i7 930 Overclocking help!

[FunkyFerret]

Hello All,

I need some help.... i brought an ultimate vanquish system from overclockers about a year ago now.

The setup i have is:
Intel Core i7 930 2.80 GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) which is supposed to be overclocked to 4.00 GHz
Prolimatech Megagalems Rev B CPU Cooler
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 Socket DDR 3 Motherboard
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C8 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel Memory

I intended to use this as a games machine but unfortunately i have used it for everything other than that. Anyway i have recently upgraded my graphics cards; 2x Sapphire Radeon HD6950's Toxic versions in xfire - to play Battlefield 3 and MW3. I've had a few problems with BF3, low FPS being one of them. I have been trawling the net for solutions and trying everything possible but somebody said to check the CPU. I'm trying to play it on ultra, using a dell 24' monitor 1920 x 1200 (1080p) resolution. The cards should handle it from the website reviews I’ve read.

Could the CPU be my problem? I have checked the overclock settings in the bios - According to the OC profile, it states that it’s running at 4.01GHZ but when i load up CPU-Z and Prime 95 together it doesn't move from 2832MHZ when the CPU is stressed.

Can you help me find out if it’s overclocked properly? Any feedback would be gratefully received.

Many Thanks!

 

[FunkyFerret]

Anyone?

 

[eddiew]

It's not just full of fluff and throttling due to high temperatures is it? (Has to be asked )

Have you tried disabling one of the graphics cards? (Sounds stupid but now and then something doesn't like xfire...)

Might be worth disabling hyperthreading - lot of people have complained of BF3 stutter on i7s.

Also try dropping to high details and see if it still gives low FPS. I know you should be able to do ultra, but it'll help figure out what's not working right.

Best guesses

 

[FunkyFerret]

Thanks for your suggestions.

Well I know it isn't fluff because I cleaned it before installing the new cards.

If I disable hyperthreading how much will it affect my system?

I'll try and disable a card when I get home from work. This is the one thing I hate about pc's compared to consoles. It's all trial and error!

 

[francky]

Well BF3 isnt very CPU taxing.....its more GPU dependant...or so I have read.

Hyper threading just divides your current 4 cores into 2, so you have 1 real core and 1 virtual core, so your PC thinks you have 8 cores in total, but only have 4.....most games if not all, don't use HT and so is pointless, but it is good for things like Video encoding etc.

Even at 2.8Ghz, with a Quad Core i7, you certainly wont be getting low FPS because of your CPU.

Have you got the latsest ATI drivers?

 

[bifday2k]

According to the OC profile, it states that it’s running at 4.01GHZ but when i load up CPU-Z and Prime 95 together it doesn't move from 2832MHZ when the CPU is stressed.

If Cpu-z dos'nt show 4ghz once you start to stress with prime, then i would say that the overclock is'nt in effect, enter the bios, choose the 4ghz Oc profile, hit enter so that the bios knows to use that profile, then press F10 to exit and save.

Reboot and retest, if all is well the overclock should stick, test again with cpu-z and prime to make sure.