4670K Overclocking

LEK-89

LEK-89

LEK-89

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Hi all,

I've decided to get into overclocking again with my new rig, having moved from Sandybridge to Haswell I'm a bit of a noob again as Haswell requires a bit more fine tuning in the BIOS to gain a stable overclock as you all will know. Anyway, I'm overclocking with the Gigabyte Z87-D3HP motherboard and my ram is the TeamGroup Vulcan 8GB 2400Mhz version.

Currently I've got the ram set to Profile1 on the XMP which allows it to run at the full 2400mhz @ 1.65V and the auto set RAM timings are 11-13-13-35 (command rate 2T). As expected the system runs fully stable with these settings but do these still look ok to be able to help support a stable CPU overclock?

I've had a little play about the last couple of days and I've also read some of the Haswell overclocking guide over on the overclock.net forum. Anyway, these are the settings that I've adjusted in my BIOS to test a 4.4Ghz overclock on my 4670K:

CPU VRIN Override LLC: Extreme
CPU VRIN Override Voltage: 1.7V
VCore: 1.25V
Ring Voltage: 1.15V
CPU Multiplier: 4400
C1E, C3, C6/C7, and EIST: All disabled

I originally had the Vcore set at the starting 1.24V mark and AIDA64 was runinng fine up until the 13 minute mark when I decided to open up Firefox and then the system BSOD with the 124 error (not enough Vcore by the look of it) and so I upped it to 1.25V before I stopped there to post in here.

How do my posted settings currently look? Do I need to make anymore adjustments in the BIOS to gain stability? Also, I want the CPU to downgrade the clock/voltage during idle and I know that one of those power saving settings need to be re-enabled, but which one is it?

Lastly, while AIDA64 was running on the first test - the CPU maxed out at 81c at some point with it averaging at 75c ish most of the time and I'm using the Prolimatech Panther cooler. Bearing in mind that I've heard that Ivybridge & Haswell's now run much hotter than Sandybridge's but do my temps look normal?

Many thanks :)

Liam
 
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LEK-89 said:
Any suggestions guys? :)

Thanks - Liam
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That looks like an ok overclock to me if its stable. I dont think you'll get much higher without a better cooler. To get the power saving features back you will need to re enable the c states and test if it is still stable.
 
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Jumper118 said:
That looks like an ok overclock to me if its stable. I dont think you'll get much higher without a better cooler. To get the power saving features back you will need to re enable the c states and test if it is still stable.
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Thanks for your response - I haven't had another chance to test the OC with the 1.25 vcore properly yet but I will give it a shot tonight and report back.

I had a feeling that the cooler may be lacking in some aspect but I will wait and see what the temperatures are like with more testing before I invest in a better one.

Liam
 
Ewaf - this is the one mate :) http://www.overclock.net/t/1401976/the-gigabyte-z87-haswell-overclocking-oc-guide

I've just been doing some testing again just now, with 4.4Ghz set at 1.25v and stressing in AIDA, I was greeted with yet another BSOD after just 11 minutes. Max temp that I saw was 82c

I then decided to bump the vcore up to 1.26v and tested again. I let it ran for 5 minutes before cancelling as at one point the temp spiked up to 84c (though the packet average was jumping between 75-79c in most cases) and I thought I would call it off there just to be on the safe side in case it rose again if I left it running during the night.

A couple more questions, I've read that lowering the CPU VRIN voltage will help lower temps but I am still already at the lowest 1.7v recommended figure?

Lastly, my ram is still set to XMP and is running at the full 2400mhz. Could this possibly be linked to my BSOD's as I've read that if the ram is not set to say 1600mhz to begin with, instability with the overclock can occur

Edit - forgot to mention that during tonight's testing, all power saving features were re-enabled to benefit from lower idle clock later on.

Thanks - Liam
 
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LEK-89 said:
Ewaf - this is the one mate :) http://www.overclock.net/t/1401976/the-gigabyte-z87-haswell-overclocking-oc-guide

I've just been doing some testing again just now, with 4.4Ghz set at 1.25v and stressing in AIDA, I was greeted with yet another BSOD after just 11 minutes. Max temp that I saw was 82c

I then decided to bump the vcore up to 1.26v and tested again. I let it ran for 5 minutes before cancelling as at one point the temp spiked up to 84c (though the packet average was jumping between 75-79c in most cases) and I thought I would call it off there just to be on the safe side in case it rose again if I left it running during the night.

A couple more questions, I've read that lowering the CPU VRIN voltage will help lower temps but I am still already at the lowest 1.7v recommended figure?

Lastly, my ram is still set to XMP and is running at the full 2400mhz. Could this possibly be linked to my BSOD's as I've read that if the ram is not set to say 1600mhz to begin with, instability with the overclock can occur

Edit - forgot to mention that during tonight's testing, all power saving features were re-enabled to benefit from lower idle clock later on.

Thanks - Liam
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Your temps were getting a bit on the high side. If you knock your ram back to 2133 or 1866mhz and try and lower the voltage then it might help your cpu temps and might stabilise your overclock a bit. Its mostly just a case of trail and error though. If you catch the bsod error codes and type them into google then you can tell whats causing your bsod and correct your cpu/ram accordingly.
 
Jumper118 said:
Your temps were getting a bit on the high side. If you knock your ram back to 2133 or 1866mhz and try and lower the voltage then it might help your cpu temps and might stabilise your overclock a bit. Its mostly just a case of trail and error though. If you catch the bsod error codes and type them into google then you can tell whats causing your bsod and correct your cpu/ram accordingly.
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Thanks for the advice :)

Every BSOD that I have carried the 124 code which I believe is down to not enough vcore or is some what vcore related if I am not mistaken. I think I will notch the ram down to 2133 tonight.

Liam
 
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I'm trying to OC this CPU with a Z87X-D3H. Even with 1.3 vCore I wasn't stable (with Prime95), so I think if you'de be able to stabilise on these numbers you'll be good.

What's confusing me is the RAM OC like you, I, too, choose the profile1 which runs my 2*4GB Vengance ram @ 1600, but not sure if I should add some voltage here or there (DRAM voltage runs at 1.5). I also read OC.net's guide but it left me kind confused when it comes to RAM and Uncore and all of that. Don't know if we're supposed to tweak these on the go or after we stabilise OC.

Will try more this evening and hopefully if I succeeded I'll share my settings with you.
 
Thanks for the link, I ended up following the one I posted (http://www.overclockers.com/3step-guide-to-overclock-intel-haswell)

Apologies if I am thread hijacking abit but makes sense to all discuss here! As the guide outlines I set my voltage to 1.20 and multiplier to 46 for a 4.6ghz overclock to see if it will boot as this gives an idea of the kind of chip I had. To my surprise, it booted fine but got a BSOD while running AIDA.

I bumped the vcore to 1.25v and now it's running stable at 4.6ghz, have run aida, prime 95 and gamed for a couple of hours. Am I insanely lucky with my chip or am I missing something? Are there any more settings I need to tweak? All I have touched is vcore and multiplier, temps are looking great! mid 50's with AIDA running.

Not touched memory though I put XMP on which is 2133 I believe. Very new to overclocking Haswell!

Cheers
 
Ewaf said:
Thanks for the link, I ended up following the one I posted (http://www.overclockers.com/3step-guide-to-overclock-intel-haswell)

Apologies if I am thread hijacking abit but makes sense to all discuss here! As the guide outlines I set my voltage to 1.20 and multiplier to 46 for a 4.6ghz overclock to see if it will boot as this gives an idea of the kind of chip I had. To my surprise, it booted fine but got a BSOD while running AIDA.

I bumped the vcore to 1.25v and now it's running stable at 4.6ghz, have run aida, prime 95 and gamed for a couple of hours. Am I insanely lucky with my chip or am I missing something? Are there any more settings I need to tweak? All I have touched is vcore and multiplier, temps are looking great! mid 50's with AIDA running.

Not touched memory though I put XMP on which is 2133 I believe. Very new to overclocking Haswell!

Cheers
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I think you should be very happy with the result you had. There's always that little extra you could tweak IMO, but if you're not overly obsessed with being 100% voltage and heat lean, call it a day and enjoy your system.
 
elJarmen said:
I think you should be very happy with the result you had. There's always that little extra you could tweak IMO, but if you're not overly obsessed with being 100% voltage and heat lean, call it a day and enjoy your system.
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I am not an enthusiast so will just leave it, thanks! Think I got very lucky with a good chip! Part of me will always wonder just how good it is though, how far it will go. Maybe in the future! 4.6ghz will be plenty for now!
 
Ewaf said:
Thanks for the link, I ended up following the one I posted (http://www.overclockers.com/3step-guide-to-overclock-intel-haswell)

Apologies if I am thread hijacking abit but makes sense to all discuss here! As the guide outlines I set my voltage to 1.20 and multiplier to 46 for a 4.6ghz overclock to see if it will boot as this gives an idea of the kind of chip I had. To my surprise, it booted fine but got a BSOD while running AIDA.

I bumped the vcore to 1.25v and now it's running stable at 4.6ghz, have run aida, prime 95 and gamed for a couple of hours. Am I insanely lucky with my chip or am I missing something? Are there any more settings I need to tweak? All I have touched is vcore and multiplier, temps are looking great! mid 50's with AIDA running.

Not touched memory though I put XMP on which is 2133 I believe. Very new to overclocking Haswell!

Cheers
Click to expand...

No need to apologize at all mate, it's good to see another fellow member on here using the same CPU & board and hearing your overclocking experience, keep it coming :)

As already mentioned - you've got a cracking chip there to get 4.6Ghz with only 1.25v! :eek: I'm still in the testing stages with mine to see if it's stable with 4.4Ghz on 1.26v!

I've decided that this evening I will turn off XMP on the RAM and notch it down to 2133Mhz or 1866Mhz and see if I can get a stable 4.4Ghz overclock on 1.25v again, or failing that - 1.26v. What RAM voltage have you got set on the 2133Mhz mate?

Thanks :) Liam
 
I have the following RAM:

Patriot 8GB (2x 4GB) 2133MHz Dual Channel DDR3 Viper 3 Black Mamba

I haven't touched anything regarding the memory, during the overclocking phase I reset the bios to optimised defaults. Once the CPU seemed stable then I enabled XMP, but to be honest I'm not really sure what it does!

When I'm on my PC later I'll check the voltages for memory, but like I said not touched it.

It's crazy just how varying all the chips are in regards to how well they overclock etc.
 
You guys are both having more luck than me I think!

I've got a 4670k + Evo 212 cooler, 2x8GB Crucial Ballistix PC3-12800, and a Gigabyte z87-hd3.

At stock settings mine seems stable, done an overnighter with the latest memtest+ and that sailed through so I'm guessing the memory is fine.

Though even setting the clock multiplier at 40x and upping the vcore gradually crashes it in a matter of minutes on Prime95, aida, or OCCT (OCCT with the AVX2 seems to jump temps the most).
I'd be more than happy with a 4.2 overclock though even 4.0 seems out of my reach!

The temps seem OK not too bad upto ~70 when worked in anger, just before it chucks a 124 BSOD.

The annoying part is it's been fine at 4.2 the last few days playing skyrim, it just seems to despise stressing programs!

Any tips guys? got the week off so i'll try anything! :D
 
loaky said:
You guys are both having more luck than me I think!

I've got a 4670k + Evo 212 cooler, 2x8GB Crucial Ballistix PC3-12800, and a Gigabyte z87-hd3.

At stock settings mine seems stable, done an overnighter with the latest memtest+ and that sailed through so I'm guessing the memory is fine.

Though even setting the clock multiplier at 40x and upping the vcore gradually crashes it in a matter of minutes on Prime95, aida, or OCCT (OCCT with the AVX2 seems to jump temps the most).
I'd be more than happy with a 4.2 overclock though even 4.0 seems out of my reach!

The temps seem OK not too bad upto ~70 when worked in anger, just before it chucks a 124 BSOD.

The annoying part is it's been fine at 4.2 the last few days playing skyrim, it just seems to despise stressing programs!

Any tips guys? got the week off so i'll try anything! :D
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Temps don't look too bad to me mate, and in real day to day use you'll not get anywhere close to the temperatures you see during stress/stability testing. If your lacking stability then I would look to up'ing VRIN to 1.8V initially, but even 2V is perfectly ok on air.

My i7 4770K is stable at 4.5GHz, 1.27V VCore, 2V VRIN and 1.15V VRing, and I see temps up to 90C during stress testing, but never exceed even 70C whilst gaming. I also have all the C states and EIST enabled which drops idle to 800MHz and about 21C, and it's perfectly stable.
 
Obviously mine sucks so bad that even trying to set the clock ratio above 45x instantly freezes me at BIOS, that's with everything else set to auto....
 
Do I want my cpu running at 4.6 constantly? I think I read there is an option for it to decrease when not gaming etc, is this true?
 
Ewaf said:
Do I want my cpu running at 4.6 constantly? I think I read there is an option for it to decrease when not gaming etc, is this true?
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If you want your clock speed to drop during idle, set all the power saving features i.e. EIST, all the C states back to Auto in the BIOS. This will drop your 4600Mhz clock back down to 900Mhz ish during idle, bear in mind that the vcore will not drop as it's a permanent fixture during overclocking. I've read somewhere too that during overclock testing, it's recommended to leave all the power saving features disabled to get the maximum stability (I had mine turned on last night though, I will probably leave them disabled tonight when I carry out the next test just to be sure).

Also, what is everyone's 4670K's batch numbers?? Mine is 3318B737.

elJarmen - are you using the latest BIOS for your board? If not, it would be worthy up get it updated to the latest one. Lastly - I wouldn't recommend using Prime95 for stress testing anymore as it's not built to cater for the Haswell CPU's, stick to AIDA64 as it's more up to date and better.

Liam
 
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