Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, Starfalcon
Conventional Intel SpeedStep® Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load. Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology builds upon that architecture using design strategies such as Separation between Voltage and Frequency Changes, and Clock Partitioning and Recovery.
morphine wrote:WHICH YEAR IS IT?!?
biffzinker wrote:Since your Asus motherboard has limited core voltage options you might as well leave the Core offset at Auto, the board will only apply one of the two offsets on POST (power up.) Try raising the FSB up in steps up to 400MHz. Check CPU stability with IntelburnTest set to Standard, and leave it at the 10 iterations. IntelburnTest at the Standard stress level will catch an unstable overclock as you move the FSB up to 400MHz. Keep the FSB/Memory Ratio to 1:1.
For checking the long term stability once you've reach the maximum you can raise the FSB/CPU change the stress level from Standard to the next higher stress level and re-run IntelburnTest but keep an eye on the CPU temperatures since if the CPU gets to hot it will throttle. Also since the VRM phases on the motherboard don't have a heatsink your not going to want push the CPU overclock up to high. You could try pointing an extra case fan at the VRM section on the board to remove some of the heat in that area.
I would try to get your Q9400 up to 3.2 GHz possibly 3.4 GHz if your DDR2 allows you to raise the clockspeed up and over 800 MHz (the board might automatically adjust the timings for you.)
You could try HWiNFO it might offer you some additional motherboard temperatures for you to monitor.
https://www.hwinfo.com/download.php
Edit: Intel has the Q9400 at TCASE (Case Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS) of 71.4°C but the VID voltage range shows 0.8500V-1.3625V) so your still in the safe range for voltage adjustment, it's the temperature of the CPU your likely to run into trouble.
In your overclock.net thread you were wondering why the multiplier was changing from 6 to 8 that would be Intel's SpeedStep Technology adjusting the multiplier depending on the CPU load.Conventional Intel SpeedStep® Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load. Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology builds upon that architecture using design strategies such as Separation between Voltage and Frequency Changes, and Clock Partitioning and Recovery.
Intel Ark Specifications - Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q9400
DPete27 wrote:Most of those 45nm generation CPUs can run at 400MHz FSB with at/near stock voltage IIRC.
1) Return to the stock 333MHz FSB. Run a stress test and take note of the voltage. This is the "stock" voltage.
2) Plug 400MHz in for the FSB, leave the CPU voltage on Auto, and set the RAM ratio to 1.2:1 (or vice versa?). Your mobo bios should display the target RAM frequency when setting RAM ratios. You want to stick to your DDR2-800MHz speed. By upping the FSB without changing the RAM ratio, you'll also be overclocking your RAM. For purposes of finding the max CPU OC, you don't want to OC the RAM at the same time. You can tinker with RAM OCing later if desired. Leaving the CPU voltage on auto will likely apply more voltage to the CPU at FSB = 400MHz. Run a stress test and see.
3) If the stress test passes. You can then play around with lowering voltages manually if your mobo's voltage offset values go negative. Otherwise you'll just have to leave the voltage offset at 0.
morphine wrote:WHICH YEAR IS IT?!?
morphine wrote:WHICH YEAR IS IT?!?
Twain28 wrote:As for voltages, I cannot lower anything, since the motherboard does not really allow any voltage control that I am aware of, save for those (very low-end) settings pointed out
DPete27 wrote:Not sure you understood my drift. The CPU frequency AND ram frequency are tied to the FSB. If you leave the RAM ratio at 1:1, when you raise the FSB, you'll also raise the RAM frequency. That's why there are RAM ratio options, so you can raise the FSB without affecting RAM frequency. Leaving the RAM ratio set to auto would probably keep the RAM at 800MHz regardless of your FSB setting, but don't take my word for it.
The RAM frequency can easily be monitored on CPUz.
biffzinker wrote:Twain28 wrote:As for voltages, I cannot lower anything, since the motherboard does not really allow any voltage control that I am aware of, save for those (very low-end) settings pointed out
You do have the option under CPU offset of 0.0 which should mean no voltage is added to the default voltage selected by the CPU. You the have the option of no voltage added or 50mv, and 150mv.
biffzinker wrote:If you want to get up to a 400 MHz FSB you are likely going to need to bump FSB VTT Voltage, the NB (North Bridge) Voltage for stability on the Front Side Bus between the CPU, and North Bridge.
Your Q9400 has two separate Dual-Core dies on the green colored organic PCB in case you have wondered what's under the heatspreader. The only way the two dies can communicate for say cache coherency is over the FSB unlike the newer Core i series.
DPete27 wrote:Looks to me like the stock voltage is staying intact (1.288V across the board) and your temps only went up by 3C. I'd say that's a win. You could just leave it at 390MHz FSB.
If you want to get to 400MHz FSB you'll probably have to increase the CPU voltage offset. That's just another iterative process. Since you're stable at 390MHz, it shouldn't take too much additional voltage to hit 400MHz. Set FSB to 400MHz and try +0.1V offset (still pretty safe IMO). If that's stable, you can reduce the voltage offset, OR you can raise the FSB a bit more! Raising voltage will raise temps though, just monitor that as you step up. Everyone has their comfort range as to what voltage increase and what temps are acceptable. In your case, since the system is already at the end of it's useful lifespan, you can probably get away with running things a little higher than someone with a 1 year old CPU trying to get another 7 years out of their system. But it's your call.
Also remember that not all CPUs overclock the same. The break point of stability at stock voltage, as well as the max frequency do vary from chip to chip.
Twain28 wrote:First of all, many thanks to you both for your help and patience.
After some days of grave pondering on the matter, I decided I shall not venture any further. My fear of breaking things is quite high, and I am pretty satisfied with the OC results, as it is (you can probably expect some more comments in the afternoon, as soon as I get my hands on my copy of The Witcher III Enhanced Ed ).
biffzinker wrote:Twain28 wrote:First of all, many thanks to you both for your help and patience.
After some days of grave pondering on the matter, I decided I shall not venture any further. My fear of breaking things is quite high, and I am pretty satisfied with the OC results, as it is (you can probably expect some more comments in the afternoon, as soon as I get my hands on my copy of The Witcher III Enhanced Ed ).
The only problem now is your DDR2 RAM is running under (750 MHz = 12 GB/s) instead of stock (800 MHz = 12.8 GB/s) clock speed. Your Q9400 running overclocked is likely to be bandwidth starved but If you could get away with pushing the FSB up to 400 MHz by raising the voltages just for the FSB I pointed out then you DDR2 RAM would be at stock. Not trying to be pushy so if your comfortable with leaving it as it is alright then.
Edit: If your planning on playing The Witcher III your Q9400 even with a slight overclock isn't likely to be enough when the minimum system requirements for the game call for a Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz / AMD CPU Phenom II X4 940.
biffzinker wrote:your DDR2 RAM is running ... 750 MHz
biffzinker wrote:If you want to get up to a 400 MHz FSB you are likely going to need to bump FSB VTT Voltage, the NB (North Bridge) Voltage for stability on the Front Side Bus between the CPU, and North Bridge.
DPete27 wrote:@ OP: Like I said before, its your call. Personally my OCD would kick in at this point and at the very least, I'd check to see how much voltage is required to get a nice even 400MHz FSB which would put you at 3.2GHz CPU and 800MHz RAM. Difficult to assume how much voltage that would need to be and what it would do to temps, but it never hurts to find out. You can always return to your 390MHz FSB and stock voltage if you don't like what you see.
Come on, live on the wild side!! :evil:
DPete27 wrote:I've never had any problems getting FSBs to run at 400MHz at stock so I've never had to raise the VTT voltage. Not saying I'm right. That's just my experience.
There should be an easy way to determine which voltage needs to be increased:
Try increasing the CPU (Vcore) voltage first (since it's more resilient IMO) and set the FSB to 400MHz. If you can get it stable, great. If no amount of Vcore voltage gives you stability (let's face it, you're doing 390MHz at stock voltage, surely there's enough left in the tank to increase the FSB by 2% and hit 400MHz with a voltage bump somewhere), then turn the Vcore back down and look at the VTT voltage.
I forget, does your mobo's BIOS have an option for LLC (Load Line Calibration)?