Follow up on not being able to run Prime95 w/ nVidia drivers

[jebuchanan]

Just a follow-up from previous posts/issues I had.
I located a non-authorized update (177) for my nVidia driver and installed it. That seems to have made the difference as Prime95 now runs perfectly.
My current OC settings:
3.627G (x9 multiplyer), Memory at 1:1 (timings: 3-3-3-12), Vcore at 1.43v.
Thank you everyone for any help you have been able to provide me.
I do have one question, though. I have noticed cores 3 & 4 are 2' cooler than cores 1 & 2. Why is that? I use liquid cooling, and reset my block thinking it was off-center. Didn't make any difference. (No, I didn't lap the CPU - would that be the reason?).

 

[lucuis]

It's because it's two dual cores stuck together, the cores from the first half aren't the same as the second. It's normal. My temps vary about 8C between the two halves.

 

[V3NOM]

^wow 8C seems to be a bit excessive...

 

[lucuis]

Yeah that's what i thought too, but i reseated my Heatsink, (Tuniq Tower), a while back and no change. I would probably have my Q6600 at 3.6ghz if it wasn't for the two hotter cores.

It runs about 60,60,52,52 at about 75% load, from F@H SMP. This is at 3.2ghz x8 multi and 1.30v @ 75% load. 100% load i think it's at about 1.29. And 1.33v Idle. Makes me wonder if half my chip is B0 stepping and the other half G0, lol.

When idle she sits 49,49,42,44 after about 5min.

 

[jebuchanan]

Thank you for the response. Oh, my processor: Q6600.

 

[anartik]

Each core has a sensor which are notorious for having accuracy issues. According to Intel they are really just for overheat protection vs temp monitoring. They do work better at higher temps and they are very good about shutting down a core when it hits tjunction at around 100C.

 

[jebuchanan]

I ran Prime95 for 5 1/2 hours without crashing. Max temps were 60'C (core 1).
Thank you for the information.
I am content with my current OC settings.