Gulftown B1 @ 6G // Lightning R5870 @ 1.4G // X58A-UD7

Hey guys,

Had a quick first LN2 session with the Gulftown B1 this evening. Only had about 15L and no experience with this CPU under LN2, so everything had to be done rather quickly. First I installed the GTX275 Lightning on air for some quick 2D benchmarks.

Afterwards I decided to pop in the R5870 Lightning for a quick set of 3D benchmarks. Main focus was 3DMark03 to check if the card was damaged or not from last session.

Pictures of the setup:

FINDINGS AND REMARKS:

First of all, it seems that B1 isn't really that much worse than A0 when it comes to clock frequencies around -100°C with 1.8V. The biggest problem with Gulftown is that it seems to scale, just like Clarkdale, with temperatures and that this particular sample has a hard coldbug at -120°C (coldbootbug at -85°C). With a bit of pushing, I guess I can get 6GHz 2D stable some day, but for Vantage this will not be a great sample.

Although I will see many people think about not buying this CPU, I have to say the following: even if the B1 is as bad as this one, it's still A LOT better than the current generation of Bloomfield. Getting a Gulftown will improve your scores for sure ... but it does come at a price.

I had some problems with the X58A-UD7 as well as it doesn't really seem to be handling the massive load of the Gulftown that well. Sometimes, for no obvious reason, the board decided to shutdown and lock in "88" position. As with the P55 boards, the solution is very simple: turn off power supply, wait a couple of seconds untill the lights of the board are down and power the PSU back on. The system will boot no problem. This same thing happens, by the way, when I load my 5.4GHz boot settings.

The Lightning card still does it job quite well although I'm still faced with the same problems: I can do 1425Mhz through GT4 03 (745FPS), but when the card crashes and I have to reboot, I can't get 1350 stable anymore. I will have to try a new bios for the card for sure.

Nice Bench!

When to Leeghoofd's place for more testing today. CPU is not that shabby for only -116°C before coldbug ... only Vantage is kind of disappointing at 5.45G max.

Now I'm done with this CPU until a different board comes along to check whether the CPU has issues or the mainboard has.

Thanks to LEEGHOOFD for the nice benching day. No M&M today, however ... I was a bit confused.

Also thank to TONES.BE for the awesome support.

Good results there Massman, I hope my retail 980 will do as well

What batch do you have if you don't mind me asking?

Q4EG ES COSTA RICA

AT80613003543AE

3952A844

Retail seems better than this ES for sure.