4670K Overclocking

[Havana_UK]

Nice work!

Out of interest what are all the settings you've changed to get that? chips do vary massively but at least having a few settings from a working 4.4 might go some way for me to progress.

On mine for a stable 4.2 I changed, if it helps anyone with a dud like me.

Clock Multiplier x42 (kept Uncore multiplier stock)
CPU VRIN Loadline Calibration - Turbo
CPU VRIN External Overide - 1.800v
CPU Vcore - 1.270v
CPU Ring - 1.150v
Memory Profile - XMP

Are you using a Gigabyte board?

Try changing your LLC to Extreme to prevent Vdroop, and set VRIN Current Protection to Extreme too, and PWM Phase Control to Extreme Performance.

Up your VRIN override to 1.9V (and then 2V if necessary) to see if that helps you get higher / more stable. Both settings are fine with decent air cooling.

 

[LEK-89]

I've just decided to attempt 4.5Ghz @ 1.27v and was greeted with a BSOD within a minute or so of AIDA64 running. I then bumped the vcore up to 1.28v and the same happened again within a minute hhmmmm. It's strange though as when it was set to 1.27v, AIDA's CPUID reported that the vcore was sitting at 1.268v while under load most of the time? Despite this though from what I could see on the temp side of things, it maxed out at 80c so it wasn't a significant increase when compared to testing last night at 4.4Ghz.

It looks like that for me to possibly get to 4.5Ghz stable I will need at least a 1.29v or even a greater vcore which in some way I have been expecting. I may carry out another test overnight tonight with the 1.29v vcore to see how far it goes

Liam

 

[loaky]

Are you using a Gigabyte board?

Try changing your LLC to Extreme to prevent Vdroop, and set VRIN Current Protection to Extreme too, and PWM Phase Control to Extreme Performance.

Up your VRIN override to 1.9V (and then 2V if necessary) to see if that helps you get higher / more stable. Both settings are fine with decent air cooling.

I was going to mention that yeah, every guide I've read has said set LLC to 'Extreme' but mine only goes up to 'Turbo' and i haven't seen anything mention about others doing that. Mine is a Gigabyte Z87-HD3, maybe the higher priced Gigabyte Z87 boards have it.. I'll have another look in a bit and check.

I know the bios i'm on is the latest on the Gigabyte site, which is F6, I got a Beta bios F7 off tweaktown but that had the same options so I went back to F6.

 

[LEK-89]

I was going to mention that yeah, every guide I've read has said set LLC to 'Extreme' but mine only goes up to 'Turbo' and i haven't seen anything mention about others doing that. Mine is a Gigabyte Z87-HD3, maybe the higher priced Gigabyte Z87 boards have it.. I'll have another look in a bit and check.

I know the bios i'm on is the latest on the Gigabyte site, which is F6, I got a Beta bios F7 off tweaktown but that had the same options so I went back to F6.

If I'm not mistaken the Gigabyte Z87-HD3 is the entry level Z87 board which would explain why the overclocking capabilities with it are somewhat limited. Still, I thought that having even having Turbo set as the LLC would still be adequate?

Even with my Z87-D3HP, it's still classed as the "mid-range" board and I now reckon that if I went for a higher end one such as the Z87X-UD3H/Z87X-OC version then I would be able to squeeze more out of my 4760K or have more stability with overclocking at slightly lower voltages/temperatures.

Liam

 

[Ewaf]

Then again, my 4670k is at 4.6ghz with 1.25 voltage and I have the Z87-D3HP, it's a great board. I think it comes down to the chip itself and the luck of the draw. I reckon I could knock the voltage down even more but haven't had a chance this week

 

[LEK-89]

Then again, my 4670k is at 4.6ghz with 1.25 voltage and I have the Z87-D3HP, it's a great board. I think it comes down to the chip itself and the luck of the draw. I reckon I could knock the voltage down even more but haven't had a chance this week

You're right there, with the overclocking capabilities on this board I have to say so far that I am very impressed.

However, with my old Sandybridge build I was originally using the MSI P67-GD53 board and at the time I think it was only classed as an entry level/mid-range board and on my 2500K running on that no matter how hard I tried, I was limited to 4.2Ghz @1.325v when it came to overclocking. A few months later down the line I decided to upgrade to the MSI M-Power Z77 and I managed to squeeze 4.3Ghz out of my 2500K and on a lower voltage too (1.31v). 4.4Ghz was capable but I was pushing boundaries with it as it required 1.36v for it to be stable and the temps sky rocketed and I called it a day then with the overclocking on the 2500K and settled with 4.3Ghz. I still feel though that the board upgrade was worth it in terms in overclocking ...not that this has made me consider a better board to upgrade to in the future with my current Haswell build lol!

Ewaf - I've just noticed that you're running your rig in a CM690-II case. That was the same one that I had in my original Sandybridge build! Great case

Liam

 

[loaky]

If I'm not mistaken the Gigabyte Z87-HD3 is the entry level Z87 board which would explain why the overclocking capabilities with it are somewhat limited. Still, I thought that having even having Turbo set as the LLC would still be adequate?

Even with my Z87-D3HP, it's still classed as the "mid-range" board and I now reckon that if I went for a higher end one such as the Z87X-UD3H/Z87X-OC version then I would be able to squeeze more out of my 4760K or have more stability with overclocking at slightly lower voltages/temperatures.

Liam

Yeah I think you're right it must be the board. I remember looking at the specs and their didn't seem much on the higher priced Gigabyte boards that really warranted the price, maybe there was some power management thing I missed.

After the computer ****ing me about not wanting to power on and even post i've gone back to 40x with a really low vcore and leave it. I think it was 1.185v, i'll enjoy the power savings instead!

Coming from my Q6600 with 4GB DDR2 to this with 16GB DDR3 and an SSD is such an improvement I don't think I'd notice the 200-400Mhz!

 

[LEK-89]

Yeah I think you're right it must be the board. I remember looking at the specs and their didn't seem much on the higher priced Gigabyte boards that really warranted the price, maybe there was some power management thing I missed.

After the computer ****ing me about not wanting to power on and even post i've gone back to 40x with a really low vcore and leave it. I think it was 1.185v, i'll enjoy the power savings instead!

Coming from my Q6600 with 4GB DDR2 to this with 16GB DDR3 and an SSD is such an improvement I don't think I'd notice the 200-400Mhz!

I know how you feel mate.

I think I may just stick with 4.4Ghz, even though there is possibly potential for me to go higher I think that I will be pushing it taking into consideration how much more vcore is required and how much the temps will increase. As you say, 200Mhz won't probably be that noticeable. At the same time though, I'm still tempted to go higher just to see what my chip is capable of lol

Liam

 

[Ewaf]

Ewaf - I've just noticed that you're running your rig in a CM690-II case. That was the same one that I had in my original Sandybridge build! Great case

Liam

Yup! Love it, got the white one!

P.s. How did you know?

 

[LEK-89]

Yup! Love it, got the white one!

P.s. How did you know?

Well it was a bit of a random coincidence really, I was thoroughly searching through Google the other night on CPU cooler measurements for the Dark Rock Pro 2 for my case and other related cases that fell within the same category and my searches linked me to one of your previous threads posted not long ago and that's how I found out lol.

Liam

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I'm getting 4.2ghz @ 1.16v and currently have 24/7 OC of 4.3ghz @ 1.185v. I'm using H100i and temps for 4.3ghz max out at 70c with avx on OCCT, 65c with AIDA and barely scraping the 60's while video editing or gaming for hours.

What I have found, is that it needs quite a jump in volts for 4.4ghz, it seems to be a bit of a threshold. Last time I had it at 4.4ghz temps spiked over 80c so I went back to 4.3ghz.

Once I get my custom water loop up and running I might have another look at pushing it, but for now I'll settle for 4.3ghz

 

[LEK-89]

I'm getting 4.2ghz @ 1.16v and currently have 24/7 OC of 4.3ghz @ 1.185v. I'm using H100i and temps for 4.3ghz max out at 70c with avx on OCCT, 65c with AIDA and barely scraping the 60's while video editing or gaming for hours.

What I have found, is that it needs quite a jump in volts for 4.4ghz, it seems to be a bit of a threshold. Last time I had it at 4.4ghz temps spiked over 80c so I went back to 4.3ghz.

Once I get my custom water loop up and running I might have another look at pushing it, but for now I'll settle for 4.3ghz

That is quite impressive to get to 4.3Ghz stable @ 1.85v!!! What voltage was required to get it stable at 4.4Ghz?

Going back to what I was discussing about if a Dark Rock Pro 2 would fit in my Carbide 300R the other day, earlier on I decided to remove my Prolimatech Panther cooler so I could sit my old Dark Rock Advanced cooler (exact same height as the Dark Rock Pro 2) on the CPU to see how high it would sit. I then proceeded to put the case side panel back on expecting the cooler to be to tall for it to go on, only to find that it only just fits! There is basically like a 1.5mm gap between the cooler and the side panel, if you press the side panel in ever so slightly it will touch the cooler but still - it looks like that I may be able to go ahead and fit the Dark Rock Pro 2 after all!

Liam

 

[Dirk Diggler]

That is quite impressive to get to 4.3Ghz stable @ 1.85v!!! What voltage was required to get it stable at 4.4Ghz?

Going back to what I was discussing about if a Dark Rock Pro 2 would fit in my Carbide 300R the other day, earlier on I decided to remove my Prolimatech Panther cooler so I could sit my old Dark Rock Advanced cooler (exact same height as the Dark Rock Pro 2) on the CPU to see how high it would sit. I then proceeded to put the case side panel back on expecting the cooler to be to tall for it to go on, only to find that it only just fits! There is basically like a 1.5mm gap between the cooler and the side panel, if you press the side panel in ever so slightly it will touch the cooler but still - it looks like that I may be able to go ahead and fit the Dark Rock Pro 2 after all!

Liam

I think I had taken the vcore to 1.21v and it did boot, but I didn't stress test for too long because once I had seen the 80c threshold breached I decided to abandon the test. I want to push my hardware for maximum performance, but not at those temps!

As I say, I'll stick with 4.3ghz @ 1.185 vcore and once I get the custom loop up and running I'll have another go at clocks north of 4.3.

Haven't you considered water cooling the CPU with at least an AIO like the H100i? I can't imagine the build would look too pretty with an air cooler 1.5mm away from the window?

 

[LEK-89]

I think I had taken the vcore to 1.21v and it did boot, but I didn't stress test for too long because once I had seen the 80c threshold breached I decided to abandon the test. I want to push my hardware for maximum performance, but not at those temps!

As I say, I'll stick with 4.3ghz @ 1.185 vcore and once I get the custom loop up and running I'll have another go at clocks north of 4.3.

Haven't you considered water cooling the CPU with at least an AIO like the H100i? I can't imagine the build would look too pretty with an air cooler 1.5mm away from the window?

Did the temperature only spike to 80c once or did it continuously run at 80c during the entire time of stress testing? When I was stress testing to gain my stable 4.4Ghz it spiked to 83c just once which was within the first 5 minutes of testing but for the rest of the time the temperature averaged at around the 70c mark.

Haswell's are well known for running at hotter temperatures when compared to what Ivybridge & Sandybridge run at when under load, and from what I've read - anything under the 90c mark is perfectly fine for Haswell but like you say it doesn't look particularly appealing when they run at these sort of temperatures.

I have considered AIO water coolers such as the H80i/H100i but sadly the H100i isn't compatible with my case and from experience of temporarily owning a H80i last year & reading people's recent experiences over on the Corsair forums, at the moment it's still riddled with problems which puts me off purchasing one again. I have read up on the NZXT Kraken X40 too but with how the buggy and poor the cooler's software reportedly is and the fact that it sounds like an aircraft at full speed, has again put me off purchasing one

I agree with you though, a Dark Rock Pro 2 may not look too great when it's inside my case due to how big it is all round as well, but when I used to run my old Dark Rock Advanced with my old Cooler Master CM690-II, the cooler itself was probably only around 4mm from the cases' side window back then. I would re-use my old Dark Rock Advanced but the fact that it's 2.5 years old now and I did a DIY job on the cooler's motherboard back plate for it to fit in conjunction with my previous mini-ITX means that it's not possible unfortunately.

Liam

 

[elJarmen]

Ok I think I managed to get the most of my rubbish chip.

My target really was 4.5, I set vCore to 1.30 and kept raising multiplayers. At 45x it became unstable and I had to start experimenting. I raised vRing to 1.15 then continuously pumped voltage into the vCore to no avail (even 1.34!!). Then I raised vCring to 1.25 and set RAM to XMP (that was more of a desperate move as in the past, even at stable 4.2, if I chose the XMP profile I magically become unstable), and I'm suddenly stable!! I even took down vCore to 1.32 and ran AIDA for 2.5 hours with no problems.

My experience is: the moment you go north 4.3, vRing starts becoming a very important factor, and vCore voltage will grow disproportionally big. Also for some no obvious reason, OCing the RAM helped stabilise my CPU OC (from what I read, it shouldn't), of course I gave the RAM some voltage love on CPU IO Analog & Digital and System Agent all @ +0.15.

Which means my OC profile currently is:

CPU VRIN Override LLC: Extreme
CPU VRIN Override Voltage: 2.0v (I didn't experiment with lower because cba)
VCore: 1.32
Ring Voltage: 1.25v
CPU Multiplier: 45x
Ram: XMP @ 1600
All power saving features: Auto
System Agent: +0.15v
CPU IO Analog: +0.15
CPU IO Digital: +0.15

I know these voltages are quite high-ish, but 4.5 is really the least I can settle with. Max temps 82 in AIDA, but it just pops there once on 1 or 2 cores while mostly late 60s early 70s - OK in my books, and in gaming will be much lower.

 

[LEK-89]

Ok I think I managed to get the most of my rubbish chip.

My target really was 4.5, I set vCore to 1.30 and kept raising multiplayers. At 45x it became unstable and I had to start experimenting. I raised vRing to 1.15 then continuously pumped voltage into the vCore to no avail (even 1.34!!). Then I raised vCring to 1.25 and set RAM to XMP (that was more of a desperate move as in the past, even at stable 4.2, if I chose the XMP profile I magically become unstable), and I'm suddenly stable!! I even took down vCore to 1.32 and ran AIDA for 2.5 hours with no problems.

My experience is: the moment you go north 4.3, vRing starts becoming a very important factor, and vCore voltage will grow disproportionally big. Also for some no obvious reason, OCing the RAM helped stabilise my CPU OC (from what I read, it shouldn't), of course I gave the RAM some voltage love on CPU IO Analog & Digital and System Agent all @ +0.15.

Which means my OC profile currently is:

CPU VRIN Override LLC: Extreme
CPU VRIN Override Voltage: 2.0v (I didn't experiment with lower because cba)
VCore: 1.32
Ring Voltage: 1.25v
CPU Multiplier: 45x
Ram: XMP @ 1600
All power saving features: Auto
System Agent: +0.15v
CPU IO Analog: +0.15
CPU IO Digital: +0.15

I know these voltages are quite high-ish, but 4.5 is really the least I can settle with. Max temps 82 in AIDA, but it just pops there once on 1 or 2 cores while mostly late 60s early 70s - OK in my books, and in gaming will be much lower.

Thanks for the update mate

It's good to know about the fact that increasing the ring voltage can definitely help stabilize the overclock. I may give this a go tonight with trying to get a stable 4.5Ghz! Out of interest why did you bump it up from 1.15v straight to 1.25v? I've read that the guideline for ring voltage was between 1.15v and 1.20v.

Liam

 

[elJarmen]

Thanks for the update mate

It's good to know about the fact that increasing the ring voltage can definitely help stabilize the overclock. I may give this a go tonight with trying to get a stable 4.5Ghz! Out of interest why did you bump it up from 1.15v straight to 1.25v? I've read that the guideline for ring voltage was between 1.15v and 1.20v.

Liam

Out of laziness to be frank with you. Knowing I have a poor chip I gave it a little extra straight away to save my self potential hassle. It may very well be doable at a lower voltage for me but seriously cba any more and 1C won't make any difference. Report back after you experiment with the vRing.

 

[LEK-89]

Out of laziness to be frank with you. Knowing I have a poor chip I gave it a little extra straight away to save my self potential hassle. It may very well be doable at a lower voltage for me but seriously cba any more and 1C won't make any difference. Report back after you experiment with the vRing.

I've just attempted another 4.5Ghz overclock @ 1.28v again but this time with the vring bumped up from 1.15v to 1.20v. To my amazement it seemed to be stable in AIDA64 and in the programs' built in CPUID, the reported vcore would fluctuate between 1.277 & 1.281v occasionally. However, I stopped the test after just 26 minutes as I noticed that the temperature on 3 out of the 4 cores at various points had spiked up to 87c & 88c. The packet average was mostly hovering around 69-77c but it would very occasionally hit the 81c.

Therefore because of this I called it a night there incase if I left it running overnight and the temps would increase more and went back down to 4.4Ghz for the 24/7 stable clock for now. It just goes to show though that I really need to up my game with the cpu cooling side of things if I want to get a stable higher clock at lower temps, 88c to me is just pushing the boundaries too far.

Liam

 

[SC0TTRS]

Hiya Guys,

Just a question, the Gigabyte Z87-D3HP in the UEFI has 'Performance Boost' giving you automatic optimisation.

What's the reasons not to use this for overclocking? Surely it's making it easy, right?

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Hiya Guys,

Just a question, the Gigabyte Z87-D3HP in the UEFI has 'Performance Boost' giving you automatic optimisation.

What's the reasons not to use this for overclocking? Surely it's making it easy, right?

Too many volts, too much heat, not enough control. It's tailored for every CPU, you want to set your overclock for your individual CPU.