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Detailed instructions for overclocking the processor. How to overclock the processor on a computer or laptop. Other programs for overclocking the processor

02.02.2017 22:52

This guide will help you configure the UEFI BIOS settings to achieve a stable 5 GHz on unlocked 7th generation Kaby Lake processors (Intel Core i7-7700K, Intel Core i5-7600K and ).

Some practical statistics:

  • Approximately 20% of the 7th generation CPUs are stable at 5 GHz in any application, including Handbrake/AVX;
  • 80% of Kaby Lake samples are capable of operating at 5 GHz, however, in programs using the AVX command system, the frequency has to be reduced to a stable 4800 MHz (this happens in automatic format with the AVX offset parameter active in the BIOS);
  • Choice Kaby Lake samples can run four memory modules at DDR4-4133 (on ROG Maximus IX motherboards) and a dual kit at DDR4-4266 (tested on Maximus IX Apex).

What voltage is normal for 5 GHz?

Perhaps this is one of the most important questions that enthusiasts ask in the process of overclocking the CPU. After all, it is this parameter that has a key effect on the stability and final result of overclocking.

First, let's look at the power consumption level of the Intel Core i7-7700K in different operating modes:

  • nominally, the processor consumes about 45 W (in the ROG Realbench application);
  • at a frequency of 5 GHz and with the ROG Realbench test running, we get 93 W;
  • 5GHz and Prime95 - 131W.

The Prime95 benchmark (and thus most of the most commonly used applications) requires a voltage of 1.35 V (Vcore setting in the BIOS) for a stable CPU to run at 5 GHz. It is not recommended to exceed this value in order to avoid degradation processor and overheating.

The Prime95 benchmark needs 1.35V for a stable 5GHz CPU.

It should be noted that the processors of the Kaby Lake family are extremely energy efficient. For comparison, a stable Skylake at 5 GHz in similar applications, for example, Prime95 consumes about 200 watts.

To cool the overclocked during stress tests, you will need a powerful CO, it can be either a CBO or a productive supercooler.

Verified options:

  • CBO with a three-section radiator (water temperature in the system is 18 degrees) cools a processor overclocked to 5 GHz at a voltage of 1.28 V to 63 degrees;
  • CBO with a two-section radiator at 1.32 V shows 72 degrees;
  • cooler at 5 GHz and 1.32 V - 78 degrees.

For constant use of Kaby Lake at 5 GHz, air cooling is not enough, but do not forget about the possibility of optimizing the load. The CPU will operate at full capacity only in the most necessary cases (more on that below).

Overclocking RAM

Select Kaby Lake samples can run four memory modules at DDR4-4133.

We remind you that Kaby Lake processors work fine with DDR-4133 RAM (tested on the ASUS ROG Maximus family of motherboards). The indicator in DDR4-4266 is available on the ASUS Maximus IX Apex and ASUS Strix Z270I Gaming models (it's all about two DIMM connectors that are optimized for such frequencies).

But for everyday use, you should not use RAM with a frequency higher than DDR4-3600; Leave the 4GHz mark on memory to enthusiasts, for a home or gaming system, the overall stability of the PC is more important.

The main thing is not to forget about the need to install paired RAM kits in the DIMM slots (that is, factory kits consisting of two or four modules). Self-selected single options may simply not start at the settings you need, timings, etc.

AVX offset parameter

This option helps stabilize the CPU at high frequencies by reducing the operating frequency when processing AVX code operations.

If you fix the processor multiplier at 50 units, BCLK at 100 MHz, and the AVX offset parameter at 0, the resulting frequency of 5000 MHz will be constant. But in this case, the system may be unstable. And the reason for this behavior will have to be identified for a very long time.

That is why experienced enthusiasts advise using the AVX offset option by setting its value to 2. This means that at a constant 5 GHz, the system will automatically reduce the multiplier to 48 points (which corresponds to 4800 MHz) at the moment when AVX applications activity is noticed.

5 GHz without AVX load
4.8 GHz with AVX application active

This approach has a beneficial effect not only on the stability of the PC, but also on the competent power consumption, and hence the heat dissipation of the CPU.

For everyday use, you should not use RAM with a frequency higher than DDR4-3600.

The functionality of motherboards does not yet allow sharing the operating voltage of the processor in this way. But there is hope that this possibility will be realized in future generations.

Overclocking methodology, monitoring and checking the system for stability

No matter how trite it may sound, but before any overclocking process, it is worth testing the PC in normal mode. Run several benchmarks, monitor the current temperature and fix the identified bugs (if any).

If everything is in order, feel free to increase the processor multiplier and voltage (it is recommended to use the Adaptive voltage mode in the BIOS settings instead of Manual or Offset mode for the Vcore parameter).

Next, we look for a stable frequency and the minimum voltage at which the system behaves stably (passing POST, starting the OS, running service applications, stress tests, etc.). At the same time, do not forget to fix the operating temperature of the CPU, it should not exceed 80 degrees even in the hottest conditions.

As a rule, kits with DDR4-4000+ frequency do not require a voltage higher than 1.25 V for the System Agent parameter.

After overclocking the CPU, we move on to the RAM. The most preferred option is to enable the XMP option (if the modules and motherboard support this profile). Otherwise, you will have to look for the maximum operating frequency and timings on your own.

It is possible that when a stable RAM value is detected, the Vcore, System Agent (VCCSA) and VCCIO parameters will need to be adjusted, we will talk about this below.

Preferred Stress Tests:

  • ROG Realbench uses a combination of Handbrake, Luxmark and Winrar apps; the benchmark is good for checking RAM, 2-8 hours of running is enough;
  • HCI Memtest helps identify RAM and CPU cache errors;
  • AIDA64 is a classic software tool for any enthusiast; the built-in stress test is able to check the strength of the processor-memory bond (2-8 hours of running are enough).

Practice overclocking and tuning in UEFI BIOS

So, let's move on to the practical part, namely the settings in the BIOS and overclocking itself. We will need the Extreme Tweaker tab on ASUS motherboards.



Adjust the following options:

  • in the case of using CBO, set the value of Vcore to 1.30 V, the multiplier to 49; for air cooling - 1.25 V and 48, respectively;
  • the Ai Overclock Tuner parameter is set to Manual mode;
  • CPU Core Ratio to Sync All Cores;
  • for CPU/Cache Voltage (CPU Vcore) select Adaptive Mode;
  • for Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage, set the value to 1.30 V (when using CBO) or 1.25 V for level coolers.

For CPU/Cache Voltage (CPU Vcore) select Adaptive Mode
For Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage set to 1.30 V

Go to the Internal CPU Power Management submenu:

  • IA DC Load Line fixed at 0.01
  • IA AC Load Line at 0.01

Internal CPU Power Management

We save the settings and reboot the system, try to go through POST and enter the OS. If the system is stable, we increase the multiplier to 49-50 points, and to the current voltage, if necessary, throw up+0.02 V. But we try not to exceed critical mark at 1.35 V.

After that, we check the system for strength in Prime95 and monitor the CPU temperature (it should not be higher than 80 degrees).

For RAM in UEFI, select XMP mode. When looking for a stable memory frequency, it may be necessary to adjust the CPU VCCIO and CPU System Agent options according to the following guidelines:

  • for DDR4-2133 - DDR4-2800 frequency, CPU VCCIO and CPU System Agent voltage should be in the range of 1.05-1.15 V;
  • for DDR4-2800 - DDR4-3600 CPU VCCIO can be increased to 1.10-1.25 V, and CPU System Agent - 1.10-1.30 V;
  • DDR4-3600 - DDR4-4266: 1.15-1.30V and 1.20-1.35V respectively.

Choosing an XMP Profile
CPU VCCIO voltage

However, depending on the processor and memory used, the figures may vary. As a rule, kits with DDR4-4000+ frequency do not require a voltage higher than 1.25 V for the System Agent parameter.

Again we carry out stress tests with the applied parameters. Do not forget about the AVX Core Ratio Negative Offset option, which is recommended to be fixed at a value of 2 points (with a CPU clock speed of 4900 MHz, AVX applications will operate at 4700 MHz).

AVX Core Ratio Negative Offset

Conclusion

These tips will help you achieve the desired result in overclocking Intel Kaby Lake processors to 5 GHz and higher; potential stones imposing.

The main thing is not to neglect high-quality cooling and a long run of stress tests.

It is probably no secret to anyone that the speed of a computer can be increased not only by replacing a part with a more productive one, but also by overclocking the old one. If it's still a secret, then I'll explain🙂

Overclocking, overclocking- this is an increase in the performance of PC components (processor,, and), due to an increase in their standard characteristics. If we are talking about a processor, then this implies an increase in frequency, multiplier and voltage thereof.

2 Increase frequency

One of the main characteristics of a processor is its frequency. .

Any processor also has such a parameter as a multiplier (number), which, if multiplied by the FSB frequency, you can get the real processor frequency.

Therefore, the easiest and safest way to overclock a processor through bios is to increase the frequency of the FSB system bus, due to which the processor frequency increases.

In all variants, the processor frequency will be 2 GHz

- bus 166 and frequency multiplication factor 12;

- bus 200 and frequency multiplication factor 10;

- bus 333 and frequency multiplication factor 6 .

The simplicity lies in the fact that the FSB frequency can be changed directly in the BIOS or programmatically in 1 MHz steps.

If earlier, this method could easily end for the processor sadly (burning). Today it is very problematic to kill a multi-core processor by simply increasing the frequency.

Should a novice overclocker go too far with the processor frequency, the system will immediately reset its default settings and everything will be fine after a reboot.

To change the bus frequency, go to BIOS and find the CPU Clock value there, as shown in the picture.

Press Enter on this value and enter the bus frequency. next you can see the CPU multiplier and the effective CPU frequency of 2.8 GHz.

Please note that the processor multiplier in the example is quite high 14x at FSB 200MHz, in this case I would recommend increasing the FSB in steps of no more than 5-10MHz (that is, the frequency will increase by 70-140MHZ).

In the case of other multiplier and frequency values, increase the bus frequency in steps of no more than 10%. There is no need to rush when overclocking, and with such a step it will be easier for us to calculate the most optimal frequency for your CPU in tests.

If you want to achieve tangible results when overclocking. Then you can not do without a good cooler, pay attention to the Zalman cooler.

Tests are carried out with temperature measurement and at maximum load on the processor. You can do this with programs such as Everest, 3D Mark.

If the temperature at maximum load is above 65-70 C, then it is necessary to either increase the speed of the cooler to the maximum, or reduce the FSB frequency.

3

The processor multiplier can also be changed. This will affect the increase in CPU frequency. For example, at a frequency:


- bus 133 and frequency multiplier 10; (1.33 GHz)

you can change the factor to 15 and get 2.0 Ghz instead of 1.33 Ghz. Not a bad increase, is it?

But there is only one thing, your processor must be unlockedmultiplier, such processors are usually marked as Extreme in case the processor is Intel and the Black Edition processor is AMD.

But even if you do not have an extreme version, you should not be upset. After all, with the right approach of the first option, you can achieve excellent results. Although, most likely, you can not do without ...

4 Voltage increase

The principle is simple. If you put more voltage on the light bulb than it needs to glow, it will burn brighter. The processor is a more complex thing than a light bulb, but the meaning is about the same.

Increasing the voltage allows you to more seriously overclock the processor. To achieve stable operation of the processor, at higher frequencies, it is necessary to increase the voltage on it. There are several things to consider here:

- be sure to put a good cooler.

- do not increase the voltage by more than 0.3 V.

To do this, go toBIOS (Del key when starting the PC), then go to Power Bios Setup => Vcore Voltegeand increase the value by 0.1 V. Next, set your cooler to the maximum and set the FSB frequency higher.

We test, if everything is fine and the performance suits you, then you can stop there.
When you reach a critical level of processor performance (that is, with a 3-5% increase in frequency, a reboot will occur), I advise you to reduce the frequency by 5%, this way you will fix your overclocking with stable work for a long time.

Speeding up your PC may be required for a variety of reasons. Some users are thinking about how to overclock their computer because there is not enough power for games, others just want to achieve maximum performance. For outdated equipment, overclocking is practically the only way to extend its service life.

We thought about how to overclock a computer at the same time as it appeared. In 8088 processors with a clock frequency of 8 MHz, radio amateurs replaced the clock generator, after which it could operate at a frequency of 12 MHz, which means 50% faster. In modern computers, the overclocking process is much easier, it can be done by changing the BIOS settings.

There is also appropriate software that allows you to speed up the work of computer components directly from the Windows environment. The solution to how to overclock an old computer lies in changing the position of special jumpers (switches) on the motherboard.

Determining computer settings

Overclocking RAM

The speed of the computer is affected by both the amount of installed RAM and the speed of its operation. The speed is set by timings, which reflect the execution of operations in nanoseconds. Accordingly, the lower the timings, the higher the memory performance. The system bus frequency also affects the data exchange rate: the higher it is, the more operations can be performed per second of time.

Decisions on how to overclock the computer's RAM are divided into two areas: through the BIOS or software, you can try to lower the memory timings. But success in this case can be achieved if the modules are designed by the manufacturer for low values, or when the BIOS is set to automatic.

Programs for overclocking RAM

Most programs clean and optimize RAM. But there are also those that allow you to make changes directly from the Windows environment. These include RamSmash, Turbo Memory, MemMonster and some others. In addition to changing memory settings, they allow you to control its physical parameters, which greatly simplifies overclocking.

An increase in the frequency of the memory operation usually occurs when the processor is overclocked, but in this case, the timings have to be increased in order to achieve stable operation of the modules. It must be borne in mind that with an increase in the frequency of memory operation, heat dissipation also increases. Therefore, you need to take care of cooling by installing radiators or more powerful fans in the system unit.

Video card overclocking

How to overclock your computer to the maximum? In this case, you can not do without accelerating the video card. To do this, use various applications supplied by manufacturers or third-party developers. Modern video cards are slightly inferior in performance to the processor and motherboard.

They also have a central processor, RAM and an internal data transfer bus. Therefore, they overclock both the graphics processor and increase the frequency of the video memory. To ensure stable operation, it may be necessary to replace the standard cooling system with a more powerful one.

Software overclocking of video cards

RivaTuner software is supplied by the manufacturer for overclocking nVidia cards. For Radeon family cards, there is also an application supplied by the developer - AMD Catalyst. But there are many other programs that allow you to evaluate the performance of a particular video card and unleash its potential.

The fact is that manufacturers often use the same chip, but at the same time, the clock frequency and some graphics processing functions are cut on lower models. Such programs include GF123clk, NVMax, Raid-on Tuner, PowerStrip. They allow you to adjust the graphics processing settings and produce a smooth increase in the frequency of the processor and memory.

Accelerating the hard drive

Before you overclock your computer for gaming, you should understand that the speed of the hard drive is of great importance. Modern games actively download and exchange data with the disk, so a slow hard drive can become a bottleneck in computer performance.

The speed of spinning disk drives is much lower than the speed of data transfer and processing by RAM and processor. A good solution is to install a solid state drive (SSD) into the system. It is able to speed up the loading and unloading of data by 2-3 times. At the same time, prices for these devices continue to decline as production volumes increase.

Internet Speed ​​Up

One solution to how to overclock your computer in a safe way is to speed up your browsing experience. Recently, more and more applications and games work online, so this task is becoming more and more relevant. To speed up, browser optimization and network connection settings are used.

You can manually change browser settings and connection settings if you have the appropriate knowledge and experience. To help ordinary users come special applications to speed up the Internet. The most common of these include:

  • Ashampoo Internet Accelerator;
  • SpeedyFox;
  • Speed ​​Connect;
  • Active Speed;
  • cFosSpeed.

Computer overclocking control

Of great importance for how to properly overclock a computer is the constant monitoring of the parameters of all overclocking-related components. This is achieved by monitoring in the BIOS, as well as using special applications. The most advanced of them provide comprehensive information about the temperature, voltage supplied, as well as the fan speed of all system components.

It is not enough to know how to overclock a computer, you still need to determine the stability of its operation under load. Such functions are also available in many programs. For this, either complex mathematical functions or playing excerpts from computer games are used. The most popular include the following:

  • CPU-Z;
  • 3DMark;
  • AIDA 64;
  • PCMark

Many motherboard manufacturers bundle their products with appropriate programs for monitoring physical parameters.

Applications for general computer overclocking

One of the best solutions on how to overclock your computer in a safe way is to use utilities to clean and optimize your computer. They can both clean and tune the operating system, and make changes to the settings of components to increase their performance.

The disadvantages of such integrated programs include the high duration of their work. But this is due to the fact that a rigorous analysis of all components of the system is carried out, and some operations, such as defragmenting a hard disk, take a long time.

But as a result of the action of such programs, you can get a significant increase in productivity without making changes to the operation of the equipment. And changes that cause components to work abnormally will reduce their lifespan anyway. The most well-known comprehensive utilities include AVG PC Tuneup, Ashampoo Win Optimizer, Glary Utilities, and many others.

We always write about overclocking: our articles, news, thoughts - everything is dedicated to overclocking. The site has a "Reference" section, where there is general information about overclocking and we publish many articles from which you can learn the details and features of overclocking on specific systems. In fact, this is quite enough to start overclocking for the first time, and everything else will come with experience. However, I can well imagine the confusion of a beginner who has an ocean of information in front of him, and he simply does not know where to start. It's good when there is a more experienced friend nearby who can explain and suggest, but what if not? In this case, even such an elementary operation as entering the BIOS is comparable to a feat for a beginner. In my mail, the number of letters does not decrease, in which they ask to show "which buttons to poke" in order to overclock the processor. Today's article is about buttons.

Of course, the thoughtless "button" approach to overclocking is fundamentally wrong. Before clicking, you need to understand why you are clicking, and what consequences your actions can lead to. And although the danger of overclocking is greatly exaggerated, nothing is impossible and there is a very real possibility of damaging the computer. Therefore, articles of this kind are usually preceded by long introductions, in which it is supposed to list all the dangers and warn the user about responsibility. However, long boring introductions are still skipped by everyone, and I believe that reasonable people are reading us, so we will do without prefaces, we will assume that I warned you.

So, today it is extremely easy to overclock a processor, for this you just need to increase the frequency at which it operates. There are many programs that can be used to overclock directly from Windows, such as ClockGen.

There are several different versions of the utility designed for different motherboards and chipsets. In addition, many motherboard manufacturers offer their own overclocking utilities, such as Gigabyte's EasyTune5...

Or CoreCenter from MSI:

Such programs can be found on the driver CD that comes with the motherboard, and updated versions can be easily downloaded from the motherboard manufacturer's website. Can I use these or similar utilities? Of course you can, sometimes this is the only way to decently overclock the processor if the motherboard has limited overclocking capabilities from the BIOS. However, despite the seeming simplicity and convenience of such overclocking, I prefer not to use such utilities and there are several reasons for this. First of all, any program is not free from errors, and why do we need extra problems? Overclocking from the BIOS allows you to overclock the processor immediately after the start, and the programs will start working only after Windows starts. In addition, the very procedure of starting the computer and then loading Windows can serve as a preliminary test for the stability of the overclocked processor. In general, if you want to overclock using programs, then I don’t think that you will have any serious difficulties: you can first read the description of the program on the manufacturer’s website or in the motherboard manual, but today we are only considering overclocking from the BIOS.

How to get there? To do this, when starting the computer, it is usually enough to press the "Delete" key, you can do this several times so as not to miss. Feel free to read the inscriptions that appear on the screen, as well as scroll through the manual for the board beforehand, because sometimes another key or a combination of them is used to enter the BIOS, and to access all the options on Gigabyte motherboards, for example, after entering the BIOS, you need press Ctrl-F1. As a result, you should see something like this:

Do not be afraid of the abundance of unfamiliar words, despite the difference in BIOS versions, as well as the fact that the same options can be called differently, we can easily find what we need.

To overclock, we need to increase the frequency of the processor, which is the product of the multiplier and the bus frequency. For example, the nominal frequency of the Intel Celeron D 310 processor is 2.13 GHz, its multiplier is x16, and the bus frequency is 133 MHz (133.3x16=2133 MHz). This means that we need to increase either the multiplier, or the bus frequency (FSB), or both parameters at the same time. Modern Intel processors do not allow changing the multiplier (some older models can reduce it to x14 using power saving technologies), some AMD processors can do this, but first let's consider the general case - overclocking by increasing the bus frequency, especially since this path allows more increase overall system performance.

Why? Yes, because a lot of things are interconnected and synchronized in a computer. For example, by increasing the frequency of the processor bus, we simultaneously increase the frequency of the memory, the speed of data exchange increases, and due to this, the performance increases further. True, there is also a downside here, because by overclocking the processor and memory at the same time, we can stop ahead of time. Often it turns out that the processor is still capable of further overclocking, but the memory is no longer there. Currently, only motherboards based on the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset can overclock the processor regardless of the memory, there are very few such motherboards so far, so most likely you don't have one. Therefore, before overclocking the processor, we need to take care in advance that we are not limited by memory or something else.

We are looking for an option in the BIOS that is responsible for the frequency of the memory. It can be in different sections and have different names, so it's a good idea to clarify this in the motherboard manual first. Most often, this option is found in two sections: either related to overclocking and memory timings, or to overclocking the processor. The first can be called Advanced Chipset Features or simply Advanced, like ASUS. Here the parameter is called Memclock index value and is measured in megahertz:

Or it can be in the POWER BIOS Features section, like EPoX, called System Memory Frequency or just Memory Frequency and designate the memory frequency as DDR400, DDR333 or DDR266, or maybe PC100 or PC133.

For us, all this does not play the slightest role, our task is to find this parameter and set the minimum value for it. The choice of the desired value can take different paths, which depend on the BIOS version and manufacturer. You can, for example, press Enter and select the required value from the list that appears using the arrows on your keyboard, or sometimes you can cycle through the values ​​using the Page Up, Page Down, "+" or "-" keys.

Why do we set the minimum memory frequency, because we have it, most likely, not so weak at all and capable of more? When overclocking the processor, we will increase the FSB frequency, the memory frequency will also rise, however, there is hope that increasing from the minimum possible, and not from the nominal value, it will remain within the limits acceptable for our memory and will not limit processor overclocking. For fidelity, you can set memory timings more than those that are set by default.

First, it will further push the limit of stable operation for our memory. Secondly, when timings are set automatically, it is possible that the motherboard will mistakenly set too small, inoperable values, and in this way we will be sure that guaranteed working timings are set for the memory. To make sure of this, you need to remember to save the changes in the BIOS and restart. To do this, select the Save & Exit Setup option or press F10 and confirm the seriousness of your intentions by pressing the Enter or "Y" (Yes) key in older BIOS versions.

In most cases, setting the memory to a low frequency is enough and you can immediately start overclocking the processor, but we will not rush and make sure that nothing will interfere with us.

When I said that many things are interconnected in a computer, I did not mention that not only the memory frequency, but also other frequencies increase along with the processor bus frequency, for example, on PCI, Serial ATA, PCI-E or AGP buses. In small limits, this is even good, since it slightly speeds up the system, but if the frequencies are significantly higher than the nominal value, the computer may refuse to work. The nominal frequencies of the PCI bus are 33.3 MHz, AGP - 66.6 MHz, SATA and PCI Express - 100 MHz. Almost all modern chipsets are able to fix frequencies at standard values, but just in case, it's better to make sure of this yourself. To do this, you need to find the parameter, which is usually called AGP / PCI Clock, and select the value 66/33 MHz for it.

The above is true for Intel chipsets designed for Pentium 4 processors, as well as for NVIDIA chipsets and the latest SiS chipsets, but it is not true for early Intel chipsets, SiS and VIA, up to the latest. They do not know how to fix frequencies at nominal. In practice, this means that if your motherboard is based on the VIA K8T800 chipset, for example, then you are unlikely to be able to exceed the FSB frequency of 225 MHz during overclocking. Even if your processor is capable of more, you will be forced to stop due to the fact that hard drives will no longer be detected or the sound card integrated on the board will refuse to work. However, you can try and later we will talk more about this.

For NVIDIA chipsets designed for AMD processors with Socket 754/939, the HyperTransport bus frequency is of great importance. By default, it is equal to 1000 or 800 MHz, it is desirable to reduce it before overclocking. Sometimes its real frequency is written, but more often a multiplier x5 is used for a frequency of 1000 MHz and x4 for 800 MHz.

The parameter may be called HyperTransport Frequency, or HT Frequency, or LDT Frequency. You need to find it and reduce the frequency to 400 or 600 MHz (x2 or x3).

So, we reduced the frequency of the memory and HyperTransport bus, fixed the frequencies of the PCI and AGP buses at nominal, and it's time to start overclocking the processor. To do this, we need to find the section Frequency/Voltage Control...

Which EPoX may call POWER BIOS Features...

ASUS has JumperFree Configuration...

And ABIT has the name ÎĽGuru Utility:

The difference in names will not hurt us, we are looking for the item CPU Host Frequency, or CPU / Clock Speed, or External Clock, or a parameter with another similar name that controls the FSB frequency. We will change it in the direction of increase.

How much to increase? Don't know. Much depends on your processor, motherboard, cooling system and power supply. Start small, try increasing the frequency from the nominal by 10 MHz - in most cases this should work. Don't forget to save the changed settings, boot into Windows, make sure that the processor is really overclocked using a utility like CPU-Z, and check the stability of the overclocked processor in some program (Super PI, Prime95, S&M) or game. Of course, you first need to make sure that this program or game works absolutely stably with a non-overclocked processor. Do not forget to control the temperature of the processor, it is very undesirable to exceed 60 ° Celsius, but the lower it is, the better.

Owners of Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron processors based on them should definitely use ThrottleWatch, RightMark CPU Clock Utility or something similar. The fact is that when overheated, these processors can fall into throttling, which is expressed in a noticeable decrease in performance. "Overclocking" with throttling does not make sense, since the speed can drop even below the values ​​that the processor produces in the nominal mode. Utilities will be able to warn about the beginning of throttling, which means that you will need to take care of better cooling or reduce overclocking.

If everything went well, then you can increase the frequency a little more, and so on until the system remains stable. As soon as the first signs of overclocking appear: freezes, program crashes, errors, blue screens, or the temperature rises too high, you need to reduce the frequency and again make sure that the system works stably under new conditions.

Often, the results published in our CPU Overclocking Statistics will help you navigate. You can roughly estimate to what frequencies your processor is capable of overclocking. Just be careful, do not forget that not only the name of the processor matters, but also the type of core on which it is based and even its revision. In addition, even processors from the same batch have different overclocking potential, so do not rush to set the maximum frequency you see, it is safer and more reliable to gradually rise from lower to higher.

However, exceptions are possible. Remember, I talked about old chipsets that can't fix AGP and PCI frequencies at nominal? That's right, they really can't support the nominal frequencies of these buses throughout the entire FSB frequency range, but they must keep them nominal at the standard frequencies for processors. And they do this with the help of dividers that switch automatically, depending on the set FSB frequency. Standard frequencies are 100, 133, 166 and 200 MHz.

Suppose that when overclocking the Duron processor from 100 to 120 MHz via the bus, it demonstrated iron stability, and when the FSB is increased to 125 MHz, the system starts to fail or refuses to start at all. It is quite possible that the limit of overclocking of the processor has been reached, but it is very possible that the limit is still far away, and the increased frequencies on the AGP and PCI buses prevent us. This is very easy to check - you need to immediately set the frequency to 133 MHz. In this case, the motherboard uses other dividers that will set the nominal frequencies on the buses. If your processor is capable of such overclocking, then you can go a little higher.

Do I need to increase the voltage applied to the processor? Sometimes it can really help to move forward, but not always. But this always dramatically increases heat dissipation, which already grows with overclocking, so I would not recommend starting with a rash increase in voltage. However, the computer is yours, and if you don't feel sorry for it, do what you want. Just don't complain afterwards.

As for changing the processor multiplier, AMD processors with Socket A (462) released before the 40th week of 2003, AMD Athlon FX processors, and AMD processors with Socket 754/939 (except for the younger Sempron) have a free multiplier. his. Changing the multiplier allows for more flexible overclocking. For example, if you have an old board that cannot fix AGP and PCI frequencies, then you can overclock only by increasing the multiplier, and not by the bus, in which case the frequencies will remain at nominal. Another situation is possible: if you have a processor with a sufficiently high multiplier, then it can be reduced in order to overclock more on the bus, because this promises some "free" performance gain. Some AMD Socket A processors have a locked multiplier, but they can be "unlocked" or turned into mobile ones, which will also open access to changing the multiplier. In this article, I can not tell you everything, there are several works on this topic on our website, information is available in the conference - you will find it if you need it.

But what to do if the system is overclocked, the wrong parameters are set and the board does not even start or starts and freezes soon after? A number of modern motherboards monitor the startup process and if it is interrupted, the board automatically restarts, setting the processor and memory to nominal values. You just have to enter the BIOS again and correct your mistake.

Sometimes it helps to start with the Insert key pressed, in this case the board also resets the parameters to nominal, which contributes to a successful launch. If nothing helps, then you need to find the Clear CMOS jumper on the board, when the power is off, switch it to two adjacent contacts for about three seconds and return it to its place. In this case, absolutely all parameters are reset to nominal. Next time be more moderate in your appetites.

So, the processor has been successfully overclocked, but your work is not finished yet, because the system performance depends not only on the processor frequency. Have you forgotten that at the very beginning we reduced the memory frequency? Now it's time to raise it, choose the optimal timings. Only experiments and advice from friends will help in this, far from always a high frequency guarantees high performance. Change the parameters one at a time and immediately test the resulting changes. If you play games, then the next step will be overclocking the video card.

As you understand, it is impossible to cover everything in one article. There are many nuances, but there is nothing complicated in overclocking and, over time, you will understand everything. Our articles, the study of conference materials, the advice of friends will help. Feel free to ask and use the search. Most likely, the answer to your seemingly unsolvable question has already been found by someone else. Before overclocking at random, think about it, because an unoverclocked, but working computer, much better overclocked to complete inoperability. The main thing is to act deliberately, gradually and you will succeed.

The frequency and performance of the processor may be higher than indicated in the standard specifications. Also, over time the system is used, the performance of all major PC components (RAM, CPU, etc.) may gradually decrease. To avoid this, you need to regularly “optimize” your computer.

It must be understood that all manipulations with the central processor (especially overclocking) should be carried out only if you are convinced that he will be able to “survive” them. This may require system testing.

All manipulations to improve the quality of the CPU can be divided into two groups:

  • Optimization. The main emphasis is on the competent distribution of the already available resources of the cores and the system in order to achieve maximum performance. It is difficult to do serious damage to the CPU during optimization, but the performance gain is usually not very high.
  • Overclocking Manipulations directly with the processor itself through special software or BIOS to increase its clock frequency. The performance increase in this case is very noticeable, but the risk of damaging the processor and other computer components during unsuccessful overclocking also increases.

Find out if the processor is suitable for overclocking

Before overclocking, be sure to view the characteristics of your processor using a special program (for example). The latter is shareware in nature, with its help you can find out detailed information about all the components of the computer, and in the paid version, even carry out some manipulations with them. Instructions for use:


Method 1: Optimizing with CPU Control

To safely optimize the performance of the processor, you will need to download CPU Control. This program has a simple interface for ordinary PC users, supports the Russian language and is distributed free of charge. The essence of this method is to evenly distribute the load on the processor cores, because. on modern multi-core processors, some cores may not participate in the work, which leads to a performance loss.

Instructions for using this program:


Method 2: Overclocking with ClockGen

is a free program suitable for accelerating the performance of processors of any brand and series (with the exception of some Intel processors, where overclocking is not possible by itself). Before overclocking, make sure that all CPU temperatures are normal. How to use ClockGen:


Method 3: Overclocking the CPU in the BIOS

A rather complicated and “dangerous” way, especially for inexperienced PC users. Before overclocking the processor, it is recommended to study its characteristics, first of all, the temperature during normal operation (without serious loads). To do this, use special utilities or programs (AIDA64 described above is quite suitable for these purposes).

If all parameters are normal, then you can start overclocking. Overclocking for each processor may be different, so below is a universal instruction for performing this operation through the BIOS:


Method 4: Optimizing the OS

This is the safest method to increase CPU performance by cleaning startup applications from unnecessary applications and defragmenting disks. Autoload is the automatic inclusion of a particular program / process when the operating system boots. When too many processes and programs accumulate in this partition, then when you turn on the OS and continue working in it, too much load may be placed on the central processor, which will disrupt performance.

Cleanup Startup

Applications can be added to startup either independently, or applications / processes can be added themselves. To avoid the second case, it is recommended to carefully read all the items that are ticked during the installation of a particular software. How to remove existing items from Startup:


Defragmentation

Disk defragmentation not only increases the speed of the programs on this disk, but also slightly optimizes the processor. This happens because the CPU processes less data, because. during defragmentation, the logical structure of volumes is updated and optimized, and file processing is accelerated. Instructions for defragmentation:

Optimizing the CPU is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. However, if the optimization did not give any noticeable results, then in this case the central processor will need to be overclocked on its own. In some cases, overclocking is not necessary through the BIOS. Sometimes the processor manufacturer may provide a special program to increase the frequency of a particular model.

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