Question Am I one of the lucky ones? (I7-7700 non-k doesn't go lower then 4.1GHz constantly)

[celoufran]

Hi!
I don't know if I'm just lucky or anything, but since I changed my I7-7700 non-k from my H270 board to a Z270 board, the clock speed doesn't go under 4.1GHz constantly on every cores while Intel Turbo Boost technology is turned on in the BIOS... When I had it in my H270 board, it would only go up to 4.1GHz sometimes... I think there's something wrong with my CPU sometimes because last week I saw it hit 4.9GHz while I was rendering some 4K footage and it stayed pretty much steady at 4.5GHz all the way through... I tried searching online for maybe people that had the same thing as me and I couldn't seem to find anything, but my friend told me he had the same thing with his 6th gen when he swapped motherboards... To finish, I was just wondering if I was the only one with this or if I have a lucky unit I guess or if there's a problem or danger with my CPU?!? (Little note: I changed the CPU from an HP prebuilt motherboard to an MSI Z270 SLI Plus, I love that motherboard)

Thanks!
Louka P.

 

[Eximo]

This was the early days of multi-core enhancement where the vendors defaults were much higher specced than was expected. That would usually just lock all cores at the max boost, in this case, 4.2Ghz. A constant 4.1Ghz across all cores isn't outside the default characteristics of the CPU.

Windows performance settings can keep a CPU at maximum clock speed at all times. If you set Windows to balanced and still have C states, speed step, etc enabled it should clock down when idle.

4.9Ghz is pretty extreme. More than even the 4790k was clocked at by default. Might be a reporting error, but if legitimate you might want to take a look at the BCLK settings or any other offset modes that board might offer.

If nothing is going wrong, I wouldn't worry too much about it. But to get to 4.9Ghz typically takes a lot of extra voltage and cooling. If it is still in auto mode it could be asking a lot. Certainly something to monitor, really want to keep it under 1.35 volts on the core, and ideally under 1.3 volts for long term operation.

 

[mdd1963]

the multiplier locked 7700 should obviously never exceed 4.2 GHz....; certainly any normal Z270 series board should have no luck with any multipliers higher than the 'Auto' default, which for the 7700 is 42X for max... This should not be able to be overridden, and, it would be the rare 7700 that could hit 4.9 GHz on a 65 w TDP factory cooler w/ default core voltage appropriate for the 7700.

Is the 7700 correctly identified at the initial power on/setup/ BIOS display?

 

[celoufran]

the multiplier locked 7700 should obviously never exceed 4.2 GHz....; certainly any normal Z270 series board should have no luck with any multipliers higher than the 'Auto' default, which for the 7700 is 42X for max... This should not be able to be overridden, and, it would be the rare 7700 that could hit 4.9 GHz on a 65 w TDP factory cooler w/ default core voltage appropriate for the 7700.

Is the 7700 correctly identified at the initial power on/setup/ BIOS display?

Yes. It's indeed a regular I7-7700 and the BIOS indeed does recognize it as a non-k CPU....

 

[celoufran]

This was the early days of multi-core enhancement where the vendors defaults were much higher specced than was expected. That would usually just lock all cores at the max boost, in this case, 4.2Ghz. A constant 4.1Ghz across all cores isn't outside the default characteristics of the CPU.

Windows performance settings can keep a CPU at maximum clock speed at all times. If you set Windows to balanced and still have C states, speed step, etc enabled it should clock down when idle.

4.9Ghz is pretty extreme. More than even the 4790k was clocked at by default. Might be a reporting error, but if legitimate you might want to take a look at the BCLK settings or any other offset modes that board might offer.

If nothing is going wrong, I wouldn't worry too much about it. But to get to 4.9Ghz typically takes a lot of extra voltage and cooling. If it is still in auto mode it could be asking a lot. Certainly something to monitor, really want to keep it under 1.35 volts on the core, and ideally under 1.3 volts for long term operation.

In BIOS, the core voltage is at 1.33 volts... Is that ok or correct to be at? It also doesn't let me change it... I also don't seem to be able to find the BCLK setting tho...

 

[Eximo]

Any number of reasons you wouldn't be able to change it. You probably just need to turn on some features to enable it. If everything is still set to auto then it won't let you change it. A lot of the overclocking features cascade. I know you have a locked processor, but you can look at some overclocking guides to see the relevant settings mentioned.

1.33 volts is okay, as long as your cooling is adequate. What temperature does the CPU get to under load?