- Nov 9, 2011
- 796
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So here is what I am working with:
i7 965 @ 3.86GHz
Antec 620 Hydro Cooler push/pull intake
12GB Patriot Viper Extreme DDR3 2000MHz @ 1867MHz
Gigabyte x58-usb3
Top Power bronze 800W
120 OCZ Agility Sata 3 SSD
500GB 7200RPM SATA 3 storage
PCI-e SATA 3 controller
2 x MSI Cyclone GTX 460 @ 850MHz
Cooler Master Stacker 830 case
Here are my BIOS settings:
133MHz x 29 = 3.86GHz cpu speed
133MHz x 14 = 1867 RAM speed
EIST disabled
Turbo disabled
Vcore 1.40V
Everything else on auto
This setup ran prime 95 for 8 hours with no errors and a max core temp of 71 degrees C.
What I want to know is if you have overclocked this cpu what settings did you use and what temps did you hit? I realize my that my RAM is underclocked but i wanted to keep the BCLK at 133MHz so that the only setting I had to play with was the Vcore. I intially had problems because I went by the spec sheet which showed the max allowable Vcore @ 1.375V. According to this ftp://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/320834.pdf on page 22 it shows the functional and absolute limits of the processor. I have mine set to 1.4 but cpuid shows the actual Vcore at 1.38 while idling and 1.342 while running prime95 which I don't quite understand.
I can take my cpu up to 4.26GHz 32x133MHz but the Vcore hits 1.52V with a temp of 80 degrees after 10 min. The voltage and temp is too high at that setting. I tried a further increase to 4.4GHz but I had to disable hyperthreading before I could even load windows and when I ran prime 95 my temp hit 81 degrees withing one minute and coretemp shutdown my system since that is where I have my safety shutdown temp set to. I still have my i7 920 which I had at a stable overclock of 3.8GHz with a bclk of 200 x 18 and a Vcore of 1.375 and qpi/vtt of 1.25V with all other settings on auto. I could go as high as 4GHz with a Vcore of 1.42 but my temps were 80 degrees and climbing after one minute. Anything over over 4GHz and my system would crash when I started prime95 with the i7 920.
To recap: I seemed to hit a brick wall at 4.4GHz with the i7 965. Even if I had better cooling, I would have to exceed the absolute voltage limit to go any faster. It was also easier to overclock than the i7 920 by simply adjusting the Vcore and muliplier. Any higher than 4GHz with my i7 920 would require much better cooling than my antec 620 hydro cooler and exceeding the Vcore absolute max of 1.55V. Pound for pound, the 920 has higher overclock potential but in the end still had a slower overall speed and a slower qpi link. Base qpi link is 4.8GT/s for 920 and 6.4GT/s for 965.
I hope this info helps someone and I look forward to seeing what your numbers are.
Thanks!
i7 965 @ 3.86GHz
Antec 620 Hydro Cooler push/pull intake
12GB Patriot Viper Extreme DDR3 2000MHz @ 1867MHz
Gigabyte x58-usb3
Top Power bronze 800W
120 OCZ Agility Sata 3 SSD
500GB 7200RPM SATA 3 storage
PCI-e SATA 3 controller
2 x MSI Cyclone GTX 460 @ 850MHz
Cooler Master Stacker 830 case
Here are my BIOS settings:
133MHz x 29 = 3.86GHz cpu speed
133MHz x 14 = 1867 RAM speed
EIST disabled
Turbo disabled
Vcore 1.40V
Everything else on auto
This setup ran prime 95 for 8 hours with no errors and a max core temp of 71 degrees C.
What I want to know is if you have overclocked this cpu what settings did you use and what temps did you hit? I realize my that my RAM is underclocked but i wanted to keep the BCLK at 133MHz so that the only setting I had to play with was the Vcore. I intially had problems because I went by the spec sheet which showed the max allowable Vcore @ 1.375V. According to this ftp://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/320834.pdf on page 22 it shows the functional and absolute limits of the processor. I have mine set to 1.4 but cpuid shows the actual Vcore at 1.38 while idling and 1.342 while running prime95 which I don't quite understand.
I can take my cpu up to 4.26GHz 32x133MHz but the Vcore hits 1.52V with a temp of 80 degrees after 10 min. The voltage and temp is too high at that setting. I tried a further increase to 4.4GHz but I had to disable hyperthreading before I could even load windows and when I ran prime 95 my temp hit 81 degrees withing one minute and coretemp shutdown my system since that is where I have my safety shutdown temp set to. I still have my i7 920 which I had at a stable overclock of 3.8GHz with a bclk of 200 x 18 and a Vcore of 1.375 and qpi/vtt of 1.25V with all other settings on auto. I could go as high as 4GHz with a Vcore of 1.42 but my temps were 80 degrees and climbing after one minute. Anything over over 4GHz and my system would crash when I started prime95 with the i7 920.
To recap: I seemed to hit a brick wall at 4.4GHz with the i7 965. Even if I had better cooling, I would have to exceed the absolute voltage limit to go any faster. It was also easier to overclock than the i7 920 by simply adjusting the Vcore and muliplier. Any higher than 4GHz with my i7 920 would require much better cooling than my antec 620 hydro cooler and exceeding the Vcore absolute max of 1.55V. Pound for pound, the 920 has higher overclock potential but in the end still had a slower overall speed and a slower qpi link. Base qpi link is 4.8GT/s for 920 and 6.4GT/s for 965.
I hope this info helps someone and I look forward to seeing what your numbers are.
Thanks!
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