i7 3770k overclock to 4.5Ghz, worth it?

[Jordan Herrera]

Long story short i currently own a z68 board which doesnt allow me to overclock my CPU. Im very close to plucking the courage to buying a z77 board to allow me to overclock my CPU.

I play a lot of CPU intensive games. is the performance gain worth it. Or should I wait for next gen CPU's and motherboards?

Im aware of the windows OEM issue when changing the board and this isn't an issue, dont factor this in.

I have a GTX 780

 

[IInuyasha74]

Why can't you overclock? Z68 motherboard is meant for overclocking.

The performance gains are pretty good, but that being said you don't know for sure how far you will be able to overclock.

 

[i7Baby]

Post your build

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1155

 

[Jordan Herrera]

There is a limitation with z68 and 3770k which doesnt allow you to overclock.

My build -
GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3

i7 3770k

GTX Asus direct CUII 780

250GB SSD samsung EVO

1TB HDD

850 PSU

Arctic freezer 13 CPU fan

 

[i7Baby]

"There is a limitation with z68 and 3770k which doesnt allow you to overclock." - post a link to where this is written.

 

[IInuyasha74]

See that is what we are trying to tell you. There shouldn't be any limitation. Maybe there is something wrong with your current motherboard like it needs a BIOS update, but basically any Z68 motherboard that has support for the i7-3770k can overclock it. So perhaps the issue is your BIOS needs updated.

 

[Jordan Herrera]

I'm so glad I saved this to my favourites as it too me a long while to find in the first place.

http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-ivy-bridge-processor-overclocking-proves-challenging-for-some-motherboard-makers_1917

Sorry If I interpreted this wrong please enlighten me.

I'm currently on F12 bios, board rev 1.0.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3853#bios

To upgrade to UEFI BIOS isn't as simple as a standard flash (in my view) which I havnt even done before. I start to attempt it and chickened out

I also cant find an answer to the UEFI bios update solving the issue. I did read once, 1 guy said it didn't solve his issue, but that's just once person and unfortunately the release notes from gigabyte dont say much

 

[J_E_D_70]

So with what you have you can set all four cores to 39 and override the default turbo. I'm not aware of any games that will run 100% on that CPU - even BF4 multiplayer really doesn't push it hard. Have you run task manager or some logging program and seen your cpu pegged at 100% during gaming?

Z77 is great but dont know that the extra 600mhz at a cost of a good $150 will buy you noticeable performance.

 

[IInuyasha74]

It looks like its a problem with that BIOS, but if Gigabyte had fixed the BIOS properly then it would of worked to overclock. Try the new BIOS update for it and see if that works.

 

[i7Baby]

"Ivy Bridge is only supported on H61, H67, P67 and Z68 chipsets after a BIOS flash" If your bios is up to date then your mobo will support your CPU.

Per http://www.gigabyte.com.au/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3853 - as long as you have F12 bios or later you will be fine.

"We grabbed the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 motherboard, updated the BIOS to the latest version (F12), and dropped a brand new Intel Core i7-3770K processor (our review) into the board. Everything worked great with the default BIOS settings, but when we went to overclock the processor we noticed that the CPU Clock Ratio could go no higher than turbo clock ratio of 39. You have to raise the CPU ratio in order to get the most from these processors, so by having it locked at 39 is a deal breaker."

Then buy an ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 to replace your mobo. http://www.amazon.com/LGA1155-CrossFireX-Motherboard-Z77-EXTREME4/dp/B007KTY4A6

 

[IInuyasha74]

.....or just try the latest BIOS and see if it enables overclocking before you spend the money on a new motherboard.

 

[i7Baby]

See http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3853#bios

Hopefully the U1L version will fix your problem.