As most of you know, I have finally broken down and purchased an Intel Core 2 Quad 9650.  I'd built a new LGA775 system at the beginning of the year around an E8500 (stock 3.166 MHz) with Eco's help and guidance - and was very, very happy with it.   It runs even Rise of Flight at excellent frame rates (40 - 80), unless I'm trying to capture video or hosting.
After getting the chip today - I took the time to benchmark the E8500 one last time.  Before I conduct comparisons of performance - I thought I'd provide a little data.

Here we go.
E8500 VID = 1.25 Volts
Q9650 VID = 1.2625 Volts

E8500 Stock @ 3.166 MHz
(https://webspace.utexas.edu/joem/computer%20hardware/Q9650/VID-Core-Temp-CPU-8500-stock.jpg)
(https://webspace.utexas.edu/joem/computer%20hardware/Q9650/Easy-Tune-CPU-8500-stock.jpg)

E8500 @ 4.011 MHz
(https://webspace.utexas.edu/joem/computer%20hardware/Q9650/VID-Core-Temp-CPU-8500.jpg)
(https://webspace.utexas.edu/joem/computer%20hardware/Q9650/EasyTuneCPU-8500.jpg)

Q9650 Stock
(https://webspace.utexas.edu/joem/computer%20hardware/Q9650/Coretemp-Q9650-3.0MHz.jpg)
(https://webspace.utexas.edu/joem/computer%20hardware/Q9650/Q9650-3.0MHz-EZT.jpg)

Stay tuned to this thread to see how it OC's and how much performance gain I get in ROF!

S~

Gunny

Artic Silver 5 - off to check out ROF FPS with stock...

VID is in the lower quartile.  Let's see if it makes any difference.

More tommorow..

S~

Gunny

Initial benchmarks on Eco's famous "small stress test" - (for those that don't know - this is a monster mission - Black Death Track)....
60 second test from airspawn looking forward.. 1920 X 1200 - 4X AA - 8X AF - all game settings high except - landscape medium - no post effects
* nvidea texture quality = high

E8500 Stock 3.166 MHz
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  1404,     60172,  12,  34, 23.333

E8500 at 4.011 MHz
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  1714,     61017,  16,  37, 28.091


Q9650 Stock 3.0 MHz
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  1870,     59757,  14,  45, 31.293

Q9650 3.91Mhz OC
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  2088,     59828,  15,  54, 34.900
I'll take that :)  Particularly since Q9650 is running .166 MHz slower.

BTW

E8500 at 4.011 MHz
Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
  1714,     61017,  16,  37, 28.091

S~

Gunny

Awesome Gunny. Even if you can't get it to the 4ghz range and can only get it up to, and perhaps over, the 3.5ghz mark, you'll be better off under heavy load with the quad.

OMG!!!!! - So much for VID theories  :P  Measure - measure - measure...

This particular 9650 is from batch BX80569Q9650 Packed on 5 May 2009 - or a very late batch 9650.

I can't believe this - I've OC'd to 3.4 Mhz with a manually entered 1.2625 V - on a VID of 1.2625 and what do I get?

3.4 Mhz @ 1.2V

(https://webspace.utexas.edu/joem/computer%20hardware/Q9650/3.4Mhz%401.2v-lessthanstock.jpg)

Now, let's see how low I can get in voltage at the 3.4 Mhz clock - more soon :)


S~

Gunny

I just got off the phone with Gunny - it seems he's got a nice chip, I'm excited to see the next screenshot!

Go fly with it man!

It would be cool to see your results from the RoF stress test updated with min/max/avg fps at your current clock speed.

3.91 MHz @ 1.21 CPU vcore
2.1 volts on the Ram

Max Case temp 41C
Max CPU temp 56C on Core 1 - 54C Core 2 - Core3 and 4 Max = 47C

Profile saved in Bios.

Good 1/2 days OC work - I can stop here for a while :)  This MB, CPU and RAM combo are just incredible.... I'm almost at 4.00 MHz at LOWER THAN STOCK VOLTS!!!

I had to slightly bump the vcore input to 1.28125 volts - but with vdroop - the resultant is lower than stock.

Also, found it helped to nudge the EVGA GTX 280 fan up to 60% .....

(https://webspace.utexas.edu/joem/computer%20hardware/Q9650/3.91Stable%401.216V.jpg)

Wicked man - just wicked....  I now understand why the EP45-UD3P is the world champion overclocking board.....  at less than $120 with rebate from Newegg, you just can't beat it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358)

Let's see how much FPS I gained in ROF next......

S~

Gunny

Well, it took me many runs of the stresstest to get fair benchmarks.  What I mean by fair is that each benchmark contains a comparable degree of action.  Eco created this mission to stress-test CPU's not graphics, so I'm abusing it - but I believe these are fair comparisons.

In the future, I'll use a different test.

S~

Gunny

Thanks Gozr :)  I did need a little more juice .....  I hit a stable 4.00 MHz just now.  Temps are loaded.  Changed loader to Prime95....  Ok.  I'm stopping for the day.  Clocks are almost equal to 8550 at lower temps in my case and lower voltages.
(https://webspace.utexas.edu/joem/computer%20hardware/Q9650/4.00%20Stable%201.3375sm.jpg)

S~

Gunny

Thanks - I'll fool with timings when I get some times.

RAM is undervolted at 2.080V - set at 2.1V in Bios.  I'm obviously not going any higher. I may lower the RAM Frequency back down to 900 - 1000.  But later.  This is a great Overclock.

S~

Gunny

Careful viewers may have noticed that the ORTHOS stress test does not natively load the 3rd and 4th core (as evidenced by the artificially low temperatures of those cores), The latest version of Prime95 should load to all four cores though. If you look at your temps and see the max for the first two cores much higher than three and four, there's the reason why.

That's terrific Gunny.

How did it run last night in RoF?

Like Butter :)

For the first time when hosting, I could not tell I was hosting by the performance.

S~

Gunny