The Intel Core i3 530 Review - Great for Overclockers & Gamers
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 22, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Overclocking Intel’s HD Graphics - It Works...Very Well
The coolest part of my job is being able to work with some ridiculously smart people. One such person gave me the idea to try overclocking the Intel HD graphics core on Clarkdale a few weeks ago. I didn’t get time to do it with the Core i5 661, but today is a different day.
Clarkdale offers three different GPU clocks depending on the model:
| Processor | Intel HD Graphics Clock |
| Intel Core i5-670 | 733MHz |
| Intel Core i5-661 | 900MHz |
| Intel Core i5-660 | 733MHz |
| Intel Core i5-650 | 733MHz |
| Intel Core i3-540 | 733MHz |
| Intel Core i3-530 | 733MHz |
| Intel Pentium G9650 | 533MHz |
The Core i5 661 runs it at the highest speed - 900MHz. The rest of the Core i5 and i3 processors pick 733MHz. And the Pentium G6950 has a 533MHz graphics clock.
Remember that the Intel HD Graphics die is physically separate from the CPU die on Clarkdale. It’s a separate 45nm package and I’m guessing it’s not all that difficult to make. If AMD can reliably ship GPUs with hundreds of shader processors, Intel can probably make a chip with 12 without much complaining.
So the theory is that these graphics cores are easily overclockable. I fired up our testbed and adjusted the GPU clock. It’s a single BIOS option and without any changes to voltage or cooling I managed to get our Core i3 530’s GPU running at 1200MHz. That’s a 64% overclock!
I could push the core as high as 1400MHz and still get into Windows, but the system stopped being able to render any 3D games at that point.
I benchmarked World of Warcraft with the Core i3 running at three different GPU clocks to show the potential for improvement:
| CPU (Graphics Clock) | World of Warcraft |
| Intel Core i5 661 (900MHz gfx) | 14.8 fps |
| Intel Core i3 530 (733MHz gfx) | 12.5 fpx |
| Intel Core i3 530 (900MHz gfx) | 14.2 fps |
| Intel Core i3 530 (1200MHz gfx) | 19.0 fps |
A 64% overclock resulted in a 52% increase in performance. If Intel wanted to, it could easily make its on-package GPU a lot faster than it is today. I wonder if this is what we’ll see with Sandy Bridge and graphics turbo on the desktop.
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loucm - Sunday, August 1, 2010 - link
using the same motherboard gigabyte h55m-ud2hi manage to get my i3 530 @ 4GHZ stable with only 1.184 core voltage.
polarq - Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - link
Hi, I have a core i3-530 and h55m-ud2h, bought a coolermaster 212 and I'm trying to push the limits :) But with the GPU, in bios there's a possibility to change it from 733mhz, which I did, on 900 - but it still shows 733, both in bios and cpu-z.So I can freely input the value, but 733 is still lights up white in bios. Is there any possibility it was locked after it couldnt take 900? Can I unlock it again? I tried CLR_CMOS, load fail safe defaults, but nothing changed. Any advice please?
Alejo1879 - Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - link
Need Opinion For Core i3 550Hello people, i need some opinions about the intel core i3 550.
Is this CPU faster than core i3 530, i think so, but in cpubenchmark.com, in the High End CPUs - Updated 1st of February 2011 the core i3 530 is in the top and the i3 550 don't.
Intel Core i7 995X @ 3.60GHz 10,795
Intel Core i3 530 @ 2.93GHz 3,546 $124.95*
AMD Phenom II X4 B40 3,534 NA
Intel Core i5 655K @ 3.20GHz 3,525 $192.95*
Intel Core i7 820QM @ 1.73GHz 3,520 $546.00**
Intel Core2 Extreme @ 2.26GHz 3,518 NA
Intel Core2 Quad Q9100 @ 2.26GHz 3,428 $385.89**
Intel Core i7-2620M @ 2.70GHz 3,415 NA
Intel Core i5 661 @ 3.33GHz 3,295 $209.99*
Intel Core i3 560 @ 3.33GHz 3,283 $149.99*
AMD Phenom II X4 910 3,281 $204.19**
AMD Phenom II X4 B93 3,275 NA
Intel Core i5 650 @ 3.20GHz 3,120 $182.99*
Intel Core i5 660 @ 3.33GHz 3,101 $207.99*
Intel Core i3 550 @ 3.20GHz 3,026 $124.99*
IS IN FACT THE CORE I3 530 BETTER THAN I3 540, 550 AND EVEN I3 560?
PLEASE HELP.
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sarp - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - link
Ive i3 530 @2.93Ive managed to get it to 4.00GHz with 182 BClk by changing QPI, Graphics and RAM Frequencies accodringly. Sometimes my screen just freezes with a solid color and I have to restart it in order to get to Windows again. Anyway, I want to boost Intel Graphics HD 3000 performance, it's default clock is 733MHz, since Ive changed BClk to 182, to be on the safe side it is 500MHz. I wonder, how much should I increase graphics core voltage in order to get to 900Mhz with 182 BClk?
KinderJoy - Tuesday, September 28, 2021 - link
What software are you using to overclock?