Getting the most out of i5 set-up (slightly dissapointed)...... help please

[Rafkoo]

Gents

I’ve got a core i5 that I recently specc’d on here (full details below).

Windows 7 including all updates and SP1
Gigabyte mobo drivers installed
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Coolermaster Elite 330 Case With Coolermaster eXtreme Power 500W PSU
Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
HITACHI COOLSPIN HDS5C3020ALA632 2TB Internal 3.5 SATA Hard Drive -
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black)
VGA cable rather than HDMI (BSOD on boot when tried to run via HDMI..)



I’ve been using it for a few months and all is good – quite happy with performance, although I’ve never really pushed it (don’t do much gaming at all).

I recently downloaded a game in beta development (Kerbal – can be found here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/ - absolutely awesome and I thoroughly recommend it!! )

So I tried to run it at 1920x1080, thinking that my i5 won’t even break a sweat….. and despite the game (seemingly) not being very graphically intensive….. it was a bit choppy, slow frame rates etc…. and I have to turn the resolution down to 1280x720 in order to for it all to run smoothly…. And even then, when I start building bigger and bigger rockets (in the game) – it begins to slow down again....

So….. I’m wondering what I should be doing to get the most of my i5 and the integrated graphics capabilities that I have? Should I be running something in the background? I haven’t overclocked it or done any tweaking since I put it all together and installed Windows/drivers etc.. but I’m guessing that overclocking won’t help THAT much in terms of the graphics….??

When I specc’ed the below, I certainly didn’t think I’d have any difficulties in running most games…. Let alone something relatively simple which I’ve downloaded from the net.

Any advise/guides appreciated to help with boosting the graphics capabilities and making the most of the core i5 please?

Many thanks
Raf

 

[Rafkoo]

You expected too much out of the IGP. Add a GPU, that's actually meant for games.

Really....? I'm not expecting that much..... and surely what's the point of the IGP if you can't play games using it..... lat alone a simple beta game.... ....

I still think there's probably somethign I haven't dones with my set-up for it to even a) use the IGP at all, b) get the most out of it....

Advise and pointers as to how I should be running it (or tweak) most welcome.

 

[Rafkoo]

HD playback is perfect, no issues 720 or 1080p

What's the best way to OC the graphics? Is there a simple guide someone could point me to please?

 

[Rafkoo]

Righto thanks gents - apprecaite the feedback and advice - I wasn't aware that the IGP in these SB processors wasn't really up to the job of gaming. My bad.

Understood that OCing the graphics won't suddenly make my experience "wonderful" - but is there a simple guide as to how to go about doing it...? Also a general i5 on a z68 board OC guide would be handy....

Thanks a lot everyone, very good of you to take the time.

 

[Rafkoo]

You'd only get a few FPS in OC'ing the IGP. Best off buying an actual GPU lol.

Understood.... am very aware of the limited increase in performance I will achieve by OCing IGP or CPU.... I would however like to try it, as for the incredibly limited amount of gaming I will be doing on this machine, I'm not prepared to (at this stage in the very least) invest in a graphics card.

Thanks for the input though.

Anyone answer my initial query....(without telling me to get a dedicated GPU).... “how I can get the most out of my i5 set-up…?”

 

[Rafkoo]

Not to worry mate it is very easy to over-clock your GPU.

Install the Intel Management software and then install ET6. http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/utility.aspx Both can be found on the link I posted. In ET6 there is the option to increase your GPU core speed. It would be a good idea to slightly increase gpu voltages too. You can work out how much you need. Basically your screen will artefact when you have gone to high with the over-clock.

One other thing you could do is increase the total amount of ram that is available for the GPU to use. That you can set in the bios or use the TouchBIOS.

Give me a day or so and I will put together a graphic over-clock guide and post it here on the forum.

Nice one - thank you very much for the kind offer!

I have ET6 installed - but I'm not sure it actually works correctly... have tried to use it to OC but windows is still showing 3.3Ghz after restart (haven't looked at it via CPU-Z yet though).

Thanks again!

 

[Rafkoo]

Genuinely - thank you so much dude.... really good of you and realyl appreciate it.

I'll have a go playing around with it tonight and post back any issues or the positive results!

Thanks again!

 

[Rafkoo]

Couple of items before I head off to do this this evening (really looking forward to having a play with it….. ....I will need to install TouchBIOS as well....):

- Are there a couple of simple benchmarking apps I could use – one for IGP and one for CPU – just so I know what the difference was before and after I’ve had a tweak? I know the numbers will be arbitrary but would be good to have a relative comparison.

- And about ET6 – I’ll install the Intel driver as requested, but I’m wondering whether I have an issues with my current ET6… because I can never seem to launch it from the shortcut on the desktop or the start/programmes menu…. The only way I seem to ever be able to open it by right clicking on it from the processes bar and clicking “show”….. does that sound right (and incredibly stupid…. i.e. ….. shortcut/start menu only activates it…. and you need to “show” it from the process bar anyway…?)

 

[Rafkoo]

If you are unable to launch ET6 from the dash then it is not correctly installed due to not having the MEI driver I linked you to.

Remove it completely from your system. And only use the TouchBios for now please. They do not work well together at all. And TouchBios is a better option as it mimics the BIOS.

Not sure what kind of application would best suite your needs to judge before and after. But I guess 3DMark06 or Vantage3D would be good.

OK, I’ll uninstall ET6 and install the MEI driver and TouchBios (which I don’t currently have). I’ll also grab a copy of GPUZ and CPUZ and 3DMark06.

Thank you again.

I just want to point out it is unrealistic to expect the HD3000 graphic to deliver decent frame rate in games at 1920 res...1280x720 res is a much more realistic expectation.

Even 5770 would struggle gaming at 1920 res...you can't seriously expect the HD3000 to deliver same performance as a £75~£80 gaming card...

As silly as it may sound to regulars on this forum….. yes I did…. I did in all honesty expect the IGP in the SB processors to be of sufficient power to deliver the goods on most levels – if not the top end cards...... But then again, I have only this year updated my PC from a dinosaur Shuttle FN45 with Athlon 3200+ and 9600XT……. So that probably says it all really…..

 

[Rafkoo]

Righto - thought I'd grab the benchmarking software and give it a go BEFORE tweaking anything.

Screengrab of very unimpressive results below....

But - should the 2 areas I've circled be like they are.... i.e. not recognised driver and scores of 0 and 71MB??

Separately - the results show my CPU clock speed went up to 3911Mhz - I'm wondering if my previous attempt to tune up (to the middle setting) in ET6 actually worked (but didn't show in device manager in Windows.... and I didn't check it in CPU-Z)..... I've now uninstalled ET6..... before putting it back to default.... doh!

 

[Rafkoo]

Ok.... fail part 2.....

Installed Touch bios.... tried to run it from the start menu..... got this error....

I somehow had a feeling this wasn't going to be so easy..... any ideas anyone?

 

[Rafkoo]

Well I’ve realised that I may have made a noob mistake – I think my bios is slightly older than the most recent version on the Gigabyte website – CPUZ is showing that I’m running F2 – version F8 is currently available. Didn’t have time to re-flash this morning before having to head off to work – but I’m hoping this will do the trick.

Will it matter if I flash my bios with the latest version when my system currently is running OCed at 4Ghz – which I did using the ET6 tool….. and then uninstalled the ET6 tool before going back to default clock speeds?

Do I just use the @BIOS utility that was installed with TouchBIOS?

I’ve also updated to the most recent Intel HD graphics drivers….. again not had a chance to run another Benchmark.

 

[Rafkoo]

Not your bad at all - I have Win7 SP1 and the latest version of .NET...... just didn't have the F8 version bios - will have another go tonight.

My question was though - if I'm currently OCed to 4Ghz using ET6 - now that I've uninstalled ET6 and can't de-clock back to normal.... is it still ok to flash the bios....?

 

[Rafkoo]

Ah ok... thanks HiViz..... not exactly sure what the defaults are though to do it manually in the bios....

Would I be better off installing ET6 again.... putting the setting back to default and then uninstalling it again ready for the flash.....

Or can anyone recommend how to set everything back to default in the bios manually?

Thanks again all...!

 

[Rafkoo]

If you want to set the BIOS back to the default settings just take the battery out with the PC unplugged from the mains.

Thanks dude - would rather not go down this route if possible....

 

[Rafkoo]

In that case go into the BIOS, select load fail safe defaults, save and exit.

I've just realised, that this could all be academic..... as I don't actually know if I even DID overclock it with ET6 - as mentioned, I wasn't sure it had actually worked.....

How can I tell definitively that it has been overclocked?

Here's a grab of CPUZ when it is just sitting doing nothiing....

But then I see it occasionally jump up to this..... (is this the turbo boost feature rather than an OC?)

Yet Windows is reporting this.... @3.3Ghz 4GHz..... so what is the deal gents?

 

[Rafkoo]

Ok thank you..... so what are we saying here...? I did manage to set some sort of OC using ET6?

It just idles at 1.6Ghz and occasionally jumps to 38 or 40x if I move the mouse over a window in the task bar for example.... is that right?

EDIT: and why is the windows properties screen showing 4Ghz??

 

[Rafkoo]

Popped into the bios this morning on boot and had a look at the clock settings to see if I could find what ET6 had done:

clock ratio 33x
core1 turbo 37 [41]
core2 turbo 36 [40]
core3 turbo 35 [39]
core4 turbo 34 [38]

Sooooo......

1) Am I right in thinking that ET6 has NOT actually Oced the system.... just put up the turboboost clock speeds?

Also, before I go setting back to fail-safe defaults in the bios and flashing it with F8 version..... should I install the Intel INF from here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3855#driver

Seems my version is probably at that from the driver CD I got with the motherboard...(which was well after February as the Z68 board didn't come out until May)?

Edit: just realised the the Intel INF is a utility to get latest definitions for device manager..... doh! I'm so rusty at this ****......

 

[Rafkoo]

Righto.... loaded optimised defaults and the turbo boosts figures were set back to [auto]....

Flashed bios to F8....

And TouchBios is now working! Woot!

Will have a play at OC the graphics and using HivVizMans normal overclock guide in his signature and report back....

Finally getting somewhere....

 

[Rafkoo]

Should touchbios take about 2mins to launch from the start menu.... Taking up about 25% of CPU resources...?