Please Help - Trying to run 2133mhz DDR3 at 1600mhz in Rampage 3 Gene with i7-920

[sonicthemouse]

Hi guys,

just got started on my 1366 rebuild and I've already hit a major hurdle...

I can't seem to get my G.Skill F3-17000CL11D-8GBXL to run at the rated 2133mhz at all.

Quick specs: R3G / Latest Bios (1003) / i7 920 / Seasonic X-750 / Ram as above.

I bought 24gb of this, which I'll try to get running down the track, but at the moment I'm only running one stick.

I've tried the Ai Overclock Tuner on "Auto" - I can then set the DRAM freq to 1600 and run memtest but as soon as I go to 1866 the board won't post (CPU error led lit ironically)

Tried with automatic an manual timings.

Set the Ai Overclock Tuner to "Manual" and I can get it to boot at 1866 but running memtest causes an instant reboot.

Set the Ai Overclock Tuner to "XMP" and Profile 2 provides my exact settings - 2133mhz @11-11-11-30. But system won't boot.

Tried Profile 1 just for shits and giggles, still no boot.

Not trying to OC this or anything. I just want my 1x 4gb stick to run at it's rated frequency, then I'll add more sticks, and increase the QPI etc accordingly as I go.

Anyone got any advice?

Thanks in advance guys

[toopy28]

Originally Posted by sonicthemouse

Hi guys,

just got started on my 1366 rebuild and I've already hit a major hurdle...

I can't seem to get my G.Skill F3-17000CL11D-8GBXL to run at the rated 2133mhz at all.

Quick specs: R3G / Latest Bios (1003) / i7 920 / Seasonic X-750 / Ram as above.

I bought 24gb of this, which I'll try to get running down the track, but at the moment I'm only running one stick.

I've tried the Ai Overclock Tuner on "Auto" - I can then set the DRAM freq to 1600 and run memtest but as soon as I go to 1866 the board won't post (CPU error led lit ironically)

Tried with automatic an manual timings.

Set the Ai Overclock Tuner to "Manual" and I can get it to boot at 1866 but running memtest causes an instant reboot.

Set the Ai Overclock Tuner to "XMP" and Profile 2 provides my exact settings - 2133mhz @11-11-11-30. But system won't boot.

Tried Profile 1 just for shits and giggles, still no boot.

Not trying to OC this or anything. I just want my 1x 4gb stick to run at it's rated frequency, then I'll add more sticks, and increase the QPI etc accordingly as I go.

Anyone got any advice?

Thanks in advance guys

I'm afraid that it's the memory controller in the i7-920 that is stopping you. My 920 capped out at ~1800Mhz as well. You can try to increase the QPI/Dram Core voltage to 1.4 - 1.45 to see if it helps. The 920's generally have lower a quality uncore(memory controller) than the higher binned 1366 chips.

Another thing to check is to be certain that the Uncore frequency is double the ram frequency, so if your trying to get 2133, the uncore freq must be 4266 (I think this is what is going to stop you achieving your desired freq).

This is a good O/c article for 1366 chips
http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/...nd-gulftown/2/

Good Luck

[snappy1]

Put all 24gb in and run it at 1600 mhz if you can....in reality that is the best you could hope for with a 920 and your ram

[sonicthemouse]

@toopy28 - thanks for the advice man

I thought the Uncore might have something to do with it - the BIOS automatically set it to twice the memory frequency (4266) and I thought it might've been a bit too hight for the CPU on account of the fact that post failed with CPU LED lit rather than the DRAM LED - i.e. it never got past initializing CPU.

I'll up the QPI/DRAM core volts and see if that gets me anywhere... Will increasing the CPU core volts help with achieving the 4266mhz Uncore? Happy to push it

Anything else I can do to try and get the 4266 Uncore?

And thanks for the review, I'll give it a read before I get stuck into the BIOS again tomorrow night.

@snappy1 - yeh I'm thinking that's going to be the case. Which shits me, because I would've bought 1600 with tighter timings. Still, might be able to get tighter timings out of the 2133 considering it'll only be at 1600 and I can up the QPI/DRAM and the DRAM volts... if that's what one does for 1366 lol... better read that review.

[sonicthemouse]

Thanks again for everyone's input
Has anyone else on here actually got 2133 succesfully running with a 920? If so, what volts/bios settings? It's called OCAU for a reason, come on guys

Four other options I can see if all else fails:

1. More volts on everything until shit catches fire. 2133 come hell or high water.

2. Excuse to buy a 980X or 990X - saw one go for ~$500 on the FS section a while back - that way I could get the 4266 Uncore?

3. Sell the R3G/920 and go to 2011 with 16gb of the 2133.

4. Sell the 24gb 2133 and try to cover the cost of 24gb of 1600 with better timings.

Opinions?

[snappy1]

Other than short benching runs a 920 will never have stability at 2133 mhz, most would never even get there, a gulftown maybe

I'd suggest a newer platform if you have your mind set on thet ram

Btw, gulftowns don't require you to push the uncore so high, only 1.5 times ram freq, not 2

[toopy28]

Originally Posted by snappy1

Other than short benching runs a 920 will never have stability at 2133 mhz, most would never even get there, a gulftown maybe

I'd suggest a newer platform if you have your mind set on thet ram

Btw, gulftowns don't require you to push the uncore so high, only 1.5 times ram freq, not 2

Originally Posted by sonicthemouse

Has anyone else on here actually got 2133 succesfully running with a 920? If so, what volts/bios settings? It's called OCAU for a reason, come on guys

2. Excuse to buy a 980X or 990X - saw one go for ~$500 on the FS section a while back - that way I could get the 4266 Uncore?


Opinions?

I can run 2133 on my 970(gulftown) no problem at all, higher binned chips have better memory controllers, Gulftown even better again (the controller is different). As snappy stated the uncore only need to be 1.5x for the gulftown. Its all in the article I posted.

I almost forgot, the mem controller in the 920 will also prevent you from using to low a cass rating(timing) at 1600 MHZ, when I first bought my i7 rig I bought some corsair GT's cas7 1600, the tightest I could run them at was cas 8.

[snappy1]

I am lucky with a gem batch Xeon... great mem controller, this is prime stable with all 6 mem slots full with nice timings

[Zooski]

I am having the exact same issue. I am running 8gb ( 2 x 4gb) of it though and am running a z77 as rock extreme6 + 3750k.

To be honest I haven't played around with it and am happy to leave it running @ 1800mhz for now which is stable.

If i make any progress on the weekend I will update this post.

[sonicthemouse]

Thanks for the input everyone! I have been checking the thread all the time but I've just been too busy to reply.

I'll go through these in order and hopefully learn some stuff along the way!

Originally Posted by snappy1

Other than short benching runs a 920 will never have stability at 2133 mhz, most would never even get there, a gulftown maybe

I'd suggest a newer platform if you have your mind set on thet ram

Btw, gulftowns don't require you to push the uncore so high, only 1.5 times ram freq, not 2

Haven't got my mind set on anything specifically, just the rig in my sig is too big and bulky to take to the LANs I'm gonna be heading to when Torchlight 2 comes out

Also, it's seen it's days I think. The archiatecture is old, even if it did shit on everything at the time.

In regards to the 1.5x ram frequency, the Gulftowns would see me with an i7-970 or higher, or Xeon 56xx/36xx, what about Westmere-EP i.e. the Xeon X56xx series?

Does anyone know of a complete list of CPUs which have the 1.5x ability? Or do I just have to pick out 6-core Xeons and hope for the best?

SELF EDIT: read this article, looks like Xeons have limited memory multipliers (and damn I would like to get my hands on that board)

Shamino: Xeons are unlike regular Core i7 CPUs, because the they have limited memory multipliers available. On the 5000-series you can go below but not above the 10x multiplier. On the high end chips, that means 1,333MHz memory, but if you're buying a lower end Xeon it's only 8x giving 1,066MHz. That means you have to push the base clock a lot to get high memory speeds.

Originally Posted by toopy28

I can run 2133 on my 970(gulftown) no problem at all, higher binned chips have better memory controllers, Gulftown even better again (the controller is different). As snappy stated the uncore only need to be 1.5x for the gulftown. Its all in the article I posted.

I almost forgot, the mem controller in the 920 will also prevent you from using to low a cass rating(timing) at 1600 MHZ, when I first bought my i7 rig I bought some corsair GT's cas7 1600, the tightest I could run them at was cas 8.

I had a glance over the article, very good stuff, needless to say I'm going to be following that to the letter tomorrow.

It's shit that the 920 is holding me back here - I should've done some research first. I bought an EX58-UD3R/920/6gb 1333, then got the Gene III, then got new ram... and now I'm considering switching CPU. In which case purchasing the original combo was pointless

If that's the case anyway I won't bother getting RAM with tighter timings. Doesn't bother me that much and not worth it for the hassle if the mem controller in the 920 can't do it anyway.

Originally Posted by snappy1

I am lucky with a gem batch Xeon... great mem controller, this is prime stable with all 6 mem slots full with nice timings

They are nice timings, damn. Like, damn. Got another gem Xeon flaoting around?

Originally Posted by Zooski

I am having the exact same issue. I am running 8gb ( 2 x 4gb) of it though and am running a z77 as rock extreme6 + 3750k.

To be honest I haven't played around with it and am happy to leave it running @ 1800mhz for now which is stable.

If i make any progress on the weekend I will update this post.

I didn't realize z77 worked the same way.. I thought it was all XMP based...

But keep us posted on your progress with it

Thanks again everyone, really appreciate the help!

[snappy1]

Originally Posted by sonicthemouse

They are nice timings, damn. Like, damn. Got another gem Xeon flaoting around?

I do actually, a W3550 (i7 950) it runs nearly exactly the same as the W3540, so 4.52Ghz 1.37v under water for gaming with 6gb ram @1965mhz

I would want good mmoney for it though

[Chaffe]

Have you tried upping your QPI/DRAM core voltage to 1.35V?

I've had at least one 920 that just wouldn't play ball on any multi higher then 5 so if you haven;t done so already back off on the ram multipliers and up your bclk. Ram should probably run 9-9-9-25 @ 1600 with 1.6V. I've only really had one bloomfield work with the 6x ram multi and higher and that was an absolute gem.

[sonicthemouse]

Originally Posted by snappy1

I do actually, a W3550 (i7 950) it runs nearly exactly the same as the W3540, so 4.52Ghz 1.37v under water for gaming with 6gb ram @1965mhz

I would want good mmoney for it though

Sorry about the very late reply, got busy with other things and forgot to check the thread. Keeping an eye out for something Gulftown based. Preferably an i7-970 or Xeon equivalent.

Originally Posted by Chaffe

Have you tried upping your QPI/DRAM core voltage to 1.35V?

I've had at least one 920 that just wouldn't play ball on any multi higher then 5 so if you haven;t done so already back off on the ram multipliers and up your bclk. Ram should probably run 9-9-9-25 @ 1600 with 1.6V. I've only really had one bloomfield work with the 6x ram multi and higher and that was an absolute gem.

I've had the QPI/Dram core higher when I was trying to run all 6 sticks of 4gb with no success but haven't tried since going back to 3 sticks.

Believe it or not, I can't seem to find the ram multi in the R3G bios. I can get to the bclk if I stick everything in manual mode, but then I only get "Target DRAM Speed" which tends to stay at 1333/1600/1866?/2133/2400 regardless of what I set the bclk to.

Hence why I wasn't too stressed about getting the 950, I'll try and find something Gulftown based. But if you end up with any leftover CPUs after you get the 950, or you finish up with it, let me know

[Chaffe]

I've had one bloomfield out of 4 {W3580, W3520, 2 920s} that did 18gb at over 1600 mhz @1.35V QPI/VTT so you're chasing a gem if your going down the bloomfield path. All my chips have all hit 1600 at 12gb with 3 sticks @ 1.35 QPI/VTT.

I'll probably be selling off one of my bloomfields in early july after I've done some testing.

[sonicthemouse]

Originally Posted by Chaffe

I've had one bloomfield out of 4 {W3580, W3520, 2 920s} that did 18gb at over 1600 mhz @1.35V QPI/VTT so you're chasing a gem if your going down the bloomfield path. All my chips have all hit 1600 at 12gb with 3 sticks @ 1.35 QPI/VTT.

I'll probably be selling off one of my bloomfields in early july after I've done some testing.

I'm really starting to trip balls here.

I can't even get my RAM stable at 1600mhz.

Settings listed below were applied yesterday at midday. Ran intel burn on max, 5 runs, until 1pm. Stable. Then ran memtest until 2pm, 1 pass, no problems. Powere cycled, just to be sure, then ran intel burn test until 10pm. Completed 30+ runs, no problems at all, still running as I'd left it. Switched off overnight.

Came back this morning. Booted up the rig and ran intel burn test. BSOD within 5 minutes.

What. the. actual. fuck. If it can do 30+ runs last night, why the fuck can't it do even one run today

EDIT: And even as I write this, I've left the thing off for a while, booted it up and it's running intel burn test perfectly, done 2 passes. Nothing's changed...


Settings:

Tuning Mode:		Gaming
Sync Mode:		Disabled (Asus ROG Connect rubbish)
Ai Overclock Tuner:	Manual
OC from CPU Level Up:	Auto (disabled is not an option)
CPU Ratio:		Auto
CPU Turbo Pwr Limit:	Disabled (power limit should actually be over 9000)
BCLK Frequency:		133
PCIE Frequency:		100
DRAM Frequency:		DDR3-1600
UCLK Frequency:		3200MHz
QPI Link Data Rate:	4800MT/s
Memory Re-check:	Enabled
Memory Config Protect:	Disabled
CPU Load-Line Calibr.:	Auto

Extreme Overvoltage:	Disabled
CPU Voltage Control:	Absolute (VID)
CPU Voltage:		1.25000
CPU PLL Voltage:	1.81525
QPI/DRAM Voltage:	1.35000
IOH Voltage:		1.11300
IOH PCIE Voltage:	1.51050
ICH Voltage:		1.11300
ICH PCIE Voltage:	1.51050
DRAM Bus Voltage:	1.65625