[SOLVED] i7-9700k overclocking - temps are good but pc or game freezes

[Sean87NC]

Hello all,

I apologize for my lack of detail. I am at work right now so I am not at home with my computer. Its a slow day and I leave early but I wanted to share my semi adventure into Overclocking this new processor. Anyways, yesterday I got a i7-9700k because, well, it was on sell for $339 at the local best buy. I was running a i5-8700k and with my motherboards "auto" overclocking settings, it ran around 4.3-4.6GHZ at temps around 30c idle, 50c on load. Never had any problems. I have the following setup now,

i7-9700K Octa-Core 3.6 GHz Desktop Processor
MSI Z370M MORTAR motherboard, (MICRO = big mistake)
32GB of Corsair 2400 ram, EVO
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
EVGA Supernova 750 G3, 80 Plus Gold 750W, Fully Modular PSU
Phanteks PH-EC416PTG_BK Eclipse P400 Steel ATX Mid Tower Case
MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB GDRR5X DirectX 12 352-bit (longer than the width of my mobo)
I don't get any sag on the GPU really but I got one of those magnetic GPU ....things that can brace the CPU and keep it in place.

Guess that covers the gist of it. So, first I want to confess to two mistakes I made. I originally had an gtx 1050ti and my mobo is micro-atx which has worked like a charm, but its small and is a pain in the butt. I paid $1070 for my 1080ti on Amazon. I could of got a really nice RTX card but I have been out of the PC gaming world for a bit and didn't think it would fit in my motherboard. Anyways, there was no one else with this card and this guy could choose to sell at this price. More to him for getting $1k off me for it. It is a beast of a card so whatever.

Anyways, I got the i7 after work yesterday went home. Flashed the MSI Mortar motherboard BIOS because it needs the bios update to support the 9th generation i7. That went fine. I got the CPU cooler off, cleaned it and the i5 processor. Put in the i7 processor and used artic silver paste. Put about a pencil erasers worth in the middle and put the cpu cooler back on. That seemed to go well. Didn't notice any issues visually. Booted up the computer and it noticed a new cpu. I went into BIOS and was very happy to see it saw the i7. I used the XMP and I believe its labeled "Game Boost" at the top left. XMP overclocks the memory and the Game Boost OC's the cpu. It is just two buttons you click and they basically set the fans to spin at max and do some other things that overclock the hardware. The i7 was already running at 4.8GHZ in BIOS at 40c.

I started up the computer and loaded CPU-Z and Core Temp(I think is the program name, I may have to get back to you on that). The temp program shows me all the cores and the current temp, temp lows, highs etc. I loaded Red Dead Redemption 2 and within 10 minutes the computer just shut down. I booted back up and ran a stress test using CPU-Z on the CPU and the temp program showed it never going above 70c. When playing the game I checked and it was at 60-70c. Yet again, this time the game crashed roughly 20 minutes in. Restarted the game and this time the computer froze with that horrible sound like a singer stuck on a note for eternity.

I am thinking that the CPU is getting to hot and its causing problems even though it doesn't show it getting higher than 75c ever. So, I manually overclocked it. I tell you again, I work in IT but I have not messed around with overclocking or custom builds for a long time. I kept the core clock at 100 but changed the ratio from auto to 44. Not the ring ratio. This change made the CPU go to 4.3Ghz. I literally changed one setting because I don't know what else to change and have no idea. When I get home I will probably google how to overclock the i7-9700k on MSI motherboard but right now with the change I made the computer does not crash or anything. It is stable. I ran stress test for 30 minutes no problems and played Red Dead 2 on Ultra settings for about 3 hours, no problems.

I know I should not be changing settings in the BIOS on the CPU when I am not certain what I am doing. I understand this.
I am just wondering if you think the CPU is getting to hot and causing the game/computer crashes or if its a voltage issue of some kind etc? It is very odd. I stress tested it while it was at 4.8ghz but only for about 15 minutes. No problems. I can enable that Game Boost again and read out the voltages and anything else if that helps but it will be a bit(get off work at 1pm EST)

Is there a good guide someone knows of for this CPU and my BIOS? I noticed when I did flash the bios some new settings appeared in the OC GUI such as ring ratio which I didn't see before. I noticed on post on this forum the guy disable intel turbo boost and a lot of other settings that are enabled by default so maybe there is more I need to do.

I also bet that it would be a good idea to switch to liquid cooling? Even if it seems like my CPU isn't getting to hot. I was going to buy one at the Best Buy while I was there but I didn't. I may after work today. Any recommendations on a water cooling system? I would like to stay under $250 for one if possible. I also really want to get an ATX Motherboard. I should attach a picture of what the inside of my case looks like. It is clean and has nice cabling but its so small and there is so much room it makes me laugh.

Anyways, thought I share this and also get some feedback.

Thanks!

 

[bmockeg]

Hello all,

I apologize for my lack of detail. I am at work right now so I am not at home with my computer. Its a slow day and I leave early but I wanted to share my semi adventure into Overclocking this new processor. Anyways, yesterday I got a i7-9700k because, well, it was on sell for $339 at the local best buy. I was running a i5-8700k and with my motherboards "auto" overclocking settings, it ran around 4.3-4.6GHZ at temps around 30c idle, 50c on load. Never had any problems. I have the following setup now,

i7-9700K Octa-Core 3.6 GHz Desktop Processor
MSI Z370M MORTAR motherboard, (MICRO = big mistake)
32GB of Corsair 2400 ram, EVO
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
EVGA Supernova 750 G3, 80 Plus Gold 750W, Fully Modular PSU
Phanteks PH-EC416PTG_BK Eclipse P400 Steel ATX Mid Tower Case
MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB GDRR5X DirectX 12 352-bit (longer than the width of my mobo)
I don't get any sag on the GPU really but I got one of those magnetic GPU ....things that can brace the CPU and keep it in place.

Guess that covers the gist of it. So, first I want to confess to two mistakes I made. I originally had an gtx 1050ti and my mobo is micro-atx which has worked like a charm, but its small and is a pain in the butt. I paid $1070 for my 1080ti on Amazon. I could of got a really nice RTX card but I have been out of the PC gaming world for a bit and didn't think it would fit in my motherboard. Anyways, there was no one else with this card and this guy could choose to sell at this price. More to him for getting $1k off me for it. It is a beast of a card so whatever.

Anyways, I got the i7 after work yesterday went home. Flashed the MSI Mortar motherboard BIOS because it needs the bios update to support the 9th generation i7. That went fine. I got the CPU cooler off, cleaned it and the i5 processor. Put in the i7 processor and used artic silver paste. Put about a pencil erasers worth in the middle and put the cpu cooler back on. That seemed to go well. Didn't notice any issues visually. Booted up the computer and it noticed a new cpu. I went into BIOS and was very happy to see it saw the i7. I used the XMP and I believe its labeled "Game Boost" at the top left. XMP overclocks the memory and the Game Boost OC's the cpu. It is just two buttons you click and they basically set the fans to spin at max and do some other things that overclock the hardware. The i7 was already running at 4.8GHZ in BIOS at 40c.

I started up the computer and loaded CPU-Z and Core Temp(I think is the program name, I may have to get back to you on that). The temp program shows me all the cores and the current temp, temp lows, highs etc. I loaded Red Dead Redemption 2 and within 10 minutes the computer just shut down. I booted back up and ran a stress test using CPU-Z on the CPU and the temp program showed it never going above 70c. When playing the game I checked and it was at 60-70c. Yet again, this time the game crashed roughly 20 minutes in. Restarted the game and this time the computer froze with that horrible sound like a singer stuck on a note for eternity.

I am thinking that the CPU is getting to hot and its causing problems even though it doesn't show it getting higher than 75c ever. So, I manually overclocked it. I tell you again, I work in IT but I have not messed around with overclocking or custom builds for a long time. I kept the core clock at 100 but changed the ratio from auto to 44. Not the ring ratio. This change made the CPU go to 4.3Ghz. I literally changed one setting because I don't know what else to change and have no idea. When I get home I will probably google how to overclock the i7-9700k on MSI motherboard but right now with the change I made the computer does not crash or anything. It is stable. I ran stress test for 30 minutes no problems and played Red Dead 2 on Ultra settings for about 3 hours, no problems.

I know I should not be changing settings in the BIOS on the CPU when I am not certain what I am doing. I understand this.
I am just wondering if you think the CPU is getting to hot and causing the game/computer crashes or if its a voltage issue of some kind etc? It is very odd. I stress tested it while it was at 4.8ghz but only for about 15 minutes. No problems. I can enable that Game Boost again and read out the voltages and anything else if that helps but it will be a bit(get off work at 1pm EST)

Is there a good guide someone knows of for this CPU and my BIOS? I noticed when I did flash the bios some new settings appeared in the OC GUI such as ring ratio which I didn't see before. I noticed on post on this forum the guy disable intel turbo boost and a lot of other settings that are enabled by default so maybe there is more I need to do.

I also bet that it would be a good idea to switch to liquid cooling? Even if it seems like my CPU isn't getting to hot. I was going to buy one at the Best Buy while I was there but I didn't. I may after work today. Any recommendations on a water cooling system? I would like to stay under $250 for one if possible. I also really want to get an ATX Motherboard. I should attach a picture of what the inside of my case looks like. It is clean and has nice cabling but its so small and there is so much room it makes me laugh.

Anyways, thought I share this and also get some feedback.

Thanks!

Ok, don’t think it’s a heat issue, most likely voltage related as the CPU is most likely not getting enough voltage in the AUTO overclocking. I’d never recommend using any auto overclocking feature with a motherboard. What I would recommend is to download “Intel Performance Maximizer” this will run automatically and determine the best settings and the max clock and voltage based on your current cooling situation. I would recommend also a better cooler for overclocking a 9700k. Any 280 or 360mm from Corsair, NZXT or EVGa will work fine.

 

[Sean87NC]

Ok, don’t think it’s a heat issue, most likely voltage related as the CPU is most likely not getting enough voltage in the AUTO overclocking. I’d never recommend using any auto overclocking feature with a motherboard. What I would recommend is to download “Intel Performance Maximizer” this will run automatically and determine the best settings and the max clock and voltage based on your current cooling situation. I would recommend also a better cooler for overclocking a 9700k. Any 280 or 360mm from Corsair, NZXT or EVGa will work fine.

I will download that software and see what is shows. Thanks for that information. I will also look into a new cooler. The 280 or 360mm. What size is this for? The actual cooling unit or fan size?

 

[bmockeg]

Depends what your case can hold. 280mm or 360mm is the radiator size.

 

[Sean87NC]

Depends what your case can hold. 280mm or 360mm is the radiator size.

I found the specs for the case. It looks like it supports both 280 and 360 but only the 360 can fit in both front and rear. It is a bit confusing. Here is a screenshot of the specs. Bottom left shows what is supported. I guess I will go with 280mm but it only says it supports it in the front. Whatever that means.

https://imgur.com/FUUWrUw

 

[Sean87NC]

I am looking at a CORSAIR - Hydro Series H100i RGB Platinum 120mm Processor Liquid Cooling System and people are saying it is keeping their temps around 70c. I am getting good cooling apparently off my fan cooler. I may look at some better models than that corsair.

 

[bmockeg]

Your rear only uses a single 120mm fan or radiator. You’ll want to go with a 280mm or 360mm I’m the front. If you want a 280mm EVGA has the best cooling, Corsair or NZXT are fine also.

 

[Karadjgne]

Cooling is all about wattage. Your cpu, run at a 5.0GHz locked core OC can hit 200w. The hyper212 evo is a 140w budget cooler, doing the math, doesn't take a genius to realize that a 140w cooler doesn't have a snowballs chance of keeping a cpu putting out anything close to 200w from thermal throttle/shutdowns.

So that brings up the subject of capacity. A 120mm AIO is @ 140w. A 240mm AIO is @ 250w, a 280mm AIO is @ 300w and a 360mm AIO is @ 350w. Generally.

So a decent 240mm, like the Corsair H100i, will work, a decent 280mm like a Corsair H115i Pro will work, as will a 360mm like the Corsair H150i Pro. The difference being that the larger coolers are slightly more effective, leading to higher efficiency, so fans spin slower and quieter.

Add to that that there's only a few actual manufacturers of both radiators and pumps, so cooling ability is pretty much all the same, it boils down to the fans and its relationship to the rad as to which gets better temps, at whichever rpm. But they are all relatively close.

Personally, it's a I7-9700k. Doesn't really require any OC, but if you have the cooling for it, just enabling MCE is more than enough for anyone, setting a locked core OC at max turbo.

 

[TJ Hooker]

If you want to overclock, do it properly. There are tons of good guides and resources out there, read them. E.g. google "coffee lake overclocking guide". Don't just start changing BIOS settings willy nilly.

As an aside, I don't know what made you think an RTX card wouldn't fit in your motherboard.

I could of got a really nice RTX card but I have been out of the PC gaming world for a bit and didn't think it would fit in my motherboard.

The PCIe x16 slot on your motherboard is a standard size, any graphics card will fit in it. The only real constraints are the size of your case and your PSU.

 

[Sean87NC]

If you want to overclock, do it properly. There are tons of good guides and resources out there, read them. E.g. google "coffee lake overclocking guide". Don't just start changing BIOS settings willy nilly.

As an aside, I don't know what made you think an RTX card wouldn't fit in your motherboard.

The PCIe x16 slot on your motherboard is a standard size, any graphics card will fit in it. The only real constraints are the size of your case and your PSU.

The story behind that is very embarrassing especially as a System Administrator. I have been in IT since 2005 to just give some background. I was at Best Buy and I just picked out a RTX 2060. I brought it home and for the life of me, it would not go into the PCI slot. Well, there was one simple and obvious problem. I did not take the cap off the GPU pin. You know most if not all GPU's when you get them they have a protective sleeve over the pin. Well, yeah. I just got the card and I was in a rush. I know it takes up 2 slots worth of space(my current 1080TI is huge) which isn't a problem. After I realized this it was to late. I already bought the 1080ti and had it for more than 30 days. It is so EMBARRASSING.

 

[Sean87NC]

Cooling is all about wattage. Your cpu, run at a 5.0GHz locked core OC can hit 200w. The hyper212 evo is a 140w budget cooler, doing the math, doesn't take a genius to realize that a 140w cooler doesn't have a snowballs chance of keeping a cpu putting out anything close to 200w from thermal throttle/shutdowns.

So that brings up the subject of capacity. A 120mm AIO is @ 140w. A 240mm AIO is @ 250w, a 280mm AIO is @ 300w and a 360mm AIO is @ 350w. Generally.

So a decent 240mm, like the Corsair H100i, will work, a decent 280mm like a Corsair H115i Pro will work, as will a 360mm like the Corsair H150i Pro. The difference being that the larger coolers are slightly more effective, leading to higher efficiency, so fans spin slower and quieter.

Add to that that there's only a few actual manufacturers of both radiators and pumps, so cooling ability is pretty much all the same, it boils down to the fans and its relationship to the rad as to which gets better temps, at whichever rpm. But they are all relatively close.

Personally, it's a I7-9700k. Doesn't really require any OC, but if you have the cooling for it, just enabling MCE is more than enough for anyone, setting a locked core OC at max turbo.

Thanks for the info. Sorry to be a pain but can you explain the last part there. Right now I have it running steady at 4.3GHZ but it does run fine without overclocking . I believe with the fan cooler I can push it just a bit more until I get a water cooling system. What setting is MCE and what do you mean by a locked core OC at max turbo? Sorry to be such a newb.

 

[Sean87NC]

Ok, don’t think it’s a heat issue, most likely voltage related as the CPU is most likely not getting enough voltage in the AUTO overclocking. I’d never recommend using any auto overclocking feature with a motherboard. What I would recommend is to download “Intel Performance Maximizer” this will run automatically and determine the best settings and the max clock and voltage based on your current cooling situation. I would recommend also a better cooler for overclocking a 9700k. Any 280 or 360mm from Corsair, NZXT or EVGa will work fine.

I have downloaded the software but it fails to run. It says "There is an unknown problem. Please ensure that your current system hardware settings support overclocking, reinstall Intel® Performance Maximizer, and try again.". I have read the manual and I have all the settings it needs set. I am not sure what the problem is. I also verified I downloaded the install file for i7-9700k. The install goes fine but I get that error when I launch the software. Any ideas?

 

[Sean87NC]

I have downloaded the software but it fails to run. It says "There is an unknown problem. Please ensure that your current system hardware settings support overclocking, reinstall Intel® Performance Maximizer, and try again.". I have read the manual and I have all the settings it needs set. I am not sure what the problem is. I also verified I downloaded the install file for i7-9700k. The install goes fine but I get that error when I launch the software. Any ideas?

I noticed that the software says it is going to create a 10GB partition but I don't see that on my computer. Could be the issue. Not sure. This is frustrating! I may just have to read or watch some guides on overclocking it. I think I can get it up to 4.5GHZ with my fan cooling system and be okay.

 

[bmockeg]

I noticed that the software says it is going to create a 10GB partition but I don't see that on my computer. Could be the issue. Not sure. This is frustrating! I may just have to read or watch some guides on overclocking it. I think I can get it up to 4.5GHZ with my fan cooling system and be okay.

Yes, it should partition a section for the program.

 

[Sean87NC]

Yes, it should partition a section for the program.

Yes, I didn't see any partitions in disk management. I am on build 1809 and the guide says that is required. Along with some other settings. Anyways, I am just going to get a water cooler and go from there before I go any higher. I am not going to spend all night trying to get the Intel software to run.

 

[Sean87NC]

So, when I was troubleshooting the Intel software I set the Overclocking settings back to default. 3.60GHZ etc. I don't have any settings changed. In the MSI GUI it shows I am running at 3.60GHZ. When I boot my computer though, the CPU fan is at max and CPU-Z is showing the CPU running at 4.6 - 4.7Mhz
Bus speed 100.00
Multiplier 46-7 - varies

I am not sure how it is doing this. I installed the Intel software but when launching it just threw that error. I have since uninstalled it. Is it possible it did something? That wouldn't seem likely as the BIOS settings show no setting changes. I am perplexed.

 

[bmockeg]

So, when I was troubleshooting the Intel software I set the Overclocking settings back to default. 3.60GHZ etc. I don't have any settings changed. In the MSI GUI it shows I am running at 3.60GHZ. When I boot my computer though, the CPU fan is at max and CPU-Z is showing the CPU running at 4.6 - 4.7Mhz
Bus speed 100.00
Multiplier 46-7 - varies

I am not sure how it is doing this. I installed the Intel software but when launching it just threw that error. I have since uninstalled it. Is it possible it did something? That wouldn't seem likely as the BIOS settings show no setting changes. I am perplexed.

CPU is just boosting as normal.

 

[Sean87NC]

CPU is just boosting as normal.

Well, it is boosting very good and its stable! I just played Red Dead Redemption 2 since my last post on Ultra settings and the PC never crashed. The GPU temp never went above 72 on one of the cores. Very happy. It idles at 4.7ghz with 32c average temp which isn't bad.

I appreciate everyone's help and input. I will definitely be switching to a liquid cooled system this week. Anyways, 4.6-4.8ghz is pretty good and benchmark test compared to my i5 test are much higher. I just need to switch to NVME and get some better memory Have a good Christmas.

 

[Karadjgne]

Base: 3,600 MHz
Turbo Cores:
1: 4,900 MHz
2: 4,800 MHz
3: 4,700 MHz
4: 4,700 MHz
5: 4,600 MHz
6: 4,600 MHz
7: 4,600 MHz
8: 4,600 MHz

As you can see, just using stock Optimal Default settings is going to get you far better performance than your current Overclock is doing, you'll be fine at default settings for a minimum of 4.6GHz. Enabling MCE (Multi Core Enhancement) will lock all the cores at a maximum turbo speed, 4.9GHz. IF you have the cooling capacity for it.

 

[Sean87NC]

Base: 3,600 MHz
Turbo Cores:
1: 4,900 MHz
2: 4,800 MHz
3: 4,700 MHz
4: 4,700 MHz
5: 4,600 MHz
6: 4,600 MHz
7: 4,600 MHz
8: 4,600 MHz

As you can see, just using stock Optimal Default settings is going to get you far better performance than your current Overclock is doing, you'll be fine at default settings for a minimum of 4.6GHz. Enabling MCE (Multi Core Enhancement) will lock all the cores at a maximum turbo speed, 4.9GHz. IF you have the cooling capacity for it.

Thank you. I should be able to find this MCE setting in the CPU settings in the MSI GUI?

 

[Karadjgne]

In bios, yes.

 

[Sean87NC]

In bios, yes.

K, thanks. I am picking up that water cooler I mentioned above at a local Best Buy. It is only $129 but I think it will give some improvement over my fan cooled system. I am actually surprised on how well the temps are when it is running at 4.7 or 4.8Ghz. I just played Red Dead Red. 2 since my last post(I think its been 5 or 6 hours? and one core hit 80c but the rest stayed around 75c. No crashes or anything. Ultra/high settings. I can't tell what the GPU Mhz frequency is though while in game as if I ALT-TAB the game crashes. But its safe to assume its around 4.7Mhz. It goes between this but seems to mostly stick at 4.7Mhz. Idle temps are great. Anyways, again, thanks.