Possible 6700K overclock instability after 6 months?

King Mustard · 19 Jul 2017 at 20:22

i7-6700K @ 4.5 GHz
Zotac GTX 1080 Amp Extreme (factory OC) (latest drivers)
Asetek 570LXL CPU liquid cooler (2x 120mm)

I've had my CPU overclocked to 4.5 GHz with a 1.300v VCore for around 6 months now (see included screenshots below).

I play quite a bit of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and for the past week or two, after around 15 minutes of gameplay, sometimes, the screen freezes.

However, in-game audio/voice chat, Windows etc. still work, so it could simply be the game.

Temperatures are all fine (60C CPU, 70C GPU), even in the UK summer (average room temperature of 25-30C).

Any thoughts?

Dempsey22 · 19 Jul 2017 at 20:27

Save the OC profile, revert to stock settings and run PUBG, see if it happens again. That be the fastest way of ruling out whether its the OC or not.

King Mustard · 19 Jul 2017 at 20:29

Dempsey22 said:
Save the OC profile, revert to stock settings and run PUBG, see if it happens again. That be the fastest way of ruling out whether its the OC or not.

Simple but genius!

Will report back.

Reality|Bites · 19 Jul 2017 at 20:31

It'll be the motherboard, Every MSI I've ever owned has become unstable overtime when overclocked.

King Mustard · 20 Jul 2017 at 01:13

Dempsey22 said:
Save the OC profile, revert to stock settings and run PUBG, see if it happens again. That be the fastest way of ruling out whether its the OC or not.

I can confirm it's not the CPU overclock.

I reset the BIOS to the defaults and 20 minutes into my second round (I came first in the first round!), the image froze again, requiring me to use Task Manager to end the game's process.

The whole system is clean and dust free, which is evident by the decent temperatures.

Since this has only been happening for the past week or so (I've performed no driver updates in this time, they're all up-to-date), it still could be the game.

I'll see what today's patch notes state.

OLDPHART · 20 Jul 2017 at 08:50

Load default settings and clear the CMOS load default settings again then OC manually see if that helps.

Its possible the CMOS has become corrupted.

Disco_P · 20 Jul 2017 at 14:24

Definitely could be the game or something graphics card related. Would stress test the cpu to rule it out as unstable.

Pocah · 21 Jul 2017 at 08:38

It's very possible indeed, but as the others say, you can check. Chips often show their age. They don't usually just die, rather they show signs of dying well before they do. Either they drift out of tolerance when hot or the exact opposite ~ only reaching tolerance when warm. Unfortunately games tend to place the greatest load on a system, not only using just about every piece of hardware, but ramping up temperatures too. It may be temperature related, it may not. Having said that, the fact that the rest of the system continues running just fine, tends to indicate that it's not a hardware issue. But, I would do what Dempsey22 suggests, remove all OC'ing and run the system, see if it fails again. At least that will kinda eliminate the OC, but any change in the stability under OC could actually mean the hardware is failing anyway. It could also mean it's the summer! I would also be tempted to play a different game and see what happens. If that fails then at least you have more indication that it is your system rather than the game. If only that one game fails then it's more than likely to just be an issue with an updated driver or the game itself.

VKleita · 21 Jul 2017 at 12:40

King Mustard said:
I can confirm it's not the CPU overclock.

I reset the BIOS to the defaults and 20 minutes into my second round (I came first in the first round!), the image froze again, requiring me to use Task Manager to end the game's process.

The whole system is clean and dust free, which is evident by the decent temperatures.

Since this has only been happening for the past week or so (I've performed no driver updates in this time, they're all up-to-date), it still could be the game.

I'll see what today's patch notes state.

The fact the system is still "running" and you can force stop it would say to me its graphics or game related.

I supose the question is, does any other game show the same symtons?

tlrBeta · 21 Jul 2017 at 22:21

So i have had similar issues with PUBG, i even posted about them recently

Are you able to bring up Task Manager?

schneeb · 25 Jul 2017 at 17:32

I gave up with my 6700K, long term temps are just a PITA without delidding it.

VKleita · 26 Jul 2017 at 08:42

schneeb said:
I gave up with my 6700K, long term temps are just a PITA without delidding it.

What did you end up with instead?

schneeb · 26 Jul 2017 at 12:25

I meant gave up with my OC; the profile is still saved for cold days but I run mostly stock now!

Doogles · 26 Jul 2017 at 14:01

I had the same thing happen with my 3570k was stable with Intel Burn Test for 12 hours and P95 but after 6 months it started to be unstable in those stresses including games, bumped the voltage up slightly and it fixed it.

jabbz · 23 Aug 2017 at 21:57

It don't sound like CPU problem to me. Is it the same game or even same place in the game? GPU and RAM can do this to games. If it was the CPU you would get BSOD, or frozen screen that nothing would get you out of apart from rebooting the PC.