oc below throttle!

[MessyBlob]

Looking around these forums, I see many people posting their overclocking stats. However, some CPU temperatures seem hot at >65'C, and perhaps above the thermal design spec of the chips, so I'm wondering how valid or successful these configurations are. In other words, is an overclock successful only if the CPU does not throttle itself to avoid getting too hot? Surely overclocks are only useful if those extra cycles can be used reliably. Is there a way that testers can measure the extent of throttling, to be sure that it's not happening?

p.s. I'm looking to buy a Quad 6600, and I'm not an overclocking demon, so this question is mainly for the benefit of others (usefulness depending on the answers, of course!)

 

[Katoom]

Helo and welcome to the forum.

I don't think anyone runs a constant overclock to the point where it's throttling, the temps would be very high, it's just a safety measure built in to stop them cooking.

There are some progs that can show throttling, (i think TAT does this) but the throttling points are very high on these quads.
I think the Go's throttle at 85 and the B3's 100, mine hit 96 and didn't throttle.

I could clock mine more, i have a long way to go till 100deg, but the temps are in the 70's now and i personally wouldn't feel safe running it at 85-90 24/7.

 

[Biffa]

If the CPU throttles then the OC would not be valid, and it would show in any util that logs like coretemp

 

[PhillyDee]

Thats why we take our time, testing with programs such as Orthos Prime95, and monitoring the temps with SpeedFan and Coretemp. Just adjusting the overclock slightly each time and seeing how far you can push it. It can take a couple of weeks to do it all properly.

 

[WJA96]

However, some CPU temperatures seem hot at >65'C, and perhaps above the thermal design spec of the chips, so I'm wondering how valid or successful these configurations are.

I think you're confusing the Thermal Design Spec (usually specified at between 60 and 75C) with the Core Temperature.

Thermal Specification: The thermal specification shown is the maximum case temperature at the maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) value for that processor. It is measured at the geometric center on the topside of the processor integrated heat spreader. For processors without integrated heat spreaders such as mobile processors, the thermal specification is referred to as the junction temperature (Tj). The maximum junction temperature is defined by an activation of the processor Intel® Thermal Monitor. The Intel Thermal Monitor’s automatic mode is used to indicate that the maximum TJ has been reached.

So for processors with an IHS this is the temperature directly under the heatsink in the centre of the processor. The throttle point (TJunction) is not the same as the TCase unless the CPU has no IHS, so for a Q6600 G0 CPU the throttle point is 100C, 29C above the TCase of 71C.

So when you see people quoting core temperatures of 70-80C, they are well within the thermal limits specified by Intel and nowhere near throttling. And all the CPU measuring tools (CPUz) correctly report throttling PCs as running at the lower speed, so the overclock would be quite visible.