[SOLVED] Need some help, new at overclocking!

[AristosT]

Hey everyone, I just want some help with overclocking. Starting off, these are my specs:

Mobo: ASRock Z490 Taichi
CPU: Intel i9-10900 (yes, NOT the 10900K)
GPU: MSI GAMING X TRIO 24G 3090
RAM: Dual-Channel 2x Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4-3200MHz (CMK32GX4M2B3200C16)
PSU: Corsair HX1200
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 Black
PC Case: Phanteks P600S Eclipse White ( no additional fans, just the ones the case came with, planning on installing 2 of Noctua NF-A15 HS-PWM 140mm in the near future)
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

I use my PC only for browsing, doing basic stuff like excel and word and gaming at a 2K (2560x1440) 165Hz monitor, I want all my games to run at their ultra settings at the highest FPS possible. I know I should have gone for the 10900K. Looking back, when I was building this PC and deciding what to put in it, I thought I could save some money by not going for the 10900K because I have not overclocked ever in my life so I thought it would be useless to me, now I regret it.

So the reason of doing this post is because i'm lost. I'm searching and reading forums every day but to no avail, I can't understand a lot of things or if I can understand it, I'm too afraid to expirement because my rig is super expensive and I don't want to play around. I have overclocked my RAM to 3333mhz (1666mhz each one), 15-18-18-36 on the timings and 1.398V ( my official RAM XMP speed is 3200Mhz, 15-19-19-36 and 1.35V) works fine, did a lot of stress tests on 3Dmark and played for hours, all good. However, can I go higher speed and/or lower timings and/or more voltage? How much of a risk do I have to damage something? And if it works, is it worth it? I don't want to meddle around if I'm getting only 2-3 more fps.

Another thing is, can I make my CPU faster? I know its not a K model but can I change something in the BIOS or in a program that can squeeze out some better performance? Since I'm using the best air cooler out there, I want to make use of it. I have read something about CPU voltage and FCLK or BCLK (something like that) frequency but I do not want to change anything if it means I will damage it or make it unstable. Also I've read something about VCCSA and VCCIO voltages can help when overclocking the CPU and RAM, can I increase them or should I not considering I do not have the K model?

And lastly, the GPU ( or BFGPU in my case lol). Currently, I have added in MSI Afterburner +100 to the core voltage, made the power limit 102 and the temp limit 91, added +45 to the core clock and +350 on the memory clock. Works fine that way, but pretty much anything over that and it crashes. Although, anything over that +45 core and +350 memory passes the 3DMark stress tests, but crashes in-game, no matter the game i'm playing, about 10-20 minutes in. Why? I have seen people overclocking their card up to +250-450 core clock and +700-900 memory clock. I can not understand how it works, one possible explanation I thought about is that this a very new card so it may not currently support adding clock speed over a certain limit or something like that, please correct me if I'm wrong. One other explanation I thought is because of the RAM, because I have overclocked it over the official speed maybe that interferes with my GPU, should I return the RAM to the regular XMP speed of 3200mhz and timings and add more to the core and memory clock of my GPU??

If you have a question about something that I did not provide with this information, just ask me and I will add it.

Would really appreciate any advice/help you can give me, thanks in advance!

 

[siaan312]

BLCK overclocking is not something i'd recommend since it throws other busses out of whack, like pci-e and such.
don't try it.

FLCK overclocking is an AMD only, since intel uses a monolithic die, not chiplets. FLCK means the infinity fabric interconnect speed, that links AMD's chiplets.
CPU voltage power target overclocking is enabled on some motherboards, and while it doesn't "overclock" the cpu, it makes it strive for higher clock speeds, making it boost more aggressively to it's boost.
As for ram overclocking, other than timings, I wouldn't go much further, tho your timings are already pretty tight, so i'd doubt you'll get lower.
As for gpu, the reason you see people getting such high overclocks is because they overclock the founders edition, while you have an out of the box OC card, that by default has a higher boost clock.

Even so, none of the overclocks you can do will benefit you more than a few precent at best.
the i9 10900k is faster than the i9 10900 non k by default, overclocking is not something they even expect you to do or get a real benefit from.

the days of overclocking your cpu to 5 times it's original speed are over sadly, and nowadays cpu's and gpu's redline so much it's hard to get anything more than stock.

 

[Darkbreeze]

There is no overclocking you can do on that CPU that SHOULD be done. Using the system bus will affect other parts of the system and any overclock significant enough to actually offer any kind of benefit, if you even could, would almost certainly cause instability of the other subsystems on the motherboard.

If you need more performance, then I'd recommend that you do one of three things. Return the CPU (If it's still within the return window) and spring for the higher end 10900k or 10850k. Or sell your current CPU and so the same. You also might be able to eek out just a little more performance with a faster speed memory kit, or one with lower latency. A CL14 kit would lower the true latency a little bit and likely add just a little extra snappiness, but it's an expense and you'd again need to either return or sell your current memory.

In truth, your current CPU is probably more than fast enough, and has plenty of cores. There are people running the 3090 with much lower end CPUs than yours with no complaints.

 

[Darkbreeze]

BLCK overclocking is not something i'd recommend since it throws other busses out of whack, like pci-e and such.
don't try it.

Exactly my point.

 

[AristosT]

BLCK overclocking is not something i'd recommend since it throws other busses out of whack, like pci-e and such.
don't try it.

FLCK overclocking is an AMD only, since intel uses a monolithic die, not chiplets. FLCK means the infinity fabric interconnect speed, that links AMD's chiplets.
CPU voltage power target overclocking is enabled on some motherboards, and while it doesn't "overclock" the cpu, it makes it strive for higher clock speeds, making it boost more aggressively to it's boost.
As for ram overclocking, other than timings, I wouldn't go much further, tho your timings are already pretty tight, so i'd doubt you'll get lower.
As for gpu, the reason you see people getting such high overclocks is because they overclock the founders edition, while you have an out of the box OC card, that by default has a higher boost clock.

Even so, none of the overclocks you can do will benefit you more than a few precent at best.
the i9 10900k is faster than the i9 10900 non k by default, overclocking is not something they even expect you to do or get a real benefit from.

the days of overclocking your cpu to 5 times it's original speed are over sadly, and nowadays cpu's and gpu's redline so much it's hard to get anything more than stock.

I understand, thank you very much!

 

[AristosT]

There is no overclocking you can do on that CPU that SHOULD be done. Using the system bus will affect other parts of the system and any overclock significant enough to actually offer any kind of benefit, if you even could, would almost certainly cause instability of the other subsystems on the motherboard.

If you need more performance, then I'd recommend that you do one of three things. Return the CPU (If it's still within the return window) and spring for the higher end 10900k or 10850k. Or sell your current CPU and so the same. You also might be able to eek out just a little more performance with a faster speed memory kit, or one with lower latency. A CL14 kit would lower the true latency a little bit and likely add just a little extra snappiness, but it's an expense and you'd again need to either return or sell your current memory.

In truth, your current CPU is probably more than fast enough, and has plenty of cores. There are people running the 3090 with much lower end CPUs than yours with no complaints.

Yeah I know, I'm very happy about my PC performance in general it's just that I paid so much money for this, might as well get ALL the performance out it. I see, so I should just leave my overclocks I have done already like that since my system is stable with these. Unfortunately, the RAM kits and the CPU are out of the return window, so I will just wait for Rocket lake and I will probably upgrade to faster and lower latency kit and to a Rocket Lake CPU, if it's worth upgrading to Rocket Lake that is.

So a lesson learned here, if I'm going to buy such an extreme rig, might as well go for the unlocked K model, it was foolish of me thinking saving 50 euros was worth the trouble.

Anyways, thank you very much for your advices and help, truly appreciate it!! 😀