overclocking my 2500k

[linoliveira]

what the offset does, is to give you a Vcore range, and you adjust it at your own taste.
for me the Vcore (in BIOS) was 1.28.
if you let everything at stock and boot into windows and start monitoring the voltages, you will see that when your CPU goes under load, the Vcore starts climbing up (0.904 -> 1.25 for me, with power savings). If you are in need to go further, just add some values in the BIOS.
Example: you want 1.4v under load - go into BIOS and in the offset voltage set a value like +0.12. what this does is add extra voltage to the reference voltage stated at the beginning, meaning your final voltage will be 1.28+0.12=1.4v under load (this may be not so linear, but its an idea of how it works).

if you set the voltage to fixed mode, the BIOS locks the voltage to a certain value. if you input 1.4v there, the voltage will remain fixed at 1.4v no matter what load you throw at the CPU (0%load = 1.4v, 100% = 1.4v) even with power savings enabled. I don't like this because you will see the difference in the electricity bill + shorten the lifetime of the CPU.

one last thing is, the setting on the Turbo Boost setting. it has a setting to bump the CPU voltage when the turbo kicks in. mine is on auto, and it seems to give around 0.01/0.02v more than the voltage from the offset, but i might be wrong.

for what I have experienced so far, this is what i can tell. if I am wrong, please let me know!

[MxPhenom 216]

Originally Posted by linoliveira

what the offset does, is to give you a Vcore range, and you adjust it at your own taste.
for me the Vcore (in BIOS) was 1.28.
if you let everything at stock and boot into windows and start monitoring the voltages, you will see that when your CPU goes under load, the Vcore starts climbing up (0.904 -> 1.25 for me, with power savings). If you are in need to go further, just add some values in the BIOS.
Example: you want 1.4v under load - go into BIOS and in the offset voltage set a value like +0.12. what this does is add extra voltage to the reference voltage stated at the beginning, meaning your final voltage will be 1.28+0.12=1.4v under load (this may be not so linear, but its an idea of how it works).

if you set the voltage to fixed mode, the BIOS locks the voltage to a certain value. if you input 1.4v there, the voltage will remain fixed at 1.4v no matter what load you throw at the CPU (0%load = 1.4v, 100% = 1.4v) even with power savings enabled. I don't like this because you will see the difference in the electricity bill + shorten the lifetime of the CPU.

one last thing is, the setting on the Turbo Boost setting. it has a setting to bump the CPU voltage when the turbo kicks in. mine is on auto, and it seems to give around 0.01/0.02v more than the voltage from the offset, but i might be wrong.

for what I have experienced so far, this is what i can tell. if I am wrong, please let me know!

yeah but i had 1.3v set in fixed mode, and then once i went to offset mode it stayed at 1.3 and then whatever offset voltage i added is tacked onto the 1.3??

My stock voltage when i started at stock was 1.2

[linoliveira]

Originally Posted by nvidiaintelftw

yeah but i had 1.3v set in fixed mode, and then once i went to offset mode it stayed at 1.3 and then whatever offset voltage i added is tacked onto the 1.3??

My stock voltage when i started at stock was 1.2

as I said, the offset increase may not be so linear... you might add a bit more to reflect just a little at load, because of LLC (voltage lowers at load).
what I find a bit strange, is when i let the PC idle, seeding something on utorrent and one other tracker i got. I had the hwmonitor open and went dinner, when I came back the max core voltage record was 1.30 :| (at load it does a maximum of 1.26).
I srly need to understand how this works...

the stock voltage when I started was 1.184 in windows (load). what I think is that the BIOS scales the voltage considering the multiplier you set, even in manual (maybe because of the "turbo boost voltage increse" setting in the BIOS).

btw, what program you guys use to see the temperatures? I use hwmonitor as reference for everything.

EDIT: *banging my head against the wall* i forgot to disable spread spectrum
I can confirm the higher multiplier, the higher the board sets the Vcore automaticly.
Also the turbo boost voltage increase setting seems to affect nothing at all.

[techtard]

So, you liking the rig @ 4.5ghz? How does the performance feel compared to your old setup?