Hitting 43x multiplier wall on Rampage IV Black edition - E5 1660 v1

[Mirkoskji]

Change the CPURAM ratio so that RAM speed is closer to stock speed or even below stock, just to see if RAM is limiting you or not.

LoL of course i don't oc with 2400mhz. when i try to get the most, usually i set for 1333.

Seems like a lost battle

I'll try to exploit my residual warranty over the motherboard i think. damn

 

[basco]

there is a diff between ocing the bclk or setting 125 strap.
there are so many settings in the rampage black mb for getting lower or higher bclk-did you try them?

 

[RejZoR]

If you use Auto for those, mobo does that automatically depending on state of BCLK numbers.

 

[Aquinus]

If you use Auto for those, mobo does that automatically depending on state of BCLK numbers.

My P9X79 Deluxe does not do that, FWIW.

 

[Mirkoskji]

there is a diff between ocing the bclk or setting 125 strap.
there are so many settings in the rampage black mb for getting lower or higher bclk-did you try them?

I have a map of the BIOS printed in my mind by this time. They could set a preason break episode in the bios of the rampage black and I would be Scofield

 

[MENINBLK]

I think you may be hitting the max frequency that this particular cpu is going to give you.
I have the same motherboard as you with a Core i7-4960X and I can run it
at 4.6GHz on a 46 multiplier but it is very unstable at that point (BIOS 801).
The highest I can run it is 4.4GHz but I choose to run it at 4.2GHz just for reliability.
Stock speed of the 4960X is 3.6GHz. Getting a full 1GHz OC is amazing on a 6 core
but it's not worth it to damage the chip in the long term.


Pete...

 

[Mirkoskji]

I think you may be hitting the max frequency that this particular cpu is going to give you.
I have the same motherboard as you with a Core i7-4960X and I can run it
at 4.6GHz on a 46 multiplier but it is very unstable at that point (BIOS 801).
The highest I can run it is 4.4GHz but I choose to run it at 4.2GHz just for reliability.
Stock speed of the 4960X is 3.6GHz. Getting a full 1GHz OC is amazing on a 6 core
but it's not worth it to damage the chip in the long term.


Pete...

If you read above you'll find that I can go over 43x. But not in the way that I want.

 

[Random Murderer]

If you use Auto for those, mobo does that automatically depending on state of BCLK numbers.

My P9X79 Deluxe does not do that, FWIW.

My Rampage does not, either. In theory, that's how it's supposed to work, but it simply doesn't.
Also worth mentioning to @Mirkoskji is that you should NOT leave the strap setting on auto for these boards. Even if you're running 100% stock, set that strap to 100!
Humor me here, just try setting the strap to 125 and your multiplier to 34 and see if it boots, that would be 4.25GHz.

 

[Aquinus]

My Rampage does not, either. In theory, that's how it's supposed to work, but it simply doesn't.

It's actually not. Think of it this way, the bclk isn't really the frequency that the clockgen is running at. The clockgen is multiplied to get to 100Mhz for various things. When the BCLK strap is set to 125Mhz, it's basically using two different multipliers for the cores and IMC, then another for things like PCI-E and DMI (which is basically just like PCIe,) because some devices (in particular PCIe,) don't take kindly to changes in bus frequency, probably because it's tuned for 100Mhz. Either way, setting a strap is actually doing something different than just setting the bclk to 125Mhz.

My 3820 is also very picky when it comes to the 125Mhz strap. Getting it right and stable is a science which is why I don't really do it anymore unless I have time to kill which is almost never.

 

[Random Murderer]

It's actually not. Think of it this way, the bclk isn't really the frequency that the clockgen is running at. The clockgen is multiplied to get to 100Mhz for various things. When the BCLK strap is set to 125Mhz, it's basically using two different multipliers for the cores and IMC, then another for things like PCI-E and DMI (which is basically just like PCIe,) because some devices (in particular PCIe,) don't take kindly to changes in bus frequency, probably because it's tuned for 100Mhz. Either way, setting a strap is actually doing something different than just setting the bclk to 125Mhz.

My 3820 is also very picky when it comes to the 125Mhz strap. Getting it right and stable is a science which is why I don't really do it anymore unless I have time to kill which is almost never.

Maybe it's the difference in boards, though I doubt it considering how similar the power sections are for our boards, but my RIVE and 3820 actually preferred clocking using the 125 strap (then again, I've heard it's rare to find a CPU that will clock on the 166 strap and mine would, so yeah...). The only time-consuming aspect of this was playing with VCCSA voltage and DRAM speeds while at the CPU's max OC or damn close. The CPU would run 5GHz stable with RAM under 1800MHz, but if I started upping the RAM speeds, it simply refused to stabilize without either a ton of voltage or lowering the CPU clock a little, that's why I settled with 4.9GHz as my 24/7 speed. That said, even setting the strap to 125 and the multi to 40x would stabilize pretty quickly and with minimal effort until I raised the DRAM strap over 13.33x, or 1666MHz. Attempting the 16.00x RAM strap using the 125 CPU strap (for 2000MHz on the RAM) required a good bit of tweaking to even get a stone's throw from stable. Eventually I dropped the CPU multi and started raising the BCLK, found 128.625 BCLK to provide a nice round 2400MHz on the RAM using the 18.66 RAM strap, and 129 BCLK to give me 4.9GHz, so that's where it stayed (129 BCLK, 38x CPU multi, 18.66x RAM divider). Needed a good bit of VCCSA voltage, though.