Graphics I have a GTX480 - slightly underwhelmed - what to do next

The RAM thing is interesting as I'm sure I read something about tripple channel RAM with more than 3 DIMMs when the i7's released.

All I'd do at this stage is overclock the CPU. Your cooler and case must be ok at overclockers sold it to you as such. maybe email them and ask if they can supply the settings they used for the overclock if your not confident...

Edit: Ooooh, another thought. Are your hard drives plugged into the shitty Gigabyte SATA ports...?

 

You already have a Spinpoint F3 despite everyone telling you you need to buy one.
Either you have dodgy memory (run memtest86+ on it), or the memory just isn't entirely happy with your system. If you're buying new memory you only need 4Gb, anything more than that isn't worth the cost. And it goes without saying to make sure all your drivers are up to date (You don't need a Palit driver, the latest Nvidia driver is best)

 

Out of interest it is windows 7 64-bit rather than 32-bit your running? I didn't see it mentioned anywhere (tho my eyes are pretty tired)

easiest way to check is in:

start button > control panel > system and security > system

 

You can't run 4 modules in triple channel channel mode it has to be 3 modules, you won't notice an appreciable difference in games with dual or triple channel mode, it would be more noticeable in ram heavy operations, 3d rendering or something like that.

But if you intend to start overclocking you definitely don't want 4 ram banks filled as it will reduce stability and lower your overclock, since the extra channel will require a large pull of voltage.

My advice on the RAM, remove the one stick, run triple channel and prepare for overclock.

Switching to AHCI mode in the bios may give you a slight boos in performance but it will not be that noticeable in real world performance however AHCI does have a couple of nice benefits, like hot-plugging and NCQ (native command queuing). I believe in it's rawest form AHCI is supposed to allow faster transfer between your RAM and the AHCI device.

Here is an article on how to enable AHCI after a windows install, it's been my experience that enabling it after installing windows without enabling the driver itself first in windows causes a BSOD.

http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-enable-ahci-in-windows-7-rc-after-installation/


To enable AHCI in your bios you need to go into the bios, down to "Integrated Peripherals", once in there set"SATA RAID/AHCI Mode" to Enable

Overclocking is a lot less scary nowadays than it used to be, no more drawing graphite lines on mobo's or cpu's, soldering various resistors, transistors, capacitors etc. Now it is all done to any extent a home user would need via the bios.


So here goes a very mild overclock to get you started. A quick note, if you see settings in a sub-menu that aren't mentioned, just leave them as default, I am only mentioning the settings that require changing.

First of all you want to make sure you have the triple channel memory up and going and have removed that 4th stick. Then head into windows and download CPU-Z from here

http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/cpu-z/1.56-setup-en.exe

Once that is installed run the program and head to the SPD tab take note of the following settings in the box on the far right, usually labeled XMP at the top

Frequency
CAS# Latency
RAS# to CAS#
RAS# Precharge
tRas
Command rate
Voltage


Once you have those written down, reboot, jump into the bios and head to the "MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T)" section then once in there head into "Advanced CPU Features", Now to Enable/Disable what we don't need.

"Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech" Disable

"CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)" Disable

"CPU EIST Function" Disable

"Virtualization Technology" Disable this unless you plan on running multiple os's and some form of VMware workstation. It really won't affect the overclock enabled or disabled.

Ok back to the main menu

Now into "Advanced Clock Control"

"Base Clock(BCLK) Control" Enable

"BCLK Frequency (Mhz) 133" 170mhz we are going to be aiming for a 3.4ghz overclock.

"PCI Express Frequency (Mhz)" 100mhz

Ok back to the main menu

"Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.)" try enabling this if earlier on in CPU-Z it showed your RAM to have an XMP profile, if not leave as Disabled

"System Memory Multiplier" "Memory Frequency (Mhz)" You want to adjust these so that the "Memory Frequency (Mhz)" represents 2x or as close to 2x the FREQUENCY Value that you wrote down from CPU-Z. So if CPU-Z showed FREQUENCY-1000 the "Memory Frequency (Mhz)" should be as close to 2000 as you can get.

I don't have a gigabyte bios in front of me right now but if I remember rightly the "System Memory Multiplier" values aren't flat and vary depending on the BCLK, If someone has a gigabyte bios in front of them and if mikemorton can post the information of the memory from CPU-Z, maybe someone can just check the frequencies and settings for him for a 170 BCLK and his memory.

Moving along.

"DRAM Timing Selectable" Manual

"Channel A Timing Settings""Channel B Timing Settings""Channel C Timing Settings" The settings for these will all be the same. Taking your figures you wrote down earlier from CPU-Z, notes on the right represent CPU-Z figures you wrote down

CAS Latency Time = CAS# Latency
tRCD = RAS# to CAS#
tRP = RAS# Precharge
[tRAS] = tRas
Command Rate (CMD) = Command rate


Ok back to the main menu

"Load-Line Calibration" Enabled

"CPU Vcore" 1.3v This may be a little higher than needed but I want to give you headroom to make sure you boot up ok.

"QPI/Vtt Voltage" 1.3v Again maybe a little higher than needed.

"DRAM Voltage" The voltage setting from CPU-Z, I am guessing around 1.64v you don't want to go over 1.65v, so get it as close to 1.65v as you can without going over 1.64v

Now go into "Advanced Voltage Control" The settings from the previous page should of stuck, if they didn't just re-adjust them in here, this time also modifying

"CPU PLL" 1.9v

Ok back to the main menu

quickly jump into "Advanced BIOS Features" and make sure "Full Screen LOGO Show" is Disabled

Right then you should be good to go, save your settings and reboot and hopefully you should be presented with a nice POST screen showing a 3.4ghz overclock and hopefully you should boot into windows without issue.

If the system blue screens or resets just jump back into the bios, head to the voltage section where we modified "CPU Vcore" and "QPI/Vtt Voltage" increase them by the minimal amounts the bios will allow, I personally think though you should boot without issue.

Once in windows I would recommended a few stress tests on the system. Download some of these

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Unigine-Heaven-DirectX-11-benchmark-2.1-download-2549.html

http://downloads.guru3d.com/S.T.A.L.K.E.R-Call-of-Pripyat-benchmark-download-2433.html

http://downloads.guru3d.com/3DMark06-v120-Basic-Edition-download-1297.html

http://www.wprime.net/Download/wPrime204.zip

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=205

Install and run the Heaven and S.T.A.L.K.E.R benchmarks, these should somewhat simulate some gaming scenarios, follow that up with the 3dmark06 and then Wprime finally finish up with Prime95 make sure for Prime95 you select the Blend option.

If any of these cause a BSOD then we will need to look at modifying the voltages, if they don't then you could consider dropping the voltages slightly on the "CPU Vcore" and "QPI/Vtt Voltage". you could also consider pushing your BCLK up and going for a higher overclock, but we can look at that once you get the basic overclock running stable.

The akasa nero is a pretty good cooler, I would think you could get to around 3.6 -3.8ghz with it and your case is ok, if you want to add different fans there are a plethora of options out there, I am fairly keen on Scythe fans myself, things like the gentle typhoon, slip streams and the S-Flex series, but you'll find varying opinion on fans.

Most big name branded fans are all about the same, with regards to model ranges.

There are pre-build water-cooling cases available, but they tend to pale in comparison to a custom built loop. Unless you plan on going over 4ghz I really wouldn't worry about water-cooling right now.

He really doesn't need new hard drives his drives are absolutely fine.

He has an Akasa nero which is more than adequate for what he wants to achieve.

Silverstone RV02 is def a nice case and I would also go with this recommendation if he does decide to change cases.

I don't think it is a memory issue I think he just needs to get an overclock on that CPU.

But as viper recommended check all your drivers and it's usually best practice to use the drivers from the Nvidia website as opposed to your card's manufacturer as viper also pointed out.

As javaman recommended check the OS you are running, since it is from overclockers I would think they would install a 64bit OS on that rig


Oh and do you know what PSU is in the system Mike ?

 

Hi lysaer, that is just excellent!

Thanks for such a comprehensive post.

I'm at work now, but will revert to three modules of RAM and give overclocking a go either tonight or Monday.

Yes, my system is Windows 7 64-bit.

My PSU is a Corsair HX850.

 

I have i7 running with a UD5
What happens with the ram on mine is there is a multiplyer you can set
x8

x10 (this should be the one) 170x10 is 1700mhz and more than fast enough

x12

etc..

I losse quite alot i have mine at 180x8 that gives 1440mhz with the ram rated for 1600 but its ok it make little to no difference.

 

Well thanks to lysaer and everyone else who helped I now have my CPU running at 3.4ghz.

I looked at my original Overclockers invoice, and 3.4ghz was what it had been set to when I originally bought it.

It was me updating the BIOS using the @Bios app that reset the CPU to its Intel defaults.

Anyway, 3.4 looks to be a good, safe level. It's been stable all day. So many thanks again.

I also took out one RAM module and the CPU-Z program has confirmed that I'm running triple channel.

I've run some games benchmarks (Dirt 2, Mafia II, Batman Arkham Asylum) and in every case there's been an increase in the FPS.

So it looks like the full potential (or at least nearly) of the GTX 480 has finally been realised! Good stuff.

I do have a couple more queries which are nothing to do with overclocking.

I've been running two hard drives (C dive and D drive) for a few weeks now, and sometimes when I fire up the PC it can't find the D drive.

Today I installed a new SATA cable to see what would happen. It's been fine every time I've rebooted.

Maybe the original cable was duff? I wouldn't have thought so, but maybe it's possible.

Or could it be a software problem?

Not enough power? Unlikely, as I have a Corsair HX850.

The other problem is that Windows (Windows 7 64 bit) seems to think I have a floppy disk drive (A drive).

I haven't! I wonder why it thinks this?

It doesn't seem to be interfering with anything, it's just a bit annoying.

ATB

Mike

 

You can disable the floppy in the bios.

 

Honestly the best thing to do with pc's when there working well dont change anything.

Loose conection had something similar with an IDE and it took ages to open my computer in windows as the drive was simply not accessing properly.

or

Contoler problem (possible need a new driver or a check at the Bios options for the onboard contoler setting are optimised) this wouldnt get better on its own though.