Any way to force an i5 to stay @ turbo speed?

[Blue_Max]

I bought an i5 2500S for super-cheap... it's a great processor but base 2.7GHz and Turbo 3.7GHz it quite the bump.

Any BIOS setting or utility that can lock it at the 3.7 Turbo speed so I know I'm getting max performance? :awe:

 

[SPBHM]

as long as you have p67/z68/z75/z77 board
I would expect you to be able to use whatever is the max turbo core clock for 4 cores loaded (2.8GHz?) + 400MHz (that's 3.2GHz), additionally I think when you load just 1-2 cores it would jump as high as 4.1GHz

AND you can add to that BCLK OC (another 5%, maybe)

But no, you cannot use the max turbo clock (for 1c) with all cores being loaded.

 

[Blue_Max]

I do have a Z77... this was for a standard 2500, not the K right?

 

[SPBHM]

I do have a Z77... this was for a standard 2500, not the K right?

yes, I'm pretty sure it works the same as any locked sandy bridge i5...

max turbo (2.8GHz for 4c load on your CPU) + 4x (400MHz with BCLK 100)

 

[Deders]

I don't think you need to, if you download Argus Monitor and check both sections in the performance tab you will see exactly what your CPU is doing in real time.

I think you'll agree that Intel have dealt with the power/performance ratio's very well and you're better off leaving it as it is.

 

[Vectronic]

I'm in the "leave it alone" boat as well... you will get a very VERY slight performance increase if you could keep it at 100%... but it's negligible, and probably not worth the extra power use, fan noise, or hassle of trying to keep it there (especially if using OS/user-time software to overclock/force "turbo" speed).

There's a fairly good chance if you try and keep it at turbo speeds, it will be lower than single-core turbo speed (as mentioned)... you might lose the single/dual core turbo speeds by keeping all 4 cores at the lower turbo speed.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah, my CPU will take any excuse to speed up from idle.

I've seen CPU-Z go from 1600 to 4200 just because I opened a folder full of pictures to thumbnail.

 

[blackened23]

Curious, why would you do this? Nothing good comes from this because for menial tasks, you won't notice a difference between idle clockspeeds and turbo; Word, Powerpoint and Chrome will all still load instantly. The only appreciable differences where Turbo makes a difference is when you get into demanding applications. This is aside from the fact that 24/7 turbo will have a price to be paid in terms of temperatures and noise.

With that said, i'm pretty sure you can disable some C-states (C1 I think) and speedstep to do what you want. I just would not recommend it. I can't think of any situation where it makes sense.

 

[Blue_Max]

I was just hoping for more Folding@Home performance... with all 4 cores active @ 100% each core is only ~2.8GHz

At least it's low voltage and cool. S-editions are good for that... good 24/7 folders.