[SOLVED] Want to overlock i7 4790K further but can't

[VermilionNeko]

Hi

I did try asking on Reddit under Intel, but got zip. Not expecting much here either... :-\

I've been experimenting with overclocking my CPU lately, but I've always been unable to push them far, if at all. I didn't have much luck when I had an i5 4670K either. My UEFI/BIOS lists three 'stable' OC, but only one has been fine - 4.5GHz. The others are 4.6 and 4.7. I would like to get up to 4.6GHz as I've found that to give me the most stable performance whilst playing Red Dead Redemption 2. I would like to try and narrow down why it's always unstable though. Not sure if it's my motherboard, as it's nothing special and farely old now, my CPU cooler, or if it's just bad luck.
I have an Asrock Z97 Extreme 4 motherboard and I'm using a Hyper EVO 212 cooler. Whenever I pick one of the 'stable' OC, the fan speed is automatically set to maximum. With 4.5GHz, the idle temperatures are around 40-60 degrees. With 4.6GHz, they tend to be 50-70 degrees. The auto overclocks are usually given a set voltage too. I think it's 1.230 with 4.5GHz and 1.280 with 4.6. I've tried increasing it slightly and putting it as far as 1.3v, but nothing seems to work. I'll usually get a random BSOD. Either whilst using the PC or in RDR2. It's strange as when I first set the voltage to 1.3, RDR2 and the PC were perfectly fine for 2 straight days. I think I had two crashes in the same place whilst playing RDR2, but no lock-ups or BSOD. I just chalked it up to the game.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. It is possible I'm just out of luck and will need to wait until an inevitable future upgrade.

Thanks

 

[drivinfast247]

Don't use those Auto OC features. You need to read the sticky here in the CPU section of the forum. It'll walk you through a real, manual overclock.

 

[geofelt]

OC manually.
Temper your expectations.
Realize that the high oc multipliers you read about come from those with golden chips.
Those with dog chips will remain silent.

 

[VermilionNeko]

Don't use those Auto OC features. You need to read the sticky here in the CPU section of the forum. It'll walk you through a real, manual overclock.

I have followed a couple of online guides, but I’ll check the one here. I suspect 4.5 is my limit though.

EDIT: Yeah, the guide stickied is the one I followed.

 

[VermilionNeko]

Okay, I went back and experimented with overclocking it again. This time, adjusting the voltage in small increments from 1.26 upwards. After running Heavy Load for 10 minutes (not enough time obviously), my overclock of 4.6GHz appears stable with a voltage of 1.32. However, during that stress test, the temperatures did reach 90-100 degrees. Obviously, those stress tests aren't realistic loads, but is something like that fine for this processor...? I've read these chips can get as hot as that and be fine.

Idle, it's sitting around 40-60 degrees. I think I'll test it further by playing RDR2 and seeing how it is in a crowded city, and if that's fine, I might run Prime95 sometime for a couple of hours.

 

[geofelt]

An idle of 40-60c. seems too high.
You should see 10-15c. over ambient if your cooler is mounted well and if it is getting sufficient fresh air to work with?

What is the make/model of your case and fan arrangement?
I found the old hyper212 to be difficult to get mounted level.
A better cooler may be in order.