4970k Overclock Voltage

[Timaphillips]

I've got a new 4970k and am shooting for a 4.4GHz OC with speedstep and power saving states as well so it's not running full blast 24/7.

On a MSI Z97 PC Mate board I've set:

Current BIOS settings:
44 multiplyer
Ring manually set to 40 (stock speed)
Voltage set to override/manual (not adaptive) @ 1.185v
XMP enabled
Ram at 1600 (stock)
Turbo enabled (MSI won't let me change this when I add multiplier)
EIST enabled
C State enabled (C7) (Recommended by overclockers.net)
Windows power profile min processor state = 5% max = 100%

See the attached screenshots of HWMonitor and CPUz. First, it' won't go below 4.1GHz at idle just sitting at my desktop. Second, HWMonitor shows a few different voltage numbers I'm not sure about. I read the overclockers Haswell guide but am still lost on the values the monitor is giving. CPU Vcore is .952 but CPUZ read the anticipated 1.185v.

Temps are fine and system is stable. I initially tried OC Genie but voltage was pretty high at ~1.25v and it blocks the ability to lower frequency no matter what.

 

[jacobnestell]

If its not going over 1.25 volts it wont cause any major damage, but you have to take into account the long term. You should download the program called prime95. This is a stress tester, so all it will do is put a good deal of load on your processor and it will see if it can handle it. So if its resting below 1.25v you'll be fine as long as the temperature is running good. You have to remember that its not the volts that kills the CPU its the temperature that comes with the increased voltage. I hope this helps man and good luck!

 

[TechyInAZ]

If its not going over 1.25 volts it wont cause any major damage, but you have to take into account the long term. You should download the program called prime95. This is a stress tester, so all it will do is put a good deal of load on your processor and it will see if it can handle it. So if its resting below 1.25v you'll be fine as long as the temperature is running good. You have to remember that its not the volts that kills the CPU its the temperature that comes with the increased voltage. I hope this helps man and good luck!

Make sure you get the prime95 designed for haswell. DO NOT use any other prime95!!!

I personally prefer the Asus RealBench and Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility for stress testing.

Just like Jacob said, you don't want to far on the vcore. 1.275, or with good cooling 1.3vcore is the max.

 

[Timaphillips]

I've used Prime95 running "Blend" a few times with these settings. No issues. Using version 28.5. This version says it's ok with Haswell, but I've read all the threads about how the AVX2 instructions and Haswell.

I'm just confused about the voltage. I thought 1.2 was pretty normal but I've had it up and running (and gaming) at 1.185 without issue. I don't want to undervolt, just want to keep it cool and safe. I'm using a 212 Evo to cool the CPU. And the way HWMonitor reads the voltages confused the hell out of me.

What about the speed stepping not running below 4.1GHz?

 

[jacobnestell]

1.2 is relatively normal you just really want to avoid going over 1.2 due to more voltage = higher temperatures. If your running at 4.4ghz right now at 1.2v with steady temperatures your safe.

 

[Timaphillips]

Fixed the high CPU idle frequency problem. Samsung SSD created a custom power profile that wouldn't allow the CPU to lower its multiplier by much, even if I added a 5% minimum processor state option. So I customized "balanced" and it's working well now. Same is true if windows is set to "performance." Adding a minimum processor state doesn't do anything. Odd.