Suggested OC for i5-4670k and GTX 770

[Snoblind]

Hi Everyone,

So I have had my system for a few years now and want to get the most out of it by overclocking my CPU and GPU. I’m looking for any suggestions to push my hardware. If that includes any purchases under $50 I am open to it. I am currently considering switching my CPU and GPU thermal paste to IC Diamond. I don’t think adding any other case fans would be worth the $ to degree drop ratio. If I do get more case fans it would be a quiet edition Corsair or BeQuiet fans. Ideally I would switch them all out. Someday I will switch to a quiet case. Anyways.

My motherboard (MSI Z87-G45) BIOS has an auto OC option which clocks my i5-4670k to 3.9Ghz. I know that this chip can do a stable clock to about 4.5Ghz with the right CPU cooler. My current cooler is an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler. Not the best, but I bought it 8 yrs ago for my 1st build. What coolers and OC setting do you guys suggest?

For my GPU (MSI GTX 770 TF 4GD5/OC) I currently have MSI afterburner installed. I have played with the fan profile to lower the temps to reduce thermal throttling. At full load (fuzzy ring benchmark test) my GPU temp goes to about 70-72 degrees C at about 90% fan speed. The GPU fans do get loud at full 70-100% speed. What would be a good OC temp? What OC setting do you guys suggest? I know that MSI has a gaming app that OC’s automatically but does that not get the most out of GPU?

Overall my system can run most AAA titles at =>60FPS at High settings. I have to tweak some games settings to get the best graphics to go no lower than Ave 60FPS. I have heard that most BIOS/Apps auto overclocks do an ok job, but that they don’t get the full stable OC, and use more voltage than manually OC’ing.

Thanks for all your input.

Antec 900 case
Rosewill Hive 750W 80+ Bronze PSU
MSI Z87-G45 Intel Z87
Intel i5-4670K 3.4ghz stock
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
MSI GTX 770 TF 4GD5/OC
G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600
Kingston 128GB SSD
WD 4TB HDD

 

[J-Roc and The Rockpile]

No problem! I'll walk you through it. I'm running an OC'd i5 4690K in one of my gaming desktops right now, so I'd be happy to help.

Looks like you have all good components....other than your CPU cooler, that's going to need to be upgraded majorly if you are looking for big overclocks.

General rule of thumb...never, never, ever use auto OCing programs, ever. They are awful. I think they exist to ruin people's hardware so they buy more... 😉

Before doing any overclocking whatsoever, I would highly suggest getting a closed looped liquid cooler like the H60i, H75i or the H80i...all great coolers. I prefer the H75i, but that's just my opinion. I have a midtower with one 120mm fan (stock) mounted on the top of the case and a your standard 120 mm intake fan on the front of the case. Your CPU cooler isnt going to cut it and you will certainly over heat, so before proceeding with any of the following, I would highy suggest getting a good liquid cooler...please dont but the El Cheap Evo 212 (that'll grant you a few extra mhz, but thats not really OCing)....its a cheap, overrated cooler, and everyone seems to blindly recommend it. There's a reason I've purchased 5 and returned all 5, THEY SUCK FOR OCing!

Programs you'll need to download (all free)
- HWmonitor
- Intel Burn Test
- AIDA64

Read through your motherboard's manual. It can be found online as well as a PDF.

Okay, so onto the OCing process (assuming you have a good aftermarket CPU cooler installer now)

- press Delete or whatever button it prompts you to press to enter BIOS (sometimes an F number button) when you boot up the PC
- Find in your BIOS menu the CPU settings
- Disable Intels "Turbo"
- Set CPU Core Voltage/Vcore to manual (you may have to type in a number, 1.130 Volts is a good place to start)
- Change your CPU core multiplier and start with 4.3 ghz.
- Save and exit BIOS

Once you are on your home screen, open HWmonitor and start with Intel Burn Test (this is a quick way to test the stability of the OC)
- Run 10 runs on Very High...this will take a little while
- make sure your CPU Temp doesn't exceed 60ish C. With a good cooler, I'd expect it to max around 50ish C.

If the temp gets too high, stop the test, go back into BIOS and decrease your Vcore a bit (0.025-0.05 V)

If the PC freezes or restarts, you don't have enough voltage and need to bump up the Vcore a bit.

You'll have to keep playing around with these two options: the CPU Core Multiplier and the Vcore until you find a stable OC with a reasonable temperature.

If you find you have a stable OC at a particular CPU speed, then try to lower your Vcore a little and retest. Optimally you want to have the highest CPU frequency/speed with the lowest Vcore, while still stable when stress testing it.

I would not exceed a Vcore of 1.35V

You can test long term stability by running AIDA64 (my preferred program over Prime95) for an hour or two. Again, keep an eye on the CPU temp.

Things NOT to do:
- mess with any other options
- turn Vcore to "Adaptive mode" or "Auto"

If you have any other questions let me know

I was able to get my i5 4690K w/ an H75i stable at 4.8 ghz a little above 1.35V, but I would't recommend trying this. I have a very, very lucky and good chip. I have it set at 4.7 at somewhere around 1.275Vish and it doesn't exceed low/mid 60C during hours of AIDA64.