5 replies to this topic

[Sen]

Due to the nature of the problem I haven't attempted [and am a little nervous to try] to recreate it, but I thought I'd ask for a 2nd opinion before I decided to either report it to the DEVs or tear down my computer

The Story:

Last night I was playing 4's in a shiny new Spider with the wife and a few EXCELLENT gentlemen. All in TS. I forget exactly what issue I was having, but a teammate suggested I try hitting the period [.] key. As soon as I did it, my screen went black. could not alt tab. Could not Ctrl-Alt-Del. Could not get Windows to respond AT ALL to get the screen back.

Team Speak, however, was working just fine, even after this. I was able to communicate with my team, tell them what was going on, etc. After listening to what sounded like another great match [that I missed, meh] I hard shut down the computer.

Upon reboot, BIOS reported Overclock failed. My exact thought was "if it failed, why was TS still working".


I'm currently sensitive to these things, however, as I just replaced all my ram [8 sticks]. I'd love to say I suspected my ram of causing freezes and hard locks in the past, but the truth is the Crucial Tactical tracers were on shell shocker. . and the green LEDs matched the rest of my lights. . . .

But I digress.

After replacing the ram I did a complete overhaul on my Overclock. I currently have it at 4.6Ghz @ 1.295v, the last .005 I added after the crash "just to be sure". previous to this, it passed an hour of prime95 and 10 passes of IBT, and honestly has never run better, but that seems like a ridiculously low voltage for that kind of overclock.

So has anyone seen an overclock failure like this, or am I correct in thinking that it was an MwO client crash and having to hard reset caused the false O/C read on restart?

Specs:

3930k at above spec. Temps at full load testing max around 70/72c on highest temp cores
Corsair H100 quad fan arrangement
Asus rampage IV extreme SKT 2011
16 Gig Crucial Ballistix tactical tracers
OCZ 1250W Gold rated PSU
2 x 7950 in Xfire [xfire support Devs, C'mon!]

Windows 8 [Don't wanna hear it, *I* love it. Windows key + X shortcut is the most awesome shortcut ever in desktop mode!]

Edited by Sen, 16 January 2013 - 07:16 AM.

[Flapdrol]

The "overclock failed" thing means the computer tried to boot a few times, couldn't, then started at stock speeds, which worked.

Your overclock might not be 100% stable. Can you do 50 runs LinX and 8 hours consecutive prime95?

Also, crossfire support is something for amd to fix, not the devs. besides, this game is massively cpu limited, so it wouldn't do you much good.

[Sen]

I will probably run some more stress testing, but I WOULD note that I'm familiar with how my board functions when it resets pre-POST, and it didn't exhibit any signs of a double or triple boot attempt. I went into the BIOS, exited without saving, and it came right up. That's all beside the point though: can it be considered "failed" if programs are still properly running and responding???

As far as Xfire support, I'm almost positive they're working on client side support for it. . but I'd have to dig around to find the thread it's buried in. Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly playable at max res, even @ 2560 x 1440. . I just wish I'd get more FPS with two cards than I get with one. If it's a CPU limitation, the above specs should help convince you that it's an artificial limit imposed by the DEV team, all things considered

Edited by Sen, 16 January 2013 - 09:22 AM.

[Flapdrol]

more cores dont do jack for minimum fps in this game, if there was an overclockable ivy bridge dualcore I'm positive it would be the cpu to get for this game.

overclocking will help peformance, but you have to properly stresstest, 50 runs LinX, and 8 hours consecutive prime95 and it should be ok. A semi-stable overclock can lead to all kinds of problems like files on your harddrive getting corrupt.

[Sen]

I appreciate that you're trying to help.. but as an experienced overclocker I have NEVER seen a situation like this. If I'd have gotten a BSOD or a full freeze, ok. . but it's more like the gfx driver failed and for some reason dropped output to the monitor. I have *NEVER* seen a failed or unstable overclock that kept the computer running perfectly fine in the background. . minus not getting a picture on the screen. The reason I'm looking for more input is because, just because I haven't SEEN IT. . doesn't mean it can't happen. It also happened in response to a very specific command, vs a random lockup or freeze. I have no idea what the . key does, but apparently SOMETHING didn't like it.

[Roaxis Stalomainis]

I'll tell you now that I've even been having issues with the latest Catalyst Control Center issued by ATI/AMD. I literally downgraded from v12 back to v10.2 just because I was having so many issues. My screen would get a little buggy, my fps would drop like a rock, and then it would just sit there at a black screen while the computer was still active. So it may not have been an OC issue considering the fact that none of my hardware is overclocked. I would check to see what version your drivers are then go the the ATI site and see what is currently supported in the latest version of CCC.