i7-3930K Overclock Question

[D0M1N13]

Hello

I just overclocked my i7-3930K to 4.4GHz @ 1.44V and the temps are about 70C - 80C. During the stress test they go up and come down again and go up and come down again. I was wondering if 1.44V is too much @ 4.4GHz? Also note, that I ran the stress test for a long time and it is stable.

My RIG Specs:

i7-3930K
Corsair 16GB DDR3
Asus P9X79 Deluxe
Corsair Hydro H100i Closed Loop Water cooler
1250 Watt PSU
Coolermaster Cosmos II

 

[MartinPrince]

Which stress test? Realbench?

1.44v is getting up on the high side especially for only 4.4Ghz. I'd be expecting more near 4.8Ghz - 5Ghz for that kind of voltage which is still golden sample territory. Ideally you don't want to be exceeding 1.40v with 1.35v -1.40v being a good range. You shouldn't need more than that for 4.4Ghz so I would back the voltage back down and see how high it will clock. Your temps are good for the high voltage you're using so cooling should not be a problem.

For reference I ran a 3930K for years at 1.39v at 4.7Ghz. It could do 5Ghz but that required nearly 1.50v which was too high for me.

 

[JarppaK]

I gotta tell you my 1st X79 3930k I never got time to OC because 4960x repalace it so fast. Afterwards I got 5930k with X99. My both CPU's ran solid 4.5Ghz @ 1.42-1.43V. Beyond that Vcore goes too high and temperatures rises so there is no point to go there. One thing I was seeing to OC theses X79/X99 motherboard CPU's that BCLK 100 maxed only 4.3Ghz when big troubles come ahead and after that point it was very hard to OC stable. But when I set BCLK 125 it ran same Vcore but 200Mhz more stable 24/7. I do not know why these X79/X99 motherboards do clock CPU better BCLK 125 instead normally used BCLK 100.

-BCLK 100 was getting 4.3Ghz.
-BCLK 125 was getting 4.5Ghz 24/7 and still could run 4.6Ghz without issue but need more Vcore to work stable but max temp was too high for my taste.

My max temps was around 60-70C with 4.5Ghz settings with heavy load.

These aren't golden chips what I owned.

 

[Drangueos]

Personally I would NEVER run at 1.44V 24/7 without a really good custom waterloop cooler, I would keep under 1.35V for 24/7 usage.

I always keep my cpus under 1.3V and I have a custom waterloop, so I would set my core voltage to 1.3V, set to 4Ghz test it and start trying to raise the clock at 0.1GHZ increments until I find what clock it is stable at 1.3V.
After I found the stable clock I would lower bye 0.1GHZ and keep it like that. (you can use 1.35V as well, but I wouldn't go over that)

Cpus I had:
[email protected] - 1.3V
[email protected] - 1.28V
[email protected] - 1.3V
[email protected] - 1.28V
[email protected] - 1.17V (yes this is a super top golden cpu, this is the one I'm using atm)

 

[D0M1N13]

@JarppaK @Drangueos I managed to get 4.3GHz @ 1.356v but when I go up to 4.4GHz i can only manage it at 1.44 volt. I have no idea why. I will definitely stick to 4.3GHz and leave it like that. I am happy with it

 

[JarppaK]

I used 4960x over 3years without problems. Now the new owner I know have used 1year more same OC setup. Mostly when temps are ok there is no problem to use it.