It does the work for you with intelligent testing, then finds the maximum stable frequency for an overclock based on the individual characteristics of the CPU. Intel® Performance Maximizer replaces the manual overclocking process of testing and adjusting. Intel® Performance Maximizer is overclocking software that uses machine-assisted testing for automatic overclocking on the latest gen Intel® Core™ processors. However, an even easier method of overclocking now exists for the latest gen Intel® Core™ processors: Intel® Performance Maximizer. The Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel® XTU) simplifies the process of stress-testing and monitoring an Intel® CPU to find a stable overclock by allowing the user to work within the operating system instead of the BIOS. While this is a great way to learn how to overclock your CPU, it can be time-consuming. The traditional process involves making changes in BIOS or UEFI (the text-based interface seen before the operating system boots up) and manually testing the CPU to see if it remains stable at higher speeds or under heavy load. This can translate to performance gains in programs limited by your CPU speed.īut there are a few hurdles to overcome before you can start overclocking.

An overclocked CPU can run faster without the need to buy new hardware. Speeding up the processor, the computer’s “brain,” means faster retrieval and processing of information. This means increasing the frequency of instruction cycles that a CPU (Central Processing Unit) performs every second, its “clock speed,” and adjusting the voltage sent to the CPU. Most of us have heard of overclocking - boosting the speed of a processor beyond its factory settings.

Overclock with alienware software