Asus Rampage II Extreme

[sortkwikle]

Hi everyone I'm back and finally finished that project I was working while back. So far I got this m/b overclocked to 4.2GHz with my Core i7 980x and have it all Liquid Cooled. Just trying to fine tune it at 4.2GHz before I go any furthere,
Played my game Call of Duty 3 and it did not crash but I think maybe needs a little more cpu core voltage?





I gave up trying to build this thing in a case and just using one of those open bench's

[sortkwikle]

CPU-Z keeps going from 4291 to 3045 to 1661 back to 4291 keeps doing this? Do you think I need to add more cpu core voltage?

[sortkwikle]

[Stupify]

that's the power saving feature kicking in every now and then i believe.

[Sauron_Daz]

I think so too.

[Hammer_Time]

Exactly, disable Intel Speedstep and C1E in your mobo BIOS if you want it to run full speed all the time ( wastes power though , I have them enabled on my system )

[sortkwikle]

OK Seems to be running pretty good, I was watching some of those youtube videos on overclocking and one memtioned that you should not go past 1.25 on the cpu core voltage, hymm I already set this at 1.575
Let me know if I'm doing anything wrong. I don't want to damage this Motherboard.
My next Question is the drivers for these xfx 6970 2Gb I'm using driver 11.11 cause I did not like the newest 12. something. when I play my games COD MW 3 Gaphics flicker a little, There are alot of different versions of drivers at AMD for this 6970 Anyone know which one works best?

[Sauron_Daz]

I use a 6850 on catalyst 12.6, works without glitches.

[sortkwikle]

OK I'll try it.

[Sauron_Daz]

Succes!

[Hammer_Time]

Regarding overclocking of your cpu:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cor ... ,2590.html

Turbo Boost makes overclocking a bit more complex, since the feature can increase a processor’s clock speed by one or several ratio settings when under load (each "bin" being a 133 MHz increment). To make things more interesting, Turbo Boost has different effects, depending on the number of threads involved.

Certain Core i7 processors designed for the LGA 1156 interface can accelerate one core by as many as five speed increments, two cores by up to four increments, and three or four cores by one or two increments. All of this depends on the processor model, though.

In the case of Core i7-980X, Turbo Boost is limited to two speed bins if one core is taxed, or two speed increments for two or more cores. Given the higher Turbo Boost speeds found in the mainstream models, though, this seems disappointingly modest. Luckily, you can modify the Turbo Boost settings in the BIOS, so long as you're using a motherboard with the needed settings (see screenshot above).

Although it's possible to define the multiplier for one to six active cores separately, we decided to stay with Intel’s default settings and simply increase all multipliers by one for each overclocking step we made. You will find our individual settings in the overclocking table later in this article.

Settings, Voltage, And Power Issues

There are a several things to look at when overclocking. Depending on your motherboard model and BIOS, these may vary a bit. The following terms are taken from the Intel DX58SO we used for this article.

TDC Override: Thermal Design Current Override

Be sure you allow the processor to run higher currents when overclocking.

TDP Override: Thermal Design Power Override

You may recall that the Core i7-980X has a TDP of 130W. This won’t suffice once you start to overclock, especially if you’re also increasing voltage.

Static CPU Voltage Override

You can apply a fixed voltage to your CPU. This is often best for reaching top speeds, since dropping and increasing voltages (caused by SpeedStep) typically doesn’t contribute to system stability.

Dynamic CPU Voltage Offset

Here you can define a voltage increase to add to the default voltages. This is what we used to increase CPU voltage for our two highest overclocks.

Power Issues

Finally, we didn't apply overclocking settings that would require significant voltage increases. There's already plenty of computing power available at near-default levels, plus we found that increased voltage has much more impact on system power consumption than clock speed increases. Take a simple example: we found that the Core i7-980X is stable at 4.13 GHz (4.26/4.4 GHz in Turbo Boost) at +0.075V processor voltage. At this setting, we measured a peak power consumption of 322W. The same speed settings at +0.25V required over 400W. This is quite significant considering that system idle power almost always remains around an impressively low 85W.

...

In our testing, we increased the Turbo Boost multipliers, but we kept the same proportion Intel had chosen: one speed bin up for multiple cores (three through six) and two increments up for a single thread.

This led to a strong increase in performance per watt, so long as we could increase clock speeds without cranking up processor voltage. This increase maxed out at 3.86 GHz, which leads to 4.0/4.13 GHz with Turbo Boost active. All faster speeds still provide more performance, but overall power/performance efficiency starts decreasing. Still, even at 4.13 GHz (4.26/4.4 GHz), we found that efficiency is still higher than at Intel’s default 3.33 GHz stock speed.

Fastest Tom's got theirs was 4.13 Ghz ( 4.26/4.4 Ghz Turbo boost )... so I think you have already hit the "wall" pretty much with your cpu at 4.2 Ghz...don't think any of them can go much beyond 4.2 Ghz base speed tbh...

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews ... 980x/3.htm

Overclocked settings:

Processor: Intel Core i7 980X 205x21 4.3GHz

With six cores and 12 threads, I was not taking any chances on temperatures limiting the overclock even though the Intel solution is a gem. So for this round of of overclocking, I went straight for water cooling. What I found was that even with big volts, this chip did not really get as warm as the C0 stepping Core i7 965 I have, with a maximum temperature on one core of 72°C (Even with what was probably a bit to much vcore). To reach the 4.3 GHz clock speed I was initially a bit gentle with the voltages and found the system hitting a bclock wall at about 180MHz regardless of multiplier. At that point gentle went out the window and I started pushing voltages like I had with the Core i7 920 and 965 and found that the 980X responded well to these adjustments. 4.1GHz took about 1.375v set in the BIOS for stability but to move the bar higher meant a large increase in voltage to reach stability at 4.3GHz. I needed 1.435v set in BIOS to get this 980X stable. While that may seem like a lot, I have seen worse and better on other Nehalem architecture-based chips. Its really the luck of the draw. However the higher voltage is not worth the additional 200MHz for daily use. The bclock wall that finally stopped me cold was at 213Mhz on this chip. The unlocked multiplier can make for an interesting side to the whole bclock overclocking since you dont have to really lean on much other than the vcore. All in all, six cores of 4.3GHz madness is a sight I welcomed and am proud to show off. Of course your mileage may vary depending on your CPU.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1245/19/

By pumping up the voltage to 1.425V we were able to get the Intel Core i7 980X processor up to 4.32GHz, which is 10MHz shy of exactly a 1GHz overclock. With this much voltage running through the Intel DBX-B retail boxed heat sink we are very pleased with the results.

There you have it, 4.2 or 4.3 Ghz is "the wall" for your cpu unless you want to really crank up the voltage which will damage your cpu over time...

I would just leave it at 4.0 Ghz with stock or slightly increased voltage - still a very good result for this cpu! You won't be able to notice the 200 Mhz difference in the real world, and this way you won't fry your expensive cpu either!

[sortkwikle]

I use a 6850 on catalyst 12.6, works without glitches.

Much better no glitches, although I don't see anywhere that crossfire is enabled, I know it is though. gotta be? lol

[sortkwikle]

OK hammer I read all that and I have cpu voltage set at 1.575 plus at the time I was having glitches with graphics in my game, No glitches now do you think I should lower cpu voltage?

[sortkwikle]

I have 3 sensors, One on cpu which has not gone over 30c yet, One on graphics card which has not gone over 40c yet, and one stuck in the rad which has not gone over 37c yet.

[sortkwikle]

Actualy everything seems to run smooth and temps are down a little than what I said when playing game since graphics glitches are gone. I even just installed black opps and plays just fine.
I do play cod mw3 alot and still have to put up with hackers. I come out ahead though. Still play cod mw4 also.
Black opps and cod mw4 kick hackers, but mw2 and mw3 are infested with hackers. shame about the hackers you would think they would get tired of winning all the time.

So now I have 2 Asus Rampage II extreme motherboards and 1 Asus Rampage III formula.
The first rampage II extreme I have that core i7 920 installed on it (overclocked to 3.8GHz)
and this one (overclocked to 4.2GHz)
The rampage III formula I installed core i7 950 and have not finished it yet, will be air cooled and will give it to my wife, Still a good motherboard I just don't like it to much.

[Hammer_Time]

OK hammer I read all that and I have cpu voltage set at 1.575 plus at the time I was having glitches with graphics in my game, No glitches now do you think I should lower cpu voltage?

I would try lowering cpu voltage... 1.575 is pretty high...try to keep it under 1.45 if possible

[Sauron_Daz]

OK hammer I read all that and I have cpu voltage set at 1.575 plus at the time I was having glitches with graphics in my game, No glitches now do you think I should lower cpu voltage?

Yes!

[Sauron_Daz]

I use a 6850 on catalyst 12.6, works without glitches.

Much better no glitches, although I don't see anywhere that crossfire is enabled, I know it is though. gotta be? lol

[sortkwikle]

LOL Well I fried that ssd so I had to start all over. So I used a 1Tb hard drive and works much better, That's why I had those gliches, that 12.6 version of graphics card worked for awhile but they came back until screen went black,.
I thought I fried the graphics cards.
I RMAed that ssd for a replacement, would have rather had a refund but newegg said I could only get a replacement. Will proberly sell the replacement on ebay. lol
Version 11.11 on graphics card is the one I used this time cause it had a 11.11cap for crossfire to help Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, something like that. Just got done doing win7 updates and fixen to install games.
Hate it when your trying to do something with new components and they are bad?
Well I had hoped for a good gaming ssd, I have a spare intel 40Gb ssd and wondering if I install it and use it for my games?

[sortkwikle]

also I will lower cpu voltage this time when I overclock, before I was trying to get rid of those gliches, I thought something was not right.