Limit item ?

bulldog147 · 20 Nov 2011 at 18:50

I had no clue or ideas if it was either motherboard, memory, power supply, graphic card or cpu was limit because I reset everything on stock setting and ran Intel Burn Test at stock speed @ 3.40GHz all the way up to 4.20GHz had passed but if I use 4.30GHz on stock voltage, it failed ? Does it mean cpu degrading or some issues with motherboard limit ?

Cos I heard many i5 2500K, i7 2600K and 2700K should be able to passed easy with up to 4.4GHz without touch any voltages setting, just change the multiplier to 44x and it will use stock auto voltage. Why is my cpu limit up to 4.20GHz on stock auto voltage ?

Could be bad cpu chip ?

Plec · 20 Nov 2011 at 18:59

There is no fixed maximum clock that a 2500K/2600K/2700K will hit on auto voltage.

Many will hit 4.3/4.4Ghz set at auto but that doesn't mean that it's a rule of thumb for all K series chips. Just because a chip wont hit 4.3Ghz on auto doesn't mean that it's a poor chip, or even that it is the chip at fault - if you can call it a fault (just as likely to be the MB, PSU, BIOS or other...).

Also, you have to factor different setup combinations: hardware, 'other' BIOS settings and drivers - there are so many variable factors that you can't dictate a hard and fast clock for auto voltages - only an average 'probable' amount.

bulldog147 · 20 Nov 2011 at 22:05

Right ok - I find it rather odd, 2 x 2Gb = 4Gb can overclocked @ 4.4GHz on auto all stable and passed but 4 x 2Gb = 8Gb cannot overclocked @ 4.4 GHz on auto all failed.

Look like memory issues limit. (both ran 5x of IBT all on maximum with 8 Threads)

Plec · 21 Nov 2011 at 09:16

bulldog147 said:
Right ok - I find it rather odd, 2 x 2Gb = 4Gb can overclocked @ 4.4GHz on auto all stable and passed but 4 x 2Gb = 8Gb cannot overclocked @ 4.4 GHz on auto all failed.

Look like memory issues limit. (both ran 5x of IBT all on maximum with 8 Threads)

That's a slightly different question to the one you originally posed.

The extra physical memory 'probably' will be the limiting(sic) factor. Even though you're still only using two sticks, 2 x 4GB, this will put more stress on the chips memory controller than 2 x 2Gb. (But 4 x 2Gb would put even greater stress on the memory controller than 2 x 4Gb - so it's still a better option).

So yes, it's very likely the extra memory, may have effected your chips ability to run at 4.3/4.4GHz on auto. This doesn't mean that it will have effected it's overall clock as a slight BIOS tweak will rectify this.

Sandybridges are very tolerent at maintaining their clocks with large amounts of memory or all 4 DIMM slots filled - but this doesn't mean you don't still have to occasionally tweak to get things stable - especially when overclocking on auto. The odds are that if you had a manual clock setup for 4.3/4.3GHz you wouldn't have had to adjust a thing when upgrading to 2x4Gb.