4770k overclocking questions...

zealengine

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2009
77
0
18,630
I have a 4770k and a Asus Z87 Plus. So it sounds like the procedure is - go into bios, up the multiplier one step, boot to windows and run prime 95, if no bsod, go back into bios and up the multiplier once more. If I do get a bsod, that means I need to up the vCore?

So a couple questions...

1.) What is the max vCore / temps I should be getting?

2.) Do I need to touch any other settings besides the multiplier (like bus freq, ram, etc...)?

3.) If I manually set the multiplier, will I lose the 'auto throttling' feature, where it downclocks to a slower speed when idling (I REALLY like that feature for noise/power reasons).

Thanks for any tips!
 
Ok decided to try the "4-way optimization" button on my asus AI suite. It looks like it set me at 4.5ghz (it never blue screened, but temps got to 90c at 4.6ghz, and windows auto restarted).

Here is a screen of me running prime95 with the new settings (seems stable so far).



Does everything look good? Do you think I could get a better overclock doing things manually, or should I leave it as is?

Thanks again for any help!

*oh and btw I am using a hyper 212 evo (with tuniq tx-2 applied to the hs and cpu via credit card spread method), corsair 600w ps, crucial 1600 9-9-9-24 ram.

*temps just hit 90c while running prime 95.. little scary... they drop back down to 30c as soon as i kill prime95. no bsod yet....

*temps seem to cap out around 94c (seems WAY too high) the voltage at its peak was 1.43 I think? I never got a bsod though... Maybe this asus auto over clock is setting the voltage higher than it needs to be. But If I manually set the voltage in bios, wont I lose the automatic underclocking when I am just idling?
 


Ok thanks for the good info. So its a little hard to tell what the voltage is currently set at in ai suite (since it automatically moves up and down). On the TPU tab there is a CPU Frequency section, but it just lists vltarge ranges (0-1.55).

Is anyone familiar with this asus ai suite? Or maybe I should just uninstall it and set everything from bios, one question though - If I set the voltage manually from bios, do I lose the ability to have automatic scaling based on load?
 
Started doing things from bios. I am confused though, I read a article saying you should do your initial testing with a manual cpu voltage setting, THEN once you find a stable clock, set it back to auto. Is this true? Why not just leave it on auto all the time?

I currently have things set to 1.25v, slowly climbing from 4.2ghz waiting for a blue screen (ok so far). Temps are touching 90c, is this ok?
 


Use the Bios - it means your in control of your overclock.

for automatic scaling - are you refering to turbo boost or dynamic ?

Turbo boost will boost each core by 100mhz.

Dynamic will allow your CPU to run at either 800mhz upto the highest setting in your overclock.
 


Temps shouldn't be 90 deg on P95 @ 4.2.

1. Check your HSF is fitted correctly.
2. Check the airflow of your fans (google positive and negative air pressure)

i was getting 90 deg as i had my exhaust fan the wrong way round as an intake.

when you find a stable clock you should keep the voltage set manually (rather than letting the m/b adjusting it)


i found stable @ 4.2 via:

I got to stable with:

42 CPU Ratio (Dynamic)
35 Ring Ratio
1.2v (CPU - Adaptive)
1.175v (Ring - Adaptive)
VCCIN = Auto.
RAM 9,9,9,27 T1

i have the 4670k though.
 
What is "1.2v CPU - Adaptive". My asus bios only allows me to set a manualy voltage (which I hate, because it runs hot/noisy all the time) or auto, which is nice and cool/quiet, but seems to run crazy hot when running stress tests like prime 95.

*and do I really need to adjust the ring voltage/ratios?
 
Ok reseated my heatsink and applied some new tuniq compound (used x method instead of spread method this time). I also installed 2 corsair high airflow fans onto the heatsink (instead of just the one cooler master fan).

Temps seem about the same. I re ran the asus auto tuner program, and it got the same results. 2 cores to 4.6ghz, 2 cores to 4.5ghs, and it is using the 'auto' voltage setting, which seems to peak around 1.43v when running prime 95 (is this too high?), temps get to around 95c, but stay around 50-60c when just gaming.

Is this about the best I am going to get? Is this a limitation of the cpu, or my heatsink/case cooling? Where should I go from here?
 
Well I dont think that its the asus auto tune, I think if I went into bios and set the cpu voltage to auto it would behave the same way. It doesnt seem to spike very high when just running games, only when running prime. I read on another overclock guide that this was normal (ie you shouldnt run prime 95 once you find a stable clock, for this very reason).

Can anyone confirm?
 
Any voltage above 1.300 v. is too high! Do not use AI Suite! If you keep at it the AI Suite will fry your CPU!

If you set your voltage manually in the BIOS you will not lose "auto throttling". Just be sure to select "Adaptive Mode" and be sure that your Power Option in Windows is set to "Balanced".

As for the voltage spikes in Prime95, that is due to Adaptive voltage control mode and the way that Intel designed Haswell CPUs. They will spike the voltage above what you have set if the CPU sees a heavy load. That is why you should use "Override" voltage mode when running Prime95. Use "Adaptive" voltage mode for gaming and everyday use.

Yogi

 
So I SHOULD be using adaptive mode once I find a stable clock (it sounds like the ai suite already did that, and has now set me to adaptive voltage).

It sounds like the only thing left to do is STOP running prime 95 now that it looks like my highest clock is 4.6ghz?