Overclocking issues with FSX

[veldthui 0]

I have a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 motherboard with a Q6700 Quad Core CPU. I have 4GB of Corsair 1066 ram in 4x1GB and it runs at Dual Channel.I wanted to overclock this a little to see if it was okay and originally this failed completely which was due to one stick of ram. It has now been replaced and thought I would have another go. I used the C.I.A part of the BIOS just to see how it would go thinking this would be the easiest way to do it. However when FSX ran it was only running about 1FPS and the sound was stuttering and the mouse jerking. The temps on the cores were up over 60 degrees so I thought it must not be getting cooled enough and was throttling itself back.I have today brought a Artic Freezer Pro 7 and installed it and it has dropped the core temps considerably. However the same issue still happens when I run FSX. The temps while at full are only about 55 and this is cooler than it was running at normal speed with the normal Intel cooler on it. Shut down FSX and the machine runs normally again for ever other program I tested.Is there some code in FSX that will not allow it to run over-clocked like this?System shows Q6700 @ 2.66Ghz 2.67Ghz so I assume it is running 0.01 Ghz faster.Anyone got any suggestions????John Veldthuishttp://www.virtualpilots.org/signatures/vpa475.png

[Guest harleyman52]

I would go back into the bios and reset back all defaults.Check your boot priorities before you exit...Load FSx and check its operation..If its all good then you know that although it only showed .1 gh increase something was way off...I believe you should be using the FSB to do that.......Not 100% sure on your board .......It almost sounds as if your voltages were off and not supplying enough...???????/ Maybe.....

[veldthui 0]

I did that and it was still weird. I had to completely power down and power up to get it to work. Works fine until you start to fly then it goes nuts. Even back to normal system still shows the 2.67Ghz so it cant be that. The MIA is suppose to increase the processor speed automatically when the CPU starts to get loaded. I have the voltages on Auto as that is suppose to increase them as well when needed.Never over-clocked manually before so not really sure which bits I should be changing but this board is suppose to be easy to do and be very over-clockable. The multiplier is at its max of 10X. Not sure what else to change. Any help appreciated as to what needs doing.John Veldthuishttp://www.virtualpilots.org/signatures/vpa475.png

[veldthui 0]

Okay I think I may have it now. I changed the FSB from 266 to 270 giving it 2.70 Ghz and increased the memory speed from 800 to 899. Saved the BIOS settings and then powered the PC down.Fired her up and now FSX is running well. Not very much faster though given only a 0.04 Ghz increase but it gives me a starting point. Temps are great at 50 degrees with all 4 cores running 100% so room to move there as well.Cheers.John Veldthuishttp://www.virtualpilots.org/signatures/vpa475.png

[GHarrall 494]

Change your memory speed to 1:1 ratio with the FSB and then up the FSB to 320With your CPU this will give you 3.2 Ghz (320x10) and is a good starting point for the overclock. (Most Q6700's can do 3.4-3.6 with minimal troubles.) At 1:1 ratio, your memory will be underclocked for now but this is ok as you need to find the max FSB/multiplier that you can run.Once you have a stable FSB overclock you can look at using the memory/FSB dividers to bring up the memory clock.For example, if you had DDR2-800 RAM and you were operating at 320mhz FSB, you would use the 5:4 divider to bring the memory back up to 400mhz (400x2=800)

[veldthui 0]

Thanks for that.Should I change any of the voltages? I have it up to 2.8Ghz at present with just the standard voltage and it is very stable. Idle temps 27 degrees and full load 51 degrees.John Veldthuishttp://www.virtualpilots.org/signatures/vpa475.png

[Guest harleyman52]

As it caused problems at first i would just enjoy these settings for a few,confirm thats it stable then perhaps boost it again later...If its stable now I would leave the voltages for now and see how it handles the changes....

[veldthui 0]

Well what a awesome little chip this Q6700 is. I have it up to 3.0Ghz now and memory over-clocked from 800 to 900 and all running at the default voltages. Extremely stable. I have had it running for hours encoding video and all cores running at 80% - 95% continuously and the temps have barely risen. Max has been about 51 degrees which is over 10 degrees lower than running at 2.66Ghz with the standard heat-sink.It is certainly helping the FPS in FSX with the virtual cockpit.Next stop 3.2Ghz.John Veldthuishttp://www.virtualpilots.org/signatures/vpa475.png