Question Overclocking a I5-7600K First time

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mammaliika

Honorable
Jul 21, 2016
16
1
10,515
after one and a half year with my i5-7600k running on B250 motherboard i finally got MSI Z270 Sli plus yesterday and my new cooler Arctic Freezer 34 duo and started reassembly my PC again and when i was done the OC began :D
at first i tried the MSI auto OC which boost to 4.5Ghz at 1.300v which i know is very high for this clock , but i wanted to test it bcs i was scared.
i got stable 4.5Ghz at 1.125v , after testing in prime95/aida / playnig some games which is mostly what i do on the pc i went back to BIOS to try 4.6Ghz and it was stable again with the same 1.125v i test it again and after a while i wanted to go 4.7Ghz but i felt like 1.125v wont run table 4.7Ghz so i up the voltage to 1.140v ( i know is not alot but ay :D ) but when i was in bios i was like "well i can try 4.8Ghz if runs it runs , right? so i just hit the 48 cpu ratio and start the system it ran stable but snice im greedy i went to BIOS to down the vcore to 1.130 and 4.8Ghz was still stable imo. so after some test n gaming i was sure this cpu can hit 5Ghz so i went to BIOS change the ratio to 50 and set the new cpu vcore to 1.200v and reboot , when windows logo came i got my first blue screen :D so i bump the voltage a bit again to 1.240v and i load windows i ran my tests i game for 1h temps were around 60-63C and today i was feeling like i can try new vcore so i down the vcore to 1.230v and the system is still very stable im running aida for around 24mins now average temps are around 63-65C with max 67-68 and my 4th core hit 70 , but i guess if with the aida running and im watching a stream on my other monitor and typing here on my main if it doesnt crash is good right?
Also if someone can give me some advice with the more advanced settings so i can maybe lower the temps or something im not very sure?
my PC specs are
mobo - MSI Z270 sli plus
cpu - i5 7600k
ram - 2x8 ddr4 2400mhz (ill upgrade it soon i guess to atleast 3000mhz , because i dont know how to overclock ram and i doubt it can go near close to 3000mhz)
cooler - arctic freezer 34 duo
psu - cooler master 600w 80+ bronze
gpu - aorus 1060 6gb + 750 ti for my other monitor :D (because my main monitor have Gsync and if i put both monitors into same GPU with gsync enabled is not good for your eyes :D

here's short test in aida64 for 30min , im still gonna run it for 1-2 hours more
http://prntscr.com/nu8ngn

update : lowering the vcore to 1.230v after 1h and 15min in aida pc started to freeze for 1-2 seconds on time to time when i was browsing the youtube so i guess 1.230 was too low so here we go back to 1.240v where is for sure stable 101%


ALSO i would like to ask if the heat for 5Ghz 1.240v is worth it? or i can just go back to 4.8Ghz with 1.130v ?
 
Last edited:

Eximo

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I have to admit, that seems like a golden sample of a CPU. If your temps are that low at 5Ghz, you should be able to go quite a bit farther.

You can bring the uncore up a bit (the cache frequency) to improve performance. Remember as you increase Vcore and frequencies, you might need to start increasing Voltage input, default is 1.8 volts or something like that, though typically you would already have needed to mess with that to get to 5Ghz.

I believe I run my uncore at 4.5Ghz with a 5Ghz all core, at 1.416 volts, water cooled, delidded, but not liquid metal. So 1.24 volts to do 5Ghz is pretty darn good. (Though I haven't been particularly lucky with my CPUs, always seem to get a super average chip, maybe silicon lottery next time around)

You might be surprised with the memory, you can just try out the timings from faster kits and see if it will do them. I tend to undervolt my memory since that saves a little on the CPU heat, but keep it at an XMP profile of 3000Mhz. If you bump up the voltage to 1.3 or something it might easily do 3000Mhz.
 

mammaliika

Honorable
Jul 21, 2016
16
1
10,515
i dont have XMP because my ram is just 2400mhz , can be OC but i dont know how to do it really ,welli did some kind of adjustments and ran prime95 for ~20min and there're the temps n etc
http://prntscr.com/nujeqc
is not really 1.240v even tho in BIOS is but i guess i have something that boost the vcore a bit , which i dont know :D i guess i could get better results with better cooler and better mobo snice mine are basicly trash but still do the work for me ,i made the back fan to spin at full speed so it can exhaust the heat from the gpu and cpu faster ( i guess ) and the temps are okay , im just trying not to hit 80 C in benchmarks and this core #3 is giving me hard time with reaching 81 C i dont know whats his problem

are temps under 80 C safe for longer gaming sesions?
 
Last edited:

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
Yes, 80C average is perfectly acceptable for everyday use. As is the voltage.

Load Line Calibration attempts to offset high current draw that causes voltage droop. That is why you will see numbers higher than you have set.

I suspect some of the settings from the Auto OC are still in effect.

I won't admit to being a memory overclocker, I tend to just buy the speed I want. The most basic of memory overclocking is to do something like this and see if it works:

2400Mhz kit might be 16-16-16-39 @ 1.2volts or something close to that.
2666Mhz kit might be 16-18-18-38 @ 1.2 volts
3000Mhz kit might be 16-20-20-38 @ 1.35 volts

Notice a lot of the timings are the same or similar. Often the only difference between various models is how well the chips themselves performed. They are sorted and sold as kits with a guarantee they will run at those settings. Add a little voltage and it is certainly possible the chips will run higher frequencies, they just didn't meet the specs to be the fancier kits, but otherwise are the exact same chips.

Take a look at the model of memory you have, see if there are higher frequency versions and give those timings a try. With any luck it will just happily work, even without extra voltage.

As I mentioned before I run my memory at 1.29 volts rather than the 1.35 volts specified. I could probably overclock to 3200Mhz if I chose, but I see no need at the moment.
 

Eximo

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With voltage yes, but there is more risk on the CPU itself. It is a 1.2 volt memory controller stock with a maximum of 1.35 volts supported. Me personally, never take the memory above 1.35 volts, and as mentioned, actually undervolted a little. The last system I run at the ragged edge of memory voltage slowly started losing memory channels. So fine for the short term bragging rights of benchmarks, but for every day use I like to play it safe with memory.

Settings the timings badly, worst case the system won't boot and you have to reset the BIOS. Most commonly it will just reboot, reset the memory timings, and tell you the overclock failed.
 

Eximo

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Hmm, the score is a bit disappointing. I still suggest tinkering with the uncore at least a few hundred megahertz to see if that makes a difference. I'm trying to remember the rule of thumb, but it was something like trying to keep it within 500Mhz of the max core clock speed.
 

farmageddon85

Reputable
Feb 25, 2020
17
0
4,510
after one and a half year with my i5-7600k running on B250 motherboard i finally got MSI Z270 Sli plus yesterday and my new cooler Arctic Freezer 34 duo and started reassembly my PC again and when i was done the OC began :D
at first i tried the MSI auto OC which boost to 4.5Ghz at 1.300v which i know is very high for this clock , but i wanted to test it bcs i was scared.
i got stable 4.5Ghz at 1.125v , after testing in prime95/aida / playnig some games which is mostly what i do on the pc i went back to BIOS to try 4.6Ghz and it was stable again with the same 1.125v i test it again and after a while i wanted to go 4.7Ghz but i felt like 1.125v wont run table 4.7Ghz so i up the voltage to 1.140v ( i know is not alot but ay :D ) but when i was in bios i was like "well i can try 4.8Ghz if runs it runs , right? so i just hit the 48 cpu ratio and start the system it ran stable but snice im greedy i went to BIOS to down the vcore to 1.130 and 4.8Ghz was still stable imo. so after some test n gaming i was sure this cpu can hit 5Ghz so i went to BIOS change the ratio to 50 and set the new cpu vcore to 1.200v and reboot , when windows logo came i got my first blue screen :D so i bump the voltage a bit again to 1.240v and i load windows i ran my tests i game for 1h temps were around 60-63C and today i was feeling like i can try new vcore so i down the vcore to 1.230v and the system is still very stable im running aida for around 24mins now average temps are around 63-65C with max 67-68 and my 4th core hit 70 , but i guess if with the aida running and im watching a stream on my other monitor and typing here on my main if it doesnt crash is good right?
Also if someone can give me some advice with the more advanced settings so i can maybe lower the temps or something im not very sure?
my PC specs are
mobo - MSI Z270 sli plus
cpu - i5 7600k
ram - 2x8 ddr4 2400mhz (ill upgrade it soon i guess to atleast 3000mhz , because i dont know how to overclock ram and i doubt it can go near close to 3000mhz)
cooler - arctic freezer 34 duo
psu - cooler master 600w 80+ bronze
gpu - aorus 1060 6gb + 750 ti for my other monitor :D (because my main monitor have Gsync and if i put both monitors into same GPU with gsync enabled is not good for your eyes :D

here's short test in aida64 for 30min , im still gonna run it for 1-2 hours more
http://prntscr.com/nu8ngn

update : lowering the vcore to 1.230v after 1h and 15min in aida pc started to freeze for 1-2 seconds on time to time when i was browsing the youtube so i guess 1.230 was too low so here we go back to 1.240v where is for sure stable 101%


ALSO i would like to ask if the heat for 5Ghz 1.240v is worth it? or i can just go back to 4.8Ghz with 1.130v ?
5.0 at 1.24 seems like an exaggeration..but if your being honost thats very good..very rare to get 5.0 at that low of a vcore with an air cooler..im currently at a 4.8 1.29vcore
 
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