Haswell 4670K Overclocking on a Asrock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer Motherboard

[Midnitewolf]

Ok after 3 attempts it looks like I finally got a half way decent chip. Anyway, I just installed the chip and MB and ran Asrock's F-Tune software to just get a general idea of what it was capable of.

Autotune took it to 4.3 GHz at 1.2 volts which isn't bad for just using Autotune or at least compared to my last two chips one of which couldn't break 3.9 GHz. Anyway, since it made 4.3 GHz on Autotune, I am pretty sure it should have a bit more headroom so my target is to get it up to 4.4 GHz.

My first thought was to just up the voltage to 1.25 and the clock multiplier to 44 and hope it was stable. No such luck so obviously I am going to have to do a bit more tweaking and here is where I run into my limited experience in overclocking.

I keep seeing buzzwords like Line Conditioning, Ring Voltage, etc but I am just not familiar enough to really understand what I am doing and I can't find any Asrock specific guides. In any case I am hoping I might find a few people that can assist me with reaching my 4.4 GHz goal (4.5 GHz would be nice too but don't want to get too greedy or too complex.).

It would also be really nice if someone with specific familiarity with the Asrock UEFI could tell me exactly what I should be changing such as what to features to disable, enable, set to auto, etc . as apparently they use different terminology for a lot of the settings which is part of what's throwing me off when I try to use the various guides on the internet.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

[md1032]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1722630/intel-god-quick-dirty-guide-4ghz-haswell.html

You can try using some of the default overclocks in the UEFI, but they didn't work for my chip, which tells me that even Asrock couldn't predict Haswell's variability. In general all you are doing is booting into the OS with a known good config (such as your 4.3 Ghz./1.20 V config) and using A-Tuning to find a new stable clock. The advantage is that when you BSOD, your comp will restart using the known good settings in the UEFI.

For example, boot into windows, open IBT/Prime95, HWMonitor, and A-Tuning. Try increasing to 4.4/1.30. See if it's stable, then undervolt until it breaks or BSOD's. Restart into the OS and repeat until you have a known good voltage for that clock speed. Keep an eye on temps...I would recommend <=95°C but that is 10°C under the thermal limit, so you can push it if you like. Once you've stabilized at the next step up, reset the computer and put the new "known good" config into the UEFI, say you get 4.4 Ghz. on 1.28 V...then repeat until you reach the thermal limit. The heat should be the only thing preventing you from overclocking to 4.6 Ghz and beyond.

 

[Midnitewolf]

Ok after 3 attempts it looks like I finally got a half way decent chip. Anyway, I just installed the chip and MB and ran Asrock's F-Tune software to just get a general idea of what it was capable of.

Autotune took it to 4.3 GHz at 1.2 volts which isn't bad for just using Autotune or at least compared to my last two chips one of which couldn't break 3.9 GHz. Anyway, since it made 4.3 GHz on Autotune, I am pretty sure it should have a bit more headroom so my target is to get it up to 4.4 GHz.

My first thought was to just up the voltage to 1.25 and the clock multiplier to 44 and hope it was stable. No such luck so obviously I am going to have to do a bit more tweaking and here is where I run into my limited experience in overclocking.

I keep seeing buzzwords like Line Conditioning, Ring Voltage, etc but I am just not familiar enough to really understand what I am doing and I can't find any Asrock specific guides. In any case I am hoping I might find a few people that can assist me with reaching my 4.4 GHz goal (4.5 GHz would be nice too but don't want to get too greedy or too complex.).

It would also be really nice if someone with specific familiarity with the Asrock UEFI could tell me exactly what I should be changing such as what to features to disable, enable, set to auto, etc . as apparently they use different terminology for a lot of the settings which is part of what's throwing me off when I try to use the various guides on the internet.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1722630/intel-god-quick-dirty-guide-4ghz-haswell.html

You can try using some of the default overclocks in the UEFI, but they didn't work for my chip, which tells me that even Asrock couldn't predict Haswell's variability. In general all you are doing is booting into the OS with a known good config (such as your 4.3 Ghz./1.20 V config) and using A-Tuning to find a new stable clock. The advantage is that when you BSOD, your comp will restart using the known good settings in the UEFI.

For example, boot into windows, open IBT/Prime95, HWMonitor, and A-Tuning. Try increasing to 4.4/1.30. See if it's stable, then undervolt until it breaks or BSOD's. Restart into the OS and repeat until you have a known good voltage for that clock speed. Keep an eye on temps...I would recommend <=95°C but that is 10°C under the thermal limit, so you can push it if you like. Once you've stabilized at the next step up, reset the computer and put the new "known good" config into the UEFI, say you get 4.4 Ghz. on 1.28 V...then repeat until you reach the thermal limit. The heat should be the only thing preventing you from overclocking to 4.6 Ghz and beyond.

Well Things aren't going so well and I am having some weird results.

I OCed my processor to 4.4 GHz using the following settings:

Multiplier = 44
Cashe Multiplier = 35
Fixed VCore = 1.275 volts
Fixed Cashe Voltage = 1.2 volts
Fixed CPU Input Voltage = 1.9
Temps under 80C.

I ran IntelBurntest for 20 runs on standard with no instability detected. Then I ran it on maximum 10 runs with no instability detected.

However, through General use had it BSOD twice. Once while running the Heaven Benchmark and once just watching streaming videos.

Set it back to the Autotune settings of 4.3 GHz and 1.2 volts and found out they are actually not stable either.

My question now is how can I manage 30-40 mins of IntelBurnTest perfectly stable but not be stable with general usage. What am I missing?

 

[md1032]

That is normal. I noticed the same exact thing with my chip. I am not sure exactly what causes it, but when you think about it, you are asking the CPU to process different things using different instruction sets. Intel Burn Test and Prime95 are brute-force CPU load methods that simply ask the CPU to do longwinded mathematical calculations over and over. Processing something else might be the equivalent of throwing a monkey wrench into the CPU (this is my personal theory). For example, my own computer can run IBT over and over without failure at 4.4 Ghz. with 1.24 V, but opening google chrome can instantly BSOD under idle conditions with the same settings. In fact, it continued that same behavior at 1.25 V, much to my amazement. We are talking one BSOD every 10 to 30 minutes. Running 1.26 V solved all stability issues and I have had zero BSOD's or errors with my current settings.

Don't get confused. The settings are either stable, or they are not. You are not "stable for 30 minutes", your computer is still throwing BSOD's and hanging, therefore, right now, you have an unstable system and need to increase your voltage. Are you monitoring the actual voltage with Hardware Monitor to ensure that you're actually hitting the targets that you're setting in the UEFI?

 

[schmuckley]

Ok after 3 attempts it looks like I finally got a half way decent chip. Anyway, I just installed the chip and MB and ran Asrock's F-Tune software to just get a general idea of what it was capable of.

Autotune took it to 4.3 GHz at 1.2 volts which isn't bad for just using Autotune or at least compared to my last two chips one of which couldn't break 3.9 GHz. Anyway, since it made 4.3 GHz on Autotune, I am pretty sure it should have a bit more headroom so my target is to get it up to 4.4 GHz.

My first thought was to just up the voltage to 1.25 and the clock multiplier to 44 and hope it was stable. No such luck so obviously I am going to have to do a bit more tweaking and here is where I run into my limited experience in overclocking.

I keep seeing buzzwords like Line Conditioning, Ring Voltage, etc but I am just not familiar enough to really understand what I am doing and I can't find any Asrock specific guides. In any case I am hoping I might find a few people that can assist me with reaching my 4.4 GHz goal (4.5 GHz would be nice too but don't want to get too greedy or too complex.).

It would also be really nice if someone with specific familiarity with the Asrock UEFI could tell me exactly what I should be changing such as what to features to disable, enable, set to auto, etc . as apparently they use different terminology for a lot of the settings which is part of what's throwing me off when I try to use the various guides on the internet.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1722630/intel-god-quick-dirty-guide-4ghz-haswell.html

You can try using some of the default overclocks in the UEFI, but they didn't work for my chip, which tells me that even Asrock couldn't predict Haswell's variability. In general all you are doing is booting into the OS with a known good config (such as your 4.3 Ghz./1.20 V config) and using A-Tuning to find a new stable clock. The advantage is that when you BSOD, your comp will restart using the known good settings in the UEFI.

For example, boot into windows, open IBT/Prime95, HWMonitor, and A-Tuning. Try increasing to 4.4/1.30. See if it's stable, then undervolt until it breaks or BSOD's. Restart into the OS and repeat until you have a known good voltage for that clock speed. Keep an eye on temps...I would recommend <=95°C but that is 10°C under the thermal limit, so you can push it if you like. Once you've stabilized at the next step up, reset the computer and put the new "known good" config into the UEFI, say you get 4.4 Ghz. on 1.28 V...then repeat until you reach the thermal limit. The heat should be the only thing preventing you from overclocking to 4.6 Ghz and beyond.

Well Things aren't going so well and I am having some weird results.

I OCed my processor to 4.4 GHz using the following settings:

Multiplier = 44
Cashe Multiplier = 35
Fixed VCore = 1.275 volts
Fixed Cashe Voltage = 1.2 volts
Fixed CPU Input Voltage = 1.9
Temps under 80C.

I ran IntelBurntest for 20 runs on standard with no instability detected. Then I ran it on maximum 10 runs with no instability detected.

However, through General use had it BSOD twice. Once while running the Heaven Benchmark and once just watching streaming videos.

Set it back to the Autotune settings of 4.3 GHz and 1.2 volts and found out they are actually not stable either.

My question now is how can I manage 30-40 mins of IntelBurnTest perfectly stable but not be stable with general usage. What am I missing?

That sounds like a possible GPU/Driver problem.
You could disable EIST and see if that helps.
Q: before the BSOD did the screen get all fuzzy and squiggly or no?
PS:You're missing System Agent,IA,and IO.
It also could be RAM timings/voltage.

 

[nick314]

I ended up with

Multiplier = 44
Cache Multiplier = 39
Fixed VCore = 1.278 volts
Did not adjust Cache voltage.
Fixed CPU Input Voltage = 1.9

This was with DDR3-2400 ram running at full speed.

Even with OCCTs torture test, no system crash.
My 4770K was so sensitive, had to just play around one morning to find that voltage, set the offset as low as it would go. (0.01)
This was on the 1.40 UEFI BIOS.
On 1.41 and now 1.50, I was able to bring up the Cache ratio to 43, still not touching the voltage. Running at 1.25v cache according to F-Stream.

Do I have any reason to change the cache voltage? Bring it down?

 

[cromedome]

You should try Aida64 to stress test your CPU. I am no expert and have little experience with Haswell processors (Had my 4670K for 2 days before returning defective motherboard - waiting on new ASRock motherboard then will OC with you guys😀), but i have read that P95 and other old stress testing software is not recommended for Haswell processors as they are on a new architecture and use different instructions and old stress testing software is not optimized for it. Aida64 is optimized for Haswell.

However, i could be wrong as i read that a while ago and newer, optimized versions, of others could be out.

P95 did crank out way hotter temps than Aida64 did on CPU and FPU testing when I did test temps but still, I will use Aida64 until someone tells me not to, lol.