Q9300 / Yoirkfield multiplier flexability?

[geno]

For some reason, my BIOS (Gigabyte P35-DS3L) is allowing me to slightly adjust the multiplier on my new Q9300 which I just brought home last night. My BIOS lets me switch between a multipliers if 6.0, 6.5, 7.0 and 7.5. Is this common for Yorkfield CPUs? I thought all multipliers were locked from Intel and that was that?

 

[haffey]

My Q9300 can do those too. You're going to want 7.5X though, even though it's a shitty multi. Brings you to about 3.5GHz max.

 

[geno]

My problem is cooling right now, but OC'ing is definitely on the horizon for my chip. I'd be more than happy with 3.5, to be honest, considering what I paid for it

 

[haffey]

That's max though. With a dangerously high vCore and a Zalman CNPS 9500 LED I was able to get up to 3.3GHz. With a nearly stock vCore I am stable at 3.2GHz. I think my problem might be NB temps though - I need an infrared thermometer to check (my P5E doesn't have NB and SB temp sensors).

 

[yh125d]

You can adjust the multi down, but not up. My e7200 can go from 6-9.5

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: yh125d
You can adjust the multi down, but not up. My e7200 can go from 6-9.5

:thumbsup: Maximum multiplier is the default (for advertised/rated speed). The lowest available multiplier is for power saving (Intel uses 6x). No surprise that multipliers in-between are available (provided you have the right BIOS/tweak tool).

 

[geno]

Is there any reason Intel is providing this odd bit of flexibility?

 

[ther00kie16]

Originally posted by: geno
Is there any reason Intel is providing this odd bit of flexibility?

betasub already said it. it's for power-saving. think it started with athlon xp-m chips.
so if you aren't fully loading your cpu, it won't run at 50C constantly.

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: geno
Is there any reason Intel is providing this odd bit of flexibility?

power saving

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: geno
Is there any reason Intel is providing this odd bit of flexibility?

It helps alot with overclocking. For example:

e7200's are adjustable 6-9.5.If I want to find the max FSB of my motherboard, I can lower the multi to 6, and crank the FAB up to 450+ knowing that if my rig gets unstable I have reached my mobo max because my proc is still only running at 6 x 450+ = 2700+mHz. I also hear that in some situations, a lower multi paired to a higher FSB can be better performance than the max multi and a normal FSB. Like a 9 x 400 setup for 3600mHz might be slightly slower than a 8 x 450 for 3600mHz