New Build, OC problem...

[ThirdEye]

Hey. My old computer took a nose dive so I decided to build a new one. Everything seems to be working fine right now (knock on wood), but I have one problem that I can't figure out. For some reason when I overclock my CPU/RAM my 3DMARK scores plunge noticeably (about 50%). When I revert back to stock speeds it seems to work fine though. What could be causing this?

This is what I'm using:

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Mobo, E6600, 2GB G.Skill Ram, 7800 GT, 430W Thermaltake PSU

I don't think it's a stabilitly problem, because the processor supposedly overclocks well and my ram is pretty good. I also don't get any artifacts or anything, just slower framerates. My temperatures seem fine also. Could it be that my PSU is insufficient? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance if you can lend me a hand

[Clunk]

Have you established that your cpu overlock is stable and that the temps are ok? Is it just 3dmark thats suffering?

The PSu would be my first suspect, thats if everything else is working as it should.

[BUFF]

check that your gfx PCI-E link isn't dropping down to something like x1 - it's a known problem on Asus P5B & the Gigabyte 965s iirc.
Iirc the 2 usual cures are either to set the PCI-E freq. over 100 or increase the nb voltage but I'll leave you to research that further.

[ThirdEye]

Have you established that your cpu overlock is stable and that the temps are ok? Is it just 3dmark thats suffering?

The PSu would be my first suspect, thats if everything else is working as it should.

Temps seem to be fine. They are about 35-40 at idle and hit around 60 under load. I ran Orthos for about an hour with no problem. Will try do so for 24 hours when first possible. The thing is, even if I overclock it by 100mhz I still get the same problem

check that your gfx PCI-E link isn't dropping down to something like x1 - it's a known problem on Asus P5B & the Gigabyte 965s iirc.
Iirc the 2 usual cures are either to set the PCI-E freq. over 100 or increase the nb voltage but I'll leave you to research that further.

Hmm, that's interesting. If anything that would seem like the culprit as the performance hit seems to be affecting mainly 3DMARK and games. I will do further research

Thanks guys

[luvclub]

You say the processor supposedly overclocks well and th ram is pretty good but have you really checked them?

Try running Orthos and check the CPU and memory separatley.

Maybe one of them is letting you down.

It porbably is best to revert to 1:1 ram first to see if it is the ram which is affecting your score.

Edit: oops sorry didn't see that you already ran Orthos

[ThirdEye]

You say the processor supposedly overclocks well and th ram is pretty good but have you really checked them?

Try running Orthos and check the CPU and memory separatley.

Maybe one of them is letting you down.

It porbably is best to revert to 1:1 ram first to see if it is the ram which is affecting your score.

Edit: oops sorry didn't see that you already ran Orthos

I bought that ram mainly because of all the glowing reviews it received. I can't post a link to it yet, but it's the G.Skill 1GB x 2 PC6400 4-4-4-12 (black heatsinks, dual channel). I really doubt it's the bottleneck, although I will run the tests to be 100% sure

I set the PCI-E to 105mhz and my scores went back to normal (thankfully), so it seems that was the problem. I still get pretty low for my setup though (18K 3DMARK03), but I'll see if I can get that up a bit.

Thanks for the tips everyone