Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 & i5760 - can't get any OC to work

[jmwpom3]

Hi Guys,
This is really bothering me. I got the parts for this system mainly based around the rave reviews and reported excellent overclockability of the i5760. (parts list is at bottom so you can see what I'm working with)

I've read through tons of review and articles on here, anandtech, oc.net, extremeoverclockers.com, even watched tons of video tutorials on youtube. I just finished watching this guy achieve rock solid 4ghz as well as this guy doing incredibly simple 3.7ghz and on and on. I don't know what it is I'm doing wrong, but I can barely seem to get my ripjaws to show up at proper settings: 1600mhz, 7-8-7-24. And even that bumped the multiplier to 160 (160x10 obviously), and the voltage to the required1.65V. That bump alone jumped my idol temps from a chilly 28°-ish up to 38-40°ish. The load numbers being moved from 58-62 and now 69-72°. This I didn't do manually, I just changed the xtreme memory profile to profile 1, which I checked and seems to pick up all the stated specs on my ripjaws. (i think I did it with X.M.P, but I'm fried so It may have been the advanced mem profile or something..but it was a one click fix)


Anyway, I don't NEEED to run any faster than what this baby does stock. My goal was mainly to get a system to play BFBC2/MWF2/MOH-tier1/maybe even Crysis & Far Cry2 at full eye candy. The main problem I was having was with BFBC2. I had to run medium settings at, IDK, 1280 x 860? on my 19" samsung w/ native 1440x900. Now, it does that no prob. I'm getting min 55 FPS - Max 75 FPS with all video settings to max values. Gpu max temp ~70 if I recall and max CPU ~61-62°.
But, everyone's claimed such massive, i7 975 extreme-type performance out of this setup that I was kinda looking forward to at least getting a moderate OC out of this; maybe even 3.4-3.7Ghz.

The bottom line is that I'm hoping that maybe someone here with a similar setup might have some insights into my problem or maybe a working ga-p55A-UD3 bios V.10 setup to get a little extra kick outta this sucker? Again,don't need it. But, when you buy a Ferrari, it's pretty hard to not want to open her up just a little, right?

Again, I've STUDIED for days on this an tried so much. I have to be just missing one setting somewhere that's throwing the whole thing off. My oc attemps, even just 3.2ghz, are giivng me BSOD's, OS locks on boot, etc.

So, here's the setup:
1 x ($99.99) WIN HOME PREM 7 64-BIT ENG 1PK DSP - OEM $99.99
1 x ($94.99) MEM 2Gx2|GSKILL F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM $94.99
1 x ($29.99) CPU COOLER CM| RR-B10-212P-G1 RT $29.99
1 x ($5.99) GIFT STARCRAFT2 FREE TRIAL VERSION $5.99
1 x ($69.99) HDD 640G|WD WD6402AAEX SATAIII 64M - OEM $69.99
1 x ($139.99) CASE CM|SGC-6000-KXN1-GP BK RT $139.99
1 x ($129.99) MB GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 P55 R $129.99
1 x ($219.99) VGA ZOTAC| ZT-40402-10P GTX460 1G R $219.99
1 x ($84.99) PSU ANTEC|EA750 750W RT $84.99
1 x ($208.99) CPU INTEL|CORE I5 760 2.80G R $208.9

Thanks in advance

 

[davcon]

First thing to do would be Memtest your ram at default speed.
Once your ram has been established as good/stable then proceed with oc testing.
Plus the dram voltage on ripjaws is 1.6v not 1.65v.

 

[RJR]

That video you referenced was a total waste of time, it didn't tell you anything.

Find a couple good "overclocking guides" and learn what you are doing and you won't have any problems.

 

[kg4icg]

Let's see, set block to 160, set voltage on cpu to 1.25v, adjust mem multi to 10, so you will still have 1600, and give that a whack. sounds like you never adjusted you mem multi when trying to oc and that might have been causing your bsod, because overdriving the mem.

 

[jmwpom3]

That video you referenced was a total waste of time, it didn't tell you anything.

Find a couple good "overclocking guides" and learn what you are doing and you won't have any problems.

Like I said, I have done that. But, you're right, I've just been way too impatient. I found out that the problem is just that this MB is sooo oc'able that it has too many settings I can't even figure out. So, I'm taking random settings form forums and youtube vids, setting those values, and letting it rip; with no good results. So, I just went back and started doing one small change to one setting at a time and checking results.

Here are the ones I couldn't figure out:
-C3/C6 state support - turned to be the one skyrocketing my temps in the OP
- Isochronos Support - ?? still don't know (misc. settings in bios)
- Virtualization Support - ?? (misc settings)
- Bi-Directional Prochot - ???? left it on auto
- Load Line Calibration - disabled so I set the voltages (I think that's the idea)
QPI/VTT Voltage - ?? so I st it to normal
PCH Core - left it at 1.050 as it was
Dynamic Vcore (DVID) - set at +0.050 from another thread on this. But, stepped it down to 0.02500 and got better temps/ still stable. (I'll play w/ and see how low I can get that)
Any definitions/explanations on any of those would help me I bet.

But, I did go back to the beginning and read all that shtuff again. From my last post, basically I had disabled c3/c6 state support, turned off Load Line Calibration, dropped my Dram Voltage to 1.58V, left my vcore at 1.200v and the bclk 160 x 20 for 3.2Ghz. Mem multiplier of 10 to get back to 1600 stock settings.

Rebooted and hurray for me, 3.2 stable for hours with the turbo and stepping enabled. So, it loads up to 1.44ghz idle, moves up to 3.2Ghz for 4 core turbo, then up as high as 4.2Ghz for single core turbo. THen, it slides nicely back to 1.44 again with a nice avg of 28-30°C. Full load prime95 on all 4 cores hit 69° at highest with DVID of 0.0500 and dropped closer to 65° w/ DVID of + 0.02500v. Now that I'm getting the hang of the small steps, I think I'll slowly try to get to maybe 3.3Ghz (21x160), 3.56Ghz (22x160), maybe 3.65Ghz (22x166) with the lowest voltages I can get. Still happy to hear from anyone if something in there looks dangerous. I still don't know what some of these settings mean...just that they work where they are.

So, thanks for your patience and comments. Any comments on those temps or settings greatly appreciated. And I'd be happy to hear what those settings mean that I can't figure out.

game time
Anyone interested in seeing the end results, the pics are linked to below. (cuz u know ima l337 haxor)

http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af359/JMWcorwin/32ghz_20x160_mem1600_CPUsetting_load_025.png
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af359/JMWcorwin/32ghz_20x160_mem1600_MEMsetting_load_025.png
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af359/JMWcorwin/32ghz_20x160_mem1600_CPUsetting.png
http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af359/JMWcorwin/32ghz_20x160_mem1600_memsetting.jpg

 

[jmwpom3]

just have 1 quick question now that maybe one of you knows:

Is 72°C at 100% load on all cores too high or is that doable? This isn't constant, but under full load w/ prime 95 on some of the tests. (166x21 ram mult. x8 = 1333)

 

[jmwpom3]

Best answer selected by jmwpom3.

 

[jmwpom3]

Sorry for the multiple bumps, this will be my last post in this thread.

Thanks for all the help. Turns out, it was my 212+ and not enough or just improperly applied thermal paste. I think I followed the procedure for a lapped proc/hsf and mine isn't. I re-seated it with the dual line method used here, and my max temps dropped down by ~10°C or so. Not just a little bit of help, right? And, the 212+ has 4 heatpipes, but mine does't have the gaps in between...so I didn't do the pre-loading of those. It almost looks like they semi-lapped it at the factory, maybe?

Anyway, I did manage to go all the way up to 3.9Ghz by disabling all the c-state and turbo funtions and just upping the bclk, multiplier, and vcore. However, that pushed my standard temps to mid-high 30's(not bad) at idle, but back over 60°C under load: max of 65°. This was also at a cost in timings for the ram to 9-9-9-forgot.

So, I found the best for me to be all turbo settings enabled @ 3.2GHZ (160 x20), dram 1.58v, vCore 1.10-1.14 max turbo. This allowed me to use the XMP profile for the DRAM (1600: 20x10, 7-6-7-24-2N @1.58V) and gave me a faster-than-normal 3.2Ghz 4-core max @ 50°C, 1.4Ghz idle @ 28-30°C, and single core/max turbos above 4Ghz @ 54°C!

Decent overclock, low low temps, with turbo an powersave options enabled. It may be my imagination, but it also feels better to me like this. When I had it @ 3.9Ghz, it seemed to give the OS little mini stalls and at a cost of over 20°C in power when my wife is just browsing the internet. JMHO, but this seems like having your cake and eating it too.

 

[kg4icg]

I guess I helped a little?

 

[jmwpom3]

Yeah, of course. I did end up at 160x20 w/ 10 mem. multi. But, in trying to go higher I had to drop the multiplier to 8 and under or overclock the ram, depending on the bclk & cup multiplier. I didn't ever really get above 1.2v for the cpu until I got into those higher clock speeds. So, I took a little bit from you and a little bit from everyone else to finally come up with the right starting points.

The main issue I had, looking back to when I first posted this, was not understanding the advanced CPU options and which to enable/disable. So, once I learned what the turbo and c-state stuff did it was a lot easier to figure what to do with their settings.

Aside from that, properly applying the thermal paste turned out to be the reason for the way-over normal 70°+ operating temps. But, my last dabble w/ intel being my sister's pentium D 820... it didn't throw up the flag that I now know it should have. I now have a hard time getting it to break the 50° mark w/o running extensive burn in software like prime95 or IBT.

Thanks to everyone for the time; in this thread and for the many others that I browsed through to come up with my answers. I feel much more educated and impressed with the p55 chipset and cpus. Same goes for the hsf/thermal paste installation.

Now I just have to work out that annoying fan on my 460... But, that's for another post.