Overclocking Voltage Problem

[Lubomir_3]

Hello guys,
I was wandering what should I do for the vcore to make my PC stable at 4.5 GHZ. I tried with 1.242 in BIOS (1.264 in Aida64), with 1.252 (1.272 in Aida64) and with 1.262 (1.288 in Aida64) but again it is unstable. Should i downclock to 4.4 or i can make something to make it stable at 4.5GHZ ?
CPU: i5-4690k
MOBO: MSI z97 PC MATE

 

[techgeek]

I assume this frequency isn't the first you've tried. Presumably you started lower and worked your way up to 4.5GHz. So what was you last stable overclock and what was your Vcore at? Also what is your Vrin set to?

If Vrin is too low, it may not have enough overhead to keep your Vcore up while under load. If this isn't the issue, it's important to know what your last stable overclock was and what Vcore is at. With overclocking a CPU, in most cases you'll find that each increase in frequency will have a corresponding increase in Vcore, it's not quite linear, but not far off. So lets say for every 100MHz, you find that you are adding about 15mV to start and a little more than that each time. However when you hit the wall so to speak, you'll find that you are adding double or triple what you were on the last increment in speed and still not fully stable. This usually signifies that you aren't going to get anymore out of it. You may find that you can eventually get it stable, but you have to add ridiculous amounts of voltage to do so.

Also another important question to ask (probably should have been the first question) what are your temps like when stress testing on you other previous stable overclocks?

 

[Lubomir_3]

The temps aren't going above 63 Tcase and 67 core on 4.5 GHZ . Also I didn't touch the Vrin it was at auto and my last stable overclock was at 4.4 on 1.210. And another question I have is why when I set 1.262 in Aida64 it runs at 1.288 and also should I disable some features in the CPU features that can make it more stable? And another maybe stupid question - Is there an easier way to find out if it is unstable than running aida64 for 2 hours each time and waiting for the WHEA error?

 

[techgeek]

Well Vrin should be kept at about .7V above Vcore. Much more and the FIVR will make your CPU run hot, much lower and the FIVR may not be able to deliver your set Vcore under load.

Your temps aren't terrible, what are you stress testing with?

There is always some discrepancy between what you set in the BIOS and what a monitoring utility shows. Also what AIDA64 shows will likely depend on when you are looking at it. Is it under load when you looked at AIDA64 or was it idle. It also depends on what voltage control method you are using: Manual / Static, Adaptive, Offset. I'd guess you are using Static, though I won't assume here.

Did you try 4.3GHz before 4.4GHz? If so what was your Vcore at that frequency? The delta between the two will help us determine if you've hit the wall with respect to Vcore as I mentioned in my last post. If the difference is like 10mV between 4.3GHz and 4.4GHz, and now you've added more than 50mV at 4.5GHz and you still aren't stable, then you might be firmly pressed against the wall. A Vcore of 1.262V is getting close to the limits of AiO coolers and moving into custom loop territory.

As for other settings in the BIOS, it's often recommended to turn off any power save features (C1E, Speedstep, etc). Also if you are using an XMP profile for your RAM, you'll want to set that back down to 1600 or 1333 is even better. Sometimes the IMC will limit your CPU overclock. With these CPU's, the core clockspeed is king, faster RAM is much less beneficial and could limit your core clock overclock.

 

[Lubomir_3]

Well Vrin should be kept at about .7V above Vcore. Much more and the FIVR will make your CPU run hot, much lower and the FIVR may not be able to deliver your set Vcore under load.

Your temps aren't terrible, what are you stress testing with?

There is always some discrepancy between what you set in the BIOS and what a monitoring utility shows. Also what AIDA64 shows will likely depend on when you are looking at it. Is it under load when you looked at AIDA64 or was it idle. It also depends on what voltage control method you are using: Manual / Static, Adaptive, Offset. I'd guess you are using Static, though I won't assume here.

Did you try 4.3GHz before 4.4GHz? If so what was your Vcore at that frequency? The delta between the two will help us determine if you've hit the wall with respect to Vcore as I mentioned in my last post. If the difference is like 10mV between 4.3GHz and 4.4GHz, and now you've added more than 50mV at 4.5GHz and you still aren't stable, then you might be firmly pressed against the wall. A Vcore of 1.262V is getting close to the limits of AiO coolers and moving into custom loop territory.

As for other settings in the BIOS, it's often recommended to turn off any power save features (C1E, Speedstep, etc). Also if you are using an XMP profile for your RAM, you'll want to set that back down to 1600 or 1333 is even better. Sometimes the IMC will limit your CPU overclock. With these CPU's, the core clockspeed is king, faster RAM is much less beneficial and could limit your core clock overclock.

I didn't try at 4.3, I've just jumped on 4.4.Also I used override mode and the processor was at max load(I was watching the Aida64 stress test). It worked for 2-2:30 hours and then WHOA screened.

 

[techgeek]

OK, well we don't have anything to reference your Vcore steps in between each 100MHz which doesn't help.

I'm guessing that override mode is Manual / Static. Which means that your Vcore doesn't lower when your system is idle. Is this the case? I wouldn't be too worried about the offset between what you set in the BIOS and AIDA64, it's a third party program and it's calibrated accuracy may be off. Does MSI have their own utility? I also bet that HWMonitor or HWInfo would show something different. So the take away is that it may not be real accurate going with a third party monitoring program. You could also try Intel XTU and see what that says.

 

[Lubomir_3]

OK, well we don't have anything to reference your Vcore steps in between each 100MHz which doesn't help.

I'm guessing that override mode is Manual / Static. Which means that your Vcore doesn't lower when your system is idle. Is this the case? I wouldn't be too worried about the offset between what you set in the BIOS and AIDA64, it's a third party program and it's calibrated accuracy may be off. Does MSI have their own utility? I also bet that HWMonitor or HWInfo would show something different. So the take away is that it may not be real accurate going with a third party monitoring program. You could also try Intel XTU and see what that says.

I am not sure that this will help you but when running without overclock the vcore is 1.096 on Aida64

 

[techgeek]

That is typical for your CPU, but not very helpful. Most motherboards set Vcore high to guarantee that the system will POST. Also that voltage doesn't specify idle or loaded. Really to make the determination I am talking about, you'd need evenly spaced steps, or at the very least one step before the last stable overclock (in your case 4.3GHz). Though I am leaning towards your CPU not being able to go much higher, at least not without a lot more voltage. You were close, you were stable for two hours. I guess as long as your thermals are under control, you could try setting it to 1.262V in the BIOS, though before doing that, I would consider setting your Vrin to 1.9 - 2.0V and re-testing your Vcore @ 1.252V.

 

[Lubomir_3]

That is typical for your CPU, but not very helpful. Most motherboards set Vcore high to guarantee that the system will POST. Also that voltage doesn't specify idle or loaded. Really to make the determination I am talking about, you'd need evenly spaced steps, or at the very least one step before the last stable overclock (in your case 4.3GHz). Though I am leaning towards your CPU not being able to go much higher, at least not without a lot more voltage. You were close, you were stable for two hours. I guess as long as your thermals are under control, you could try setting it to 1.262V in the BIOS, though before doing that, I would consider setting your Vrin to 1.9 - 2.0V and re-testing your Vcore @ 1.252V.

I will try this and if it fails i will just go back to 4.4. Thank you very much.