Newbie needs help on i3 overclocking

marko64

Junior Member
Jul 19, 2010
9
0
0
Hi guys, this is my second post on the forum..

I am currently having a core i3 system with gigabyte p55-ud3 board..
and a GTX 470 card!

so I am really sure that my cpu will bottleneck the GPU.. right?

so I decided to overclock the i3...to 4ghz if possible?
problem is that i don't know how to do it :D

I've read a couple of guides on the web, but still confused and don't get it..

so if anyone could direct me to an easy way to do this..
or a good read that could help, I will appreciate it :)

ps: I placed an order for cm hyper 212 plus,..
not sure if still on stock...
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,582
10,785
136
A few points:

1). Install that Hyper 212+ before overclocking. It'll make your life much easier.

2). The only thing you really need to do is raise BCLK until your CPU speed reaches 4 ghz. Since you didn't tell us which Core i3 you have, I'll list the BCLK speeds you'll need based on the CPU:

Core i3 530: 22x CPU multi, 182 BCLK
Core i3 540: 23x CPU multi, 174 BLCK
Core i3 550: 24x CPU multi, 167 BCLK

See? It's simple. Just divide your desired speed (in mhz) by the multiplier, and whammo, there's your BCLK. You should be able to reach those speeds without touching any voltages, though it is HIGHLY recommended that you set all your voltages in BIOS manually to stock settings to make sure your board won't automatically overvolt anything as you raise BCLK (that is, if your board does that . . . some do, some don't). As long as your BCLK stays at or below 200-210 (which will be guaranteed if you stop at 4 ghz), you shouldn't have to touch your QPI multiplier either. RAM, I'm not sure. If your RAM is good, you shouldn't have to mess with the RAM multiplier.
 

marko64

Junior Member
Jul 19, 2010
9
0
0
A few points:

1). Install that Hyper 212+ before overclocking. It'll make your life much easier.

2). The only thing you really need to do is raise BCLK until your CPU speed reaches 4 ghz. Since you didn't tell us which Core i3 you have, I'll list the BCLK speeds you'll need based on the CPU:

Core i3 530: 22x CPU multi, 182 BCLK
Core i3 540: 23x CPU multi, 174 BLCK
Core i3 550: 24x CPU multi, 167 BCLK

See? It's simple. Just divide your desired speed (in mhz) by the multiplier, and whammo, there's your BCLK. You should be able to reach those speeds without touching any voltages, though it is HIGHLY recommended that you set all your voltages in BIOS manually to stock settings to make sure your board won't automatically overvolt anything as you raise BCLK (that is, if your board does that . . . some do, some don't). As long as your BCLK stays at or below 200-210 (which will be guaranteed if you stop at 4 ghz), you shouldn't have to touch your QPI multiplier either. RAM, I'm not sure. If your RAM is good, you shouldn't have to mess with the RAM multiplier.

oh man!! is it really that simple ?
I've read This Guide and I thought to myself,.. well thats too hard and alot!!
or am I missing something here?
 

betasub

Platinum Member
Mar 22, 2006
2,677
0
0
And forgetting worrying about a "bottleneck". Your computer will always have one, as performance is always limited in some way. Anyway, you don't even mention which games/apps and resolution/detail you use: some combinations will be heaily GPU-limited (even with a GTX470), other always CPU-limited (even with a >4GHz dualcore).

Hopefully you will have OCing success following LordX's basic guide. :)
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,582
10,785
136
oh man!! is it really that simple ?
I've read This Guide and I thought to myself,.. well thats too hard and alot!!
or am I missing something here?

There's more to it than I mentioned, but keep in mind that you have set a fairly simple goal for yourself given the chip you're overclocking and the cooling you're using.

You SHOULD be able to reach 4 ghz with stock voltages. If things don't go right, you'll start having to tweak things . . . probably vcore first, maybe vdimm and vtt. The main thing to remember is that, with your chip, things stay relatively simple so long as you don't go over around 200 BCLK. Somewhere in the 200-210 range, it gets um, a bit ugly thanks to the memory controller/igp used in i3s.

You can also try to tweak for extra performance, but doing this on an i3 (Clarkdale) may be more frustrating than on a Lynnfield or Bloomfield.
 

marko64

Junior Member
Jul 19, 2010
9
0
0
There's more to it than I mentioned, but keep in mind that you have set a fairly simple goal for yourself given the chip you're overclocking and the cooling you're using.

You SHOULD be able to reach 4 ghz with stock voltages. If things don't go right, you'll start having to tweak things . . . probably vcore first, maybe vdimm and vtt. The main thing to remember is that, with your chip, things stay relatively simple so long as you don't go over around 200 BCLK. Somewhere in the 200-210 range, it gets um, a bit ugly thanks to the memory controller/igp used in i3s.

You can also try to tweak for extra performance, but doing this on an i3 (Clarkdale) may be more frustrating than on a Lynnfield or Bloomfield.

Thanks for the reply..
well I have the i3-530.
also, I've read in the tutorial I've mentioned, that with the i3 there is a problem with the integrated GPU getting overclocked with main CPU overclock I will be doing,..
so they adviced something like downclocking the integrated gpu (I won't be using it anyway) do you have an insight on this?
 

marko64

Junior Member
Jul 19, 2010
9
0
0
And forgetting worrying about a "bottleneck". Your computer will always have one, as performance is always limited in some way. Anyway, you don't even mention which games/apps and resolution/detail you use: some combinations will be heaily GPU-limited (even with a GTX470), other always CPU-limited (even with a >4GHz dualcore).

Hopefully you will have OCing success following LordX's basic guide. :)

thanks for the advice, but I have a question.
If I will be running newest games with 1280x1050 and hopefully maximum detail/AA, what kind of things would be GPU-limited, and whats CPU-limited in that case ?
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,582
10,785
136
Thanks for the reply..
well I have the i3-530.
also, I've read in the tutorial I've mentioned, that with the i3 there is a problem with the integrated GPU getting overclocked with main CPU overclock I will be doing,..
so they adviced something like downclocking the integrated gpu (I won't be using it anyway) do you have an insight on this?

Since you're using a p55 motherboard, you can't use the igp (integrated graphics processor) anyway. The board should disable it by default; if it does not, there should be a BIOS option to disable it. I don't think downclocking it on a p55 would be necessary. As long as you stick to the 23x multiplier, you shouldn't have to raise BCLK very far which will minimize the extent to which other parts other CPU get overclocked.

But yes, raising the BCLK also increases the operating frequency of everything on the chip, including the part of the i3 that has the memory controller, igp, and pci-e controller (Clarkdale has two separate dice in one package).
 

marko64

Junior Member
Jul 19, 2010
9
0
0
Since you're using a p55 motherboard, you can't use the igp (integrated graphics processor) anyway. The board should disable it by default; if it does not, there should be a BIOS option to disable it. I don't think downclocking it on a p55 would be necessary. As long as you stick to the 23x multiplier, you shouldn't have to raise BCLK very far which will minimize the extent to which other parts other CPU get overclocked.

But yes, raising the BCLK also increases the operating frequency of everything on the chip, including the part of the i3 that has the memory controller, igp, and pci-e controller (Clarkdale has two separate dice in one package).

Nice to hear from you again..
so, if you don't mind me asking..
what options in the bios, should be disabled or enabled as a necessity after changing the bclk ?
also I've read in the tutorial provided that its better to isolate the bclk first.. but i don't get that part.. from what I understood is that you lower the multiplier of both ram and cpu, and start raising the bclk high.. but I don't understand why one should do this.. could u elaborate?
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,582
10,785
136
Nice to hear from you again..
so, if you don't mind me asking..
what options in the bios, should be disabled or enabled as a necessity after changing the bclk ?

That I don't know. You could try disabling Speedstep and C1E, but that's sort of a knee-jerk reaction on my part (I'm more of an AMD guy, and disabling CnQ + C1E is par for the course for most AMD overclocking). Spread spectrum should be disabled, as should BIOS shadowing or caching.

also I've read in the tutorial provided that its better to isolate the bclk first.. but i don't get that part.. from what I understood is that you lower the multiplier of both ram and cpu, and start raising the bclk high.. but I don't understand why one should do this.. could u elaborate?

Generally speaking, you do this to increase your QPI clock and uncore clock; the faster those go, the better memory performance you'll get. For your purposes, I wouldn't worry about that too much just yet. Just try to hit your target speed (4 ghz) without lowering your CPU multiplier.

Just out of curiosity, what RAM are you using?
 

marko64

Junior Member
Jul 19, 2010
9
0
0
thanks for the advice.. appreciate it..

about the ram, the problem that when I purchased my setup, some of the components went out of stock, so I am hopefully waiting for 4gb 2x2gb kit OCZ platinum 1333 CL7 v1.65 ram..
I heard they're good and affordable too :)