Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Worth overclocking?

Jagmoide · 28 Mar 2016 at 11:37

Good Morning Overclockers,

Stuck at work on a bank holiday and wondering how i can upgrade my pc.

I currently have Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) overclocked to 4GHZ.

Is it worth pushing that any higher? Am i going to see any difference pushing this a bit more?

Currently playing the Division on High Graphics and getting a little bit of stutter that is really annoying, anything I tweak graphics wise doesn't seem to make a difference.

Other hardware is : R9 390 8GB, 8GB Ram, SSD hardrive.

Any advice?

MofoKilla · 28 Mar 2016 at 12:06

you should be able to get 4.4 at least on those chips prov you have sufficient cooling?

my old 2500k did 4.7 with out much effort at all.

Jagmoide · 28 Mar 2016 at 12:16

Will it make any difference? Is it worth the headache?

doodah · 28 Mar 2016 at 12:36

A 1GHz overclock will definitely make a difference. Very minimal headache, first overclock usually just involves upping the multiplier (and a little more voltage).

Jagmoide · 28 Mar 2016 at 13:11

Yeah, I've overclocked it to 4ghz using the multiplier but anything above 4ghz seems a bit more complex.

Disco_P · 28 Mar 2016 at 13:49

Which motherboard are you using? It's often easier than you think!

Jagmoide · 28 Mar 2016 at 14:22

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Thats my motherboard.

Disco_P · 28 Mar 2016 at 15:04

Does that use the old school blue and white bios or a new fancy uefi bios with mouse control?

And what is your cooler?

Jagmoide · 28 Mar 2016 at 15:22

It'll be the old school one.
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler, got 4 case fans and it's nice and cool in there.

MissChief · 28 Mar 2016 at 15:41

I also have a 2500k under a Gelid Tranquillo. It did 4.2 with just a multiplier tweak. Didn't even need to add any volts either. Not sure there will be a huge difference between 4 and 4.5 other than more heat and more power. Nothing noticeable anyway.

Jagmoide · 28 Mar 2016 at 16:22

Just raising multipliers to x42?

wam7 · 29 Mar 2016 at 01:35

I doubt the stutter is CPU related (look to your GPU/drivers), What resolution are you playing at? Vsync enabled?
Your motherboard wasn't the best overclicking one but I'd see how high your 2500k will go on 1.35v. I think 4.5Ghz is generally easily achievable and the extra 2000Mhz across all cores will definitely help in multithreaded applications/games.

Vish Petrol · 29 Mar 2016 at 02:02

wam7 said:
I doubt the stutter is CPU related (look to your GPU/drivers), What resolution are you playing at? Vsync enabled?
Your motherboard wasn't the best overclicking one but I'd see how high your 2500k will go on 1.35v. I think 4.5Ghz is generally easily achievable and the extra 2000Mhz across all cores will definitely help in multithreaded applications/games.

I would second this, its worth seeing if there is a tangible benefit with the clock speed increase, and you may see a benefit across other games as well, especially with newer releases making better use of multicore processors.

MissChief · 29 Mar 2016 at 11:22

Jagmoide said:
Just raising multipliers to x42?

Yup, that's all I did.

maj · 30 Mar 2016 at 17:16

MissChief said:
Yup, that's all I did.

Just done this myself as had mine at stock since owning it. If I view system properties it says i5-2500K @3.30GHz 4.10GHz.

That correct?

Jagmoide · 31 Mar 2016 at 18:51

Vsync on auto in game and playing at 1080p (nothing fancy)

Krisali · 6 Apr 2016 at 17:36

You should be able to get 4.5-4.8 relatively easily/safely which should yield some gains.

However, the Division is notorious for stutter so I wouldn't judge your PC performance by it

maj · 13 Apr 2016 at 18:09

Does this look normal? Changed multiplier to 45x as per a guide I was following but do the core clock speeds look right? The multiplier value keeps changing. If I tried to adjust voltage the PC refused to boot.

If I view system properties it says i5-2500K @3.30GHz 4.40GHz.

kadath · 14 Apr 2016 at 14:54

maj said:
Does this look normal? Changed multiplier to 45x as per a guide I was following but do the core clock speeds look right? The multiplier value keeps changing. If I tried to adjust voltage the PC refused to boot.

If I view system properties it says i5-2500K @3.30GHz 4.40GHz.

I don't think that is right, my CPUID accurately reports my overclock...

There's a BIOS option that turns off boosting or whatever to just give constant OC I think

wam7 · 14 Apr 2016 at 15:58

No it's perfectly fine. Actually it's best for the life of the CPU not to have it at constant overclock and voltage. At default it is probably using Offset voltage and also EIST etc which all serve to dynamically increase the voltage and clock speed dependant on CPU load. This is the best way to have it.

If you want to do a 'correct' CPU-Z screen shot then do so when the CPU is under full load with something like Realbench or Handbrake. Then you should see 4.5Ghz with the corresponding voltage.