1366 X58 Xeon 5650

Sighn · 17 Sep 2015 at 22:06

If your Uncore Ratio is still set to auto, set it to x14 otherwise x12. Your uncore frequency appears to be hitting nearly 4000Mhz with your RAM being nearly 4 times slower.

AiiR · 17 Sep 2015 at 22:31

Sighn said:
If your Uncore Ratio is still set to auto, set it to x14 otherwise x12. Your uncore frequency appears to be hitting nearly 4000Mhz with your RAM being nearly 4 times slower.

Just went into the bios to check, seems the uncore ratio is set to auto but is greyed out and I can't even select it. :confused:

Is it supposed to locked down on certain boards?

Sighn · 18 Sep 2015 at 04:02

It might be because your Memory Ratio is still set to Auto instead of the x12 a user advised earlier.

But..

now that your Bclck is at 190, you could set your Memory Ratio to x8.
(your earlier conversations cause me to assume your RAM is rated 1600MHz, 8-8-8-24).

gigeorge · 21 Sep 2015 at 08:59

Acme said:
What boards are you guys using? Are these Xeons widely supported by X58 boards?

Want to replace my old W/S which has a pair of E5430's (Core 2 era quad cores @ 2.66)

e; WHAT?! What the hell has happened to X58 motherboard prices?!

Wish I'd kept my Rampage II now

Im using a rampage iii, beast of a board!

ALXAndy · 21 Sep 2015 at 13:44

AiiR said:
Yeah, its more a voltage adjustment than a setting. Its hard to determine the exact voltage, unless I'm misreading it. Above 190, it bluescreens before getting into windows. I'm thinking of adding more volts but want to understand it a bit better before I risk frying anything (even though I have a spare chip!).

Edit - So after some messing around I figured out the voltage control. Set it to 1.35v and still no luck at 200bclk, it bluescreens before getting into Windows. I think this shows the boards weak limitations in overclocking, but I'm certainly more satisfied with 3.8GHz than the stock 2.6 I was getting last week!

If anyone has any other tips however, then feel free to share.

It's not the chip you need to worry about it's your VRMs. Seriously, don't push it too far you will burn out the motherboard.

Sighn · 21 Sep 2015 at 20:09

Selekt0r said:
Yes, I've got one ex58-ud5 rig running 3x8GB and another running 6x4GB. Both running happy, although only mild overclocks as my cases are rather toasty.

Got the same board with 3x8GB of Kingston HyperX Fury now. Been running fine despite the OCing.

kylew_is_back · 21 Sep 2015 at 21:34

AiiR said:
Success!

Changed the ram timings manually to what was on the box (8-8-8-24) and I've managed a 3.8GHz overclock with 190BCLK and 1.2v vcore.

Load temps are mid 50's, so I think there's room for more. However setting the BCLK to 200 results in a blue screen before I even get into Windows. Is this a case for more voltage or memory adjustments?

My current settings in cpuz:

how do you manage UNCORE 3800MHz? most x56xx have stability issues above 3GHz, btw for the best stability set the UNCORE muliplaier to 12(double the speed of your ram)

set your UNCORE muliplaier to 12 and see if you can go BCLK 200+

edit: in cpu-z NB Frequency is the UNCORE Frequency for x58

AiiR · 21 Sep 2015 at 23:12

kylew_is_back said:
how do you manage UNCORE 3800MHz? most x56xx have stability issues above 3GHz, btw for the best stability set the UNCORE muliplaier to 12(double the speed of your ram)

set your UNCORE muliplaier to 12 and see if you can go BCLK 200+

edit: in cpu-z NB Frequency is the UNCORE Frequency for x58

That probably is the root of my issues, however I'm unable to change the uncore ratio as its greyed out on AUTO.

Running it 3.8GHz still. It fails to pass Intel Burn Test but I've managed to play Crysis 3 on full for over an hour with no issues. I'm calling it stable for gaming until I find something that really stresses it too much.

kylew_is_back · 22 Sep 2015 at 06:40

AiiR said:
That probably is the root of my issues, however I'm unable to change the uncore ratio as its greyed out on AUTO.

Running it 3.8GHz still. It fails to pass Intel Burn Test but I've managed to play Crysis 3 on full for over an hour with no issues. I'm calling it stable for gaming until I find something that really stresses it too much.

Lower the ram multiplier to see what AUTO uncore multiplier you will get, and also see if you can pass the BCLK 200+

what QPI Voltage you have?

AiiR · 23 Sep 2015 at 00:10

kylew_is_back said:
Lower the ram multiplier to see what AUTO uncore multiplier you will get, and also see if you can pass the BCLK 200+

what QPI Voltage you have?

QPI Volts are on auto I believe, no idea what that would be.

Changing the ram multiplier doesn't unlock the uncore ratio unfortunately. Might just be the garbage motherboard.

AiiR · 23 Sep 2015 at 18:49

Okay after some research it seems that the issue stems from MSi not updating the cpu microcode for the Xeons on the X58M, so the uncore multiplier is locked out at x20 (Auto). Darn it.

If I had an ATX case, I could ditch the 58m and just swap the spare P6T SE I have lying around. Unfortunately my SO bought my current corsair air 240 case for my birthday and replacing it this soon wouldn't go down well!

On the upside, those boards go for ~£100! :eek:

For the time being, looks like I'm stuck to 3.7GHz as even 3.8 was too unstable. In the meantime I have contacted MSi to see if there's any official word, but I very much doubt they'd have a satisfactory solution. :rolleyes:

Sighn · 24 Sep 2015 at 20:45

That's unfortunate...

And even then there's still concern for the lack of proper cooling for your board VRM as mentioned earlier.

LiGhTfasT · 25 Sep 2015 at 18:35

Do these usually clock to 4ghz on air?

I have a i7 950 @ 4ghz on air at the minute but im looking to replace my old 6870 to play some games and have been looking at future proofing a bit and getting a 780 ti. Would it beworth replacing the i7? Any benefits going for the x5660, easier to clock?

Ste · 25 Sep 2015 at 19:26

Seems some are struggling but really 4 ghz should be a fairly realistic goal.

AiiR · 26 Sep 2015 at 01:06

I'd say given the right board/cooling these should easily do 4GHz. I'm unfortunate that I have a garbage motherboard.

Going for the xeon is a good choice, its a nice upgrade to a hyperthreaded hex core for just over £50. It won't 'future proof' you however, but it'll definitely breath new life into your system.

tribz · 26 Sep 2015 at 07:02

LiGhTfasT said:
Do these usually clock to 4ghz on air?

I have a i7 950 @ 4ghz on air at the minute but im looking to replace my old 6870 to play some games and have been looking at future proofing a bit and getting a 780 ti. Would it beworth replacing the i7? Any benefits going for the x5660, easier to clock?

I'm at a tadge over 4.4GHz on air. It will depends on your cooler and motherboard but I'd say getting to 4GHz shouldnt be too hard.

LiGhTfasT · 26 Sep 2015 at 10:21

I've got a arctic freezer 13 at the minute which does fine for the i7, what are you using?

Seems to be a lack of the 5650 on ebay at the minute too

LiGhTfasT · 26 Sep 2015 at 14:24

I put a cheeky offer on a 5660 on ebay and got it for £45 delivered

Then found a 780 for £168.

Let the games begin

ALXAndy · 26 Sep 2015 at 15:35

AiiR said:
I'd say given the right board/cooling these should easily do 4GHz. I'm unfortunate that I have a garbage motherboard.

Going for the xeon is a good choice, its a nice upgrade to a hyperthreaded hex core for just over £50. It won't 'future proof' you however, but it'll definitely breath new life into your system.

Of course it will future proof you. Try and remember, the I7 920 came out years ago now.Q4 2008 according to Intel. It's still a very, very capable CPU. There really is no need to upgrade.

The only thing you could possibly need is more cores, if and when that becomes more important. And the Xeon offers that, so I really think it's quite well future proof.

All of these new APIs apparently lean on the CPU more and use more cores..

The main regret I have with PC parts is selling my I7 950 and UD3 and then messing around with low rent locked Sandy CPUs and so on. Had I kept what I had I could have simply dropped in one of these cheap Xeons and spent more on GPUs, which is what really matters.

Ricimer · 26 Sep 2015 at 16:40

It doesn't "future proof" you in any way, while I agree it's a good upgrade if you *have* a compatible motherboard, if you don't it's simply going to hold you back from all the other advances in the last 6 years.

Encoding with 6 cores has been good, but for gaming (current and older releases) I'm finding it is starting to hold me back with mediocre single thread performance.

A current cpu will be in the region of 30% faster (or more) at the same clock speed, you will have PCIe 3.0, SATA3 and USB3 (I know some X58s have less than optimal third party addons for these).

It *is* a lot nicer than the 960 I had, and it overclocks well, but in which other area would anyone buy PC parts that are this old? It's only the abundance of cheap Xeons that have helped extend the life of a dead end platform (we all knew the X58 wasn't going anywhere!)

If you have an X58 then it's a reasonable upgrade, but it's not worth getting a board to start with them now.