Topic: What are you playing? (games)

[sharpxmen]

OK, tech-guru's; question time.  I have a (dinasour, yes, I know!) Inter Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600  (at)  2.4GHz with an NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT card in it and I am using my Sony Bravia full HD TV as a monitor; how do I make it better to fly the FSX, cause the graphics quality is not the best BY FAR!

you need a better videocard.

you can O/C you q6600

I have FSX, you can change the res and features in the options, i run everything at full but it's still sucky looking (core2duo at 4GHz, GTX280 at 729MHz)

Has anyone else noticed that when playing Dirt 2 their video card runs hotter when in the loading screens than when racing? after overclocking my video card i left the ati ccc open when playing dirt on my second monitor and have been noticing that during racing the temps stay around 75-79* but when in loading screens it goes up to 83-86* seems weird to me that the gpu would be working harder when loading than playing.. but everything runs smooth so im  happy

what card though, that sounds too hot, you sure it doesn't throttle down once is over 80*(I've seen that, happened to me to get it 1/2 speed and i didn't know what was going on, everything was choppy)? before I watercooled my 280 once it was going over 80* i started to get artifacts and also freezing in gameplay, might want to look into upgrading your heatsink (also the memory gets quite hot and that's where i seen the freezing)

[chardrc]

Ive just got a ati hd 4870 for a video card. other specs Core 2 duo E8400 @3 Ghz and 4 GB of Ram. i have the video card oc from 750MHz for gpu and 900Mhz for memory to 820 and 1000 respectively. i think im going to mess around with the manual fan settings to get it to push some more air through... this is my first experience with overclocking anything so Ive been reading up on old threads about overclocking the 4870 which gets to be a real mess.. i don't think im going to go any higher than i am now other than messing around with fan control to cool it down some or else throttle it back if i can't get it below 80*... but it only goes to or above 80 when in the dirt loading screens after races lol.. i should just lower graphics quality on some games but im too bullheaded sometimes when it comes to games and graphics  .

[jfrabat]

OK, it seems overclocking is the first step; so, HOW do I overclock?  To be honest, I've heard of it before, but I have NO IDEA what it is...

[sharpxmen]

OK, it seems overclocking is the first step; so, HOW do I overclock?  To be honest, I've heard of it before, but I have NO IDEA what it is...

based on your motherboard there's a certain process in bios although most are the same. I would google your cpu and get the settings other used successfully (FSB, multiplier, core voltage is what you're looking for - there are more settings but i don't think you want to push the envelope too far). Then look for your memory and get the O/C specs for that, I run my DDR2800 at about 900MHz with 2.1v (but that can be different for your DIMMs so don't take that as the setting you should use) - i also have the FSB and memory at 1:1 which I understand gives the best performance, FSB is 1800 from 1333 stock.

You will also need a really good heatsink (or you'll fry the CPU) and possibly lap the CPU as well (I did that and it gave me about 5 deg drop, but that depends on what you start with, if it's flat to begin with you might not need or get as good of an improvement). The other thing is the thermal paste that goes in between the heatsink and the CPU, there are 2 types you will want to use, 1 is ceramic (preferred) and the other one is called silver something (can't remember, it's been almost 2 years since i did my setup) - this silver one is a bit dangerous as it's conductive so you need to be very careful with it.

You might also want a memory cooler, they are fairly cheap, its a dual fan module that snaps on top of the DIMMs - keeps them cooler when you o/c and increase the voltage.

PCI express speed can also be improved (i think i am at 112MHz from 100 standard but don't quote me on this as it's been a while since i looked in the bios) - also, is yours 16x, if it isn't then you'll get a bottleneck right there regardless how much you overclock.

the last one is your mobo chipset - before i watercooled my rig (in which i have a waterblock for the chipset) I had an upgraded heatsink with a fan to keep it cool

but this it all depends on how much you overclock, so imo if you can't get a decent increase in speed without too much investment you're probably better off getting a corei5 mobo, cpu and memory and a decent videocard (like Jeffy said, you can get a 9800 quite cheap these days) - it will outperform your q6600 any day.

[Jeffy]

He should be able to go from 1066 to 1333 on the FSB and instantly get 3.0 without any effort.  Q6600's OC just like the old E6600's.  Just make sure to unlock your memory so it's not OC'ed.

An E8400 is a second Gen chip with the FSB already at 1333 aka: FSB 333.  Although you might be able to bump it up to 1500.

Unless you have some performance RAM, it probably won't take to much OC'ing.  I'd probably just go do the FSB and leave it for now.

[jfrabat]

based on your motherboard there's a certain process in bios although most are the same. I would google your cpu and get the settings other used successfully (FSB, multiplier, core voltage is what you're looking for - there are more settings but i don't think you want to push the envelope too far). Then look for your memory and get the O/C specs for that, I run my DDR2800 at about 900MHz with 2.1v (but that can be different for your DIMMs so don't take that as the setting you should use) - i also have the FSB and memory at 1:1 which I understand gives the best performance, FSB is 1800 from 1333 stock.

You will also need a really good heatsink (or you'll fry the CPU) and possibly lap the CPU as well (I did that and it gave me about 5 deg drop, but that depends on what you start with, if it's flat to begin with you might not need or get as good of an improvement). The other thing is the thermal paste that goes in between the heatsink and the CPU, there are 2 types you will want to use, 1 is ceramic (preferred) and the other one is called silver something (can't remember, it's been almost 2 years since i did my setup) - this silver one is a bit dangerous as it's conductive so you need to be very careful with it.

You might also want a memory cooler, they are fairly cheap, its a dual fan module that snaps on top of the DIMMs - keeps them cooler when you o/c and increase the voltage.

PCI express speed can also be improved (i think i am at 112MHz from 100 standard but don't quote me on this as it's been a while since i looked in the bios) - also, is yours 16x, if it isn't then you'll get a bottleneck right there regardless how much you overclock.

the last one is your mobo chipset - before i watercooled my rig (in which i have a waterblock for the chipset) I had an upgraded heatsink with a fan to keep it cool

but this it all depends on how much you overclock, so imo if you can't get a decent increase in speed without too much investment you're probably better off getting a corei5 mobo, cpu and memory and a decent videocard (like Jeffy said, you can get a 9800 quite cheap these days) - it will outperform your q6600 any day.

He should be able to go from 1066 to 1333 on the FSB and instantly get 3.0 without any effort.  Q6600's OC just like the old E6600's.  Just make sure to unlock your memory so it's not OC'ed.

An E8400 is a second Gen chip with the FSB already at 1333 aka: FSB 333.  Although you might be able to bump it up to 1500.

Unless you have some performance RAM, it probably won't take to much OC'ing.  I'd probably just go do the FSB and leave it for now.

OK, how about someone translates all this to English (or Spanish, either one is fine with me)!

[sharpxmen]

OK, how about someone translates all this to English (or Spanish, either one is fine with me)!

that was translated already

download CPU-z and post some screenshots.

[jfrabat]

that was translated already

download CPU-z and post some screenshots.

Whoa!  if it was, I am screwed!  I did not understand SQUAT!   

I'll do that when I get home tonight...

[sharpxmen]

Whoa!  if it was, I am screwed!  I did not understand SQUAT!   

I'll do that when I get home tonight...

go thru your bios without saving anything, you'll get familiar with the settings - if you have a laptop you can browse internet from just google the name of the setting you're looking at to get an explanation of what it does.

[sharpxmen]

He should be able to go from 1066 to 1333 on the FSB and instantly get 3.0 without any effort.  Q6600's OC just like the old E6600's.  Just make sure to unlock your memory so it's not OC'ed.

An E8400 is a second Gen chip with the FSB already at 1333 aka: FSB 333.  Although you might be able to bump it up to 1500.

Unless you have some performance RAM, it probably won't take to much OC'ing.  I'd probably just go do the FSB and leave it for now.

OK, how about someone translates all this to English (or Spanish, either one is fine with me)!

what Jeffy is saying (if i can translate better) is that you most likely currently have

FSB at 266 (*4=1066MHz)
CPU multiplier is 9 (*266=2400MHz)
Memory i'm guessing is 666MHz with some multiplier to get to that (since your FSB is 266 at 1:1 would be 533 and could be that's what you have)

so idea is to go FSB at 333 (that means *4=1333), leave the CPU multiplier at 9 (that would make it 3000MHz) and adjust your memory multiplier to get it back to what you have stock now

I would try in steps though, get it increased by 20MHz or so until it fails. Then play with your CPU Vcore (don't increase much, just slightly) and then try a higher frequency again. You might also have a setting in your bios called Vdroop, turn that on, it helps with voltage drop on the CPU under load.

you can also look for the exact model of your memory and see if anyone o/ced that successfully, then try to aim for those setting but don't go higher (lower is always a safer bet).

Keep in mind that you might blow something up (not literally, it won't explode or anything) so it's up to you if you want to experiment.

if you want to keep your CPU cool there's a tool that helps - it's called speedfan, it allows to set policies on fan speed based on temp thresholds, your mobo (motherboard) might also have a little program that does just that.

[jfrabat]

what Jeffy is saying (if i can translate better) is that you most likely currently have

FSB at 266 (*4=1066MHz)
CPU multiplier is 9 (*266=2400MHz)
Memory i'm guessing is 666MHz with some multiplier to get to that (since your FSB is 266 at 1:1 would be 533 and could be that's what you have)

so idea is to go FSB at 333 (that means *4=1333), leave the CPU multiplier at 9 (that would make it 3000MHz) and adjust your memory multiplier to get it back to what you have stock now

I would try in steps though, get it increased by 20MHz or so until it fails. Then play with your CPU Vcore (don't increase much, just slightly) and then try a higher frequency again. You might also have a setting in your bios called Vdroop, turn that on, it helps with voltage drop on the CPU under load.

you can also look for the exact model of your memory and see if anyone o/ced that successfully, then try to aim for those setting but don't go higher (lower is always a safer bet).

Keep in mind that you might blow something up (not literally, it won't explode or anything) so it's up to you if you want to experiment.

if you want to keep your CPU cool there's a tool that helps - it's called speedfan, it allows to set policies on fan speed based on temp thresholds, your mobo (motherboard) might also have a little program that does just that.

OK, let's start with the basics; what the heck is FSB?

[sharpxmen]

OK, let's start with the basics; what the heck is FSB?

Front Side Bus - is the BUS connecting the CPU to Northbridge (which is the memory controller and graphics card hi-speed bus controller). there are 4 transfers per clock cycle in your case that's why the x4 multiplier

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-side_bus

[Mozman68]

Back to playing Battlefield BC2 multiplayer...something about playing it on a 120" screen with surround sound makes it impossible to stop....

[chrisfranklin]

When I have a chance -- probably be a while -- one of things I want to do is move to Video cards with HDMI ports.  Going to see if I can run my second soundsystem from HDMI. 

When I was using XP a couple of years back with my I7, I could run two speaker sets off the included mobo sound card -- one on a jack port and one using SPDIF.  For whatever reason, though, Windows Ultimate identifies each speaker set and makes you select which one you want to use.  So now I have to use one speaker set or the other rather than both simultaneously (which sounded impressive even to my old, ringing ears)

I'm already 2 years in with my I7 and it's feeling like upgrade time.  Of course, I am going to need to upgrade two video cards and cooling (probably some reliable water setup). Going to need water cooling on the cpu as well as the two video cards.   Not much point in having all that new video card horsepower and getting the blue screen every 20 minutes because the system can't handle the heat.  And then if you have to run the CPU 4.0+ to keep from bottle-knecking the new cards, system cooling is even more mandatory

Still pissed that there's no phase change cooling that can handle CPU and video card or multiple video card cooling.  And then I read that the existing phase change cooling systems just for CPUs are loud as heck. Even if it was $1000 bucks plus, phase change would be a cooling system i could probably live with on the same system for 4-5 years; if it was noisy, I'd find some way to muffle it.

Probably going to also have to trade up to a power supply with 1000-1200W (current is 650W), but don't have or expect need for some kind of Tri-SLI setup.

[chrisfranklin]

Back to playing Battlefield BC2 multiplayer...something about playing it on a 120" screen with surround sound makes it impossible to stop....

BC2 is a decent game.  I've seen some play it 4-5 people using the same account, so they ascend the multi-player rankings in a hurry.  It benefits your guy to be ranked high -- bullets seem like they bounce off the guys who are 45-50.