• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

4930K Retail - Mini Review

Associate
Joined
25 Nov 2002
Posts
2,218
Location
Somerset
Got my 4930K installed and thought I would write a mini review...

This is a retail 4930K from OCUK

DSC06997s.jpg


DSC07000s.jpg


Installed it into an Asus Rampage IF Formula which I brought new from OCUK.
First challenge was that the motherboard would not boot with the new CPU due to the board having a none Ivy-E bios... Thank goodness for Bios flashback on the board. All I had to do was put the latest Bios on a USB stick and the board flashes itself. Once the bios was installed everything booted properly :)

The processor comes in a box, but its just the CPU inside no heatsink as has always been the same with socket 2011 I think. My chip is Costa Rica as can be seen in the pic above.

I have been playing with the new processor and here are some of my findings.

Before the detail a few headlines:

5GHz was easy to hit on the Core, admittedly with 1.45v (Bios)
4.8GHz seems a really good sweet spot between RAM and CPU at 1.32v (Bios)

4800Mhz_RamXMP-small.png


5000Mhz_1866Ram-small.png


My machine is...
Intel i7 4930K retail boxed
Asus Rampage IV Formula Rev 1.01
16GB (4x4GB of G.Skill TridentX 2666MHz)
1TB Samsung EVO SSD
MSI 780 Lightnings in SLI
Custom water cooling - Heatkiller 3.0 Block - D5 pump - 240 and 360 Rads
Windows 8 Pro

First thing I tried was the CPU at stock and setting the RAM to XMP. Which worked perfectly...
I noticed that stock voltage was set to 1.2v and PLL 1.8v
Stock_RamXMP.png


CB_Stock.jpg

Next I raised the CPU to 4.5GHz with the RAM still at 2666MHz XMP.
I did have to raise the CPU voltage to 1.3 to maintain the clock and keep the memory at XMP.
4500Mhz_RamXMP.png


CB_4500_XMP.jpg

As I increased the CPU clock further, which it seems to do really easily I found that I had to reduce the RAM speed, much like the SB-E did, but SB-E would not have run my ram at XMP at all.

At 4.8GHz I think I have found a nice sweet spot for this CPU. Ram is dropped to 2400MHz, but I'm confident I can go more aggressive on the timings.
This seems very stable even in Prime95.
I was also able to reduce PLL voltage to 1.5v without any ill effects.

4800Mhz_RamXMP.png


CB_4800_2400Ram.jpg

The CPU was fairly easy to get to 5GHz but again I had to drop the memory back. As the memory is increased I have to raise the Vcore to get it stable.
5000Mhz_2133Ram.png


5000Mhz_1866Ram.png


CB_5000_2133Ram.jpg

All of the screen shots seem stable for me, the 5GHz is a bit on the edge and I would not want to run for long like that. I did manage to run a few 3D benchmarks at 5GHz / 1866 Ram though.

4.8GHz / 2400 Ram is a very nice balance. I think there is better speed that a 3930K at the same but as I no longer have a 3930K I can't really tell. Maybe someove could publish some comparable Cinibench scores.

Temperatures are what I would consider normal. When running Prime 95 at 4.8GHz my cores report about 60c after 15 minutes.

Well there you go. I'm really pleased with it.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
31 Mar 2012
Posts
1,737
Congrats. Sadly this isn't tempting me so far to go down the 4930k route. I can already manage 4.9GHz at reasonable volts with 2400MHz Trident X (downclocked from 2666). Looking at your 3d Mark 11 physics score at 4.8GHz, there also appears to be next to no difference to the 3930k. Maybe some tweaking will result in a bit more juice.

We probably need to compare a few 4930k with 3930k chips to get a better idea. I was hoping for a better IMC.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Feb 2012
Posts
6,586
Was hoping for some users reviews :)
Wont be shifting from my 3930k.

Cinebench i get 14.99 score for 5.2Ghz and just shy of 17k Physics for 3D11 for 5.1Ghz (saw yours gets 16100 from the 3D11 thread)

Need to upgrade properly soon though, buying older stuff isn't curing the itch :D
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2009
Posts
4,815
Location
Cheshire
Tempted to get this to replace my 3930K, then get a cheap-ish (well, cheap considering it's a X79 board) board (thinking Rampage IV Gene?) for my 3930K and then ditch my hot mediocre clocking 4770K.

Well, if you fancy a 3820 in that gene you know where I am....
I might see if I can get a deal on a 3930k
 
Associate
Joined
4 Jan 2008
Posts
717
Location
Southampton
Excellent, thanks for the review. I just spec'd a system up and managed to get a grand total of £3k, so working out how what to compromise on (I need 64Gb ram godammit!) before going for it.
 
Associate
Joined
2 Nov 2012
Posts
899
Location
Sussex
Looks like you've got a good one there Simon :) This is my retail chip, just got it up and running now, also a Costa Rica.

4930K.jpg


Running an H100 for cooling and SLI780's like yourself on a Gigabyte X79-UD3. Bought some Corsair SP performance fans for the H100 as from a youtube review I'd seen they sounded quieter than the originals for a small performance deficit but they are making a right racket. Not sure though if this is because I upped the pump speed from low to med? Anyway temps similar to the 3820 it replaced - correction this was comparing my [email protected] vs my 4930k at stock boost of 3.9.

Edit: Idle temps just under 30C with voltage of .900
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
2 Nov 2012
Posts
899
Location
Sussex
Booted to windows 4.4@ 1.250 vcore, everything else auto. Tried 4.6@ 1.300 vcore but this crashed right after loading. Encouraging although it looks like my cooling may need an upgrade from the brief test I ran at 4.4, the tech lab fathoms are looking pretty good.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
25 Nov 2002
Posts
2,218
Location
Somerset
Booted to windows 4.4@ 1.250 vcore, everything else auto. Tried 4.6@ 1.300 vcore but this crashed right after loading. Encouraging although it looks like my cooling may need an upgrade from the brief test I ran at 4.4, the tech lab fathoms are looking pretty good.

What RAM speed are you running?
Anything over 4.4 / 4.5 and I have to start scaling back the RAM speed.
 
Associate
Joined
2 Nov 2012
Posts
899
Location
Sussex
Nothing fancy. 16GB Ripjaws @1600Mhz. Now I've got an unlocked chip I'm going to have to delve deeper into the BIOS. Should have most of Thursday to have a play and see what I can acheive.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,333
Thanks for posting the results.

It seems the CPU hits 5GHZ at just over max voltage which, is dissapointing as this is what the 3930k does albeit at a higher overall power draw.

Looks like 4.5-4.8GHZ is the sweet spot as per the 3930k.

No progress for this chip then, I was hoping to see 5.5GHZ at max volts.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,333
Sure, no doubt there. Whether that improvement is actually measurable or visible is the problem :)

One way of finding out is to clock the CPU at 5GHZ and your ram at 1600MHZ and re-run the 3DMARK test.
 
Back
Top Bottom