Is this a bottleneck, or something else?

[mapegl]

This is awkward...

The i5 2500k stock speed is 3.30 ghz, so doesn't they mean you over clocked it? Anyway, that's werid beacuse even with my CPU at 4 ghz I rarely get 100% GPU usage, and I have the same cpu as you. What could possibly be causing this to happen?

Well there could be several things wrong. Either your GPU is defective or something on the software side is wrong. I doubt anything else.

I would suggest reinstalling drivers for your GPU. Maybe GTA as well. If everything fails You could reinstall windows. But I would assume an issue with GPU drivers.

[RazerZ]

Make sure you have the latest patches for your game. There are many known issues going around, like a memory leak after a certain while of playing.

[Ooxaz]

Make sure you have the latest patches for your game. There are many known issues going around, like a memory leak after a certain while of playing.

I just overclocked and testing my cpu atm at around 4.4 ghz and I increased the voltage by 0.50 and disabled auto, it seems stable to far but the core VID on hwinfo is going to 1.371 V on full load, is that good? I can't seem to find a place in the motherboard to tell what the maximum voltage is set to, it just lets me increase and decrease it.

 

[EDIT]: Nevermind. I just found out that I'm supposed to be looking at the Vcore and at max it hits 1.368V which is not too bad I guess, I'm going to try backing the voltage down by 0.05 volts and see what happens though, however it's a tad bit confusing beacuse apparently 0.00 V is the stock voltage, I added 0.50 for my 4.4 ghz overclock and now do I -0.5 or + 0.45 I have no idea..."shrugs" so the question is, how do I see my current Vcore voltage in the bios?

[mapegl]

I just overclocked and testing my cpu atm at around 4.4 ghz and I increased the voltage by 0.50 and disabled auto, it seems stable to far but the core VID on hwinfo is going to 1.371 V on full load, is that good? I can't seem to find a place in the motherboard to tell what the maximum voltage is set to, it just lets me increase and decrease it.

 

[EDIT]: Nevermind. I just found out that I'm supposed to be looking at the Vcore and at max it hits 1.368V which is not too bad I guess, I'm going to try backing the voltage down by 0.05 volts and see what happens though, however it's a tad bit confusing beacuse apparently 0.00 V is the stock voltage, I added 0.50 for my 4.4 ghz overclock and now do I -0.5 or + 0.45 I have no idea..."shrugs" so the question is, how do I see my current Vcore voltage in the bios?

Ok, so good for you that you achieved this overclock. 4.4 is still within reasonable amounts.

My 4.6 OC is something I have dialed back on again, since I want to keep my CPU a little longer....

However, I would always advise against going for an offset setting for overclocking. I have always had higher voltages with offset compared to a fixed voltage.

 

About your question, how to find out about current voltage, this is something nobody can give you a good answer to.

All 2500Ks have different voltages they operate well on. Also most motherboards have different bios options and many won't show the current voltage.

 

What I would do is:

Set your CPU to 1.20V and set it to 3.7Ghz. Then go ahead and increase the core clock by 0.1Ghz/100Mhz and test for stability.

As soon as you hit any instability you should increase your voltage by about 0.05. Then run the same stability test with the same core clock again.

 

Also use a higher load-line calibration for higher overclocks. I use medium or high for my different OC settings.

 

For testing I would use Prime95, preferrably AIDA64 and some AAA-titles in games as well as maybe starting several loads at once to creat a real-life scenario, like copying large files, playing back a youtube video, and recording some gameplay or somethign like that. Though while just going up on steps I usually only test for half an hour in Prime95 and then go up further. Intense testing is somethign I only do when I have reached the goal I wanted to get to.

 

You may encounter instability even after 24 hours of intense testing, and sometimes not even during an intense load. Either dial back on the multiplier or increase voltage. 1.37 would be the absolute max for me here, BUT the biggest concern should always be temperature. I always tr to keep it below 70°C to keep the CPUs lifespan as long as possible.

 

I hope I could give you some insight on how to overclock, though I have the feeling I only touched the magic of overclocking. Maybe search on google for overclocking guides in our forum and you should find much more helpful information.

 

Also this will most likely NOT solve your problem of low GPU utilization.  :-(

 

If I can help you with anything else, feel free to ask.

[RazerZ]

Well said. You also might lack Vcore control... it's common on some of the lower Z68 end boards.

[Ooxaz]

Ok, so good for you that you achieved this overclock. 4.4 is still within reasonable amounts.

My 4.6 OC is something I have dialed back on again, since I want to keep my CPU a

little longer....

However, I would always advise against going for an offset setting for overclocking. I have always had higher voltages with offset compared to a fixed voltage.

About your question, how to find out about current voltage, this is something nobody can give you a good answer to.

All 2500Ks have different voltages they operate well on. Also most motherboards have different bios options and many won't show the current voltage.

What I would do is:

Set your CPU to 1.20V and set it to 3.7Ghz. Then go ahead and increase the core clock by 0.1Ghz/100Mhz and test for stability.

As soon as you hit any instability you should increase your voltage by about 0.05. Then run the same stability test with the same core clock again.

Also use a higher load-line calibration for higher overclocks. I use medium or high for my different OC settings.

For testing I would use Prime95, preferrably AIDA64 and some AAA-titles in games as well as maybe starting several loads at once to creat a real-life scenario, like copying large files, playing back a youtube video, and recording some gameplay or somethign like that. Though while just going up on steps I usually only test for half an hour in Prime95 and then go up further. Intense testing is somethign I only do when I have reached the goal I wanted to get to.

You may encounter instability even after 24 hours of intense testing, and sometimes not even during an intense load. Either dial back on the multiplier or increase voltage. 1.37 would be the absolute max for me here, BUT the biggest concern should always be temperature. I always tr to keep it below 70°C to keep the CPUs lifespan as long as possible.

I hope I could give you some insight on how to overclock, though I have the feeling I only touched the magic of overclocking. Maybe search on google for overclocking guides in our forum and you should find much more helpful information.

Also this will most likely NOT solve your problem of low GPU utilization. :-(

If I can help you with anything else, feel free to ask.

Hey man, thanks for such a long and informative answer, I really appreciate it. I'm sorry if my lack of knowledge is irritating, I'm completely new to overclocking as you may have assumed already. Anyway, what do you mean by a "offset" voltage? I'm assuming it probably makes your voltage stable all the time instead of effciently changing it to lower voltages when requiring less power? If this is indeed the case, then I have yet to come across such a option that will allow this in my BIOS, I will do some deeper digging tomorrow though and let you know. Regarding readings of the voltage, I think you missunderstood, your telling me to decrease my voltage to a certain number, my problem is that I have no way to define what number I have set my voltage to, only a way to increase and decrease in amounts and that's it. There is no place or reading telling my that " you have changes your voltage by xx amount, your voltage is now set to xxxx amount", but instead I'm looking at the Vcore on HWINFO and on there it changes all the time, while playing games hitting high and while idle low. Now I'm quite happy with the overclock I've achieved at the moment and I personally don't think it's going to effect my CPU's lifespan by TOO much, ( I'm hoping is the right word) but my complications are minimal really while all I need is to have the ability to read my total voltage, and change them accordingly. The biggest reason I want to decrease my voltage however is for lower temps as the ones I have currently aren't the worst but there's a lot of leg room for improvement. ( 35-40 with chrome and a few other tasks, and 60-65 while playing games). Regarding GPU usage, I think that section is completely solved ( for GTA at least ) and I'm pretty sure it was a bottleneck as I now get a solid 60-80 FPS with the same settings with GPU usage occasionally dipping to the 70's, no loss in framerate there though. CPU usage works a lot less hard staying in the 70-80's region for the most part. If I'm too hyped about the temps I think I may just slip to a 4.2 GHZ decrease the voltage and call it a day. Anyway, I'm just rambling now, sorry for the abnoxoiusly long reply, just had to throw in a few concernes there, - oh yeah, hope it's not getting annoying but, LORD GABEN bless your steam libary!

[EDIT]: if you are referring to the auto voltage l, I'm pretty sure I turned that off when I overclocked above 4 ghz, my voltage still changes all the time regardless according to HWINFO

[mapegl]

Hey man, thanks for such a long and informative answer, I really appreciate it. I'm sorry if my lack of knowledge is irritating, I'm completely new to overclocking as you may have assumed already. Anyway, what do you mean by a "offset" voltage? I'm assuming it probably makes your voltage stable all the time instead of effciently changing it to lower voltages when requiring less power? If this is indeed the case, then I have yet to come across such a option that will allow this in my BIOS, I will do some deeper digging tomorrow though and let you know. Regarding readings of the voltage, I think you missunderstood, your telling me to decrease my voltage to a certain number, my problem is that I have no way to define what number I have set my voltage to, only a way to increase and decrease in amounts and that's it. There is no place or reading telling my that " you have changes your voltage by xx amount, your voltage is now set to xxxx amount", but instead I'm looking at the Vcore on HWINFO and on there it changes all the time, while playing games hitting high and while idle low. Now I'm quite happy with the overclock I've achieved at the moment and I personally don't think it's going to effect my CPU's lifespan by TOO much, ( I'm hoping is the right word) but my complications are minimal really while all I need is to have the ability to read my total voltage, and change them accordingly. The biggest reason I want to decrease my voltage however is for lower temps as the ones I have currently aren't the worst but there's a lot of leg room for improvement. ( 35-40 with chrome and a few other tasks, and 60-65 while playing games). Regarding GPU usage, I think that section is completely solved ( for GTA at least ) and I'm pretty sure it was a bottleneck as I now get a solid 60-80 FPS with the same settings with GPU usage occasionally dipping to the 70's, no loss in framerate there though. CPU usage works a lot less hard staying in the 70-80's region for the most part. If I'm too hyped about the temps I think I may just slip to a 4.2 GHZ decrease the voltage and call it a day. Anyway, I'm just rambling now, sorry for the abnoxoiusly long reply, just had to throw in a few concernes there, - oh yeah, hope it's not getting annoying but, LORD GABEN bless your steam libary!

[EDIT]: if you are referring to the auto voltage l, I'm pretty sure I turned that off when I overclocked above 4 ghz, my voltage still changes all the time regardless according to HWINFO

There are two different settings usually available in the UEFI or Bios. You can either set an Offset or a fixed voltage. My ASUS board offers both, I had an AROCK board once, it only offered an offset.

OFFSET: You will have the option to set your bios to use +0.XX amount of volts to push through your CPU. There is a give line of voltage use by Intel and it will just take some more. ;-)

This explanation is very basic, but usually your CPU will take as much as it needs and for the overclock it needs more, so you raise the growing damnd by 0.XX. Hope that makes sense in a way.

FIXED: I have set my voltage to a fixed amount. I have different OC profiles for 4.0, 4.2, 4.4, ..... you get the picture and each has a certain amount of voltage that I found was stable. It will no fluctuate much around that but usually drop slightly under that amount under a heavy load.(vdroop)

The advantage for me was here that I felt like I had better control over the highest voltage under load and temps stayed lower. Other people like useing and OFFSET better.

The setting should give you the option to set your VCORE to something like 1.20V and you can increase then by 0.05 amounts to find a stable OC.

(keep in mind that manufacturers also call these things differently in the BIOSes/ UEFIs, so it might not be offset and fixed.)

As I said above, you might not even have the option of using a FIXED voltage, so if your VCORE settings are only +0.XX V and nothing else......well then just forget everything I said, cuz it won't help you anyways. ;-)

The big advantage of an OFFSET is that voltage can also be LOWER. When the CPU is not as heavily used, the voltage will drop resulting in lower temps and less power consumption.

So OFFSET is not all bad as you can see.

Your temps seem to be absolutely fine and CPU usage is also fine.

Edit: make sure to mark as solved if all your issues are fixed.

[Ooxaz]

There are two different settings usually available in the UEFI or Bios. You can either set an Offset or a fixed voltage. My ASUS board offers both, I had an AROCK board once, it only offered an offset.

OFFSET: You will have the option to set your bios to use +0.XX amount of volts to push through your CPU. There is a give line of voltage use by Intel and it will just take some more. ;-)

This explanation is very basic, but usually your CPU will take as much as it needs and for the overclock it needs more, so you raise the growing damnd by 0.XX. Hope that makes sense in a way.

FIXED: I have set my voltage to a fixed amount. I have different OC profiles for 4.0, 4.2, 4.4, ..... you get the picture and each has a certain amount of voltage that I found was stable. It will no fluctuate much around that but usually drop slightly under that amount under a heavy load.(vdroop)

The advantage for me was here that I felt like I had better control over the highest voltage under load and temps stayed lower. Other people like useing and OFFSET better.

The setting should give you the option to set your VCORE to something like 1.20V and you can increase then by 0.05 amounts to find a stable OC.

(keep in mind that manufacturers also call these things differently in the BIOSes/ UEFIs, so it might not be offset and fixed.)

As I said above, you might not even have the option of using a FIXED voltage, so if your VCORE settings are only +0.XX V and nothing else......well then just forget everything I said, cuz it won't help you anyways. ;-)

The big advantage of an OFFSET is that voltage can also be LOWER. When the CPU is not as heavily used, the voltage will drop resulting in lower temps and less power consumption.

So OFFSET is not all bad as you can see.

Your temps seem to be absolutely fine and CPU usage is also fine.

Edit: make sure to mark as solved if all your issues are fixed.

Thanks again for the information. Based on what you just said, I think I already have my voltage on fixed as it goes down while idle. Anyway, I'm sorry if this turned into a overclocking thread, not what I expected. Before I put the nail on the coffin, so do you think my voltage is to High for 4.4 ghz? I do want to get a 4.2 but it's so confusing beacuse there's no way to define my actual voltage, unless I'm missing something here, no idea what the negative values are when changing voltage

(edit) just did some research and people are saying I can read vCore through TouchBIOS. I'm assuming that's a downloadable program?

[mapegl]

Thanks again for the information. Based on what you just said, I think I already have my voltage on fixed as it goes down while idle. Anyway, I'm sorry if this turned into a overclocking thread, not what I expected. Before I put the nail on the coffin, so do you think my voltage is to High for 4.4 ghz? I do want to get a 4.2 but it's so confusing beacuse there's no way to define my actual voltage, unless I'm missing something here, no idea what the negative values are when changing voltage

(edit) just did some research and people are saying I can read vCore through TouchBIOS. I'm assuming that's a downloadable program?

Nah you probably use offset since you said you can use +0.something in your bios. That is definitely offset.

I would say 1.36 is too high for 4.4Ghz, BUT this is the silicone lottery and maybe yours need that voltage to stay stable. Mine is fine with less. Though as I said before: Voltage doesn't kill a CPU, temperature does. So if temps are fine there is not much to worry about.

I use CPU-Z and openHardwareMonitor to look at temps, speed and voltages. Works out well for me.

[Ooxaz]

Nah you probably use offset since you said you can use +0.something in your bios. That is definitely offset.

I would say 1.36 is too high for 4.4Ghz, BUT this is the silicone lottery and maybe yours need that voltage to stay stable. Mine is fine with less. Though as I said before: Voltage doesn't kill a CPU, temperature does. So if temps are fine there is not much to worry about.

I use CPU-Z and openHardwareMonitor to look at temps, speed and voltages. Works out well for me.

 

Right, I downloaded TouchBIOS and searched through pretty much everything, there doesent seem to be a way to set a fixed voltage, so I guess I'm sticking with this for now. If I want better overclocking in the future guess I'm going to have to get a new mobo.

[mapegl]

Right, I downloaded TouchBIOS and searched through pretty much everything, there doesent seem to be a way to set a fixed voltage, so I guess I'm sticking with this for now. If I want better overclocking in the future guess I'm going to have to get a new mobo.

Do that when upgrading to a new platform. I would go for ASUS. I had asrock, MSI and ASUS and my ASUS board definitely has the best bios.

And as I said, your oc is fine. If temps are lower than 70 you are basically golden.

[-iSynthesis]

A Quad Core i5 bottlenecking a 970?

A 2500, yeah. 

@op if you can, oc that thing

[RazerZ]

A 2500, yeah. 

@op if you can, oc that thing

Tell me the gains he would get by going for the latest i5.

[-iSynthesis]

Tell me the gains he would get by going for the latest i5.

Better IPC. The old sandy bridges are monsters, though not really if not overclocked.

[Ooxaz]

Do that when upgrading to a new platform. I would go for ASUS. I had asrock, MSI and ASUS and my ASUS board definitely has the best bios.

And as I said, your oc is fine. If temps are lower than 70 you are basically golden.

Temps range from 60 - 65 max but yeah, I guess it's close but all good! I was just wondering if there was a safe way to make my CPU rpm faster at idle, as I don't really mind the sound and would prefer if temps go lower a bit on idle. I just don't want to set it manually though beacuse then I would have to remember to set it to auto every time I want to play a game.

((EDIT)) do you think it's worth changing my ram to 1600 mhz, as that is what its suppose to run at. Currently running 1330

[Ooxaz]

A 2500, yeah.

@op if you can, oc that thing

Already did to 4.4 ghz and it is a beast

[RazerZ]

Better IPC. The old sandy bridges are monsters, though not really if not overclocked.

Clockspeed is all that matters and 2500ks are known for the OC'ing ability. From 2nd to 4th Gen there's a marginal gain in performance.

 

 

http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?page=0&itemid=1158

 

Overclocking certainly helps in some cases but it isn't necessary always .

[mapegl]

Clockspeed is all that matters and 2500ks are known for the OC'ing ability. From 2nd to 4th Gen there's a marginal gain in performance.

http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?page=0&itemid=1158

Overclocking certainly helps in some cases but it isn't necessary always .

Love that link. I habe posted it several times already in other threads.

And it shows what I said earlier in this thread. I get almost no difference when overclocking.

I do get better minimums in some games. But also only in the 2-3 fps range.