Overclocking i5 4690K

[No_Scoped_Jesus]

Hey guys, so I'm planning on overclocking my i5 4690K as Battlefield 1 is getting kind of heavy on my CPU. What's a safe OC for this CPU? And if someone could talk me through it that would be well appreciated! Specs as follows: i5 4690K @ 3.5Ghz (3.9Ghz with turbo) EVGA GTX 980 Superclocked, Gigabyte Z97P-D3, EVGA 750W 80+ Gold, Samsung EVO 850 256GB SSD, Corsair Hydro H55 CPU Watercooling.

Thanks!

 

[thehutti]

The problem with overclocking a cpu is that there is no "safe OC for cpu type XXX". Every Chip is different and while some i5 4690K can run on 4.4Ghz no problem other i5-4690K could not. The simple method to overclock the system would be to simply disable all Turbo boost stuff in bios and increase the Multiplier of the CPU (should be on Auto or 35 atm). Then test if the system is stable and if then increase the multiplier more. If the system gets unstable you have two options. Either just return to the latest stable clocks and be happy or try to get it stable again by adding more voltage to the cpu. With all these configurations take a look at the temps during load. If they are to hot i would decrease the multiplier and decrease voltage. BTW: a i5-4690K should normally be fine with Battlefield 1 without overclocking. Are you sure that the load is at 100% while gaming? otherwise the overclock would do nothing at all.

 

[Dunlop0078]

A safe OC is whatever you can get it up to without overheating or pushing too much voltage through it, no i5 4690k is the same so i cant tell you exactly what you will be able to get. Most people can achieve 4.2-4.4ghz with a decent cooler and motherboard. There is too much info for me to give you in a forum post, I would do some research and read some guides. I linked a decent guide below.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1411077/haswell-overclocking-guide-with-statistics

 

[Dunlop0078]

The problem with overclocking a cpu is that there is no "safe OC for cpu type XXX". Every Chip is different and while some i5 4690K can run on 4.4Ghz no problem other i5-4690K could not. The simple method to overclock the system would be to simply disable all Turbo boost stuff in bios and increase the Multiplier of the CPU (should be on Auto or 35 atm). Then test if the system is stable and if then increase the multiplier more. If the system gets unstable you have two options. Either just return to the latest stable clocks and be happy or try to get it stable again by adding more voltage to the cpu. With all these configurations take a look at the temps during load. If they are to hot i would decrease the multiplier and decrease voltage. BTW: a i5-4690K should normally be fine with Battlefield 1 without overclocking. Are you sure that the load is at 100% while gaming? otherwise the overclock would do nothing at all.

BF1 destroys cpu's it has skylake i7s over 80% load. If any game was going to show good results with a cpu overclock it would be bf1. And the cpu does not have to be at 100% usage for you to get a performance gain from a cpu overclock. The only time you're going to see 100% cpu usage is if all cores and threads are tasked, an overclock will still help if only a single or 2 cores are tasked heavily which would not show 100% usage in a graph. As well as the more complicated topic of draw calls, a higher clocked cpu should allow it to crunch more draw calls sent to it from the gpu, which could result in higher peak fps regardless of cpu usage.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Hi No_Scoped_Jesus

One of the best OC guides I know for your Haswell i5 4690K is here: http://www.overclock.net/t/1411077/haswell-overclocking-guide-with-statistics

It is best to read then ask questions. There's plenty of support here,once you know the basics.

 

[thehutti]

The problem with overclocking a cpu is that there is no "safe OC for cpu type XXX". Every Chip is different and while some i5 4690K can run on 4.4Ghz no problem other i5-4690K could not. The simple method to overclock the system would be to simply disable all Turbo boost stuff in bios and increase the Multiplier of the CPU (should be on Auto or 35 atm). Then test if the system is stable and if then increase the multiplier more. If the system gets unstable you have two options. Either just return to the latest stable clocks and be happy or try to get it stable again by adding more voltage to the cpu. With all these configurations take a look at the temps during load. If they are to hot i would decrease the multiplier and decrease voltage. BTW: a i5-4690K should normally be fine with Battlefield 1 without overclocking. Are you sure that the load is at 100% while gaming? otherwise the overclock would do nothing at all.

BF1 destroys cpu's it has skylake i7s over 80% load. If any game was going to show good results with a cpu overclock it would be bf1. And the cpu does not have to be at 100% usage for you to get a performance gain from a cpu overclock. The only time you're going to see 100% cpu usage is if all cores and threads are tasked, an overclock will still help if only a single or 2 cores are tasked heavily which would not show 100% usage in a graph. As well as the more complicated topic of draw calls, a higher clocked cpu should allow it to crunch more draw calls sent to it from the gpu, which could result in higher peak fps regardless of cpu usage.

You are almost right, Battlefield 1 is known to have a bug that completely uses the CPU. But not all people with an i5 suffer from it. If Battlefiel doesn't fill up all cores only the overall score will be lower than 100%, most tools display the performance on each core and so you could still see a potential bottleneck.

Edit: I just took a look at my installation on my older PC (i5-3570K). Ran without problems (about 20-70% CPU usage, kind of jumpy) / Same with my newer PC (i7-4790K) almost the same usage on the cores.

 

[No_Scoped_Jesus]

Thanks for the replies guys! All helpful. I'll have a look at that thread tomorrow MeanMachine41 thank you! Not really clued up on overclocking but I'm guessing everything I need to know is on the internet and by the sounds of it it'll be a bit of trial and error Thanks again guys

 

[MeanMachine41]

Thanks for the replies guys! All helpful. I'll have a look at that thread tomorrow MeanMachine41 thank you! Not really clued up on overclocking but I'm guessing everything I need to know is on the internet and by the sounds of it it'll be a bit of trial and error Thanks again guys

All wanting to OC for the first time find it a little daunting at first No_Scoped_Jesus and it can be fun yet frustrating for others who don't spend the time learning their Bios.
My advice for what it's worth, OCing should only be done in the Bios and not thru some third party software in Windows. Your MB comes equipped with a UEFI Bios and very comprehensive options for OCing. With the right help here, and with your setup you should enjoy getting MAX performance from your rig.
Also before you start with OCing, make sure to update chipset driver and Bios to latest version.
This can be got from Gigabyte support site.
Good Luck.

 

[No_Scoped_Jesus]

Thanks for the replies guys! All helpful. I'll have a look at that thread tomorrow MeanMachine41 thank you! Not really clued up on overclocking but I'm guessing everything I need to know is on the internet and by the sounds of it it'll be a bit of trial and error Thanks again guys

All wanting to OC for the first time find it a little daunting at first No_Scoped_Jesus and it can be fun yet frustrating for others who don't spend the time learning their Bios.
My advice for what it's worth, OCing should only be done in the Bios and not thru some third party software in Windows. Your MB comes equipped with a UEFI Bios and very comprehensive options for OCing. With the right help here, and with your setup you should enjoy getting MAX performance from your rig.
Also before you start with OCing, make sure to update chipset driver and Bios to latest version.
This can be got from Gigabyte support site.
Good Luck.

I have an in depth understanding of my BIOS and MB. All drivers and software for it are up to date. I look forward to getting all the information I need and giving it a go. Thanks again MeanMachine41!