00:45
Laptop Trouble Tips
No matter how fast processors have become today, the quest to push them even further does not stop. No wonder there are so many overclocking contests and events all around the world, with the winners not just winning awards, but more importantly, bragging rights. Sadly, there aren't many processors released in the market, which we can call as really overclockable, and the few that are overclockable, are too expensive for most to buy.
AMD came forward and launched the first budget overclockable processors labeled Black Edition, with unlocked multipliers for overclockers to play around. Intel had their Extreme Edition processors, but at a thousand dollars, they were simply beyond most people's means.
Just before Computex 2010, we saw that Intel seemed to have taken a cue from AMD and launched their own version of unlocked processors for the mainstream segment, dubbed the K-series processors. The two processors are the socket LGA-1156 Core i5 655K (3.2 GHz, 2-cores/4-threads) and the Core i7 875K (2.93 GHz, 4-cores/8-threads). While the Core i5 655K is similar in all aspects to the Core i5 650, the Core i7 875K is similar to the Core i7 870. The difference being that the K-series processors have unlocked multiplier, allowing enthusiasts to overclock them to be able to get the last drop of juice out of these processors. We have the Intel Core i5 655K with us and are going to overclock it to as much as it allows us on air-cooling. Read on.
About the Intel Core i5 655K
The Intel Core i5 655K runs at 3.2 GHz, and has two Hyper-Threaded cores with four threads running simultaneously. This Nehalem derivative Clarkdale-based processor is manufactured using 32nm fabrication process. It has 4MB L3 cache also made using 32nm fabrication technology. The processor has a TDP of 73W.
The 655K includes an IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) and a memory controller on the die. Rather than using 32nm technology, the IGP is produced at 45nm technology, to reduce cost. You can use the IGP when you mount this processor on a H55 or H57 chipset based motherboard, and the processor works as any other socket LGA-1156 processor on a P55 motherboard. The memory controller supports up to 16GB of dual channel DDR3 memory at up to 1333 MHz. Cache memory consists of 32KB L1 Data cache, 32KB Instruction cache, 256KB L2 cache per core and 4MB L3 cache shared between the two cores. There is also 4MB Intel Smart Cache. The 655K supports Intel Turbo Boost technology, which boosts the speed of one or both the cores up to 3.46GHz depending on CPU loading. Enlisted below are all the processors in the Clarkdale series, along with the 655K.
Now it is time to get to the performance.
Performance
To test the performance of this processor, we had to choose the adequate testbench to maximize the amount of performance we can get.
Motherboard: ECS P55H-AK officially supporting the K-series processors, with good overclocking capability
Heatsink fan: CoolerMaster V6GT with push-pull fan cooling
Memory: 2x2GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz memory at 1333 MHz
Graphics card: Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 768MB
PSU: CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold 800W
Hard drive: WD VelociRaptor 600GB SATA 6.0 Gb/s
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 32-bit
Benchmarking software used;
SiSoftware Sandra Professional Business 2011
3DMark Vantage
PCMark Vantage
CineBench R11.5
TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4
AIDA64
Prime95 (for stability test)
DiRT2 (Game benchmark)
World In Conflict (Game benchmark)
The test bench was set up in room temperature environment (around 27 degrees Celsius) rather than in an air conditioned environment to simulate a real-world scenario. Temperatures were monitored using AIDA64 reporting tool, and power consumptions were monitored using Kill-A-Watt power meters.
The benchmarks were first taken at the stock speed of the processor. Here is the CPU-Z screenshot at stock speed.
We later gradually increased the CPU base frequency from 133 MHz to 160 MHz, keeping the multiplier at 24x. Next, we increased the multiplier to 29x in a step-by-step manner. Care was taken so that the DRAM speed should never exceed 1333 MHz for stability. The maximum stable overclock we obtained was at 29x160 MHz, which is 4.64 GHz with the CPU voltage at 1.2 V. This is a good 46 percent increase over the stock speed. Here is the CPU-Z screenshot at overclocked processor speed.
Though we could comfortably manage to boot into Windows at 31x166 MHz, which is 5.146 GHz with the CPU voltage cranked up to 1.4 V and even run Prime95 without any issues, we stopped at this value of clock speed. Going any further would not allow us to run two of our benchmarks - CineBench R11.5 and TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 - thus indicating that the system was not completely stable.
We measured the total system power consumption at each stage. The idle power consumption at stock speed was found to be 79 W and the processor temperature was 34 degrees Celsius, while the full load power consumption was 129 W with the processor temperature going to 54 degrees Celsius. At 4.64 GHz, the idle power consumption was still not too high at 89 W and processor temperature at 55 degrees Celsius. At full load, the system consumed 200 W, while the processor temperature soared to a high of 90 degrees Celsius. A point to be noted here is that we have used air-cooling and we have no doubt that liquid cooling would have let us push the clock speeds through the stratosphere.
Here are the benchmark scores we obtained at stock (3.2 GHz) and overclock (4.64 GHz) speeds.
PCMark Vantage
At stock speed
At 4.64 GHz
There is a 23.2 percent increase in the overall score, with scores increasing in every test category.
3DMark Vantage
At stock speed
At 4.64 GHz
There is just a 2.2 percent increase in the overall score, but if you look at the CPU score, there is a commendable 16 percent increase.
SiSoftware Sandra
Processor Arithmetic at stock speed
Processor Arithmetic at 4.64 GHz
Processor Multi-Media at stock speed
Processor Multi-Media at 4.64 GHz
Multi-Core Efficiency at stock speed
Multi-Core Efficiency at 4.64 GHz
Cryptography at stock speed
Cryptography at 4.64 GHz
AIDA64
CPU Queen at stock speed (20453)
CPU Queen at 4.64 GHz (29690)
We see a clean 45 percent increase in the CPU Queen score, which is exactly the same as the difference between the stock and overclocked speeds of the processor.
CPU Mandel at stock speed (2509)
CPU Mandel at 4.64 GHz (3633)
Yet again, a 44.8 percent increase in speed is achieved in the CPU Mandel score, just like in the test before.
CPU AES at stock speed (206167)
CPU AES at 4.64 GHz (267127)
A 29.6 percent increase was achieved in the CPU AES test, putting this processor at the top of the table in the AIDA64 chart. CineBench R11.5
At stock speed
At 4.64 GHz
The CPU score increased by 43.9 percent, while the OpenGL test ran 32.7 percent faster.
TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4
We encoded a video file at the stock speed and at the overclocked speed. The graph shows how much faster the encoding process finished when we overclocked the processor.
Games
We selected two of the latest PC games and benchmarked them at high settings at a resolution of 1280x1024 with 4x AA so that the CPU speed comes into the picture. Tests were run at stock and overclocked speeds.
World in Conflict (DX 10)
World in Conflict is a real-time tactical video game developed by the Swedish video game company Massive Entertainment. The game is set in 1989 during the social, political and economic collapse of the Soviet Union. This game uses DirectX 10 and stretches the current GPUs to the limits.
DiRT 2 (DX 11)
DiRT 2 is a racing simulator, and one of the first games to showcase the capabilities of DirectX 11. We ran the inbuilt benchmark at 1280x1024 with All High settings (except post processing), taking reading with 4x anti-aliasing.
Overall, we noticed a vast improvement in performance as indicated by the benchmarks when the processor was overclocked. The game benchmarks did not show much of a difference, which is not surprising, given the fact that most of the games today depend more on the GPU and less on the CPU.
AMD came forward and launched the first budget overclockable processors labeled Black Edition, with unlocked multipliers for overclockers to play around. Intel had their Extreme Edition processors, but at a thousand dollars, they were simply beyond most people's means.
Just before Computex 2010, we saw that Intel seemed to have taken a cue from AMD and launched their own version of unlocked processors for the mainstream segment, dubbed the K-series processors. The two processors are the socket LGA-1156 Core i5 655K (3.2 GHz, 2-cores/4-threads) and the Core i7 875K (2.93 GHz, 4-cores/8-threads). While the Core i5 655K is similar in all aspects to the Core i5 650, the Core i7 875K is similar to the Core i7 870. The difference being that the K-series processors have unlocked multiplier, allowing enthusiasts to overclock them to be able to get the last drop of juice out of these processors. We have the Intel Core i5 655K with us and are going to overclock it to as much as it allows us on air-cooling. Read on.
About the Intel Core i5 655K
The Intel Core i5 655K runs at 3.2 GHz, and has two Hyper-Threaded cores with four threads running simultaneously. This Nehalem derivative Clarkdale-based processor is manufactured using 32nm fabrication process. It has 4MB L3 cache also made using 32nm fabrication technology. The processor has a TDP of 73W.
The 655K includes an IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) and a memory controller on the die. Rather than using 32nm technology, the IGP is produced at 45nm technology, to reduce cost. You can use the IGP when you mount this processor on a H55 or H57 chipset based motherboard, and the processor works as any other socket LGA-1156 processor on a P55 motherboard. The memory controller supports up to 16GB of dual channel DDR3 memory at up to 1333 MHz. Cache memory consists of 32KB L1 Data cache, 32KB Instruction cache, 256KB L2 cache per core and 4MB L3 cache shared between the two cores. There is also 4MB Intel Smart Cache. The 655K supports Intel Turbo Boost technology, which boosts the speed of one or both the cores up to 3.46GHz depending on CPU loading. Enlisted below are all the processors in the Clarkdale series, along with the 655K.
Now it is time to get to the performance.
Performance
To test the performance of this processor, we had to choose the adequate testbench to maximize the amount of performance we can get.
Motherboard: ECS P55H-AK officially supporting the K-series processors, with good overclocking capability
Heatsink fan: CoolerMaster V6GT with push-pull fan cooling
Memory: 2x2GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz memory at 1333 MHz
Graphics card: Galaxy GeForce GTX 460 768MB
PSU: CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold 800W
Hard drive: WD VelociRaptor 600GB SATA 6.0 Gb/s
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 32-bit
Benchmarking software used;
SiSoftware Sandra Professional Business 2011
3DMark Vantage
PCMark Vantage
CineBench R11.5
TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4
AIDA64
Prime95 (for stability test)
DiRT2 (Game benchmark)
World In Conflict (Game benchmark)
The test bench was set up in room temperature environment (around 27 degrees Celsius) rather than in an air conditioned environment to simulate a real-world scenario. Temperatures were monitored using AIDA64 reporting tool, and power consumptions were monitored using Kill-A-Watt power meters.
The benchmarks were first taken at the stock speed of the processor. Here is the CPU-Z screenshot at stock speed.
We later gradually increased the CPU base frequency from 133 MHz to 160 MHz, keeping the multiplier at 24x. Next, we increased the multiplier to 29x in a step-by-step manner. Care was taken so that the DRAM speed should never exceed 1333 MHz for stability. The maximum stable overclock we obtained was at 29x160 MHz, which is 4.64 GHz with the CPU voltage at 1.2 V. This is a good 46 percent increase over the stock speed. Here is the CPU-Z screenshot at overclocked processor speed.
Though we could comfortably manage to boot into Windows at 31x166 MHz, which is 5.146 GHz with the CPU voltage cranked up to 1.4 V and even run Prime95 without any issues, we stopped at this value of clock speed. Going any further would not allow us to run two of our benchmarks - CineBench R11.5 and TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 - thus indicating that the system was not completely stable.
We measured the total system power consumption at each stage. The idle power consumption at stock speed was found to be 79 W and the processor temperature was 34 degrees Celsius, while the full load power consumption was 129 W with the processor temperature going to 54 degrees Celsius. At 4.64 GHz, the idle power consumption was still not too high at 89 W and processor temperature at 55 degrees Celsius. At full load, the system consumed 200 W, while the processor temperature soared to a high of 90 degrees Celsius. A point to be noted here is that we have used air-cooling and we have no doubt that liquid cooling would have let us push the clock speeds through the stratosphere.
Here are the benchmark scores we obtained at stock (3.2 GHz) and overclock (4.64 GHz) speeds.
PCMark Vantage
There is a 23.2 percent increase in the overall score, with scores increasing in every test category.
3DMark Vantage
There is just a 2.2 percent increase in the overall score, but if you look at the CPU score, there is a commendable 16 percent increase.
SiSoftware Sandra
AIDA64
We see a clean 45 percent increase in the CPU Queen score, which is exactly the same as the difference between the stock and overclocked speeds of the processor.
Yet again, a 44.8 percent increase in speed is achieved in the CPU Mandel score, just like in the test before.
A 29.6 percent increase was achieved in the CPU AES test, putting this processor at the top of the table in the AIDA64 chart.
The CPU score increased by 43.9 percent, while the OpenGL test ran 32.7 percent faster.
TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4
We encoded a video file at the stock speed and at the overclocked speed. The graph shows how much faster the encoding process finished when we overclocked the processor.
We selected two of the latest PC games and benchmarked them at high settings at a resolution of 1280x1024 with 4x AA so that the CPU speed comes into the picture. Tests were run at stock and overclocked speeds.
World in Conflict (DX 10)
World in Conflict is a real-time tactical video game developed by the Swedish video game company Massive Entertainment. The game is set in 1989 during the social, political and economic collapse of the Soviet Union. This game uses DirectX 10 and stretches the current GPUs to the limits.
DiRT 2 (DX 11)
DiRT 2 is a racing simulator, and one of the first games to showcase the capabilities of DirectX 11. We ran the inbuilt benchmark at 1280x1024 with All High settings (except post processing), taking reading with 4x anti-aliasing.
Overall, we noticed a vast improvement in performance as indicated by the benchmarks when the processor was overclocked. The game benchmarks did not show much of a difference, which is not surprising, given the fact that most of the games today depend more on the GPU and less on the CPU.
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