ASUS EPU

[anemones2]

Is there anyway to get EPU to recognise my gigabyte HD 4850 VGA ?

Also is it bad that power saving mode noticable lags a source engine game ?

Thought my pc should be fine running on minimal.

[DKT27]

My favorite Asus software. ^_^

It does not detect external graphics card, at least as far as I know. It should not lag at all. It will auto overclock your bus speed when needed. You have set it to Auto mode right?

[toyo]

SUGGESTION: Completely uninstall ALL Asus software that came with the motherboard. Install generic drivers from Intel or AMD for your specific chipset. If you are on Windows 7, it will take care of everything for you.

- there is a list of EPU supported videocards (all from ASUS). If you have a card from another manufacturer, like Gigabyte, then it's just a way: re-flash it with a Asus BIOS, promptly making it recognizable by all Asus software.

- DO NOT overclock the PC from EPU... do it from BIOS

Since you do not mention the relevant specs of your computer, no one can understand what "minimal" means to you. But usualy, for games, you go on full speed, maybe even OC, not on power saving modes. Those are made for Windows desktop, when you browse the web, read a txt file etc., when there is no need for CPU power and it can be throttled back to some lower multiplier.

If you uninstall the Asus soft, then you will lose some savings (on the motherboard chipset and stuff, but negligible).

If you do not know what a BIOS reflash is, better not do it. Get somebody with experience to do it for you. You could brick your videocard if you fail somehow.

[anemones2]

My favorite Asus software. ^_^

It does not detect external graphics card, at least as far as I know. It should not lag at all. It will auto overclock your bus speed when needed. You have set it to Auto mode right?

Internal. :D Yes it is nice, I like.

I'm not going to oc anything, just use the 3 settings it comes with.

Haha nah I had it just on power saving. But still.

oh um

--- Operating System ---

Windows XP Home Premium SP3 x86

--- CPU ---

AMD Phenom™ II X3 720 Processor, clocked @ 2.76 GHz

--- Display adapter ---

ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series

Driver version: 8.632.0.0

--- RAM ---

Usage: 768/3328 MBytes

Peak Usage: 1311 MBytes

--- Paging File ---

Usage: 212/707 MBytes

Allocation: 707/3327 MBytes

I don't want to uninstall anything, especially as it is working fine.

That's a good way to run into problems. Mess with something which isn't faulty.

Just want to add in my VGA.

[anemones2]

"re-flash it with a Asus BIOS, promptly making it recognizable by all Asus software"

Do what now?

[DKT27]

If you kept it to power saving mode, then you may see some slow down for sure.

What's your motherboard model? I have 5 options in my EPU Engine. Make sure you have the latest version, and keep it to auto.

[toyo]

EPU never works OK. I had it on 4 ASUS boards, all Intel though, obviously it's bolted on the AMD stuff as well. I tried hard to make it work, as I like my stuff to be as green as possible, but it always hiccups on something - it crashes the computer, gets it stuck on power saving multi, exactly the stuff that you don't want a machine to do (have a mind of it's own). 

The chip/drivers are obviously not mature enough, but who knows in the future what would happen. The chipsets/CPUs already have their power saving features, that work from internal logic not some external application that conflicts or messes with the OS or BIOS settings.

Reflashing the videocard with a compatible BIOS is a large topic and if you really want to go this way, better start to read some documentation. You can use RBE from http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/

There is a database of BIOS-es. You must flash the Gigabyte to a ASUS (compatible) card that is or directly recognizable by EPU, or recognizable through SmartDoctor.

Again, I do not recommend this way (even if it is the only one for achieving what you want). All the HD 4800 series have pretty good power saving features already, with states for idle/UVD/3D, there's no need for EPU intrusion. Just make sure you have the latest drivers/BIOS for your card and that's it.

By the way, EPU savings are minimal to say the best. The modern computers already are built with power saving features in mind. The EPU chip is a good initiative badly done. The ASUS software is a collection of horrible applications intended to impress novices. They do not work properly.

[DKT27]

@toyo: EPU works great on my P7P55D mobo with i5-750. :) Never crashed. Always does what it needs to do. Yes the power saving is minimal. My i5 sits at 1208MHz at low power at normal, the EPU makes it 1158MHz, max goes till 2800MHz and EPU makes it 2912MHz. That's why I like it. Makes that small difference, I do see benchmarks change a little when EPU is on. ;)

No way to determine how much it saves on the overall computer though.

I agree that using it for Graphics card wont help a lot. And it's probably safest to stay away from it.

[toyo]

I'm glad that it works for someone. I gave up on EPU on 2008-2009, so maybe they released new, better stuff. You can Turbo your i5 further, you know... if you like it and have cooling. When I had EPU on, it managed to OC some P45 CPUs with 20-30% - stable. 

Maybe I'll give it another shot when I'll upgrade to the much awaited Sandy Bridge from Intel.

Some guys at some magazine or something actually measured the differences, and also compared EPU to Gigabyte's DES... read the conclusion for yourselves. Even they had crashes with EPU - the proff is everywhere on the forums around the net, but maybe they did some good stuff since 2008.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1348/gigabyte_des_and_asus_epu_tested/index.html

[anemones2]

Sounds best to leave as is :) thanks

CPU

AMD Phenom II X3 720

Cores 3

Threads 3

Name AMD Phenom II X3 720

Code Name Heka

Package Socket AM3 (938)

Technology 45nm

Specification AMD Phenom II X3 720 Processor

Family F

Extended Family 10

Model 4

Extended Model 4

Stepping 2

Revision RB-C2

Instructions MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, x86-64

Bus Speed 196.9 MHz

Rated Bus Speed 1968.8 MHz

Stock Bus Speed 200 MHz

Average Temperature 26 °C

Caches

L1 Data Cache Size 3 x 64 KBytes

L1 Instructions Cache Size 3 x 64 KBytes

L2 Unified Cache Size 3 x 512 KBytes

L3 Unified Cache Size 6144 KBytes

Core 0

Core Speed 787.5 MHz

Multiplier x 4.0

Bus Speed 196.9 MHz

Rated Bus Speed 1968.8 MHz

Temperature 26 °C

Thread 1

APIC ID 0

Core 1

Core Speed 787.5 MHz

Multiplier x 4.0

Bus Speed 196.9 MHz

Rated Bus Speed 1968.8 MHz

Temperature 26 °C

Thread 1

APIC ID 1

Core 2

Core Speed 787.5 MHz

Multiplier x 4.0

Bus Speed 196.9 MHz

Rated Bus Speed 1968.8 MHz

Temperature 26 °C

Thread 1

APIC ID 2

RAM

Memory slots

Total memory slots 4

Used memory slots 2

Free memory slots 2

Memory

Type DDR2

Size 4096 MBytes

Channels # Dual

DRAM Frequency 393.7 MHz

CAS# Latency (CL) 5 clocks

RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 5 clocks

RAS# Precharge (tRP) 5 clocks

Cycle Time (tRAS) 15 clocks

Bank Cycle Time (tRС) 24 clocks

Command Rate (CR) 2T

SPD

Number Of SPD Modules 2

Slot #1

Type DDR2

Size 2048 MBytes

Manufacturer G.Skill

Max Bandwidth PC2-6400 (400 MHz)

Part Number F2-8500CL5-2GBPI-B

SPD Ext. EPP

EPP #0

Frequency 534.0 MHz

CAS# Latency 5.0

RAS# To CAS# 5

RAS# Precharge 5

tRAS 15

tRC 48

Voltage 2.100 V

JEDEC #2

Frequency 400.0 MHz

CAS# Latency 5.0

RAS# To CAS# 5

RAS# Precharge 5

tRAS 15

tRC 24

Voltage 1.800 V

JEDEC #1

Frequency 266.7 MHz

CAS# Latency 4.0

RAS# To CAS# 4

RAS# Precharge 4

tRAS 10

tRC 16

Voltage 1.800 V

Slot #2

Type DDR2

Size 2048 MBytes

Manufacturer G.Skill

Max Bandwidth PC2-6400 (400 MHz)

Part Number F2-8500CL5-2GBPI-B

SPD Ext. EPP

EPP #0

Frequency 534.0 MHz

CAS# Latency 5.0

RAS# To CAS# 5

RAS# Precharge 5

tRAS 15

tRC 48

Voltage 2.100 V

JEDEC #2

Frequency 400.0 MHz

CAS# Latency 5.0

RAS# To CAS# 5

RAS# Precharge 5

tRAS 15

tRC 24

Voltage 1.800 V

JEDEC #1

Frequency 266.7 MHz

CAS# Latency 4.0

RAS# To CAS# 4

RAS# Precharge 4

tRAS 10

tRC 16

Voltage 1.800 V

Motherboard

Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.

Model M4N78 PRO

Version System Version

Chipset Vendor NVIDIA

Chipset Model nForce 720a

Chipset Revision A2

Southbridge Vendor NVIDIA

Southbridge Model ID075C

Southbridge Revision A2

BIOS

Brand American Megatrends Inc.

Version 0604

Date 02/09/2009

Graphics

Monitor

Name P244W on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series

Current Resolution 1280x960 pixels

Work Resolution 1280x930 pixels

State enabled, primary

Monitor Width 1280

Monitor Height 960

Monitor BPP 32 bits per pixel

Monitor Frequency 60 Hz

Device \\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0

ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series

GPU RV770

Device ID 1002-9442

Subvendor Gigabyte (1458)

Technology 55 nm

Die Size 256 nmІ

Transistors 956 M

Release Date Jun 25, 2008

DirectX Support 10.1

DirectX Shader Model 4.1

OpenGL Support 3.0

Bios Core Clock 625.00

Bios Mem Clock 993.00

Driver ati2mtag.sys (6.14.10.6973)

Temperature 40 °C

Core Voltage 1.123 V

Crossfire Disabled

BIOS Version 113-AB70101-101-GB

ROPs 16

Shaders 800 unified

Memory Type GDDR3

Memory 512 MB

Bus Width 256 Bit

Pixel Fillrate 8.0 GPixels/s

Texture Fillrate 20.0 GTexels/s

Bandwidth 63.6 GB/s

Hard Drives

ST3750330AS

Manufacturer Seagate

Form Factor 3.5"

Interface SATA

Capacity 733GB

Real size 750,156,374,016 bytes

S.M.A.R.T

01 Read Error Rate 117 (099 worst) Data 0008650D9A

03 Spin-Up Time 093 (093) Data 0000000000

04 Start/Stop Count 100 (100) Data 0000000187

05 Reallocated Sectors Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000

07 Seek Error Rate 065 (060) Data 000351813F

09 Power-On Hours (POH) 096 (096) Data 0000000E0A

0A Spin Retry Count 100 (100) Data 0000000001

0C Device Power Cycle Count 100 (100) Data 0000000168

B8 100 (100) Data 0000000000

BB 100 (100) Data 0000000000

BC 100 (098) Data 000009000E

BD High Fly Writes (WDC) 100 (100) Data 0000000000

BE Temperature Difference from 100 061 (049) Data 0029110027

C2 Temperature 039 (051) Data 0000000027

C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 058 (035) Data 0008650D9A

C5 Current Pending Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000

C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000

C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000

Temperature 39 °C

Temperature Range ok (less than 50 °C)

Status Good

Partition 0

Partition ID Disk #0, Partition #0

Disk Letter C:

File System NTFS

Size 150GB

Used Space 13.7GB (10%)

Free Space 136GB (90%)

Partition 1

Partition ID Disk #0, Partition #1

Disk Letter F:

File System NTFS

Size 250GB

Used Space 111GB (45%)

Free Space 139GB (55%)

Partition 2

Partition ID Disk #0, Partition #2

Disk Letter G:

File System NTFS

Size 299GB

Used Space 32.5GB (11%)

Free Space 266GB (89%)

Does that help hehe

[anemones2]

If you kept it to power saving mode, then you may see some slow down for sure.

What's your motherboard model? I have 5 options in my EPU Engine. Make sure you have the latest version, and keep it to auto.

m4n 78pro, um mine has 4 including auto. and in settings one can manually tune frequency by %, which yes probably bad idea.

there is a turbo program that comes with asus, but I didn't get it.. or al suite.

[DKT27]

I live in a place where it's too hot. And my i5 will slow down it's speed when it reaches 99C. That's why I'll prefer a stable solution.

Odd though, my PC has not crashed from the time I bought it(4-5 months) and I'm running some of the Asus softwares on the background everytime.

You both guy's EPU software would be different for sure. You can try to find an update. Visit your mobo Asus page and downloads section.

[mara-]

I used EPU mainly to overclock my processor, but it wasn't good as it should be. For example, it seems that some games, like PES, could not read proper frequency and game speed was way faster then it should be. Even Windows could not recognize new speed. But, benchmarks showed improvement. But, because of this problem I don't use it, or better to say I can't use it, since I overclocked my CPU in BIOS, and now EPU refuses to work.

Cheers ;)

[anemones2]

I live in a place where it's too hot. And my i5 will slow down it's speed when it reaches 99C. That's why I'll prefer a stable solution.

Odd though, my PC has not crashed from the time I bought it(4-5 months) and I'm running some of the Asus softwares on the background everytime.

You both guy's EPU software would be different for sure. You can try to find an update. Visit your mobo Asus page and downloads section.

EPU likes me :) I won't update, but for info I think i have 1.0.1.3 or something and there is currently 1.0.2.0 or something.

I think that's what my (sometimes hit and miss) updater said.

ps. no crashes here.