One of the fastest ways to boost the performance and speed of your gaming PC is to overclock its CPU. Overclocking your CPU means increasing its frequency, allowing it to process better and faster. It’s like upgrading your current system without buying new hardware components to improve its performance.
Not everyone has the knowledge to overclock their CPU manually. Thus, Intel has developed a utility software called Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. It is designed for beginners who aren’t too confident in their technical skills when manually overclocking their CPU. With Intel Extreme Utility, they can easily overclock their CPU by simplifying the process.
For today’s article, we will feature a brief guide on how to use Intel Extreme Tuning Utility to overclock your CPU:
Step 1 – Download the Intel Extreme Tuning
Overclocking one’s CPU is usually done through the BIOS, which loads the operating system. And this isn’t an easy task for people who are not too technical. Intel Extreme Tuning Utility offers a software solution that can be run and used within Windows.
You can download Intel Extreme Tuning Utility for free by following this link. It offers a user-friendly interface. It is also compatible with most motherboard brands and models.
Step 2 – Monitor your system.
When overclocking your CPU, monitoring its temperature is highly important. Intel XTU has its own temperature monitoring systems, which will alert you once your unit reaches its critical levels and activate safeguards.
Monitor the temperature of your CPU using Intel XTU. In its interface, you will be able to notice an indicator. It can change from Blue (OK) to Yellow (Not OK) when this happens.
Go to “power consumption and heat output” to check more information.
Step 3 – Establish the Baseline Performance.
Before starting any setup changes, it’s crucial to establish the baseline performance number of your CPU. There are two different ways to do this using Intel XTU.
The first way is to use Basic Tuning. Go to its tab and click the “Run Benchmark” button. It will then run and test the performance of your CPU.
The second way is through the Benchmarking tab. This offers the same “Run Benchmark” button. However, it provides additional information that is useful, like the processor’s maximum frequency and the maximum temperature reached during the benchmarking process.
Once the benchmark process ends, it will give you a score that will serve as the baseline performance metric.
Step 4 – Adjust its Performance Setting.
Now that you have the performance score, you can start adjusting the parameters of your CPU’s operation and overclocking.
There are two ways to tune this process. We will only cover Basic Tuning. Go to this tab and adjust the Processor Core Ratio by increasing it upwards of 1x. It is best to increase the multipliers, reboot it, and check your CPU for stability.
The same rules apply to the “Processor Cache Ratio” slider. Adjust the frequency part of the CPU, which connects the cores to the processor cache. Set the Cache Ratio at a lower frequency than the Core Ration, resulting in its lower performance.
If it’s the first time you overclock your CPU, then keeping them at the same frequency is recommended.
Step 5 – Measure the Performance Gains.
After you have made the changes within Intel XTU and your system is stable, it’s time to check the changes it causes to your CPU performance.
To check your CPU performance, rerun the benchmark utility and compare its results to your previous scores. If you could make the right changes, you would see an increase in measured performance from its benchmark. Remember that the number will vary depending on the individual CPU, but overclocking will make it higher and better.
Once satisfied with the performance increase, you can proceed with the next step. You will also need to verify your system’s stability. If not, you can repeat the tuning process until you reach the performance level you want for your system.
Step 6 – Check System Stability and Stress Test.
The last overclocking stage will ensure that your system will remain stable despite its overclocked CPU. Run the simple benchmark, which will determine the overall system stability.
Intel XTU will have integrated stress tests located under the Stress Test tab. Here are durations you might want to consider:
- 5 minutes to use for a quick stability test. This will not reflect a 24/7 workload but is more rigorous than the Intel XTU benchmark.
- 30 minutes to establish solid stability. This will provide insight into the CPU’s temperature under load. It is the best method to test your PC’s cooling solution.
- 3 to 5 hours to validate 24/7 stable overclock.
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After overclocking your CPU with Intel XTU, make sure to always check the stability of your system.
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