Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 Excessive DPC Latency

[buzzard]

eastley, try watching the temperature LED's on the motherboard while running DPC latency tester on your screen.  Do this at night when it is dark in the room so that the LED's on the motherboard are easily seen.  Put some load on your computer (playing FLAC files).  The north bridge temp or the cpu temp can cause latency.  As soon as either one of them reach a certain point (the temp LED on the board illuminates), the latency hits.  I mounted an active fan over my north bridge heatsink and the problem has disappeared.

Which fan did you get for your northbridge? I am having the same problem with my GA-X58A-UD3R rev2 board when it hits a certain temperature after long periods of gaming/load and it's driving me insane. I've got a support ticket in with Gigabyte but it's not been answered yet.

Maybe we'll get a BIOS update or something out of it.

I used a Masscool 80mm fan.  I have a handful of them around so it was no big deal.  I used a 90 degree bracket I had laying around and attached it to the rear fan mounting hole.  I attached a few pictures so you can see.  No, the fan does not hit the video card.  I have about 1mm of clearance lol.

[cc2iscool]

Thanks for the pictures. I'll have to tinker with it myself, as I have a sound card in the PCI-E 1x slot just above the video card.

Either way, the board should not have problems with stock voltages/etc. I'm hoping we get a fix from Gigabyte soon, as I get really irritated while gaming when the sound starts popping and the DPC latency spikes.

[Dark Mantis]

from buzzard
I used a Masscool 80mm fan.  I have a handful of them around so it was no big deal.  I used a 90 degree bracket I had laying around and attached it to the rear fan mounting hole.  I attached a few pictures so you can see.  No, the fan does not hit the video card.  I have about 1mm of clearance lol.

That must keep the chip nice and cool, as you say if you had plenty of them why not make use of one. I think something much smaller would have done the job just as well though and could have been mounted directly off the heatsink.

[eastley]

That is what you said in your post. It sounded like the room was too hot that's what prompted me to ask about the ambient temperature.

What about putting a dedicated fan on the Northbridge to cool it?

Yes the heat did build up a little but it was not that warm, the CPU was in low 30's. Ambient was 18°c, with system temps around 30°c.

That is not hot at all.

System temp right now is 25°c with Ambient of 14°c.

That is not hot, there is no way this issue should occur when temps are well within operating temperatures.

[Dark Mantis]

System temp right now is 25°c with Ambient of 14°c.

That is not hot, there is no way this issue should occur when temps are well within operating temperatures.

No I quite agree. At least you seem to have it under control now though. The UD7 and UD9 cool the northbridge with a special accessory that bolts on top of the northbridge and acts like a heatsink. It has heatpipes that help disperse the heat to the outside of the case.

[cc2iscool]

Does anyone have a good contact within Gigabyte? I've been trying to talk to tech support but they've been pretty useless so far. I've been asked two times now if any overclocking was applied, which means a day was wasted... and my latest response is this.

"The Heatsink on the board should be sufficient enough to cool off the NB which has been tested. Unless the heatsink you have is loose or is not fully intact to the board."

Gotta love when no solutions are offered.

[Dark Mantis]

You could try to pm runn3R as he is Gigabyte's official man on htis forum however he is very busy himself and may take a while to reply.

[Dark Mantis]

I would just like to report that I downloaded and installed the new Gigabyte program for overclocking called CloudOC. By default it installs to run automatically at startup. Now I noticed that when this program is running my latency is sky high and normally nothing will move it from the bottom. So just a word of warning for anyone who is thinking of installing it.

[cc2iscool]

Yeah, I did read on some forums that the Gigabyte programs to overclock/regulate/etc cause problems, but I never installed any of the programs, just the basic drivers.

[Dark Mantis]

This is the best practice with most motherboard included programs I find. Just install what you are going to need form the internet. You also know that they are right up to date then. Same with drivers.

[plop28]

Hi,

I have exactly the same probleme, same graph as eastley. I have a GA-X58A-UD5 and i use an additionnal sound card (Auzen Xplosion)
it happend when i play musique/vidéo or when i play game.

Is Someone have already use Windows Performance Toolkit and xperf to identify the problem ?

My northbridge is at 75°C after 1 hour of playing, i will try to fan it


my config

X58a-UD5/i7 930/Gskill@2Ghz/Xplosion

[Dark Mantis]

Your northbridge temperature is a bit high and could do with some cooling for a start. What case and cooling do you have? Also can you list your components and your actual problem as you see it?

[plop28]

hey

I have a thermaltake kandalf Case with a 20cm Fan on the side
I use a H50 too (only one Fan on it)

When the probleme comes, the sound crackling. Pb during around 5min, dpcs are up to 28000µs and after the Dpcs going down.
I tried to disable some device with no luck

Very annoying pb.

[Dark Mantis]

First thing is which way is your fan blowing on the H50? If it is into the case reverse it so that it blows out. I know this is contrary to popular belief but it can make several degrees difference in your case. What other fans do you have?

As far as thge sound problems go ahve you tried cutting out all the background programs that are loaded automatically on startup? I know it's a pain to sort through them but chances are it is the problem. The only other thing is to check your cables and make sure that data cables are not run near power cables if possible. Can you move the sound card to another slot?

[plop28]

i have two fan on the rear, both inject the air in the case. I have one Fan in front wich is extracting the air.

It happen on an fresh install, i have only three drivers installed :
chipset intel 9.​6.​0.​1014
Catalyst 10.6 and latest Crosfire Profile (i have HD5970)
and the sound driver, no whql version but works great on my other motherboard EP45-UD3P

No program in background, just i launch MediaPlayer classic, watching an episode of simpson and the pb occur

edit: only one PCI slot on this board