Can you safely increase the speed of your GPU and CPU using this configuration?
Can you safely increase the speed of your GPU and CPU using this configuration?
Recently I planned a big overhaul of my PC. (That means rearranging cables, moving fans, and clearing out dust.) I also thought about trying to push my GPU and CPU over their limits.
Here’s my current setup:
- i5 4670k
- Hyper 212 Evo
- Gigabyte GA-B85M-HD3
- Adata XPG v2 DDR3 1600MHz (8GB)
- WD Blue 1TB
- ASUS R9 380 Strix 2GB
- Corsair 350D
- Seasonic M12ll 620 Bronze Modular
- Windows 10 64-Bit
Share your opinions and feel free to suggest upgrades for later, but right now I’m on a tight budget. :/
Your GPU should work well after overclocking, but your CPU is causing problems with the motherboard for this purpose.
The cpu: Not due to the B85 chipset.
Memory: Yes. A slight voltage boost should enable it to reach the next DDR3 speed of 1866.
GPU: Yes. It's probably already overclocked. Keep an eye on temperatures; you should verify stability. Running programs like Furmark will give a good estimate of performance. If crashes occur in certain games, it indicates high settings.
Both memory and GPU core can be upgraded. A more active fan setting may help. You'll need to balance noise levels with lower temperatures. Asus offers software solutions, or consider MSI afterburner.
-Every card behaves differently. On my GTX970, the fan runs at 0% until 50°C, then increases to 45% up to 60°C, 57% at 70°C, and gradually reaches 100% at 80°C. This is much more aggressive than the card's default fan profile.
Nvidia introduced power limit throttling, which reduces GPU clock speeds when power demand is high or temperatures rise. It caps at around 110%.
AMD followed with "Powertune," so you'll need to raise it to something like +15%.
This explains why adjusting the fan profile is crucial. Lower temperatures mean lower power consumption, enabling higher clock speeds. During Furmark tests, you'll notice throttling after a few cycles.
The CPU can be maxed out by maxing out the "Turbo" so it runs at it's turbo speed on all 4 cores all the time. You will have to google that as i only read that others have done that on various intel cpus. Oh yeah i forget in windows power management settings you can also set the power savings for the cpu to never lower the cpu speed. I did that with my A6-3650 Llano. It's the same for intel too. So it runs at 3.61ghz all the time. Yes it wastes power but you want more speed right? You have the correct cpu cooler for doing this as well. It wont work with the stock oem coolers. -Download and install something like CPU-Z. (There are a few others) It will show you the core speed. http://cpuboss.com/cpu/Intel-Core-i5-4670 It looks like it maxes out at 3.76 GHz on a locked board like you have. (Same as the i5-4670)
AtomicWAR: You'll need a Z series motherboard chipset. Overclocking isn't possible with a B series board, and while your CPU is unlocked, that's only part of the story. Switching to a Z chipset would let me overclock eventually. I can handle that later. Also, I'm planning to explore GPU overclocking.
The CPU: Not possible due to the B85 chipset.
Memory: Yes. A slight voltage boost should allow you to reach the next DDR3 speed of 1866.
GPU: Yes. It's probably already overclocked. Keep an eye on temperatures; testing is essential to confirm stability. Running programs like Furmark will give a good estimate of performance. If it crashes in certain games, it's likely running at high settings.
Both the memory and GPU core can be adjusted. A more aggressive fan setting may help. You'll need to balance noise levels with lower temperatures. Asus offers software solutions, or you can use MSI Afterburner.
-Every card behaves differently. On my GTX970, the fan starts at 0% until 50°C, then increases to 45% at 60°C, 57% at 70°C, and gradually reaches 100% at 80°C. This is much more aggressive than the card's default fan profile.
Nvidia introduced power limit throttling, which reduces GPU clock speeds when power demand is high or temperatures rise. It caps at around 110%.
AMD followed with "Powertune," so you'll need to set it higher—around +15%.
This explains why adjusting the fan profile is crucial. Lower temperatures mean lower power consumption, enabling higher clock speeds.
When testing with Furmark, you'll notice the clock speeds drop after a few runs.
How would you proceed to overclock your RAM? I assume you'll need to access the BIOS.
Regarding the GPU, I use MSI Afterburner to manage my fans. They typically run at 50% idle and reach about 70% under load. I don’t mind the noise, but once temperatures exceed around 65°C, performance drops noticeably.