It so happened that in almost twenty years of IT practice I have never had to deal with overclocking - somehow everyone else had interests. Nevertheless, when choosing a configuration for the next new (although now far from new) computer, for some reason I settled on an Intel processor with an open multiplier - i5-2500K. Why I did this, I don’t remember now, perhaps I still intended to figure out in my old age what this overclocking is. And then one evening, when there was nothing to do, I realized that the moment had come, and delved into the study of the issue, and the next evening put what I had learned into practice. Which is what I'm going to report.

Overclocking theory

So, Intel itself opened the way for "home", fast and highly skilled overclocking. It would be a sin not to take advantage of this opportunity, and I began my experiments. As a test stand, as I said, for the umpteenth time my long-suffering home computer, by the way, completely unprepared for overclocking, rather, on the contrary, chosen for reasons of efficiency and noiselessness.

Experiment

Step three. 44x, that is, 1 GHz gain. Having made a brick face, I started the computer. “Well, no, that’s enough,” he replied and flew into blue screen. You need to increase the voltage of the processor. I immediately raised it to 1.4 V, so that was enough. Now I decided to operate through the GUI in Windows. In the AI ​​Suite bundled with the ASUS motherboard, the Turbo V EVO component is responsible for overclocking. For its work, this program uses the TPU controller (TurboV Processing Unit) on the motherboard. The TPU module is so intelligent that it can, without human intervention, overclock the system to the maximum possible parameters. Thus, overclocking technology, from the point of view of the "teapot", has reached its highest point, when to get the result it is enough to press one button "make everything hurt".
I was not able to really test the 4.4 GHz mode, because within a few seconds after starting the full load, the temperature rose to the maximum allowable, and I was forced to interrupt the experiment. However, I have no doubt that with normal cooling, the operation of the processor would be stable - numerous experiments of other users convince me of this. Speaking specifically about the i5-2500K, absolutely everyone has processors up to 4.5 GHz, the result of 5 GHz is quite common, and the most stubborn ones have reached 5.2 GHz. I emphasize that we are talking about stable operation under a large (test or real) load. Thus, we are dealing with more than 50% increase in frequency at minimal material and mental costs.

Results and conclusions

Someone is probably wondering what happened to the index Windows performance? Virtually nothing, it increased by only one tenth, from 7.5 to 7.6. However, do not forget that for Windows 7 the maximum index value is 7.9, so there could not be a big jump.

Now let's try to answer the question, who needs this overclocking - except, directly, overclockers? However, it was answered before us: first of all, to fans of computer games. Experiments have shown that the processing power of standard frequencies not enough to “power” top-end video cards, especially if there are several of them, and with an increase in frequency to a certain limit, performance in games also grows. Saturation occurs, by the way, at our "home" 4-4.5 GHz, it is at this frequency that the processor ceases to be the "bottleneck" of the entire system. In addition, people dealing with heavy media content, and, of course, respected fans of distributed computing, will definitely be happy with the extra gigahertz. I note that all categories of citizens will have to vigilantly monitor the temperature of the processors and their cooling system - otherwise a slight "puff" and smoke is provided.

Most PC users want to get the most performance from their PC at the lowest cost. When assembling a computer, we think that its capabilities will last for a long time. Over time, the appetites of programs and games grow, and the hardware can not cope. The computer slows down, the user is nervous and looking for ways to increase the speed of the PC. some components can be replaced to increase system responsiveness, but the processor and graphics card are components that are very expensive to replace. An alternative to boosting PC power at no cost can be to overclock your computer's processor.

Ways to overclock an AMD and Intel processor

A lot of users have heard about overclocking the processor. The ability to overclock a PC processor is not always possible. CPU manufacturers, AMD and Intel, release various processors with and without overclocking support. Ever since the late 90s, users have been fond of overclocking the then AMD K6, K7 and Intel Pentium 3, 4. Computers were very expensive, and we tried to get the most out of them. There are 2 overclocking methods Processor CPU- by bus and by multiplier. The processor frequency is determined by the product of the bus frequency by the multiplier. The overclocking procedure is performed by changing the parameters in the BIOS of the motherboard. Not all motherboards have the ability to change the frequency of the system bus and the processor multiplier.

Overclocking the processor on the bus

This method allows you to increase system performance by changing the frequency of the system bus. By increasing the frequency of the system bus of the motherboard, the user changes the exchange rate between the motherboard and RAM, processor. For the correct operation of the system after changing the frequency of the system bus, it is necessary to adjust the multiplier for the operation of the RAM, since it is able to operate at a certain frequency. For example, the Intel Core 2 Q6600 processor operates in nominal mode at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. The system bus frequency (Bus Speed) is 266MHz (266.7) with an effective frequency of 1066MHz, and the multiplier is 9.

Modern AMD and Intel processors are equipped with a feature that reduces the multiplier for the processor on the fly if its load is low. This was done to reduce the frequency of the processor in idle modes and

It is important to understand that each motherboard, like any equipment (processor, RAM) has the maximum allowable operating frequency at which it can operate. If the motherboard operates at a frequency of 1066 MHz, and the frequency of 1333 MHz is not supported, then you will have to forget about overclocking the processor via the bus.

When changing the frequency of the FSB system bus, in some cases it will be necessary to adjust the RAM frequency multiplier, since each type of RAM supports a certain top speed work.

Overclocking a PC processor by changing the multiplier

An alternative way to overclock a PC processor is to change the multiplier. Not all motherboards support the ability to change the processor multiplier. In addition, Amd and Intel release a series of PC CPUs with a locked and unlocked multiplier. Multiplier overclocking provides a smaller performance gain compared to increasing the system bus frequency.

How to keep your computer stable when overclocking

Overclocking a PC processor increases the risk of getting faulty hardware. An increase in the frequencies of the motherboard chipset, RAM, processor increases the load on the hardware elements. When designing electronic components, component developers take into account certain operating modes of equipment. The increased frequency of the PC processor increases heat dissipation, so you should take care of high-quality cooling of the processor and other computer elements that heat up significantly during PC operation. In addition, overclocking involves more energy consumption, so in some cases it will be necessary to increase the operating voltage of the processor core.

What is the risk of overclocking a computer processor?

Like any complex electronic device, the computer processor is designed based on certain operating modes. Overclocking a PC processor has particular risks for the user. Ill-conceived overclocking of the processor can lead to failure of both the processor and other components - the motherboard, chipset. Increased heat dissipation and power consumption during overclocking requires a special approach to CPU cooling, to the choice of a power supply for a PC. The user must be aware that increasing the frequency of the processor may have a lower effect than expected, and the computer will operate in an abnormal mode, which reduces the reliability and time between failures of the entire system. For example, to cool the processor, you will need a powerful cooler with a massive heatsink instead of a stock one (box) or a liquid cooling system.

For stable operation of the system at higher frequencies, it is necessary to increase the operating voltage of the processor core and motherboard chipset, which negatively affects the reliability and operating time of the PC without breakdowns.

Since the Intel Q6600 processors overclock quite well, the bus frequency was immediately increased from 266 MHz to 333 MHz:

However, since not only the frequency of the processor, but also the memory depends on the bus, it also overclocked. Here we used DDR-2 800 MHz memory modules, for which a frequency of 1000 MHz may be unbearable. To avoid overclocking, the frequency of RAM should be reduced using another setting - a multiplier (for some platforms it is more correct to use the word "divider") of memory.

In the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R BIOS, this setting is called System Memory Multiplier. Multiplying the bus frequency by this factor determines the frequency of the RAM. Since after overclocking the bus will operate at 333 MHz, you can determine the required memory multiplier by dividing the initial memory frequency by the bus frequency: 800/333=2.4. We set this value in the BIOS settings:

The motherboard warns in red text that the settings have been changed from factory to others. Nothing wrong with that. The memory, as it worked at a frequency of 800 MHz, is still working. To overclock it, in this case, you just need to set a larger multiplier value (but not too large):

Overclocking from 800 MHz to 833 MHz is, of course, not serious, but the next multiplier value after 2.5 is immediately 3.0, which is too much. It would be more successful to overclock with the possibility of increasing the processor multiplier: paired with the selection of the required bus frequency, you can configure the system more flexibly. In this case, an attempt was made to reduce the multiplier from 9.0 to 8.0. To achieve a frequency of 3000 MHz, the bus must operate at 375 MHz, and with a memory multiplier equal to 2.4, the RAM will receive a frequency of 900 MHz. The memory could not cope with such overclocking - the PC constantly hung up. With a memory multiplier of 2.0, we get only 750 MHz - below par. Therefore, it was decided as part of the first overclocking attempt to stop at the 333x9.0 option.

A successful and significant overclocking of the processor often requires a small increase in voltage. By 5-10%. Select the CPU Voltage Control item, go into it, set, for example, 1.35 V:

Thus, the processor was overclocked via the bus from 2400 MHz to 3000 MHz (333x9) with a slight increase in voltage.

To overclock the RAM, in some cases, it is necessary, just like for the processor, to slightly increase the voltage. This is done in a similar way. Select the desired item:

Set the voltage increase to +0.1 V, press Enter.

Before exiting the BIOS, check all settings:

If everything is in order, press the F10 key, then Enter.

When starting the PC, we observe the new processor frequency:

If overclocking occurs, the system may not start. In this case, you should find a plastic jumper on the board near the round silver battery. The Clear Cmos jumper closes two of the three pins by default. We rearrange it for a few seconds so as to close the middle contact with another, which was previously free. Then we return the jumper to its original place, start, reconfigure the BIOS, because after such a manipulation, the motherboard will reset all settings to factory settings.

This is how you can add 600 MHz to the processor frequency in a couple of minutes. But this is only the first approximation to the desired result.

On motherboards with AMI BIOS, everything is done in the same way. It looks like this:

For overclocking, immediately go to the "Advanced" section:

The settings of interest to the overclocker are collected in the "CPU configuration" and "Chipset configuration" tabs. Let's go to the first one:

The bus frequency here is called "CPU Host Frequency". By analogy with the Award BIOS, we switch to manual control, to Manual.

After that, you can do the frequency. The remaining parameters (voltages, memory multiplier / divider, and so on) change in a similar way:

In addition to AWARD and AMI, there is a relatively recent UEFI BIOS. Its main features include GUI with mouse support and the ability to work with hard drives with a capacity of 3 TB or more.

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Iron experiment: overclocking Intel Core i5-6400 and Core i3-6300T processors

Under pressure Intel overclocking Core CPUs have become the exclusive domain of wealthy users. Do you want more megahertz, not enough speed? Buy the most expensive chip in the line, and with it a motherboard of the appropriate level! With the release of 14-nanometer Skylake, it seemed that the “hut” turned to us in front. Having crossed ourselves, we are studying a loophole for overclocking sixth-generation neo-overclocker Intel Core chips.

This state of affairs should not be surprising. Starting with the second generation of Core processors (Sandy Bridge), the Core i5 and Core i7 series have two to three flagship processors equipped with an unlocked multiplier. These chips have distinctive overclocking symbols - the letter "K" in the name. Overclocking such models comes down to a simple increase in the multiplier. The legendary Core i5-2500K, released in 2011, easily overclocked to 5 GHz using an air cooling system. The rest of the models - those without an unlocked multiplier - were left without overclocking at all. Overclocking on the Intel bus blocked.

With the release of the third generation Core, the situation worsened. Instead of the solder used in Sandy Bridge, Intel began to add thermal paste of very mediocre quality under the cover of Ivy Bridge processors. As a result, the frankly short list of overclocking models with an unlocked multiplier was supplemented by a general decrease in overclocking potential and increased cooling requirements. Enthusiasts again remembered scalping. Modern solutions- Haswell, Broadwell and Skylake - adopted all the anti-overclocking "chips". That's how we live.

Today, on the international day of overclocking, I will talk in detail about how to get around the ban on overclocking Skylake processors without an unlocked multiplier. And what is needed for this.

Chronology of events

In the summer of 2015, a line of modern 14-nanometer Skylake chips was released. This time, Intel started with top models, and therefore the overclocker Core i5-6600K and Core i7-6700K were the first to go on sale. The processors received not only an unlocked multiplier, but also the possibility of overclocking by increasing the frequency of the BCLK clock generator (bus overclocking). I was incredibly happy about this fact, as I assigned this opportunity to all the other (not yet on sale) Skylake "stones" in advance. I didn’t rejoice for long: it soon became clear that only the Core i5-6600K and Core i7-6700K were overclocked on the bus. And only on boards with Z170 Express logic.

In December 2015, Filipino enthusiast Dhenzjhen overclocked a Core i3-6320 processor to 4680 MHz. To do this, the overclocker increased BCLK maternal Supermicro C7H170-M boards up to 120 MHz. A little later, another processor, the Core i3-6100, was overclocked to 6104 MHz using liquid nitrogen, increasing the bus frequency to 165 MHz. It turned out that Supermicro engineers bypassed the lock. A little later, other manufacturers pulled up: ASRock, ASUS, BIOSTAR, EVGA, GIGABYTE and MSI. The listed companies submitted special firmware for a range of motherboards.

The first rule of an overclocker's club: don't talk about an overclocker's club. . First, ASRock publicly announced the overclocking of the neo-overclocker Skylake. A whole marketing technology called Sky OC appeared: you update the BIOS, activate this function, and overclock the processor on the bus. The pathos was unmeasured. Other manufacturers were more modest. For example, on the ASUS website you will not find required firmware for Z170 Express motherboards. BIOSes are given to overclockers from the hwbot.org forum. Thus, there is no way to dig into ASUS, all questions are for enthusiasts. ASRock was eventually forced to drop support for the Sky OC feature. It is no longer in the new firmware. There was no information on other brands at the time of this writing, but I do not exclude a scenario in which Intel will “squeeze” other brands as well. All this leads to certain thoughts. First, the “overclocker revolution” was staged by motherboard manufacturers. They are easy to understand: in 2015, sales of high-tech PCB fell by an average of 20%, and a return to the roots of overclocking - good way push the user to move to a new platform. Second, Intel is principled. The chipmaker said: only the Core i5-6600K overclocks with the Core i7-6700K - period. Oily.

Economic expediency

Overclocking makes life better for the poor. Initially, they began to overclock iron solely for the sake of profit. The chain is simplified, but: we take a cheap processor, increase the performance to the level of a more expensive representative, enjoy the result and our own resourcefulness. Now, I repeat, Intel has turned overclock into extra bonus for those who do not save initially.

I won't go far for an example. Let's take a look at Intel's main competitor, AMD. The Reds have a line of FX processors. Each model is equipped with an unlocked multiplier. As a result, anyone can buy some FX-8320E (10,000 rubles) and with a wave of the index finger of their right hand turn it into an FX-8370 (17,000 rubles), or even into an FX-9370 (19,000 rubles). ). Yes, and a decent part of the hybrid APU is equipped with an unlocked multiplier. In terms of loyalty to AMD enthusiasts, there are no complaints, their position is worthy of praise.

However, with the "red" everything is clear. The ability to overclock all FX chips without exception is another trump card in the fight against Intel, which has long been setting the bar in the CPU market. I see no reason to disclose the ethical side of this issue. The article is not about that. There is simply a fact: overclocking saves cash. Another example is assembly directly system block on the LGA1151 platform. Let's say that the cheapest quad-core processor, the Core i5-6400, overclocks to frequencies that obviously exceed the speed of the older Core i5-6600 model. To do this, we need better cooling and a more expensive motherboard based on the Z170 Express chipset. Even in this case, we either save or get more performance for the same money, or both. Sounds tempting, right? Unfortunately, there are several limiting factors in overclocking the neo-overclocker Skylake. We will talk about them further.

Overclocking methodology and pitfalls

I have already mentioned the first factor. Overclocking non-K-chip Skylake requires a board exclusively based on the Z170 Express chipset. The restriction is formal, introduced either by Intel or motherboard manufacturers. It is very easy to prove this, because the first successes in overclocking non-overclocking chips were obtained using the Supermicro C7H170-M, built on the H170 Express logic.

A complete list of motherboards is easy to find on the Internet. I will list the most affordable models from ASRock, ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI. I see no point in buying more expensive overclocking boards for non-overclocker Skylake. The effect of saving so zealously promoted by me is lost. And assemblies in which motherboards are more expensive than processors look very strange.

Bus overclocking requires a special BIOS version. First we reflash, then we do overclocking. The hyperlinks contain archives with BIOSes for all motherboards from leading manufacturers.

And here is my gentleman's set:

The only way to overclock the neo-overclocker Skylake is to increase the frequency of the BCLK clock generator (bus). The resulting CPU frequency depends on the product of the bus and the multiplier. Chips in the same line are divided by speed. Someone has a multiplier more, someone less. To overclock the Core i5-6400 to 4500 MHz, you will have to increase the bus frequency to 4500/27=167 MHz. In order for the Core i5-6600 to work at such a speed, you will need to raise the BCLK to 4500/33=136 MHz. In the second case, the probability of conquering the coveted 4.5 GHz is much higher.

Overclocking is always a lottery. With non-overclocker chips, two factors affect the final result at once: the potential of both the chip itself and the motherboard. Since the release of the LGA1151 platform, the test lab has seen several Z170 devices. Each board behaved differently. I managed to overclock ASUS MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME to 360 MHz on the bus, and MSI Z170A GAMING M7 to 158 MHz.

The experiment was carried out on Core processors i5-6400 and Core i3-6300T (review). I did not look for easy ways, since both models work at very low multipliers. The most interesting thing is to overclock a quad-core. According to statistics, this model overclocks very well, but, as we have already found out, a certain margin of safety is also required from the motherboard. On the other hand, compared to the default 2.7 GHz, an overclock even up to 4 GHz will give a noticeable performance boost. Which is what we need.

The third limiting factor is the disabling of the power-saving features of the non-overclocker Skylake. For successful overclocking, you will need to deactivate following features: Intel SpeedStep, CPU C states and Turbo Boost (Turbo Mode). Below is a BIOS screenshot of the ASUS Z170-PRO Gaming motherboard. These three features are disabled in the Advanced/CPU Configuration/CPU Management Configuration branch. Without them CPU will always operate at maximum frequency at a given voltage. Nothing wrong with that. Skylake are highly energy efficient and do not heat up as much as the same Haswell, for example.

The fourth limitation is that the temperature sensors of the processor cores are disabled. You can monitor the thermal state of the crystal only by the only available CPU Package parameter. This is the temperature of the area under the heat-distributing cover, the chip cores are heated to approximately the same value, but there are exceptions.

We met with flowers, it's time to talk about berries. Overclocking has two serious limiting factors. The first one is: an overclock on the bus leads to the shutdown of the built-in graphics core. Windows just won't boot. If the system uses a discrete graphics card, then, frankly, the loss is small. In all other cases, you will have to forget about overclocking the neo-overclocker Skylake.

The second serious limiting factor is the slowdown in the execution of AVX/AVX2 instructions. Let's take the FPU tests of the AIDA64 benchmark. The execution of the Mandel and Julia patterns slowed down significantly on an overclocked processor. And in the VP8 test, the increase turned out to be somehow frivolous. Therefore, the performance of software that uses AVX/AVX2 instructions may be reduced. What are these applications? The team's vector systems use video encoders, 3D modeling programs, some photo editors, and even computer games (GRID 2).

The presence of six limiting factors, especially those that affect overall performance systems, frankly frustrating. All of them are software-based, specially implemented, because the same Core i5-6400 is no different from the overclocker Core i5-6600K. The conclusion suggests itself: spokes are inserted into the wheels of enthusiasts in order to reduce as much as possible the pool of those who want to raise their Skylake chip several hundred megahertz, and, therefore, save money on buying a more expensive and faster processor model.

Overclocking test samples

Armed with the knowledge gained, we proceed to the illegitimate overclocking of the Core i3-6300T and Core i5-6400. Disable Turbo Boost, SpeedStep and C states. Next, I set a multiplier for all processor cores corresponding to the nominal frequency of the processor. The Core i5-6400 has x27, the Core i3-6300T has x33. Everything, you can increase the speed of the clock generator. The stand used a classic set of DDR4-2133 RAM with CL15 delays. I did not overclock it, so when raising the bus frequency, the effective RAM frequency was regulated by decreasing the divider (the DRAM Frequency function in the BIOS of ASUS motherboards).

The Core i3-6300T turned out to be very mediocre in overclocking, which only confirms what was said earlier: overclocking is always a lottery! The chip frequency was increased from 3.3 GHz to 4.29 GHz. Nearly 1 GHz, or 30%. "Mediocre", because everything is known in comparison. The Core i5-6400 frequency has increased from 2.70 GHz to, hold me seven, 4.94 GHz - by almost 83%! The Internet is full of validations when the junior 4-core Skylake was successfully overclocked to 4.7 / 4.8 GHz. So a similar result is a regularity. To get 4.29 GHz for the Core i3-6300T, we had to raise the clock generator frequency to only 130 MHz, and the VCore voltage to 1.4 V. The vast majority of motherboards based on the Z170 Express chipset can handle this overclock. But overclocking the Core i5-6400 to 4.94 GHz will be a serious test, because you have to raise the bus to 183 MHz. The voltage is slightly higher - 1.42 V. I note that in both cases we are talking about stable frequencies, at such speeds the processors work 24/7.

results

Test stand:

• CPU:Intel Core i5-6600K, Core i5-6400, Core i3-6300T
• Processorcooler: Corsair H110iGT
• Motherboard: ASUSZ170PROGaming
• Video card:AMDRadeonR9Nano 4 GBHBM
• RAM:DDR4-2133 (15-15-15-36), 2x 8 GB
• Storage device:OCZ Vertex 3 360 GB
• Power Supply:CorsairHX850i, 850 W
• Periphery: Samsung U28D590D , ROCCAT ARVO, ROCCAT SAVU
• Operating system: Windows 10 x64

I'll start by examining the performance of the overclocked Core i5-6400 and Core i3-6300T in the AIDA64 cache and memory test. The main conclusion is that the built-in controller “did not suffer” during the overclock. The speed of operations with RAM has only increased with the increase in the frequency of processors.

The overclocking paradigm is that the unlocked model - the Core i5-6600K - overclocked to a more modest 4.7 GHz. Such is the potential of the K-processor that fell into my hands. Not surprisingly, in applications that do not use AVX / AVX2 commands, the overclocked Core i5-6400 was faster than the overclocked Core i5-6600K. And this is with a price difference of ~ 6000 rubles.

The most obvious example is CINEBENCH R15. In this benchmark, the overclocked Core i5-6400 beat the Core i5-6600K by 5%. If we compare the junior 4-core with itself before and after the overclock, then the chip performance increased by 47.5%. Core i3-6300T due to the increase of one gigahertz accelerated by 32.4%, respectively.

And here is the first call. Overclocking speeded up 3D graphics processing in Blender, but the increase was disproportionate to the increase clock frequency. The Core i5-6400 is 33.5% faster than itself, while the Core i3-6300T is only 12.5%. The overclocked Core i5-6600K won: a 32% increase in clock speed resulted in 22% faster rendering. But the Core i5-6400 in OC mode worked 240 MHz faster.

And yet there is a sense of overclocking.

A noticeable decrease - namely a decrease, not a decrease in growth - in the performance of non-overclocker Skylake is observed in LuxMark 2.0 and x265 Benchmark. In the first application, overclocking the Core i5-6400 by 83% resulted in a 15% decrease in scores. For the Core i3-6300T, the result is even sadder: ray tracing slowed down by 40%.

The x265 Benchmark shows a similar but not so sad picture. Core i3-6300T after overclocking slowed down by 12.5%, Core i5-6400, on the contrary, accelerated by 19.7%, but still lagged behind the overclocked Core i5-6600K by 24.6%.

It is important to remember that overclocking is always a lottery. I got a very peppy Core i5-6400, which eventually overclocked better than the specially designed Core i5-6600K. I cannot guarantee that other users will be able to at least repeat such a result. In principle, the Core i5-6400 will overclock to 4-4.2 GHz for sure. This is also a very good result. The main thing is that the motherboard should be able to take 4200/27=155.5 MHz via the bus.

Core i3-6300T is a bad "exhibit" for overclocking at home. All the salt of this chip lies in a very low TDP. That's where he has the potential. It is better to overclock the obviously faster Core i3-6100/6300 models. Here it will certainly be possible to conquer the mark of 4.5-4.7 GHz.

I'll put forward a hypothesis: AMD is not in a position to infringe on the rights of enthusiasts in any way in 2016. Therefore, a good part of Zen chips, if their frequency potential is on top, will receive an unlocked multiplier. If hot competition flares up again between manufacturers, then Intel will make concessions, including those who like overclocking. Perhaps forgotten in the distant 2011, the golden era of overclocking will return.

Overclocking for everyone. "Home" overclocking of the processor with an open multiplier

• Intel Blog

It so happened that in almost twenty years of IT practice I have never had to deal with overclocking - somehow everyone else had interests. Nevertheless, when choosing a configuration for the next new (although now far from new) computer, for some reason I settled on an Intel processor with an open multiplier - i5-2500K. Why I did this, I don’t remember now, perhaps I still intended to figure out in my old age what this overclocking is. And then one evening, when there was nothing to do, I realized that the moment had come, and delved into the study of the issue, and the next evening put what I had learned into practice. Which is what I'm going to report.

Overclocking theory

So, Intel itself opened the way for "home", fast and highly skilled overclocking. It would be a sin not to take advantage of this opportunity, and I began my experiments. As a test bench, as I already said, for the umpteenth time my long-suffering home computer acted, by the way, it was not at all prepared for overclocking, rather, on the contrary, it was chosen for reasons of economy and noiselessness.

Experiment

Step three. 44x, that is, 1 GHz gain. Having made a brick face, I started the computer. “Well, no, that's enough,” he replied and flew into a blue screen. You need to increase the voltage of the processor. I immediately raised it to 1.4 V, so that was enough. Now I decided to operate through the GUI in Windows. In the AI ​​Suite bundled with the ASUS motherboard, the Turbo V EVO component is responsible for overclocking. For its work, this program uses the TPU controller (TurboV Processing Unit) on the motherboard. The TPU module is so intelligent that it can, without human intervention, overclock the system to the maximum possible parameters. Thus, overclocking technology, from the point of view of the "teapot", has reached its highest point, when to get the result it is enough to press one button "make everything hurt".
I was not able to really test the 4.4 GHz mode, because within a few seconds after starting the full load, the temperature rose to the maximum allowable, and I was forced to interrupt the experiment. However, I have no doubt that with normal cooling, the operation of the processor would be stable - numerous experiments of other users convince me of this. Speaking specifically about the i5-2500K, absolutely everyone has processors up to 4.5 GHz, the result of 5 GHz is quite common, and the most stubborn ones have reached 5.2 GHz. I emphasize that we are talking about stable operation under a large (test or real) load. Thus, we are dealing with more than 50% increase in frequency at minimal material and mental costs.

Results and conclusions

Someone is probably wondering what happened to the Windows Experience Index? Virtually nothing, it increased by only one tenth, from 7.5 to 7.6. However, do not forget that for Windows 7 the maximum index value is 7.9, so there could not be a big jump.

Now let's try to answer the question, who needs this overclocking - except, directly, overclockers? However, it was answered before us: first of all, to fans of computer games. Experiments have shown that the processor power at standard frequencies is not enough to power top-end video cards, especially if there are several of them, and as the frequency increases to a certain limit, performance in games also grows. Saturation occurs, by the way, at our "home" 4-4.5 GHz, it is at this frequency that the processor ceases to be the "bottleneck" of the entire system. In addition, people dealing with heavy media content, and, of course, respected fans of distributed computing, will definitely be happy with the extra gigahertz. I note that all categories of citizens will have to vigilantly monitor the temperature of the processors and their cooling system - otherwise a slight "puff" and smoke is provided.