I5 3450s multiplier can go to 39, not really locked to 35?

[raytseng]

So I have a 3540s, which "supposedly" since it is not a k processor should be locked with turbo at a max mutliplier of 35 (=3500Mhz)


mobo: Asus P8z77-V

So I'm playing around with the overclocking features, and see that with Asus' 1-button overclock, Asus decides to safely set the multiplier to 37 giving a bit of a boost.

With the slidey bar, i can adjust the multiplier to go all the way up to 39.
CPU-Z reports the multiplier changing accordingly.

So, despite the doom and gloom that you are locked without a k processor, it does seem they give you the ability to OC at least 4 multipliers higher (35->39)

Is this something other people are seeing? Or is it just something Asus did?

 

[raytseng]

Edit:
After more testing, it does seem to be locked to 35 when 4 threads are running.

Edit again:

Hmm, after more testing, it does seem to jump around and sometimes seems to "turbo up" to the higher multiplier, at least for a few seconds before coming down to 35.

Often if only 1 thread is active it will stay at the higher multiplier.

Anyone else have opinions?

 

[sam_fisher]

That higher multiplier is probably just the turbo boost limit. Hence why it fluctuates a lot.

 

[dudewitbow]

it is normally possible to overclock it only to the turbo point i believe.

 

[jay_nar2012]

Its user locked if that makes sense.
The chip overclocks itself when needed (intel turbo boost or AMD turbo core).
The chip also underclocks its self on idle (intel speed step or cool'n'quiet for AMD).

Its programmed to do that, you can't change that (you might be able to turn turbo boost off in the bios or something).

 

[jay_nar2012]

Its user locked if that makes sense.
The chip overclocks itself when needed (intel turbo boost or AMD turbo core).
The chip also underclocks its self on idle (intel speed step or cool'n'quiet for AMD).

Its programmed to do that, you can't change that (you might be able to turn turbo boost off in the bios or something).

 

[raytseng]

yea,
OK, you guys missed my point. Obvious stuff is obvious.

The stuff you are repeating is nothing about the point I am mentioning.

I get that processor manager dynamically changes the multiplier.


The specs for this chip 3450s are:

lowest speedstep multiplier is 16
standard speed 28
Turbo speed 35
bus is 100mhz so just add 00 to get Mhz.

See here:
http://ark.intel.com/products/65512/Intel-Core-i5-3450S-Processor-(6M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz)

From Wikipedia Turbo Speed is "Supposed" to be 3/4/6/7 (for #threads active) for 3450s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i5_microprocessors#.22Ivy_Bridge.22_.28quad-core.2C_22_nm.29


So, which means with 1thread active, you can only go (28+7) up to 3500. With 4 threads, you can go (28+3) up to 3100.
This is all the obvious stuff you guys have been saying.



What I'm bringing up in this post is that all the articles that say "get the k processor, it's the only way to get an unlocked multiplier."

But what I'm seeing is that even without a k processor, you can mildly overclock and get cpu speeds all the way to 3900 (for 1 thread) and 3500 for 4threads.

This is the same as an extra +4 all around for the different usage patterns.


Especially since most people here play games (singlethread), my point is you do get SOME overclocking with a non-k processor and the articles are not correct that you have no opportunity for multiplier overclocking unless you buy a k processor.

I've been running prime95 for about an hour now, with 1 worker thread and set affinity to a CPU0, so am now seeing the multiplier stay locked to 39.


Again, INTEL and tomshardware articles say you only should get 35 with this processor and there is no way to go higher.

I'm saying that's not true, I'm able to get to 39, pretty easily at that too. But 39 is then where I am locked out and hit the wall.

So my question is are you guys seeing this too with your non-k processors? and is it a result of my specific mobo's functionality?

 

[sam_fisher]

It's well known that you can overclock with most CPUs, even if they aren't "K" series, just not easily or much. You can usually overclock say your CPU up to its turbo limit, and given the correct conditions (which seem to happen to you when only one core is running) it will turbo boost it some more.

Also, games aren't single threaded - not anymore anyway. Many of the later games utilise much more cores compared to what they used to. BF3 for example uses all four quite well.

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

It's known as "Limited" Unlocked and all non-K Sandy and Ivy CPU's that have Turbo can do it. Up to 4 bins (400Mhz).

 

[raytseng]

Best answer selected by raytseng.

 

[raytseng]

DJ has the facts so +1 to that.

Now that i search for "limited unlock 4 bins" plenty of results concur with it.
Now to correct everyone else who keeps spewing the misinformation that non-k is "locked"; you only can change bclk

 

[Abyssic]

Hello

I found this thread while i was searching for an answer that could kill the confusion of mine about my cpu.
I also got a 3450 and a asus mobo (maximus v gene).
This processor is amazing ^^ my system runs stable at 4x4,0Ghz and i didn't try to max it out yet.
Best budged decicion i made in years

screenshot was taken after 2,5 hours of prime 95 on all cores

 

[Abyssic]

Edit:
I experienced no jumping between normal and boost clocks. it stays stable at 4002Mhz

Also another proofshot:

 

[raytseng]

if you are interested, the reason for the jumping around from my first post had to do with the number of workload threads I was running (using prime95) and processor affinity with the system swapping the tasks around to all the different processors which confuses the cpu on how many cores are active.

Once I locked down the threads to the specific processors, then everything stayed stable in the test