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General Overclocking advice for record breaking Benchmarks


mw86

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*In response to a PM from DR650SE for overlocking advice… figured everyone can discuss this togetherso I posted it instead.

"You can followanything I wrote as my settings by all my bench pics but here's anything thatcomes to mind. I had to get high cpu scores on my r2 when I had it to keep upon the lack of having ever changing factory pasting on the gpus and no dice orac so I thought I was fuxxed so I found my own way without those methods. I mayof had lower gpu scores but had my cpu at 8kcpu on 920xm and on 3dmark11 ispretty good right for the R2?

I am the beginner Ilearned from you guys and from back when on Wikia free forums when it beforeT|I was up. I learned how to flash vbios from you back then only.

So the theory. Youknow this stuff but having it all work together is the key. I had 5870m not6970m in the r2 so there's emphasis on YOU using every method possible forsaving power and keeping cool. Maybe you and Stam really should work togetherto make your supply dual parallel power supplies and I'll do it on my m18x withyou guys... R2 would have 480watts for play and 660watts for m18x. Okay now thetechniques since I use the normal power supply like you. You guys had amazingdiscussions on it so far. I am also running into power shutdowns like when over115amp and watts are set high on cpu... that's happening without my gpusoverclocked.

Some of this you'vesaid yourself DR650SE. Try sticking to vbios overclock not using ULPS off inwindows that allows power saved while idling before the test and there would beless heat already for the second gpu... So don't disable ULPS just make like 20variations of your overclock in organized fashion on a usb stick with RBE thenyou can quickly move your next overlock vbios files in right place and flashand check settings quicker. Before your main run you can still use ULPS off andTrixx to find your range of good clocks then turn ulps back on and flash yourplanned overclock. Turn off all bios options for Bluetooth and PCI card slotsremove all USB stuff, use just a single or dual ssd drive if in raid 0 anddon't have a motor based platter hard drive while benching. Keep the powersupply cool also, see my makeshift cooler on the website. Cool components equalless required watts, MHz, voltage id, amperage etc for the same performance orbetter and heat raises these as heat goes up. So we need all ways possible tolower wattage coming from your power supply compare numbers on my highest cpubenches in the r2 bench thread to see which voltage I used, watts and clockssince they can help.

Example 4ghz mayscore less than an undervolted 3.75ghz. feel the config out with wprime if thewprime scores good on that config probably will be good for 3dmark.

So undervolt even ifit sacrifices a slight bit of MHz the scores can be higher from lower temps. SoI'm saying use passive cooling ie undervolt to the point of just stable enoughto survive the test. Amps will shut off system faster than watts ... Tdc andtdp but if you use a little higher amps and limit your watts.. The load canquickly be drawn on demand and allowing high wattage peaks but no crash sincethey peak and go back with cpu thermal envelope. Use throttle stop for morethan just over clock have overclock on one profile and on the other set yourlowest multiplier locked like is it 12 on i7 first gen? Its 8 on Sandybridge.And also on that profile check cmod or one of them and drop it anywhere from25%-87.5% so your chips cores are running well under natural idle loads andtemps will drop further leave the cpu cooling awhile so when you launch thebench you restore your overclock but cpu cooler that's directly contacting thepaste and cpu is also extra cool where as its not if you didn't do that justthe entire cpu heatsink would be cool not the area I mentioned.

Now if you look at HWinfo summary I discoveredyou see what actually happens during cmod less than 100%... I noticed your cpucores suddenly operate at the percent speed you set the cmod too but also thememory does this and even the baseclock drops the same percent giving 100%system cooling via passive drops in speed in almost all clocks of the systemallowing components to absorb more of your cooling on the system. Cool rightthat is additional passive cooling since its using lack of voltage and MHz tothe cores to keep them extra frosty before the benching starts.

Fans should be maxedon gpus and cpu with HWinfo. Those heat sinks need to be extra cool beforehand. I never benched with the covers ever off but the battery out for sure socharging isn't happening. All Alienware lights out, you will need Alienware OSDenabled set to go dark and no LED's lit even status lights. When windows startsand lights go out fully on keyboard etcclose OSD process manually and start hitting stop on every unnecessary servicein windows services window. Next closeanything remaining in task manager that's unnecessary since some will be foundhere left. Make sure your plugged into outlet with enough juice some in housescan just be appropriate for lighting. Set screen brightness all the way down.Stop most startup apps in ccleaner use disable since it is easy to enable againthis way. You can keep system covers off since your trying to squeezeperformance. Use the dice on everything even the heatsinks. Use your dice potand ICD 24 its amazing paste. Repaste your CPUs and gpus including Vram andother heat creating pieces. Pre chill your system by idling before kicking theoverclock in and starting the bench. If need create a hotkey to lower cpu orraise in certain scenes of the benches. I haven't but it will help. Undervoltundervolt undervolt!

I'm honored to help, I am the newbie amongstyou guys. I use a basic notebook cooler they do help you should too since Inotice my aluminum frame helps cool components a giant amount in fact thealuminum always felt cold. You should use air conditioning too or cool yourroom extra for it even if using dice all components should be cool. Use thehighest baseclock possible that's stable. A high baseclock is priority.Undervolt ram unless its the lowest voltage you can get stable. My ram for the8kcpu in 3dmark11 was stock Dell ram I ran high baseclock but was able to keep1.5v ram. It was like 146-149 baselock with fsb on r2. (m18x cant use fsb). Theram I had used 1.5v with a huge over clock from its stock 1333mhz. Unlike myHyperX I bought for my M18x at 1600mhz which are 1333mhz chips at 1600mhztimings but require 1.65 volts. I wish they would run at lower volts, for me ifI overlock on my baseclock on my m18x my max ram volts is 1.65 in bios is so ithandles to a certain point and would have benefited from 1.7v for extremeoverclocks... But for your r2 try 1.5volt on ram to help heat too and powertoo. If you have Dell ram handy try that you never know one may handleoverlocks and undervolting better. Use a thick lead from your powersupply towall that's rated at high amps. The M18x lead is thickest I've seen. Setwindows to performance in the computer properties so there's no excessivesystem animations etc. Make sure your drive or drives are defragmented and ifits SSD look into a defrag program that aids in SSD i/o operations withouttraditional defrag. In the past I had used Diskeeper or Perfect Disk fordefragging... there a few companies that use similar invisible defragging thathave no impact on user operations while the system is in use. Also ramdisks forpagefile or the app your using could help too. Another is called Fancy Cachethat I think Unreal posted just do a search for it. There's been a thread aboutthose types of programs haven't tried it but there's guaranteed a benefit sinceram transfer rates are much higher than SSD and regular drives are just a jokecomparatively. The higher your Voltage ID at the given moment the more tdc andtdp it will require. My same settings set with only difference being VID boostrequire me too raise tdp and tdc a bit to maintain the same speed. Cheers!Happy overclocking. If you have any unmentioned techniques I'm all ears too.

*This is just some basic rambling and observations… so just some thoughts I am in no way sayingany of this is concrete. Feel free to discuss these and any other methods youhave used.

The only required proccesses if not using internet or graphics just leave your companies graphic services running if needed this is after stopping uneeded services just close the remaining uneeded processes

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff474/marcwwaters86/Theonlyrequiredproccessesifnotusinginternetorgraphicsjustleaveyourcompaniesgraphicservicesrunningifneededthisisafterstoppinguneededservicesj.png

The only required services when not using graphics or internet for graphics just leave your graphics companies services running

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff474/marcwwaters86/Theonlyrequiredserviceswhennotusinggraphicsorinternetforgraphicsjustleaveyourgraphicscompaniesservicesrunning.png

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Check out here:The OverClockers BSOD code list

Posted by HaMMeR=GoM=

The OverClockers BSOD code list

BSOD codes for overclocking

0x101 = increase vcore

0x124 = increase/decrease QPI/VTT first, if not increase/decrease vcore...have to test to see which one it is

on i7 45nm, usually means too little VVT/QPI for the speed of Uncore

on i7 32nm SB, usually means too little vCore

0x0A = unstable RAM/IMC, increase QPI first, if that doesn't work increase vcore

0x1A = Memory management error. It usually means a bad stick of Ram. Test with Memtest or whatever you prefer. Try raising your Ram voltage

0x1E = increase vcore

0x3B = increase vcore

0x3D = increase vcore

0xD1 = QPI/VTT, increase/decrease as necessary, can also be unstable Ram, raise Ram voltage

0x9C = QPI/VTT most likely, but increasing vcore has helped in some instances

0x50 = RAM timings/Frequency or uncore multi unstable, increase RAM voltage or adjust QPI/VTT, or lower uncore if you're higher than 2x

0x109 = Not enough or too Much memory voltage

0x116 = Low IOH (NB) voltage, GPU issue (most common when running multi-GPU/overclocking GPU)

0x7E = Corrupted OS file, possibly from overclocking. Run sfc /scannow and chkdsk /r

BSOD Codes for SandyBridge

0x124 = add/remove vcore or QPI/VTT voltage (usually Vcore, once it was QPI/VTT)

0x101 = add more vcore

0x50 = RAM timings/Frequency add DDR3 voltage or add QPI/VTT

0x1E = add more vcore

0x3B = add more vcore

0xD1 = add QPI/VTT voltage

“0x9C = QPI/VTT most likely, but increasing vcore has helped in some instances”

0X109 = add DDR3 voltage

0x0A = add QPI/VTT voltage

Please feel free to comment, advise, correct, and add to this list. I am not the original author and will not take credit for it. I simply thought that it should be posted by itself. I am only repeating the info that I got here and at OCN. This is currently for Intel i7 systems, but I would like for everyone to help me set it up for other systems as well. I will update the list as new information is received.

Thanks, just giving back,

/eVo/HaMMeR=GoM=

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Don't know about you guys, but the TDC setting never did anything for me (M15x and 920xm), I run my most crazy overclocks (+300mV) at stock TDC setting (62A).

Removing the back cover definitely helps. During winter I usually bench on my window sill, ambient temps of 0°C or less cool down the system pretty well :D

Manipulating processes and services can help, but redoing all the work after each crash is annoying... the pro tip is to make a separate, customized windows installation for benching. You don't even have to install all the (for benching) unnecessary elements of the OS.

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Don't know about you guys, but the TDC setting never did anything for me (M15x and 920xm), I run my most crazy overclocks (+300mV) at stock TDC setting (62A).

Removing the back cover definitely helps. During winter I usually bench on my window sill, ambient temps of 0°C or less cool down the system pretty well :D

Manipulating processes and services can help, but redoing all the work after each crash is annoying... the pro tip is to make a separate, customized windows installation for benching. You don't even have to install all the (for benching) unnecessary elements of the OS.

I never vmodded a 920xm but there was a small benefit from raising the amps... it allows more wattage. Example 97.5amp on 2920XM is default and raising the TDP watts up will only allow me to see a 118watt peak. Raising it above 97.5 allows me to see continuous watts over 100 instead of rare peaks. This may not be true for the 920XM. Anything beyond 99amp on my 920xm i had didn't help but if you see some of DR650SE's benches it does help to raise from 62amp to the 90~ range. But given the 300mv added it may not help anything... but for others not pushing so hard maybe it can help.

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How do you control what windows installs? I've only ever been able to set a partition, then it installs everything.

You're right, during installation you can't choose what to keep and what to leave out, you have to make a custom installation file in advance. It takes quite some time and also some experience for the best results, but it works. It's also a way to slim down an install for a SSD, since space is more limited. The tool you need is called rt lite. There are a lot of guides and tips on the internet about how to use it and also lists of what is crucial for the OS and has to be kept for a functionally system. If I were more experienced I'd write a guide, but I'm afraid I'm still a noob when it comes to optimizing my Windows installation.

This tool allows you to leave away all the unnecessary stuff, this means unused language packs, but also whole parts of the OS, like the Internet Explorer, support features, etc.

And before I forget it again, I missed mentioning something in my first answer to the ultra post of @mw86 :

I recommend leaving the battery in the system for benching. The newer systems like the M14x, and as far as I know also the M18x, aren't designed to run without battery. They use it to protect the system from voltage or current peaks. A lot of manufacturers are doing this, it's an easy but also effective way which allows to leave away additional circuits. I'm not sure about the older generation, but I'd say better safe than sorry. I always have the battery in my system and it worked even for the most extreme overvolts and overclocks.

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Did take a look at the list with the services... and started disabling them. Now vantage always gives me an error, maybe something's missing on the list?

(Or I messed up... hmmm)

Yeah it was missing a few... leave all ATI services running and thread ordering service and asp.net and even "futuremark information service" forgot its name but its in there. ASP.net i think leave... the pic above was just enough for wrpime etc... I think even then we need to leave the thread ordering service. Check out vipers list its very full of knowlege. Check out here... also I know of two utilites that help with turning services on and off I'll post here when I find them... but here's the link Black Viper’s Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Service Configurations | Black Viper's Website | www.blackviper.com

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Did take a look at the list with the services... and started disabling them. Now vantage always gives me an error, maybe something's missing on the list?

(Or I messed up... hmmm)

Here are some more ways to work on your services I have tried both and they are very useful. SMART requires a restart but game booster does not.

SMART- set preset services at startup quickly change what services start-up restart and they take effect.. set default to go back to normal.

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/windows-7-services-optimizer/

Game-Booster- Shutdown all uneeded services for gaming or benching and add ones to make the list customized... then hit a button when done benching or gaming and everything is relaunched and returned to normal, even includes a basic defrag funtion for all of your games.

http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

Ramdisk- set upto a 4gb ramdisk for anything from virtual memory to an ultra fast ram based disk for free (ram can read and write faster than even some of the fastest SSD drives (if you have more than 4gb of ram it is worth trying this, with some comps having 6gb-32gb theres plenty to spare)

Download RAMDisk 3.5.130 RC 19 - FileHippo.comry these out everything can help bring out the most performance from your computer.

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