[SOLVED] Overclocking an 11900K ?

[Ahxakri]

Would anyone be willing to sit down with me and assist me jn OC'ing an 11900K? I have started to read the OCing guide and it is just a lot to take in. I'd feel very comfortable having an experienced person help break it down just a wee bit more. My bios are just all over the place in my head. I'll be home in about another hour.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Please DO NOT use AISuite to do ANY overclocking. You can corrupt your Bios. If you feel you want to use it just use for monitoring purposes. All Overclocking should only be done in Bios.
Check your Bios version in Bios and list here. I see your on 1007.

Check in CPUz that your Vcore corresponds to what vcore is in HWinfo64. (1.296v Max)
Ok from your current Overclock you have just a little headroom left so try a 5.0Ghz Overclock and raise your multiplier to 50. If the system fails then increase Vcore in .001 steps and LLC 1 step up. Run Aida64 again for the full 20mins to establish the MAX core temp at 5.0Ghz.
Your rail voltages are still stable so you should be good to go.

You have the tools now to try for a max Overclock however the 200Mhz you may gain from now on is not worth any instability and frustration, unless chasing benchmark accolades. Maintaining stability is more important.

Your system looks great btw and the stress you have put on your system will never be reached in the real world.
Speaking of Real World you may want to try Realbench. If you can pass that real world benchmark your system is 100% stable.

 

[Broviet1337]

Thanks man! I'll post back with how it goes- I haven't used that AI Suite for anything other than verifying readouts, but it has been matching the same things as the BIOS. I also played around with tightening memory timings again, and got the ram to pass diagnostics in memtest86 at 13-14-14-34 at 1.5V. but that is with the BCLK at 100, and gear 1 (1:1 and 100:133), and if I up that anymore, it's been causing instability. Is there any memory tuning or timing software that works for Intel systems? I know there are plenty of timing calculators for AMD, but I don't know if those are compatible or if there is a better solution? Lastly, so you know if the system stability test for AIDA64 logs errors when it finds hardware faults? I havent ran into any yet so hopefully wont be an issue.. but not sure where to look if that happens.

 

[MeanMachine41]

The best solution for Dram Timings and voltage is by manually keying in the SPD info from CPUz initially. Then adjusting using trial and error approach if need be.

It is also wise to check that the RAM you use are listed on the MB QVL that are tested and known to work.

XMP is a simple method for Intel RAM Overclocking but by no means the best method when it involves OC RAM beyond JDEC standards.

There are DRAM calculators but I don't know of any that work with Intel and the board your using. The one for AMD many find it not to be accurate if relying on Thaiphoon for IC recognition.

I have a good article to share with you regarding many questions you may have with RAM: https://github.com/integralfx/MemTestHelper/blob/oc-guide/DDR4 OC Guide.md#timings-software

Although I have not had to log any error/s i believe you can activate the Logging feature in AIDA64 / main menu / File / Preferences / Hardware Monitoring / Logging.

 

[Broviet1337]

Here's the results at 5Ghz (I didn't have all this running for the stress test, just uploading it for consistency's sake and to review if anyone looks at it in the future)

-This configuration boots stably, and passes RAM diagnostics, I'm satisfied with the timing and latency of this RAM, considering its 64GB at CR2
-Overheated pretty quick when doing stability testing, so I stopped that, but as far as I can tell this is running well for a daily driver profile
-My VCore is definitely creeping up however, it was hitting a max of 1.51V so not sure if that is okay to leave as is?
-This RAM is on Asus's qualified vendor list for the mobo by the way incase anyone reading this in the future is curious

I'm saving this profile and going to look into the individual core behaviors next when time permits, since the per-core limit feature on Rocket Lake might be able to help me more with benchmarking scores, but as an all core overclock, I'm really happy with this considering its still on air cooling (well, with an AIO).

If anyone reading this is curious, with all 13 of my fans running at 100%, my system draws around 314W from my battery backup. At full GPU utilization and stressing the CPU, I'm around 750W.

@MeanMachine41 thank you so much for the help! I've talked to the OP via Discord and I'll talk him through the same steps you've shared with me. I'll try to do little things here and there, and report back when all the liquid cooling components come in to see if I can push it more

 

[MeanMachine41]

-This configuration boots stably, and passes RAM diagnostics, I'm satisfied with the timing and latency of this RAM, considering its 64GB at CR2
-Overheated pretty quick when doing stability testing, so I stopped that, but as far as I can tell this is running well for a daily driver profile
-My VCore is definitely creeping up however, it was hitting a max of 1.51V so not sure if that is okay to leave as is?
-This RAM is on Asus's qualified vendor list for the mobo by the way incase anyone reading this in the future is curious

I'm saving this profile and going to look into the individual core behaviors next when time permits, since the per-core limit feature on Rocket Lake might be able to help me more with benchmarking scores, but as an all core overclock, I'm really happy with this considering its still on air cooling (well, with an AIO).

@MeanMachine41 thank you so much for the help! I've talked to the OP via Discord and I'll talk him through the same steps you've shared with me. I'll try to do little things here and there, and report back when all the liquid cooling components come in to see if I can push it more

Your Welcome Broviet

Vcore is a little high if constantly running at 1.5V under load and best brought back to 1.375V for longevity. It may peak occasionally to 1.5V but not consistently.

The Lian Li AIO is just coping if it's the 240mm Rad and ofc better results will be gained if it's the 360mm RAD. ?
Also I have found that it's better to have Air drawing thru the radiator and into the case as Internal case temps will never be lower than ambient and especially if a none reference GPU card is used. With all that extra hot air being pumped into the case it's best to increase rear exhaust fans to 140mm if they will fit.

Once you consider the system to be stable then you can re establish C-states. Tinkering now above 5.0Ghz depends on your enthusiasm.

I have saved in my system a profile for Winter and Summer as a 5.0Ghz overclock may be excessive during Summer.

 

[Broviet1337]

Just a little update here, I've gotten a stable build at 5.1Ghz, temps are under control now (I mistyped my vcore max voltage in bios to 1.64V instead of the 1.46V I had intended to put in😬) and I am more than satisfied with the base performance. I'll make sure to post the actual settings and screenshots when time permits, but for now I'm going to see if I can push my memory overclock a little higher - the article you posted is incredibly thorough and helpful!

Once my memory timings have been optimized a little further and stabilized again (can always revert back to where I'm at now) I'm going to try and setup boost in an effort to mirror the results from SkatterBencher in regards to VF point & AVX offsets. Goal will be to try and get my boost clock up to 5.3~5.4Ghz - This should give me something to do until water cooling blocks come in, and hopefully I can push further after that is done.

My last noob question (for today anyways ) is just a verification; once I have my tune fully stable, if I am trying to build a performance based "eco" tune, is it a sound strategy to just drop the clocks by a couple hundred megahertz? Or would it be better to just draw the core voltages down by the lowest increment at a time until I reach instability to find my floor? It might sound silly, but I eventually want to optimize power draw without sacrificing too much performance. To my thinking, the latter would be more optimized than the former, but risks OS corruption from instability, (not really a concern for me because I have everything backed up) correct?

 

[MeanMachine41]

Vcore of 1.64V is not safe and continuous use with that voltage will diminish the CPU and that is NOT recoverable.
Once you obtain your MAX thermal margin then drop Vcore down in .001v steps till the system won't boot then bring voltage backup till it boots. That is the MAX OC for the cooling you have. And yes that's a sound strategy to drop Frequency by 200Mhz.

Be patient and wait for better cooling and btw I don't agree with all of what SkatterBencher has to say as his approach differs to mine. By all means do as you please and feel free to experiment with Offsets. I obtained a slight increase performance wise by increasing BCLK to 101 and no thermal increase.

Here is a good article on the subject of offsets from one of the best at ROG:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?2162-Overclocking-Using-Offset-Mode-for-CPU-Core-Voltage

 

[Broviet1337]

Now on to memory timings.. going to do that since its going to be really time consuming. TestMem5 is also a cool tool to look into with regards to that, tells you where your instability happens.

 

[zx128k]

1.456 volts vcore seems high to me. On a 10900k you just would not be able to cool that. "Silicon Lottery notes that of the 11900K chips it has bought in, 29% of them were top-end overclockers capable of 5.1GHz." (from a source on techradar) On the Silicon lottery website there are no 11900k's above 5.1GHz.

"because of the high core voltage at 1.4V+ to keep it stable at 5.3GHz. In the end, we settled down at 5.0GHz with 1.32V on the core voltage, which gives us an average load temperature of 87°C. " (from source on tech-critter) Their cooler was a Thermaltake Floe Riing 360 RGB. Remember loads like prime 95/HEVC can be much hotter than gaming. AIDA 64 and Occt will draw 200 watts but prime 95 can hit 335 watts. So prime 95 will hit +90c. Remember you have to keep the cpu at +80c even on very hot days.

Also why is the PCH at 1.7 volts, is that stock? "Another note is that the PCH is powered by a VCCIN of 1.8v which is used as it’s FIVR input voltage. " (from source on skatterbencher) Dont change if its stock.