Overclocking 2600k!

[imakuzim]

Hi guys, I am well aware of people saying that if you're into gaming, and mostly only gaming.. go for i5-2500k. And if you're into applications that benefits HT, then i7-2600k is the way.

Now the thing is, I was thinking I want gaming, but I also want the added feature the 2600k gives (HT), so 2600k all the way!
I was wrong.

We all know, games, or almost any other applications benefits in overclocking components particularly the CPU.
But I have found this forum thread that talks about overclocking the 2600k and it found out that the lower the number of threads, the higher the OC can get. It also says that disabling Hyper Threading, further increases OC.
Over all, that would mean, disabling 8 threads and HT would be the way to maximize OC on a 2600k, which in turn increases gaming capability.
But would that not mean just making it into a 2500k at the first place?

Please somebody clarify this as I am about to build a system with i7-2600k. If increasing my gaming experience would need me to make a i7-2600k into a i5-2500k then I don't see any reason to buy the i7-2600k at all.

 

[bearclaw99]

Doesn't matter much either way. I have an i7 2600K OC to 4.6 ghz, and the truth is, you really aren't going to notice any difference for games over 4 ghz, or even stock for most

If you really have need of HT, go for the 2600K. If you're using it mostly for games, get the 2500K

 

[Bigmac80]

I have the i5 2500k and i had it overclocked to 4.2ghz and i went back to stock settings because i dont notice the difference in fps while gaming...I'm using the GTX 295 graphics card at 1920x1080 res and the games i play are Age of Conan, Battle Field Bad Company 2, Shogun 2, Metro 2033 etc and they all get over 60fps...The new sandy bridge is really fast they don't need overclocking honestly...Get the i5 2500k it's the best bang for buck...I got mine for $179.99 at microcenter.com..Doesn't make sense to get the 2600k if your mostly just gaming...

 

[imakuzim]

I have the i5 2500k and i had it overclocked to 4.2ghz and i went back to stock settings because i dont notice the difference in fps while gaming...I'm using the GTX 295 graphics card at 1920x1080 res and the games i play are Age of Conan, Battle Field Bad Company 2, Shogun 2, Metro 2033 etc and they all get over 60fps...The new sandy bridge is really fast they don't need overclocking honestly...Get the i5 2500k it's the best bang for buck...I got mine for $179.99 at microcenter.com..Doesn't make sense to get the 2600k if your mostly just gaming...

I think that is because you are GPU bottleneck to the point that stock or overcloked 2600k won't really increase you're fps.
I plan on going SLI 560 or 6950 so I might really need the extra juice from my CPU to push FPS further.
Another thing, getting 60 fps at metro 2033 with that card, I believe your not playing at max settings?

 

[whitey_rolls]

I honestly wouldn't be concerned about not getting the 100% best clock possible from the 2600K due to the extra threads, if you are that concerned I believe they can be turned off....

But still I mean I just went into the UEFI changed the multiplier from 34 to 43 and saved it, boom I'm now running at 4.3 ghz that easy. Take some time, buy some nice cooling fiddle with the voltage etc and I'm sure you could get it closer to 5.0, I mean how much do you really need?

 

[Everx]

I am also looking at these two CPU. One question I have is in future do see games being able to take advantage of HT in the 2600K?

 

[imakuzim]

I honestly wouldn't be concerned about not getting the 100% best clock possible from the 2600K due to the extra threads, if you are that concerned I believe they can be turned off....

But still I mean I just went into the UEFI changed the multiplier from 34 to 43 and saved it, boom I'm now running at 4.3 ghz that easy. Take some time, buy some nice cooling fiddle with the voltage etc and I'm sure you could get it closer to 5.0, I mean how much do you really need?

That is exactly my point. If I turn it off, then what would be the difference on just getting the i5-2500k instead?
I don't really need to maximize everything, I just want to get the best clock without increasing volt, which again could be higher without the HT and more threads.

 

[bearclaw99]

"That is exactly my point. If I turn it off, then what would be the difference on just getting the i5-2500k instead?
I don't really need to maximize everything, I just want to get the best clock without increasing volt, which again could be higher without the HT and more threads. "

There's really no way to determine that. A lot of it depends on the chip you get, i.e if you get lucky or not

 

[whitey_rolls]

Bearclaw is correct you could get a 2500k that only OC's to 4.2 ghz or you could get a 2600k that will OC to 5.0ghz, there is quite a bit of luck involved.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Here's the scoop. From what I have seen .... and that of course is limited to what I have read and what I have built, the 2600k seems to hit higher OC's where cooling is not the limiting factor. However, cooling is oft to be the limiting factor at real hi OC's.

You can easily do 4.5 - 4.6 on both. In most cases, the CPU will be the limit here.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1578110

Results are representative of 100 D2 CPUs that were binned and tested for stability under load; these results will most likely represent retail CPUs.
1. Approximately 50% of CPUs can go up to 4.4~4.5 GHz
2. Approximately 40% of CPUs can go up to 4.6~4.7 GHz
3. Approximately 10% of CPUs can go up to 4.8~5 GHz (50+ multipliers are about 2% of this group)

Putting a bigger / better cooler isn't going to help as the CPUs, as indicated above, are otherwise limited. However, when you get CPU's that are capable of hitting 4.7, 4.8 and above .... cooling gets important as the req'd voltages to maintain stability go up rapidly after 4.5 ish.

As you can see here:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=730&Itemid=38&limit=1&limitstart=8

at 4.4 Ghz, the 2500k and 2600k are close in temp (57 and 59). But at 4.8, its 67 and 74. That's cause the higher voltage and extra 4 threads generate more heat than the CPU can efficiently and quickly remove. The article notes the CPU's sweet spot as 4.4 GHz and I have to agree.

With the 2600k, w/ 8 threads, 4.4 Ghz what I set most boxes up with for 24/7 usage . All core temps remain below 60C at that setting. However, to get the best of both worlds so to speak, I like to use the BIOS profiles feature to store multiple profiles. In addition to the 24/7 "everyday" profile, I set up the 2600k's w/ an extreme gaming" profile at 4.8 or more GHz and HT off. Games don't need 8 cores; again temps remain below 70C and system is completely stable. I use the offset method for voltage so as to allow the system to down volt when hi CPU speeds aren't needed.

So yes, you can have the best of both worlds by setting up multiple boots, saving different BIOS profiles using the profile feature in most enthusiast boards. Keep ya 2600k HT boot for all the things that use HT on one profile and set up an max OC gaming profile w/ HT off on the other.

 

[imakuzim]

Best answer selected by imakuzim.