stufz
godly
Joined: Oct 02, 2011
Posts: 1197
Location: sasnakia
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 Posted:
Thu Apr 05, 2012 5:44 pm |
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Been readin up on this OC stuff with this site's - PureOverclock.com - intro from last year, to the Asus P8Z68 V-Pro mobo
Overclocking - Overview
As far as overclocking goes now, Intel changed the rules with the release of the Sandy Bridge chips and what we saw in the P67 chipset. Those significant differences continue here in Z68, and we'll discuss them now for anyone that's new to the 2nd Gen Core chips, in order to best understand the methods and implications of what can be done (or not) in terms of overclocking.
The first thing to understand is that the locked CPU models have limited overclocking: 2400, 2500, and 2600. The K-models such as 2500K and 2600K can be overclocked significantly, and for a modest price increase, we recommend the K models over the regular chips.
The second thing to understand here is that the BCLK of 100 can be increased only slightly. Unlike the old days where a 450 FSB was possible, and a 220 BCLK was achievable on a Core i7 900, Sandy Bridge boards will only hit about 109 BLCK at most. The bus cannot be changed much at all, which is why the locked chips cannot be overclocked much due to their limited multiplier and minimal BCLK movement. Essentially, non-K CPUs will therefore have very limited overclocking, end of story. Since overclocking Sandy Bridge is more reliant on the multiplier, the unlocked K-series chips can be pushed much farther even though the BCLK has little wiggle room.
The next major difference is that Turbo now comes into play very heavily. Even the base 2400 has a Turbo Mode that will inherently act like an overclocked situation. The Turbo will boost the multi on the chip when under load, like an "insta-OC". Linked to all this is that C1E, EIST, and Speedstep must be left ON. Unlike all previous generation processors that overclocked better with these turned off, that has now changed and these "speed adjusting" settings must be enabled.
Another critical point in overclocking Sandy Bridge is that all K-series chips have a multiplier wall. Previous generation Intel CPUs responded to increased voltage and lower temperatures to achieve higher clock speeds. That is no longer the case. A chip has a maximum multiplier it will achieve; additional voltage or lower temperatures will not improve the results. Each chip will have an inherently different multiplier wall. Essentially this means that voltage, temperatures, and motherboard model will not make a difference in the maximum overclock of a particular chip; it all depends on the chip now.
Now for the interesting stuff ....
Therefore, this also means that sub-zero cooling with dry ice or liquid nitrogen will no longer help improve overclocking results. In fact, Sandy Bridge chips will downclock and will lose performance scaling when very low temperatures are applied. As a result, air cooling is all that's really necessary to hit the maximum overclock on a particular chip. Water cooling will help keep load temperatures lower, but will not produce a higher multiplier.
So, despite having an unlocked K-series CPU, you may reach the maximum mutliplier regardless of the cooling used or voltage applied. There is a bit of wiggle room to tweak the BLCK to squeeze a bit more out of a chip to hit the magical 5GHz if you have a cherry chip to begin with, but the days of juicing up a cheap chip to insane speeds are pretty much over.
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Last edited by stufz on Thu Apr 05, 2012 7:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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stufz
godly
Joined: Oct 02, 2011
Posts: 1197
Location: sasnakia
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| Posted:
Thu Apr 05, 2012 7:02 pm |
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