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GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem

DaveL

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GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« on: August 02, 2010, 01:08:37 am »
The GA-H55N-USB3 mITX mobo allows for some great CPU, GPU and RAM OC's but was able to confirm that this is not translating through the PCI-Ex16 bus as there's no effect on gaming frame rates as reported by bit-tech...

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/06/15/gigabyte-ga-h55n-usb3-mini-itx-motherboard/1

Is this being addressed in the F5 BIOS update? As it stands, it's a horrible board for gaming because of this issue.

Otherwise... I love the board... there's just only so much time to return it so hopefully this will get a response soon.

Thanks,
Dave
« Last Edit: August 02, 2010, 01:09:55 am by DaveL »

Dark Mantis

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2010, 08:42:40 am »
I am afraid I don't know, maybe someone will  try the latest BIOS update and see if it helps.
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Peteruk

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2010, 02:54:58 pm »
The GA-H55N-USB3 mITX mobo allows for some great CPU, GPU and RAM OC's but was able to confirm that this is not translating through the PCI-Ex16 bus as there's no effect on gaming frame rates as reported by bit-tech...

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/06/15/gigabyte-ga-h55n-usb3-mini-itx-motherboard/1

Quote on bit-tech what you mean...

DaveL

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2010, 07:20:34 pm »
Quote on bit-tech what you mean...

RTA :-\

Peteruk

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2010, 09:59:14 pm »
Quote on bit-tech what you mean...

RTA :-\
Yes...same face I make went someone uses big words but never mind this is what your on about.

“The comparative performance of the Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 (when we tested it with a Core i5-750 CPU) is very good - we consistently saw it at, or near, the top of our performance charts. Unfortunately the same can't be said in the gaming tests, which saw the H55N near the bottom of the performance pile.”

“That said, the Gigabyte board can't translate the extra GHz to fps, as the H55N failed to improve much on its dismal showing in Crysis even with the i5-661 ticking over at 4.4GHz. Clearly there is something amiss with the PCI-E connection of this board. However, that's hardly a damning criticism, as by installing a card that's longer than the board and taller than the CPU cooler, you'd have to house the system in a micro-ATX case, and which point you should opt for a more adaptable micro-ATX motherboard. Overall then, it's a mostly impressive outing for the H55N, with the only downside a practical irrelevance.”

So whats all that mean? Well lets post the chart and go to the overclocked one.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/06/15/gigabyte-ga-h55n-usb3-mini-itx-motherboard/8
Note all tested boards without the i5 661 listed by them have the i5 750.
Note that all the other tested boards with the i5 661 are overclocked too as you can see from the first chart but this board has the best minimum FPS.

So there is nothing wrong with this board that was tested apart from a tolerance of performance from one board to another as does how well one CPU OC to another even if they are the same.
« Last Edit: August 02, 2010, 10:03:07 pm by Peteruk »

Dark Mantis

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2010, 10:15:37 pm »
Well as far as I can see no real gamer would even think about buying this board anyway so really it is a bit of a moot point about how well it does in games. If you want a rig to play games on then you would be looking at an entirely different motherboard spec. :-\  So what's the argument about.
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DaveL

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2010, 01:01:53 am »
Peteruk - The issue is that unlike the other boards tested, the one by Gigabyte has an issue with the PCI-Ex16 bus where overclocking the CPU/GPU/RAM does not also boost frame rates in games. That's what their tests show and that is what I've reported here after experiencing the same problem.

Mantis - What? It has every OC option under the sun, supports the latest and greatest hardware and has a PCI-Ex16 slot for high end graphics cards.  Of course people will want to game with this board.

To both of you... this post is here to report a known bug with the hopes that a dev will see it and correct the issue. If you don't own the mobo then I'm not sure why you're so concerned about it.
« Last Edit: August 03, 2010, 02:45:21 am by DaveL »

Dark Mantis

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2010, 07:42:30 am »
Peteruk - The issue is that unlike the other boards tested, the one by Gigabyte has an issue with the PCI-Ex16 bus where overclocking the CPU/GPU/RAM does not also boost frame rates in games. That's what their tests show and that is what I've reported here after experiencing the same problem.

Mantis - What? It has every OC option under the sun, supports the latest and greatest hardware and has a PCI-Ex16 slot for high end graphics cards.  Of course people will want to game with this board.

To both of you... this post is here to report a known bug with the hopes that a dev will see it and correct the issue. If you don't own the mobo then I'm not sure why you're so concerned about it.

Please don't ake it so personally DaveL ;) It is not a case of whether someone owns the board or not, they are entitled to have an opinion. It may or may not agree with yours but that it what forums are for...discussions.
However I still stand by my statement that serious gamers wouldn't even look at a board like that. You will of course get people who have the board and will want to play games but that is a different story.
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DaveL

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2010, 09:07:59 pm »
There's nothing personal about any of this... it's just a bug report. As far as gaming goes, bit-tech saw fit to test this and several other popular mITX boards for gaming and the only area where it falls short is with the bug reported here.

Dark Mantis

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #9 on: August 03, 2010, 09:12:59 pm »
Fair comment 8)
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Peteruk

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #10 on: August 03, 2010, 11:52:39 pm »
The one thing bit-tech failed to spot is...where is the PCI-e controller? Hum...thats right its in the CPU now and with them overclocking the thing like mad and harder then the other mITX boards who knows what that could do to the PCI-e controller.

Its a well known fact that overclocking can cause problems to other controllers on the board and even fail as its like you overclock the CPU clock bus but that overclocks the ram and so on and yes you can set the PCI-e clock speed in the BIOS but lets say we set the RAM to DDR3 1333 and overclock the CPU clock bus the ram might look to be set to run at 1333MHz but you know by overclock the CPU clock bus its not.

So with that I say its not a bug.          
« Last Edit: August 03, 2010, 11:57:58 pm by Peteruk »

DaveL

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #11 on: August 05, 2010, 02:54:01 am »
Well no... the boards were tested with a dedicated graphics card... not the CPU/onboard.

Anyway, I flashed the board with the F5 beta BIOS and it seems to have addressed the issue... at least when OC'ing the GPU. Hopefully it stays in for the F5 release.

Peteruk

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #12 on: August 05, 2010, 07:43:15 am »
Well no... the boards were tested with a dedicated graphics card... not the CPU/onboard.
PCI-e controller NOT ON-BOARD GRAPHICS its not the same thing PCI-e controller for i3, i5 & i7 thats LGA1156 is now in the CPU its what drives dedicated graphics.   

DaveL

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #13 on: August 05, 2010, 09:48:59 pm »
It was the same setup for all the mITX H55 boards tested and the Gigabyte performed miserably for whatever reason. How do I know? It's because I actually own the board and did physical testing. Anyway, it seems ok now with the F5 beta BIOS update so it's a done deal.
« Last Edit: August 05, 2010, 09:59:55 pm by DaveL »

Dark Mantis

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Re: GA-H55N-USB3 PCI-Ex16 Bus Problem
« Reply #14 on: August 05, 2010, 10:38:03 pm »
Glad that you managed to find a solution to your problem anyway. Often it's just a case of waiting for the correct BIOS update to be written. Just sometimes it seems to take so long :-\
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy