Hi fellow FS captains!

 

I just built a new FS rig based on Sandy Bridge with a 2700K CPU sitting on an ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe/GEN3 motherboard. Had a quick look in the new type of BIOS and already have one question.

 

I noticed you can adjust the max CPU speed both in BIOS during startup but also by using the Windows software that comes with the ASUS motherboard but my question is how can I have the CPU stick to this higher speed permanently? With my old FS rig that was based on a Core i7-920 I had this clocked @ 4 GHz and it stayed at that speed all the time but maybe Sandy Bridge doesn't work the same way when it comes to overclocking but instead the CPU will only boost up to the highest possible speed when it's actaully needed?

 

If so I guess that is good since it's of little use running your CPU at max speed when just surfing the Internet or similar non-demanding stuff but what I'm thinking is of course if my CPU will "understand" it should run at it's highest possible speed whenever I'm in FSX flying or do the CPU need a pure 100% load to run at it's highest speed? Because as far as I remember FSX very seldom make the CPU go to 100% but rather to maybe 50-60% or so...?

 

And one more question...are there any particular settings in BIOS when it comes to overclocking I should be aware of or pay attention to that will benefit FS? I will only use this rig for FSX flying the NGX in particular so my goal is to tune it as much as possible for FSX. I remember with my old rig for example I had hyperthreading disabled since that wouldn't do anything good for FSX anyway but instead would only make the CPU hotter...is it the same with Sandy Bridge?

 

TIA for your input guys!

Great questions...I've just built a very similar machine for FSX and X-Plane use. I will watch with interest to see what answers you get. I do know when I spoke with a few people in the know here on Teamspeak earlier there was consensus apparently on NOT using the auto-tuning in the Asus Windows SW. We didn't get any further really as it was leading up to the start of the Austin Myer interview.

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Good Questions.

Sandy Bridge introduced a new PC architecture which is more efficient and powerful than the i7 9xx series (clock for clock)

On SB K rigs you overclock the cpu multiplier and not the Front Side Bus, and any OC can be left set providing the temps are not too high or it is unstable.

I have been running an i7 2600K at 4.8 GHz for over 6 months (liquid cooling) - no issues. Some mobos come with a "turbo" option ie they have a default speed of say 3.2GHz and a turbo speed of say 3.6 GHz. When overclocked that could give figures like 4.4GHz and Turbo of 4.8 GHz but it depends on the mobo and cpu. The "turbo" option being for intensive apps like FSX, Photoshop, etc with the BIOS "choosing" the speed based on cpu load.

If you have good cooling and don't over do it, then there's little danger in doing any damage by leaving the overclock in place all of the time.

You should be able to set up the overclock in the BIOS which will not change on any reboot.

Regards

PeterH

I also interested in this so-called program-related overclocking. Actually, latest video for IB and Z77 shows that ASUS AutoTune might be used in Windows. It's 44 minutes long, but it worth to watch.

 

 

Cheers

Dmitriy

Thanks for that one Dmitry. This

appears to address Sandy Bridge in the same way.

 

Ok...I'm done with my new rig and I ended up running stable with great temps @ 4.8 GHz and reached this overclock by manually increasing the multiplier and vcore in bios. Except for that pretty much all settings are left at default values.

 

I've only started installing FSX and all my addons but from what I've seen so far I'm confident I'll be more than happy with my new rig...it's faaast...

Congrats, that was easy, right?

 

:Whistle:

Yep...a walk in the park