ULTIMATE B DIE TWEAKING GUIDE FOR ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII SERIES

[Xtreme Addict]

Time for a new guide. After some long tweaking and binning of B DIE memories I found out some tweaks in order to make B DIE fly on ROG boards It works for Maximus VIII Extreme, Maximus VIII Impact, Maximus VIII Gene (all tested by me), no idea if Hero/Ranger have same options in BIOS cause sadly I don't own those boards.

 

Influence on M8E/M8G:

- good boards will be able to boot and bench 2x8 GB 4000 CL12 1T TIGHT 2Ds like XTU and 3Ds, inside OS with BCLK raising we can even get more, though SPI32M CW will be very hard (I managed to do 4000 CL12 1T TIGHT only in single channel), and 3866 4x8 GB

 

Influence on M8I:

- good board will be able to do 4133+ SPI32M COPY WAZA

 

Ground rules:

 

BIN MOTHERBOARD! I binned overall 10x M8E and with Uncle Mad around 15x M8I. Board matters, believe me even though IMC is inside CPU. IT WAS SAME WITH MANY VENDORS AND MANY GENERATIONS. JUST ESPECIALLY NOW IT'S MORE VISIBLE AND CLEAR THAT WE HAVE TO BIN BOARDS. It's not possible to get exactly same motherboard PCB, each PCB differs inside, copper layers which produce signals and so on. Those are very small and subtle differences, but influence OC potential a lot. Note that mostly after LN2 benching, many motherboards degrade. Sadly but small sockets (BGA balls and traces under the socket) are very sensitive for full pot, especially fast temperature changes. That's why in Asus Shamino's/Elmor's Z170 guide we can find tips to slowly cool down CPU in order to preserve socket. Some motherboards are "RAMBO" edition, some sadly will degrade. For degraded boards you can try to clean socket + DIMMs with aceton and dry motherboard for a very long time.

 

How to determine if I have a good or a bad board?

 

1. Check both Channels (A & B). On M8I mostly Channel B (2nd slot) is weak/degrades, especially with 1T. On M8E/M8G vice versa, mostly Channel A degrades.

 

2. If both Channels boot same frequency (e.g. 4000 CL12) than try dual channel. If your board mostly produces 41 code on settings which should work easy, worked on other ROG board, you have a bad sample and you have to bin more boards If you are getting 41 codes too often, setting signals manually on a "weak" board might make it work like average/good board. If board stucks at 55 code post especially in Dual, it's not issue of motherboard, we just need to have a) better memories, b) tweak settings c) retry to boot, please remember RETRY button is the best friend of OCer^^ especially with very tight settings and high frequency sometimes it's worth to try retry button 3-5 times, we should try booting few times when we already had same booting in the past, finally it should work. Please note that on cold, when slots are getting frozen or socket area, our booting frequency will go down a lot when platform is tired or memories too cold. B DIE like to be warm and dry.

 

Retry button/safe mode @ M8I

 

For safe mode - just use Power on/off button (red one under code poster), press it and keep until boards shutdowns and power it on again to boot in safe mode. Retry button is not on the board, so the best option is just to turn off PSU and turn it on and power on the board again.

 

CPU IMC

 

To be honest most people say they have a limit of IMC, I think it's more board/memories or wrong settings. I tried 4133 12-11-11 CW with 5x CPUs (6500+ HWBOT PRIME from my own binning) and all could do that with 1.25-1.30v (depends from BIOS) VCCSA/VCCIO. I mean of course I am aware that potato CPUs might not do that.

 

 

BIOSES:

For M8I I don't see big difference between 0014-0019, though 0019 seems to be slightly more stable in booting, also we don't need LN2 MODE Enabled in order to set more than 2.0 VMEM. Retail newest BIOS also works really well.

 

M8E: for me 0015 was the best one, but newest retails are not bad at all either

 

MAGIC SETTINGS/BOOTING SETTINGS

 

 

RTLs/IOLs

 

 

 

 

 

ROG boards don't have issues with tightening settings by hand, we don't have to perform special rituals or dances. Especially on M8I we can put everything by hand and it will work (sometimes we have to retry 1-2 times). M8E/M8G can't run that tight RTLs as M8I and it's harder to lock settings by hand, but it also works, but in fact for 2D/3D which are not XTU or SPI32M, I would just leave AUTO settings. It won't effect our efficiency in other programs, even if board boots 50/52 instead of 50/51.

 

SIGNALS - "SLOPES"

 

 

 

The most important are those 5:

 

Clk Rising Slope

Clk Rising Slope Offset

Data Falling Slope

Data Falling Slope Offset

Cmd Falling Slope

 

You can try different values of course. Each board is different and needs special attention. Personally I always change all "Slopes" at once, the most universal settings for M8I is "15-1" combination as you can see in the screenshots. For M8E/M8G mostly the best for me is "7-1". But as I said - try by yourself. I am just giving the most universal settings which worked best for me and the biggest amount of boards.

 

ODT settings

 

 

This worked the best for me on M8I board (1 sample only).

You can try and also finetune by yourself. On most ROG boards I leave that setting on AUTO, but some boards are much more stable with manual touch. On ASUS playing with ODT values doesn't influence efficiency.

 

EXTRA STABILITY SETTINGS

 

DRAM REF VOLTAGE CONTROL

 

 

On some B DIE this section can help booting in Dual, also improve stability and remove "79 SLOW BOOT BUG" with B DIE, when memories are on the edge (especially with 12-11-11 setting). Try 0.50000 - 0.52000 with 35-40 settings. Note that you have to change all lower settings same down to the end (really a lot of positions) cause with different values or half by hand half by AUTO board will not boot.

 

MRC FAST BOOT DISABLED

 

 

For me Disabled is mostly better. Also keep in mind when setting TWR timing to set manually TWRPRE in order to avoid 41 code.

 

B DIE VOLTAGE-VTT SETTINGS

 

a) most B DIE (especially in Dual Channel) prefer lower VTT, 0.8-0.83v in order to avoid 55 code post

b) 12-11-11 mostly needs higher VTT than 12-12-12

c) with proper VTT setting we can avoid 79 code post "SLOW BOOT BUG" - stability issue

 

RESULTS

 

My good M8I (sadly the best one died, my new one is really strong too, but I can't do 4133 49/50 RTLs as on my old board. I present bunch of results with my 3x strongest B DIE memory kits (Galax ES, Retails & G.skill Retails).

 

1. OLD M8I 49/50 RTLs 4133 12-11-11 on Galax ES memories

 

 

 

2. Galax HOF OC LAB Special Edition 001/100 4133 12-11-11

 

 

3. Trying to run 4220 12-11-11 CW on my Galax retails

 

 

4. SPI1M 4220 12-11-11

 

 

5. SPI 32M 4220 12-12-12 CW easy as piece of cake

 

 

6. SPI 1M 4310 12-12-12 booting is easy and running SPI1M

 

 

7. G.skill retails 3600C16 4133 12-11-11

 

Edited September 13, 2016 by Xtreme Addict

[coolhand411]

memory settings extraordinary,this board is a rocket with the right memory ..well done XA

Edited September 12, 2016 by coolhand411

[websmile]

Awesome test work, good to see a helpful hand for a lot of people who wrestle these ics

[Dancop]

That's a great info man... Like usual... Great guide!

 

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[Hazzan]

Nice Guide XA...I am agree with " Ground rules " you have

[sabishiihito]

Great stuff. Unfortunately with M8I, most of us have no access to a Retry button

 

 

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[Xtreme Addict]

Great stuff. Unfortunately with M8I, most of us have no access to a Retry button

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Turn on/off PSU. For safe mode - press power on/off button for 4 seconds.

Edited September 13, 2016 by Xtreme Addict

[speed.fastest]

Great Guide! On Gene try BIOS 0018, it worked better with B-Die when do 3800+, RTL are tighter than other BIOS and easier to boot at high frequency, even if you lock all settings. And retry button is your best friend

[sabishiihito]

Great Guide! On Gene try BIOS 0018, it worked better with B-Die when do 3800+, RTL are tighter than other BIOS and easier to boot at high frequency, even if you lock all settings. And retry button is your best friend

 

 

 

Will try my Gene again since I can connect OC Panel. I was convinced 4-DIMM boards couldn't do 4kC12 1T but I'm glad I was wrong.

[marc0053]

XA you are awesome man!!

I've been struggling with mem OC on the m8e for so long and can't wait to give these settings a go.

Not sure if it's the board or not but often I need to keep frequency at 3733mhz or lower if not it was constant 55 or 41.

on the regular OC formula big board I could run the same mem at 3866mhz+ and tighter timings.

Thanks for making a clear and concise guide!

Marc

[speed.fastest]

I can do 4K C12 2T Tight, 1T still not worked, will try XA Guide

[elmor]

Great stuff. Unfortunately with M8I, most of us have no access to a Retry button

 

 

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You can try this if you're not afraid of a bit of soldering.

[GtiJason]

Thanks for taking the time to write this, Asus mem settings in bios can be confusing, I was reminded last night testing a M7I cold for first time. Now I'm wishing I hadn't sold the M8I so I can test your guide out.

 

Asus Maximus Impact - 3 generations - Album on Imgur

 

[nacho_arroyo]

Great stuff. Unfortunately with M8I, most of us have no access to a Retry button

 

 

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+1 And great job XA.

[Guest barbonenet]

Nice Guide XA...I am agree with " Ground rules " you have

I agree too.i dont know why but board matter on imc overclock

 

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[bboyjezz]

Bunch of test...thanks a lot XA, will try ur settings tonight:)

 

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[RULE]

Nice job. Thanks for sharing.

 

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[5erveD]

This is beyond awesome! Still dont understand half of it ;-)

 

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[superpatodonaldo]

Awesome!

[Rauf]

Very good guide!

[Noxinite]

Interesting, thanks!

[rsannino]

Thank you for sharing your experiences!

[Elkim]

Thank you XA, I see alot of data to learn new things!

[gavbon]

Will be giving this a go with my B-die mems on my M8I!

 

Thanks XA!

[d0minat0r]

Well done XA! Ultimate work and experience!