I7-970 overclocked to 4.2ghz without voltage change

[InTheCity]

I just overclocked my I7-970 from 3.2ghz to 4.2ghz using only the multiplier and without any voltage change.
My voltage was set to 1.2V. I've also left speedstepping on and get an idle frequency of 1.7ghz

Everything seems to running smoothly. Idle temps are 28°c on Air - Max temp is 54°c which is maybe 3-4° warmer than before.

What is the significance of changing the voltage?
And was this overclock really as simple as changing the clock frequency?

I feel like I'm overlooking something.

 

[bearclaw99]

I highly doubt your i7 970 is stable at 4.2 ghz w/o upping the voltage, but if it somehow is, you got one HELL of a chip

Run it on Prime 95 for a bit

 

[InTheCity]

It's running a Cinema 4D render at 1080p and 30 minutes per frame.
That's putting it through the works as much as prime would.

Temps have reached 61° at their highest.

If a voltage increase is expected, would that be the only additional step to consider.

 

[bearclaw99]

I don't know much about Cinema 4D, but I don't think it is any kind of self checking stability test that will detect errors. To really be sure, run Prime 95 and IBT (Intel burn test)

It's just extremely unlikely that a i7 970 would be stable at 4.2 ghz at stock voltage

Besides the voltage increase, you may have to downclock your RAM since turning up the FSB will raise RAM speed too

 

[Toxxyc]

How about a screenshot or two from CPU-Z...?

 

[Fendulon]

Perhaps he has the voltage set to auto? If so he may just have a decent chip and the motherboard is doing a good job of scaling the voltages for him.

Some CPU-Z screenshots would help.

 

[InTheCity]

I've since knocked it down to 4ghz to be on the safe side.

Here's a screen cap while rendering in C4D with VRay

In an OC tutorial I saw for the I7-970, the clip shows voltages raised to 1.35V
If somebody can explain the significance of bolstering Voltage to support Clock speed increases, I might better understand what I need to do to stay permanently at 4.2ghz. What are the risks of leaving it low etc? Just a link with reference to this chip will do.

Screen cap from resting state

 

[Toxxyc]

You need more power to keep the chip stable at higher speeds, thus the voltage is increased. See it in the same light as you would have to give an engine more fuel to keep it running at higher speeds or it will start to go unstable. This is actually very, very impressive. I've never seen someone reaching this speeds with such a low voltage, not even at idle loads. You may very well just have a superb CPU on hand, as not all chips are the same and some just OC better than others. I'm jealous.

 

[yankme]

I found it strange that my i7-970 runs low stock, 1.040v average, which bothers me. But looking at this, I really am not worried.

 

[ovechkin1313]

I found it strange that my i7-970 runs low stock, 1.040v average, which bothers me. But looking at this, I really am not worried.

hey what motherboard do you have? do you think i can run a intel i5 2500k @ 4ghz from 3.3ghz , no voltage change with ASUS P8Z77-M mATX LGA1155 Z77 DDR3 2PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 1PCI SATA3 HDMI DVI USB3.0 Motherboard?

 

[alrobichaud]

Wow. You have one of the best gulftowns that I have ever seen. My 990X crashes if I try to set the voltage to 1.2v with at 4GHz. You really should do something like what I am posting below to be certain with prime95 or OCCT or intel burn test and turn off speedstepping. Photobucket resized my pic but this is at 4.4GHz with 1.356V. I find it unlikely you can even boot with only 1.2V let alone be stable. Please prove me wrong and you can say I told you so.

 

[yankme]

hey what motherboard do you have? do you think i can run a intel i5 2500k @ 4ghz from 3.3ghz , no voltage change with ASUS P8Z77-M mATX LGA1155 Z77 DDR3 2PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 1PCI SATA3 HDMI DVI USB3.0 Motherboard?

I don't think the point of this thread is so that you can feel comfortable with lower voltages on overclocks, while I think that will be an ok board for an OC, and that isn't a very steep OC, you will need to play with it and test it like every one else has suggest until you have a completely stable overclock. I say completely stable, but I don't believe there ever truly is one, and almost always you need to alter the voltage.