Hey chaps,help me bust my rig :)

[neWb]

Not really :)

Conroe E6600 2.4GHZ,two 7900gs sli,asus P5N32-SLI Premium board,2 gig ram,96.89 forceware drivers.Phoenix Award bios v6.00pgxp/vista dual boot.

I haveprime95,cpuz and coretemp and a few weeks on hand to get this baby smoking.What is need a precise guide to the bios and what to adjust for this setup,i have found a stack of articles but nothing in depth and really user friendly that i can apply.

Is there a step by step article that specifically would apply for my rig or the seperate parts like an E6600 guide,7900gs guide etc. I am not totally pc illiterate but aware that if not done in increments and watching the heat..things will break :D

At this stage i have looked at the bios and the three programs but not adjusted anything.

I have a benchmark i can use for the tests and positively see what gains i can get (IL2 sturmovik series latest edition 1946) which is a fairly big frame rate eater.

[SlieTheSecond]

Are you looking to overclock, or just optimize?

[stevemedes]

overclocking might not be so easy on that motherboard.

[neWb]

optimize may be the best way to put it :)

i read a few reviews that the bios shipped with the board was not very good but that the later version was a lot better,so i have the latest version from asus which is 0603 and the flash exe but then when i started reading up on that i need a floppy drive..which i dont have lol.So i am a bit stuck there as well.

Also the E6600,can i not get out to say 2.8ghz and still be sweet?which would give me better gaming performance(the ability to pump AA and AF etc) while still retaining good frames?

[SlieTheSecond]

The E6600 can do a lot more than 2.8ghz. If you have the right parts to go with it (motherboard,ram,psu,cooling).

Does your motherboard not come with a cd with a bios flashing program?

I know my last few asus boards did, and I just flashed from windows. I've heard of some people saying they will only flash with a floppy. But I haven't owned a floppy drive for 5 years. And I've never ran into a problem doing it from windows.

[lee63]

overclocking might not be so easy on that motherboard.
Tell me about it (lee63) I fried one of those boards :thumbdwn:

[stevemedes]

Nvidia's been having a rough time getting a good SLI chipset for Intel CPU's. Let's hope they can iron out the rest of the problems with the 680i :)
650i is showing promise though as well. Thank god the 8800 is out, SLI isn't necessary for me anymore. 1 GTX is all I'll need :)

[neWb]

The E6600 can do a lot more than 2.8ghz. If you have the right parts to go with it (motherboard,ram,psu,cooling).

Does your motherboard not come with a cd with a bios flashing program?

I know my last few asus boards did, and I just flashed from windows. I've heard of some people saying they will only flash with a floppy. But I haven't owned a floppy drive for 5 years. And I've never ran into a problem doing it from windows.

I will go through all of my stuff and see,i have never flashed a bios before so it is unknown territory for me :)

PSU is an SP 550w ATX dual
Cards are expert vision 256 meg
PQi DDR2 SDRAM
Memory timings are 4 4 4 12 (cl rcd rp as) if that helps

also have two extra fans on a siewinder box.

ok found my manual and the cd so off to do the bios update :|

[neWb]

bios updated :D tried to update via the windows/asus update but the server was constantly busy so saved the old bios to my flash drive and saved the latest bios as well,rebooted and entered the asus ez flash utility and updated ,all seemed fairly smooth and easy.

Now,where can i go from here,onto playing with the e6600's?

[Eliminator]

Nvidia's been having a rough time getting a good SLI chipset for Intel CPU's. Let's hope they can iron out the rest of the problems with the 680i :)
650i is showing promise though as well. Thank god the 8800 is out, SLI isn't necessary for me anymore. 1 GTX is all I'll need :)
1 GTX but for how long? a few months until new poorly optimized games come out

[neWb]

is there a guide like this for my board http://www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/45121/nforce_680i_sli_overclocking.pdf i searched but could not find anything,also is nTune a good tool to do the job?

[SlieTheSecond]

So you do want to overclock?

Well if you look two threads down from this thread in the same forum
"very very good OCing guide for C2D's"
try starting there.

[neWb]

i have read through a lot here in the last few days as well as all over the net,man its doing my head in :) i see guys who are overclocking and only picking up minimal in game FPS but increasing temps a fair bit for it.

I need to pick up around 10 fps in a IL2:1946 where it has a water setting of 4 that uses sm 2.0 shaders? i think ,pics here http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards/bbs/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=144;t=007783#000002

I can run with those graphics but AA and AF maxed i drop into the 12-18 zone.

Other people i am seeing with the same game and similar systems , are getting better FPS than me so i am sure i should be able to run those graphics at a higher FPS.

SLI you said optimize before instead of overclock,i should probably start there.I have nTune now if that is any good and i am going to run a 3d mark on my rig today to see where it stands.

Thanks so far for the help :)

[neWb]

Ok ,ran 3d mark and obviously something is not right :)

Main Test Results
3DMark Score 1048 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 322 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 413 Marks
CPU Score 2137 Marks

Detailed Test Results

Graphics Tests
1 - Return to Proxycon 2.745 FPS
2 - Firefly Forest 2.621 FPS

CPU Tests
CPU1 - Red Valley 0.682 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 1.072 FPS

HDR Tests
1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 3.392 FPS
2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 4.861 FPS

full system specs
----------------
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
Manufacturer Intel
Family Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
Architecture 64-bit
Internal Clock 2.5 GHz
Internal Clock Maximum 2.5 GHz
External Clock 279.0 MHz
Socket Designation Socket 775
Upgrade ZIF Socket
MultiCore 2 Processor Cores
HyperThreadingTechnology N/A
Capabilities MMX, CMov, RDTSC, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, PAE, NX
Version Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz
Caches
Level 1 32 KB
Level 2 4 MB
Level 3 0 B

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS Driver 9.6.8.9

Description NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS
Manufacturer NVIDIA
Total Local Video Memory 256 MB
Total Local Texture Memory 530 MB
AGP Aperture Size 0 B
Driver File nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version 9.6.8.9
Driver Date 10-16-2006
Driver WHQL Certified false
Max Texture Width 4096 px
Max Texture Height 4096 px
Max User Clipping Planes 6
Max Active Hardware Lights 8
Max Texture Blending Stages 8
Fixed Function Textures In Single Pass 8
Vertex Shader Version 3.0
Pixel Shader Version 3.0
Max Vertex Blend Matrices 0
Max Texture Coordinates 8
VGA Memory Clock 702.0 MHz
VGA Core Clock 468.0 MHz
Max VGA Memory Clock 0.0 Hz
Max VGA Core Clock 0.0 Hz
PCI
Name NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS
Vendor ID 0x10de
Device ID 0x0292
SubSystem ID 0x00000000
Revision ID 0x00a1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bus
Type PCI Express
Revision 1.0
Enabled true
Rate 16
Sideband Addressing Not Supported
Fast Write Not Supported

Memory Slot 1/4
Installed Enabled Size 1.00 GB
Form Factor DIMM
Frequency 559.0 MHz
Slot DIMM_A1
Manufacturer None
Type Details -
Enabled Size 1.00 GB
Total Bit Width 0 b
Data Bit Width 0 b
Memory Slot 2/4
Installed Enabled Size 1.00 GB
Form Factor DIMM
Frequency 559.0 MHz
Slot DIMM_A2 [Bank2/3]
Manufacturer None
Type Details -
Enabled Size 1.00 GB
Total Bit Width 0 b
Data Bit Width 0 b

Motherboard Info
Supported Slot Types ISA, PCI, PCI Express
Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Model P5N32-SLI PREMIUM
Version 1.XX
BIOS Vendor Phoenix Technologies, LTD
BIOS Version ASUS P5N32-SLI PREMIUM ACPI BIOS Revision 0603
BIOS Release Date 12/05/2006
BIOS Properties Plug and Play, Flash
[B]
Open Processes while doing 3dmark
Name PID Memory Usage
3DMark06.exe 3660 29 MB
alg.exe 1776 4 MB
Apache.exe 1796 6 MB
Apache.exe 396 6 MB
avgamsvr.exe 1628 732 KB
avgemc.exe 1744 1 MB
avgupsvc.exe 1644 1 MB
csrss.exe 680 4 MB
ctfmon.exe 2128 4 MB
explorer.exe 536 26 MB
lsass.exe 772 1 MB
nSvcAppFlt.exe 460 6 MB
nSvcIp.exe 1904 7 MB
nSvcLog.exe 1936 4 MB
nTuneService.exe 3936 5 MB
nvsvc32.exe 2020 4 MB
realsched.exe 2120 196 KB
rundll32.exe 2104 4 MB
rundll32.exe 2200 6 MB
services.exe 760 4 MB
SMax4.exe 1428 3 MB
smax4pnp.exe 1392 5 MB
smss.exe 632 400 KB
spoolsv.exe 1520 5 MB
svchost.exe 944 5 MB
svchost.exe 992 5 MB
svchost.exe 1092 26 MB
svchost.exe 1132 4 MB
svchost.exe 1308 7 MB
System 4 240 KB
System Idle Process 0 28 KB
TBPANEL.exe 1928 6 MB
winlogon.exe 716 5 MB
wmiprvse.exe 1016 6 MB
wmiprvse.exe 3896 5 MB



even without OC i should be getting better results than that??

[SlieTheSecond]

Your cpu score is fine.
Your video is pretty messed up. I would try removing all video drivers using driver cleaner. And re install them. Make sure you have PCI-E as your video option in bios. (I've never used your motherboard but some have a PCI-E/PCI option). And go over any other video related options. Also you could try disabling the nTune service.

EDIT: I just noticed something else odd.

3DMark Score 1048 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 322 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 413 Marks
CPU Score 2137 Marks

You final score is 1048 yet your cpu score alone is 2137??
Try reinstalling 3d mark too?

[neWb]

PCI-E is set in Bios in Primary display adapter,i did a retest with ntune disabled but no difference.

I saw these in bios

JumperFree Config

Overclocking options
Overclock 5%
Overclock 10%
Overclock 15%
Overclock 20%
FSB 960/800
FSB 1280/800
FSB 1000/667
FSB 1333/667
FSB 1200/800

Freq Control

FSB Turbo mode [disabled]
MEM Turbo mode [disabled]

Voltage Control

Vcore volt [Auto]
Mem volt [1.90v]

i did a retest with ntune disabled but no difference,did a reboot and went into the bios,overclocking options and set it at 20 % ,ran 3dmark and the score was the same,went back into bios and set it to default again.

When i run 3DMark it does not get above a slideshow,would that be normal for a system of my specs?I downloaded the latest version of 3DMark 06 (Build 1.1.0) from Futuremark (http://www.futuremark.com/) so one would expect it to be ok,maybe i might try an earlier build ?


edit-update :)

Gave RivaTuner2.0 a run,set the fan speeds (low2d,high 3d etc) set core clock and memory clock at 450/660 for low and 520/750 for high ,all is working as per rivatuner documentation when i run tests with the hardware monitoring displays open but 3dmark is lower :D ..so rivatuner is showing me i have increased my card settings but actually decreased my pc output.

The 3d mark actually really surprised me it is that low,something seems wrong somewhere,especially when COD2 with settings maxed is running flawlessly,paintshop pro,photoshop etc fly along.The only thing killing my gaming at the moment is enabling the sm2.0 shaders option in IL2 1946 ,which i should be able to run well,no hassle.