[SOLVED] CPU OC was causing games to crash?

[drilonajdini111101]

So i recently got a pre-built gaming pc, it came with a 8600k so i decided to OC.. I went with 4.8 GHz and 1.27 volts. I done a lot of testing (cinebench, 3d Mark Prime95) and it was stable for over a week. I then decided that i had found a sweet spot and left it at that. Today i woke up, turned my PC as usual and realised that Far Cry 5 kept crashing upon loading repeatedly.. I got confused and re-installed drivers and games and still the problem continued.. I then tried other games and still had the same problem. I went forum searching and found out others were having the same problem due to their OC settings, so i decided to set everthing back to default (3.6GHz) and WALLA, everything was back to normal and was working perfectly.. My question is, why was the OC stable for a week, then suddenly cause crashes, and also, can i go back to my OC settings and somehow stop the games from crashing?

 

[InvalidError]

Components age, overclocking accelerates aging. That's why there is a thing called "burn-in period" over which a component or system must maintain repeatable performance before anything can reasonably be called stable.

 

[drilonajdini111101]

Yeah I understand the aspect of OC and how it sacrifices longevity for increased performance.. I’m going to back to default and just do further research until I’m 100% happy that I can effectively perform a stable OC. Although, would you be able to give me a head start in terms of my OC and what I can change? I was previously at 4.8GHz with 1.27v.. what was causing the crash? The speeds or the voltage?

 

[InvalidError]

Everything is a potential suspect. While longevity is one thing that gets sacrificed while OCing, other things that also get kicks in the pants are design safety margins and tolerances on everything - if Intel could manufacture a large number of chips that can hit 4.8GHz without compromising on tolerances to ensure minimal warranty claims, they'd launch 4.8GHz stock parts. Tighter margins on the CPU means the VRM also has that much less permissible slack, which in turn often translates to needing a PSU with tighter margins to help the VRM achieve its mission. For significant stable OCs, everything matters.

Overclocking is also a luck-of-the-draw things since no two pieces of silicon (or anything else) are ever identical. Some people can do 4.8GHz on Coffee Lake on 1.28-1.29V, others need more than 1.3V. Only you can decide your comfort zone's limits and call it quits.

 

[drilonajdini111101]

Thanks for getting back to me, just as an update, I found out it was my gpu OC that was causing the game to crash.. I lowered it down a little and all games and now running smoothly. Thanks for the help.. Back to my CPU OC, in your experienced eyes, would you consider a 4.8GHz OC with 1.27v good? With me reaching 40-44c in idle and 75-78 at 100% usage? I’m an newcomer to pc gaming (coming from console) so as much as I appreciate your comment about me knowing what the boundaries are.. in total honesty, I don’t know what the boundaries are so I can’t say definitely that this cpu OC is suitable, hence the need for a second opinion. Would appreciate any feedback you could hand over to me

 

[Karadjgne]

Issue is the OC isn't stable. P95 is good for OC temps, cinebench is realistically a benchmark tool as is 3dmark. For stability you'd need to run Asus RealBench. That program puts hard loads on cpu, gpu, ram, pcie buss etc all at the same time.

Basically you set up your OC, use p95 small fft to baseline 100%load temps until acceptable, then run RealBench to check stability. That's when you'll tinker and adjust your voltages, speeds etc to better streamline things. You'll bounce back and forth with temps and stability until you have a working OC, then drop an 8 hour RealBench test. If alls good, you've gotten as successful OC as you can reasonably expect.

OC boundaries are basically set by 3 things. The cpu lottery, cpu cooling and acceptability and your ability with setting the bios. Primary necessity for any OC is patience, it can take weeks to dial in a good OC for best overall performance and multiple hours testing and tweaking, not to mention research into exactly what settings mean and do in the bios.

Good luck.

 

[drilonajdini111101]

I understand, however my question is whether my current OC is a good starting point or if I should revert to default and start from there? Saves me time knowing my current OC is near perfect and just needs some tinkering rather than me having to start back from default and re-doing the process I’be been doing until now

 

[Karadjgne]

It's somewhat working, temps are a little high, but I'm guessing it's also pretty warm where the pc is to be at mid 40's at idle, so high 70's is not too unexpected from such a powerful cpu. It's a good start for sure, but knowledge of what settings you also have in the bios will be a good help in tweaking the OC, other than vcore etc. Same theory also applies to gpu OC, my 970 is 124%OC yet sits at 114% power, not the 125% possible. That alone drops almost 10°C from the temp. Bumping things blind can cause more issues than anything else, so while you do seem to have a basic understanding, a little research into bios settings could save hours of hair-pulling frustration.

 

[drilonajdini111101]

Yeah for sure I need to gain a further understanding on the principles of OC. What do you suggest I do? Maybe compare my OC with others.. look at YouTube videos etc. I’m not sure where to look for valuable knowledge like that.

 

[Karadjgne]

Asus ROG forums has heaps of info about OC. OC as such is all the same theory, no matter the brand, bump vcore etc, only difference being the names sometimes. You can look up ppl bios files, see what they did, changed etc. You can also Google definitions of what things in your bios are, what they do, what ranges they should be etc. They may also have links or video links from other sites there too.