Arg Can't get to 3.5Ghz !!!

[Tango3]

I have been trying to get my Q9450 to 3.6ghz but i cant even pass 3.4ghz fully stable.

My specs:

Q9450 @ 3.2ghz fully stable now 3.3ghz (pretty sure it stable)
Evga 780i
evga 8800GT SC
4gb ocz ddr2 pc2-6400 800mhz 4-4-4-15

So right now im at 3.3ghz quite stable and the vcore is 1.192v (in the bios i set it to 1.250 v but for some reason in cpuz and occt it shows 1.192v) anyways when i go to 3.5ghz i cant get it stable the computer crashes or i get error on cores. i put the volts in the bios to 1.400v and cpuz show 1.37v and still i get errors. Im scared to raise the volts any higher. What should i do?

[gingerbee]

ram v is what.? i have allways found when pushing fsb higher that you need to add a little voltage to ram full specs would help

[Lpfan4ever]

You may want to look at upping the NB voltage as well. I'm not sure about nVidia boards, but I know to get my Q9400 to 3.6 I needed some extra NB voltage, and make sure your RAM is at what it's rated for, unless you're overclocking. In my case I realized I had my RAM .1V too low and that caused a good bit of instability.

[Tango3]

my ram volts are 1.9v. I'll try and get full specs. Does anyone know what program reads your bios specs and tells you all the info becaues i dont know which things i should copy down to show you guys.

[geokilla]

CPU-Z is saying 1.2V instead of the BIOS' 1.25V because of vdroop.

Make sure your RAM is running at a 1:1 ratio at the factory volts and timings. You might need to raise the NB and FSB voltage by a notch as well. Make sure your temps stay below 65C. Also did you try updating the BIOS?

[Tango3]

Originally Posted by geokilla

CPU-Z is saying 1.2V instead of the BIOS' 1.25V because of vdroop.

Make sure your RAM is running at a 1:1 ratio at the factory volts and timings. You might need to raise the NB and FSB voltage by a notch as well. Make sure your temps stay below 65C. Also did you try updating the BIOS?

How do i get rid of this vdroop, my ram is running in sync mode. When i set it on 1:1 ratio it does back to the default ghz, where is the northbridge. My mother board settings seems to be different than many other peoples and i did not update the BIOS do i need to and where can i downloaded it?

[gingerbee]

evga is the place for ye

[rjbarker]

Start out by "unlinking" your Memory and running your Memory at "stock / rated specs", if your running Lynched or Lynched n Synched you may have a lot of difficulties reaching a high OC. Get your CPU stable with Memory "unlinked", then start playing around with Linking n Synching Memory.

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Tango3

Does anyone know what program reads your bios specs and tells you all the info becaues i dont know which things i should copy down to show you guys.

Everest is a nifty application for exactly that. It sucks that you have to pay yearly, but I must say that if I send them an email saying something is not right, they do fix it...

All that said, I'd do as gingerbee says, and hit up thier forums and search for threads with your board and start there.

I'm running an E8400 @ 1.45v, since about September, and haven't noticed any issues. My first E8400, however, did take a nosedive in clocking at less voltage. And I'm one of those guys that runs IBT for 200 interations to consider things stable...




Anyway, chances are you'll need to tweak a few setting in bios, and hopefully EVGA has full bios shots and such on thier forums.

[Tango3]

Thanks i will try all that.

I downloaded the everest trial and this is what it shows:

CPU:

CPU Type QuadCore Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450, 3300 MHz (8 x 413)
CPU Alias Yorkfield
CPU Stepping C1
Instruction Set x86, x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1
Min / Max CPU Multiplier 6x / 8
Process Technology 45 nm, CMOS, Cu, High-K Gate
Core Voltage 1.150 - 1.238 V
I/O Voltage 1.150 - 1.238 V

Motherboard:

Field Value
Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID 12/21/2007-132-CK-NF78-6A61IY02C-00
Motherboard Name EVGA NF78

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type Intel AGTL+
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 412 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 1650 MHz
Bandwidth 13200 MB/s

Memory Bus Properties
Bus Type Dual DDR2 SDRAM
Bus Width 128-bit
DRAM:FSB Ratio 1:1
Real Clock 412 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 825 MHz
RAM Slots 4 DDR2 DIMM
Motherboard Chipset nForce780i-SLI

Chipset:

Field Value
North Bridge Properties
North Bridge nVIDIA nForce 780i SLI (C72XE)
Supported FSB Speeds FSB533, FSB800, FSB1066, FSB1333
Supported Memory Types DDR2-400 SDRAM, DDR2-533 SDRAM, DDR2-667 SDRAM, DDR2-800 SDRAM
Revision A2
Package Type FC-PBGA
Package Size 3.3 cm x 3.3 cm
Process Technology 90 nm
Core Voltage 1.25 V

Clock Generator
CPU FSB 412.5 MHz
PCI Express 124.7 MHz