Warhammer Gaming System-Q9650 & EVGA 285 SSC

By admin • March 13, 2009

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I have been upgrading my pc in an effort to fix the Warhammer Stutter and Framerate issues for good. Below you will find my previous specs and the new specs along with images, benchmarks, overclocking, and raid 0 configuration. Final results will be posted at the end. Enjoy!

Note* This was after exhausting all of my efforts in determining the performance issues I had in ORvR. I tried all of the guides out there and nothing worked until the upgrade…

Previous System:

Mobo: EVGA 780i SLI
CPU: e6700 Core 2 Duo 2.66ghz (Overclocked to 3.45ghz)
GPU: BFG 8800 GTX OC2 Edition
RAM: 4gb of OCZ EL DDR2 PC2-6400 / 800 MHz Platinum Edition / Revision 2
HD: Seagate 7200 rpm 500gb
OCZ PSU 1010W
Koolance Exos 2 Edition.
The CPU-305 Waterblock
The Koolance VID-282 GPU waterblock
X Fi Elite Pro Soundcard

New System:

Mobo: EVGA 780i SLI (Didn’t want to upgrade because this board was very stable)
CPU: Intel Q9650 Quad Core 3.0ghz (Overclocked to 4.1 GHZ)
GPU: EVGA 285 Overclocked to SSC Edition
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1100 (Overlocked to 1125mhz)Added Fans: CORSAIR CMXAF1 Fans For Memory Modules
HD: (2) 150 gb WD Raptor HD 10,000 RPM (RAID 0 Config)
OCZ PSU 1010W
Koolance Exos 2 Edition.
The CPU-305 Waterblock
X Fi Elite Pro Soundcard

Major Upgrades Include:

CPU/GPU/Faster RAM/RAID 0 with Dual Raptors/p0.8 Bios Flash for 780i

Overclocking:

CPU:

The Q9650 is a beast. I was able to reach 3.8ghz with default voltages. Each chip is different but this model is known for good oc potential. Also, EVGA 780i board users will need to upgrade to the latest bios from EVGA. Without it I had stability issues and post issues. The Q9650 is now stable at 4.05ghz orthos prime 9 hours (Further testing is needed). 4.1ghz and above is possible up to about 4.3-4.5 but you will need to up the fsb to 1.3v and the cpu to 1.4v which will probably yield close to 21000 in 3dmark. I plan to adjust the settings more but for 24/7 use 4.05ghz is perfect. Plus I can unlink and adjust my ram timings/speed manually.

GPU:

NVIDIA GTX 285
702 MHz GPU
400 MHz RAMDAC
Memory
1024 MB, 512 bit DDR3
2646 MHz

RAM:

This is the first RAM that I have been able to overclock right from the box. This ram is amazing. With it linked/synced to the FSB the ram was underclocked to 900mhz. By Unlinking and sync this ram with the FSB, my 3dmark scores increased by 600 points alone without adjusting anything except the mhz of the modules. Great buy too. DDR2 that overclocks with the 780i like a champ for 70 bucks! Just up the voltage to 1.9v.

3D Mark: 20109

Images:

Warhammer Results:

Bottom-line: Q9650 overclocks like a champ. Very manageable on liquid cooling. I hear people on air even get 4.0 ghz stable. Very little voltage needed up to 3.8-4.0ghz.

Warhammer gameplay has changed dramatically. With my old system I managed an average 35-40 fps and sometimes 22fps in heavy rvr combat like keep sieges etc. This was with all the tweaks, fastest framerate settings and buffthrottle.

Raid 0 has been a huge factor in map load time and changing zones. It also helps relieve the ram somewhat because of the performance increase in r/w times.

Now I get a constant 60 fps (with verticle sync) in all situations. I am still testing kiep sieges and will write an update to this post in a new performance guide later next week.

Before:

8xAA/16x AS @ High Game Settings-Average FPS 20

2xAA/4x AS@ Fastest Framerate-Average FPS 40

After:

8xAA/16x AS @ High Game Settings-Constant 60

Low FPS/Stuttering is not an issue anymore.

More Data to come. I will update this post with additional benchmarking and tips. I will also
include additional screenshots of keepsieges…

Categories: Guides, Performance Talk, WAR Talk
Tags: featured

About the Author

admin

548Comments2009-03-14+00%3A55%3A13admin to “ Warhammer Gaming System-Q9650 & EVGA 285 SSC ”

brad Mar 14th, 2009 at 1:32 pm

Killer rig. I would be interested in hearing what fps you get in keep sieges. I get like 5fps lol
P.O.W. Mar 21st, 2009 at 11:17 pm

Hey, I am haveing a hell of a time OCing my q9650 on my EVGA 780i, I was wondering if you could tell me what your voltages are. Did you adjust the GTLVREF lanes at all. And what timeing is your ram on? I just can't get this thing to be stable at 4.05
dailywarhammer Mar 22nd, 2009 at 12:42 am

Well I was stable for a while at 4.05 then had a few bsods. Upped cpu voltage to 1.4v and all is fine. I am at 1800fsb and 1100mhz ram with timings at 5-5-5-15 at 1.9v. That is the recomended settings for the gskill. Tested with 1200mhz and had some stablility issues. Still tweaking around with it.

This is what I go by:

CPU ~1.4v (actual via CPUid) a good starting point for Kentsfield >3.2Ghz…faster=more***
RAM Run at manufacturers specified voltage only.
FSB 1.3v….(1.4v ~1600QDR+)
SPP/NB 1.4v…(1.45v ~1700QDR+)
MCP/SB 1.525v
HT 1.25v (aka MCP<>SPP)
AUX 1.5v(auto) (not applicable on 680i)
GTRLEDs (auto) (not applicable on 680i)

Check out this thread on evga's forums (chances are you may have already)

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=222688
what are your sys specs?
ultimateease Mar 23rd, 2009 at 8:35 pm

Nice article on GTLvREF's…was not aware of it until now. Each cpu chip is not the same as we all know. Some people get an easy overclock to 4.05 with 1.3x voltage on air while others cannot. But this chip seems to have good oc abilities.

I know intel recommends not exceeding 1.3625 but on my board the vdroop is incredible. I have cpu voltage set to 1.4 but the bios reads as 1.37. Since you do not have liquid cooling I would suggest not exceeding 65c (not sure what intel recommends) under full load. If you have good air cooling this should be ok. What temps do you have now anyway?

Try these options:

OPTION 1
link and sync, set ram timings to optimal, try 1.38v on the cpu, up your mcp to 1.525. Put your NB to 1.45v
check your recommended RAM voltage by manufacture. I would set it to the max voltage (not above 2.1v) that your ram is recommended for. My case it was 1.9v.

Option 2:

Unlinked, Set ram timings to the recomended values (5-5-5-18) and voltage. Up your fsb to 1800 (QDR).
and just play with your cpu voltage only.

I think link/sync is the best way to determine cpu stability without worrying about ram but for me this did not work. I had to unlink and it worked.

It is either cpu voltage, ram timings, or ram voltage (assuming you have all the other voltage settings set to the values specified in pwnzors oc guide.

Another interesting aspect is you have 8gigs…I read some articles where people had major issues overclocking on 8gigs with the 780i and this chip. But there are some who have done it without a single issue. I have heard the best ram for this 8gig setup on this board is Gskill..the same brand I bought.

What brand is the ram? Your power supply should be sufficient.
Dailywarhammer Mar 23rd, 2009 at 8:37 pm

Nice article on GTLvREF's…was not aware of it until now. Each cpu chip is not the same as we all know. Some people get an easy overclock to 4.05 with 1.3x voltage on air while others cannot. But this chip seems to have good oc abilities.

I know intel recommends not exceeding 1.3625 but on my board the vdroop is incredible. I have cpu voltage set to 1.4 but the bios reads as 1.37. Since you do not have liquid cooling I would suggest not exceeding 65c (not sure what intel recommends) under full load. If you have good air cooling this should be ok. What temps do you have now anyway?

Try these options:

OPTION 1
link and sync, set ram timings to optimal, try 1.38v on the cpu, up your mcp to 1.525. Put your NB to 1.45v
check your recommended RAM voltage by manufacture. I would set it to the max voltage (not above 2.1v) that your ram is recommended for. My case it was 1.9v.

Option 2:

Unlinked, Set ram timings to the recomended values (5-5-5-18) and voltage. Up your fsb to 1800 (QDR).
and just play with your cpu voltage only.

I think link/sync is the best way to determine cpu stability without worrying about ram but for me this did not work. I had to unlink and it worked.

It is either cpu voltage, ram timings, or ram voltage (assuming you have all the other voltage settings set to the values specified in pwnzors oc guide.

Another interesting aspect is you have 8gigs…I read some articles where people had major issues overclocking on 8gigs with the 780i and this chip. But there are some who have done it without a single issue. I have heard the best ram for this 8gig setup on this board is Gskill..the same brand I bought.

What brand is the ram? Your power supply should be sufficient.
ultimateease Mar 23rd, 2009 at 8:43 pm

Somehow your comment was deleted (testing new comment system) but for otheres here is what P.O.W. reply was:

Hey, thanks for the info. I have actually read that guide, actually thats what let me get my original 6600 to 3.0ghz. As for the voltage recommendation, for the q9650 the max voltage intel recommends for no shortening of the processors life, is 1.3625 (if I remember correctly). Now from what I have read while doing research is there is alot of debate how much voltage is 'safe'. And alot of people run their Q9650 above 1.3625. But I try to stick to what's on the intel site, esp since my cooling is not that great.

I know my ram is causing problems, its rated at 1066 at 5-5-5-18, but with my q6600 I was running it at 5-5-5-12.

Thing for me is actually I got a Q9650 with a decent VID. My VID is 1.1625. So after doing alot of research I am seeing people getting 4.05 overclocks with this chip with bios voltages under 1.3 (actual I don't know about you but my board has alot of vdroop(as in the vcore I set in my bios is much higher then what actually goes to the chip, which you can see with cpu-z in windows). GTLvREF's can play a huge roll, this guide http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=476249&mp... is really really useful.

as for my system specs I have:

Q9650 – CPU
EVGA nforce 780i – Motherboard
8gigs DDR2 1066MHz – Memory
EVGA GTX 280 – GPU
Auzentech Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 – Sound Card
Antec Signature 850W – power supply

thanks again for the info, I'm just trying to see what voltage settings people with my board and cpu are using
P.O.W. Mar 26th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

Hey Ultimateteease, thanks for the response, I've been so busy tinkering with OCing that I haven't had a chance to respond till now (at lunch at work)

First off, my ram is OCZ Reaper HPC 4 gig edition. It's clocked at 1066mhz and voltage is 2.1 – 2.2 as per their website. Default timings are 5-5-5-18, though actually many people report that left to default the ram sets itself to 5-5-5-15

Now there have been some interesting (and discouraging developments) for me as of last night. Basically I got tired of trying to get an OC an wanted to make sure my stock settings were alright (really I should have done this at the beginning). If I set all in bios to default, or even clear the CMOS my ram gets automatically set to 800mhz, with 1.81V and 5-5-5-15 timings.

But, my system is not stable at default settings. My CPU VID is 1.1625, and from what i have heard that is a really good VID. My Bios shows the default voltage at 1.11V. Lower then the VID, I can boot into Vista fine, but core 4 always fails immediately in Prime95. However I think this is just by board setting the voltage to low, when in Vista using CPU-Z I see a idle voltage of about 0.929. Though it is strange, because if I go into the bios and change my cpu vcore to 1.125, suddenly (despite being higher then what the bios showed the vcore as when left to default) the bios shows the actual voltage as being 1.08. And then that matches with CPU-Z. Either way, my chip is stable at this voltage while RAM is set to 800mhz. If I try to get my ram up to 1066, I loose stability. It doesn't seem to matter how much vcore I pore into the chip (still raising it though). It's kinda a bumber, I mean at stock I should be able to use my ram at full speed, especially since my old q6600 ran at 3.0ghz with the ram at 1066mhz on this board. But I'm thinking that I'm just not gonna be able to do that with this chip and 8gigs.

I have read many places, as you say, that the combination of the 780i chipset and 8gigs of ram can be trouble. I guess I’m hoping to find out that if having 8gigs at 1066 is causing instability in an overclock (or even at stock settings as is my case) and if I have put the max green value for my NB voltage, if for a moment we disregard cpu heat, if I keep upping the vcore, should I eventually get stability?

Or, am I simply sunk, is it just a case that with this particular board, like maybe even just my particular board, that I will never get a stable OC (or even stock settings) with my ram at 1066. Any help would be appreciated.

And yea, I get huge vdroop with this board too. My heat is defiantly an issue, when I was testing in the vcore(actual via cpu-z) up around 1.31 when Prime95 hit it's 8k iterations I was about 70C tcase, my cores were around 60 – 70C. I bought, what I hope is a better heat-sink and I'm putting it on tonight, hopefully this will let me up the voltage some more without worrying bout heat as much.

As for GTLvREF's all I can say is that everywhere I read it seems that quad cores are much more picky about their settings. Esp the GTL's. And from my experience, playing with them (though it INCREDIBLY time consuming) has mad the difference between less then a minute Prime95 stability, and 3 – 4 hours Prime95 Stability. That being said I still haven't managed to get a stable OC
fdgdfg Feb 8th, 2010 at 9:50 am

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