I5 2500k 4.5Ghz OC (Overkill?)

[Jawny]

I'm buying a i5 2500k 3.30Ghz, I've been seeing people on youtube OC'ing there 2500k's to 4.5Ghz Isn't that over kill! I thought 4Ghz was pushing it. I want to OC mine when I play BF3 but is it safe to OC that much? under the proper Cooling conditions obviously.

 

[catatafish]

Nope, its easy, fun, and safe with any average aftermarket CPU cooler.

4.5 is a cakewalk on the 2500k.

 

[dish_moose]

^ most times. Not all cpus are created equal - likely you will be ok with 4.5GHz.
-Bruce

 

[Jawny]

Nope, its easy, fun, and safe with any average aftermarket CPU cooler.

4.5 is a cakewalk on the 2500k.

That makes me super happy! I plan on buying 2 GTX 570's. Should be good gaming

Saw you have a Cooler EVO 212, I was going to buy the same one, How is it?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

it is overkill in a way. even a 3.3ghz clockrate on that cpu will make any game fly, but it certainly isnt pushing the limits of the cpu. 5ghz is the upmost limit you will get with air cooling.

 

[DelroyMonjo]

I've had trouble running games and benchmarks above 4.2 GHz in my I5-2500K. It will run @4.5 auto voltage which goes to 1.46 at that speed, but black screens on Unigine every time.

 

[geofelt]

I'm buying a i5 2500k 3.30Ghz, I've been seeing people on youtube OC'ing there 2500k's to 4.5Ghz Isn't that over kill! I thought 4Ghz was pushing it. I want to OC mine when I play BF3 but is it safe to OC that much? under the proper Cooling conditions obviously.

BF3 is mostly a graphics limited game, not a cpu limited one.
It would run as well on a stock 2500K.
From that point of view, 4.5 is overkill.

My take is to use a conservative oc. By that, I mean an OC that does not increase the cpu voltage.
OC by gradually increasing the multiplier from 33 to 40 or so, and leave everything else on default or auto.
I happen to be satisfied at 40.

Verify that any OC is stable.
Run prime95 with rounding checking long enough to let the temperature stabilize at it's max. You should get NO errors.
Monitor the temperature. I use realtemp.
Also, keep an eye on the multiplier. It should stay at max. If it drops, it indicates that the OC is too much, and the multiplier is being reduced to protect the chip.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

Honest answer here from someone who has people walk into my shops having blown a CPU or Mobo through overclocking (usually through insufficient cooling)


NO it is NOT safe....there is ALWAYS a risk....

It MIGHT work perfectly overclocked...

It MIGHT BLOW THE CPU and Motherboard...

Your risk...

All the best Brett

 

[seumas_beathan]

Hi

Honest answer here from someone who has people walk into my shops having blown a CPU or Mobo through overclocking (usually through insufficient cooling)


NO it is NOT safe....there is ALWAYS a risk....

It MIGHT work perfectly overclocked...

It MIGHT BLOW THE CPU and Motherboard...

Your risk...

All the best Brett

+1

And also as iam2thecrowe said, even at stock speed this chip will cope with any game perfectly

 

[Max1s]

I actually was in the exact same mindset as the OP before I bought my 25k, to keep it short I'm now running my 2nd one (I had to pay for both) after a freak LLC/core voltage accident @ 4.5ghz @ 1.3v.

It turbo-clocks to 3.7ghz. 4.5ghz is overkill, I have friends that run BF3 on an i3 and even a core 2 duo. Toms did a review where it shows the i3 2100 getting 81 fps with 2 gtx 570s (if i remember correctly), the 25k getting 81 fps, and the 26k getting 81 fps. Enough said.

I know its very tempting, and I myself am tempted to OC again, because this chip does OC like crazy, but I'm just saying its risky.

An OC on stock voltage dosn't sound like a bad idea, see how high you can get the clock before crashing and just stay there and dont touch the voltage. (If you do decide to OC)

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Let's discuss something official on the subject ..... from Juan_Jose, ASUS Technical Marketing Specialist:

Expectations regarding K series overclocking in general and on ASUS P67 motherboardsPrior to the recommendations on overclocking the K series, I am outlining our results to set expectations.
The results below are based on the range of the CPU turbo multiplier when overclocking.
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) ....

As always ASUS strives to be at the forefront of performance and functionality offered by a quality bios. Keeping this in mind ASUS has been actively working in conjunction with Intel to optimize overclocking potential on ASUS P8P67 motherboards and K series CPUs.....

Overall a key item to note is the best voltage to oc scaling range potential for the turbo multiplier is 1.400 to 1.425 vcore. Using this voltage range with an LLC recommendation of ultra high will generally provide the best scaling potential with proper load temperatures*. .....

*cooling recommendation and test performed with CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ with Single Fan, this is the minimum recommendation for multis above 46x. For 50+ multis we recommend a dual fan configuration with this cooler or improved cooling.

I'll do 4.4 - 4.5 Ghz on a Hyper 212
I'll do 4.6 - 4.7 Ghz on a Hyper 612 or Scythe Mugen 3
I'll do 4.8 - 5.0+ Ghz on a Silver Arrow or Phanteks PH-TC14PE

 

[Jawny]

I actually was in the exact same mindset as the OP before I bought my 25k, to keep it short I'm now running my 2nd one (I had to pay for both) after a freak LLC/core voltage accident @ 4.5ghz @ 1.3v.

It turbo-clocks to 3.7ghz. 4.5ghz is overkill, I have friends that run BF3 on an i3 and even a core 2 duo. Toms did a review where it shows the i3 2100 getting 81 fps with 2 gtx 570s (if i remember correctly), the 25k getting 81 fps, and the 26k getting 81 fps. Enough said.

I know its very tempting, and I myself am tempted to OC again, because this chip does OC like crazy, but I'm just saying its risky.

An OC on stock voltage dosn't sound like a bad idea, see how high you can get the clock before crashing and just stay there and dont touch the voltage. (If you do decide to OC)

I see.. I can't afford to kill my CPU with in the first month of having it lol, I'll stay clear from OC for now.

 

[geofelt]

Sort of mixed messages here.
Intel specifies 3.3 as the stock speed for a 2500K.
Every chip they sell is guaranteed to operate at least that fast.

My take is that Intel provided a "K" suffix to allow overclocking and let the user determine what the max for their particular chip is with a certain degree of safety.

From the JackNaylorPE post, consider that if 50% can do 4.4 and faster, the remainder can do 3.3 to 4.3 only.
I seem to recall some number that said only 10% could not get to 4.0, and I suspect that number is no longer valid with the refinements over tim ein manufacturing.

---------------Bottom line---------------
Don't get too greedy.

 

[Raidur]

Stay under intel max temp and voltage and it's safe... People blow their *** up by not overclocking properly.

It's overkill for a single GPU, however get into high end SLI/Crossfire setups and you'll want to overclock.

You can test this yourself, overclock it and check out your FPS, then set the clocks back and test again. Then you'll know!

BF3 is pretty GPU bound so I doubt you're going to see benefit either way in that game.

 

[Jawny]

Best answer selected by Jawny.

 

[catatafish]

Let's discuss something official on the subject ..... from Juan_Jose, ASUS Technical Marketing Specialist:

Expectations regarding K series overclocking in general and on ASUS P67 motherboardsPrior to the recommendations on overclocking the K series, I am outlining our results to set expectations.
The results below are based on the range of the CPU turbo multiplier when overclocking.
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) ....

As always ASUS strives to be at the forefront of performance and functionality offered by a quality bios. Keeping this in mind ASUS has been actively working in conjunction with Intel to optimize overclocking potential on ASUS P8P67 motherboards and K series CPUs.....

Overall a key item to note is the best voltage to oc scaling range potential for the turbo multiplier is 1.400 to 1.425 vcore. Using this voltage range with an LLC recommendation of ultra high will generally provide the best scaling potential with proper load temperatures*. .....

*cooling recommendation and test performed with CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ with Single Fan, this is the minimum recommendation for multis above 46x. For 50+ multis we recommend a dual fan configuration with this cooler or improved cooling.

I'll do 4.4 - 4.5 Ghz on a Hyper 212
I'll do 4.6 - 4.7 Ghz on a Hyper 612 or Scythe Mugen 3
I'll do 4.8 - 5.0+ Ghz on a Silver Arrow or Phanteks PH-TC14PE

That quote made my day. For ONCE I got the good part! It also consoles me that an actual propellorhead from ASUS cites 1.4v as a voltage as I get pretty nervous seeing anything above 1.35 which I only hit briefly during IBT maybe twice during 10 rounds. It ALMOST tempts me to push a little further but like another poster said....don't get greedy. I think I'm pretty happy at 4.5.

I echo what other posters say though about performance....its not really going to make or break your gaming. Honestly, it's just fun to do. It's a great learning experience, so just do a lot of reading, studying, and bump it up to 4.0 or so and play around a little, and have fun! Of course, if $239 is a lot of money for you, be content with an awesome stock speed.

Jawny, to answer your question about the Hyper 212....I think most would agree this is a rare and fantastic bargain for PC enthusiasts. Dirt cheap for what it does. You can get a few degrees celsius cooler, but it will cost you. I'm very happy with my 212, other than its quite massive and gets in the way of my side fan on my Antec case. For that reason alone I've considered a water cooler. It's nice to always have another part to wait for in the mail.

 

[Max1s]

Well cooler-wise I got 4.5 on a Scythe Mugen 2 (one fan) @ 1.3 volts and my load temps were around 60-65...

Also people are forgetting that the 25k will never clock at 3.3ghz, thats just the stock speed w/o turbo. By default the cpu will OC to 3.7ghz and Overvolt to 1.29.