i7 6700K overclock check

[titaniumx3]

Hi all,

I just setup a new system around a 6700K and have attempted to overclock it. Right now I am up to 4.8ghz, with load voltages at 1.42v (with the odd spike to 1.44v) and temperature staying under 89C. My bios settings are:

Ai overclocker tuner: XMP
BCLK: 100
CPU core ratio: sync all cores
1-core ratio limit: 48
CPU core/cache current limit max: 255.50
Min CPU cache ratio: auto
Max CPU cache ratio: 44
CPU core/cache voltage: adaptive mode
Offset mode sign: +
Additional turbo mode CPU core voltage: 1.390
Offset voltage: auto
Dram voltage: 1.3550
CPU VCCIO voltage: 1.1500
CPU system agent voltage: 1.1500
PCH core voltage: 1.00000
FCLK frequency: 1ghz​

Below is my last run of IBT:

http://i.imgur.com/LRntSGj.jpg

For reference the rest of system is as follows:

Asus ROG Maximus VIII Hero Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB DDR4 3200MHz C16
Corsair AX760 PSU​

Everything seems stable now, but just wanted to check if the temps and voltages are safe for normal day to day use. I know 89C is pretty high, but this is only with IBT; it stays around 80C under normal loads.

I haven't overclocked anything since the Sandybridge days and just worried that I might be doing something wrong. Would appreciate any thoughts or advice.

 

[Drollic]

I'd want lower temps and voltage at 4.6 as opposed to an extra 200mhz.

 

[titaniumx3]

When using the computer normally temps rarely rise above 75C. The 89C max is only after running IBT at max settings for 20 runs (took like 2.5hrs to finish).

My main worry is whether or not 1.42 volts is too much. I tried with 1.38 volts yesterday and while it got through 30 runs of IBT at standard settings and seemed stable in normal use, when running IBT at max settings it failed on the 8th run.

I don't know, maybe I'm being paranoid with stability. My previous 2700K @ 4.6ghz, passed 30 runs of IBT @ max settings and I never had a single stability issue with it in the 4 years I used it.

 

[kylew_is_back]

Anything below 1.45v is considered safe.

 

[8 Pack]

Skylake using IBT with those volts is not a good idea. Why torture test. It serves zero purpose.

IBT is junk anyway and actually only proves your system can run IBT. Which I guess is not its main use.

Just use your PC to test stability or do some simulation of actual use testing such as Real Bench.

That said Intel actually states with Skyl;ake 1.5v is safe which is really crazy as we all know it will reach thermal limit well before 1.5v.

 

[titaniumx3]

Yeah, it's probably excessive. I'm just paranoid that the CPU might be giving me errors without me knowing. Not a full on crash but errors in calculations due to the instability. Anyway, i'm going test again with lower voltages using real bench. Thank you for the advice!

Also should mention, I found the following guide very useful:

http://www.tweaktown.com/guides/7481/tweaktowns-ultimate-intel-skylake-overclocking-guide/index.html

Not sure how accurate everything is, but it's pretty comprehensive and doesn't assume you are experienced with overclocking.

 

[titaniumx3]

By the way, I also wanted to say that for anyone else considering going from a 2600K/2700K to a 6700K, purely for the extra performance, don't bother, save your monies for something else.

My 2700K @ 4.6ghz felt just as fast doing everything I normally do in Windows and games are running practically the same at 1440p on a 980ti. Even if I was using 1080p, I doubt 100fps vs 120fps would be noticeable.

The only reason I upgraded was because I wanted a motherboard with updated features, a new case, but most of all, something to occupy my two weeks off work.

 

[Orch]

Interesting. I'm on the same board and CPU and have been using voltage differently, not all that successfully. I'm on a modest 4.5Ghz at a manual voltage 1.26V with Level 5 LLC, Cache ratio min and max at 41.

Rock solid stable and really good temps.

I've tried notching up the voltage to 1.35V trying to get 4.7 or 4.8 stable, but kept getting a weird problem where it wouldn't shut down or restart. The screen goes blank like the GPU is powered down but the system remains on. Flashed latest bios to see if that helped but didn't. No idea what the hell that is about so wimped out back to 4.5.

 

[titaniumx3]

Interesting. I'm on the same board and CPU and have been using voltage differently, not all that successfully. I'm on a modest 4.5Ghz at a manual voltage 1.26V with Level 5 LLC, Cache ratio min and max at 41.

Rock solid stable and really good temps.

I've tried notching up the voltage to 1.35V trying to get 4.7 or 4.8 stable, but kept getting a weird problem where it wouldn't shut down or restart. The screen goes blank like the GPU is powered down but the system remains on. Flashed latest bios to see if that helped but didn't. No idea what the hell that is about so wimped out back to 4.5.

I couldn't get my current settings stable until I manually set the following settings:

CPU VCCIO voltage: 1.1500
CPU system agent voltage: 1.1500
PCH core voltage: 1.00000

I did once have a similar issue where the monitor display just went blank and computer had froze. I resolved this by manually setting the above voltages. I also found that using XMP with the RAM to create a lot of instability whilst overclocking.

Is 1.35v that you tried the voltage you set in BIOS or what your vcore is reported as? My board shipped with v1202 bios and the vcore was reported as almost 0.1v higher than what it was set to in bios (especially in adaptive voltage mode, like I'm using). The current bios I'm using is v1504 and that has made the voltages a lot more in line with what its set to in bios.

 

[Orch]

I couldn't get my current settings stable until I manually set the following settings:

CPU VCCIO voltage: 1.1500
CPU system agent voltage: 1.1500
PCH core voltage: 1.00000

I did once have a similar issue where the monitor display just went blank and computer had froze. I resolved this by manually setting the above voltages. I also found that using XMP with the RAM to create a lot of instability whilst overclocking.

Is 1.35v that you tried the voltage you set in BIOS or what your vcore is reported as? My board shipped with v1202 bios and the vcore was reported as almost 0.1v higher than what it was set to in bios (especially in adaptive voltage mode, like I'm using). The current bios I'm using is v1504 and that has made the voltages a lot more in line with what its set to in bios.

Hmm that's interesting. I've fixed the CPU system agent voltage the same as yours but haven't touched the others. I might have another go using those others.

Mine also shipped with 1202 but I've just flashed to 1604. My VID still reads around 0.1 higher in windows that I set it in bios, but droops down to the bios setting (or pretty damn close) under load. So that 1.35v was the bios setting, but it would idle around 1.44.

You're not using the XMP profile then? I don't really understand that part to be honest

 

[Telecaster]

Just use your PC to test stability.

I've seen you say this many times and I know it makes sense, but isn't it really annoying to be half way through something fairly important and have a crash?

Seems like a hell of a ball ache way to test an OC, I know a lot of the programs people test with aren't really useful for day-to-day stuff, but it's handy to have something to run without worrying about losing data/progress on something.

 

[titaniumx3]

Hmm that's interesting. I've fixed the CPU system agent voltage the same as yours but haven't touched the others. I might have another go using those others.

Mine also shipped with 1202 but I've just flashed to 1604. My VID still reads around 0.1 higher in windows that I set it in bios, but droops down to the bios setting (or pretty damn close) under load. So that 1.35v was the bios setting, but it would idle around 1.44.

You're not using the XMP profile then? I don't really understand that part to be honest

I am currently using the XMP profile for RAM, but when I first turned it on, my stable overclock at the time became unstable, so I had to play around with the settings again to get it to be stable.

I've also read that you should disable CPU spread spectrum and CPU SVID support. I currently only have spread spectrum disabled, because SVID support is required for adaptive voltages to work.

Finally, just to throw a spanner into the works, I tried running the x264 Stability test (v2) and it immediately crashed my system, despite my system being IBT stable (so much for all that testing then!). I tried it again a few times and it would consistently freeze or BSOD on me. Strange thing is, the only adjustment I had to make to get it to be stable was reduce my overclock to 4.7ghz (including reducing voltage by 0.01v). I left it running for around 4 hrs at night with no issues (temps never rose above 75C).

 

[Orch]

I was reading somewhere on here that IBT wasn't a good way to go?

I've been using Realbench which includes h264 encoding and is closer to real life than Prime/IBT. Has worked well for me so far.

I'm in two minds at the moment. 4.5 is completely solid, but I haven't put much effort into going any higher just yet. Is another 300Mhz worth the extra effort. Hmm . .

edit: just realised the place I read that was in this thread a couple of posts up lol