Crosshair IV Extreme - High HTT, high MEM board

[Massman]

Hey guys,

 

For last month's OC challenge I was using the 790FX-GD70 as in a previous OC challenge it proved to be a very efficient board memory-wise. The problem was, however, that this board was very limited for PCMark runs. I had to run either:

 

- 325HTT, 3:8 866MHz CL6 or

- 342HTT, 1:2 684MHz CL5

 

With the 1:2 divider, I wasn't able to pass 330MHz and on LN2 I was completely HTT-limited at 370MHz. Not so good in other words.

 

Since yesterday, I have the C4E on the test bench for a while and ... in the first few tests, the board looks REALLY decent. Especially given that it's a DDR3 board. Here are some preliminary results.

 

 

 

[Leeghoofd]

Nice work; Though a bit weird as I had issues booting with the 1:2 divider... Could it be my sempron then ? Looking forward to Thuban clocks... and VGA mismash

[Massman]

This I like:

 

[Hondacity]

impressive...

 

is that on air?

 

what ram subtimings did you have to manually set?

[Massman]

All screenshots with less than 1.4V are air cooling, the ones with more than 1.5V are with single stage

[knopflerbruce]

So what's the maxx htt on air on your board? I guess this is a CPU limitation anyway...

[Massman]

Haven't really pushed the HTT on air. Raw HTT is meaningless anyway ... there's no performance in running single channel

[knopflerbruce]

You need high HTT on LN2 anyway, which is why I like to test these things on air as well. Just trying to figure out if it's my board that can't do more than 365 or so, or the CPU:)

[TaPaKaH]

HTT is very CPU dependant - I had chips that failed 320 air, and ones that did 380+ air, so absolute numbers don't really say anything

[knopflerbruce]

I have one that can't even do 315, it's in the socket atm. Funny thing is: it can do 400+++ on LN2, on a different board of course

[Massman]

It's CPU, MB, Bios and MEM dependant ...

 

This chip could do 342 1:2 and 325 3:8 on the 790FX-GD70 on single stage; on C4E with same cooling and memory it can do 350 3:8 and 390 1:2 ... now someone tell me it's 'CPU related'.

[knopflerbruce]

At least the CPU is a part of the equation:D So basically you have to be lucky if your mobo likes your chip, and the other way around?

 

One more thing... does this board like old school Micron D9GTR modules? Just trying to figure out why it's such a PITA sometimes... grrr.

 

I guess there is only one BIOS, right?

[TaPaKaH]

i have tested ten 140/145 on two boards (M4A79 and M4A79T)

if one one board CPU#1 goes, say, 10MHz higher than CPU#2, then you'll see identical situation on other board

Regor/Sargas has somewhat weak IMC, which can't handle high memclocks well. Also HT link doesn't affect 2D performance at all, so it's better to be kept low (at x2 or x3)

If you're on LN2 (DDR3 config) the only divider to use is 1:2 and go for raw clocks which would easily compensate for the 70-80k (<2%) difference difference between 1:2 and 3:8

[Massman]

It's partially CPU, but it's as much mainboard, bios and memory as it is CPU.

 

With the GD70 I couldn't get 370 on LN2, with the C4E I can get 390 on SS. With the Kingston memory set I have here I can not pass 310HTT 1:2 on single stage, but with the GTX2 I could do 340HTT 1:2.

[Massman]

Okay, this is a seriously awesome board. Normally I don't get overly excited about products (as most of them are pretty much the same), but this one has made me go 'holy shit' during a Pi32M run again.

 

Switched to Thuban - 400HTT no problemo ... and more incoming.

 

 

(but it's too expensive)

[Massman]

[flanker]

ufff, 4600 MHz and 32M with aircooling? Its very strong! I got max 4550 in 32M...

[Leeghoofd]

That's prolly Phase Flanker , don't worry you are safe

 

Drop the RAM volts massman, it overvolts far too much !!!

[chew*]

That's prolly Phase Flanker , don't worry you are safe

 

Drop the RAM volts massman, it overvolts far too much !!!

 

scaredy cat. I will make you a deal, let him use whatever voltage he thinks is necessary with "AIR" on the ram.........if they die I will personally RMA your set.

Edited November 5, 2010 by chew*

[Leeghoofd]

promises promises

 

Price is too high to let them slip away Brian, plus if they die they will get replaced by Powerchips...(at least that's what a Corsair Rep told me)

[Massman]

Oh, really?

 

Powerchips are way better than Hyper. Let's kill them!

[Massman]

One thing I noticed is that this board sometimes randomly disables cores when unstable.

[knopflerbruce]

Is it just "boot and run" if you want 400 HTT at low temps? Hoping it's my CPUs that are nasty on air:p

[chew*]

promises promises

 

Price is too high to let them slip away Brian, plus if they die they will get replaced by Powerchips...(at least that's what a Corsair Rep told me)

 

I said I would replace them personally with my set ya wimp .

 

Anyway been very busy on this board.

 

Now none of this is tuned ( its in vista ), currently the only goal is to pass 32m at max speed.

 

 

 

8 gig walls 2200 ish

 

4 gig walls 2200 ish

 

hyper walls really early......saw the same thing on formula. Still exploring as to what could be the cause......ganged would allow me to go further, not really optimal however....

 

something strange happening here......especially considering I had to drop NB as this chip kinda sucks. Scaling just took off all of a sudden.........

 

 

Albeit obviously not stable "yet" the trend continues with rather massive scaling at least for AMD.......

 

Edited December 3, 2010 by chew*