BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

[Bobolink1970]

Thanks to profJim's karma I finally managed to get my BIOS to respond to the DELETE key again.
Now I think it is a good idea to tweak it a little bit and then save it with F11.
First of all I would like the BIOS settings to fit standard cpu clock. (Maybe some moderate overclocking later).
ProfJim already helped me to get the RAM stable on 1066 Mhz @5-5-5-15

This is what I have sofar but I'm sure there is some room for improvement:


Motherboard: Gigabyte
Model: P43-ES3G (Socket 775) Rev#: 1.1 Bios Version: F14
Cpu: Intel Core2 Quad 9550s
Ram: 4 x 2 GB ddr2 1066 Mhz Kingston HyperX
Power Supply Unit: Seasonic M12 500 watt


MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)

Robust Graphics Booster -------- : [Auto]
CPU Clock Ratio ---------------- : [8x]
Fine CPU Clock Ratio ----------- : [+0.5]
CPU Frequency -------------- : 2.83 GHz (333x8.5)

Clock Chip Control

Standard Clock Control
CPU Host Clock Control --------- : [Enabled]
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) ------- : [333]
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) ---- : [100]

DRAM Performance Control
Performance Enhance ------------ : [Turbo]
(G)MCH Frequency Latch --------- : [333MHz]
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) ------- : [3.20B]
Memory Frequency (Mhz) --------- : [800 1066]
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD)--------- : [Manual]
Standard Timing Control
CAS Latency Time --- 5 ---- : [5]
tRCD ------------------ 5 ---- : [5]
tRP -------------------- 5 ---- : [5]
tRAS ------------------ 18 ---- : [15]
Advanced Timing Control
tRRD ----------------- 3 --- : [Auto]
tWTR ------------------ 3 ---- : [Auto]
tWR -------------------- 6 ---- : [Auto]
tRFC ------------------ 52 --- : [Auto]
tRTP ------------------ 3 ---- : [Auto]
Command Rate (CMD) 0 ---- : [Auto]

Channel A Timing Settings -- {Press Enter to change settings}
Static tRead Value ------------- : 6 [8]
tRD Phase0 Adjustment ---------- : 0 [Auto]
tRD Phase1 Adjustment ---------- : 0 [Auto]
tRD Phase2 Adjustment ---------- : 0 [Auto]
tRD Phase3 Adjustment ---------- : 0 [Auto]

Trd2rd(Different Rank) -------- : 8 [Auto]
Twr2wr(Different Rank) -------- : 8 [Auto]
Twr2rd(Different Rank) --------- : 7 [Auto]
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank) ------- : 9 [Auto]
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control ----- : [Auto]
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control ----- : [Auto]
DDR Write Training ------------ : [Auto]

Channel B Timing Settings -- {Press Enter to change settings}
Static tRead Value ------------- : 6 [8]
tRD Phase0 Adjustment ---------- : 0 [Auto]
tRD Phase1 Adjustment ---------- : 0 [Auto]
tRD Phase2 Adjustment ---------- : 0 [Auto]
tRD Phase3 Adjustment ---------- : 0 [Auto]
Trd2rd(Different Rank) -------- : 8 [Auto]
Twr2wr(Different Rank) -------- : 8 [Auto]
Twr2rd(Different Rank) --------- : 7 [Auto]
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank) ------- : 9 [Auto]
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control ----- : [Auto]
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control ----- : [Auto]
DDR Write Training ------------ : [Auto]

Motherboard Voltage Control
CPU Voltage Types--------- Normal ----- Current -----

CPU Vcore ----------- 1.20000V -- : [Auto]
CPU Termination ----- 1.200V -- : [Auto]
CPU Reference ------- 0.805V -- : [Auto]

MCH Core ------------- 1.100V -- : [1.200]

DRAM Voltage --------- 1.800V -- : [2.000V]

Advanced Settings
Limit CPUID Max. to 3 ---------- : [Disabled]
No-Execute Memory Protect ------ : [Enabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) -------- : [Disabled]
C2/C2E State Support ----------- : [Disabled]
x C4/C4E State Support --------- : [Disabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor 2 (TM2) ---- : [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function ------------- : [Disabled]
Virtualization Technology ------ : [Disabled]

Integrated Peripherals
USB Storage Function ----- : [Enabled]

[Chike]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

Try to set Performance Enhance to standard and see if you cacan lower tRD
Also try with Channel A/B Driving Settings -< Driving Strength Profiles 1066/800
RAM don't have XMP profile?
Personally I've never disabled neither EIST nor C1E/C2/C2E

[profJim]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

@Bobolink1970,
Keep in mind that I'm using a Q9550/EP45-UD3P setup with 4 x 2GB of HyperX T1 PC2-8500 memory and that what works for me might not work for you.

Setting Performance Enhance = Standard will provide somewhat looser secondary memory timings and if Chike's suggestion to use the Normal option instead of the Turbo option lets you lower tRD to 7 or 6, you're overall memory performance will be better. In my EP45-UD3P system I was able to use Performance Enhance = Turbo with tRD = 6 and memory speed = 1066MHz. I was able to use the Turbo option up to 3.50GHz and had to change it to the Standard option with higher overclocks. YMMV.

I did my overclocking with EIST, C1E, C2/C2E and C4/C4E enabled and had no problems.

I've never found an XMP profile in any HyperX PC2-8500 SPD screen-shots.

This is the Memset SPD for my HyperX T1 memory when I was running 8GB in my P35-DS4 system:





The next image shows the different secondary memory timings that the EP45-UD3P bios sets with Luke's system and my system.





This is the screen-shot of my system with no overclock and Performance Enhance = Turbo that I posted in your first thread:

[Bobolink1970]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

@Chike
@profJim,
Thanks a lot guys!
Changed Performance Enhance to Standard and tRD (performance level) on 6 doesn't seem to be a problem.
At least 3hours and 15 minutes of Prime95 (blend) didn't give me any errors.
I'm not sure about the driving strength profiles and left them on auto for now.
What good will they do? Should I put them on 1066 since that's my RAM speed or should I try both 800 and 1066?

[Bobolink1970]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

Performance Enhance = Standard:

[Bobolink1970]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

Performance Enhance = Turbo:

[Bobolink1970]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

Performance Enhance = Extreme:

[Chike]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

All MaxxMEM² With tRD 6?
Stick with what is best anyway.

[Bobolink1970]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

@ Chike,
Yep, they are all with tRD 6.
I am sorting out the stability of Performance Enhance = Extreme as we speak.
Only noticed that according to Maxxmem I have a slightly lower cpu speed and RAM speed compared to profJim.
Is that something to worry about?
And what about the differences in temperature between the 4 cores, 3 cores have simular temps, 1 core is totally off? I could never figure that one out...

[Chike]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

Nothing to worry about the speeds, it's just minor difference in FSB clock e.g 333 vs 333.33
BTW with your cooler it would be a shame not to take the CPU to at least 8.5 x 400MHz FSB which the chipset is capable of, not much higher though.
Unless you have not applied thermal paste properly or the cooler is somehow not mounted correctly it could be just the temp sensor, still temps are well within reason range (<75c).

[Bobolink1970]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

I was very meticulous about applying Arctic Silver 5 and placing the cooler so that should be ok.
I will open a new thead for overclocking this setup, it should go until 8.5 x 400MHz = 3.4 GHz safely, I hope.

BTW, after 2 hours of Prime95 no errors with Performance Enhance on Extreme and tRD 6.
So I guess, I should leave my stock settings at this....or do we need more testing...?

[Chike]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

It up t you how thorough you test, looks good though.
3.4GHz shouldn't be a sweat for this CPU.

[profJim]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

I strongly recommend that you run each of the three Prime95 tests, one at a time for at least 6 - 8 hours for "keeper" configurations. What's a keeper configuration? For me it's a rock solid, optimized, stable profile running:

1. no overclock for the cpu and memory speeds at the manufacturer's rated speeds
2. a moderate overclock, usually about a 20% - 30% overclock
3. the highest overclock that meets your needs and doesn't exceed "reasonable" heat and voltage guidelines
4. an extreme overclock that is only used for very brief benchmarking/bragging rights (this is optional)

My stress testing procedure is:

1. make the changes in the bios
2. save these settings to a temporary saved bios profile
3. boot to the windows desktop, but don't start stress testing for 15 minutes or longer; you want to let your system settle down
4. put together a cropped screen-shot that includes HWiNFO (sensor logging is optional), Cpu-z cpu window,
   Memset v4.1 main screen showing both memory channels using the ">>" icon,
   EasyTune 6 (aka ET6) showing the applied voltage settings where you click on Tuner ---> Advance ---> Voltage tabs
5. in case things are going to go badly, save the partially completed screen shot, later you can add Maxxmem2, LinX (or IBT) screen-shots and any other benchmark or stress test results that you want to include
6. run a memory benchmark such as Maxxmem2
7. run LinX for 15 minutes or less using 2048 MB or 3072 MB for 3 - 5 test loops;
   LinX or IBT (Intel Burn Test) are good, quick and dirty preliminary stress tests where you don't run any Prime95 stress tests if LinX or IBT gets an error
8. run each of the three Prime95 tests, one at a time; it's up to you to decide how to do this, for example you might want to run each test for only 1 - 2 hours, if there are no worker errors, go on to the next test, then run the last test for the same amount of time. This way you can avoid the frustration of running one or two of the eitght hour tests only to have the last test fail with a worker error.

I print out a hard copy of my current bios template and note the good and bad points for every test. You will be surprised at how useful this can be to help you zero in on problems that are similar to earlier test results.

I'd like to say compromise and do it my way, but it's up to you to design your overclocking/stress testing procedure. Remember, you don't want BSOD's or corrupted files if the poop hits the fan.

What's the big deal with ET6?

In the setup below, all the settings displayed by ET6 are set to AUTO.
CPU PLL is set to 1.65 volts but this setting should ALWAYS be 1.60 volts or less. The same thing can happen with CPU Termination (aka VTT), MCH Core and/or CPU Vcore where the AUTO setting can sometimes over-volt these settings beyond safe limits.

Another issue is the AUTO setting for tRFC = 52. Because the HyperX DDR2-1066 memory doesn't have an EPP entry for 533MHz in the SPD, the bios in its limited wisdom has selected a value that is way too low. Similar high end ddr2 memory with pre-programed 533MHz SPD entry will show tRFC in the 68 - 72 range. Depending on the memory speed and timings, tRFC might be stable in down to the low 60's range. In this case it's possible that with Performance Enhance = Standard, the tRFC setting might be somewhat higher.

When an overclocker doesn't provide accurate and detailed information it wastes everyone's time.
It's kind of like a patient talking to a doctor over the phone where the patient says "I have a headache, what's wrong?"

**edit**
When you first install ET6, it will not display on the screen, but it will be in the Task Bar.
When you first right click on the ET6 icon in the Task Bar, the default setting is to "Always run on next reboot", disable this option if you want to avoid possible problems.

ET6 is excellent displaying information, but it's sometimes buggy if you leave it running while using your system.
When I start ET6, I take a snapshot of the ET6 information and then exit ET6, and I've never had any ET6 related problems.

[Bobolink1970]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

@profJim
Keeper configurations is exactly what I'm aiming for.
I think we can leave the 4th configuration out. It's no use bragging with a 7 year old system.
I'm not so sure about the 3th keeper configuration either since the motherboard and chipset aren't the best for oc-ing.
But I definitely want the first two keeper configurations.

This thread is about the first keeper configuration which just needs a little bit more testing but seems to be looking good so far.
I did all 3 Prime95 Stress Testing options for 3 hours each and no errors until now.
You advised to do all three Prime95 tests (again) for 6-8 hours which I will do soon, most probably overnight.
And it is Just Stress Testing I need to do ('Small FFTs', 'In-place large FFTs' and 'Blend') and not this 'Join GIMPS'...?

What version of Easy Tune 6 should I take? I picked one from the section 'Latest Overclocking Programs, System Info, Benchmarking, & Stability Tools' but I wasn't able to install it or get it to work. I obviously didn't choose the AMD version but which of all these Intel version should work for me?
Should I use ET6 only for displaying information or should I also change settings with this tool?

I'm not sure if I understood this 'tRFC = 52' part correctly. Do I need to change this memory setting manually or leave it as it is?



Before we get to the oc part (for which I should better open a new thread, I guess..?), I have some questions about the fan controle which I could never figure out exactly. Should I try to controle the fans with the bios settings only or should I use Speedfan.
I tried both but somehow it doesn't seem to work as it should.
The following fans are in system:
-Scythe Mugen 2 rev.B cpu cooler with two 12cm Scythe fans (push-pull)
- 1 pushing Scythe 12cm fan at the front of the midi tower
- 1 pulling Scythe 12cm fan at the side of the midi tower

[profJim]

Re: BIOS tweaking or best BIOS settings GA-P43-ES3G (rev. 1.1)

Years ago with LGA775 systems we ran each of the Prime95 tests for 24 hours to ensure that our systems were stable. I saw that sometimes a Prime95 worker error almost four hour into the test. As the tests ran longer, errors were less frequent and there were very few errors after the 8 - 12 hour mark. When you have Prime95 errors, it's best if you post the Prime95 screen-shot that shows us the FFT length. All too often the error info would be "I only changed one thing and I got an error but I don't recall the details.

Ignore the "Join Gimps" message, all you need to do is to run each of the tests that you listed.

To avoid ET6 confusion, go to the GB web page for your motherboard and download that version. I had checked out the ET6 downloads two days ago and the correct version for our motherboards is vB12.1122.1 (2012-11-22). I had no trouble installing this version of ET6. Save yourself a lot of grief and only run ET6 to get a screen-shot of the information that I included in my screen-shot.

If your memory speed is:

• less than about 870MHz, use tRFC = AUTO or set it to 52.
• above 1000MHz, manually set tRFC = 66 or 70
• in the 950MHz range, set tRFC = 58 or 60

Use whatever method you want to control fan speeds.
Keep in mind that the SYS_Fan2 only provides lower voltages, so any fan connected to this fan header will run slightly below one half of the fans rated speed at 12 volts.

We can handle the overclocking in this thread as it's a natural progression with what we've covered. If you want, I can rename the title of this thread, just let me know the full title for the thread.

I've been "untweaking" my system and it's now stable with 3.41GHz using 401 x 8.5 but there are a couple of strange things going on.

I think that Chike will be surprised with my 74 GFlops results when I used all available memory.
Another strange thing is how Memset doesn't report the true 1069MHz memory speed, it should say ~ 534MHz.