How to Unlock the Core 2 Extreme Multiplier in Windows

3.8 GHz seems to be the practical limit for an X9000 - C0 stepping.

I had desktop E8400 - C0 stepping which is very similar and I was able to get it running reliably at 4000 MHz to 4050 MHz but that's a desktop CPU with a very large air cooler. A laptop doesn't have that kind of cooling available so it will be very difficult to find one that can run reliably at 4.0 GHz or better. If you can't run 4.0 GHz by adjusting the multiplier then it's not likely you will be able to run 4.0 GHz with a FSB mod.

 

Achieving 4.0 or 4.2GHz is easy. It takes a man to stablize against processor errors and heat for prolonged usage, is another. I managed to hit 4.2GHz but having errors after a few minutes run of Prime95 or rendering 3Ds Max is definately not worth it.

I'll have to agree 3.8 or 4.0GHz (depending on your X9000 capabilities) is sufficient. Benchmarks aside, the performance difference of 200Mhz doesn't mean anything in reality.

Unclewebb, I will definately love the undervolting features if TS has those as RMclock. It will be the new RMclock; and if possible, for the i7 era.

 

This should still work with the X7800 and X7900, right? They may be Merom cores at 2.6 and 2.8 GHz respectively, but they're cheaper than the X9000.

 

Yes, but they're known to run alot hotter due to their voltage, power consumption and their 65nm fabrication process as opposed to the X9000, are the issues pushing above 3.4GHz.

 

So my opportunities are better cooling or find myself another X9000. Right?

 

TehSuigi: If you want to try one of these older Extreme CPUs then I'd look for an X7800. No use spending more for the X7900 since once the multiplier is adjusted, they will both run at the same speed anyhow. I was thinking about trying one of these but I know my lap probably wouldn't approve. Too much heat.

I think you might be able to get a reliable 3.2 GHz or 3.4 GHz out of one of these Extreme CPUs. I definitely like the price of one of these compared to an X9000.

SomeFormOFhuman: Unfortunately the Core i CPUs don't let you adjust the core voltage anymore so I concluded a while ago that writing an RM Clock clone was kind of pointless. ThrottleStop is directed at users that don't need the fine control that RM Clock offers. I have a few more minor features planned for ThrottleStop like the ability to set a FID/VID pair for the Power Saver mode option but I won't be doing a full RM Clock replacement. I want to keep ThrottleStop simple so it's easy to use and setup compared to RM Clock.

ernstig01: It sounds like you've hit the wall. Better cooling or a better CPU are the only options.

 

I have a I7-980X-Extreme CPU based desktop, The ThrottleStop pop up a windows, says "CPU not supported".
I set Extreme=1 in the config file, but doesnt work.
How to make it work? Please.

 

It says "CPU not supported" because your CPU is not supported. The Extreme=1 option is for Core 2 based Extreme CPUs. I might add support for that Core i CPU sometime in the future. You can't adjust voltage on a Core i so ThrottleStop might not be that useful even if i do add support for your 6 core CPU.

 

I was actually refering to the post you made earlier. I think it's a pretty good addon for TS:

 

I'll do that add on someday when I get the chance. I was afraid you wanted a full RMClock clone. Too much work for me at the moment.

 

Can anything cool be done to ulv i5M/i7M CPUs with ThrottleStop? Anything more in the pipeline regarding mobile i5/i7 CPUs?

Keep up the good work, we need more cool utilities like these.

 

OMG Now I want X9000 !!! LOL

Great job again unclewebb!

 

It is no longer possible to adjust the core voltage on the new Core i CPUs so you can't do anything too exciting. Intel changed the design and eliminated this feature. ThrottleStop supports the new Core i5/i7 mobile CPUs but without any way to adjust core voltage, it's not as useful on the Core i CPUs.

Donations last quarter totaled $30 less PayPal fees. That number divided by 120 days equals 25 cents per day. I think I might have discovered the reason why there aren't that many cool utilities made anymore.

Good luck finding one of these on ebay. One seller wants $549 now.

 

sadly this doesn't work for me. i have gateway p-7805u and x9100 but multiplier or voltage doesn't go up 11.5/1.2375v. it just stays there and i can only lower to lower #s. sigh..

 

Did you right click on throttlestop and click "unlock max FID/VID"?

 

Maybe this picture needs to be re-posted.



Some people give up way too easily.

The first post has all the info you need to get this working. It is a feature of the Core 2 Extreme CPU and this works on any motherboard. No bios support is needed.

 

I was busy one hole Sunday afternoon to find out my CPU is a nasty one.
If X9000 CPU's are that expensive, maybe to modify a real good notebook cooler. I mean a real nitrogen mod. First I have to find a way how to practice this. At least it's a way to go.

 

don't burn ur fingers due to the nitrogen

 

I know financial it's not an interesting way to go compared to a new X9000. I just try to find a way to make a real powerful notebook cooler. Like you're gaming in a fridge.

 

yeahh... 1 seller and $549 ...

there goes my appetite

 

I *may* be moving an OEM x9000 soon. I retired my HDX and although I want to use it as an HTPC, I can't get it to fit anywhere. lol So I may sell off parts.

 

unclewebb,

so your saying trottlestop can work with i5/i7 processor?? but we just can't change the voltage, thus we can't overclock that much??

i have an non extreme i7 720qm, can i use the mosst recent trottlestop?

thnx

 

ThrottleStop works with Core i5/i7 CPUs but if you don't have an Extreme CPU, you won't be able to overlock or adjust the multiplier higher.

Intel releases CPUs faster than I can keep up so if there is ever a problem, let me know and I'll adjust ThrottleStop to support your CPU. ThrottleStop recognizes most CPUs correctly.

Thanks to somebody on TechPowerUp, I just added support for the new Core i5-655K and Core i7-875K desktop CPUs yesterday so you can increase the maximum multiplier of those now with ThrottleStop similar to what you can do with the Core 2 Extreme CPUs. This new feature also works on the Core i7-920XM and i7-940XM Extreme mobile processors.

This feature is still in the early beta testing stage but it seems to work OK based on feedback so far. I still need to do a few minor things like add the ability to save your Core i unlocked settings.

ThrottleStop 2.55
http://www.mediafire.com/?zzmn0wwzktz

Here's a little gif animation somebody sent me showing how this new feature works.

TS-Unlocked.gif

 

Hi, unclewebb
Please help to add support for Core i7-980x, let me know if you want any help
Thanks

 

JasonYe: I don't have access to a Core i7-980X so could you post a picture of a register in your CPU? You can download my MSR Tool to do this.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/MSR.zip

In the MSR Number box at the bottom just enter 0x1AD and then click on the Read MSR button.

Take a screen shot and upload it somewhere like:

ImageShack® - Online Media Hosting

If I can get something figured out, I'll update ThrottleStop to help you out.

 

Sorry, I can't open that page
The read value is:
EDX 0X00001A1A EAX 0X1A1A1A1B

Thanks

 

Edit: Never mind with any tests. I just had a look at the Intel spec sheet for an i7-980X and I found the info I was looking for.

The information you've given me looks very promising.

ThrottleStop might not fully support your CPU but hopefully it will be good enough to get your i7-980X unlocked like all the other Extreme CPUs.

Hopefully I will have something for you to test within 24 hours.

 

Great.
when it's ready to test, please publish it in www.fileden.com
I can't access mediafire

Thanks

 

The mods at Notebook Review don't like to see email addresses so maybe edit your last post and remove that. Don't worry, I added you to my address book.

I will upload something to http://www.fileden.com for you and send you a message or I'll post a link here. I'm looking forward to getting this feature working on the i7-980X.

 

i have tried trottlestop with mine i7 720qm.. but it does'nt seem to work. i can disable turbo mode but when i activate the highest multiplier(13x) it won't do anythin....overclocking does'nt work at all... but you already said that

 

The Core i7-720QM has a default multiplier of 12. If you disable turbo mode then that is as high as the multiplier can go.

If you have not disabled turbo boost then a setting of 13 tells your CPU to use the default 12 multiplier and the +1 tells your CPU to use as much turbo boost as the CPU is willing to give you based on how many cores are active.

You need an Extreme CPU to overclock and increase the multiplier.

JasonYe: I sent you an e-mail with a link to a test version of ThrottleStop so you can see if the Core i7-980X can adjust the turbo boost multiplier higher. If it works or doesn't work let me know so I can see what I can do.

JasonYe's early testing is looking promising.
If you have an i7-980X and want to test this out, send me a PM.

 

Great work for supporting the i7 series Unclewebb. It's a good start no matter how minute the additional features there may be.

You know it's funny the X9100s are not getting higher clocks as opposed to the X9000s getting well over 3.8 - 4.0GHz. Probably a cooling or stability issue for their notebooks with an X9100?

 

The X9000 C0 stepping and the X9100 C0 stepping are probably being cut out of the same wafer on the assembly line. Intel might bin them a little so the X9100 under ideal conditions might run a little better but they probably don't do any testing that is too extreme or takes too long. When you get either one up around 3.8 GHz, heat will become the limiting factor so the laptop with the better cooler will probably win. Maybe not enough X9100 owners know about this trick yet. I still see in forums where the experts say, you can't overclock one of those because the bios won't let you.

In the desktop CPUs, the E0 stepping is usually a little faster with a little less voltage than the same CPU in C0 stepping so maybe an X9100 - E0 will be able to run 100 MHz faster. With laptop cooling, I don't think we'll see any huge difference. I can't wait to see some crazy guy with his laptop and a little bit of LN2 to keep it cool.

JasonYe has already been able to bump his maximum multiplier up from 27 to 29 on his Core i7-980X. It's going to be nice having one tool that can handle all Extreme CPUs now. As soon as I see some more testing and get some more feedback, I'll be releasing this new version. It also includes a little more pop-up info in the system tray / notification area.

 

I was wondering if I BSEL mod a T7300 to run at a 266mhz FSB in my GT627 (PM45 express chipset), can I use throttlestop to raise the multi back to 10?


(since after the BSEL mod the CPU seems to be locked to the lowest multi from what I have read on the net).

 

QX9200 @ 3.33GHz is stable on the MSI - GT628 laptop (MSI-1651 barebone)

ran sp2004 20min and GTA LC gaming 40min

without blue screen

 

mitsuhide: After you use SetFSB and increase your bus speed from 266 to 304, can you right click on ThrottleStop and select the Update BCLK menu option and see if that works. I think it will update ThrottleStop if you are using Vista or Windows 7 but it might not do anything in Windows XP. Using SetFSB can screw up the internal timers when using XP but that bug should be fixed in Vista or Windows 7.

moral hazard: That sounds like an interesting mod. I'm not sure why the bios would lock the multiplier at 6. ThrottleStop might be able to help with that problem but I haven't tried that or seen any testing yet. Maybe you can be the tester.

 

It works for me in xp (screenshot attached).

I will try it

 

unclewebb,

Your application is very interesting!

I am considering purchasing a Thinkpad W510 very soon and had my sights set on i7-820QM CPU. However, if I purchased a W510 with an i7-920XM, would I be able to unlock the multiplier and overclock the CPU?

Also, considering that i7 Quad Cores work with turbo-boost, how would the actual overclocking work? Would an increase in multiplier affect all turbo boost modes or just the base operating mode?

 

Thanks for showing that moral hazard. As a laptop app, I wanted to keep ThrottleStop as lean as possible on CPU cycles. If you run CPU-Z and ThrottleStop side by side, you will notice that updating the FSB or BCLK on a regular basis can eat up a lot of CPU cycles. I didn't want to do that all the time so SetFSB users will have to recalculate the bus speed after they make a change. The result is very accurate as the bus speed doesn't change as much as some apps would lead you to believe.

jketzetera: I've just added support for the Core i7-920XM to ThrottleStop but I haven't released it yet. On these CPUs, you change the maximum turbo limit. The base multiplier stays the same. I'm just in the process of adding another trick to ThrottleStop to get the most out of one of these new CPUs. Stay tuned.

 

Very good result, could you also run Intel Burn test?

 

Ok I have done the BSEL mod.

ThrottleStop seems to have no effect.
Still stuck at 6x266mhz.

here is a screenshot:

 

Man, I'm jealous... BSEL mods, FSLx mods, I want 1066Mhz FSB. But I'm scared as a cat - Scared of bricking it! Makes me feel like selling my Dells and go after easily customizable, PLL/SetFSB OC'able, MXM type GPU machines. i.e Sagers and MSIs.

 

At least ThrottleStop shows what the problem is. Your motherboard has disabled EIST and locked it so it can't be turned on. ThrottleStop has no effect on your CPU multiplier when EIST is turned off. You are locked at 6X and there is no possible way to go higher with EIST disabled and locked.

Your first screen shot showed EIST was locked but the bios enabled it which is how it should be when locked.

 

Ok, doesn't matter too much, I'll just stick to my SP9400.
It's good to know what the problem is, after all this time.

 

SP9400 can be overclocked to 2.83GHz-2.93GHz (313x9 or 321x9)stable in the MSI laptop by using Setfsb 2.1.73



in fact, SP9400 SLI = Q9200

 

lol, yes my SP9400 is at 3ghz because I did this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi...-shown-gt627-but-should-work-all-similar.html

Since I don't like the barebones BIOS much, I changed my turbo OC to 24%.

Anyway, I wasn't going to use the T7300 if it could run at 10x266, I just wanted to know if there was any way to keep the multi from being locked to 6.

 

My best guess is that when you do the BSEL mod and boot up, the bios sees a CPU that it doesn't recognize so goes into lock down mode. It lets you run this chip and boot up so you can find a bios update so the CPU can be correctly recognized. It then plays it safe by turning off EIST and also disabling it so you will be able to do a bios flash with less chance of it crashing and killing your laptop. Great in theory but if there is no bios available to recognize this CPU then you're screwed and locked at 6X.

 

I'm running OEM QX9300 on a HP HDX18T laptop. The laptop comes with a 120watt power brick. My clock modulation always stays at 100%, but the chipset clock modulation jumps around the higher up the multiplier I go. I can't seem to get pass 10.5x 1.075v or 2.79Mhz. At 11x I need 1.1125v and Prime95 will close after about half an hour or so. I am guessing I have a power issue? My temps are around 90c. If I set a moderately higher voltage, even at stock multiplier, I get a reboot.

I'd be very interested in a lower than 6x multiplier, or lowering the voltage than 1.05. Interestingly I can run the stock 9.5x at 1.05v.

So is my solution to use a bigger power brick, and if it's not a factory item, what type do I get and from where? Thanks for the fantastic work!

 

It sounds like you mostly have a cooling issue. Core 2 based chips can run really fast or really hot but they are not very stable when you try to do both at the same time. To get the MHz higher, you will have to use more voltage which creates more heat so you will lose stability. That's the wall you're up against.

At the CPU voltage you're running, that seems hot. You might have to pull your laptop apart and clean it out and maybe replace the heatsink paste and try to find a way to get your CPU cooler. Some guys are getting up into the 3400 MHz to 3500 MHz range with the QX9300.

 

3600mhz in my case!!