G3258 Overclock Help

I have successfully downgraded the BIOS ver. 1.40 to 1.30 using Instant Flash in the UEFI.

I am happy to report that OC is available for Pentium G3258 on my motherboard H81M-ITX/WiFi with the BIOS ver. 1.30, and OC is now working.

parsec, with BIOS ver. 1.30, I do not see the Turbo Boost option on OC Tweaker screen, however I did see this option available on BIOS ver. 1.40.

Instead of the Turbo Boost option, the 1st feature that comes with BIOS ver. 1.30 is Non-Z OC, there are 5 different options: Disabled, 3.8GHz, 4.0GHz, 4.2GHz, 4.4Ghz.  I have tried 3.8GHz & 4.0GHz, A-Tuning and CPU-Z clearly show these OC'ed core speeds with small temperature difference on CPU (50~55C).  Also, the core speed varies (with the OC'ed core speed as max) as seen on both software, perhaps it is because I enabled the Intel Speedstep option in UEFI.

On the System Info screen of A-Tuning, Vcore Volt. & Vcore Override Volt. are both about 1.200 V.  CPU Input Volt. is 1.720+ V.

Interestingly, I am not able to change the core speed by using software A-Tuning, so far I can only OC in UEFI BIOS.

Thanks everyone for providing helpful advice.


Edited by modal - 12 Nov 2015 at 1:06pm

Many thanks for the fast replies, gentlemen. 

I am very sorry, a short while ago I found that I incorrectly identified my motherboard. 

My motherboard is in fact H81M-ITX/WiFi, not H81M-ITX.  My sincere apologies to all posters who replied! 

The suffix "WiFi" really matters!  I downloaded the wrong BIOS (of H81M-ITX without WiFi), so that is the reason why the BIOS Instant Flash always showed "Image File Not Detected" because my motherboard is H81M-ITX with WiFi, am I right?

Obviously I have the latest BIOS ver. 1.40 (8/6/2015), which has implemented "Update Microcode 19", and this update prevents overclocking Pentium G3258, yes?  So if I want to overclock my Pentium G3258, what I need to do first is to downgrade my BIOS from 1.40 to 1.30 (9/12/2014)?  My OS is Win 8.1.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H81M-ITXWiFi/?cat=Download&os=BIOS

I am rushing to work now, don't have time to work on the BIOS this morning.  Would like to gather more info before doing so in the near future.  Advice is much appreciated, thanks so much again, needless to say: a great ASRock forum here!

Edited by modal - 12 Nov 2015 at 2:33am

Modal, you will want to update your BIOS to version 2.10. 

It depends upon what BIOS version your board has now. You can find that in the Main screen of the BIOS, or printed on the sticker on the BIOS chip. That chip is in the lower right side of the board, just below the SATA ports.

If you have at least BIOS 1.40, that should be fine with your CPU. Sometimes updates are added in BIOS versions that are not listed in the description.

Yes, using the latest version is normally suggested when over clocking. If you do update, please use the Instant Flash method, which is the safest and best method IMO. Don't forget a BIOS update will reset all options to their default values, and remove any BIOS profiles you have saved.

VCCIN is CPU Input voltage, and that is what ASRock normally calls it.

It should be in the OC Tweaker screen, in the Voltage Configuration section at the bottom of that screen. I checked the manual and did not see a CPU Input Voltage setting. A UEFI update may have added that option, but if you are using the latest version and can't find that option, your board doesn't have it.

CPU Input Voltage should be 0.4V - 0.6V above VCore, according to Intel. So a VCore of 1.20V would mean a CPU Input voltage of ~1.80V. Many people use more, up to 2.0V and possibly more.

The idea that all G3258 processors will "... achieve a 4.5 GHz overclock with a 1.35V core and VCCIN set to 1.9V", is simply wrong. I have two G3258s, one won't OC above 4.2GHz under 1.40V, and the other will do 4.5GHz at ~1.20V. That is on the same board, a Z87 Extreme6.

I recall a thread in another forum where the OP believed all processors were the same, and could not understand why his G3258 would not OC well. He tried a VCore of 1.5V and his 4.5GHz OC still failed.

I've never had temperature problems with a G3258, but I use big CPU coolers, and its TDP is only 53 Watts.

People new to over clocking are all looking for the magic setting that will make it work. The many other options you have may help a little bit, but will not open the OC flood gates.

Set Power Saving Mode to Disabled. Disable Spread Spectrum. Set CPU Integrated VR Efficiency Mode to Disabled. You can try disabling CPU Integrated VR Faults, which may be set lower on this board due to the small CPU VRM stage with no heat sink.

One thing you can do as a learning experience is to enable the Advanced Turbo and Load Optimized CPU OC Setting options, and select an auto-OC. Then save and exit the UEFI, but go right back into the UEFI again and walk through all the OC Tweaker options to see what options were changed and to what values they were changed to. That will tell you what options are truly important.

You likely will find some options in Advanced, CPU Configuration were changed, as well as the CPU Fan speed control setting in the HW Monitor screen.

Something else you can try is the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, which you can download here:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24075/Intel-Extreme-Tuning-Utility-Intel-XTU-

You run this program to change the main OC settings in the Windows environment. Some people dismiss any software to OC in the OS. All it takes is the ability to change the correct registers that are changed in the UEFI/BIOS. If Intel can't do that, who can?

I've had over clocks done in IXTU that worked, were stable in Windows, and passed the IXTU stress tests. But put them in manually in the UEFI, and the PC would not boot.