[SOLVED] New to OC - where to go from here.

jacob68

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Jan 30, 2019
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So, new to OC but well experienced with hardware. Never OC´ed before, never really had the "need".
But after building a new rig I started fiddling with it out of boredom. Read all the guides etc. Started with an "in between" OC just to get started.
4.7ghz @ 1.26v. Works fine. Want to take it higher and see where I can go without delidding. But...and heres the newbie question:
Where to go next, what kind of increments would you suggest? Next "point of test"?
Realbench from my "starting" OC below. Anything to take note of in the numbers?
System is in short:
Rog Strix Z390E gaming. I7-8700K. 32GB RAM@3200mhz. Define S2 Meshify. CM 360mm AIO plus 6 AP fans.

View: https://imgur.com/0LONT3D
 
Solution
Bump up the CPU multiplier 1x. Check again for stability and temps stay in line. Keep note of where you are at in voltage and Ghz. Keep bumping up the speed until it becomes unstable. Then either go back to the last stable speed or start increasing voltage until it is stable again. Some say 1.4V is safe for Coffee Lake others say 1.5V. Personally, I'd err on the side of caution.

Eventually, you'll hit a point where increasing the CPU another .1Ghz will require a large change in VCore. This is the point where you should stop your OC. If 5Ghz to 5.1Ghz requires a large VCore change. Then 5Ghz should be your max. Some also do an AVX off set of -2. So, they can hit a higher Ghz number while dropping speed for more power hungry AVX...
Bump up the CPU multiplier 1x. Check again for stability and temps stay in line. Keep note of where you are at in voltage and Ghz. Keep bumping up the speed until it becomes unstable. Then either go back to the last stable speed or start increasing voltage until it is stable again. Some say 1.4V is safe for Coffee Lake others say 1.5V. Personally, I'd err on the side of caution.

Eventually, you'll hit a point where increasing the CPU another .1Ghz will require a large change in VCore. This is the point where you should stop your OC. If 5Ghz to 5.1Ghz requires a large VCore change. Then 5Ghz should be your max. Some also do an AVX off set of -2. So, they can hit a higher Ghz number while dropping speed for more power hungry AVX workloads. Which seems like a cheat to me.

Now that you have what seems to be stable. You need to stress test more thoroughly for your final setting as some minor tweaks may be needed. Let Realbench run for an hour. I'd also run an hour stress test with OCCT. Test your GPU with Luxmark and Unigine Valley (1 hour each minimum). Test your memory in Memtest86+. Personally, I'd let them run overnight. One test each night.

You only need to delid if you are going to go nuts with your OC. With that cooler you can handle quite a bit without delidding. Personally, I don't see the point of an extreme OC. Besides bragging you can hit 5.2Ghz. You aren't likely going to notice a real world difference between 5.2Ghz and 4.9Ghz. But your ears will hear the difference in your cooling fans. You'll see a difference in your power bill. You'll feel the difference in ambient temperature.

I prefer to see what my limit is. Then drop it down by 0.4Ghz for a long term OC and see how low I can get my VCORE. Your system will run much cooler and quieter. Without much speed difference.
 
Solution

jacob68

Notable
Jan 30, 2019
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Thanks. And its not a bragging excercise :) I want to push it and then dial back to a clock I feel comfortable running 24/7.

I just increased to 4.8 ghz without changing anything else. Ran Realbench for 1 hour, no issues. Temps increased to the mid instead of low 70´s. But I guess that would be expected?

Not sure if Im gonna bother go further, I have a gut feeling that for a "safe" longterm OC I will probably end where I am now anyway (4.8 ghz@1.265v running idle temps in the late 20´s and load tems in the mid 70´s).
 

jacob68

Notable
Jan 30, 2019
188
14
815
Thanks. And its not a bragging excercise :) I want to push it and then dial back to a clock I feel comfortable running 24/7.

I just increased to 4.8 ghz without changing anything else. Ran Realbench for 1 hour, no issues. Temps increased to the mid instead of low 70´s. But I guess that would be expected?

Not sure if Im gonna bother go further, I have a gut feeling that for a "safe" longterm OC I will probably end where I am now anyway (4.8 ghz@1.265v running idle temps in the late 20´s and load tems in the mid 70´s).

Lowered the vcore to 1.210v@4.8ghz. Still stable. What would be considered a "good" low voltage @4.8ghz?
 

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