Overclocking to Save the Weekend

[shaddowdragon]

Well, with the financial crisis and all, I have decided to get more from what I have by over clocking. Saves me a whole lot of drooling over new hardware that I cannot get now but most importantly, I do not have to touch the weekend budget

CPU:


3D Mark 06 Results:
http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16741346

3D Mark Vantage:
http://3dmark.com/3dmv/4159625

3D Mark 11:
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3740062

And a few Crysis benchmark runs: (Nb: Running Windows 7 but shows up as Vista 64)
Run #1- DX10 1680x1050 AA=4x, 32 bit test, Quality: VeryHigh ~~ Overall Average FPS: 38.8
NEXT BENCH RUN- 2012/06/25 08:16:47 PM - Vista 64

Run #1- DX10 1680x1050 AA=8xQ, 32 bit test, Quality: VeryHigh ~~ Overall Average FPS: 41.255
NEXT BENCH RUN- 2012/06/25 08:22:20 PM - Vista 64

Run #1- DX10 1680x1050 AA=8xQ, 64 bit test, Quality: VeryHigh ~~ Overall Average FPS: 40.02

That's how I saved the weekend!

[Pada]

From the looks of things your RAM are running on their limits: 892MHz where they're rated for only 800MHz.

I'd suggest that you either loosen the RAM timings (eg. 6-6-6-21) or adjust your RAM multiplier so that your RAM runs under 800MHz.

[shaddowdragon]

From the looks of things your RAM are running on their limits: 892MHz where they're rated for only 800MHz.

I'd suggest that you either loosen the RAM timings (eg. 6-6-6-21) or adjust your RAM multiplier so that your RAM runs under 800MHz.

Will that give me more speed?

[scotty777]

Will that give me more speed?

No, but will save your ram modules. I have two 2gig sticks, but only 3.5 gigs is usable because I killed a chippy on my ram module by doing what you just did.

[Pada]

No, but will save your ram modules. I have two 2gig sticks, but only 3.5 gigs is usable because I killed a chippy on my ram module by doing what you just did.

You won't kill the RAM by overclocking it, unless you increase the voltage too far.

By reducing the memory multiplier or loosening the RAM timings, the system should become more stable and then 3D Mark Vantage should finish the Physics test every single time.
Effectively you will be slowing it down a notch, but the effect would be minimal. Rather a stable system than a super fast but unstable one.

[shaddowdragon]

I set the voltage to 1.46 on the CPU and 3D Mark Vantage now completes each time. What is funny was I could run Prime95 while using Firefox so, not sure why Vantage would need more juice.

Regarding the memory, I have run it like that for close on two years now. The voltage is 1.89 on auto in the BIOS. Should be able to handle 2.1volts according to write up in the manual. Its only the CPU multiplier that I have changed and tweaked the voltage.

NB: the voltage reported in Speed fan alternates between 1.42 and 1.44, the BIOS setting does not seem accurate. This would explain why original setting of 1.45 on the CPU voltage gave less than 1.4 sometimes.

[Pada]

I usually use 7-zip's benchmarking tool to check if my CPU and RAM is working after I overclocked, because Prime95 just stresses certain CPU paths. 7-z also stresses just certain paths, but at least it gives you a decompression error when you're overclocking too far or did not increase the voltage enough.

Just be careful that you don't push your RAM voltage too far. IIRC DDR2 800 was rated for 1.8V. If you've got decent heat spreaders on your RAM (and good memory chip) then you can probably push it past 1.9V.

Like bare in mind that boosting the frequency won't damage the components, but over-voltage and heat would!
Boosting the frequency should increase the heat in a linear fashion, where as boosting the voltage would increase it in a exponential factor: Power (aka heat) = a constant * frequency * Voltage ^ 2

[shaddowdragon]

Will keep that in mind for the memory. Thanks for the 7-zip tip, that will be part of my project for tonight, have decided to try for 3.6Ghz for day to day so will run both stability tests after.

[shaddowdragon]

I usually use 7-zip's benchmarking tool to check if my CPU and RAM is working after I overclocked, because Prime95 just stresses certain CPU paths. 7-z also stresses just certain paths, but at least it gives you a decompression error when you're overclocking too far or did not increase the voltage enough.

Just be careful that you don't push your RAM voltage too far. IIRC DDR2 800 was rated for 1.8V. If you've got decent heat spreaders on your RAM (and good memory chip) then you can probably push it past 1.9V.

Like bare in mind that boosting the frequency won't damage the components, but over-voltage and heat would!
Boosting the frequency should increase the heat in a linear fashion, where as boosting the voltage would increase it in a exponential factor: Power (aka heat) = a constant * frequency * Voltage ^ 2

Ok, have run 7-zip and it seems nothing broke.

[Pada]

With 8GB of RAM you should increase the Dictionary size to 256MB so that it uses all your modules at the very least.
Just don't increase it more than that, because then it will start writing to your hard drive (SWAP file).

I don't usually run that many passes. I do about 5 or so, but the more it can finish the better.

[shaddowdragon]

Will not let me allocate more than 192. Possibly cause Firefox is running and I have Vmware server installed. Anyway ...



Also turned Cool and Quiet back on. It turns out it does not make the system unstable with an overclock after all.