Why not use speed-step..

[trog100]

if it works (it does for me) it makes every sense to use it.. use less power.. make less heat and in theory make yer cpu last longer.. why run at excessive speed and voltages all day when u dont have to..

if it dosnt work.. well u cant really use it.. but i recon once u know your system is stable.. its worth a try..

trog

 

[imperialreign]

I did have some stability issues on my P5B Deluxe at higher OC's with EIST/C1E on, but my P35 DFI is rock solid stable with the same features enabled...I figure it doesn't hurt to run a little slower and cooler when not gaming.

brings up a point . . . has anyone had any issues running EIST while gaming? Some older games don't seem to be as affected by it, but I've noticed titles like STALKER and Crysis will run great for about a min, and then FPS drops to the floor . . .


another reason I've been leaving it disabled.

 

[sneekypeet]

brings up a point . . . has anyone had any issues running EIST while gaming? Some older games don't seem to be as affected by it, but I've noticed titles like STALKER and Crysis will run great for about a min, and then FPS drops to the floor . . .


another reason I've been leaving it disabled.

As I say I run 3.6GHz with it on and crysis runs smooth untill Im done with it. Once again tho it is a P35 DFI I'm using too.

 

[Kursah]

if it works (it does for me) it makes every sense to use it.. use less power.. make less heat and in theory make yer cpu last longer.. why run at excessive speed and voltages all day when u dont have to..

if it dosnt work.. well u cant really use it.. but i recon once u know your system is stable.. its worth a try..

trog

Exactly and most should at least give it a shot. My G/F's rig works fine with it on her OC'd P4...I just think my P5B was missing some serious logic or something as down the road it decided on it's own to stop POSTing for no reason.

And that's true, if you don't need that speed 100% of the time...and well I'd say 99% of people don't, then those settings might as well be enabled or at least tested. With chips like your 8400 that don't need too crazy of voltage for pretty incredible OC's, it only makes that chip save just that much more juice and run that much cooler when browsing.

Every rig I've built recently, OC'd or not, I have left all power saving features in BIOS turned on...and none have had any issues or complained about it. I have had the question of "hey I thought you said this processor ran at 3.2!!??"...and I explain what's going on and it's all good he he.

I'm interested to see what the future holds for maybe disabling cores, and continuing to disable a certain ammount of the phases for CPU power supply to further reduce usage at idle/low usage...things could be very cool in that interest and I think it's a great way to go, especially if there is no hinderance in overclocking stability.

 

[Spacegoast]

i usually turn off SS when overclocking, then when i find a nice stable oc i turn it back on. it just throttles back performance when it is not needed. it basically is just to save power. but useful in my opinion. i havent had any issues when using it, none whatsoever. no apps opening slower or instability.

 

[Nitro-Max]

I think the motherboard plays a big part when it comes to using it while overclocking some boards seem to handle it ok some dont.

for me it works and its a god send having 2 pc's running and a xbox360 at the same time kills my electric lol plus been able to quieten my system while just browsing is alot better also.

 

[KainXS]

I just looked at mine and it does it when I'm not looking

 

[imperialreign]

Perhaps that does have a big part to do with it - especially if one is using a motherboard that features some form of active power saving feature . . . like ASUS' EPU or Giga's DES. Most of these boards are fairly new to the market, and as their BIOS are still somewhat immature, there might pose problems, even if the board's power saving features are disabled.

I can say with my setup EIST works fine, until I get into something that is really CPU intensive - either gaming or benchtesting; and then it's like all hell breaks loose.

Otherwise, the only oddity is just the lag when opening up an application or window . . . but, as I said earlier, I think this is more related to the DDR3 and it's timings more than anything else. From trying to tweak a couple of settings a little bit ago, I noticed that lag isn't as bad if I enable the FSB to NSB strap in BIOS.

 

[Kursah]

How many users with OC'd Quad cores use EIST/C1E/SpeedStep with stability?

Imperial, no offense, but I feel some of your stability could be pointed at your PSU...I've just seen more of those Hipers fail under stress than a few others. I know Newtekie1 had 1 or 2 of that model that fried...and a few other users...I'd say if you could, try a different PSU...

How stable is your voltage? How bad is your droop? Not saying it's a bad PSU...but with a quad core, the 2x1950pros, etc...that could be causing it to become too inefficient under load...but that wouldn't make sense why when enabled all hell brakes loose while gaming/benching...that's kinda odd. But then, my Asus P5B Dlx didn't like those settings enabled when OC'd either...so maybe there's a deal with how the Asus boards are set to function.

 

[imperialreign]

How many users with OC'd Quad cores use EIST/C1E/SpeedStep with stability?

Imperial, no offense, but I feel some of your stability could be pointed at your PSU...I've just seen more of those Hipers fail under stress than a few others. I know Newtekie1 had 1 or 2 of that model that fried...and a few other users...I'd say if you could, try a different PSU...

How stable is your voltage? How bad is your droop? Not saying it's a bad PSU...but with a quad core, the 2x1950pros, etc...that could be causing it to become too inefficient under load...but that wouldn't make sense why when enabled all hell brakes loose while gaming/benching...that's kinda odd. But then, my Asus P5B Dlx didn't like those settings enabled when OC'd either...so maybe there's a deal with how the Asus boards are set to function.

TBH - I haven't given the PSU much thought . . . I mean, I know Hiper's are kinda 50-50, some people get bad units, others get truly stable units . . .

I can say, it handled a Pentium 4 running a 4.1Ghz 24/7 OC, with Crossfired 1950 PROs on a 975X ASUS board with no issues . . .

With this setup, I did an initial OC last weekend that has been running fine since (unless I play with EIST or a few other things), but I have this quad clocked at 3.06GHz. vCore in BIOS is set at 1.30, but CPU-Z is registering 1.26, which seems about normal if you factor in the typical ASUS vdroop (~.08v). I saw a similar drop on the 975X board, also.


Anyhow, just taking a quick look in Everest at the voltage sensors reads:

CPU Core: 1.27v
CPU +3.3: 3.30v
+5v: 5.14v
+12v: 12.21v
+5v standby: 4.99v

even loading up a couple of quick CPU benchies doesn't affect those readings too much - and nothing appears unusual enough to warrant me to manually test the PSU itself . . .

But, like I hinted at before, I've mostly just been leaving it disabled - I mean, it's enabled in BIOS, all I have to do is go into the power management properties dialog within WIN control panel and set it there. I've only left it on for gaming and benching just for experimentation.

 

[Mussels]

I think the motherboard plays a big part when it comes to using it while overclocking some boards seem to handle it ok some dont.

for me it works and its a god send having 2 pc's running and a xbox360 at the same time kills my electric lol plus been able to quieten my system while just browsing is alot better also.

motherboard definately matters, chipset matters too. More or less, its one of those things to turn off while you figure out your max stable OC, and then turn it on when you're done and see how it effects you - since i have a wall power meter, it was easy for me to decide it wasnt worth it (c1e increased my temps power use for no reason, while EIST has to be off to enable the anti-Vdroop option on my board)

 

[Fitseries3]

Motherboard is the foundation of the whole computer.

my evga 680i was a kick ass board but to get my q6600 to 3.8ghz it took 1.625v

the same q6600 on my maximus runs 3.8ghz on 1.4375v

 

[trog100]

what about turning off the anti vdroop stuff and useing speed step instead..

set your voltage so its correct after vdroop under load.. then let speed step drop it all down when the cpu isnt doing much.. use speed step as a voltage boost..

sounds good to me..

trog

 

[EarlZ]

Im a bit confused on the article posted, EIST lowers VCORE & Freq ( meaning via multipliers ) and C1E lowers the multipliers only..

I have an Abit motherboard and when i enable EIST on my overclocked settings, my system never boots but C1E works fine with it..both Vcore and multiplier are lowered by C1E on my system is that correct ?

 

[trog100]

i have the abit ip35 pro.. both are enabled and my multiplier and vcore get lowered..

but u are wrong about C1E.. it just deals with wait states on certain cpus.. its nothing to do with speed step.. EIST is speed step.. it lowers both multiplier and vcore..

trog

 

[farlex85]

Actually he's right about the c1e, they work together:http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=407&pgno=1

Mussels posted that earlier in this thread. C1E lowered my multi, although didn't seem to have an effect on the voltage. Turned all the thermal settings back on, still stable as a table (sorry).

 

[Black Panther]

For me it works without problems. Which means I run at 3Ghz only while gaming/benching and the rest of the time it runs at 2Ghz.

I never knew that benching scores could be affected. I always took my benchies with SS & C1E enabled, and well I get reasonably good results I think.

 

[allen337]

all of if I get where I cant afford the power bill Ill sell da puter. ALLEN

 

[trog100]

Actually he's right about the c1e, they work together:http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=407&pgno=1

Mussels posted that earlier in this thread. C1E lowered my multi, although didn't seem to have an effect on the voltage. Turned all the thermal settings back on, still stable as a table (sorry).

i was just quoting the manual.. i will try turning one off and see what happens.. he he

trog

ps.. right what happens for me..

turning CIE from auto to disabled.. i get no speed step.. it dosnt work..

turning EIST to on or off makes no difference if CIE is on auto i get speed step.. if its off i get no speed step..

CIE with my abit pro bios contols speed step.. the EIST setting seems to do nothing.. on or off if CIE is on auto i get speed step with lowered voltages..

this is what happens with my mobo/bios/cpu combination.. it dosnt match what the linked article says should happen or what i think should happen.. but its how it is.. fact.. it took me ten minutes to find out.. i suggest others do the same instead reading links (or the manual.. he he) that quite clearly are in doubt..

 

[quasar923]

what is speed step? is it a download? where can i get it?

 

[trog100]

what is speed step? is it a download? where can i get it?

its something thats part of the chipset/cpu/bios that overclockers normally turn off.. u already have it..

cpu at idle..

cpu under load..

trog

 

[Mussels]

what about turning off the anti vdroop stuff and useing speed step instead..

set your voltage so its correct after vdroop under load.. then let speed step drop it all down when the cpu isnt doing much.. use speed step as a voltage boost..

sounds good to me..

trog

no, it would be shit. if i need 1.425v with anti Vdroop on, i would need 1.5v with it off - that would raise my idle temps over 10c, which is far more than speedstep saves. Speedstep doesnt do crap if you have custom voltages set, so all its doing is lowering my multiplier when its the voltage changes that save power/heat.

i was just quoting the manual.. i will try turning one off and see what happens.. he he

trog

ps.. right what happens for me..

turning CIE from auto to disabled.. i get no speed step.. it dosnt work..

turning EIST to on or off makes no difference if CIE is on auto i get speed step.. if its off i get no speed step..

CIE with my abit pro bios contols speed step.. the EIST setting seems to do nothing.. on or off if CIE is on auto i get speed step with lowered voltages..

this is what happens with my mobo/bios/cpu combination.. it dosnt match what the linked article says should happen or what i think should happen.. but its how it is.. fact.. it took me ten minutes to find out.. i suggest others do the same instead reading links (or the manual.. he he) that quite clearly are in doubt..

the multiplier changing is NOT speedstep. C1E changes the multi, and EIST changes voltages too. C1E has tiny power savings when it works, EIST has better luck (seeing as how changing the voltage is the only way to reduce the power consumption anyway)

you;re going to need a wallmeter or actually monitor your idle temps to see if the multiplier changes have any effect on temps - EIST is not as good as AMD cool and quiet. in my system with stock settings, it saved me all of 15 watts - from a 250W starting point, thats quite tiny. I saved more by running it at stock with lowered stock core voltage (2.4GHz at 1.15V, instead of EIST controlling things)

 

[trog100]

no, it would be shit. if i need 1.425v with anti Vdroop on, i would need 1.5v with it off - that would raise my idle temps over 10c, which is far more than speedstep saves. Speedstep doesnt do crap if you have custom voltages set, so all its doing is lowering my multiplier when its the voltage changes that save power/heat.




the multiplier changing is NOT speedstep. C1E changes the multi, and EIST changes voltages too. C1E has tiny power savings when it works, EIST has better luck (seeing as how changing the voltage is the only way to reduce the power consumption anyway)

you;re going to need a wallmeter or actually monitor your idle temps to see if the multiplier changes have any effect on temps - EIST is not as good as AMD cool and quiet. in my system with stock settings, it saved me all of 15 watts - from a 250W starting point, thats quite tiny. I saved more by running it at stock with lowered stock core voltage (2.4GHz at 1.15V, instead of EIST controlling things)

mine quite clearly dosnt work the same as yours does.. look at my figures.. what do u see.. multiplier drop and voltage drop..

speed step seems to differ from system to system.. mine quite cleary works differently than yours does.. mind u my box with one card only pulls about 120 watts from the wall at idle.. i aint tried it with two cards but i recon 150 watts..

speed step does only save about 15 watts from the wall i will agree there.. but why waste 15 watts and run a cpu at 4 gig and 1.35volts when most of the time u can save 15 watts and run a cpu at 2.7 gig and 1.27 volts at idle..

it sweet works for my system.. it aint very good for yours.. we have different systems..

do u really draw 250 watts at idle.. ????

trog

 

[Mussels]

do u really draw 250 watts at idle.. ????

trog

yeah... its got an OC'd quad core GTX, 4GB ram, and currently 6x SATA-II hard drives. PCI sound card as well it all adds up.

Its pretty close to 250W at idle and 350W at load.

I too think C1E and speedstep vary per motherboard, they're so similar they probably share features between systems (as that link i posted shows, the two are meant to work together in tandem)
the big thing is this - if it lowers your voltages, it is going to make your OC unstable at IDLE (where its least likely to be blamed on OCing) however if it DOESNT lower your voltages (like my board) then its not going to save you any power either.

 

[trog100]

1% cpu usage playing a mp3.. 0% reading a webpage.. 3% watching a fullscreen divx movie.. all speed-stepped down at lower volts and 2.7 gig.. hmmm.. what the f-ck do i need high clocks and excessive voltage for whilst doing such things.. such things being 90% of my PC uptime..

as i said earlier.. if it works its daft not to use it.. if it dont u cant..

trog