What's the sweet spot for overclocking the i5-2500k?

[Damerae]

Hello,

I am curious as to what the sweet spot for overclocking the i5-2500k is?

Is 4.0ghz the sweet spot? I have a hyper master 212+ heat sync, so I was thinking that I could potentially overclock the CPU a little more without worrying to much about important settings.

What is recommended?

I'd appreciate some feedback on what I should overclock to and what voltage I should use etc...

Thank you

[Deleted]

Hello,

I am curious as to what the sweet spot for overclocking the i5-2500k is?

Is 4.0ghz the sweet spot? I have a hyper master 212+ heat sync, so I was thinking that I could potentially overclock the CPU a little more without worrying to much about important settings.

What is recommended?

I'd appreciate some feedback on what I should overclock to and what voltage I should use etc...

Thank you

Most people I know take theirs to 4.5ghz without any issues with decent air cooling. I haven't OCed mine yet due to cooling issues so i can't verify that but I have no reason to doubt them. Don't forget chips differ from one to another. There is no sweet spot as such. Only a specific one for your particular chip.

[Lolkrayd]

depends
mine isn't stable at 4.2 like some other people who claim they can go up to 4.2 without changing anything.
test it clock it to 4.0 and see if its stable for you. If it is you can go up to 4.1

[Raphtheone]

Most I've seen seem to stick around 4,4Ghz, +-200. Some go 4,8-5Ghz, but they seem to have more expensive cooling than you have. I think 4,4Ghz for you would be a) good, b) decent, c) safe. Hard to tell since it's on a chip to chip basis.

[Deathtanker]

I got mine up to 4.5ghz with just adjusting the voltage up at 1.224V(increased it by 0.024Vi think). Probably didnt have to touch it at all.
At 27-30c doing internetz stuff with Noctua C14 cooler with like 10% load. Pretty good if you asked me.

[Deleted]

Depends entirely on the user and what you aim to do with your computer.

I had mine at 4.7/4.8GHz for a while but honestly the heat generated and the power consumed doesn't justify the miniscule gain in performance. I have it now at 4.4GHz at considerably lower power consumption and notice close to no difference.

I'd say the sweetspot is around 4.4 to 4.6GHz. Beyond that point you need to increase the Vcore substantially per 100MHz with most chips.

[Skarsguard]

From what I have seen it's been around 4.2-4.5 that seems to be the most stable points I have seen people get to 5.0 but they were just lucky and got really good chips.

[Eon Drache]

Mine goes to 4.4 easy enough. I got a faulty motherboard, though. I can't manually OC my CPU and have it turn on. Even to 3.4. So 4.4 is the highest preset OC I can do.

[m2geek]

Mine runs quite happily at 4.4Ghz

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2055055

Also note the big OC on my GTX 460

[Deleted]

Insert PC in refridgerator, overclock to 7 ghz. ??? profit.

[kidsafe]

IMO the sweet spot is ~4.5GHz and stability issues are just a matter of learning how to tweak your settings. Every Sandy Bridge processor I've overclocked has been able to hit at least 4.7GHz though that's the point where voltage requirements get steep.

In most cases you can't simply set the multiplier to 45 and expect the OC to work. You'll have to take your CPU voltage off "auto" and set it manually, offset of +/- .005V is generally safe. I personally don't have any issue with using "high" or even "ultra high" LLC (for Asus boards, might be called something else for others). I also tend to switch to optimized VRM phase control and extreme duty control and drop secondary voltages down a notch... VCCSA to .9V, VCCIO to 1.0V, CPU PLL to 1.7V (I even set mine down to 1.6V).

For 4.5GHz you generally don't need internal PLL overvoltage on, but that can also give you better stability.

[Milkshake86]

Depends entirely on the user and what you aim to do with your computer.

I had mine at 4.7/4.8GHz for a while but honestly the heat generated and the power consumed doesn't justify the miniscule gain in performance. I have it now at 4.4GHz at considerably lower power consumption and notice close to no difference.

I'd say the sweetspot is around 4.4 to 4.6GHz. Beyond that point you need to increase the Vcore substantially per 100MHz with most chips.

Id agree but id say 4.2-4.6 is a better description. Seriously tho pushing to 4.8 took such a jump in Vcore it is not worth it at all.

[Saithes]

Overall, beyond 4.6 the power to performance ratio typically goes out the window on 2500K/2600K's.

[Damerae]

Hm...

I'm still confused and unsure of what to do.

I think I am going to overclock to 4.2ghz and leave it at that. I feel like that would be more than enough... However, I am even thinking of just leaving it at 4.0ghz.

I really don't know. I'd just like to be able to overclock it a little bit while keeping my temperatures very low.

[Saithes]

Hm...

I'm still confused and unsure of what to do.

I think I am going to overclock to 4.2ghz and leave it at that. I feel like that would be more than enough... However, I am even thinking of just leaving it at 4.0ghz.

I really don't know. I'd just like to be able to overclock it a little bit while keeping my temperatures very low.

Honestly, the performance gains in games from overclocking CPU's is usually very minimal as most every modern game is more directed onto the GPU instead of the CPU. The maximum temperature for Sandybridge is 98C and it throttles around 93C so you have a pretty wide window as far as temperatures go.

Keep in mind too that the 98C is BEFORE the CPU has the capability of sustaining any forms of damage.

[Damerae]

Honestly, the performance gains in games from overclocking CPU's is usually very minimal as most every modern game is more directed onto the GPU instead of the CPU. The maximum temperature for Sandybridge is 98C and it throttles around 93C so you have a pretty wide window as far as temperatures go.

Keep in mind too that the 98C is BEFORE the CPU has the capability of sustaining any forms of damage.

Interesting. I didn't know the performance gains were minimal. I was hoping for a small increase at least. If the gains are small, I probably won't overclock. I was just thinking of going to 4.0ghz just because... Figured it wouldn't hurt anything and it'd give me a little extra Mmmph.

Also, aren't blizzard games more cpu demanding then they are gpu?

Do you know if the XFX 6870 is overclockable and would it even be worth it?

---------- Post added 2012-04-08 at 03:32 AM ----------

speed step

What's that?

[Papalenin]

Insert PC in refridgerator, overclock to 7 ghz. ??? profit.

Insert PC in blast chiller, overclock to 19 ghz. ??? Profit.

[Saithes]

What's that?

Speedstep is a nice feature Intel has been putting on their processors since around 2005 or so that allows the processor to scale its clock speed down during times it is sitting idle. This also applies individually per core as it can control and shut down individual parts of the core to make it run cooler and use less power when it is doing nothing or a minimal task.

As for your XFX 6870.. It is indeed overclockable. If you want to venture into this I would advise downloading MSI Afterburner and using it to overclock. Overclocking a Graphics Card is MUCH simpler than a processor. It has two clock speeds available to be overclocked, one being the Core Clock and the other being the Memory Clock. I would focus mainly on the Core Clock as the Memory clock does not scale very well performance wise. I advise as well using a program such as FurMark to stress test the card. I also suggest raising the Core Clock in 5-7MHz increments then running the stress test for around 2-3 minutes and then proceeding to raise it again.

[Dedweight]

Interesting. I didn't know the performance gains were minimal.

Depends on the game really, most single player or FPS games will likely find a bigger increase from a GPU overclock over a CPU one. WoW on the other hand can potentially see a decent increase, based on what I've seen in other threads(I never actually tested it) WoW will see a performance boost equal to that of the overclock(1% OC potentially equals a 1% FPS boost).

[kidsafe]

General guidelines for a 2600K during Prime95 Blend I'd say are the following:

4.5GHz ~1.27-1.33V
4.6GHz ~1.30-1.36V
4.7GHz ~1.33-1.40V
4.8GHz ~1.36-1.44V
4.9GHz ~1.4-1.48V
5.0GHz ~1.44V+

For a 2500K, shave off a few hundredths for each.

I know my own 2600K does 4.6GHz at 1.328V, 4.7GHz at 1.368V and 4.8GHz at 1.424V.

Of course those are only core voltages and getting your system stable at those clocks generally requires tweaks to miscellaneous settings.