My E6600 does 3.6ghz @ 1.55v and 3.5ghz @ 1.51v, but I stick with 3.5ghz as then on a 4:5 ratio my RAM is at 973mhz 4-4-4-12. When at 3.6ghz 4:5 it's 1000mhz, only to reach that I have to drop down to CL5, so I stick with the CL4 and do 3.5ghz. It absolutely flies!

However... whilst @ 3.5ghz I am stable through every bench I've thrown at it, and Orthos Stable for 14 hours, then dual Orthos stable for 8 hours. It failed neither, I only stopped both times as I decided that was enough to be sure it was stable.

The memory is also stable through 15-20 passes of memtest86.

All in all, you'd call that stable, right? Wrong. In games, it crashes after about 15 minutes. I lower my clocks and runs fine. I overclock again, and Bioshock and Battlefield 2142 crash. I'm fine at 3.4ghz, but 3.5ghz, 3.6ghz, 3.7ghz = problems.

I've spent the last 2 days adjusting voltages, playing with settings... nothing seem to help me.

I upped the CPU voltage to 1.55, then 1.6v. Still crashing. I lowered the voltage, still crashes. I raised the voltage and lowered the clock speed and it was cool, so it's not just the voltage.

How am I having this problem if my CPU is stable through EVERY TEST I throw at it, yet in these two games anything above 3.4ghz crashes...

I didn't go out and buy all this water-cooling gear to not be able to go beyond what I can on air without crashing.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mr. Fiddles My E6600 does 3.6ghz @ 1.55v and 3.5ghz @ 1.51v, but I stick with 3.5ghz as then on a 4:5 ratio my RAM is at 973mhz 4-4-4-12. When at 3.6ghz 4:5 it's 1000mhz, only to reach that I have to drop down to CL5, so I stick with the CL4 and do 3.5ghz. It absolutely flies! However... whilst @ 3.5ghz I am stable through every bench I've thrown at it, and Orthos Stable for 14 hours, then dual Orthos stable for 8 hours. It failed neither, I only stopped both times as I decided that was enough to be sure it was stable. The memory is also stable through 15-20 passes of memtest86. All in all, you'd call that stable, right? Wrong. In games, it crashes after about 15 minutes. I lower my clocks and runs fine. I overclock again, and Bioshock and Battlefield 2142 crash. I'm fine at 3.4ghz, but 3.5ghz, 3.6ghz, 3.7ghz = problems. I've spent the last 2 days adjusting voltages, playing with settings... nothing seem to help me. I upped the CPU voltage to 1.55, then 1.6v. Still crashing. I lowered the voltage, still crashes. I raised the voltage and lowered the clock speed and it was cool, so it's not just the voltage. How am I having this problem if my CPU is stable through EVERY TEST I throw at it, yet in these two games anything above 3.4ghz crashes... I didn't go out and buy all this water-cooling gear to not be able to go beyond what I can on air without crashing.

There's a difference between CPU stability and system stability though - as soon as you raise the FSB on the CPU, you not only OC the RAM, you also OC the whole motherboard.

While you can run Orthos alone, have you run an instance of say OCCT/Orthos stressing CPU and RAM whilst running 3DMark 06 at the same time - you know, something fully tough.

Off the top of my head, here's some questions:

Is your GPU overclocked?
Have you tried lowering your ram speed to as close to stock as possible with your CPU heated up?
Are your PCI and PCI-E bus speeds locked? (it if your BIOS permits)
Is your Northbridge overvolted?

It could be that your CPU has just hit a wall - not everything will OC super high - but I'm sure that there's areasonable answer lurking round these parts

I feel your pain bro. Even though I am stuck in the 939 era for a while, I am having pretty much the same issue. Heat is not a problem with my system. I have had major help from Necro and Cpt. Planet to help get my OC stable at 2.7, and I can also pass anything I throw at it.

CS:S plays fine no matter what, and so do games like tomb raider and HL2. Whenever I play Bioshock (assuming it will even load without crashing to the desktop) I can almost guarantee I have to do a hard reset because I can't get back into Windows without my system locking up.

Things I have tried include updating drivers, and adding fans. Neither of those help so I have to lower clock speeds for heavy gaming.

Weeell! Changing my BIOS seems to have sorted it out. Only now I need 1.55v for 3.5ghz. I got nearly an hour of Bioshock without crashing, and half hour in 2142 without any problems at all whatsoever.

1.55v is a shame. Only hits 47c under Orthos and is idling @ 28c so heat is no problem, but it's pretty much the max safe voltage for 24/7 use. I'm gonna have a fiddle with some other voltages and see if I can get it back down to 1.51v stable. I liked knowing I still had a little voltage headroom.

I needs to hurry mah black azz up and gets me that G0 quad.

If it crashes playing games it's not stable. It's stable when it does everything
without crashing. A lot of people are more interested in benchmarking number
than useability. Thus, some people claim to be stable just because it will run
the benchmarks. There is a difference, but it all depends on what your into.
I understand both views :-)

I mostly OC for performance, and when I want stability, it's for continul use in all ways, shapes, and forms... Though usually when benching it'll do if it's stable enough but not fully, that'll suffice for a benchmark, so long as I get those pretty numbers

For 24/7 OCs it's gotta be rock solid in every way possible. If that means 1.55v then so be it

Back when I was overclocking my A64 3200+ I had to go past 16 hours of Prime95 in order to be assured that my settings were stable. This is based off of the fact that it took 16 hours for an error to occur at a particular setting just below the stability threshold.

Your Orthos tests were 8 hours according to my skim through, so I'm guessing that the only problem was that you should have let it hammer the CPU more.

Ideally, any stress test should be run for 24 hours to guarantee stability.

8 hours dual, 14 hours single.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mr. Fiddles I mostly OC for performance, and when I want stability, it's for continul use in all ways, shapes, and forms... Though usually when benching it'll do if it's stable enough but not fully, that'll suffice for a benchmark, so long as I get those pretty numbers For 24/7 OCs it's gotta be rock solid in every way possible. If that means 1.55v then so be it

The way I test for stability is by running 3DMarko06 through the games in a circle and also the CPU after I did the games. If that does not crash, then I move on to Folding @ Home, and if that does not crash in like 2-3 hours, then you should be really stable. I had a computer that was extremely stable in games and benchmarking software at 3.2Ghz (Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700) but when I ran Folding @ Home, it resulted in a crash. I lowered it to 3.1, and Folding @ Home worked perfectly. Also this computer system was water cooled, just so you know.

Aye, mine is water-cooled, and at 3.5ghz it's idline 25c, 47 full-load. Never more. Temps are not a problem at all.

Mine was stable through Folding for days on end, through Orthos 14 hours, through ntune stability test for 6 hours, through Sisoft tests, through 3Dmark...

Only in Bioshock was there a problem, and 2142 crashed once, but it could have been due to my X-Fi and incompatibility.

Bioshock is now stable at 1.55v 3.5ghz though. It just goes to show how easily you can be caught out, and how we rely on sh*t like Orthos when something can flip your OC upside-down.. I really thought it was rock solid after all the testing I'd done. Alas... Who knows? I could be unstable now still! When Crysis comes out, that could cause me problems. I certainly hope not, as 3.5ghz is a perfect clock and if I have to go lower I'll rape my PC through the DVD drive >.>

Quote: Originally Posted by Mr. Fiddles I'll rape my PC through the DVD drive >.>

That might hurt both parties involved

I just got my E6850 running at 3.825Mhz on a Blitz Formula SE with a Thermalright Ultra 120A, quite a lot of reviews for the mobo say an average OC is around the 4.2Ghz level cant really think what else to do to it as neither i nor Dex can get it stable at over 4.0Ghz

Any Suggestions?

Quote: Originally Posted by Arc Angel That might hurt both parties involved I just got my E6850 running at 3.825Mhz on a Blitz Formula SE with a Thermalright Ultra 120A, quite a lot of reviews for the mobo say an average OC is around the 4.2Ghz level cant really think what else to do to it as neither i nor Dex can get it stable at over 4.0Ghz Any Suggestions?

If Dex can't think of anything, then I'm not sure what else there is to think of lol....

My motherboard is pretty similar to yours, so I'll have a tinker next time I'm over.

Maybe you just got a duff chip, it happens.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux Maybe you just got a duff chip, it happens.

Thats what im thinking. And thanks for the compliment.

I walked in on Stan last nite trying to OC a little more, he had the PCIE speed at 125Mhz and was wondering why none of his hard drives showed up

n00bz0rs.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dex Thats what im thinking. And thanks for the compliment. I walked in on Stan last nite trying to OC a little more, he had the PCIE speed at 125Mhz and was wondering why none of his hard drives showed up n00bz0rs.

Stan = teh n0ube. But seriously, it's all about getting to know how your CPU and motherboard work together, and what options to tweak. I fiddle with mine several times a week, trying to eek a bit more performance out of it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mr. Fiddles Aye, mine is water-cooled, and at 3.5ghz it's idline 25c, 47 full-load. Never more. Temps are not a problem at all. Mine was stable through Folding for days on end, through Orthos 14 hours, through ntune stability test for 6 hours, through Sisoft tests, through 3Dmark... Only in Bioshock was there a problem, and 2142 crashed once, but it could have been due to my X-Fi and incompatibility. Bioshock is now stable at 1.55v 3.5ghz though. It just goes to show how easily you can be caught out, and how we rely on sh*t like Orthos when something can flip your OC upside-down.. I really thought it was rock solid after all the testing I'd done. Alas... Who knows? I could be unstable now still! When Crysis comes out, that could cause me problems. I certainly hope not, as 3.5ghz is a perfect clock and if I have to go lower I'll rape my PC through the DVD drive >.>

With my understanding for overclocking, I would try lowering the Memory Speed, so the signals between the the memory and the processor would not get disorted. When you get a disorted signal then the computer will not recognize it and it will crash it. By slowing down the memory speed by some, you will slow down this process and that might lead to correct reading. Hopefully that makes sense.

Tried sync, unlinked, 1:1, 5:4, 4:5, 1:2. 800mhz, 1066mhz, 973mhz, 1.8v-2.2v through 'em all. No difference. The only thing that helped was 1.55v vcore. 1.5v was stable on everything except Bioshock, 1.55 is stable through Bioshock too.

Also worth noting is at full-load it vdroops to 1.53v, which means at 1.50v it was drooping to around 1.48v probably. Might have something to do with it, as Bioshock is a pretty stressful game.

I've also tweaked all the mobo settings. I've been through three EVGA 680i boards, AR, A1, and a 650i so I'm familiar as you can be with these boards and have messed with every setting.

I think my situation is solved and is just down to the CPU. It's not a bad clocker, I got 3.95ghz bench stable on air before WC. and it's a really cool runner.

S'all good.