Categories:

Overclocking IV – 4 GHz at very high Voltage

05:01 - Monday 29 October 2007 by Bert Töpelt
Source: Tom's Hardware UK – Keywords: intel, core2, penryn
Categories: Hardware

Table of content:
9 – Overclocking IV – 4 GHz at ver...
  1. 1 – Revamping the Core 2 Architecture – New Flagship: Extreme QX9650
  2. 2 – New Dielectric Minimizes Leakage Currents
  3. 3 – 45 nm – Higher Yield, Smaller Die Area
  4. 4 – 12 MB L2 Cache and SSE 4
  5. 5 – The Processor – Intel Core 2 QX9650
  6. 6 – Overclocking I – 3.33 GHz
  7. 7 – Overclocking II – 3.66 GHz
  8. 8 – Overclocking III – 3.8 GHz
  9. 9 – Overclocking IV – 4 GHz at very high Voltage
  10. 10 – Overclocking V – 4 GHz at FSB 1600
  11. 11 – Overclocking – Up to 19% more Performance
  12. 12 – Overclocking to 4.0 GHz – FSB1600 Offers no Advantage
  13. 13 – Sensational: Idle Power Consumption of only 3.79 Watts
  14. 14 – Very Good - 73 Watts for Four Cores
  15. 15 – Lower Core Voltage – 1.250 Volts
  16. 16 – Operating Temperature – 12°C Lower
  17. 17 – Penryn-Based Core 2 CPUs – Models, Prices and a new Boxed Cooler
  18. 18 – Performance Comparison Old vs. New – 6.9% Better Performance
  19. 19 – Intel 45% faster than AMD
  20. 20 – Test Setup
  21. 21 – Software Configuration
  22. 22 – Benchmarks and Settings
  23. 23 – 3D Games: UT2004, Prey
  24. 24 – 3D Games: Quake 4, Warhammer
  25. 25 – 3D Games: Supreme Commander, Serious Sam 2
  26. 26 – 3D Rendering: Cinema 4D, 3D-Studio Max
  27. 27 – Applications: AVG, WinRAR
  28. 28 – Applications: Photoshop, PDF
  29. 29 – Applications: Deep Fritz
  30. 30 – Audio Encoding: iTunes, Lame
  31. 31 – Synthetic: Sandra CPU
  32. 32 – Synthetic: Sandra Memory
  33. 33 – Synthetic: Sandra Multimedia
  34. 34 – Synthetic: PC-Mark
  35. 35 – Synthetic: 3D-Mark
  36. 36 – Video Encoding: Xvid, Pinnacle Studio
  37. 37 – Video Encoding: Premiere, MainConcept
  38. 38 – Video Encoding: HDTV, DivX
  39. 39 – Video Encoding: CloneDVD
  40. 40 – Conclusion: Less Noise, More Efficiency, More Speed and More Overclockin...

Overclocking IV – 4 GHz at very high Voltage

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Finally, we attempted to reach the magical clock speed of 4 GHz. This time, we reverted to the 333 MHz FSB and used a 12x multiplier, giving us a clock speed of exactly 4 GHz. In our first attempt, we were just barely able to glimpse the BIOS POST before the motherboard froze.

Intel Penryn 45nm

Since the board wouldn’t even boot with these settings, we knew that we would have to increase the voltage further – a lot further. With a heavy heart we set the voltage to 1.4375 V in the BIOS, which amounts to an increase of 0.1875 V. At this high voltage, we were not only able to get the QX9650 to boot, but also to complete the Prim95 stability test.

Intel Penryn 45nm

Still, running a 45 nm processor at this voltage is definitely not a long-term solution, since there is a risk that the CPU is gradually damaged as a result of electron migration. There is a possibility that the conducting paths inside the CPU could literally be ablated and thus destroyed by ion migration. The result is that one day, the computer suddenly shuts down and will never start up again with that CPU.

Intel Penryn 45nm

Nonetheless we must say we were more than a little surprised that the processor would run at 4.0 GHz at all, let alone run stably. We should probably mention at this point that the processor only used air cooling (Zalman CNPS9700 LED) for all of the overclocking tests – which just makes the results even more impressive in our eyes.

Intel Penryn 45nm


Talkback
Bik3r 29/10/2007 03:09
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Bik3r
Just a small typo on the first line on thelast page... i'm sure the word that is meant to be there is "reticent". Other than that an excellent, informative and thorough review, thank you :D
spuddyt 29/10/2007 06:11
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spuddyt
wow... poor amd :(
leexgx 29/10/2007 10:42
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leexgx
the green bars are getting smaller for AMD :(

i still going to get an AMD64 5000+ Black edition as my server needs an new cpu, mobo and ram

i do not want to replace my motherboard just yet as it performs Fully stable for me and i not looked into stable/good OC boards for Intel yet

but darn that CPU has some power behind it lol
Bik3r 30/10/2007 12:30
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Bik3r
Yup.... AMD seems pwned for the time being :( Bad for them and surely bad for us :( I hope their quadcore (on a single chip) solution is a success...
BobWya 30/10/2007 08:57
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BobWya
Are THG listening to the readers? This is a lot better than articles of recent times!! Now what about the follow up article... 'Penryn Hitting 5Ghz on ambient watercooling!!'.

Thanks guys!!

Bob

PS Like the detail on the new SSE4.1 instructions + history of SSE instructions - nice touch!!
mi1ez 30/10/2007 10:00
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mi1ez
I agree with Bob- It's nice to get a decent, in depth technical article, the likes of which got me reading THG in the first place!
thechevron 31/10/2007 07:37
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thechevron
I like the picture at the bottom of page 9. Nice toastie air blowing right into the arse end of that video card, just as well its not a scorchy pentium 4 :))
crackez 02/11/2007 03:49
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crackez
Yes indeed it will be nice to see how well it performs with a watercooling system, who knows even liquid nitrogen will be nice.. If they reach with Intel Pentium 4 more than 5GHz I wonder how much GHz might give a 45nm processor heheh

P.S. With liquid nitrogen I'd like to see how well it performs TOO!! [of course a more simple solutions like a watercooling overcloking still is a good thing, especially if it's in a video to see exactly what is going on]
godman 04/11/2007 11:34
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godman
Sounds like a 805 ... only more expensive, faster and twice the cores :P
crackez 06/11/2007 03:32
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crackez
I thought I left some feedback a few days ago.. oh well I was just saying why not a review of an overclocked intel processor reaching lets say 5Ghz? or even 6GHz with some liquid nitrogen perhaps. I currently have an Athlon 64 X2 5000+(running on more than 3.1GHz on water from 2.6GHz and planning for some peltier stuff soon to reach over 3.5-4 GHz)
anqe 17/11/2007 08:57
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anqe
I think 4GHz is slightly disapointing and production samples will rapidly push past 4GHz once they hit their second spin.

If we're already seeing 3.6GHz+ air cooled on Q6600's @ 65nm then another 20% hike in speed should be pushing it to 4.2GHz easily.

The scary thing for all should be what the hell happens when Intel take away AMD's only defense in the way of adding a memory controller to the die. Low latency access with a shared L2 and ridiculously scalable frequency leaves AMD looking a rather poor second choice.

With Intel sandbaging already and enjoying healthy margin that is only going to be worse for AMD later on.
Danny24 21/03/2008 12:31
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Danny24
Whilst the article makes for very interesting reading why did TH choose to test the QX9650 CPU? This is one of the most expensive processors on the market today and well beyond the reach of all but the most well off users.

I understand that you want to achieve the best results possible and therefore chose the best performing processor for the job. However, this particular processor is the only one available with an un-locked multiplier. The majority of users don't have this luxury and only have an option to increase the FSB if they want to overclock their system. This sort of makes the test you've performed redundant for the majority.

A much better processor to test would have been the Q9550. While it's eventual clock speed wont match that of the QX9650, percentage wise it should be near as damn identical.

Otherwise, great article :-)
BobWya 21/03/2008 10:52
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BobWya
Danny24 :
Whilst the article makes for very interesting reading why did TH choose to test the QX9650 CPU? This is one of the most expensive processors on the market today and well beyond the reach of all but the most well off users.... Blah Blah



Wakey, wakey idiot... This thread is months old and thats all that was out at the time...

Bob

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