Help w/ OCing a 680i LT

[RidgeMaster2k]

Hi, I am very new to these forums as I discovered them looking for help.

I have an XFX 680i LT SLI mobo w/ a q6600 and a TEC cooler. I'm looking to overclock but have NEVER done it before. When I put my rig together last week I made sure to update my bios. But, if I fiddle with the FSB speed in the bios and save I get a "Now in Safe Mode" message and none of my changes stick. Even if I change it in the slightest it does this to me.

What am I missing here?

[Miker]

It is suggested to have a 680i that is not LT to OC. I have never OCed with either so I can't really help you.

[werty316]

It is suggested to have a 680i that is not LT to OC. I have never OCed with either so I can't really help you.
And who suggested that?

RidgeMaster2k, give this a quick read: http://www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/45121/nforce_680i_sli_overclocking.pdf

After that give this a read: http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=61146

Give this one a read too: http://pc.ign.com/articles/747/747606p1.html

These should help somewhat.

[scaven92]

If just overclocking the FSB, first make sure your going in small increments and don't set the voltage to Auto, manually set it. I have a 680i with Q6600 G0 and im running 1333MHz FSB at stock voltage of 1.25Volts. This gave me 3GHz, but I havnt dont any real OC'ing past that.

[coxmaster]

Just a quick question that wasnt covered in those OC guides.. how long do you recommend running Orthos to stress test the CPU? Is 30 minutes good, or should we go with a longer period?

[werty316]

8 hrs is a good time frame.

[aNoN_]

It is suggested to have a 680i that is not LT to OC

BS!


Anw, thx for the links guys...

[Miker]

I didn't say you can't overclock a LT, you might just have better luck on a non-LT.

[Xero (1)ne]

Mad overclocking skills mainly come from experience and patience.....lots and lots of patience. :icon_tiphat:

[RidgeMaster2k]

Thanks for the guides. I saved and went through the pdf file before I set my bios to default and went through one of the guides step by step (have my wife's computer next to mine). I diden't have much luck with it as I still got got the "WARNING" when I was done. So I reset the bios back to default and did the second guide, step bt step with the same results.

I really have no idea what may be causing this problemo, but I just submitted a ticket to XFX about it. Hopefully this will be resolved soon and I'll share the results.

Thanks again for helping me :)

[werty316]

Are you increasing the FSB in small or large increments? You should increase it in small increments.

[RidgeMaster2k]

Small, very small as I am very timid about this. Like 1-3 at a time, but I don't get past the first try. My ticket came back from XFX and I quote:

"The main thing you are going to have to watch out for on this board is the 2.1v memory voltage limitation. This is going to keep your memory frequencies below 900mhz likely. You will have to change your memory multiplier to keep it below this. We don`t support overclocking so we won`t be able to help you with this if everything is running fine at default settings."

Gonna keep messin' around w/ it.

[RidgeMaster2k]

Good gawd almighty!! I'm up to 3042mhz!

I reset my cmos jumper and reflashed bios (burned a new iso). Guess my old one had some issues.

YaY!!

[RidgeMaster2k]

Well this is odd, according to Bios and NVIDIA System Monitor I'm up to 3.2 GHz with a X 9 multiplier, however, CPU-Z(1.44.1) says that I'm running at a X 6 Multiplier at 2.1 GHz.

[werty316]

Those are Intel's energy savings features like SpeedStep and C1E.

Everything you need to disable are all listed on page 9 of nVidia's 680i overclock PDF file.

[scaven92]

Iis definitely the throttling of the cpu for power conservation or simply the CPU-Z program reporting incorrectly.

One day this week I had CPU-Z tell me I was running 1333MHz FSB with x6 multiplier on my Q6600 for a 2GHz processor speed and this was with the C1E disabled and all that. I simply rebooted and all was well, back to 3GHz. My system wasnt running slower, it was an error on CPU-Z's fault. I was still getting the same FPS on Crysis and all my other games. Previously with C1E enabled you can load a program and see it throttle up and go back to normal speed, but not this this case. Check you bios, cause CPU-Z has lied to me previously, its a great program, but don't take it for gold. I am using version 1.42. Its a software program like anything else and errors due occur, or else they wouldnt bring new versions out.