Throttlestop overclocking Desktop PCs

[lexluthermiester]

If I recall correctly it's not released publicly. @unclewebb alluded to that in another thread iirc

Ah, ok. Been seeing screen shots of it and thought I was missing something.. Thanks.

 

[dorsetknob]

If I recall correctly it's not released publicly. unclewebb alluded to that in another thread iirc

He also mentioned it here somewhere
I believe he said
" its an invite only Private Beta at the moment"

 

[unclewebb]

The T3500 is supposed to support up to 1333MHz

I have a W3680 in my T3500 with some Corsair DDR3 memory that has 2 XMP 1600 profiles. Sadly, the XMP profiles are ignored by the T3500. I am pretty sure it defaults to 1333 but I will double check and post a CPU-Z pic later on to confirum. The T3500 is a workstation so the bios is like a vast wasteland. Not much for useful options in there.

Is there a link to version TS 8.60 somewhere?

All my computer time lately has been used up playing with my new X58 hardware. The next TS version is about 99% done. If you want to do some beta testing, just send me a message.

 

[Susquehannock]

Yes indeed. Memory controller being CPU integrated, and x58 architecture mandates RAM speed is controlled that way.

As an aside, all of the T3500 that I have received had W3565 (1066mhz) with 1333mhz RAM installed. They were fixed at 1066 because of the CPU. Changing to a X5687 allowed them to run at 1333. That one simple CPU change, all else exactly the same, upped Firestrike bench scores by 20-25%.

 

[lexluthermiester]

He also mentioned it here somewhere
I believe he said " its an invite only Private Beta at the moment"

I missed it somewhere.

If you want to do some beta testing, just send me a message.

I'd be happy to play with it and report any issues back. PM sent.

 

[Retrorockit]

I wonder if Intel XTU would unlock the XMP memory profiles. It seems their own software should work on their own memory controller. One T3500 at Userbench was overclocked to 4GHz that way. But with the 3 channel architecture these machines can keep up with newer models that don't always have that.

 

[lexluthermiester]

@unclewebb Here's the screen shot you asked for.

One of my Dell systems running at it's maximum. Very nice utility!
However, it does show weird multipliers when turned off;

 

[unclewebb]

@lexluthermiester - You have the low power C1E state enabled in your last two pictures. When this C State is enabled, the CPU multiplier and CPU voltage are rapidly cycled up and down to decrease power consumption. If the CPU has something to do, the multi and voltage go high; CPU is idle with nothing to do, CPU multi and voltage go low. This is happening continuously hundreds of times per second and each thread can enter various C States individually. ThrottleStop uses high performance timers within the CPU and is able to calculate a very accurate average multiplier while this is happening. The data looks very strange but it is accurate.

Your first picture shows a nice even 25.00 multiplier. I had a look at the Intel docs and it shows that the X5675 also has access to a 26 multiplier. CPU-Z confirms that your CPU supports a 26 multiplier. This higher multiplier is only available if you have either C3 or C6 enabled and it is only used when 1 or 2 cores are active and the other cores are resting in C3 or C6. Click on the C6 button and have a look in the ThrottleStop C State window to see if your CPU is spending any time in either of those two C states. I am pretty sure you are going to see 0.0 for all of the entries which would confirm that C States are disabled in the bios, either accidentally or on purpose. If you want to do some testing, re-boot, enable at least C3 in the bios and then once Windows has settled down, try running a 1 Thread TS Bench test. While the CPU is loaded and this test is running, you should be seeing a multiplier higher than 25.00. Look in the C State window while testing and you should see various cores going into C3 and or C6.

Very nice utility!

You are welcome and thanks for doing some testing and posting some screenshots. Now that I have access to some 6 core CPUs, I am thinking about making a special stretched version of TS so I can see what all 12 threads are doing at the same time without having to scroll the data. If I ever get around to doing that, I will post a download link in this thread.

Your CPU supports hyper threading which is 2 threads per core. Your screenshot also shows this. The first thread is the primary thread and it is spending 4.8% of its time in the C0 state with average multiplier of 24.47. The second thread is spending 0.0% of its time in the C0 state so its average multiplier is only 16.78. The next two multipliers, 24.55 and 14.80 also show the primary thread doing the work at almost full speed and the hyper thread is barely needed so it is only spending 0.5% in the C0 state at a lower multiplier and voltage. Good little utility for the OCD types.

 

[unclewebb]

I just played around with Intel XTU on the Dell T3500 and it was a complete bust. No usable features and its monitoring capabilities were not working either. Not only did it not work, it told me that, "The platform does not support overclocking".

Turbo Overclockable False

I call bullsh!t. ThrottleStop has been overclocking unlocked 1st Gen Core i processors like the Xeon W3680 on any motherboard for the last 8 years.

 

[Retrorockit]

Someone has a T3500 at userbenchmark running 4.0GHz. I was told there was a Youtube video showing XTU was how it was done. But only a rumor. I didn't look into it. The overclock is displayed, while the 4.266 you ran just shows the base speed. So it seems there is something different about that OC, although I've seen TS display different benchmark results with it open, closed, or after restart.
There's a mention of XTU/T3500 in comments here. But no Voltage control, and I guess turbo speed only.

Here's another one. 4GHz with throttling in P95. Some notes in comments about getting XTU running. HP Z400/ W3690. I think to get 4GHz they need the faster Xeon to start with.

There seems to be something going on with XTU but not much.

 

[Susquehannock]

Good stuff. Rather surprised they have not affixed a fan to the heat sink. Really does make a big difference.

The W5590 arrived today so I have been doing some tests with the X5687 first to establish comparisons. This box has just been used for internet so far, so have not done the fan mod yet. The other T3500 with same CPU, front intake fans also at 100%, and with and a good 80mm fan on the sink runs about 15-18 C cooler in p-95 stress tests.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Good stuff. Rather surprised they have not affixed a fan to the heat sink. Really does make a big difference.

True. A 90mm fan is easy to affix and fits perfectly. And you're right, works wonders.

 

[unclewebb]

There's a mention of XTU/T3500 in comments here. But no Voltage control...

It sounds like an older version of Intel XTU might work but the current version of XTU does not have any options available for the unlocked W3580 in my Dell T3500. Maybe Intel disabled the overclocking options to keep their business Xeon customers happy.

The second video clearly shows the ThrottleStop icon open in the taskbar. He is probably using TS for overclocking. The throttling is pretty obvious. If he knew what he was doing, he would have used ThrottleStop to increase the turbo TDP / TDC limits. You can run Prime95 Small FFTs at a constant 4000 MHz with zero throttling after you do that.

@Susquehannock - Sorry for scamming your heatsink pic and posting it on the [H]ard forum.
I took a picture of my T3500 add on fan but it was filthy so I was kind of embarrassed to post it. I always go for function first and worry about the details later. It definitely made a big difference.

The X5687 might start throttling when running Prime95. The multiplier and 130 Watt TDP limit are both locked on the X series. Looking forward to your W5590 testing. If you have some fun, I might get one myself.

 

[m&m's]

SpeedFan is pretty good to control the front fans speed but I get system hiccups when it's running. Do you guys have this issue with SpeedFan?

 

[Retrorockit]

There are a certain number of people who own these CPUs and don't know they're unlocked. I came across the W3570 from someone who was surprised they had a 30X multi going. Then from there I stumbled on the W5580/90 reference. Only one W5580 user at CPUz had a raised multi, none found for W5590. I never knew those CPUs existed.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Do you guys have this issue with SpeedFan?

Haven't used SpeedFan in years. It wasn't being updated and stopped working on a lot of boards and thus lost it's usefulness. Has it been updated recently?

 

[m&m's]

Haven't used SpeedFan in years. It wasn't being updated and stopped working on a lot of boards and thus lost it's usefulness. Has it been updated recently?

Wikipedia says the last update is from 2016. I would gladly use something else but it's the only software I've found which lets me control the front fans of the T3500.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Wikipedia says the last update is from 2016. I would gladly use something else but it's the only software I've found which lets me control the front fans of the T3500.

So it has been updated. Hmm, gonna have to try it!

 

[Susquehannock]

Also wish there were another option for fan control. No issues with SpeedFan v4.52 (latest) in any of the T3500 ... except this last one which I am going to use as the overclocking guinea pig. Locks during opening and have to click the 'x' then 'wait for program to respond' at which time it finalizes loading. Seems to work fine after that. Just a bit irritating having to go through extra steps each time. Cannot figure why this is happening since this box is same OS and hardware as others. Might search through the error logs when time permits.

 

[lexluthermiester]

You are welcome and thanks for doing some testing and posting some screenshots.

So more on that. I have been using every day now, and other than the weird display of multiplier values(which I understand the cause of), have not had any problems. This has been working on every system I've tested, including 3 laptops, 3 desktops and even a Windows 10 tablet(though it did get very warm).

Cannot figure why this is happening since this box is same OS and hardware as others.

You might have a wonky fan controller. That happens from time to time on that generation of Dell systems. Dell changed vendors for the fan controller chip(IIRC) in 2012 and the problem disappeared.

 

[unclewebb]

Just saw an unlocked Xeon W3680 on EBay at a good price. His asking price is the same as what I paid. Check out my post near the top of page 4 of this thread. These are a great addition to any locked motherboard like the Dell T3500 workstation. If you do not get 4 GHz out of it, send it to me and you can have my 4 GHz certified W3680.

 

[Susquehannock]

Did not know about fan controller chip vendor changes. Makes sense.

Curious why so many hex cores listed in these discussions. Are they better over clockers than quads?

 

[agent_x007]

Hex Cores = 32nm
Quad Cores = 45nm or 32nm (depends on model).
32nm is the same process Sandy Bridge class CPUs use.
Hex Cores can clock higher, have two cores more, can have 50% more L3 cache and hardware AES support. They can be cheap as well (however not all Xeons work in all LGA 1366 MBs).

 

[lexluthermiester]

Curious why so many hex cores listed in these discussions. Are they better over clockers than quads?

It depends on silicon lottery of course, but from my experiences quads do a bit better at OCing, but only by a slight margin. Then again, I haven't been going to extremes like some users have.

 

[unclewebb]

Curious why so many hex cores listed in these discussions.

This thread is about overclocking processors that are installed in motherboards that do not have any overclocking features. If you do not have access to increasing the FSB or BCLK in the bios then you need to find a CPU with an unlocked multiplier so you can increase that. For Core i socket 1366 processors, you will need to get either an Extreme processor which has an unlocked multiplier or one of the upper level W series Xeons that also have an unlocked multiplier.

I have tried a handful of different 1366 processors and based on that and looking around the web at overclocking results, I think the 32nm processors are better overclockers compared to the original 45nm processors. There are some nice 4 core 32nm X series Xeons but as far as I know, all of these have a locked multiplier so no overclocking on motherboards like the T3500. The 4 core Extreme processors for this socket are 45nm. Those tend to be significantly more expensive compared to the unlocked 6 core W3680 / W3690.

I have not done any testing but the W5580 / W5590 are believed to have an unlocked multiplier. These are both 4 core CPUs but they are built on the older 45nm technology so on a locked motherboard without voltage control, you will probably not be able to overclock these as far as an unlocked W3680 / W3690.

In the name of science, I think I will go buy a W5580 series to see if it is unlocked or not and to see how far it can be overclocked.

As for the older Core 2 technology, one of the QX series with an unlocked multiplier is the way to go. CPUs like the X9000, X9100, QX6700, QX6800, QX6850 or the QX9650 would be nice if you can find one at a reasonable price. I have one of those too. I like this old stuff.