Intel Core i5 & i7 Sandy Bridge Overclocking and Feedback

[NdMk2o1o]

WOW are those load voltages!? If yes that is possibly the best chip I've seen online yet.

Strange, wicked vcore but at .2+ more volts I don't hit 70c

 

[sneekypeet]

IDK maybe because it is an ES chip an not retail?

 

[cadaveca]

IDK maybe because it is an ES chip an not retail?

Nah. Your CPU ain't so good:

 

[sneekypeet]

seems more normal than I thought

 

[cadaveca]

Oh, sorry, wrong screenshot(no prime, no mem shot):

Besides, I gots 8GB.

 

[sneekypeet]

Oh, sorry, wrong screenshot

Oh, sorry,... wrong speed too

 

[cadaveca]

OH, sry, is this one better?

 

[sneekypeet]

way to offer up a swift

 

[Frizz]

Sell me one of your chips

 

[Ross211]

5 Ghz... its getting close ! If I'm lucky I'll get my multi to 50... def won't keep it at 50 though ;~P

/edit

God I love this EFI !

4.9 Ghz

I'm gonna reboot and see if I can get 5 Ghz

If I can hit a 50x multi tonight I'll re-edit and add the pics.

/double edit
Maybe I got lucky ? I can boot with a 50x multi, haven't tested stability yet... it's been a long hot summer night

I'm gonna turn down the gigglehertz and call it a night

I saw in my BIOS (EFI or whatever) that you have the ability to take a screenshot where your focus currently is and save it to a flash drive / external usb device. I'll post back tomorrow when I'm not about ready to fall asleep and give more details on what settings I was using in the BIOS to get here. Gotta love BIOS profiles

 

[cadaveca]

Hi ross, to get BIOS shots, you need a FAT32 formatted drive connected(USB works), and just hit F12 to capture a screenshot. you'll get a popup telling you it's been saved.

 

[Ross211]

I really haven't tried finely tuning any speeds yet except 4 Ghz. I've reached the max on vcore I'm going to try on this CPU. I was really interested to see if this CPU had a multiplier wall or if it could boot 5 Ghz. It can boot into 50x, I didn't attempt for 51x cause I got scurd :shadedshu

I didn't leave this CPU running more than 10 minutes at 1.465'ish volts. I've heard of some reporting there chips running at 1.5v+ at XtremeSystems I don't want to risk killing my CPU more than I already have, so I'll probably run it at 4 - 4.5 Ghz to get the best performance and thermal with the least voltage required.

I did play around a bit with LLC and Internal PLL Overvoltage settings with this setup. Is it true that LLC enabled in any form puts settings out of Intel's intended spec ? Despite what is recommended here Official ASUS P8P67 Series Overclocking Guide and Information I have been keeping LLC to regular and Internal PLL Overvoltage enabled past 49x. I could not boot into 50x without having Internal PLL Overvoltage enabled.

BIOS (EFI) Screenshots

Spoiler

^BIOS profiles make life easier

 

[cadaveca]

I could not boot into 50x without having Internal PLL Overvoltage enabled.

Overvoltage enabled pushes past the multi "wall", usually giving an extra 5 multis. Most chips will hit 50x multi with PLL overvoltage.

Regular LLC would be "Intel Spec", optimized is ASUS's optimized spec, extreme can give a bit more volts on load, very high usually "what you set is what you get", high and medium "defeats" the default droop a bit, giving slightly less drop.

Using the "OFFSET" option, it's recommended to not use LLC levels other than "normal", as this is two different ways of doing the same thing, kinda.

The "offset" option is on most boards...it's the only option on the ECS P67H2-A2 I reviewed HERE.

In regard to "going out of spec", eeven 1600 MHz memory is "out of spec", nevermind overclocking. It's not that big of a deal, and typically, is never much of an issue, as long as you aren't really "overdoing" it.

All that said, I settled on 4.5 GHz on both of my CPUs, too; seems fast enough, temps are decent(~65c), and stability is pretty easy to attain.

 

[Ross211]

Using the "OFFSET" option, it's recommended to not use LLC levels other than "normal", as this is two different ways of doing the same thing, kinda.

The "offset" option is on most boards...it's the only option on the ECS P67H2-A2 I reviewed HERE.

I think I almost figured out the hard way about why you should not use the Offset option when having LLC set to High or Ultra. I booted into Windows at 50x using the Offset option with LLC set to high = vcore really high, 1.51'ish volts I rebooted immediately after seeing this in CPU-Z, so it wasn't under stress for more than a minute. It is puzzles me that you can set the vcore manually, have LLC enabled and it will give the CPU lower vcore than when using the Offset method with no LLC. I imagine all it takes is one last step into higher voltage to kill a CPU, not something I want to do myself.

Thanks for the tip !

 

[l0ud_sil3nc3]

@ Ross211

no need to worry about killing your chip with 1.46v you will be fine

the latest 2600k I have does 50X100 with 1.416v actual 24/7 under water with no problems, and I can still bench 5520 with the same volts as when I got it second hand, so I don't think you will face any degradation issues, surprisingly 1155 32nm chips are quite a bit stronger than their gulftown counterparts.

here is one of the 2500k we are binning

 

[Millennium]

I am thinking I have a poor 2500k. Should have expected that though as I got it second hand.

My clock at the moment is 4.5ghz @ 1.344 vcore (CPU-Z under load). I spent some time trying to get 4.6 stable (46x 100) yesterday, I had to up the vcore past 1.42 and it still wasn't stable. Prime temps were hitting 70 so I might try again later as this is not too bad.
So I gave up on 4.6 and am sticking to 4.5 on this chip for now.

This is annoying because I see a lot of systems in the UK with this chip overclocked to 4.6 or even 4.8 ghz and then sold with warranty. So these kinds of speeds should be achievable is how I see it. I tried PLL overvoltage too, no joy. Shame.

On the bright side I can stick in a Ivy Bridge chip next year and have another go. Cadaveca, have you ever tested a chip as bad as this one seems to be?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I kinda feel your pain. the last machine i built for someone with a 2500k refused to clock anywhere above 4.7 where as mine has hit 4.9

I suppose there are some bad batches rolling out of the plant recently.

 

[PaulieG]

I am thinking I have a poor 2500k. Should have expected that though as I got it second hand.

My clock at the moment is 4.5ghz @ 1.344 vcore (CPU-Z under load). I spent some time trying to get 4.6 stable (46x 100) yesterday, I had to up the vcore past 1.42 and it still wasn't stable. Prime temps were hitting 70 so I might try again later as this is not too bad.
So I gave up on 4.6 and am sticking to 4.5 on this chip for now.

This is annoying because I see a lot of systems in the UK with this chip overclocked to 4.6 or even 4.8 ghz and then sold with warranty. So these kinds of speeds should be achievable is how I see it. I tried PLL overvoltage too, no joy. Shame.

On the bright side I can stick in a Ivy Bridge chip next year and have another go. Cadaveca, have you ever tested a chip as bad as this one seems to be?

Are you overclocking memory at all? If so, downclock ram to stock before overclocking the cpu as stressing the IMC can affect your cpu clock. Also, have you tried bumping VCCIO just a little. Even if you are not overclocking your ram, bumping VCCIO to 1.1v may help stabilize your overclock

I kinda feel your pain. the last machine i built for someone with a 2500k refused to clock anywhere above 4.7 where as mine has hit 4.9

I suppose there are some bad batches rolling out of the plant recently.

Sometimes expectations are a little high. I think there were some stats given on Hardwarecanucks stating that only 40% of SB chips can be overclocked above 4.6 stable with reasonable voltage, and only 10% above 4.8. Not sure it's accurate, but it's some frame of reference.

 

[cadaveca]

Cadaveca, have you ever tested a chip as bad as this one seems to be

Sure. Just luck of the draw, I guess.


To me, a "bad" chip won't hit 4.5 GHz at all. really, i've never been too concerned with the voltage required.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Ross... your Vcore is too high. recommend staying under 1.4v as much as possible. any higher then that and it WILL kill your CPU.

theres a thread on Xtreme forums where a guy ran 1.45v-1.5v through his new 2500k and it was dead within 2 weeks.


id go as high as 1.35-1.38v if it wont clock to the moon on that voltage. then you just have to accept that it wont do it. and leave it be instead of pushing your luck

 

[t_ski]

Are any of the G series Sandy Bridge chips worth overclocking?

 

[cadaveca]

Are any of the G series Sandy Bridge chips worth overclocking?

No. All non-K chips are limited to +400 MHz on the CPU.

 

[t_ski]

So it's possible, but just not very fruitful? I just bought a P67 board, but probably need to start with a low-end CPU until the prices come down on these.

 

[cadaveca]

So it's possible, but just not very fruitful? I just bought a P67 board, but probably need to start with a low-end CPU until the prices come down on these.

It's not fruitful because the chips are locked up tight, and the bus barely moves. Locked chips are limited to maximum 4 CPU bins(multis) higher than stock, or +400 MHz. Maximum clocks of an i5 2400, for example, are around 4.0 GHz, but that's for single-threaded workloads only.

You do not buy anything other than a "K" chip, if you want to get anything decently resembling an overclock. The "budget" option is the 2500K, which for most gamers/mainstream users, is THE chip to get. the 2600K's addition of HyperThreading is only truly useful for those that do lots of encoding, etc.

stolen pic showing how it works with i5 2500(non-K)(thanks bit-tech):

 

[PaulieG]

It's not fruitful because the chips are locked up tight, and the bus barely moves. Locked chips are limited to maximum 4 CPU bins(multis) higher than stock, or +400 MHz. Maximum clocks of an i5 2400, for example, are around 4.0 GHz, but that's for single-threaded workloads only.

You do not buy anything other than a "K" chip, if you want to get anything decently resembling an overclock. The "budget" option is the 2500K, which for most gamers/mainstream users, is THE chip to get. the 2600K's addition of HyperThreading is only truly useful for those that do lots of encoding, etc.

stolen pic showing how it works with i5 2500(non-K)(thanks bit-tech):

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2011/01/intel-sandy-bridge-review/locked.jpg

Yeah, they are really locked up. The i5 2300 that's used in the family/crunching rig will barely move at all before it becomes very unstable, and one up from that the system will not boot. However, if you are not overclocking, it's a really efficient little chip.