Noob wants to OC his 2600k....

[SkyBum]

It's been stated a lot that overclocking is easier than ever with the latest hardware, but I have to admit , I'm a bit overwhelmed by the task of overclocking my CPU.

I realize that it's no big deal for most of you, but I don't even know where to start. I've already enabled turbo boost and it's now running at 3.5 according to cpu-z. But where to go from here? Not looking for an extreme bump, but it seems that I should definitely have plenty more headroom if only I understood the prodedure a bit more.

Anyone know of an overview / guide which might be specific to my motherboard? Also, I'm currently using the f5 bios, should I be looking at upgrading that or would it be ok for a modest OC (really didnt want to go there if possible).

Thanks for any advice...

 

[boxleitnerb]

1. Disable turbo
2. Set multiplier to a reasonable value, lets say 42
3. Use dvid (dynamic vcore).
4. Try out combinations of multiplier and dvid to achieve your desired result

For example, my 2600K makes 4300MHz with DVID of +0.04V = 40mV
No other voltages or settings were changed

Oh, 5.
Check voltages and temps! Check voltage in the Bios and with CPU-Z (I don't know how reliable the latter is, though). Don't go overboard with the voltages. I think you should not go beyond 1.35V under load for 24/7 (if at all). If I can believe CPU-Z, under load I have something in the range of 1.28-1.3V.

 

[Remobz]

1. Disable turbo
2. Set multiplier to a reasonable value, lets say 42
3. Use dvid (dynamic vcore).
4. Try out combinations of multiplier and dvid to achieve your desired result

For example, my 2600K makes 4300MHz with DVID of +0.04V = 40mV
No other voltages or settings were changed

Oh, 5.
Check voltages and temps! Check voltage in the Bios and with CPU-Z (I don't know how reliable the latter is, though). Don't go overboard with the voltages. I think you should not go beyond 1.35V under load for 24/7 (if at all). If I can believe CPU-Z, under load I have something in the range of 1.28-1.3V.

Is 4300MHZ considered a safe overclock for beginners?

I have always wondered what would be considered an EASY and SAFE first time overclock YET still seeing some performance gains to make it worthwhile.

The 2600K I am talking about of course.

 

[boxleitnerb]

I would say you begin to notice a performance gain of about 20-25%. Based on the default clocks that would be in the 4.1-4.2 GHz region. I think every 2600K will do up to 4.5 - but at what voltage, that is the question.
I'm content with 4300, because I would have to increase voltage disproportionately to get higher. I'm rather the moderate overclocker that doesn't want to burn 250W on a CPU

 

[tweakboy]

What are you load temps ? what temp does it reach when you play game ,,,

up to 70's c is still considered safe by Intel,

but recommend is 50's to 60's celcius on full load.

Once CPU gets too hot at a certain degree it will shut down the computer to save its life. Let us know your temps,, anyone can press couple keys and OC to 4.3Ghz the thing now is if its stable and what the temps are ? gl

 

[boxleitnerb]

It's stable allright. Temps are 50 max, haven't seen it any higher (silent watercooling). Honestly, I didn't want to test and tweak for 3 days, so I went for quick and dirty.

The temps Intel refers to is Tcase max I think - which is not the actual CPU temperature:
http://www.techreaction.net/2009/10/14/guide-to-understanding-intel-temperatures/

I would worry if software sensors read more than 80 under load, but below that it's just fine.

 

[imaheadcase]

2600k you can just set the multiplier to 45 and thats it. Unless of course you want to go higher you can start with other stuff. But 4.5ghz is a nice overclock for not messing with anything else


If you get a really saucy cpu you can try higher multipliers. Mine boot into windows at 4.8..but benchmarks crap out on it. Could make it work no doubt, but its it really worth it for the diminishing returns with most games I play? Not to me, but its just preference if you do something specific for it.

 

[boxleitnerb]

2600k you can just set the multiplier to 45 and thats it. Unless of course you want to go higher you can start with other stuff. But 4.5ghz is a nice overclock for not messing with anything else


If you get a really saucy cpu you can try higher multipliers. Mine boot into windows at 4.8..but benchmarks crap out on it. Could make it work no doubt, but its it really worth it for the diminishing returns with most games I play? Not to me, but its just preference if you do something specific for it.

Do you let your mainboard determine vcore, then?

 

[SkyBum]

Well I did as boxleitnerb suggested (42x and DVID of +0.04V) BIOS is reporting vcore @ 1.356.

I have since taken it down to 38x just to be on the safe side but I am not sure about this DVID setting (not sure what the stock setting was) but I set it back from +0.04 to +0.00 and also returned the cpu vcore to auto. What should this value have been before I changed it?

Still, the bios is reporting 1.356 vcore, is this anything I should be concerned about?

cpu-z currently shows x16 and core voltage of 1.022 - 1.128

Edit: one more question. Difference between failsafe defaults and optimized defaults?

 

[boxleitnerb]

The DVID increases the voltage in respect to standard voltage. If you were to set let's say 1.3V manually, you would always have (roughly)1.3V, regardless if your CPU is idle, under light or heavy load.

1.356 is a bit much, especially at defaults. Although I also have a Gigabyte board, yours could act differently. Maybe someone else could provide some insight. Better safe than sorry and I don't want to give any wrong tips.

Maybe you should load optimized defaults and report what vcore you have in the bios. Failsafe defaults is "stable but slow(er)" while optimized defaults it "less stable but fast(er)".

 

[mrjoltcola]

I personally prefer manual vcore.

For 42x you should need no more than 1.28v - 1.30v.

1.35v is nothing to be concerned about, butit is way too much just to get 42x stsable. You can usually get 45x-46x at no more than 1.35v. That voltage is fine for Sandy Bridge, 24/7.

 

[imaheadcase]

Do you let your mainboard determine vcore, then?

I keep it at 1.300v.

 

[Kenmitch]

I would say you begin to notice a performance gain of about 20-25%. Based on the default clocks that would be in the 4.1-4.2 GHz region. I think every 2600K will do up to 4.5 - but at what voltage, that is the question.
I'm content with 4300, because I would have to increase voltage disproportionately to get higher. I'm rather the moderate overclocker that doesn't want to burn 250W on a CPU

Here is some data from when I was testing my overclocking profiles for my 2500K last week. The GFlop output is from intel burn test using the standard setting of 1024mb of memory(average) How this relates to real world use ??? but to me it somewhat gives a baseline of improvement.

3.4ghz _88.8 GFlops
4.0ghz 102.6 GFlops
4.2ghz 107.1 GFlops
4.3ghz 109.3 GFlops...Testing at 1.25 vcore sweet spot on mine.
4.4ghz 111.1 GFlops
4.5ghz 113.5 GFlops
4.6ghz 115.2 GFlops
4.7ghz 117.9 GFlops

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

That Corsair H-100 is a great cooler, anything under 4.5 Ghz should be easy as pie for it.

You might be able to get near 5 Ghz for 24/7 use with that monster.

 

[Idontcare]

Here is some data from when I was testing my overclocking profiles for my 2500K last week. The GFlop output is from intel burn test using the standard setting of 1024mb of memory(average) How this relates to real world use ??? but to me it somewhat gives a baseline of improvement.

3.4ghz _88.8 GFlops
4.0ghz 102.6 GFlops
4.2ghz 107.1 GFlops
4.3ghz 109.3 GFlops...Testing at 1.25 vcore sweet spot on mine.
4.4ghz 111.1 GFlops
4.5ghz 113.5 GFlops
4.6ghz 115.2 GFlops
4.7ghz 117.9 GFlops

It definitely speaks to your returns on the investment you are making into optimizing the OC.

Here's the GHz vs GFlops results for my OC'ing efforts:

^ the difference between your results and mine is entirely due to memory usage, I was using ~14.3GB ram for my tests which improves the GFlops as well as increases the power consumption and max temps.

I grabbed power consumption numbers for my OC's, so I was also able to plot out the GFlops/watt performance curve as a function of clockspeed:

^ this is the one that will look different for each person as your's may well have better Vcc requirements at any given clockspeed compared to mine.