Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R Living Review

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Bios - MB Intelligent Tweaker (MIT) 2of5 - Dram Performance Control

Dram Performance Control


Performance Enhance
Enables different levels of Performance and stability Extreme being most aggressive standard more stable. The tRD values are adjusted according to the option selected, if left on Auto.

Dram Performance Profile
Allows the selection and use of Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP)

(G)MCH Frequency Latch
Leave on Auto unless you have a particular reason. IF you select a particular strap, then the System Memory Multipliers shown below will only show those related to what's selected here. EG selecting 333 will only show the B options in System Memory Multiplier.

Ram Ratios:-

Unlike Most Manufacturers who express ram ratios as The Rated FSB to DDR2 ie as DFI 333/1066 , Gigabyte use the ratios expressed in the middle of the above chart , thus the equivalent of 333/1066 = 3.2 + the strap suffix = 3.2B as can be seen in the memory multiplier options below:-

System Memory Multiplier
Select you ram ratio the resulting ram speed will be shown in the Memory frequency line below.




Dram Timing Selectable Auto - Timings selected by SPD or Dram Performance Profile. Manual - allows user input.


Basic Ram Timings follow, if running manual select as required,

Advanced Timing Sub Menu

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Advanced Timing Sub Menu and Channel Timing Settings

The channel independent sub timings are first

tRRD - Act to ACT Delay
tWTR - Rank Write to READ Delay
tWR - Write To Precharge Delay
tRFC - Refresh to ACT Delay
tRTP - Read To Precharge Delay
Command Rate (CMD)

The remaining timings are channel specific and are accessed via the respective sub Menus.

Channel Timing Settings Sub Menu

Static tRead Value Available options 1~15. This is the crucial tRD on earlier boards (shown in memset & elswhere as Performance Level) If your rig is reposting continually chances are its because of this value being too tight. It's nice to have it channel based as it's sometimes practical to run at 8 on channel A and 9 on Channel B for example.

tRD Phase 0~3 Adjustment
tRD Phase0 Adjustment Options - Auto (default), 1-Advanced, 0-Normal
tRD Phase1 Adjustment Options - ditto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment Options - ditto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment Options - ditto

Usually left on auto , but can be used to fine tune and stabilise Static tRead Value.
A relatively common manual setting is:-
tRD Phase0 Adjustment....................: 1-Advanced
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................: Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment...................: 1-Advanced
tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................: 1-Advanced
The above may be worth a try on either channel to see if it gives a bit of stability. It may help run at a lower Static tRead Value and hit those better memory benches

Trd2rd(Different Rank) Auto (default), 1~15.
Twr2wr(Different Rank) Auto (default), 1~15.
Twr2rd(Different Rank) Auto (default), 1~15.
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank) Auto (default), 1~15.
Trd values are always higher than the Twr. Normally left on auto but can be tweaked to give a better stability at higher clocks. 9-7-8-8 has worked well for me.


Clockskew
Clockskew can help stability when overclocking either adding or subtracting from the selected channel. If your having stability issues a bit of experimenting here may help. It may be that you balance skew across the channels , for example channel A -100ps and Channnel B +100ps.




DDR Write Training Enabled works for me.




Note: Channel B layout and settings are identical so only channel A is shown.

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Channel Driving Sub Menu

Driving strength is around controlling the signal along the memory bus, as such it might add little to overclocking performance, but can have a big impact on stability.
I usually just select the Driving Strength Profile and leave the rest on auto for this page,

Driving Strength Profiles
Pre configured profile for drive settings based on different ram speeds. I usually select the one just above my ram speed.


Driving Pull-Up Level
Seperate Options are available for
Data
Cmd
Ctrl
Clk

Adjustment options are for each:-




Driving Pull-Down Level
Seperate Options are available for
Data
Cmd
Ctrl
Clk

Adjustment options are for each:-

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Bios - MB Intelligent Tweaker (MIT) 3of5 - Voltages CPU


CPU Voltages
Load Line Calibration
Reduces the drop in Vcore between that set in bios and the actual. See Intel Processor Power Delivery Guidelines for more detail.

CPU Vcore: Default: CPU Dependent, Range: 0.5~2.30V



CPU Termination: AKA as VTT. Default=1.2v Range: 1.1~1.70v




CPU PLL: Default: 1.50v Range: 1.05v~2.81v




CPU Reference: Default= 0.76v Range: 0.46v~1.010v AKA CPU GTL-Ref Unlike the Extreme models which have dual channel CPU Reference, here we have single. The default:0.760v the same as core0 on the dual channel Extreme So I'll be using the core0 settings from the Extreme as a starting point for my clocks.





Note: CPU Ref is usually a fixed % of CPU Termination. Gigabyte use 63.33% EG Defaults = 0.76v/1.20v.On the extreme I found core0 would run high FSB (575 Stable) 60.66% others have found different sweet spots Eva2000 found

GTL reference ratios of approximately, 0.635, 0.648 and 0.617 respectively

or 63.5% Ref1, 64.8% Ref2 and 61.7% MCH Ref So be prepared to tweak to get the best value.

A nice touch with the Gigabyte bios is that the CPU Ref and MCH Reference scales as the CPU Termination is increased. So once you have your sweet spot you can leave it to scale as you change CPU Termination.

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Bios - MB Intelligent Tweaker (MIT) 4of5 -MCH/ICH Voltages:
MCH Core Voltage Default: 1.1v Range: 0.85~2.00v




MCH Reference Voltage Default:0.76v Range: 0.5~1.04v See also post above re CPU Reference voltage for setting this value. My MCH Ref to CPU Termination is 57.3% from past experience.





MCH/Dram Reference Voltage Default:0.90v Range: 0.530~1.810v
Value scales with Dram Voltage - See also Dram VoltagesNote1 iat bottom of post.
for more info.



ICH I/O Default:1.50v Range: 1.050~2.17v
I run with a 6 hard drives , I tend to run a notch above the default 1.50v at 1.57v. Otherwise leave it at default.




ICH Core Default:1.10v Range: 1.1~1.40v


Next: Dram Voltages

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Bios - MB Intelligent Tweaker (MIT) 5of5 - Dram Voltages


Dram voltage Default: 1.8v Range:1.45~3.04v





Dram Termination Default: 0.90v Range:0.71v ~1.405v (See Note1 below)




Channel A Reference Voltage Default: 0.90v Range:1.45~3.04v (See Note1 below)




Note: All Channel B voltage options as Channel A.
Note1:
When changing Dram Voltage all of the sub voltages listed below change.

• MCH/Dram Reference
• Dram Termination
• Channel A Reference Voltage
• Channel B Reference Voltage

This means that once you have established a sweet spot for the ram voltage to sub volts then set the sub volts to that and forget them. The gigabyte default is 50% eg Default sub voltage = 0.90v default ram volts = 1.80v. On the extreme I found i could run at les than 45.5% up to around 2.22v and >1,150Mhz. when it needed a boost. So if you want to play around with these values look at the range 45~55% of Vdimm.

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General Bios 1of2
Bios splash screen


Bios Main screen


Cmos Save
[F11] Save [F12] Load Biios clocks and settings from Main Menu


Standard CMOS Features


Advanced Bios Features


If Overclocking uou might disable the following features in the Advanced Bios Features:-

• Limit CPUID Max. to 3
• No-Execute Memory Protect
• CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)
• C2/C2E State Support
• x C4/C4E State Support
• CPU EIST Function
• Virtualization Technology

Advanced Bios Features - Hard Drive Boot Order
Use this to select your permanent Boot Drive. Note: Press [F12] at post to select a one off boot option.

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General Bios 2of2
Integrated Peripherals


Intel Sata Mode


Jmicron Controller


Power Management Setup


PnP/PCI Configurations


PC Health

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Test Components:-

* CPU - E8600 Wolfdale 10x333.33 and Xeon X3230 10x266 65nm Quad Go.
*Ram - 2x1Gb Crucial Ballistix 8500Mhz DDR2 CL11183.MW Double sided and 2x1Gb Cellshock CS2221650 DDR2 1150Mhz 5-5-5-18. These can run together as 4x1Gb.
*Cooling - Barebones - Air Xigmatek HDT-SD964 CPU Phase 2: Water D-Tek Fuzion Block.
* Graphics - Air Gigabyte 8500 GT Water - 8800GTS
*PSU - Toughpower 1200W

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GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R Bios Template

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[b][u]GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R[/u][/b]
[u][b][u]MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)[/u][/b]
Robust Graphics Booster ...............: 
CPU Clock Ratio ..........................: 
Fine CPU Clock Ratio.....................:.
CPU Frequency ...........................: Mhz
[b][u]Clock Chip Control [/u][/b]
[b][u]Standard Clock Control[/u][/b]
CPU Host Clock Control..................: [Enabled] [Disabled]
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) ............:Mhz
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) .........:Mhz
C.I.A. 2......................................: Disabled
[b][u]Advanced Clock Control [Press Enter][/u][/b]
CPU Clock Drive...........................: mv
PCI Express Clock Drive.................: mv
CPU Clock Skew (ps)....................: ps
MCH Clock Skew (ps)...................: ps
[b][u]DRAM Performance Control[/u][/b][u][/u]
Performance Enhance...................: [Turbo]
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.).....: 
(G)MCH Frequency Latch...............: [Auto]
System Memory Multiplier ..............:
Memory Frequency (Mhz) ..............: Mhz
DRAM Timing Selectable ................: [Manual]
[b]Standard Timing Control[/b]
CAS Latency Time..............................: 
tRCD .........................................: 
tRP...........................................:  
tRAS..........................................:  
[b]Advanced Timing Control [Press Enter][/b]
tRRD...........................................:
tWTR..........................................:
tWR............................................:
tRFC...........................................:
tRTP...........................................:
Command Rate (CMD) ....................:

[b]Channel A[/b]

[b]Channel A Timings Settings [Press Enter][/b] 
Static tRead Value.........................:Auto
tRD Phase0 Adjustmen.......................:Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment......................:Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .....................:Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment......................:Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank).....................:Auto 
Twr2wr(Different Rank).....................:Auto 
Twr2rd(Different Rank).....................:Auto 
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank).....................:Auto 
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...................:Auto  ps
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...................:Auto  ps
DDR Write Training ...........................: Enabled
[b]Channel A Driving Settings [Press Enter][/b] 
Driving Strength Profile...................:[AUTO],[667Mhz],[800Mhz],[1066Mhz],[OC-1200],[OC-1333]

Data Driving Pull-Up Level.................:Auto 
Cmd Driving Pull-Up Level..................:Auto 
Ctrl Driving Pull-Up Level.................:Auto 
Clk Driving Pull-Up Level..................:Auto 

Data Driving Pull-Down Level...............:Auto 
Cmd Driving Pull-Down Level................:Auto 
Ctrl Driving Pull-Down Level...............:Auto 
Clk Driving Pull-Down Level................:Auto 
[b]Channel B[/b]

[b]Channel B Timings Settings [Press Enter][/b] 
Static tRead Value.........................:Auto
tRD Phase0 Adjustmen.......................:Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment......................:Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .....................:Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment......................:Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank).....................:Auto 
Twr2wr(Different Rank).....................:Auto 
Twr2rd(Different Rank).....................:Auto 
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank).....................:Auto 
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...................:Auto  ps
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...................:Auto  ps
DDR Write Training .........................: Enabled
[b]Channel B Driving Settings [Press Enter][/b] 
Driving Strength Profile...................:[AUTO],[667Mhz],[800Mhz],[1066Mhz],[OC-1200],[OC-1333]

Data Driving Pull-Up Level.................:Auto 
Cmd Driving Pull-Up Level..................:Auto 
Ctrl Driving Pull-Up Level.................:Auto 
Clk Driving Pull-Up Level..................:Auto 

Data Driving Pull-Down Level...............:Auto 
Cmd Driving Pull-Down Level................:Auto 
Ctrl Driving Pull-Down Level...............:Auto 
Clk Driving Pull-Down Level................:Auto 


[b]{U]Motherboard Voltage Control[/b]{/U]
Voltage Type.………... Normal 
[b]CPU[/b]
Load Line Calibration......................: [Enabled] [Disabled]
CPU Vcore..................................:v
CPU Termination…..... 1.200V*..............:v
CPU PLL...............1.500V*..............: v
CPU Reference.........0.755V*..............: v
[b]MCH/ICH[/b]
MCH Core..............1.100V...............: v
MCH Reference.........0.800V...............: v
MCH/DRAM Ref..........0.900V...............: v
ICH I/O...............1.550V...............: v
ICH Core............……1.100V...............: v
[B]DRAM[/B]
DRAM Voltage..........1.800V...............: v
DRAM Termination......0.900V...............: v
Channel A Reference...0.900V...............: v
Channel B Reference...0.900V...............: v
[b]{U]Advanced Settings[b]{U]
Limit CPUID Max. to 3......................: [Disabled]
No-Execute Memory Protect..................: [Disabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)....................: [Disabled]
C2/C2E State Support.......................: [Disabled]
x C4/C4E State Support.....................: [Disabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor 2(TM2) ................: [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function..........................: [Disabled]
Virtualization Technology..................: [Disabled]
[b]Note[/b]: * refers to 45nm CPU
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