Hello!
I have built a cheap sub 300$ HTPC and I have installed SteamOS (yes, I would like it to be as much of a "gaming console" as possible as well), and everything works pretty well so far. The specs are:
CPU: Intel G1620
MOBO: G61M-PRO
RAM: (temporary) 1x8Gb 1333 MHz DDR3
OS: SteamOS 1.0 (Linux debian)
In short: Even under heavy load my cpu doesnt heat up a bit - only 5-6 degrees from idle temperatures, calls for an overclock.
I have been able to overclock the iGPU frequency of my cpu, but I do not know how to overclock the graphics core voltage as well with the motherboard I have.
For more specific info, read below.
It can play video up to 1440p smoothly with no issues, though when it comes to games it lacks a lot.
I bought the G1620 because of its' integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000, which is the same core no matter what Ivy Bridge CPU you buy. I don't plan on playing newer games, I plan on being able to do casual couch gaming, with different indie games, N64, NGC etc emulators.
So far in my testing I am able to play some newer steam games at 720p low settings with around 35fps, but the weird thing is that my cpu temperatures doesn't change a bit! they consistently stay around 29-34 degrees C, and this makes me want to get more out of the cpu.
I put a semi-expensive Noctua NH-L12 cpu cooler in it for the overclock.
Now to my question:
My motherboard does not support CPU core overclocking, but it DOES support graphics core overclocking, which is why I went with it.
I have been able to extend the upper iGPU frequency limit to 1250MHz compared to default 1050MHz, and I have achieved 8-10 % performance improvement that way.
I overclocked this way by editing the /sys/class/drm/card0/gt_max_freq_mhz system file that controls this
Increasing the frequency any further makes the system unable to render 3D graphics and becomes very unstable. I think this is because I have not changed the graphics core voltage at any point.
I have been searching around on forums, and I haven't been able to find anyone explaining how to change vcore settings from inside Linux.
I am not able to change the iGPU voltage from inside my BIOS (even though I thought I would be able to when I bought it), but it should be possible to change it inside Linux.
Anyone here have any tips on changing the graphics core voltage inside Linux?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
(And before anyone goes "Buy a dedicated GPU, you scrub!", the microITX case I chose for the build has a built-in 200W power supply only - not much space for a gpu either !
Links I have found helpful:
http://blog.ffwll.ch/2013/03/overclocking-your-intel-gpu-on-linux.html
I have built a cheap sub 300$ HTPC and I have installed SteamOS (yes, I would like it to be as much of a "gaming console" as possible as well), and everything works pretty well so far. The specs are:
CPU: Intel G1620
MOBO: G61M-PRO
RAM: (temporary) 1x8Gb 1333 MHz DDR3
OS: SteamOS 1.0 (Linux debian)
In short: Even under heavy load my cpu doesnt heat up a bit - only 5-6 degrees from idle temperatures, calls for an overclock.
I have been able to overclock the iGPU frequency of my cpu, but I do not know how to overclock the graphics core voltage as well with the motherboard I have.
For more specific info, read below.
It can play video up to 1440p smoothly with no issues, though when it comes to games it lacks a lot.
I bought the G1620 because of its' integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000, which is the same core no matter what Ivy Bridge CPU you buy. I don't plan on playing newer games, I plan on being able to do casual couch gaming, with different indie games, N64, NGC etc emulators.
So far in my testing I am able to play some newer steam games at 720p low settings with around 35fps, but the weird thing is that my cpu temperatures doesn't change a bit! they consistently stay around 29-34 degrees C, and this makes me want to get more out of the cpu.
I put a semi-expensive Noctua NH-L12 cpu cooler in it for the overclock.
Now to my question:
My motherboard does not support CPU core overclocking, but it DOES support graphics core overclocking, which is why I went with it.
I have been able to extend the upper iGPU frequency limit to 1250MHz compared to default 1050MHz, and I have achieved 8-10 % performance improvement that way.
I overclocked this way by editing the /sys/class/drm/card0/gt_max_freq_mhz system file that controls this
Increasing the frequency any further makes the system unable to render 3D graphics and becomes very unstable. I think this is because I have not changed the graphics core voltage at any point.
I have been searching around on forums, and I haven't been able to find anyone explaining how to change vcore settings from inside Linux.
I am not able to change the iGPU voltage from inside my BIOS (even though I thought I would be able to when I bought it), but it should be possible to change it inside Linux.
Anyone here have any tips on changing the graphics core voltage inside Linux?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
(And before anyone goes "Buy a dedicated GPU, you scrub!", the microITX case I chose for the build has a built-in 200W power supply only - not much space for a gpu either !
Links I have found helpful:
http://blog.ffwll.ch/2013/03/overclocking-your-intel-gpu-on-linux.html
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