Gigabyte Motherboards & Load-Line Calibration...

[somecanadianguy]

Anyone have experience using Load-Line Calibration on a Gigabyte board?
It's another thing that I can't seem to find any good info about.
Some say it's ok, some say it's not.

For my current OC of 3.8GHz I've tried with LLC and without.
Enabled I need to set Vcore to 1.34375V in BIOS... cpuz shows 1.328 idle; 1.312 to 1.296 load.
Disabled I need to set Vcore to 1.37500V in BIOS... cpuz shows 1.344 idle; same load voltages.
To me it looks like a good thing...
However I'm a little concerned about voltage spiking out of the safe zone.
How high could it be spiking with LLC off?

I'd like to hear some thoughts on Load-Line Calibration, particularly from people who are using Gigabyte motherboards.

[HuttFuzz]

Hey dude, i have the same board as you and there's no way i would OC without Load-Line Calibration. All it does is fixing the Vdroop. You see that you need more voltage without Load-Line because the Vdroop is bigger.

I think that's about it. Most poeple who OC with the GB boards use LLC.

[somecanadianguy]

It's sounding to me like this feature works a little differently on Gigabyte boards.
I had read that Vcore would go up under load with LLC or similar features enabled.
When I tried it and saw that was not the case I got a bit confused.

[HuttFuzz]

Ok, still works very well

[MpG]

On some motherboard's LLC will actually boost Vcore by 0.01-.02V, but I've never seen any definite pattern to this. As for whether or not you need it, the only way to know for certain is to pull out a DMM, and properly measure the Vdroop. Software monitoring simply isn't reliable enough to get an accurate picture for these purposes.

[sheepdogexpress]

Don't worry safe oc voltage is actually quite a bit higher than 1.35.

Intel is usually pretty conservative and they list it at 1.55volts
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9374/attachmentk.jpg

I wouldn't do that under anything but water those. So you are probably pretty far from dangerous spikes.

[somecanadianguy]

Are the other voltages affected the same by Vdroop/drop as the Vcore is?

[someguyfromhell]

Nope, no other voltages affected.

However I do not recommend you to enable Load line calibration. It was designed by Intel to reduce the stress on the VRMs.

Some good info:AnandTech: Overclocking Intel's New 45nm QX9650: The Rules Have Changed

Make sure to read the whole article too. Very informative.

[enaberif]

vdroop is GOOD!

Its like a dam in a river.

Hold back the water to much and you could have problems.

Let the water out and your ok.

[somecanadianguy]

I understand that Vdroop is supposed to be good.
There are a lot of people who say LLC is ok to use on Gigabyte boards though.
Isn't there a review on this site somewhere saying it's a good feature?
I don't know... right now I have it disabled.
Idle voltage for 3.8GHz is 1.344V... 1.312 to 1.296 under load.
I've found that my CPU needs 1.296V under full load to remain stable with this OC.
If I enable Load-Line Calibration I only need 1.312V idle, and under load Vcore is 1.296.
I'd really like to keep this thread going.
I appreciate all the input so far, but I still can't decide if I want to enable it or not.
Whether you use LLC, or not... think it's good, or bad... please share your thoughts/experiences.


*edit*
Here's the review...
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 X58 Motherboard Review
It's not the same motherboard, but the review makes Load-Line Calibration look like a good thing.