X79-UD5 IRST TRIM with RAID0 SSDs in Windows 7

Hi all, just a quick update, to cut a long story short - I developed a problem on booting up since I swapped some drives around.

I swapped the 1TB out and in place put in a 500GB WD drive, setup a RAID0 with the two other 500GB drives and put the 1TB in my new server/HTPC (update to come on this) for remote backup from my main setup.

The problem was my boot times rocketed from around 15 seconds to 1 minute 20 seconds at points. It was a little frustrating especially as I'm running the two RAID0 256GB M4 SSDs. Eventually after a day of working on/reinstalling the OS/swapping drives about, I discovered it was the Marvell drivers having a paddy as, to create the RAID, I'd moved my optical drive onto the Marvell controller. On boot it was hanging for 60s just trying to initialise the DVD drive. Had to create custom event views for it to try and track it all down.

In the process, however, I discovered that on the X79-UD5's new BIOS, there is an option to switch around the Intel Controller's mode. I was presented with two options, either RSTe, or IRST. Now we all know that the new 7 series chipsets support RAID TRIM, however X79 is on the 6 series and was not supported.

Knowing that previously I'd been using RSTe (enterprise version) drivers, I had a dig around and found that if I switched the OROM (option rom) to IRST, I could install the standard version of Intel Rapid Storage Technology. I'm currently running version 11.6.0.1030, which, after a little checking, is now issuing and executing TRIM commands on the RAID0 M4s!

So - hopefully the rest of the motherboard manufacturers will, at some point, be issuing updates to allow this OROM to be switchable, especially as us enthusiasts on X79 won't like to be left out of such luxuries as TRIM, especially considering we are more likely than others to be running RAID SSDs!

Far Cry 3 Driver Crash/Black Screen

Hi all, another quick fix post here.

Some people have been reporting some Far Cry 3 crashes lately.

A few fixes if you've been having this issue are listed below:

First off the basic ones - drop your GPU and CPU back to stock clocks, if you have overclocked them. Just to rule this out.

Secondly make sure you are using your latest GPU driver, sometimes the beta drivers can throw some screwy things into the mix.

Try running the game in DirectX 9.0 mode (you can find this setting in the game options), this can be a popular solution to some of the nVidia issues.

Some have found that creating a short cut to the far cry executable (find it in the far cry directory - wherever you have saved it to) and adding -offline into the 'target' section can help. For instance: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\FarCry 3\bin\farcry3.exe" -offline 

If you use a program like MSI Afterburner, set your power to something like 80 or 90%, not the full 100%, this in a way is almost downclocking your card, but it can help in newer models.

If any of these fixes solve your problem post up! If they don't, let me know as well, even more so if you find a solution so I can add it on the end!

Thanks

GTX 680 4GB SLI Benchmarks

I've had the opportunity of testing a pair of Palit Jetstream GTX 680 4GB cards in SLI and thought I should share some of the benchmarks and screenshots with you all.

The setup is as follows:

i7 3930K @ 4.2Ghz Cooled by Corsair H100 in Push/Pull
Gigabyte X79-UD5
2 x Crucial M4 256GB in RAID0
2x Palit Jetstream GTX 680 4GB
3x iiyama Prolite 24" E2473HDS screens giving a resolution of 5760*1080

These aren't perfect benchmarks, they were all run for varying amounts of time but in that time I tried to simulate what would be the highest and lowest FPS situations.



BF3 - Operation Guillotine (Max graphics)

Frames	Time (ms)	Min	Max	Avg
2464	49412	36	62	49.866

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (Flight Around Stormwind) [I am running max graphics with about 5 custom settings which advance them beyond what is controllable in the UI]

Frames	Time (ms)	Min	Max	Avg
11028	124856	47	214	88.326

Dear Esther

Frames	Time (ms)	Min	Max	Avg
7574	56207	110	204	134.752

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (With texture packs up to 2.8GB and ENB series, Vsynced at 60fps hence max)

Frames	Time (ms)	Min	Max	Avg
8292	141952	50	59	58.414

Guild Wars 2

Frames	Time (ms)	Min	Max	Avg
3645	79888	32	64	45.626

There are certain games in which it would be silly to benchmark, for example DotA 2/LoL don't run well without Vsync, so with this setup they quite happily sit at 60fps, CS:GO will run anywhere between 140 and 290fps across all three screens. Tera will run at a fairly constant 60fps as well, maybe dropping to 55 occasionally.

DotA 2 Black Screen Fix

Just a quick note here really, if you're having issues with DotA 2 playing properly with your graphics card setup and just get a black screen when loading (and then sometimes following by a really jittery DotA background music), you should try this:

Right click on your DotA 2 in Steam, go to Properties and Set Launch Options, then enter the following:

-windowed -w 1920 -h 1080 -noborder -novid

Replace the 1920 and 1080 with your actual resolutions.

This will launch the game windowed and maximised without the Valve intro video.

UPDATE: Also try removing your DotA2 config files located in steam/steamapps/common/dota 2 beta/dota/cfg and then in the launch options described above, add +autoconfig


EDIT: If you are still experiencing issues after applying this fix, a good precautionary measure is to update to your latest video card drivers, but to also do a full uninstall of the old ones too, a good program to use to completely clear them is Driver Sweeper.

As in the comments - you have to replace the numbers with the correct resolution of your screen, mine won't always be the same.

Palit Jetstream GTX 680 4GB Overview

Skyrim was proving incredibly demanding in the VRAM department due to the massive amount of higher definition textures I have installed now. Bearing in mind I'm also running triple 1080p screens the 2GB 680 couldn't handle them.

With the move up to 4GB came a few setbacks, a little less overclocking. The Jetstream does +100 core, the reference 680 did almost +200. That may have given the POV a slight fps boost over the Palit.

Aside from that though, I am very pleased with how quiet this card is, along with obviously the gain in memory size.

Skyrim now registers a decent 2.7GB of VRAM usage and a constant 60fps V-Sync'd.
Diablo III proves no issues for the card either. 60fps V-Sync'd across three screens with GPU usage sat at around 40-50% and temperatures no higher than 48 degrees!

nVidia GTX 680 Surround Setup & Summary

I was lucky enough to bag myself one of the new nVidia Kepler offerings - the GTX 680. It has been a slightly longer wait than expected since putting together the Sandy Bridge E system. I've been sat with three screens but no ability to play surround as the 570 isn't capable of it alone, it requires another running in SLI and unfortunatley my second one failed.

Point of View were the only models in stock

I've been far too caught up in fiddling with the clocks and playing the odd game to sit down an run a long winded benching session, but a few scores are below.

GPUZ showing the highest clocks/temperatures achieved (MSI Afterburner was clocked at +214Mhz core and +360Mhz memory):

3DMark11 scored 10952 P points.

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3046327;jsessionid=1xso1zmj71y0f13rdzpmbtzxv7

Battlefield 3 Benchmarks running in surround at 5760x1080 resolution:

Ultra Settings (Game used all 2GB of VRAM)

Frames	Time (ms)	Min	Max	Avg
3815	141647	21	37	26.933

High Settings (Game used 1.7GB max of VRAM)

Frames	Time (ms)	Min	Max	Avg
8198	187708	33	59	43.674

Ultra settings in single player were just about bearable, but an average of 27fps wasn't all that enjoyable. High was just right to play at, only a minimum of 33fps, so I was happy with that across a triple screen setup.

Skyrim isn't really worth mentioning, with everything set to full, official texture pack and the 2K texture pack, it will still return anywhere between 50 and 60 fps (Vsync on) on constant gameplay. I could unlock the vsync and see what more it can give at a later date.

Pics and screenshots to follow!

A quick phone snap of WoW spread across the three screens:

UPDATE: 24/7 Clock at +194 core, +500 mem, scored over 11.5K 3DMark11
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3235185

Kepler Confirmation for April?

Yet again, no official announcements, however we've seen a lot of very similar rumours flying around now that indicate the release of Kepler cards around the second week of April.

If there is any truth in it, we'll be seeing some form of official statement in the next few weeks I would think.

Links:
http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/35933-nvidia-gtx-6xx-kepler-rumoured-production/

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/26069-kepler-gk104-cards-in-production