Question Can you overclock a H97 motherboard?

[BlueCat57]

I'm going to try overclocking for the first time.

I bought these components so that I could overclock the system but never wanted to until now.
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 - 57.1% (bought 2016)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050-Ti - 29.7%, EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB (bought 2016)
SSD: Adata Premier SP550 240GB - 90.6% (bought 2016)
HDD: Hitachi HUA723020ALA641 2TB - 66.4% (bought 2016)
HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB - 70.7%
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper DDR3 1600 C9 4x4GB = 16GB - 51.1% (bought 2016)
MBD: Asrock H97M Pro4 UEFI Version H97M Pro4 P2.30 March 13, 2018 (bought 2016)
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 380W EA-380D 80-Plus Bronze (bought 2009)

I just built another current system so now I'm not worried about "bricking" any of these components.

I KNOW a 14-year old 380W power supply is NOT ideal, but I'm not planning on trying to max out the overclock or play AAA games 24/7. I just want to try overclocking.

I already went into UEFI and tried loading an XMP profile. The system does NOT boot but after a couple of resets it boots and when I check the XMP Setting it has switched back to "Auto".
I'm guessing that means it is NOT allowing me to change the XMP setting.

I have read that a BIOS update demanded by Intel removed overclocking from H97 motherboards. Is that true?

Then I read in one post on Tom's that someone's system seemed to allow RAM overclocking. But the solution didn't indicate if they actually overclocked or installed faster RAM.

I did NOT see anything in OC Tweaker that allows for overclocking the CPU. I'm going to try and find the User Manual. I just have to get it out of the box.

I also put my GTX 1060 3GB into the system because apparently, it will overclock better than the 1050. I need to figure out where to overclock it. I'm pretty sure you do that in the Nvidia software, so I'll check there.

All of that to ask the simple question:

Can you overclock an H97 motherboard?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Sadly with the components you've chosen, you will not be able to OC your system. You could potentially OC the GPU. You would do this through MSI Afterburner, and it's OC Scanner.

 

[BlueCat57]

Hey there,

Sadly with the components you've chosen, you will not be able to OC your system. You could potentially OC the GPU. You would do this through MSI Afterburner, and it's OC Scanner.

Thank you for the answer. The next question is "Why not?".

I bought the components SPECIFICALLY because they COULD be overclocked according to their product descriptions. The CPU can. The RAM can. And the motherboard supposedly could be when I bought it.

So, is it true that the H97 motherboards can no longer be overclocked?

On the bright side, if they can't then maybe I just sell them all on eBay.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

The next question is "Why not?".

Good question. This comes down to Intels segmentation of CPU/Mobo etc. They only really support CPU OC'ing with 'K' moniker CPU's which of course cost more. Along with a Zxxx board. There are some fixes/hacks that allow some OC'ing, but often it's just not worth it as it introduces instability.

With your CPU, OC'ing it will make practically zero benefit, IF you can OC it.

Ideally you need to build a system with OC in mind.

On modern systems with lates gen CPU's, you don't even need to OC at all. They literally perform as well as the hardware allows out of the box. So OC is becoming a trade that often doesn't' yield much of a boost over stock.

 

[Bob.B]

I'm going to try overclocking for the first time.

I bought these components so that I could overclock the system but never wanted to until now.
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 - 57.1% (bought 2016)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050-Ti - 29.7%, EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB (bought 2016)
SSD: Adata Premier SP550 240GB - 90.6% (bought 2016)
HDD: Hitachi HUA723020ALA641 2TB - 66.4% (bought 2016)
HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB - 70.7%
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper DDR3 1600 C9 4x4GB = 16GB - 51.1% (bought 2016)
MBD: Asrock H97M Pro4 UEFI Version H97M Pro4 P2.30 March 13, 2018 (bought 2016)
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 380W EA-380D 80-Plus Bronze (bought 2009)

I just built another current system so now I'm not worried about "bricking" any of these components.

I KNOW a 14-year old 380W power supply is NOT ideal, but I'm not planning on trying to max out the overclock or play AAA games 24/7. I just want to try overclocking.

I already went into UEFI and tried loading an XMP profile. The system does NOT boot but after a couple of resets it boots and when I check the XMP Setting it has switched back to "Auto".
I'm guessing that means it is NOT allowing me to change the XMP setting.

I have read that a BIOS update demanded by Intel removed overclocking from H97 motherboards. Is that true?

Then I read in one post on Tom's that someone's system seemed to allow RAM overclocking. But the solution didn't indicate if they actually overclocked or installed faster RAM.

I did NOT see anything in OC Tweaker that allows for overclocking the CPU. I'm going to try and find the User Manual. I just have to get it out of the box.

I also put my GTX 1060 3GB into the system because apparently, it will overclock better than the 1050. I need to figure out where to overclock it. I'm pretty sure you do that in the Nvidia software, so I'll check there.

All of that to ask the simple question:

Can you overclock an H97 motherboard?

Post a link to the userbenchmark run you got those % numbers from.

 

[BFG-9000]

This is a bit complicated. Back in 2014 ASUS released a BIOS update allowing non-k processors to be overclocked in non-z-series chipset boards, and Asrock, Biostar, Gigabyte and MSI quickly followed. Not liking this, Intel released a microcode in 2015 to disable this and even had Microsoft push it in a WindowsUpdate by claiming it was critical (well it was, to their bottom line). This update would only apply if the version in the BIOS was older than the one in the update (the last microcode that works was 306C3 v7 ), so some manufacturers renamed old v7 to something like v99 so this wouldn't happen.

Bottom line, it depends on if you can get a BIOS with the old microcode renamed to a higher version one.

 

[DSzymborski]

You can overclock. You can continue to run a basic, group-regulated PSU that's now 14 years old.'

But combining the two sentences? That's if you want to experiment with a PC you no longer care about. It's not something you do as a practical solution to squeeze out an additional four frames per second. And that's without considering the hoops you'd have to jump through to overclock this platform in any meaningful sense.

With this set of facts, as presented, I just can't ethically provide assistance.

 

[lolvatveo]

why not try bclk ocing instead of ram?