Trouble Overclocking My I7 950

Hey all, some of you may know i've just recently gone and bought myself an i7 950 along with an RIIE and some Patriot Viper Memory to compliement my new Crossfire setup. Which even my i7 950 at stock is outperforming my OC'ed Q9550 @ 4Ghz (might post my benchies in my CrossfireX Thread in the Ati Section at some point)

However like most of you im never satisfied with running just stock, i mean come on how dull lol

So in light of this i've decided to start overclocking my 950, i was hoping to reach 4.2Ghz with HT on. I thought this was an attainable goal, it however seems im wrong. I know others have had trouble with 950's but then others have also had success of which i was hoping to count myself amoung them. So far im having less than no luck it would seem i cant even get 3.4Ghz stable yet! I can get in to windows at 4Ghz and even 4.2Ghz but obviously there not stable.

Some screen shots of my BIOS setttings maybe some1 can shed some light on where im going wrong, if i am, maybe i just have a crap chip for Overclocking.

The settings below where not stable even for 3.4Ghz, it failed IBT at around test 19 of 25 Runs running 8 threads, it was also set on Maximum not standard or high.

CPU Settings 1


CPU Settings2



CPU Settings3



CPU Configuration


DRAM Timings


So if anyone can please help here, this gear cost me a lot of money and although i shouldn't feel dissappointed i kinda do a little, was hoping for more from my rig in terms of overclocking potential otherwise its awesome but i know i won't enjoy it until i know for sure where i stand with this CPU and whether or not it needs changing or its something im doing wrong.

Cheers

Matt

 

Ok let´s see... Try this.

UCLK Freq (Auto)
QPI Link data rate (Auto)
CPU Ratio Setting (18 by now, then you could try 20)
Cpu Voltage (1.30 I don´t think you should need any more for 3.8Ghz unless is a real bad cpu...)
Cpu Pll (1.80 -1.82)
IOH Voltage (1.20)

QPI/Dram (1.30)
IOH PCI/ICH Voltage/ICH PCIE Voltage (All Auto)

The rest is fair good as it is...

Once you find stability with these settings (you should), try CPU Ratio at 19, then 20 hopefully might work, if not, you might need some extra cpu volts.

Wich cooler have you on?

I hope it helps my friend

 

My 950 is also not so nice... Pasting from my oc log:

21x191 - 4GHz
1527MHz 8-8-8-24-88
Manually entered XMP timings for 1600MHz mem

LinX 20 runs (5000MB) : PASSED, 1hr 20min
Prime95 Blend 26.4 : BSOD 9-9.5hr (BugCode 3B)

Vcore 1.35
QPI 1.375
Mem 1.66
CPU PLL 1.82
ICH PCIE 1.5
IOH PCIE 1.52
ICH 1.2
IOH 1.22

CPU Diff. 800mv
CPU Skew 300ps
IOH Skew 300ps

 

Don't want to belittle your OC experience however I suggest trying according to the steps described in this guide:

http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/07/3-step-overclocking-guide-bloomfield-and-gulftown/3/

It worked well for me.

 

you NEED to decrease the northbridge clock multiplier a bit i think

 

What is the batch number on your cpu or cpu box?

 

BTW, in my above post, I didn't mean to send you off to go learn. I hate when people throw general answers at you. It's just that it's pretty difficult to assess what factors need to be changed when looking at someone else's BIOS shots, only there's an obvious setting, of course.
I'm suggesting this guide because I just used it and it is very simple logical. You basically lower CPU and memory multiplers and gradually increase blck until you reach the target blck, increasing qpi/vtt voltage. Then you lower your blck, set you desired memory multiplier, and slowly rasise the blck back up, adding DRAM and qpi/vtt(dram) voltage at need. In the last step, you lower the blck yet again, set you desired CPU multiplier, and start raising the blck, adding vcore at need.
This three step method let's you isolate components so you know what needs extra volts. I know you probably don't want to start over again, but it really makes no sense that you aren't able to even get 3.4Ghz stable on that CPU, so you may want to take the time and start over, using this strategy.
Good luck

 

Hey guys, thanks for all your responses. Sorry I've not been online to properly respond I'm currently at work. I'll be home in like a couple hours to continue this.

Cheers

Matt

 

try to lower your CPU PLL to 1.6 or 1.4

have mine @ 1.39v instead of 1.8 it helped me a lot lowering my CPU V-Core. And try lowering your QPI Voltage, ~1.4v seem about high for only Uncore 3,2Ghz and DRAM ~1600Mhz, i know every CPU is different but try lowering to 1.36-1.37 and here a little list i found some times ago which is not everytime the exactly solution for BSODs but it can give you a general idea where to look.

 

I discovered I could not raise or lower QPI volt even one notch from this stable setting:

Vcore 1.35
QPI 1.375
Mem 1.66
CPU PLL 1.82
ICH PCIE 1.5
IOH PCIE 1.52
ICH 1.2
IOH 1.22

If I did, P95 Blend (latest v26.4) would BSOD within 30 minutes.

I checked my other more or less successful P95 runs and discovered a mix of low and high volts for IOH / QPI...all differered 15mv !

So, I lowered QPI and IOH 80mv each ! Still the same 15mv diff and rig was LinX 20 passes OK with All (5GB free) mem ! A quick test on P95 blend didn't bsod in the two first tests.

Vcore 1.35
QPI 1.293
Mem 1.66
CPU PLL 1.82
ICH PCIE 1.5
IOH PCIE 1.52
ICH 1.2
IOH 1.14

So, test with IOH 1.14v and work from there !

BTW.. fastest OC is testing the 1024kB first, 5-10 runs..then 3MB runs.. just to discover errors or BSODs... When say 4-5 passes OK on All mem I'd test P95 Blend.. if it crashes/bsods within 30mins, adjust voltages so you can run 20 passes LinX All mem. You still can BSOD within 30mins in P95 Blend... just tweak it more. I'm not satisfied until I am 10-12hr P95 blend stable... got to test this later today with new + lower IOH and QPI volts

 

Ok guys, im home and fed

Shimyns thanks for your link, its appreciated, however i used this guide which is very similar to the one you posted (think there from the same guy)

I've thought about starting again, however, if i drop the multi on my CPU to 15 for 3000Mhz it passes all tests no problem. Its only when i up it too 17 for 3400Mhz, so with this in mind im not sure it can be a problem with my bclk or DRAM setup? Does this sound logical to you? What else can i associated with stability when upping my CPU clock frequency other than Vcore? Maybe i just need a truck load more of it.

Mr Joe, im afraid i cant decrease it 3200mhz is the lowest uclk i can select.

Veteran my CPUs batch number is 3038A291 personally i couldn't find any info on it.

Unreal2004, CPU PLL is another setting i cant lower im afraid, the lowest i can set is whats set. Thanks for the BSOD codes there though, im sure i've seen the 0x3b one which indicates one more vcore.

I may try a test with 1.4v on the CPU just to see what happens before i decide on anything else.

I may also up the IOH and ICH voltages to 1.2v as Barton C++ and Aioras have suggested.

Cheers

Matt

 

Ok guys, just tried same settings but with aforementioned 1.4v on CPU and both1.2v on IOH and ICH failed after the 6th test! This is starting to get to me now!

 

@Matt26LFC
Yeah, at a glance it looks like the same guy wrote both guides but if you look a bit more deeply you'll see there are many subtle differences. For instance the IOH core value is different (even though the wording is strangely similar). And in "my" guide he says to use LLC and in "yours", he says it's not recommended, etc..
If I were you, I'd give it ("my" guide) a shot. W/o reading all the bull$h1t, just implementation.
Once I had my board and memory working at 200 Blck and then lowered Blck to 160 and set my CPU mulitpler to x20 (for the target 200x20), I just starting raising my Blck 10Mhz at a time, adding only vcore.
When you wrote lines like "... i drop the multi on my CPU to 15 for 3000Mhz it passes all tests no problem. Its only when i up it too 17 for 3400Mhz..." it sounds like you may not be doing it in an orderly way as the guide calls for... because the CPU multipler should be at like 14/15 while you're setting up your board (Blck) and memory speeds/voltages, but once you're done with that (200Mhz Blck?), the cpu multiplier should be set to the final multiplier and the Blck should be lowered and then gradually raised (while adding vcore at need).
It sounds like you're gradually raising the cpu multiplier instead of gradually raising the Blck...

 

Mmmmm, can´t be such a bad overclocker Cpu... something´s wrong :S

Your PSU is strong for a good overclock, your temps maybe? What about your Bios? Try to update it, I don´t know...

 

Hey man, totally hear what ya saying there. However again i've neglected to be through in my posts. I did start to set the board up as described, low cpu multi and DRAM multi set the bclk to 150 punched in 1.35v QPI/VTT and 1.3v CPU Vcore and i think it was 1.35 IOH booted into windows ran a couple tests, usually ran prime95 for 10mins if it passed i went back in BIOS and upped the bclk to 160, i continued on with this all the way up to around 210 bclk before it became unstable so dropped it to 200 as 200 was what i wanted anyway.

After this i upped my DRAM to 1600Mhz (2:8) which is what its rated for again ran an hour of prime blend no errors. So i then decided ok lets start to up the CPU Multi, whacked it up to 15 ran 5 passes of IBT Max settings it passed, back into the BIOS i go, set it to 17 ran 5 passes of IBT Max settings it passed, again back into BIOS set it to 19 another 5 passes of IBT Max settings all was good.

I then decided i'll go for 20 multi and run 25 passes of IBT which is when things started to go wrong after increasing voltages and getting nothing in return for it i decided to try and be more though with me testing at a lower multi 19, 25 runs again and failure, lowered again 25 runs again and failure, all the way down to where i am now and still failure.

I just cant figure it all out, maybe i should do as you said and go back to the start and be more though with my bclk testing and RAM testing, make sure its more than 10 mins prime stable. Only problem there is it'll take an eternity to be so through for every tiny thing you change


EDIT

My temps are ok, they dont touch 80 even on the hottest core at the moment. Im running the 1802 BIOS think theres one newer out, though i have read the the 1504 was/is the best for OCing

 

isn't this QPI link transfer rate a little high? 7218 MT/s..




or is that ok, idk well default is 4800 or that doesn't matter? :nerd:

 

Change your multi to 19 and your bclk to 200.
Put your vcore and qpi to 1.35v. If you have a loadline calibration option use it.
Leave the rest on auto.

Run prime95 blend test, and you should be ready to go.

Later you can tweak your ram.

 

Possibly mate, I'm not sure, however that's the lowest I can set, the others are 8 or 9k. There is an option for 'slow mode' I presume that'll make it slower, perhaps I'll give that a shot.

 

IMO, u started well, albeit should've made sure your RAM was stable at 8x200 (with low CPU multiplier). However according to your description, you kept blck at 200 and started raising CPU multiple, whereas it'd been better had you lowered blck, set CPU multiple to 20 and started raising blck.

Your qpi is at 7.2Ghz cuz it's 36x200. My mobo doesn't go lower than x36 multiple.
Qpi/vtt voltage is for this.
BTW, in the other guide, IOH core voltage and qpi/vtt voltage are set much lower at step one. The former is only at like 1.2v.

Again, I wouldn't work with changing CPU multiples and changing blck. Get your 200 blck stable first. Otherwise you don't know what needs volts.

 

Ok all, i decided that before i start from scratch again i'd try one more thing, which i actually didn't think would work but tried it anyway.

My idea was to lower my RAM Multi from 8 to 6 thus resulting in a 1200Mhz Frequency instead of 1600Mhz and guess what!



wtf happened there.