Questions after my 1st rig upgrade project...

[djmj]

Hi. This is my first time upgrading my rig and I have a few questions.. I upgraded my motherboard, CPU, memory, and graphics card...

Processor: Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition (12M Cache, 3.33 GHz)
Processor Cooling: Asetek Single CPU Liquid Cooling System X58 REV2

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58

Memory: G.SKILL Trident 12GB (3 x 4GB) DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) / Cas Latency:8 / Voltage:1.65V / Timing:8-9-8-24
Memory Cooling: Turbulance II

Graphics Processor: Sapphire HD5970 4GB GDDR5 PCIE (850 MHz Core Clock)
Graphics Cooling: Accelero XTREME 5970

Power Supply: Alienware 1000W 24-pin ATX Power Supply
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 300GB Velociraptor SATA 3.0Gb/s 10,000RPM 16MB Cache
Optical Drive: Single Drive Configuration - ASUS 2MB Cache SATA 24X (DVD±RW) DVD Burner
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium High Definition 7.1 Audio
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit Edition)

Everything booted up fine. Next I went into Extreme Tweaker and set:

- CPU Level Up to [crazy-4.00GHz]. (options were AUTO-3.33GHz, crazy-4.00GHz, and crazy-4.20GHz)

Restarted and worked fine.

- DRAM Frequency to 1866MHz. (options were AUTO>DDR3-1333, and DDR3-1600, DDR3-1866, DDR3-2133, DDR-2400)

There was no DDR3-2000 at which the memory was rated at (?????) so I went low at DDR3-1866.

Got "blue screen" on boot up. When I put it back to DDR3-1333 it boots up fine again.

I left all the DRAM Timing Controls in the BIOS set at AUTO. Do I have to make adjustments there if I up the speed to 1866MHz?

- Also... the Sapphire HD5970 4GB GDDR5 PCIE graphics card is supposed to have a Core Clock of 850MHz. When I run TechPowerUp GPU-Z Graphics Utility it says it is 725MHz. Does that make sense???

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=345


Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[hunter315]

You should not be leaving your memory settings on auto, you need to set the timings and voltage manually because higher speed memory usually needs looser timings than slower memory. You also need to make sure you have the voltage at the required level for the memory otherwise you wont stand a chance of getting it stable.

5870's have a core clock speed of 850MHz, 5970 stock core speed is 725MHz, they are down clocked to reduce power consumption.

 

[djmj]

You should not be leaving your memory settings on auto, you need to set the timings and voltage manually because higher speed memory usually needs looser timings than slower memory. You also need to make sure you have the voltage at the required level for the memory otherwise you wont stand a chance of getting it stable.

5870's have a core clock speed of 850MHz, 5970 stock core speed is 725MHz, they are down clocked to reduce power consumption.

Maybe this is a dumb question, but I am a complete noob here... How do I know what the timings and voltage should be set at when bumping the RAM speed??

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1362000

If you click on the link at the bottom of my original post it will take you to the Sapphire website and the card I have. The HD 5970 4GB card has a stock core speed of 850MHz. Could I be confused?

Thanks

 

[hunter315]

In your first post it says what they should be for 2000MHz, it will be similar or slightly tighter timings for 1833MHz but the 2000MHz settings should be stable at 1833MHz

Voltage:1.65V / Timing:8-9-8-24

 

[djmj]

In your first post it says what they should be for 2000MHz, it will be similar or slightly tighter timings for 1833MHz but the 2000MHz settings should be stable at 1833MHz

Voltage:1.65V / Timing:8-9-8-24

What are TIGHTER timings?

 

[hunter315]

smaller numbers are faster/tighter when it comes to ram timing so something like 7-7-7-21 would be tighter timings than 8-9-8-24