[SOLVED] Overclock check, high clock, low Vcore

[RamboRyza]

Hi all,

Long time reader, first time poster.

Specs:
Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 case
i7-5820k (33~36)
Thermaltake Riing Silent 12 Pro 120mm CPU cooler
X99 Deluxe mobo
40gb DDR4 2400mhz (running at 2400mhz, no XMP)
Corsair HX1000i PSU
GTX 1080 GPU

2 x 120mm front intake
2 x 200mm top intake
140mm rear exhaust

I need an overclock check...I was taking it easy with Vcore, didn't want to go above 1.25v (I get precious with <Mod Edit> sometimes haha)

Tonight I changed the thermal paste (Arctic Alumina) and thought why not.

I’d been sitting on 45,45,44,43,42,42 @ Vcore 1.22v (hexi-core) for a few days, stable as far as I could tell. So I went to all cores 46 and bumped the Vcore up to 1.30v (VCCIN still on auto at 1.920-1.936). Seen and read enough to know that 45 @ 1.3v was reasonable.

No problem. So I went to 46 @ 1.290. Again no problem (from what this average joe could tell).

47 @ 1.280v. Still good. 48 @ 1.275 wouldn’t boot, so I assume I’m somewhere near the wall, but not game nor see the need for me to push back up near 1.3v for 48 or above, temps at 1.3v leveled out at 80c, which is my self-imposed limit.

Other:
ASUS MCE disabled
C-states auto, EIST enabled. Balanced power mode in Windows.
PLL, LLC all auto.
VCCIN auto
No other changes to BIOS.

Now here is where I will cop some flack. I have stability tested in the past but just don’t like it. I game sometimes, otherwise make websites and general bookkeeping, nothing too strenuous. So I don't do it anymore. Have used RealBench, AIDA, P95, IBT, plenty of them, but I don't like the stress they put on my system when I know I won’t hit anywhere near that point with my usage. But I do still use AIDA and Prime to check max temps.

So I have noticed something with AIDA. When I test at stock (36 @ 1.07v) the timer will count up 4 numbers, then skip one (e.g. 1,2,3,4, pause, then 6,7,8,9, pause, repeat). Every time, without fail, at stock. So I now use that as a benchmark, of sorts. If I push the OC too far, that timer will slow down I've noticed. Although I wont hammer my CPU for hours with stress tests, if I open AIDA, fire it up, temps level out and the timer ticks over just like stock (4 secs then slight delay), then I GTAV and FH3 for a few hours and consider it good (pending readjustments if instability presents itself).

Have I hit the jackpot here, 47 @ 1.275, on air? Or have I missed something, or am I just massively unstable and haven't realized yet? PC is like lightning, I wait for nothing at all, everything loads immediately, temps max at 75c under stress, 65c gaming. I at least feel as though I could drop Vcore a bit further and retain current stability.

And is my AIDA theory crapola? I figure if the CPU can tick the AIDA timer along at the same speed as stock, when its getting hammered at 100%, then that's a good sign of stability?

Thanks for reading this and for any input. Just looking for confirmation as to where I am with this OC.

Cheers!

 

[tshinhar]

Sound good, voltage is great and temps looks fine too
Just a few points:

Have you verified the voltage when running a stress test? You might set it it at 1.275 but the mobo (for various reasons) pushes higher voltage

You might be able to get by with lower voltages on some of the other components like vccin and system agent, auto is always very conservative and if you are willing to try it might result in a lower temp and power consumption

As far as stability testing goes it is really up to you, you can just use the PC normally if you dont get a bsod or notice some unexpected behavior (checking system events is not a bad idea) then you are stable for your usage and that is mostly fine.
With that said you want to see if you are unstable on demand and not wait for some issues to surface and for that reason you might want to rest for stability a bit, you don't need to run prime95 for 24 hours if you don't want, in my experience running realbench stress test for about 30 min and passing is an excellent indication of stability.
i actually think AIDA and prime95 are not that great for stability testing only for max temps, I had unstable OCs passing prime95 for 24 hours but crashing immediately in games or realbench

Hope it help!

 

[RamboRyza]

@ tshinhar Thanks for your response mate.

It's clearly not as stable as I thought, because it booted fine this morning but the first restart, WHEA error. So backed the clock down, and also Vcore slightly, now 46 @ 1.265, restarts fine so no problems as yet.

Good questions. I've monitored temps but not voltages under load, although in saying that I do check max voltages after testing and they are always within 0.016v of what I set in BIOS (so I assume thats just LLC/PLL doing it's thing) and still well safe.

I use HWInfo for monitoring, should mention.

VCCIN I've played with, it seems to sit between 1.8 and 1.94 regardless, so thinking I might set it from Auto to 1.94 and just leave it. At least I know I'll be slightly over max VCCIN at load so should be good.

SA i'm unsure about. I have quad channel, 8gb x 2 and 4gb x 6 (got all these parts in a shopping bag for free and so just built it with all the RAM in there, should take some out) but not sure of a good range for SA or how exactly it will affect my RAM. Got any advice there? Pretty sure from memory SA hovers just under 1v.

I keep en eye on event viewer, nothing unusual thankfully.

Will do exactly that. I do like Realbench, just don't like my GPU being hammered at the same time...but I guess that's true testing. I do half hour runs and check.

Thanks again for your time, much appreciated!