Help needed with Overclocking an i5 4670k

[Pr3di]

Hello techies,

I`m here asking for your help in guiding me on the path to my first stable overclock.

I have an i5 4670k currently at 4.2 Ghz, but not stable, 8Gb RAM Kingston HyperX 1600, GB Z87MX D3H mobo, and a 750w Silverstone fully modular silver certified PSU.

I didn`t win the silicon lottery, since my computer will not boot at 4.6 Ghz w/ 1.250V VCore.

Until last night, I didn`t knew that I needed to set the Uncore lower than the CPU clock , so I had CPU clock at 42x and the same for Uncore with 1.230V.
This was stable for 20 min of Aida 64 and Prime 95, but crashed in BF3.
This morning I reset bios, and went with 42x CPU clock and 36x Uncore, but still unstable.

I tried setting the VRIM on auto, and also at 1.800V manually, with the same results.

I also set the Turbo Cores at the same multiplier as the one for the CPU clock. And the CPU VRIN Loadline Calibration and Current Protection to extreme.
Also, I set the RAM to XMP profile, at 1600 with 1.65V, and selected Extreme Performance (I think I should have used Extreme Stability).

Since it`s my forst overclock attempt, I`m sure I`m doing something wrong.
Please tell me where I`m doing wrong, or what else I should adjust.

I will try to answer your questions to the best of my limited OC knowledge.

 

[KalTorak]

What temps were you reaching with 42X and 1.230V? It may well be that you need to up the voltage to maintain a stable OC at 42X, which isnt a problem if you are still running nice and cool.

What cooler are you using?

 

[Pr3di]

I never went over 71C in Aida 64 stress test, and 72C in Prime95.
I`m using a CM 212 Evo.

 

[KalTorak]

If thats the peak temp you can push the voltage higher, do it in small increments though.

You should only need to change the VCore to achieve a stable 42X

 

[Pr3di]

The thing is that even at 4.0 Ghz it was not stable at 1.200V, so it seems that some of the other settings are causing this instability.

I`ll try to only change the clock multiplier and VCore, without XMP and all the rest, because from what I read on other websites, this will also cause instability, and it`s also easier to identify what causes the crashes this way.

 

[KalTorak]

Reload the defaults in Bios, set the Memory speed manually, ignore the XMP profiles and as you said just use Multiplier and Vcore.

What is your full system specs?

 

[Pr3di]

I`ll do it as soon as I get home from work (can`t think about anything else...)
I have the folowing setup:
i5 4670k
CM 212 EVO cooler
Gigabyte Z87MX D3H mobo
Silverstone Sugo SG09 case
Silverstone 750W fully modular Silver Certified PSU
Silverstone PP08 short cables
Kingston HyperX Grey 8Gb 1600 RAM
1 TB Seagate HDD
120 Gb Kingston V300 SSD
Asus R9 280x Matrix GPU

That`s about it, I think...

 

[Pr3di]

Guys, looks like I got one of the worst i5 4670k`s out there...
I`m not even able to maintain the CPU at 4.1 Ghz with 34 uncore and 1.250v.

At this point I`m using BF3 for testing, as Aida64 and Prime95 run perfectly for hours, but I do get crashes in BF3.

I need to check now if even 4.0 will allow me to have XMP enabled for my RAM.

Do you have any idea what I could change for this? I mean, other people use 1.250v for 4.6Ghz, so I don`t feel like giving it move voltage.

Also, the CPU temps are not high, as they to up to 72C during synthetic testing, and max 65C while gaming BF3 (or even BF4) with Chrome and MSI Afterburner open (I use the Afterburner to monitor most of the GPU & CPU stats).

 

[KalTorak]

Are you certain it isnt a graphics problem then?

If its stress testing just fine but then BF3 crashes the pc, that might explain things. Have you tried the Heaven Benchmark, or furmark?They are both GFX stressers, it might help to bring a flaw to light.

Was the entire rig a new build including the 280x?

 

[Pr3di]

Yes, everything was new. I did test the GPU with Furmark, which made me shange the TIM on it, because the default one was crap on the Matrix.

Also, I did read somewhere that BF3 is actually a good way to test for CPU stability, since there were similar cases where synthetic tests run without a problem, however BF3 would crash.
Also, usually I don`t get BSOD when I crash, the PC just reboots. I only got one BSOD, and that was error 124 (CPU OC related) while playing BF3, so I`m pretty sure that it`s not the GPU.

Also, whan I was playing 8 hours in a row of BF3 at 3.4 or 3.6 Ghz, there was no crashing...

 

[KalTorak]

It could well be that you are right then, it may well be you lost in the chip lottery.

I dont have enough knowledge to advise how to proceed, sorry.

 

[prestigerg7]

It does should like you may have been unlucky and gotten a bad chip. Especially if you can't get it stable at 4.2ghz at 1.250 volts with everything else left on default.

Just as reference, my 4670k is running stable at 4.2ghz (dynamic mod) at 1.230 volts (adaptive mode), the uncore I left at default but manually set it to 38 (instead of leaving it at auto). I enabled XMP to boost ram from its default 1333mhz to 1600mhz. Although my system would not run at 4.4ghz unless I went over 1.300 volts.

The only thing I could think of is to set your uncore ratio manually to its default. My motherboard bios (msi z87-g45) had it running at 38 when it was set to auto so that is what I set it to. I've read that when you up the cpu ratio, if the uncore ratio is left on auto it will sometimes try to in a way overclock itself to raise it closer to your cpu ratio which will cause instability. If you set it manually to whatever the default is that it runs at, it will just stay there.

 

[Pr3di]

I will try setting the uncore manually again, since I did notice in Aida 64 that it would raise it in Auto mode.
I`m just hoping that this will atleast allow me to run my RAM in XMP mode without crashing.

I`ll let you guys know if it worked.