Shado

I am running my E8500 at 3.8Ghz (400 x 9.5) at 1.2250 VCORE with LLC enabled. It has been running fine until I got a new video card. Occasionally when I reboot it would not POST since I replaced the Sapphire 4870 512mb with an EVGA GTX 260 216 SC.

When it does POST everything seems to work fine, until I start to play games. I tried TF2, L4D, and Company of Heroes and they all ended up crashing to desktop. I am wondering if its the CPU or GPU's problem (remember, the OC was rock solid doing the same activities with 4870)

I thought it was the sound driver problem and installed the latest driver from Gigabyte. It ended up giving me a BSOD when I played TF2 last night. GPU temp hovers around 70 when playing games

I have ran OCCT at high priority for 1 hour, and thought the system was stable. MEMTEST passed 27 passes without a hitch. I am at lost as to why it's crashing in games.

Any help would be appreciated.

System spec:
E8500 @ 3.8 (400 x 9.5) @1.225 VCore with LLC
Corsair XMS2 DDR2 2x2 gb 1066
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
Corsair 650W PSU
Seagate 1TB HDD

Smykster

Stability is rather subjective and is in the eye of the beholder, that being said I don't think 1 hour stress testing is enough. I usually do 12+ hrs prime 95 and about 6 hrs Occt before *I* think it's stable enough for 24/7 use. Has the Gtx 260 worked at all with games, or does it always just crash to desktop?

Shado

I'll go ahead and run OCCT today while I'm out at work. I'll report back tonight then

Crooksy

I had a similar issue, I had my E8600 on 4.0ghz at 1.25vcore and the NB at 1.26v. As soon as I got my SLI setup, it all went to crap. Realised that stability changes with different components especially as more graphics power adds stress to the NB. Try bump up your volts and see what happens? maybe 1.36vcore (just to see what happens) and bump the NB up. Just to see if it'll post every time. If it does, you can then go on to test your games.

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Shado

Thanks for the response. I am already at work, but I did bump up the VCORE to 1.25 (from 1.225) and left it running OCCT before I left. I didn't think about changing the NB though. What is the NB default at? and what is the max I should set it to?

EDIT: I thought GTX 260 drains less power than the 4870 series, no?

System spec:
E8500 @ 3.8 (400 x 9.5) @1.225 VCore with LLC
Corsair XMS2 DDR2 2x2 gb 1066
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 SC 55nm
Corsair 650W PSU
Seagate 1TB HDD

Crooksy

I'm not sure what the stock voltage for that motherboard is. But see how it does on it's stress test and if it fails, go bump up the NB a few notches

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Shado

So yesterday I let my lan rig ran for 7 hours and it had no error. I also played TF2 for 2 hours and it didnt crash. It may have been that the OC wasn't stable apparently...

On a sidenote, since I saw my system was solid in the burn test, I went ahead and tried to get to 4Ghz. I tried it with 1.275VCore and 1.26 MCH and a FSB of 533 x 7.5 and it failed to install windows properly (unstable).

My question/concern is did I mess up my hardware/BIOS permenmently when I push MCH to 1.3? BIOS wasn't loading properly, it would only show part of the page, or I would not be able to navigate bios. Scared, I powered down the computer and was able to go into bios when I start it back up.

It has now returned to 3.8Ghz 400x9.5 with MCH at 1.1 and I'm running another burn in test. But I'm just a little worried that the 1.3MCH may have fried my board

E8500 @ 3.8 (400 x 9.5) @1.25 VCore with LLC
Corsair XMS2 DDR2 2x2 gb 1066
EVGA GTX 260 216 SC
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
Corsair 650W PSU
Seagate 1TB HDD

dennyb

You're fine -that is not enough to damage anything. You might try raising the CPU Term or vtt up to 2 notches below your V-core, and your MCH Core to 2 notches below V-core as well . that will help stabilize your overclock. As you raise your V-core ,raise the CPU Term and MCH Core as well -keeping both about 2 notches below V-core

Shado

Is that why my 4ghz OC wasn't stable? I had left the termination and VTT on auto as I don't understand what those settings are. Now I can't wait to go home to see if I can get to 4 ghz

What is the max voltage on MCH if I want to be careful not to fry my board? I know that E8500 has a suggested max of around 1.3625V.

darklink

The max voltage for the MCH can vary from board to board also depending on how cool it stays. Intel's spec sheet for the P45 chipset states a max voltage of 1.2. I have my ASUS P5Q-E MCH (same P45) chipset running at 1.36v to achieve my 475MHz FSB with a performance level of 8.

I wish I could give a good explanation of VTT but from what I know it's the voltage at which the FSB will terminate a signal of data. From what I've read it's usually good to keep it within 1.3. I run mine at 1.3v VTT otherwise my OC will not be stable.

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