Solving Intel i5 4570 BCLK issues
Solving Intel i5 4570 BCLK issues
Here are the details you provided:
My Specs are;
i5 4570 3.2ghz
Zotac GTX 960 4GB
4x4 1600mhz Hyperx Fury Ram
MSI z87-g43 Military Edition mobo
CM Seidon 120v (The oldest version) CPU Water Cooler
It is quite obvious that I am not going to gain anything by changing the CPU Ratio since it is a non K Intel CPU and it is locked. Intel Turbo Boost technology works only when the system is idle. I really don’t see any performance improvement from that. The CPU runs at 3.4ghz steadily and never boosts under load like in Cinebench R20 or during gaming (I didn’t really test it in games either). I also tried the 'OC Genie' setting on the BIOS, which displayed a CPU ratio of 36 on Fixed, but it didn’t actually work—once I booted into Windows it was just 34, so I turned that off. So, it seems like there’s only one thing left to boost performance (besides upgrading the hardware, which looks quite challenging since it’s a 1150 socket motherboard and the CPU has DDR3 RAM; if I want to upgrade, I’ll need to replace the motherboard, CPU, and RAM, essentially building a new PC). It’s about BCLK overclocking. I’ve made several attempts myself and noticed some good performance gains at 102-105 BCLK without changing the core voltage (which stayed at Auto).
Now the main question is: my CPU can handle a maximum of 1600Mhz memory. But since BCLK also overclocks the RAM, it goes even higher than that, like above 1700Mhz. Will this cause any issues in the short term? Is BCLK generally safe at this level? Should I adjust anything else besides BCLK while doing this, like core voltage? Is increasing BCLK safe in this situation?
Turbo speed relies on the number of cores in use. For you, 3.4 equals 4 cores, 3.5 equals 3 cores, and 3.6 equals 1-2 cores. Background tasks shouldn’t be demanding enough to trigger turbo. You’re not idle; you’re consuming a significant amount of power. Even a small percentage like 10% can greatly reduce your performance.
Idle refers to a situation where the CPU is idle and not performing any tasks. This contrasts with Turbo's behavior, which activates only under load. When speedstep reduces the frequency to 800MHz at idle, while Turbo increases it to 3.6GHz during load, you might notice some performance improvement even though the gains are minimal. The 4-core Turbo is only around 3.4GHz, which is close to the standard 3.2GHz but still a slight increase.
The number 1600 represents the default speed, not the maximum supported. As long as RAM remains stable at that rate, it should function normally. BCLK stability is important; if it deviates too much, issues may arise. Connectivity features like SATA and USB can also affect performance, potentially leading to file corruption. The speed increase from 105 to 3.6GHz over the stock 3.4GHz Turbo is minimal, so monitoring the Vcore changes after adjusting BCLK is advisable. Auto should handle the adjustment for you.
There really isn't much value in optimizing this setup.
Thanks for the update. I really don't see any of my cores exceeding 3.4ghz under full load, such as when rendering in Cinebench. The only situation where Turbo boost reaches above 3.4ghz is during idle with about 10% usage across all cores on the desktop, while nothing else is running except background tasks. So essentially, I'm only getting a boost to 3.4ghz from 3.2ghz, which is better than nothing, but theoretically I should be able to get more. Also, I haven't really heard much about BCLK causing these kinds of issues like file corruption—could you clarify a bit more?
Turbo speed relies on the number of cores in use. For you, 3.4 equals 4 cores, 3.5 equals 3 cores, and 3.6 equals 1-2 cores. Background tasks shouldn’t be demanding enough to trigger turbo. You’re not idle; you’re consuming a significant amount of power. Even a small percentage like 10% can greatly reduce your performance.