Ivy Bridge overclocking is almost identical to Sandy Bridge overclocking in that it is basically a CPU which is meant to be overclocked through the multiplier and not the base clock (BCLK). Sandy Bridge overclocking brought a whole new level of simplicity to the overclocking realm, a user only needed to change a few voltages, and change some ratios and they were easily granted a huge performance increase.

With Ivy Bridge things get a lot easier as the CPU overclocks a lot further with better cooling and is more optimized towards higher memory and base clock speeds, thus making ambient overclocking much simpler and easier for the average overclocker. There is almost no need to increase the secondary CPU voltages, such as VTT, with Ivy Bridge on air/water cooling as the memory controller can already push the memory up to its limits without this. The same thing goes for base clock, while with Sandy Bridge the max base clocks we saw were pretty limited, around 105-107 MHz on average, almost all Ivy Bridge CPUs will do 110 MHz easily with LN2 cooling, and will scale way above that with the cold. With Sandy Bridge we saw some very odd clock walls, as well as limitations with the IMC in which the memory controller couldn’t readily handle the maximum memory multiplier and BCLK increase over a few MHz from stock, and this limited overall memory performance. However Ivy Bridge is more unlocked than Sandy Bridge, it offers many more memory multipliers and even adds in a second divider so that you can run memory at different speeds in more friendly increments (like 2000 MHz and 2133 MHz). Ivy Bridge also doesn’t have the invisible clock walls which Sandy Bridge possessed, the CPU can overclock under the cold and scales very well in all aspect with cold temperature. However under air cooling Ivy Bridge exhibits much higher temperatures during full load due to its 22nm process, which will probably only get better though cooling optimizations and better contact between the IHS and the CPU Die. We will explore why Ivy Bridge has such high operating temperatures on air OC.
This guide can be used for all "K" series Ivy Bridge SKUs, I used a Gigabyte board and a lot of what I explain and show is on Gigabyte boards, but I will help anyone with a question and I write the guide so the principles can transfer.

Ivy Bridge Basics

The Science Behind Ivy's Thermals

Step #1 CPU Overclocking

Step #2 Memory Overclocking

Step #3 OC Optimizations and In-Windows Tuning

LN2 OC Preperation

LN2 OC Hints Tips and Tricks

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 6 - Step 3: OC-Profiles
Page 2 - Ivy Bridge Basics	Page 7 - Ivy Bridge and LN2
Page 3 - 22 Nanometer and Maths	Page 8 - Ivy Bridge LN2 Memory Overclocking
Page 4 - Step 1: Ivy Bridge CPU Overclocking	Page 9 - Ivy Bridge BCLK Overclocking
Page 5 - Step 2: Ivy Bridge Memory Overclocking

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