Need help overclocking an Intel Xeon E3-1265LV3

[MarkJohnson]

I am having a hard time overclocking this Xeon E3 processor.

I wanted a low power i7 processor for the summer as my i3 doesn't plazy Cities:Skylines that well and my 4790k is way too hot. I found an E31265LV3 for under $180 on eBay and bought it.

I install it and it works awesome and much cooler. Now that my city has grown and is slowing down (I can't increase the simulation speed to x2 or x3 anymore) and I want to overclock it so it will run faster again.

I notice in my BIOS I have a force turbo on all core in my BIOS (Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5) but it sill only run turbo at 3.1GHz instead of the claimed 3.7GHz turbo. It does run 3.7GHz when I'm not gaming and just surfing or watch videos, etc.

The BIOS even has TDP watts and Amps setting. I raise them both, but it still runs 3.1GHz on load.

Is there any way to do this? Or is this a limitation of Xeon process locked by Intel? I also have an Asus Maximus VII Hero motherboard that auto-turbo my 4790k from 4.0GHz to 4.4Ghz by forcing max turbo by default.

Does Asus maybe have a better BIOS than Gigabyte and would let me force turbo on my Xeon processor?

Thanks for any advice
-=Mark=-

Also, a weird question. My Xeon is rated at 2.5GHz Processor Base Frequency, yet it never runs at 2.5GHz. I thankfully get 3.1GHz max turbo, instead of 2.5GHz I was expecting. so I'm already doing 600MHz more than I thought, but I'd love to be able to get that extra 600MHz more if possible.

 

[freeskier93]

Your Xeon has a locked multiplier, it can't be overclocked.

With Intel Turbo Boost the base frequency is the frequency the processor is guaranteed to run at under load while meeting thermal and power requirements. The max frequency can only be reached if thermals/power allow it. Something like Intel Extreme Tuning Utility will tell you temperatures, package TDP, thermal throttling, and a lot more. You might try downloading this and taking a look at the numbers while playing Cities:Skylines.

You're being limited to 3.1GHz either because of high temperature or high power consumption. Since the E3-1265L v3 is a low power chip with a 45 watt TDP it likely can't sustain 3.7GHz under load without violating it's rated TDP.

 

[MarkJohnson]

I'll try the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and see what it reports.

So is the processor locked at 45wats TDP? That would explain why I can't hold 3.7GHz. But I already undervolted the CPU in the BIOS in hopes I could get a little higher clocks, but it still stays at 3.1GHz no matter what settings I adjust.

Maybe I can get further with software?

Thanks
-=Mark=-

 

[crashtech]

You can't overclock Ivy (E3 v3) Xeons, nor any thereafter. It is said that in some circumstances, the E3 v2 Sandy Xeons could be slightly overclocked by using Turbo bins, even though the multiplier is locked. But even that trick seems to have been eliminated for v3 and later.

 

[Minot]

That is a good price for that chip, even with its locked multiplier.

 

[zir_blazer]

If the max turbo is 3.7 GHz, it SHOULD be possible to get to it using Multicore Enhancement. Chances are that MCE is intended for regular Processors and not low power (Core i3/i5/i7 35W TDP or similar Xeons E3), since the delta between base and max turbo is very wide. May actually want to see if Gigabyte support can tell you if the BIOS can or not do so.
Also, not wanting a Ci7 4790K because "its too hot" then pick that Xeon and going for 3.7 GHz should produce similar results. The 4790K is at an advantage since its based on Devil's Canyon packaging. If anything, you should have picked the 4790K and undervolted it instead of picking that Xeon and overclock it. You would have saved yourself from spending money on another part which is more hard to work with.

 

[know of fence]

In theory the maximum Turbo frequency should only be reachable with one core active, the second highest bin with 2 cores, third highest bin with 3 cores and 4th highest bin with all 4 cores active. So it shouldn't be surprising that you only consistently reach 3.1 GHz running a multi threaded stress test. Maybe if you used some power virus the CPU would go back to base frequency even.

Also the frequency that is displayed (in CPU-Z or whatever) is always an average. Averages tend to end up somewhere in the middle. There are very few (free) programs that can plot the actual frequency, changing every couple milliseconds.

 

[freeskier93]

In theory the maximum Turbo frequency should only be reachable with one core active, the second highest bin with 2 cores, third highest bin with 3 cores and 4th highest bin with all 4 cores active. So it shouldn't be surprising that you only consistently reach 3.1 GHz running a multi threaded stress test. Maybe if you used some power virus the CPU would go back to base frequency even.

Also the frequency that is displayed (in CPU-Z or whatever) is always an average. Averages tend to end up somewhere in the middle. There are very few (free) programs that can plot the actual frequency, changing every couple milliseconds.

Good points about specific core frequency.

OP another tool to look at is Windows' own Performance Monitor. It's a bit of a pain to use but it has a ton of things it can monitor. One is frequency on a per core/thread basis.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

You can't overclock Ivy (E3 v3) Xeons, nor any thereafter. It is said that in some circumstances, the E3 v2 Sandy Xeons could be slightly overclocked by using Turbo bins, even though the multiplier is locked. But even that trick seems to have been eliminated for v3 and later.

You can still have all cores run the highest turbo multiplier on the E3 v3 chips with the right board and BIOS version. Bryan at Tech Yes City has his 1231v3 at the 3.8 GHz single/dual core turbo on all four cores on an Asus B85 Pro Gamer, but he said he could only do it on one BIOS version. I can't get my 1231v3 to run any higher than the 3.6 GHz stock quadcore turbo when I have all cores active though using a Gigabyte H81 board which was great for overclocking my Pentium.

 

[crashtech]

You can still have all cores run the highest turbo multiplier on the E3 v3 chips with the right board and BIOS version. Bryan at Tech Yes City has his 1231v3 at the 3.8 GHz single/dual core turbo on all four cores on an Asus B85 Pro Gamer, but he said he could only do it on one BIOS version. I can't get my 1231v3 to run any higher than the 3.6 GHz stock quadcore turbo when I have all cores active though using a Gigabyte H81 board which was great for overclocking my Pentium.

OK, change "You can't" to "It's highly unlikely to be able to". I've tried it on ASRock and Gigabyte Z77 boards with no joy.