt the h20 was a more stable bet. It never goes over 60 under load so does it's job well :)

    I'm pretty sure it's D0 but can't remember, how would I check??

    Thanks for those buddy I'll give them a go very shortly and see what I get and let you know :)

    Also what's the ht setting you mention?
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2013

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