Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R Living Review

[supershanks]

4,400Mhz 8x550@2B 1,100Mhz 5-5-5-18
This is still a work in progress as far as stability goes, CPU is as solid as a rock, but getting ram to 1,100Mhhz stable is still to do.
I ran Prime on Small ffts to test the CPU vcore is at 1.41875v :-

Easy peasy (well ok apart from the ram ) I then noticed the CPU temps Max over the 1.25hr run was 58C with tjmax calibrated at the official 95C for wolfdale, which on air is pretty good. Normally I'm seeing the limit of air cooling and switching over to water.

[supershanks]

Following the apparent cool running at 4,400Mhz 8x550, see previous post, I decided to put this board head to head with the Gigabyte GA-EP45-EXTREME in a CPU Temp face off. All components are the same except the motherboards.

To recap CPU at 4GB Vcore 1.40v
GA-EP45-UD3R Run

Which comes out as:-


So I must admit it, the UD3 PCB does look to do as the marketing blurb says.

[glowball]

Pretty amazing boards for their price.

[supershanks]

Hi Mate,
Yes , have you noticed any change in temps, though I think you swapped your Q6600 for a Q9650 now haven't you ?

[glowball]

I did notice a bit of difference in CPU temps after changing motherboards, in fact the whole board runs much cooler than the IX38 ever did. I have also since removed the fancy blue heat-sink covers just to ensure they do their job properly as it's overclocked.
Q9650 rocks!

[supershanks]

in fact the whole board runs much cooler than the IX38 ever did

Yes it seems so. Must admit I quiet like the blue heatsink, it's different

Q9650 rocks!

[supershanks]

4,320 10x432 @2.66D 1,152 5-5-5-20
This is an unusual clock for me, not often used the highest multi on the E8600. However i've had considerable trouble getting ram to run >1066. Running 1:1(2.00B or 2.00A) proved very hard > in the end trying 2.66D (AKA 3:5 or 400/1066) ran about the best. I also found running my Crucial Ballistix I needed to tweak the sub voltages, using Normal or Auto didn't help stability. I found I had to do that with the EP45-Extreme but that proved far less picky. In the end I found that on 2.12v Vdimm that a Ram sub voltage of 0.97v was the sweet point. I have seen plenty of people running with Auto or Normal Ram Sub Voltages so think it must be luck of the draw as to how your ram runs.
Setting the right sub voltage is similar to getting the right GTLref help stability

Benches


Stability



Bios Settings

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R
[u]MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)
Robust Graphics Booster ...............: turbo
CPU Clock Ratio ..........................:  8
Fine CPU Clock Ratio.....................:. N/A
CPU Frequency ...........................: 4,320Mhz
Clock Chip Control 
Standard Clock Control
CPU Host Clock Control..................: [Enabled] 
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) ............: 432Mhz
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) .........:103Mhz
C.I.A. 2......................................: Disabled
Advanced Clock Control [Press Enter]
CPU Clock Drive...........................: 700mv
PCI Express Clock Drive.................: 900mv
CPU Clock Skew (ps)....................: 0ps
MCH Clock Skew (ps)...................: 0ps
DRAM Performance Control
Performance Enhance...................: [Turbo]
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.).....: [Disabled]
(G)MCH Frequency Latch...............: [Auto]
System Memory Multiplier ..............: 2.66D
Memory Frequency (Mhz) ..............: 1,152Mhz
DRAM Timing Selectable ................: [Manual]
Standard Timing Control
CAS Latency Time..........................: 5
tRCD ...........................................: 5
tRP..............................................:  5
tRAS............................................:  20
Advanced Timing Control [Press Enter]
tRRD...........................................:4
tWTR..........................................:8
tWR............................................:12
tRFC...........................................:49
tRTP...........................................:4
Command Rate (CMD) ....................:Auto

Channel A

Channel A Timings Settings [Press Enter] 
Static tRead Value.........................:10
tRD Phase0 Adjustmen...................:Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment..................:Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................:Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................:Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank)...................:8 
Twr2wr(Different Rank)..................:8
Twr2rd(Different Rank)..................:7
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank).................:9
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control.............:Auto  ps
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control.............:Auto  ps
DDR Write Training .....................: Enabled
Channel A Driving Settings [Press Enter] 
Driving Strength Profile...................:[OC-1200]

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 
Channel B

Channel B Timings Settings [Press Enter] 
Static tRead Value.........................: 10
tRD Phase0 Adjustmen....................:Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................:Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment ..................:Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment...................:Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank).....................:8 
Twr2wr(Different Rank).....................:8
Twr2rd(Different Rank).....................:7
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)....................:9
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...................:Auto  ps
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...................:Auto  ps
DDR Write Training .........................: Enabled
Channel B Driving Settings [Press Enter] 
Driving Strength Profile...................:[OC-1200]

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 


{U]Motherboard Voltage Control{/U]
Voltage Type.………... Normal 
CPU
Load Line Calibration......................: [Disabled] Only off as i forgot to Enable at after defaults loaded
CPU Vcore...................................:1.40625v
CPU Termination…..... 1.200V*........:1.320v
CPU PLL...............1.500V*.............:1.57 v
CPU Reference.........0.755V*..........:0.836 v
MCH/ICH
MCH Core..............1.100V................: 1.42v
MCH Reference.........0.800V..............: 0.756v
MCH/DRAM Ref..........0.900V...............:0.97v
ICH I/O.................1.50V...............: Auto
ICH Core............……1.100V...............:Auto
DRAM
DRAM Voltage..........1.800V...............: 2.12v
DRAM Termination......0.900V...............: 0.97v
Channel A Reference...0.900V...............:0.97v
Channel B Reference...0.900V...............: 0.97v
[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]
Note: * refers to 45nm CPU

[Shiranui Gen-An]

I've had some pretty good results clocking RAM with the UD3P: Gigabyte EP45-UD3P memory OC results

[supershanks]

Cheers for sharing, not much luck that way on this board atm.

[Shiranui Gen-An]

The consensus on XS seems to be that the UD3P is getting the attention of the engineers much more so than the UD3R and it's reflected in the performance difference between the two.