Overclocking into the Haswell

Swizz

Swizz

Swizz

Associate
Joined
5 Jun 2013
Posts
181
Location
Liverpool - UK
Hello all..Bit of an embarrassing topic regarding my first ever OC'ing experience..lets just say it didn't turn out to be expected. It was so bad I couldn't even boot back into Windows. I received my new Haswell chip yesterday and I was raring to go to reach that magic number. I did follow a tutorial video, but still, it didn't go to plan. I was tempted to dabble with EasyTune. But all-in-all I think it's best to stay away from that program from what I have been told. Any additional tips/info would be appreciated to help me OC this processor.


Thanks all.
 
Last edited:
Don't worry about the computer failing to boot - it's part and parcel of overclocking. Same with bluescreens and reboots when stress-testing. Simply put, it's not possible to find out how far you can go unless you go "too far" and back off.

Let's tackle the problem step-by-step:


* First - load the BIOS defaults and reboot to make sure they're set.

* Second - set the CPU VCORE ("main CPU voltage") to 1.200v, and set your CPU multiplier to 42x. Find the "uncore ratio" and set it to 41x (keeping the uncore one or two multipliers below the CPU multiplier is a good idea).

* Third: Boot into Windows. Hopefully it will go just fine in at these settings. Download Prime95 , CPU-Z, and http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/. Open all three up.


Now, run Prime95, while keeping an eye on your temperatures in realtemp. In Prime95 choose "Small FFTs", and leave everything else at default. Let it run for 10-20 minutes - if it doesn't fail, or lock up Windows etc, then that's a good sign that the CPU is stable at these settings. Watch your temperatures though - if they go above (say) 85-90C then you should stop the test and choose a lower CPU voltage. If all is well, then increase the CPU multiplier and uncore ratio by 1 and try again until you get a failure in Prime95.


Note - the above assumes you have a half-decent aftermarket CPU cooler. If you're using the stock intel cooler then I would set a lower CPU voltage to start with (say 1.15v) and start with a 41x multiplier. Then buy a decent cooler :p


Report back how the above goes, and we can see where to go from there. Also post your exact specs - what CPU (4770k or 4670k), motherboard, and RAM.

Good luck :)
 
3GB EVGA GTX 780
Intel Core i5 4670K,
256GB Samsung 840 Pro
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H
G,Skill Ripjaws X 2133MHz 8GB
750W XFX Pro Black Edition
Microsoft Windows 7 Ult
3TB Seagate ST3000DM001 Barracuda 7
Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator x6 Heat
Fortress FT02
Arctic Cooling MX-4


I'll have a bash of that and report back. Thanks man.
 
Last edited:
I have to admit it was unnerving the first time around. it took near enough around the three hour mark before I could actually get back into Windows. Fingers crossed everything will breeze smoothly now

EDIT - Reason being, it wouldn't proceed past the Gigabyte splash-screen. It constantly stalled upon that point, till' three hours later, it booted in perfectly
 
Last edited:
Nice spec :)

I actually have the same motherboard, so I should be able to direct you to various settings if you can't find something.

Also - I've found that the newest beta BIOS (f6h) is a lot better, at least for clocking RAM. Stick to this one for now, but if you have problems you can always try the newest BIOS (see here).
 
Alrighty sorry about the delay I grabbed my laptop..okay I'm in the bios now, I was able to find the CPU Vcore voltage and changed it 1.200v. but I' can't seem to find the CPU Multiplier. I came across the Memory Multiplier, but not the CPU
 
Okay, on this motherboard the CPU multiplier is called "CPU clock ratio". It should be 35 by default - change it to 42.

You can find the uncore ratio by going to:

Performance tab -> frequency tab -> Advanced CPU core settings button -> uncore ratio. Change this to 40 or 41.

Remember to set the CPU Vcore at 1.200v to start with. Should be visible on the 'home' screen, or by going to: Performance -> voltage -> CPU
 
Okay dude, that went great. i'm logged back into Windows now, and I am about to stress it with the use of Prime95 for 20 minutes, will report back once more.

thanks for your time fella
 
Good stuff. If it's unstable it will *usually* fail pretty quickly in Prime. If you pass the first few minutes then it's a pretty good sign.
 
Approaching 13 minutes and temps are staying at 50. 53. 49. 51 in RealTemp. Prime was set on blend
 
Sounds good... Temperatures nice and low.

For the next time around, choose small FFTs or large FFTs. Blend is a better stress test for RAM, although it will usually also fail if the CPU is unstable. Was CPU-z showing about 4200Mhz during the Prime run? It'll probably drop back down after you stop loading the CPU but that's fine.

Assuming you didn't get a crash, reboot and try upping the CPU multiplier to 43, and the uncore multiplier to 42.


Seems you're good at 4.2Ghz - now we'll see if your chip can manage 4.3 :)
 
Hmm... Try upping the vcore a little. Go to maybe 1.23v. Keep an eye on temperatures during Prime - extra voltage raises temperatures quite a lot on Haswell.

You should be fine up to 1.25v though with that cooler - perhaps 1.27.
 
Alrighty just getting everything up to speed. Upcore Ratio 42. CPU Clock Ratio 43. bluescreening through 1.23v to 1.25 and 1.27v
 
hmm... where does it bluescreen? During Prime? Odd that you are fairly stable at 4.2Ghz 1.2v, but can't get 4.3Ghz even with 1.27...

Try pushing the chipset voltage up a little. If you go into performance -> voltage -> chipset there will be two options you can change. Try increasing each one by 0.1v.
 
Still bluescreened. I did happen to noticed that both settings in Chipset Core was set to off..it was in red. PCH Core was raised from 1.090 - 1.095. PCH IO 1.50 to 1.530v
 
Flick the switches to "on", and press Apply.

Try PCH core at 1.18V and PCH IO at 1.60v. If that doesn't get you into Windows then it's time to look at something else. You can try increasing the CPU ring voltage slightly, though that didn't seem to make much difference on my machine.

If you go to performance -> CPU status you should be able to check that the CPU voltage is roughly what you set it as.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom