Intel® Desktop Board DX58SO2/DX58OG Performance Tuning Guide Revision 1.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide WARNING Altering clock frequency and/or voltage may (i) reduce system stability and useful life of the system and processor; (ii) cause the processor and other system components to fail; (iii) cause reductions in system performance; (iv) cause additional heat or other damage; and (v) affect system data integrity. Intel has not tested and does not warranty the operation of the processor beyond its specifications.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility .............................................................. 8 2 Intel® Core™ Processor Family and Intel® X58 Express Chipset General Concepts 2.1 Architecture...................................................................................... 9 3 Intel Desktop Board DX58SO2/DX58OG Performance Tuning Using BIOS Setup 3.1 Hardware Considerations for Performance Tuning .................
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.11 Fine Tune Voltage and Power Settings ....................... 31 3.5.3.12 Recheck Stability .................................................... 31 3.5.3.13 Archive Performance Settings ................................... 31 4 Performance Tuning Examples 4.1 Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition Processor on Intel Desktop Board DX58SO2 .............................................................................. 33 4.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide Tables 3-1. 3-2. A-1. B-1. Resulting CPU Frequency Values for Various Multipliers ......................... Resulting Memory Frequency Values for Various Multipliers ................... BIOS Performance Settings............................................................... Memory Performance Settings...........................................................
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Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 1 Introduction Performance tuning of Intel® Desktop Board DX58SO2/DX58OG enables useful gains that can enhance overall system performance for gaming, video editing, computation, performance benchmarking, and other uses. Performance tuning can be done using the board BIOS or the Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 1.1 Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility The Intel Extreme Tuning Utility software allows performance tuning and monitoring of critical system parameters in a run-time environment on Intel Desktop Boards using the Intel® X58, Intel® P55, and Intel® P67 Express Chipsets. Additionally, the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility is a useful tool for monitoring most Intel desktop board-based systems and is available for download from Intel at http://www.intel.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 2 Intel® Core™ Processor Family and Intel® X58 Express Chipset General Concepts 2.1 Architecture Intel Desktop Board DX58SO2/DX58OG consists of the Intel Core i7 processor and the Intel X58 Chipset including the IOH (I/O Hub) and the ICH10R (I/O Controller Hub). The Intel Core i7 processor integrates the system memory controller and accesses DDR3 memory through three independent memory channels.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide LGA 1366 Processor PCIe x16 Connector PCIe x8 PCIe x16 Connector PCIe x8 Quick Path Interconnect™ DIMM 4 Channel A, DIMM 0 DIMM 1 Channel A, DIMM 1 Multiplexer PCIe x16 Connector Host Clock 133 MHz (Default) PCIe x16 PCIe x16 Intel X58 I/O Hub (IOH) (DX58SO2 only) PCIe x1 Connector SATA 3 Gb/s Connector DIMM 5 Channel A, DIMM 0 DIMM 2 Channel A, DIMM 1 DIMM 6 Channel A, DIMM 0 DIMM 3 Channel A, DIMM 1 DMI PCIe x16 PCIe x1 Connector
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3 Intel Desktop Board DX58SO2/DX58OG Performance Tuning Using BIOS Setup 3.1 Hardware Considerations for Performance Tuning Performance tuning in this guide was developed using Intel Desktop Board DX58SO2 and Intel Desktop Board DX58OG using both Intel® Core™ i7 Extreme Edition and nonExtreme Edition processors. The processor was air cooled using an Intel E88216-001 fan heat sink. 3.1.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.1.4 Power Supply Performance tuning will increase the demand on the system power supply. Lower wattage power supplies may have insufficient capacity once the load imposed by the board, graphics card(s), the processor cooler, other system fans, hard drives, CD/DVD drives, and other accessories are combined.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide Video graphics performance increases may be needed to improve the overall performance of gaming software. The supplier of the graphics card should be contacted for information about performance tuning their hardware. External graphics tuning is specific to the graphics card manufacturer and cannot be done using either the Intel Desktop Board DX58SO2/DX58OG BIOS or the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.4.1 Hardware Watchdog Timer A hardware watchdog timer is included as part of the board circuitry and is enabled by default in the BIOS. This timer will automatically enable the board to startup if unstable system operation or a failure to boot is detected. If the watchdog timer detects an issue, the screen shown in Figure 3.1 will be displayed.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.4.2 Back to BIOS (B2B) Button A second recovery option is to use the Back to BIOS button that is located on the board’s back panel. This button provides a convenient method of invoking the BIOS setup menu, as shown in Figure 3.2, in a safe, bootable mode without opening the system chassis to access the BIOS configuration jumper.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.4.4 Remove Power and Reboot For a system hang, resetting your system or removing, reapplying AC power, and rebooting will allow the system to initiate a reboot. Note that BIOS settings will remain unchanged during a reset or removal of AC power.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 5. If you have compatible XMP based memory, an XMP profile can be selected from the Memory settings BIOS subpage under the performance settings. See http://www.intel.com/consumer/game/extreme-memory.htm for more information on XMP memory. 6. Press the F10 key to save settings and exit BIOS. The system will automatically reboot with the new performance settings enabled. If the system fails to boot, see Section 3.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 6. Increasing the host clock frequency will increase the memory frequency. It may be necessary to reduce the memory speed to restore memory stability. This can be done in the Performance Memory Profiles submenu by selecting Manual – User Defined and then scrolling down to the memory multiplier. The memory frequency can be reduced by selecting a lower memory multiplier value. 7.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 6. Check stability. 7. Tune memory. 8. Recheck stability. 9. Tune QPI. 10. Recheck stability. 11. Balance settings between processor, QPI, and memory. 12. Recheck stability. 13. Fine tune voltage and power settings. 14. Recheck stability. 15. Archive performance settings. 3.5.3.1 Configure BIOS for Performance Tuning Power up the system and press the F2 key at the BIOS screen prompt to go into BIOS setup mode. 3.5.3.1.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.2 Set Processor Overrides (Voltage, Current, and Power) From the Performance page, processor tuning options are under the Processor submenu section shown in Figure 3.4. Figure 3.4. Processor Overrides BIOS Screen Showing Default Settings with an Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition Processor Installed 3.5.3.2.1 Processor Voltage Override Type For CPU Override Type, select Static.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.2.3 Processor VR Droop Control Set Processor VReg Droop Control to Low V-droop (Performance) if you are attempting to maximize processor performance. If you are attempting moderate performance increases, then the Mid or the High V-droop (Power Saving) selection is acceptable. 3.5.3.2.4 Maximum Non-Turbo Multiplier Leave this multiplier at the default setting provided in the BIOS.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.3.2 Memory Multiplier: DDR3 Speed Select the lowest memory multiplier speed from the list as shown in Figure 3.5. Figure 3.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.4 Decrease QPI Data Rate The QPI data rate is initially being reduced to help prevent subsequent host clock changes from increasing the QPI bus speed to where it becomes unstable. The QPI speed will be increased later in the performance tuning process. From the Performance menu, scroll down to the Bus submenu and press . On the Bus Overrides screen, scroll down to QPI Data Rate and set the data strap to 4.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.5.1 Increase Core Ratio Limits Gradually increase the multiplier for each of the core ratio limits. Four core processors will have core ratio settings for cores 1-4. Six core processors will have core ratio settings for cores 1-6. The ratio multiplied by the host clock frequency determines the processor frequency that will be obtained. Making these settings is a trial and error process.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.5.2 Increase Host Clock Frequency From the BIOS performance screen, gradually increase the frequency of the host clock until the board is unable to boot. If you are using a non-Extreme Edition processor, use the settings provided in the table included with the simplified tuning procedure, Section 3.5.2 as an initial starting point. In Figure 3.7, the host clock frequency was changed using the BIOS screen as shown.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.6 Check Stability Establishing stability should be done frequently during the performance tuning process. A good initial check of system stability is to see if the system can boot into the operating system. If the system has become unstable, refer to Section 3.4 for recovery options.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide Figure 3.8. Intel Extreme Tuning Utility Showing Passing Stress Test Result on a Performance Tuned System Using an Intel Core i7-990X Processor and XMP 2133 MHz Memory 3.5.3.7 Tune Memory A wide variety of memory timing parameters can be adjusted in the BIOS setup as described in the sections below. See Appendix B for a summary description of memory settings and their effects.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.7.1 XMP Memory Profiles Although each memory parameter can be modified individually, the easiest method of optimizing performance is to use memory that supports Extreme Memory Profiles (XMP). These profiles are preprogrammed by the manufacturer into the memory module itself and can be selected from the XMP profile list as shown in Figure 3.9.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.7.2 Memory Performance Options The Memory Configuration BIOS page, shown in Figure 3.10 contains all the memory timing options that can be adjusted. NOTE For each of the timings, except the multipliers, lower number settings correspond with higher performance and potential memory system instability. Figure 3.10. BIOS Memory Performance Settings Screen 3.5.3.7.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide Table 3-2. Resulting Memory Frequency Values for Various Multipliers Multiplier Resulting Memory Frequency (MHz) 8 1066 10 1333 12 1600 14 1866 16 2133 3.5.3.7.4 Going Beyond XMP Profiles Using XMP profiles provides much of the obtainable memory performance benefit with minimum effort.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 3.5.3.10 Balance Settings Between Processor, Memory, and QPI Best system performance will typically occur by maximizing processor frequency followed by memory frequency and then finally QPI data rate. Intel Extreme Edition processors have greater flexibility for maximizing overall system performance because both core ratios and host clock frequency settings can be used for tuning.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide Figure 3.11. Storing Performance Profiles in the BIOS The Load BIOS profile option allows users to load profiles that have been previously stored in the BIOS. BIOS profiles may be retrieved by going to the BIOS Exit menu screen and scrolling down to Load BIOS Profile and selecting the BIOS profile from the list of stored profiles that appears.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 4 Performance Tuning Examples 4.1 Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition Processor on Intel Desktop Board DX58SO2 Figure 4.1 shows the BIOS settings to achieve a speed of 4.50 GHz with an Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition processor. Core ratios were set at 33 and a host clock setting of 136 MHz was used. A memory speed of 2133 MHz was set using XMP profiles. With a host clock setting of 136 MHz, the resulting memory frequency was 2181 MHz.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 4.2 Intel Core i7-920 Non-Extreme Edition Processor on Intel Desktop Board DX58SO2 Figure 4.2 shows the BIOS settings to achieve a processor speed of 4.09 GHz with an Intel Core i7-920 processor. A host clock setting of 186 MHz was used. A memory speed of 1489 MHz was obtained using a memory multiplier of 8 when combined with the host clock setting of 186 MHz. With the Intel Core i7-920 processor, the QPI data strap is locked at 4.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 4.3 Intel Core i7-920 non-Extreme Edition Processor on Intel Desktop Board DX58OG Figure 4.3 shows the BIOS settings to achieve a processor speed of 3.98 GHz with an Intel Core i7-920 processor. A host clock setting of 181 MHz was used. A memory speed of 1448 MHz was obtained using a memory multiplier of 8 when combined with the host clock setting of 181 MHz. With the Intel Core i7-920 processor, the QPI data strap is locked at 4.
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Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide A Parameter Descriptions for BIOS Performance Settings Table A-1. BIOS Performance Settings Setup Option Description Host Clock Frequency Changing this setting overrides the host clock default frequency of 133.3 MHz. The host clock frequency x processor ratio = processor speed. Changing the host clock frequency also changes the memory and QPI speeds.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide 38 Setup Option Description TDP Power Limit Override (Watts) Defines the maximum power (in watts) that can be used by the processor when Turbo Mode is active. If the processor exceeds this value, Turbo mode will be disengaged and the maximum non-Turbo ratio will be used until the power level average drops below the limit.
Intel DX58SO2/DX58OG Desktop Board Performance Tuning Guide B Parameter Descriptions for Memory Performance Settings Table B-1. Memory Performance Settings Setup Option Performance Memory Profiles Description Automatic setting uses specification compliant values provided by the memory module. If the memory module supports XMP there will be additional selections for each profile stored in the module. Selecting a profile will populate all the settings with values recommended by the DIMM manufacturer.
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