39 replies to this topic

[Oderint dum Metuant]

So in a bout of boredom i decided upon a little adventure how far could i push a budget Pentium K build with a reasonably cheap but gaming GPU.

So i have a server machine here at home that hosts a TS3 server and a website it's nothing special just leftover parts cobbled together.

FX 8120 CPU @ 4ghz
Sabertooth 990fx board
8GB DDR3 RAM 1333Mhz
ATI 5 series single slot GPU
OCZ 700W Modxstream PSU ( by internet standards this should have set my house on fire sometime in the last 6 years)
WD Black 7200RPM 750GB HDD
Windows 10 Tech preview

So to begin the test i decided i would spend extra time comparing the two with a few changes.
I replaced the 5 series GPU, for a 560TI 448 (Asus) and an EVGA 600W Gold Rated PSU.

To extend my experiment i decided to replace the good Asus Direct II cooler on the GPU with an AIO liquid solution using an NZXT G10 and what should have been a compatible NZXT X40 cooler.
I say should have been, because i made a mistake with my order and ended up with an NZXT X31 instead (not compatible with the G10......at least officially.)

And here it is with my brute force bodge job G10 :



I wasn't sold this would work, i had to exert some excessive pressure on the board to get the mounting screws on because the contact plate on the X31 im guessing is thicker which left virtually no screws coming through to secure it in place.
Thankfully the Asus 560TI comes with a sturdy backplate

So here i run the 3DMark Firestrike benchmark with the 8120 @ 4ghz 560TI at stock settings just for a reference point.



I already know the 8120 was mediocre at playing MWO so im neglecting to test that its the Pentium K that will be more interesting and what i am really doing this for.

Before moving onto that, i've had a hard time finding a program that works in Windows 10 and will monitor the AIO temp of the GPU, things like HWmonitor don't work properly in Windows 10 and OCCT can't get the temperature of the GPU

But using the CAM software that came with the AIO i've managed to grab a screenshot of the GPU temps during the Firestrike run which topped at 51

Edited by DV McKenna, 11 October 2014 - 05:34 AM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Onto the Pentium K at stock.

So the system as it stands :

Pentium K with the Hyper Evo 212
MSI Z97 G45 Board
8GB DDR3 1333mhz
Asus 560ti 448 AIO LC with an NZXT X31 and G10
WD Black 7200RPM 750GB HDD
Windows 10 Tech preview

Both the Pentium and 560TI at stock clocks.



Here is the GPU temp from the NZXT software for the GPU temp its the graph on the right



And afterburner


On to overclocking shortly



Overclocked Results @ 4.5GHZ

Notice the huge jump on physics score

Edited by DV McKenna, 11 October 2014 - 11:34 AM.

[Catamount]

45C load temps on the GPU? That's pretty sweet right there.

When do you think you'll be getting the Pentium K to test?

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Catamount, on 11 October 2014 - 06:45 AM, said:

45C load temps on the GPU? That's pretty sweet right there.

When do you think you'll be getting the Pentium K to test?

I have it, just finished tearing down and rebuilding, Windows 10 isn't being co-operative so i may have to reinstall before picking up where i left off.

[Lord Letto]

does MSI Afterburner work in Win10? if so you can maybe use it to monitor temps and usage if that part if it works.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Lord Letto, on 11 October 2014 - 07:06 AM, said:

does MSI Afterburner work in Win10? if so you can maybe use it to monitor temps and usage if that part if it works.

It does yes, and for the actual MWO part i will prob use that, i got round the Windows 10 issue, my problem now is the aux fan on the G10 that cools the VRAM doesn't want to spin despite there being power :/

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Issue resolved, installing chipset drivers then i should be good to start.

[Catamount]

So are you going with the Hyper 212 EVO on the CPU then? I'm curious to see how it does with a chip like that.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Catamount, on 11 October 2014 - 07:52 AM, said:

So are you going with the Hyper 212 EVO on the CPU then? I'm curious to see how it does with a chip like that.

Correct, so am i lol.

[Flapdrol]

The pentium doesn't have AVX, so it doesn't get as hot in synthetics like prime or LinX. Most people clocking haswell try to keep it under 90, which you'll probably not hit with an aftermarket cooler on it.

If you're more conservative you'll probably need a low ish voltage, limiting the overclock. If you're also going for 90 the limit will probably be just a next multiplier requiring a ridiculous extra voltage.

Hard to test these chips, I had a LinX and 8 hour prime stable overclock, system hardlocked in mechwarrior online, had to up the voltage / lower multi.

Not sure if you have haswell overclocking experience, the uncore can't go as high as the cores, I run the uncore at 4200 with 1.3V, cores at 4600 with 1.35V.

4700 requires 1.4, 4800 1.45 and probably not stable, anyway, 1.45 is too high for the temps of an aircooler anyway.

Edited by Flapdrol, 11 October 2014 - 08:23 AM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Flapdrol, on 11 October 2014 - 08:20 AM, said:

The pentium doesn't have AVX, so it doesn't get as hot in synthetics like prime or LinX. Most people clocking haswell try to keep it under 90, which you'll probably not hit with an aftermarket cooler on it.

If you're more conservative you'll probably need a low ish voltage, limiting the overclock. If you're also going for 90 the limit will probably be just a next multiplier requiring a ridiculous extra voltage.

Hard to test these chips, I had a LinX and 8 hour prime stable overclock, system hardlocked in mechwarrior online, had to up the voltage / lower multi.

Not sure if you have haswell overclocking experience, the uncore can't go as high as the cores, I run the uncore at 4200 with 1.3V, cores at 4600 with 1.35V.

4700 requires 1.4, 4800 1.45 and probably not stable, anyway, 1.45 is too high for the temps of an aircooler anyway.

I have never owned haswell so thanks for the tips.

Reserved post updated with stock results.

Edited by DV McKenna, 11 October 2014 - 08:35 AM.

[Odins Fist]

I have heard of people clcoking the snot out of those Pentium K chips.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Updated the 2nd post for the overclocked CPU at 4.5GHZ.

Gonna take a break now, and will try overclocking the GPU tomorrow.

[Catamount]

I look forward to seeing MWO's performance. Overclocking the GPU shouldn't make a difference there, so no need to do a before/after. A Pentium K should bottleneck regardless, though I'm eager to see if it's a bad bottleneck or whether the CPU really does punch way above its weight class.

[ninjitsu]

I'm happy to see this thread. Now, 5ghz please

[Lord Letto]

Catamount, on 11 October 2014 - 01:43 PM, said:

I look forward to seeing MWO's performance. Overclocking the GPU shouldn't make a difference there, so no need to do a before/after. A Pentium K should bottleneck regardless, though I'm eager to see if it's a bad bottleneck or whether the CPU really does punch way above its weight class.

looking at the GPU Usage in the Afterburner graph shows it's going from barely being used to Maxed out, if it's being maxed out during a match than OCing the GPU might give a slight performance boost as it would mean the GPU is being bottlenecked or something?

[ninjitsu]

Yeah, there's full gpu usage on the graph so OCing the video card will help. I want to see how high that card can go with liquid cooling!

[Catamount]

That GPU usage is in 3DMark, is it not? Not in MWO?

There is a huge difference between Firestrike and MWO in terms of what component is going to bottleneck.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

ninjitsu, on 11 October 2014 - 02:41 PM, said:

I'm happy to see this thread. Now, 5ghz please

Don't think it's going to happen, 4.6ghz is stable now at 1.3v, 4.7ghz doesn't want to play ball at the moment (moar tweaking!)

ninjitsu, on 11 October 2014 - 05:38 PM, said:

Yeah, there's full gpu usage on the graph so OCing the video card will help. I want to see how high that card can go with liquid cooling!

Will be doing the GPU later today.

Catamount, on 11 October 2014 - 06:09 PM, said:

That GPU usage is in 3DMark, is it not? Not in MWO?

There is a huge difference between Firestrike and MWO in terms of what component is going to bottleneck.

Correct those graphs were Firestrike benchmarks, i did play a few games of MWO last night on all medium settings with good FPS 40-60 range, but when it dropped it didn't drop spike in one go, so the actual gameplay was smooth.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Few more managed to hit 4.7ghz, 4.8 seems to be a brick wall atm, locks up inside windows within seconds at any voltage up too 1.55v, will try again at some point.



At 4.7 we went above the 60's and nearly into the 70's in CPU temp


For the moment i backed down to 4.6ghz as the machine will be on 24/7, and i'd like to run more than just firestrike to check 4.7 out before i leave it on 24/7 at that.

Heres a quick sample of MWO at 4.6ghz



FPS sample of River City, only 1 dip below 40 FPS, the spike at the end is when i alt tab to pause Afterburner.

Edited by DV McKenna, 12 October 2014 - 04:07 AM.