Motherboard upgrade for better oc

[Guest]

Hi guys, so i was testing some overclocks on my 4690k and got 4,5ghz on 1.21 voltage stable. However my motherboard is an Gigabyte Z97 HD3, and im having alot of trouble keeping the voltage stable. I can run it at fixed voltage, however i dont want it to run att full voltage all the time as the heat output increases and it can shorter the lifespan of the cpu alot ive heard. There aint any option in the BIOS for adaptive voltage. however i can use offset voltage, which makes it drop at idle. however when im stress testing it, the voltage goes both down and above my upper limit ive set on the offset, the pc also crashes sometimes when using offset and stress testing, however not when using fixed. I get very annoyed by this, and ive tried alot of different settings, i still cant get the voltage to drop at idle properly, and ramp it up properly when using it. I know this mb is not the best, however i was on a limit budget when i bought it. So im wondering if its worth it to buy a new more expensive motherboard, to get good and stable adaptive voltage?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Not worth it as the gains will be minimal.

 

[Guest]

I thought so aswell, how should i do with my voltage then?

 

[AJ Kenway]

I would recommend for you to run at a lower clockspeed. Try 4.4 GHz. It sounds like you chip is at its limit in terms of how far you can overclock it. These days, motherboards have very little impact on how far you can push you overclock.

 

[Guest]

But this has nothing with the clockspeed to do. I can run it at 4.8 ghz, with high static voltage. But i cant because of thermal limits. Its about the voltage not being good when using the motherboards offset option.

 

[AJ Kenway]

Try increasing both the voltage and voltage offset. I don't really mess with the voltage offset since I set my power plan on windows to balanced mode which gives me 800MHz - 2000MHz core @ around 0.1v - 0.8v when I'm idling. I don't use adaptive either because some applications can override it, resulting into voltage spikes.

 

[Guest]

Ive gotta set a offset, if i set it at a fixed voltage and windows to balanced, it wont drop at idle, clockspeed does, but not voltage. Btw, is 75 degrees during Prime95 stress test too high? I have a 212 evo cooler.

 

[AJ Kenway]

Thats weird. I run a G3258 @ 4.3GHz which is in the same family of processors but my voltage drops when I'm idling w/o offset. 75c isn't that high. Just don't go over 85c you should be fine. 100c is TJmax of Haswell anyways.