So, I finally made the jump to the green side 🙂—solved my overheating issues and picked up an i7-2600 . For the same amount of cash, I'm getting similar performance while pulling about 100-150W less under load . It’s a non-K processor, so I have to ask: am I actually left with any overclocking options here? All I've managed to do is bump the multiplier to 39, which leaves me sitting at 3.9GHz. There are options for up to 42, but nothing seems to stick; even though the BIOS claims 4200MHz, Windows keeps reporting 3900MHz .
Since the frequency just stays locked at whatever value I set the multiplier to, perhaps a better route would be bumping the Turbo Boost multiplier? I have an unlimited range of numbers there too, yet the absolute ceiling I can hit is 3.9GHz across all four cores . A few questions: is 3.9GHz my hard limit if I don't mess with the BCLK?
Turbo seems to shut itself off once I hit around 55°C... is there any way to raise that thermal threshold? Perhaps some power-saving feature or a specific power limit is throttling things? Are these settings on this page looking alright to you ?
Also, if overclocking is out of the question, maybe I could at least try underclocking. But the BIOS won't let me drop the voltage any lower—or maybe I'm just missing it. This is everything I've got to work with .
The board is throttling—or so says some guy I chatted with on an overseas forum. I can never quite recall which specific site it was, but apparently, the Giga UD3 (my current board) suffers from a hard-coded BIOS flaw that causes the VRMs to throttle prematurely due to temperature spikes, if I remember correctly.
I mean, look, the VRM doesn't have its own clock speed, but it heats up in direct correlation with the processor, right? When the CPU is under a heavy load, it draws more power, and since that current flows straight through the VRM, it naturally runs hotter.
I’ve been wondering—is there actually any game or specific workload, or even just general PC use, that can heat up my CPU and motherboard as intensely as running Prime95 Small FFTs (that CPU-heavy stress test) or an Intel burn test?
My overclock itself is perfectly stable; the issue is strictly the motherboard—and I mean the board itself, not some minor setting, I've double-checked this a thousand times. When I run Prime95 Small FFTs, once things start getting hot, the VRMs throttle down to 1400MHz for a few seconds every single minute.
When I switch over to Large FFTs, everything stays fine; temperatures stay about 10°C lower, and there’s absolutely no throttling.
So, the question is: does this kind of thermal struggle only happen during these extreme, artificial stress tests, or is it possible that in "real life"—especially once summer hits—I might run into this throttling while I'm just playing games?
I finished running the 3-4x IBTA standard—it passed. I’m about to kick off 20 passes at the "very high" setting, just like you suggested, since you mentioned those results are actually reliable. I'll be cross-referencing everything with Prime95, OCCT, and IBT to be sure.
Hmm, I don't know... GTA 5?
There is also this one thing that keeps bothering me during the overclocking process—specifically when I try manual voltage settings in the BIOS. When I set it manually, the voltage refuses to drop during idle. Even though Cool & Quiet drops the clock down to 1.4GHz, that manual voltage stays stuck right where I put it. Meanwhile, if I leave it on Auto, the system drops to 1.4GHz and the voltage dips down to 0.9V perfectly fine. Is this just the inevitable fate of anyone attempting an overclock, or am I doing something wrong here?...
Well, I went ahead and set HPC to off while keeping APM on—this guy in the link provided a pretty solid, well-reasoned argument for why we should stick to that configuration, and honestly, the results speak for themselves. I’m seeing a legitimate 5°C difference in my benchmarks: HPC off/APM on sits at 55°C, whereas HPC on/APM off jumps up to 60°C.
But now I find myself wondering... in any actual, real-world scenario, would the hardware's ability to throttle down its clock speed even be noticeable? This guy argues it won't be—that it happens within a millisecond and is essentially irrelevant. With these specific settings: During Prime95 Small FFT tests, my frequency is bouncing all over the place between 3600 and 4200 MHz—Hardware Monitor likely doesn't have a fast enough refresh rate to catch everything, so it probably just displays the lowest dip it sees. Then, during the Prime95 Blend test, the frequency stays locked right at 4200 MHz. So, it's entirely possible that HPC isn't actually playing a role here; it might just come down to the application itself. It seems the computer simply identifies an opportunity to drop the clock speed for the user, and it happens so seamlessly that nobody even notices.
Apparently, I have far too much time on my hands—again—so I decided to dive back into testing. It really just refuses to hit 4.5GHz. Seriously. Stock voltage? Nothing. Pushing it to 1.45v? Still nothing. I’ve played around with LLC settings and various other tweaks, but I have absolutely no desire to push past 1.45v... why bother risking it? Even at 4.3GHz with stock voltage, I'm hitting errors in Prime95 within ten minutes. However, at 4.2GHz using stock voltage—which, mind you, drops as low as 1.32v during the actual stress test while set to Auto in the BIOS—it stays rock stable.
I also wanted to ask—after some digging and searching online—I stumbled upon this link where someone suggests avoiding HPC and disabling APM entirely, yet the advice here seems to suggest the exact opposite.http://www.ronwoods.us/2014/02/what-...ion-power.htmlAny thoughts on this?
Also->
Is it normal for Windows to report 4.0GHz when it's actually running at 4.2? And is it standard for it to show 4 cores when there are actually 8 present?
Well, I finally threw in the towel—I’ve reverted everything back to stock settings, though I did leave the HPC (High Performance mode) toggled ON just to prevent those annoying frequency fluctuations under load...
It seems like hitting that overclock target isn't happening, and frankly, my desire for total silence has evaporated😁 My dual-fan CPU cooler is barely spinning at 600rpm, yet to push this processor to 4.5GHz, I'd need a staggering 4.45v. Even then, temperatures in OCCT climb to the 60-65°C range, and once you factor in that Intel IBT-AVX setting we discussed, it hits 70°C—which is starting to feel like the danger zone...
And I have to wonder—is there even any real-world benefit to successfully pushing this to 4.5GHz? Since it already hits 4.2GHz on stock using Turbo Boost, are we actually going to notice a tangible difference in daily use? Or am I just chasing ghosts? Besides, I've realized the downside of manual voltage tweaking: the power draw stays constant. With "Cool & Quiet" enabled, it just lowers the frequency, whereas on stock settings, the voltage drops down to a much more reasonable 0.9v during idle.
Let’s not overcomplicate things—just take a look and let me know what needs changing 😁
I did a little digging online and realized I had my understanding of throttling all wrong—I honestly thought it was just a temperature issue, but it turns out it was some specific feature causing those constant frequency fluctuations. Now that I've disabled what you suggested, the frequency stays steady during testing.
Also, is it actually worth messing around with the memory settings by trying to shave down the latencies?
Well, let's see. The 8350... the voltage isn't even that high—stock sits at 1.4V, right? At that stock voltage, I was already seeing errors in Prime and OCCT after just one minute at 4.5GHz. Once I bumped it to 1.45V, Prime stayed stable for 40 minutes, though OCCT threw an error after five. Just typical, isn't it?
And what do you mean by Turbo? There is no Turbo setting in my BIOS. I disabled Cool'nQuiet and then turned it back on after you mentioned it helps with "chilling," plus I toggled two other power-saving features—nothing else in the BIOS has been touched. I've only overclocked using the multiplier at 22.5. Is that how it’s supposed to be done? Should I leave the BCLK alone?
Once we finally land on a stable clock, do I just turn Cool'nQuiet back on, or should I enable C1E and C6 as well?
It isn't throttling, if that's what you're asking. The cooler is a beefy 1kg Raijintek Nemesis, and temperatures under Prime stay around 45°C.
I even tried 1.5V at 4.7GHz, but both OCCT and Prime were completely unstable.
Ran Prime95 for about 40 minutes and it passed without a hitch But then I threw OCCT at it—it errored out after just 5 minutes
Is this actually stable, or am I just playing with fire here?
Also, my frequency keeps jumping all over the place—anywhere from 4.1 to 4.5GHz according to HW Monitor. Is that normal behavior, or should I be worried?
I'm looking to ship a wristwatch—roughly 70-80 grams—over to the USA. What’s the most budget-friendly way to get this done while still getting a tracking number? Honestly, all I really need is some sort of proof that the watch actually made it to its destination, and I need to be able to declare a value of $500. I've been browsing the Overseas website, and from what I can tell, $98 seems like a massive overkill for such a tiny item, don't you think?
Where in the States can I pick up one of those neck training harnesses—you know, the ones where you hang weights from them—and what’s the damage to my wallet? Also, if there’s a way to order something a bit more budget-friendly online, I'm all ears. One more thing: are standard neck bridges actually more effective for building mass and strength, or should I just stick to the harness and hanging weights?
I spotted one on eBay for about $27. Think it'll do the job? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Neck-Harness...item338abe5fa7
What is actually going on with this doctors' strike? I need to see a urologist—is there even any point in showing up to the hospital, or am I just going to waste my afternoon sitting in a waiting room?
What’s the best—and then subsequently the most budget-friendly—way to ship a bike shock (http://www.bike-mailorder.de/out/pic...warz-59617.jpg), weighing about 2.5kg, over to the USA?
Is there any way I can wipe a hard drive running Windows 7—meaning, just completely scrub all the data off it—without actually having any RAM available in the machine itself? To give you some context, I’m selling off my entire desktop setup; I already moved the RAM earlier today, but in my haste, I totally forgot to format the hard drive 🙂. I really don't want this buyer poking around through my private documents . Also, is it even possible for them to dig into the files (get into Windows)? I have a login password set up before anyone can even get to the desktop, but is that something that's easily bypassed?
Whenever I attempt to run the native disk defragmenter on Windows, I’m met with this message:
I tried digging into Task Scheduler to see if I could force it—you know how it goes—but it just keeps insisting "remote computer not found." It's the same old story every single time.
It’s been months since I last defragmented... honestly, it’s probably long overdue, isn't it?
