OVERCLOCKING the Intel DP45SG

[DaveLessnau]

I've tested the 0108 BIOS and it looks like overclocking the processor is semi-possible now. The only difficulty seems to be that SpeedStep (EIST) does not work with the "Do You Wish to Continue?" prompt on the Processor Overrides page set to anything except the default NO. For my E8400 processor:

- At Default, the system behaves normally:
-- the BIOS Main page reports the speed at 3GHz,
-- SpeedStep works by varying the system from 6x333 (2GHz) to 9x333 (3GHz) (confirmed by CPU-Z, HWMonitor, and PIU),
-- CPU VCORE idles at 1.04V,
-- Sandra's Performance Index = 354
-- Intel's PerformanceTest's PassMark = 1078.9

- At PromptYes, the system behaves normally except for SpeedStep not working:
-- the BIOS Main page reports the speed at about 3.16GHz upon making the change and then 3.00GHz following a reboot,
-- SpeedStep does NOT work and the system stays at about 9x333 (3GHz) no matter what the load (confirmed by CPU-Z, HWMonitor, and PIU),
-- CPU VCORE idles at 1.20V,
-- Sandra's Performance Index = 355
-- Intel's PerformanceTest's PassMark = 1049.6

- At 9x334, the system behaves normally except for SpeedStep not working:
-- the BIOS Main page reports the speed at about 3.0GHz upon making the change and then 3.1GHz following a reboot,
-- SpeedStep does NOT work and the system stays at about 9x334 (3GHz) no matter what the load (confirmed by CPU-Z, HWMonitor, and PIU),
-- CPU VCORE idles at 1.20V,
-- Sandra's Performance Index = 360
-- Intel's PerformanceTest's PassMark = 1090.6

So, outside of SpeedStep, overclocking at least seems possible with 0108 (though a 33% increase in power consumption at idle seems an awfully high price to pay for it). I did get some odd sub-category measurements in Intel's PerformanceTest software. Even though my "overclocking" was miniscule (nothing really when I changed to PromptYes and only from 333 to 334 Frequency with manual settings), I got some pretty big swings in some of the memory and graphics tests. Sandra didn't show anything like that. I'd highly recommend doing formal test of your own if you do overclock.

My definitions:
- Default: with Processor Overrides left entirely alone,
- PromptYes: with Processor Overrides changed only by accepting the "Do You Wish to Continue?" Prompt from No to Yes,
- 9x334: with Processor Overrides changed to a Multiplier of 9 and a Frequency of 334.

[CrowdAds]

[preyingrazor]

Originally Posted by DaveLessnau

I've tested the 0108 BIOS and it looks like overclocking the processor is semi-possible now....Even though my "overclocking" was miniscule (nothing really when I changed to PromptYes and only from 333 to 334 Frequency with manual settings)...

Thanks for those test results. Why didn't you go higher with the frequency? Like 350 or something. Maybe even 350 is too low?

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by DaveLessnau

My definitions:
- Default: with Processor Overrides left entirely alone,
- PromptYes: with Processor Overrides changed only by accepting the "Do You Wish to Continue?" Prompt from No to Yes,
- 9x334: with Processor Overrides changed to a Multiplier of 9 and a Frequency of 334.

334 is OCing, default is 333.

[DaveLessnau]

preyingrazor: since I don't overclock, I know hardly anything about it. So, I'm entirely clueless about how high I can go with multipliers or frequency. I just went to 334 from 333 because that's theoretically enough to qualify as overclocking but still foolproof for me. I'm just testing for existence, not goodness.

Sandog: yep. Theoretically, both Default and PromptYes are at a frequency of 333 (though with PromptYes, the multiplier defaults to 9.5 instead of 9.0 on my E8400 (that seems to go away after a boot, though)). The 9x334 is my pitiful attempt at showing the existence of an overclocking ability.

[preyingrazor]

Originally Posted by DaveLessnau

preyingrazor: since I don't overclock, I know hardly anything about it. So, I'm entirely clueless about how high I can go with multipliers or frequency. I just went to 334 from 333 because that's theoretically enough to qualify as overclocking but still foolproof for me. I'm just testing for existence, not goodness

So take it upto 377MHz (3.4 GHz) and see if it's stable with the benchmarks you used earlier. The scores and system stability would be interesting. Make sure you monitor the temps using Core Temp or SIW.

[TI99]

I think you made some good points. My E8500 stepping is 9.5 so the max I get is by setting the bus speed to 371 MHz which gets me 3.51MHz Cpu. If I try and go any higher my 1333 memory starts getting errors. If I had the E8600 with stepping of 10 at this freq, it would be running at 3.7MHz no problem. If I had 1600 memory, I might be able to set the bus to 400 and get 3.8 out of the E8500 (but that would cost money). As far as changing the CPU voltage, it doesn't work on this board. It looks like it takes in BIOS but when you check it with CPU-Z or HWMonitor, nothing ever changes nomatter what you set it to in BIOS.

[preyingrazor]

Originally Posted by TI99

As far as changing the CPU voltage, it doesn't work on this board. It looks like it takes in BIOS but when you check it with CPU-Z or HWMonitor, nothing ever changes nomatter what you set it to in BIOS.

That's probably why they keep saying the BIOS is still IDCC non-compatible.

[PsyChoses]

That's probably why they keep saying the BIOS is still IDCC non-compatible.

I agree with you 10000% mate that's why I'm holding back on OCing till it becomes IDCC compatible :P

[preyingrazor]

OK guys. Despite the warnings I overclocked my system to 3GHz. No problems so far. Temps are from 35 (idle) to 45 (stressed). However, I will run Intel's linpack test as that took my temps to 60 when I tried it at 2.4Ghz.

I've run a couple of SiSoft Sandra benchmarks. All of them indicate I am getting radically improved performance.

I'll post the screenies in a bit.

I'm a happy OCer

[TCRG tv]

99

Originally Posted by TI99

I think you made some good points. My E8500 stepping is 9.5 so the max I get is by setting the bus speed to 371 MHz which gets me 3.51MHz Cpu. If I try and go any higher my 1333 memory starts getting errors. If I had the E8600 with stepping of 10 at this freq, it would be running at 3.7MHz no problem. If I had 1600 memory, I might be able to set the bus to 400 and get 3.8 out of the E8500 (but that would cost money). As far as changing the CPU voltage, it doesn't work on this board. It looks like it takes in BIOS but when you check it with CPU-Z or HWMonitor, nothing ever changes nomatter what you set it to in BIOS.

This was very helpful to me TI99. I had tried for a higher frequency (400) with my E8500, 1333 memory & 093 BIOS version and also had some errors. My system seems to be cruising right along with your frequency and mult. settings. Thanks. I have only tried a temp test and I am fine 32 idle, 47 load. I will do more tests tonight.

Now I have to go remove the flaming post I put up on Sandogs forum about what a pain BIOS version 106 was.

[preyingrazor]

Right everyone, here are the benchmarks. In each row the first screenshot will always be of the system running at 2.4 GHz 1033 MHz, and the second one will be of the system running at 3.0 GHz 1333 MHz.

First of all CPU-Z.

Notice that the BIOS automatically changed my memory to run at 666 MHz (1333 MHz bus). I didn't touch the memory configuration. What's satisfying is that it still runs perfectly at 7-7-7.




Next I ran Linpack. I managed to shave off 329 seconds (5.5 min) off the test. That's pretty decent. The temps only went exactly 7 degrees higher on each core. That's Thermalright extreme cooling for you.

At 2.4GHz:




At 3.0Ghz:

[preyingrazor]

Let's start off with some synthetic gaming benchmarks. This is Lightsmark 2008. You can google and download it for free. I got a 44 FPS increase on this benchmark. Of course, real world FPS improvements will depend on how CPU-bound the game is, but it takes a fast processor for good crossfire scaling too. This is with crossfire turned off btw. Lightsmark isn't crossfire friendly: scores actually come down.



The following benchmarks are from SiSoft Sandra 2009 Business edition. The Q6600 being tested is always represented by the red bar / line.

Processor Arithmetic Benchmark

You can see it easily chomps through the competition.

2.4GHz:



3.0Ghz:



Processor Multimedia Benchmark

An increase from 79 MP/s to 99 MP/s for Integer operations and 76MP/s to 95MP/s speaks volumes. Note: I forgot to compare similar processors in both benchmarks.

2.4GHz:



3.0GHz:



Processor Multi-Core Efficiency

This is a remarkable benchmark. The Q6600@3GHz starts to work between cores more efficiently than a QX9650! Revealing to say the least! The Q6600@3GHz topped this benchmark with an increase in bandwidth from 14.5GB/s to 18GB/s.

2.4GHz:



3.0GHz:



Processor Cryptography Ability

Again the OCed Q6600 stomps past the competition. Nearly a 400 to 500 and a 480 to 600 increase in bandwidth for cryptography and hashing respectively.

2.4GHz:



3.0GHz:

[preyingrazor]

Onto some memory benchmarks now. But some quick stats before we start to make evident the performance improvement at nearly the same power usage:

At 2.4GHz:

Maximum memory bandwidth: 16.69GB/s
Maximum chipset bandwidth: 8.34GB/s
Memory-Power ratio: 158MB/W
Memory-Power efficiency: 63.35%

At 3.0GHz:

Maximum memory bandwidth: 20.81GB/s
Maximum chipset bandwidth: 10.41GB/s
Memory-Power ratio: 152MB/W
Memory-Power efficiency: 63.38%

The benchmarks:

Memory Bandwidth

The memory goes from grossly trailing the pack at 5.3GB/s to joining the pack at 6.6GB/s. A nice improvement.

2.4GHz 1066MHz:



3.0GHz 1333MHz:



Memory Latency

Latency goes from being the worst in the pack (93ns) to the best (76ns), beating even the X58 platform in the process.

2.4GHz 1066MHz:



3.0GHz 1333MHz:



Processor Cache and Memory sub-sysems

Here we see the Q6600 going from being the worst to joining the ranks of the QX9650.

2.4GHz:



3.0GHz:



300GB WD Velociraptor Read Benchmark

I couldn't resist :P LOL. Here we see one veritable beast ripping two Seagate 7200.10 320GB drives in RAID 0 to shreds. If there ever was a massacre, this is it.

2.4GHz:



3.0GHz:



Conclusion:

The benchmarks are self-conclusive. Overclocking is back (BACK!? :P) for the DP45SG in a big way. If you held back before, now would be a great time to take the plunge.

Keep everything at default and simply increase the host clock frequency to whatever suits your processor. The board does a marvellous job of auto-adjusting memory.

I'm finally using the Skyburg the way it was meant to be used. With IDCC we should have a perfect little utopia of our own.

It would be pertinent to mention here that XP SP3 32 bit does not seem to recognize the overclock :P LOL. Neither does the OS nor does CPU-Z, Core Temp etc. I'll try running some benchmarks on it later to confirm.

Hope this helped guys. Cya around!

[OldDeadOne]

Great post up on your Overclocking efforts,Preyingrazor! All that needs to be done is to change the clock frequency and that's all that's needed?

[PsyChoses]

Nice Post(s) Preyingrazor .... But do you think my BygTyp 120VX fan would sufficient for Ocing ? Plus how do I check how far my Q9550 would go ? I just might try that. And do I have to change any memory or other settings ? Can you post the BiOS changes you made to get thus far ?

Ch33rs