My 1st Overclock--i Did It!!! Now Some Questions...

[Snaggly Pete]

Well I overclocked my system shown in my sig, going from 2.13 Ghz stock to 3.00 Ghz. I used a 1:1 ratio (1500:750) and haven't yet changed the stock memory timings (5-5-5-12). I was able to keep my Vcore and Vram at their lowest settings, but I had to increase the NB and SB voltages slightly as well as the VTT (see question below). I ran prime95 (FTT) for about 8 hours with no errors and my temps on SpeedFan for my cores and system never exceeded 35C. My voltages on SpeedFan were Vcore=1.34v, Vram=1.89v, and Vchipset=1.05v. I did some benchmark testing with 3DMark06, Crysis, Fear, and World In Conflict (see question below). Now for my questions:

 

1. Does it look like I did things correctly?

2. On my mobo (MSI P6N Sli-Fi), BIOS lists the VTT as a percentage ranging from 0% to 20%. Right now, I'm using 16%, but I don't really know what it means or if it is safe. Does anyone else have this mobo or this type of VTT setting and know anything about it? I'm assuming that it means 16% over the stock voltage, but I have no idea what the stock is. From what I can tell, this VTT setting is uncommon, most mobos have an exact voltage setting for VTT.

3. I was a little bit surprised and perhaps disappointed that my frame rates really did not increase with this overclock. My 3DMark06 overall score jumped by only about 500 (9100 to 9600). Is this surprising? My theory is that my video card is the culprit--maybe it was already pushed to its limit with my stock cpu speed so that my overclock had no effect (?my video card is bottlenecking my cpu). Does that make sense? Assuming that the problem is my video card, do you think that overclocking my video card would have any effect? If so, can you point me to a good article about how to do this?

 

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[ARandomOWL]

Not sure about VTT but too much can damage ur CPU. If it only goes upto 20% & you've got it on 16% I'd say thats probably too much but I don't have much experience with that.

 

35

[Snaggly Pete]

Not sure about VTT but too much can damage ur CPU. If it only goes upto 20% & you've got it on 16% I'd say thats probably too much but I don't have much experience with that.

 

35

Edited November 2, 2008 by Snaggly Pete

[Syngensmyth]

Some info on VTT

 

Food for thought = High VTT sends our best QX9650 to an early grave...

 

Verify temps with HWMonitor. Ambient coolness would explain the low temps.

 

Yikes! There are indeed settings in the BIOS that can harm your computer ... voltage is a big one. (I know you were just kidding)

 

3DMark06 is GPU intensive not CPU. Try AquaMark just to make yourself feel better.

Edited November 2, 2008 by Syngensmyth

[Snaggly Pete]

Some info on VTT

 

Some people's opinion.

 

Verify temps with HWMonitor. Ambient coolness would explain the low temps.

 

Yikes! There are indeed settings in the BIOS that can harm your computer ... voltage is a big one. As a general statement.

 

Thanks for the links.

 

I know that voltage can be damaging of course, but I figured that the BIOS wouldn't include harmful voltage settings for the NB, SB, or VTT since all of those things are present on the MOBO itself. Whereas the settings for Vcore and Vram could indeed be harmful because the mobo maker would have no way of knowing beforehand what CPU and RAM the user would be using. Does that make any sense?

 

How can I find out what my actual VTT is? Are one of the voltage readings on Speedfan for VTT? (?Vchipset) Or is there another program that will tell me exactly what the VTT is? Even if I were to find out my VTT, how can I know if it is too high? My mobo manual doesn't even mention this.

Edited November 2, 2008 by Snaggly Pete

[Syngensmyth]

Thanks for the links.

 

I know that voltage can be damaging of course, but I figured that the BIOS wouldn't include harmful voltage settings for the NB, SB, or VTT since all of those things are present on the MOBO itself. Whereas the settings for Vcore and Vram could indeed be harmful because the mobo maker would have no way of knowing beforehand what CPU and RAM the user would be using. Does that make any sense?

 

How can I find out what my actual VTT is? Are one of the voltage readings on Speedfan for VTT? (?Vchipset) Or is there another program that will tell me exactly what the VTT is? Even if I were to find out my VTT, how can I know if it is too high? My mobo manual doesn't even mention this.

I edited my original post with more links ... check them.

 

I see where you are coming from but the answer is NO. Any rise in voltage is potentially dangerous.

 

Good question on stock (starting point) VTT for your board. Do you have a "health" type page in BIOS where readouts are given?

Edited November 2, 2008 by Syngensmyth

[Snaggly Pete]

Good question on stock (starting point) VTT for your board. Do you have a "health" type page in BIOS where readouts are given?

 

Yes there is a hardware monitor page in BIOS, but I'm pretty sure there isn't a VTT reading there. I'll check again though. Even if it does tell me what my present VTT is though, I'm not sure what good it would be if I don't know what it should be. The link on High VTT sends our best QX9650 to an early grave... is a bit scary, but they were using a 45 nm cpu, which is apparently less tolerant of high VTTs than 65 nm. Still concerning though.

 

Regarding the GPU and CPU question, I'm a gamer so do you think I really need to overclock my GPU or get a new GPU in order to see any substantial improvement in my frame rates? I was thinking about tightening my memory timings and/or increasing my CPU overclock some more, but seeing as how my frame rates and 3DMark06 score haven't increased yet, I can't imagine these changes will help much.

 

 

 

Thanks again for your help.

Edited November 2, 2008 by Snaggly Pete

[Syngensmyth]

Correct the 45's are less tolerant. Google for your board and VTT and maybe you will get a comfort level.

 

I would OC the GPU. Ntune (which I used to hate) has become acceptable now (depends on hardware combo I assume). GPU is easy to OC but getting it perfectly maxed can be time consuming. So I always choose good enough. Again watch temps. Or use ATItools if you can get it to work. I would try Ntune first. (Can't believe I'm saying that)

 

Rthdribl is a good program for stressing and testing for artifacts.

[Snaggly Pete]

Correct the 45's are less tolerant. Google for your board and VTT and maybe you will get a comfort level.

 

I would OC the GPU. Ntune (which I used to hate) has become acceptable now (depends on hardware combo I assume). GPU is easy to OC but getting it perfectly maxed can be time consuming. So I always choose good enough. Again watch temps. Or use ATItools if you can get it to work. I would try Ntune first. (Can't believe I'm saying that)

 

Rthdribl is a good program for stressing and testing for artifacts.

 

Thanks for all the good info...I'll keep checking for VTT info and I'll give Ntune a try too.

[Turophiliac]

RivaTuner Is what i use for overclocking my GFX card.

 

8800GT Superclocked version running 736/1791/1054, it's good enough in my book.