Intel Performance Maximizer, How to Overclock Your CPU

Intel Performance Maximizer, How to Overclock Your CPU

Most users have heard of overclocking , a technique that involves increasing the operating speed of the processor to achieve better performance. However, this gives many inexperienced people a lot of qualms because they think that they can create instability in the system (true) or that they can burn your CPU (this is more complicated); In order to safely overclock the CPU , Intel has created its Intel Performance Maximizer tool, and in this article we are going to tell you how it works and what you must do to use it.

The Intel Performance Maximizer Tool is an overclocking tool that uses an automated test to overclock the processor without the need for user intervention, thus replacing the manual tuning process and subsequent testing, saving users a great deal of time and making things easier for the most inexperienced. Intel says that with Performance Maximizer overclocking is done without risk, but it is also true that the same values are not achieved that we could achieve by doing it by hand under an expert view.

How does it work and what do you need to do automatic OC?

Intel Performance Maximizer

According to Aaron Mcgavock of Intel, this application uses proprietary tests to cover a wide range of loads and algorithms that the processor could encounter during its operation; This coverage is core-to-core tested and may take several hours to complete depending on the number of processor cores, but will offer the best safe overclocking value that can be achieved on each individual processor.

Intel Performance Maximizer uses a maximum of 16 GB of storage space on the PC, where it creates a partition in which to perform CPU tests without interference from the operating system or other programs. This is done in a UEFI environment that boots before the operating system, and upon completion of testing and maintaining the desired overclocking level, that partition will be automatically removed.

IPM

In addition to 16GB of storage, Intel Performance Maximizer has certain additional requirements that must be fully met:

  • Internet connection to download the application.
  • An unlocked 9th, 10th, or 11th generation Intel Core processor (K or X).
  • Windows 10 Operating System.
  • At least 8 GB of RAM.
  • A third-party high-end cooling solution is recommended.
  • It is necessary to be able to do without the PC for several hours, since the process is very long. Furthermore, the process should not be interrupted by restarting or shutting down the PC.
  • Intel recommends backing up your data in case a problem occurs in the process.

How to use Intel Performance Maximizer

Before starting the installation of the application, it is necessary that you uninstall any other CPU overclock tool and that if you have overclocked the BIOS, return the processor to its default values. Once done, download the application (choose the version for your CPU generation) and install it. The process is very simple (typical wizard in which you just have to select “Next” all the time until it finishes). You will be warned during the process that you need to restart your PC when the installation is complete.

Instalar IPM

Once the PC has restarted, you can proceed to run Intel Performance Maximizer; In the first window that opens you will see a disclaimer, and it is that no matter how much Intel says that this tool overclocks the processor safely, misfortunes can always occur and therefore the company warns you that all responsibility if something goes wrong will fall on you and you cannot claim anything from them.

Intel Performance Maximizer instalar

Once the disclaimer has been accepted, the application will ask you to select the storage unit in which you want to create the 16 GB partition that we talked about before, necessary to create an environment apart from the operating system so that the overclock tests safely and quickly without interference from other programs. If you do not have unallocated space on any of your disks, from Intel Performance Maximizer you can use an existing partition, and again it is recommended to have a backup of all the data just in case.

Again we have to warn you that the process that will follow can last several hours; the software will test each core of your CPU individually and thoroughly, which is more time consuming than relying on standard data to predict what the results are. In other words, the level of overclocking that you are going to achieve is customized for your specific CPU and it will not be done with all the cores at the same time as it would be done if we did it through BIOS.

Ejecutar Intel Performance Maximizer

When you are ready, click on continue and the system will restart automatically and the whole process will begin to run. Your computer will likely restart several times over time, but you shouldn’t worry because everything works automatically. If you need to cancel the test, you can do it by pressing any key when the message “Press any key within 10 seconds to abort testing” is displayed, but you will only have 10 seconds to do it and the message will only appear as soon as you start up; once it starts, it cannot be stopped.

IPM run

When the system finishes running the test, the PC will reboot and apply the best overclock values it has achieved automatically. Then it will start up again in Windows and show you the results in a window similar to this:

Intel Performance Maximizer resultado

Here you can hit “Rerun tests” to rerun the test (although if everything went well it is absurd because you will not get a better speed), or Finish to settle for the results that, as we have mentioned before, will be already applied on your CPU.

If you get any error messages in any part of the process, we recommend that you refer to the troubleshooting section of the Intel user guide to see what is happening and to be able to solve them. Of course, once you have clicked Finish you will want to check that the system is completely stable, so we recommend running Prime95 in Blend mode for at least two hours, always monitoring the operating temperature of the CPU to make sure it is kept at the proper values.