Overclocking Intel's HD Graphics

The base clock of both Intel's HD Graphics 2000 and 3000 on desktop SKUs is 850MHz. Thankfully, Intel's 32nm process allows for much headroom in both the CPU and GPU for overclocking. There are no clock locks or K-series parts to worry about when it comes to GPU overclocking; everything is unlocked. I started by trying to see how far I could push the Core i3-2100's HD Graphics 2000.

While I could get into Windows and run games at up to 1.6GHz, I needed to back down to 1.4GHz to maintain stability across all of our tests. That's a 64.7% overclock:

In some cases (Civilization V, WoW, Dawn of War II), the overclocked HD Graphics 2000 was enough to bring the 6 EU part close to the performance of the 3000 model. For the most part however the overclock just helped the Core i3-2100 perform halfway between it and the Core i5-2500K.

I tried the same experiment with the Core i5-2500K. While there's no chance it could catch up to a Radeon HD 5570, I managed to overclock my 2500K to 1.55GHz (the GPU clock can be adjusted in 50MHz increments):

Intel HD Graphics 3000 Overclocking: 1550MHz

The 82.4% increase in clock speed resulted in anywhere from a 0.6% to 33.7% increase in performance. While that's not terrible, it's also not that great. It looks like we're fairly memory bandwidth constrained here.

Resolution Scaling with Intel HD Graphics 3000 The Test
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  • samrty22331 - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link

    visual studio 2010 professional not supported intel i5 2500k
    so
    can you say
    how to install vs 2010 in this
  • Okurka - Saturday, August 13, 2011 - link

    The base clock of the HD 3000 GPU is 1100 MHz, not 850 MHz.
    That makes the 1550 MHz an overclock of 40,9 %, not 82,4 % as stated in the article.
  • khalnayak - Sunday, January 22, 2012 - link

    I am having Intel HD 3000 - Sandy Bridge in my system and i was willing to get the game called "oil rush" but then i have found weird response for the game here http://www.futurehardware.com/pc-gaming/288.htm , so i just wanted to know is there any one who have tested the Intel HD 3000 - Sandy Bridge for oil rush, any help for this will be highly appreciated.
  • thr0nez101 - Sunday, January 29, 2012 - link

    I've got intel hd graphics 3000 and according to this forum/review it has a prob running dawn of war 2 on low graphics... i have it set to max graphics and i runs a dream... same with a lot of games i play on it...
  • oliverr - Saturday, February 11, 2012 - link

    guys, is it safe to overclock the Intel HD 3000 GPU ? I own a 2500K CPU. I can overclock the GPU to 1450mhz and it looks stable . But i dont know how to read the temperature from the GPU unit, so iam afraid i could burn my GPU/CPU .
  • cerberaspeed12 - Thursday, February 16, 2012 - link


    hi.first off all sorry for my english.I have a doubt .I have seen the dells lap top.they are identical but one have the Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz ,the odher is Intel Core i5-2450M 2.5GHz , and the third have Intel Core i7 -2670M 2.4GH

    the prices is 600 $,670$ and 800 $,I am working some live multi channel audio production and .net teh programing.So for wich one i soud go.Thanks
  • indyaah - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link

    any suggestions how can i??
  • weirdo2989 - Sunday, March 4, 2012 - link

    Hi Techies,

    I recently got this processor. It is ultimate for gaming.
    However in my windows CPU meter gadget, i can see only 2 cores functioning. Stock comes with unlocked multiplier afaik. But here in my system, it shows only 2 cores. Is there any way to activate all the cores for better performance?

    Any suggestions/tips would be highly appreciated.

    Thanks.

    Regards,
    Parth
  • 0121birmingham - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link

    Just to say i wrote a small post on this issue at http://intel23976fpsproblem.blogspot.co.uk/
    It does not look like the problem has been fixed in the new z77 line up. DAM
  • milutzuk - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link

    Beside VS2008 compiler performance I would like to see growing a database with some Java compiler performance, either under NetBeans or Eclipse. Thank you.

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