Anyone got good settings for Q9550

riggie · 1 Jul 2011 at 00:08

Hi Everyone
Just received my flight Sim FSX/Acceleration Gold off ebay, and I was thinking about trying to overclock the CPU to increase the chances of a good frame rate.
I think it can be clocked in the Bios and was hoping someone on here may have settings that are reliable. Dont want to go mad!!!
Please note I am not a seasoned overclocker so plenty info please.

Should I use overclocking software or the Bios ?
Should I overclock the GPU ?

CPU Temp 36'c at idle up to 47'c playing Black Ops
GPU Temp 54'c at idle up to 63'c playing Black Ops (MSI afterburner)
MSI afterburner is excellent at controlling the temp, about 20'c less using the ramp
Computer specs in signature

Justintime · 1 Jul 2011 at 00:14

Which corsair XMS do you have? You'll need a decent set of RAM and a good board as FSB will need to be cranked for a decent OC.. if your RAM is PC6400 at least 3.4Ghz might be a go. Not sure on the P5B's clocking performance with Q9XXX quads or quads in general as its a P965 chipset right? Board design might not have enough power for a decent OC.

riggie · 1 Jul 2011 at 00:23

RAM is PC6400 and the timings are CL 5.0 - 6 - 6 - 15 2T ( pretty poor ?)
and the chipset is P965/G965 all according to CPU-Z
Do you always alter the ram & cpu together ?

Justintime · 1 Jul 2011 at 15:52

The ram speed will go up with FSB, set the Dram ratio to 1:1 at a 400MHz FSB and see if 3.4Ghz is doable, you may need to tweak the mch and cpu voltages a notch. I really can't advise much on this board as its been a long time since i've messed with it, also the actual architecture (P965 and associated voltage regulators etc..) and RAM maybe a big drawback here.

riggie · 1 Jul 2011 at 18:43

Hi Justintime
thanks for your help by the way.

Some more info... When you say 1:1 ratio, I go into the bios and set the cpu bus speed to 400MHz and my ram will match it?
Am I reading this correctly...is my ram currently running below speed? :confused:

Justintime · 1 Jul 2011 at 19:18

Yes its currently only running at PC5300 and CAS latencies are probably running at SPD settings. Its good that its set to 1:1 so as you increase your FSB to 400 it will run at PC6400. However you can probably get your Latencies tighter, what is the exact spec of your RAM? Going by your part number in CPU-Z its probably rated at 5-5-5-18, also its OCZ memory not Corsair XMS as in your sig, i'd up the memory voltage to 2v when you change the latencies.

riggie · 1 Jul 2011 at 21:09

Yes it is OCZ, just had the side off and the timings on the modules are 5-5-5 @1.9v. Forgot I upgraded the memory so this could work, I will up the voltage to 2.0v, do I have to up the latencies manually in the bios also?

Full spec is OCZ2G8002G (add K when bought as a kit) DDR2 PC2-6400 / 800MHz / Vista Performance / Gold Edition / 2GB Modules / 4GB (2x2048) Kit Timings 5-5-5 @1.9v.

( Updated signature )

Justintime · 1 Jul 2011 at 21:43

For best performance yes, set it manually as it'll stay at 5-6-6-15 if not, this is like the failsafe as many boards will boot at 1.8v unless manually set and thus 5-5-5-15 may not work. You might get 4-4-4-11 or so stable at 2v but my experience with that OCZ memory isn't that rosy.. cas 5 is probably all you're gonna get. For now keep the timings lax and find how far you can push the board (i'd guess the board will fall over before the cpu does in this case).

riggie · 1 Jul 2011 at 23:33

Tried the 400MHz setting and the ram at 2.0v, the computer started up Ok....got to the desktop it started a temperature shutdown process straight away.
So I just tried a small increase of the FSB and it's running fine, will up it slowly see how it goes.
Started with 3066 MHz (8.5 x 361) average CPU temp 38'c

Justintime · 1 Jul 2011 at 23:39

How do you know its a temperature shutdown? Do you have software or something that tells you? Are you touching the cpu volts?
Don't see how just a FSB overclock could cause that!

riggie · 2 Jul 2011 at 15:31

Yes I have a program called "Core Temp V0.99.7" the shut down temp was set at 70'c.
Can I ask this question, I have the FSB set at 369 x 8.5 = 3133.
So the ram should be close to 2 x 369 = nearest ram setting PC800 DDR400
Does that mean it is OK to set the ram manually to the 400 settings recomended by OCZ which are 6-6-6-18.......Will leave the voltage @ 1.9
what about the VCore 1.4v ?

Justintime · 2 Jul 2011 at 17:59

Is this 70C under load or idle? For a load temp i'd not worry too much about 70c if its prime95 or intel burntest etc.. My Q9550 sees about 77c loaded with IBT on a hot day, thats at 3.8Ghz 1.4v. Set the ram to 5-5-5-18 2.0v, lower is better for cas latency.

riggie · 2 Jul 2011 at 19:50

Hi Justintime,
I did not go any further when it shut down it was 74'c just starting up the computer. Must have done something wrong. Anyway I did try again with these settings and the computer runs well but it's only a small overclock may risk going higher tomorrow.
I read this overclocking walkthough for the P5B on line and he mentions something about this mobo does not like any settings between 360 and 400 FSB... a black hole? I think he is talking about another setting, it's in the [ Memory controller issues you need to know] here is the link.
http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=41

This is the settings I tried today and it's very stable.
FSB set at 355
Ram set at 5-5-5-15
PCI Express frequency to 110 (dont know what the GTX260 will take)
Spread Spectrum (disabled)
Memory Voltage 1.9v

May try these settings at 400 FSB and see what happens, have set the overtemp to kick in at 80'c.

These settings gave me a 5% increase in CPU terms according to 3dmarks05
which is what I am after for FSX flight sim.

Justintime · 2 Jul 2011 at 20:26

Something is not right, no way it should hit 70C just loading up Windows. What cooling are you using?

riggie · 2 Jul 2011 at 22:45

Just a standard Zalman CNPS7000C Cooler @2000rpm, and I am sure this Q9550 was lapped as well. This is the type of cooler and the temp at idle.
I probably made a mistake somewhere along the line no worries.
Will go for the 400 tomorrow.......

biuro74 · 2 Jul 2011 at 23:20

You've got E0 chip revision - it means it will be cooler and o'ced a bit more that C1 revision.
C1 will o'c upto 3.612 GHz (AFAIR) with no voltage raise (with Auto settings). I've noticed your voltage is a bit high - try to set it up manually @ 1.30-1.3625 for 3.6 frequency and even lower for stock (and disable Loadline calibration, if any).

Generally, if you o'c - try first maximum FSB that your mobo can give to you (check it with lower CPU multiplier, x6 let's say). Next step, is to apply 8.5 divider to that FSB and check if PC gets up - so don't bother with any "FSB wall", or "black hole". It probably won't, so all you have to do is lower a bit FSB and/or add some FSB voltage (like CPU VTT) - looking at your NB temperatures at the same time. Last step is to set up memory frequencies & timings & voltages, which should be underclocked so far,
.

Summarizing - you should be able to reach 3.8-4 GHz with ease having such a hardware.

P.S.
I've got ~12 FPS on Gran Canaries (GCLP_FSX_Setup, 159 MB, Gizmo's water normals Set 2 DX9, Rex GrassII installed etc) with stock Q9550 when taking off ;-)

riggie · 3 Jul 2011 at 00:00

Thanks for the info, will try and set-up the FSB as you describe
cheers

Hagar · 3 Jul 2011 at 00:11

Lock your pcie at 100
vcore at 1.38 max
northbridge (mch) at 1.2 -1.225
vram at 1.9

step up the fsb in stages from 333 to 400 ish

my mates only went up to 395 without BSOD

riggie · 4 Jul 2011 at 00:26

Tried 390 and it was not running smoothly when testing in 3dmarks
Took it back to 370 and it runs fine, CPU temp average 40'c
which is an 11% overclock according to everest.
The memory is set at 5-5-5-15 should I try 6-6-6-18