ridiculous things with mvp3

socket7! · Post by **socket7!** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 1:37 pm

hello,

Ridiculous things happened to me while testing the fastest possible k6 configuration. The following issues were discovered on k6-III+ 550; FIC VA503A rev. 1.3; 2x256MB PC 133 (CL2 from Micron) +Voodoo 3 3000AGP:

a) 124MHz (total 620MHz @2.2V) is ONLY possible with Windows XP Service Pack 1 (L3 off of course). If XP SP2 is installed I receive blue screens before desktop is loaded.

b) I have USB 2.0 PCI card based on VIA 6212 chipset. When Asus WIFI or pendrive is plugged, computer slows down by 90% (CPU mark99 from 60 to barely 10 at 620MHz). Replacing it with Opti chipset helped a bit, but it still slows by 10 - 15% (560MHz SP2). Different PCI slot doesn't help

c) with SP2 installed and k6speed loaded with Writa Allocation DISABLED - Everest shows VERY HIGH results - 622MB/s for mem write! (CPU @ 500MHz) Enabling WA slows it down to 139MB/s

everest benches (L3 cache disabled all the time) read/write/copy/latency
@500 WA enabled: 283/139/166/131,7
@500 WA disabled: 282/622/189/131,5
@560 WA disabled: 288/689/195/129,2
@560 WA enabled: 288/137/176/129,6

and for point a): SP1
@620 WA enabled: 352/169/236/104,1
@620 WA disabled: have to install SP1 once again

WPCREDIT tweaks were applied

d) I'm currently running 3dfx. Which catalyst drivers shall I use with my old radeon 8500? I installed via 4in1, latency patch, usb filter patch and receive blue screen in 3dmark2001. I have solved it year ago after 1 month of testing, but didn't make any notes

I could even have 3300 3dmarks! [K6-II+@600 with some tweaks in radeon's BIOS]

Any comments?

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:14 pm

Yeah. The FIC blows away all other MVP3 boards as far as benchmark testing is concerned. The cost is you only get AGP 1x support though. Also some of my old posts here referred to "MS" Service Pack 2 as garbage pack 2 on account of problems encountered. I use 1A.

socket7! · Post by **socket7!** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:49 pm

Jim, I have 2x support with 503a, and my second concern is whether it is also agp 2.0 compliant. I agree with your opinion about SP2. Old bugs are removed and some new added:-) I will switch to SP1 soon, but before I have to find out how to use my USB WIFI card without slowing down the whole system. Now I can switch to 124FSB using SoftFSB, but shortly after everest benchmark, windows crashes. In SP2 @ 620MHZ results are:

with WA: 320/151/194/117,3 then crash
w/o WA: 320/765/216/115,7 then crash again

DonPedro · Post by **DonPedro** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:49 pm

socket7!,
could you please run a superpi - 1M - bench with one of those settings where you get the 600+ write scores and post the result ...

socket7! · Post by **socket7!** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 5:12 pm

with k6@600 and L3 cache enabled I got:

everest: 258/616/172/140.4

and SuperPi 1M: 05m 36.323s

haven't done Pi before

socket7! · Post by **socket7!** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 6:25 pm

and some more:

@560 L3 off, WA off: 5m 44.406
@560 L3 off, WA on: 6m 02.621
@616 L3 off, WA off: 5m 20.831
@616 L3 on, WA off: 5m 15.734

DonPedro · Post by **DonPedro** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:16 pm

well, your numbers here with superpi don't hold what one could have expected with your high memory bench numbers.

the best numbers here at k6plus for superpi 1m is around 4min 50secs. I reached 4:46 with a k6-3-600 on a sis530-chipset board (asus p5-99vm). but as far as I remember someone made it even below that time.

Stedman5040 · Post by **Stedman5040** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:58 pm

Peter,

You are right. My P5A running at 617Mz with a K6-III+/500ANZ with onboard cache 512K enabled made Superpi 1M in 4min 33 secs. Must look up what my best score for the EP-MVP3G2 was at 617MHz.

Stedman.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:52 pm

@ Socket7! : If you go to page 4 of this forum and look for a post titled : "DFI K6BV3+/66 vs ASUS P5A-B" you will find that Kyle Brant, the author of "K6Speed", posted the WPCredit settings he uses on an FIC VA503+, and he also stated that the FIC gives the best memory performance of any MVP3 board; - which tallies with what I found benching one against the DFI, and also the ASUS, (which is an ALi board). Using Norton Utilities sysinfo benchmark the FIC blows away both of the other boards.

socket7! · Post by **socket7!** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:02 pm

I came back to SP1. I couldn't use 124MHz FSB due to my second PCI USB card (Opti chipset). After removal, all works perfectly (but I don't have USB now...). I tested Super Pi again @ 620, and WPCREDIT tweaks (which, as I realized, were not applied in former testing due to wrong WPCRSET application - sorry).

everset @620 (WA off): 391/790/266/95.1

and Super Pi: 4m 30.289s

I tried to boot at 672 but it's simply too much for the CPU, even @2.3v.
Also, I wil have to buy another USB controller. This time I'll be looking for NEC chips.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:59 am

A new record for Super Pi, and absolute silence. Amazing!!

Stedman5040 · Post by **Stedman5040** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:52 am

I'm not silent I'm just awe struck. Got to go for the sub 4min 30seconds now.

Stedman

DonPedro · Post by **DonPedro** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:15 pm

socket7!,

astonishing how deep you can dive!
I wonder what made the 45sec difference ....

could you please run the following two more benches and post the result?

hot cpu tester 422 lite
everest 2.20

I added here everest in an older version (2.20) because it is freeware and we have a done a lot benching here in the past with that version (so we will get everest-numbers we can better compare with).

socket7! · Post by **socket7!** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:19 pm

I assume that 45sec difference was due to the fact, that in earlier benches no wpcredit tweaks were applied. Bassically, wpcrset was set to disable at startup, and I didn't notice that

I will try to post benchmarks tommorow, but before I have to buy that usb controller in order to have my mouse back.

Forgive me for not doing it earlier, but i'll also send details of my wpcredit settings. Just a quick note: following hint in Jim's post, I set DRAM Start Cycle to start with the Cache at 66Mhz which gave significant boost in everest benches.

selected offsets:
0D:18 6A:FC
53:F0 6C:08
61:00 70:C5
63:03 88:07
64:12
65:12

What I'm going to do now, is to:
a) ensure 620MHz is 100% stable,
b) use my powerleap PL -K6 III converter to see whether that helps in anything

c) reinstall windows (n-lite modified)

I suppose that the only one way to bumb superpi results is to run CPU @676 or prefferably 680MHz. I can't achieve that right now, but I'm looking for two smart devices:

a) high speed decoupler (so called "silent serpent") - does anyone remember that?

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/ ... upler.html

b) heatsink with built-in peltier plate, that was once manufactered by Swiftech.

Also, I'm gathering info about CPU cap removal. Can it help? How safe it is?

Stedman5040 · Post by **Stedman5040** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 7:05 am

I have removed the heat spreader from a K6-III/400AHX cpu and from a K6-2+/500ACZ successfully. The things to look out for are the small smd's on the surface of the ceramic. It is possible to damage these if you are not careful when cutting through the seals on the corners. I used a very sharp paring knife from the kitchen. Watch your fingers. Also you need to be careful when prising off the heat spreader. It tends to all of a sudden pop off. I carefully twisted a screwdriver blade between the edge of the heat spreader and the ceramic going around each side of the top in turn. Removing the heat spreader allowed me to run the 400AHX at 450 and the 500ACZ at 600. Heat reduced by about 2C at idle.

Stedman

K6Plus

ridiculous things with mvp3

ridiculous things with mvp3

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