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i5 750 with 8GB memory - Turbo Boost/OC limits?

resh03

resh03

resh03

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Joined
8 Mar 2009
Posts
12
Hey guys,

I'm considering a new build around an i5 750. As I intend for this to last a few years until the next upgrade I was thinking of starting with 4GB memory and looking to upgrade with 8GB in the future. From what I've read on t'interwebs, going over 4GB will limit the overclock you can get from the i5.

Has anyone had experience of what an i5 will do with 8GB, or perhaps left it at stock with Turbo Boost and know how TB will perform?

Really know little about all this so trying to make the best informed decision on my new purchase. Your help is appreciated!
 
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I can only extrapolate from i7 920 with 12gb, but it's a start.

Turbo boost increases the multiplier by one (or sometimes two/three, depends on chip) when the system is under load and certain unspecified conditions are met, if it's at too high a voltage, drawing too much current, or too hot, the multi wont go up.This protective measure can often be disabled in the bios.

For your chip,
Maximum Intel® Turbo Boost Technology frequency per core - 4 core: 2.80 GHz, 3 core: 2.80 GHz, 2 core: 3.20 GHz; 1 core: 3.20 GHzp/quote], divide by 133 to get the multiplier active under each of these conditions. It will clearly not perform as well at stock, using turbo, than it would do if you overclocked it to 3.6ghz and turned turbo off, and it would be better still to overclock to 3.6ghz and then turn turbo back on.

My 920 does 4ghz, 6gb stable with no effort at all. 4.2ghz, 6gb stable is trickier but doable. 4ghz, 12gb is easy enough. 4ghz, 12gb is much trickier but within reach. I don't think I can get 4.4ghz, 12gb stable. So my experience has been that more ram doesn't really affect the highest cpu clock you can reach, but it does make it a lot harder/more time consuming to reach that clock. Ram frequency is lower with 12gb than with 6gb, but I don't mind much. 12gb needs more qpi voltage and so runs hotter.

What do you think you're going to do that will benefit from 8gb of ram? The only applications I can think of are all ones where the x58 system makes more sense.
Click to expand...
 
It's more a future consideration than a requirement right now. At the moment 4GB seems more than enough for the programs/games I run, however in a few years time an upgrade to 8GB might be on the cards.
 
After some extensive reading, it would seem I could get 8GB of 1600mhz memory and run the BLCK at 160 with Turbo Boost on, achieving 3.2GHz and about 3.7GHz with Turbo on 1/2 cores.

I don't really want to go crazy overclocking so this should be fine with me.
 
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It's very unlikely that you'll be able to run 8gb at 1600mhz, the processor imc is unlikely to cope with this. Probably makes cheaper ram a good idea.
 
Do you reckon, then, that going for 8GB at 1333mhz is the best way to go should I want more memory later, and for now sticking with 4GB at 1600mhz?

My only concern is that running the 8GB at 1333mhz is going to reduce the performance of the processor, unless there's a way to mess around with the multiplier.

I suppose also that 2x4GB will become readily available in a couple years time which I could upgrade to.
 
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