Overclocking i7 4770k, did I get unlucky?

[mikestogy]

Hello, I'm trying to overclock my i7 4770k 3.5ghz stock speed. this has proven to be a real pain in the butt. I can only seem to get a stable overclock on 4.2ghz. It seems other owners of this chip get between 4.4-4.7ghz. All I'm doing to overclock is changing the multiplier to 42, and raising the voltage limits by 0.01. When I try to do a 4.3 overclock, I changed the multiplier to 43, and raised the voltage by another 0.01. Then when I apply, the computer kinda hangs. It gives a post message of "A2" and sits there forever until I take out the battery on the mobo, then put it back. Are there 2 versions of the 4770k possibly? Like one with default clock speeds higher than my 3.5 one? Or did i just get unlucky? Any help on how to get a stable i7 4770k past 4.2 on a MSI motherboard would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Swordkd]

Well, it's certainly possible that you just got one that doesn't like the overclock. What are you using to cool the cpu? It's not a heat issue if you can't get into windows, but still something to consider. Also might need more voltage than what you are giving it also.

 

[mikestogy]

Just using the fan it came with, I also have 6 other case fans though. So my cooling seems pretty decent. Could you suggest an area for me to aim for with voltages? I have it for 4.2 at about 1.24 volts, should I add more? If so, how much. Also, should I just stick with the 4.2 oc? I mean, is the gain worth this hassle and constantly tearing apart my machine to reset it?

 

[leeb2013]

it shouldn't be a heat issue if it's crashing on POST as it's not being stressed. However, as you go up in frequency, you need ever increasing voltage. You are assuming you need the same voltage increment for each freq step, which is not the case. to get to 4.3GHz, you may need 0.05v for example.

I have my 3570k at 4.4GHz @ 1.14v, but to get it to 4.8GHz, I need 1.3v which is a big jump.

 

[mikestogy]

Okay, I guess I'm going to load in my stable 4.2 overclock, then bump the multiplier to 43. Then, raise the temps 0.02 each time. This would be much easier if the damn thing didnt just sit at "A2" forever, I wish it would just boot back into the bios....

 

[leeb2013]

doesn't your mobo have boot fail protection, most do these days, in fact my 8 year old cheapo Asrock mobo had it. They make 2-3 attempts to boot, if it fails, they go into BIOS using default values, but you still see the values you last set.

 

[nikoli707]

dont touch any voltages yet.... you need to raise your multiplier one step at a time until it fails to enter windows then back down one step and run some tests and get some numbers. also turn off all the power savings like c1e c3 c6 for now so that the voltage readings are true... you can turn them back on later.

download hwmonitor so you can see your temps and vcore... it will also give you a min/max reading of both.

download intel burn test.... load up hwmonitor so you can see it, and run intel burn test at maximum stress level, your computer will freeze and blue screen, thats ok, but you need to watch the min/max vcore voltage that hwmonitor is telling you and note it.

again you shouldn't be touching any voltages for now, just leave them at auto. go back into your bios and note what the cvid is automatically changing your voltage to. its likely that under extreme load your voltage is dropping down much lower than the actual bios set auto vcore voltage. you want to get this min voltage stable, or more precisely, not have as much of a change between the hwmonitor's reported min/max voltage and also have them be as close as possible to the bios set vcore voltage.

there are a number of ways to do this on z87 motherboard, although i dont know all the new ways of doing it. in previous gens we would use line load calibration(LLC) to counter this. once you get hwmonitor to show you a min voltage that is close to what the cvid is automatically changing it to, then you will become stable and start being able to push the multiplier higher until you fail again, and theeeen you can start bumping up the voltage and repeating the process to make sure you are actually holding that voltage as a minimum but not going to far over a certain higher voltage when sitting at idle.

once you can pass the intel burn test maximum stress test, takes a few minutes, then use prime95 small fft test and run it for about 12 hours. make it through all that and your as stable as one can hope for.

last but not least, you need cooling, and if hwmonitor shows your cores passing 80c then your at your limit for now, you need better cooling if you want to overclock farther.

you should have to take the battery out, there are bios reset pins and you can use a flat head screw driver to make the connection to reset the bios.

 

[Bonecrushrr]

Voltages left in auto on the 4770k are very bad. When I got my OC to 4.2 it was pushing voltages above 1.375. Manual voltage settings are the only way to go if your going above stock speeds. I currently run 4.3ghz core @1.175 volts and 4.0ghz uncore. Unless you got a really bad selection on your cpu then 1.24 volts seems awfully high for that speed.

 

[nikoli707]

of course you can play with voltages but after you get an idea of what clock the auto voltages can handle and how much vdrop there is. ive seen many times people plug in a 1.30v and under extreme load the actual voltage is 1.24v, or something lower than the certain range. also the other way around is true. just shoving an unknown level of llc into the mix and plugging in a 1.30v ends up with a load voltage of 1.33v and idle voltage of 1.40v. that is unacceptable. every motherboard reacts different depending on its model and design. too much voltage will be as unstable as too little voltages and every chip is different. getting voltages to stabilize is paramount to having a good overclock because if you have no clue what the actual load voltage compared to the bios set voltage then you are just shooting in the dark.