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MSI Big Bang Xpower discussion thread: Overclocking results and discussion

Massman

By Massman
in General overclocking

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Massman Apprentice

Massman

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Max BCLK: haven't tested it. Do note that there were some issues with the Bloomfield: 220MHz was bootable, but above that it's very hard to get boot-to-windows stable. Leeghoofd's testing the completely retail PCB with fully retail Bloomfield, but there's still a new bios left to test. More on that soon, I think.

 

Okay, just did the tests. No max BCLK just yet as I had to look for the bloomfield issue first. To begin with, it's not a Bloomfield-only problem but also occurs on the Gulftown I'm testing here.

 

Here's the feedback I sent to MSI:

 

Just flashed the new bios and checking out the problem I received from my colleague when pushing the BCLK. In fact, the problem is the same as I described before.

 

Basically, when pushing the BCLK north of 220MHz, there's a problem when booting from complete power down. In the lab, please try the following:

 

- First, set up system at 220MHz BCLK (memory 2:6, uncore 2:12 and QPI at 36x)

- Reoot to windows to check if everything is stable

- Go back into the bios and set 225MHz BCLK

- Reboot to windows to check if everything is stable

 

Now power down the system completely. Wait a few seconds and boot up again. You will see that 225Mhz isn't stable anymore (the bios will say unstable overclock). The problem is very clear: you can't boot from power off when the BCLK is above 220MHz or the board will state overclocking failed. To boot at >220MHz (eg: 225MHz) you need to go in the bios and set 220MHz first, then reboot, then go in bios again and set 225MHz. But this is of course a pain in the -ehr- if the multiplier of your CPU is locked.

 

Oh, the problem is NOT the BCLK itself, but the QPI Link frequency > 4GHz. I have the same behavior with a combination of 220/36x as 180/44x (bclk/qpi multiplier) so it's the QPI link for sure. Increasing the PCIe frequency doesn't solve this issue.

 

It's pretty much the same I described before already though :D

 

- 230MHz BCLK is straight from boot to windows and 32M stable, however to get it there you need to follow this routine:

 

--- boot into bios

--- set all correct multipliers and memory timings I want to use with 230MHz BCLK

--- set BCLK to 195MHz

--- save bios

--- boot into bios

--- set BCLK to 230MHz

--- soft reboot = I can boot at 230MHz into windows

 

Now I'll try to get you that max bclk validation link, Hondacity.

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Massman Apprentice

Massman

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Not sure it can be called 'beta' since there's already the retail package/board being spread to media. Of course not fully retail, but I'm pretty sure the PCB won't have major design changes anymore.

 

How do I rate it? As far as I can see, the performance clock per clock is right where it should be. The coldbug/coldbootbug are (according to my friend) similar to the Classified on retail, althought I had a different experience on the ES sample. In terms of raw clocks, we managed a bit higher on monday than before on the Classified ~ 6GHz 06 CPU test with 1.83V. Of course I haven't tested all X58's (and apparently I don't have the good R3E), so it's difficult to make some kind of ranking. We'll learn a lot more when the first boards appear in retail and see what people can do with them. As far as these kind of statements mean something, I'll just say it looks promising and I'm really waiting for others to test the board.

 

Regarding efficiency - I suppose you mean SPI 32M efficiency? I'll give it a go tonight.

chuchnit Newbie

chuchnit

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Not sure it can be called 'beta' since there's already the retail package/board being spread to media. Of course not fully retail, but I'm pretty sure the PCB won't have major design changes anymore.

 

How do I rate it? As far as I can see, the performance clock per clock is right where it should be. The coldbug/coldbootbug are (according to my friend) similar to the Classified on retail, althought I had a different experience on the ES sample. In terms of raw clocks, we managed a bit higher on monday than before on the Classified ~ 6GHz 06 CPU test with 1.83V. Of course I haven't tested all X58's (and apparently I don't have the good R3E), so it's difficult to make some kind of ranking. We'll learn a lot more when the first boards appear in retail and see what people can do with them. As far as these kind of statements mean something, I'll just say it looks promising and I'm really waiting for others to test the board.

 

Regarding efficiency - I suppose you mean SPI 32M efficiency? I'll give it a go tonight.

 

I called it beta because I can't buy it in the US and they are still sending you BIOS's to fix things. Board actually is looking pretty good. MSI has made giant leaps in their motherboards this past year. pi32m doesn't look to bad :)

George_o/c Collaborator

George_o/c

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Chuck I heard that MSI Big Bang XPower is going to be officially announced really soon (one even said this week) so yeah, I wouldn't call it a beta board.

 

Good work Massman, it for sure looks like a solid board. I've silently been following the thread since you started it and if XPower's price is rational, lots of people will buy it :)

chuchnit Newbie

chuchnit

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Chuck I heard that MSI Big Bang XPower is going to be officially announced really soon (one even said this week) so yeah, I wouldn't call it a beta board.

 

Good work Massman, it for sure looks like a solid board. I've silently been following the thread since you started it and if XPower's price is rational, lots of people will buy it :)

 

Yah I read most of the guru3d review today. Looks to be a great board. Now Massman needs to publish his final review since he includes sub-zero in his ;)

Gamer Newbie

Gamer

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I first called the board something else, but now that I've seen it in action, I must say it's a great board.

 

And yes, we looked at it when it booted at -130° :)

Hondacity Newbie

Hondacity

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thats a strong imc...

 

so whats keeping the max clocks on it? qpi wall or uncore? can these two be fixed by bios?

 

i love memory side already...

 

have you tried only two sticks of ram...shamino did two sticks and no cb....

 

thanks again

|ron Newbie

|ron

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Very interesting mobo there, and very nice work you did Pieter.

I'll stay tuned to see what more you'll be able to squeeze out from that mobo!

Massman Apprentice

Massman

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Very good bclock on air.

Qpi volts and pci-e freq on that 32m 248bclk ?

 

QPI voltage (VTT) isn't really helping a lot. I'm running 1.5V Vioh and 120MHz PCIe, but I can do same frequency at 110MHz as well

 

thats a strong imc...

 

so whats keeping the max clocks on it? qpi wall or uncore? can these two be fixed by bios?

 

i love memory side already...

 

have you tried only two sticks of ram...shamino did two sticks and no cb....

 

thanks again

 

The uncore on the retail looks a bit stronger, but I haven't tested the retail on subzero cooling yet so maybe it'll turn up okay.

 

The main issue with the QPI I'm having right now is coldbooting over 4GHz QPI Link. This is something that can most likely be fixed by a bios update and I really hope it will be fixed.

 

Haven't tested two sticks yet - will do so in the near future.

Massman Apprentice

Massman

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I heard a few people complain about the fact I was using slow-mode for the 250BCLK shots. Well - yes, slow mode doesn't work well for 3D, but seems efficient enough for 2D so it's kinda useful in some way. I've attached the phase change to the setup now and running a few more tests ... still running, but will post everything later tonight. In any case, here's the max BCLK for 3D

 

246-3D.png

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