i7 4770k Load Line Calibration

[BaaaaL]

Good evening everyone! I'm sorry for opening multiple threads, but I did not wish to add unreleated questions to previous threads, so I opened this one. Yesterday, I attempted OCing my i7 4770k to 4.2 at 1.25V. It was fairly stable, with good temps, but Far Cry 4 crashed (which never happened before the OC) so I set it back to default. My question is twofold. First, can a "soft crash" be caused by an unstable OC? By soft crash, I mean an apphang, that can be closed from the process manager (application not answering) or does an unstable OC only cause complete crashes (BSOD) requiring reboot?
Second: Can my instability have been caused by me lowering Load Line Calibration? I left it at auto in bios, and at 4.2Ghz, my Mobo set it to 8 (out of 8 ) which ran OCCT and other stuff stable. I then lowered it to 1, as I have read that keeping it on may cause voltage spikes. What do you guys advise? Thanks a lot for the help :Ö

 

[TechyInAZ]

I personally keep mine at auto (i5 4690K, 4.5Ghz, 1.23v, LLC at 8 out of 9). I also have heard of what they call vboost, which adds to much voltage from LLC. But i have never encountered this.

I've always gotten BSODs when overclocking, no type of soft crash. However on my very old Pentium D build, if i put in two different vcores at the same clock speed they computer would act strangely on one but good on the other.

 

[BaaaaL]

Thanks! The thing is, I'm a total noob at overclocking, and I wanted a modest OC on my CPU. As long as I left LLC on 8 in the Asus AI tweak software, things seemed stable. I may experiment some more in a few days to see if a higher LLC solves the problem, but to be frank, at 1.25V I'm not particularly worried about going over the voltage limit even with Vboost. From what I understand, it is only dangerous if someone has an extremely high Vcore to begin with

 

[TechyInAZ]

Thanks! The thing is, I'm a total noob at overclocking, and I wanted a modest OC on my CPU. As long as I left LLC on 8 in the Asus AI tweak software, things seemed stable. I may experiment some more in a few days to see if a higher LLC solves the problem, but to be frank, at 1.25V I'm not particularly worried about going over the voltage limit even with Vboost. From what I understand, it is only dangerous if someone has an extremely high Vcore to begin with

Sure thing.

that seems to be a lot of vcore for just 4.2ghz...

 

[BaaaaL]

I've been advised to try 1.25@4.2 first. I assume it's a good "all round voltage" to start with. It may be possible to get a higher OC at that Vcore, but first I wanted to get a stable OC at 4.2 before proceeding higher, or finding the lowest possible Vcore. My question remains: Can such an instability be caused by disabling LLC completely? From what I understand, if I disable it, it's possible that the voltage drops to a level not sufficient to support 4.2, and cause a crash. But I always assumed it would cause a BSOD, not a software crash. Thanks for taking the time for answering Any other suggestions are welcome Also, I'm not aiming for a high OC, just a modest 4.2-4.3Ghz, for a rock solid 24/7 usage, to make my CPU last long.

 

[TechyInAZ]

I've been advised to try 1.25@4.2 first. I assume it's a good "all round voltage" to start with. It may be possible to get a higher OC at that Vcore, but first I wanted to get a stable OC at 4.2 before proceeding higher, or finding the lowest possible Vcore. My question remains: Can such an instability be caused by disabling LLC completely? From what I understand, if I disable it, it's possible that the voltage drops to a level not sufficient to support 4.2, and cause a crash. But I always assumed it would cause a BSOD, not a software crash. Thanks for taking the time for answering Any other suggestions are welcome Also, I'm not aiming for a high OC, just a modest 4.2-4.3Ghz, for a rock solid 24/7 usage, to make my CPU last long.

Disabling LLC won't do you good because you MUST put in a vcore higher than what's needed to prevent vdroop.

 

[BaaaaL]

I've been advised to try 1.25@4.2 first. I assume it's a good "all round voltage" to start with. It may be possible to get a higher OC at that Vcore, but first I wanted to get a stable OC at 4.2 before proceeding higher, or finding the lowest possible Vcore. My question remains: Can such an instability be caused by disabling LLC completely? From what I understand, if I disable it, it's possible that the voltage drops to a level not sufficient to support 4.2, and cause a crash. But I always assumed it would cause a BSOD, not a software crash. Thanks for taking the time for answering Any other suggestions are welcome Also, I'm not aiming for a high OC, just a modest 4.2-4.3Ghz, for a rock solid 24/7 usage, to make my CPU last long.

Disabling LLC won't do you good because you MUST put in a vcore higher than what's needed to prevent vdroop.

Thanks! The thing is, the more I think about it, the less certain I am that the crash was caused by a bad OC. Although it would be a little strange as a coincidence, as FC4 has never crashed before. I ran BF4 and Shadow of Mordor for hours with LLC set to lowest possible (basically disabled) and even Crysis 3, with no BSOD or crash whatsoever. When I stress-tested with OCCT (one hour without issues - a quick test, but from what I know it should be enough to rule out a bad oc - ) LLC was set to 8, and all was stable. I might experiment some more, but until then I'm collecting as much info as I can...I'm paranoid when it comes to hardware, and I don't want to ruin anything My GPU is also OC-d a bit, but the GPUtweak software is fairly straightforward (980 strix at 1376 Mhz)

 

[BaaaaL]

Bump. Does anyone else have experience with soft crashes\LLC?

 

[TechyInAZ]

Sorry, i meant to reply but i forgot. 🙁

Setting the LLC to 8 or nothing is perfectly fine. If your not experiencing any issues with your PC then it's stable.

I know what you mean about hardware, I also got a little paranoid when i first started overclocking. But it's useless being paranoid, because if something goes wrong with your OC, your computer WILL tell you.

 

[BaaaaL]

Sorry, i meant to reply but i forgot. 🙁

Setting the LLC to 8 or nothing is perfectly fine. If your not experiencing any issues with your PC then it's stable.

I know what you mean about hardware, I also got a little paranoid when i first started overclocking. But it's useless being paranoid, because if something goes wrong with your OC, your computer WILL tell you.

Thanks! So, do you advise reapplying the OC settings (4.2@1.25V) and re-enabling LLC at max, and seeing whether it still crashes? Or do you have any other suiggestions to get a stable OC?

 

[TechyInAZ]

Sorry, i meant to reply but i forgot. 🙁

Setting the LLC to 8 or nothing is perfectly fine. If your not experiencing any issues with your PC then it's stable.

I know what you mean about hardware, I also got a little paranoid when i first started overclocking. But it's useless being paranoid, because if something goes wrong with your OC, your computer WILL tell you.

Thanks! So, do you advise reapplying the OC settings (4.2@1.25V) and re-enabling LLC at max, and seeing whether it still crashes? Or do you have any other suiggestions to get a stable OC?

I would try overclocking with the LLC you have now. Run a stress tester for 2-4hrs and see if it's stable. If so then great. If not then up the LLC.