• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Newb needs opinion on oc

C

cvol

n00b
Joined
Dec 21, 2007
Messages
13
Hello, I have a new home built computer which I had assembled at a local computer service center (friends business). They had never overclocked a core i7 920 before and I'm concerned that it wasn't done properly. I say this because when I look at CPU-Z it indicates that the processor is running at around 2160 mhz with QPI AT 3240 mhz. The multiplier is set to 12x? Shouldn't it be defaulting to 20x? How is this set in the BIOS? I have a feeling the processor is running underclocked but I can't confirm it. I have viewed the BIOS and AI Tweaker (ASUS P6T Deluxe) which is set to manual with BCLOCK set to 180. Turbo is on. I'm posting a couple of screen caps from CPU-Z indicating what I'm describing below. I'm sure something isn't right although I have not had any BOS and can run 3D mark fine without bluescreen.
Please take a look, I need your opinions!
System spec: Core i7 920, 6gb Corsair Dominator, ASUS P6T Deluxe, Corsair 850w PS, Zalman LED 9900 cooler, 1 TB WD Black Edition HDD, Vista Home 64 bit.

Thanks!
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=285010102/a=144557256_144557256/t_=144557256
 
its because you still have speedstep turned on.. thats why its showing a 12x multi at 2.16ghz.. when its idle it will drop the multi and voltage to save power/life span of the cpu.. if the system is stable with speedstep still on then ya might as well leave it on.. but you can disable it in the bios..
 
Thanks for the reply sirmonkey1985! Is there a way I could verify what speed the overclock is set to other than CPU-Z? A different program? Dose the QPI speed in the screen cap CPU-Z image indicate the actual processor speed? (32440 Mhz) If you look at the second image regarding the memory, dose everything look proper?

Thanks again...
 
cvol said:
Is there a way I could verify what speed the overclock is set to other than CPU-Z?
Click to expand...
Just take the base clock and multiply it by your CPU's highest multiplier (20x). That gives you a speed of 3600MHz.
cvol said:
Dose the QPI speed in the screen cap CPU-Z image indicate the actual processor speed? (32440 Mhz)
Click to expand...
No.
 
the QPI is basically the equivalent to FSB.. just like AMD uses hyper transport as its FSB..
 
Thanks! How do I increase the multiplier to 20x? Increase the bclock?
 
cvol said:
Thanks! How do I increase the multiplier to 20x? Increase the bclock?
Click to expand...
The multiplier will increase by itself when the CPU is loaded. The reason it is low is due to Speedstep, which is a power-saving feature that reduces the CPU's speed when it is idle.
 
So, I'm not giving up anything by having speed step on? The system is stable yet I still would like to know what the processor is actually overclocked to. What program would tell me this? Do I turn off speed step to let the multiplier default to it's 20x state and note the core speed in cpu-z? I just would like to know what the actual oc is set to.
Thanks!
 
Having SpeedStep on doesn't hurt performance [maybe if you get ridiculously anal about it...]. If you want to see your actual OC run something while looking at CPU-Z's window. Pime95/Intel TAT/OCCT or any benchmarking/CPU stressing tool will do.
 
A few things you should know -

speed step will constantly change the multipiler to manage heat and power consumption, that is its' job. If you are overclocking turn it off to stress test your pc, you don't want it on. You can turn it back on after you are sure your oc is stable.

Turbo - this will oc your cpu under single threaded load. Basically if you 20X on all four cores it will bump up core 0 to 21x. If you are overclocking, turn this off you are already trying to eek out higher Ghz from your cpu - you don't need turbo mode.

Hyperthreading - turn it off. It generates heat and unless your friend is specifically using the pc for video encoding and or some 3d max stuff - you will see no gains for HT except for gains in temps.
 
Thank you groebuck! I'll dive back into the bios and confirm my current settings. I will disable speed step and HT and run some benches while checking cpu-z again.
Thanks again!
 
Hidetaka said:
Having SpeedStep on doesn't hurt performance [maybe if you get ridiculously anal about it...]. If you want to see your actual OC run something while looking at CPU-Z's window. Pime95/Intel TAT/OCCT or any benchmarking/CPU stressing tool will do.
Click to expand...

SpeedStep is a good thing to have on to conserve power since it basically switches to a lower multiplier when your computer is not requiring the resources to run at its full overclocked speeds. This can save you some power and a few degrees in temperature. Most people who overclock, however, have this option disabled for obvious reasons.
 
PC_User said:
Most people who overclock, however, have this option disabled for obvious reasons.
Click to expand...
And those obvious reasons are what exactly? There are no real reasons to disable Speedstep even if you're overclocking.
 
Zero82z said:
And those obvious reasons are what exactly? There are no real reasons to disable Speedstep even if you're overclocking.
Click to expand...

Most people who aim for a very high overclock are not focused on saving a few watts here and there. They want their computer performing at its peak level at all times, even when its idle.
 
PC_User said:
They want their computer performing at its peak level at all times, even when its idle.
Click to expand...
That's somewhat of an oxymoron. When a computer is idle, it isn't "performing" anything. And the second that something does need some CPU power, it jumps back up to full speed. That's the beauty of it.
 
Zero82z said:
That's somewhat of an oxymoron. When a computer is idle, it isn't "performing" anything. And the second that something does need some CPU power, it jumps back up to full speed. That's the beauty of it.
Click to expand...

I understand. What I'm saying is that most people that overclock their processor by 30-50% don't really care about the energy saving function of SpeedStep.
 
PC_User said:
I understand. What I'm saying is that most people that overclock their processor by 30-50% don't really care about the energy saving function of SpeedStep.
Click to expand...
Actually, you'd be surprised. Just because people don't mind the added power usage of an overclocked CPU doesn't mean they wouldn't welcome the power savings from having Speedstep enabled. I do understand your point, but my point is that most of the so-called arguments against Speedstep really don't have any ground to stand on.
 
Well, I did test my setup. Running Everest Ultimate while having CPU-Z opened the cpu multiplier did jump from 12x to 21x with core speed bopping around 3.2 - 3.6 ghz. I'm satisfied with leaving speed step on. I like the idea of not pushing my processor to it's limit 24x7. The computer is idle at times so why shorten the processors life prematurely?
Thanks for the input!
 
cvol said:
Well, I did test my setup. Running Everest Ultimate while having CPU-Z opened the cpu multiplier did jump from 12x to 21x with core speed bopping around 3.2 - 3.6 ghz. I'm satisfied with leaving speed step on. I like the idea of not pushing my processor to it's limit 24x7. The computer is idle at times so why shorten the processors life prematurely?
Thanks for the input!
Click to expand...

The amount by which the life of the processor is shortened is minuscule and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It's a good option for energy savings, though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top