4670k OCing issue

[Vereesa]

Just put together my new rig a few days ago:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
• CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 1366/1156/1155/775/FM1/AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87-DS3H ATX
• Memory: Kingston 16GB (2x8GB) HyperX Fury, DDR3 1866MHz, CL10, 1.5V
• Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 240 GB SSD 2.5"
• Video Card: Asus GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX760 2048 MB DirectCU II OC
• Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl - ATX
• Power Supply: Corsair CS750M, 80 PLUS Gold, 750 W

I tried my hand at overclocking for the first time. Reading around, people are reporting as high as 4.6GHz with voltages below 1.3V but I can't get mine to stabilize at 4.2 even at 1.27V. Should I just keep cranking up the voltage 'til Prime95 no longer BSoDs? Temps average at around 70°C during its torture test so more voltage wouldn't kill the chip, right?

[Gravewyrm]

Haswells are very finicky chips. Its the Silicon Lottery with them. Every Haswell will OC differently. I myself have a 4670K, paired with an Asus board. I had to go past 1.350v to get it stable at 4.4Ghz. Things you can do to try to get it to stablilze are..

Drop the RAM speed to 1333Mhz, or 1600Mhz. This will help with some chips, not all.
Keep going higher with the vCore, but I personally wouldn't take it beyond 1.300v, just for safety sake, considering the EVO cooler might not be able to keep up with temps.
Try using a different stress testing program to see if the OC can pass with it, such as AIDA64, or Asus's "Real Bench".

P95 is SUPER hardcore on the CPU, and pushes it harder than any regular use would normally do. AIDA64 is certified by both Intel, and Asus. "Real Bench" uses real world applications to stress test *Handbrake is one of the main ones it uses*.

These are just ideas off the top of my head atm, I can give finer details later when im not doing work type stuff.

[Vereesa]

Haswells are very finicky chips. Its the Silicon Lottery with them. Every Haswell will OC differently. I myself have a 4670K, paired with an Asus board. I had to go past 1.350v to get it stable at 4.4Ghz. Things you can do to try to get it to stablilze are..

Drop the RAM speed to 1333Mhz, or 1600Mhz. This will help with some chips, not all.
Keep going higher with the vCore, but I personally wouldn't take it beyond 1.300v, just for safety sake, considering the EVO cooler might not be able to keep up with temps.
Try using a different stress testing program to see if the OC can pass with it, such as AIDA64, or Asus's "Real Bench".

P95 is SUPER hardcore on the CPU, and pushes it harder than any regular use would normally do. AIDA64 is certified by both Intel, and Asus. "Real Bench" uses real world applications to stress test *Handbrake is one of the main ones it uses*.

These are just ideas off the top of my head atm, I can give finer details later when im not doing work type stuff.

So as long as the temps were reasonably low during full P95 load (say below 90°C) I could go as high as I wanted to with the voltage?

[Deleted]

Not to burst your bubble, but that is a budget board. So don't expect miracles regarding OCing.

I think highest voltage should be 1.3, try checking Vdroop or something. I only have experience with the 2500k, so Im talking from that. But my voltage drops when it gets under load, so I have to set the voltage higher in order to maintain that 1.3 (for example). But I would look at some guides as to OCing haswell.

[chazus]

So as long as the temps were reasonably low during full P95 load (say below 90°C) I could go as high as I wanted to with the voltage?

Yes and no. Technically, you keep kicking up voltage to get stability, as long as temps stay below ~95 during stress test. HOWEVER, I wouldn't (and most dont) recommend going over the 1.3-1.35v mark, just because even if heat is okay, that's still more power running through, and can damage things or cause issues over time.

[Ghâzh]

So as long as the temps were reasonably low during full P95 load (say below 90°C) I could go as high as I wanted to with the voltage?

This is just my personal opinion and as such you should take it with grain of salt but you pretty much can't do any permanent damage to your CPU if you only test it for short times. Even booting up at something as ridiculous as 1.5 volts would probably be fine. Haswell's fail safe shuts the PC off at around 100°C, way before it gets critically hot and the motherboards won't even allow you to input volts that would instantly damage the chip. It's fine to experiment with the boundaries of what your CPU is capable of as long as you have the sense to tune the volts back when you find your limit.

For every day use, depending on your future upgrade intentions, I'd say something between 1.3 and 1.35 volts on vcore would probably be fine. It's hard to say any exact numbers but from personal experience I can tell you that after running ivy bridge 3770k at 4.6GHz and 1.375 volts closer to 2 years now there has been some minor degradation. I first had to bump up the voltage to 1.38 to keep it stable at 4.6GHz and about half a year ago when it didn't stay stable at that anymore I decided to drop it down to 4.5GHz at 1.365 and I'm now running 1.375 for 4.5GHz. And this is, mind you, with hottest core during P95 hitting 99°C. It doesn't obviously run that hot in every day use (more like low 70's) but you get the idea.

You should also note that even though something like 1.35 volts would be technically safe on paper it's also a matter of cooling and the balance you can achieve. You can get away with higher voltage if you have extremely efficient cooling that keeps the temperatures down but it's not ONLY that either, you can and will degrade the chip even if it was running under sub zero temperatures and you bumped really high voltages trough it.

So in short, for quick testing you should be able to go as high as you want but for every day use both temperature and voltage matters.

[Deleted]

I got mine stable @4.2 GHz at 1.20V with AI Suite 3. Its 5-way optimiziation is quite useful.

Hope it'll help you.

[Gravewyrm]

I got mine stable @4.2 GHz at 1.20V with AI Suite 3. Its 5-way optimiziation is quite useful.

Hope it'll help you.

AI Suite Is for Asus boards only. OP's MoBo is from Gigabyte, whose "Easy Tune" software is pretty lacking.

[Angella]

Just put together my new rig a few days ago:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
• CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 1366/1156/1155/775/FM1/AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87-DS3H ATX
• Memory: Kingston 16GB (2x8GB) HyperX Fury, DDR3 1866MHz, CL10, 1.5V
• Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 240 GB SSD 2.5"
• Video Card: Asus GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX760 2048 MB DirectCU II OC
• Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl - ATX
• Power Supply: Corsair CS750M, 80 PLUS Gold, 750 W

I tried my hand at overclocking for the first time. Reading around, people are reporting as high as 4.6GHz with voltages below 1.3V but I can't get mine to stabilize at 4.2 even at 1.27V. Should I just keep cranking up the voltage 'til Prime95 no longer BSoDs? Temps average at around 70°C during its torture test so more voltage wouldn't kill the chip, right?

At those break points I'd cut your losses and be happy with the 4.2 OC. Not like you'll notice much difference and bumping up voltage starts to really endanger the life of your CPU.

If you *really* want to go there, there are a lot of secondary and tertiary stats you can fiddle with. Not recommended for a 1st time OCer though. Plenty of guides out there if you google them.

As a general rule, never go above 1.3V or 80C using Prime95 when OCing. You can, but the benefits are minimal and you're upping the long-term damage risk significantly with every additional unit above those levels.

Also agreed that mobo isn't really designed to go beyond a medium OC.

[Deleted]

AI Suite Is for Asus boards only. OP's MoBo is from Gigabyte, whose "Easy Tune" software is pretty lacking.

I used Easy tune for 10years, i dont see why you think its lacking, as far as i remember it has 3 auto overclocks + manual mode.

[Gravewyrm]

I used Easy tune for 10years, i dont see why you think its lacking, as far as i remember it has 3 auto overclocks + manual mode.

The last version I used, ET6, couldn't get a stable OC to save its life. Manual OC *in BIOS* worked without issue, but the software would over-volt like crazy, and the system would crash at boot on its level 1 "Auto OC".

[Deleted]

Well i can tell you exactly the same for my current asus mobo. Can not even get a stable 4.0 auto-overclock...

[Shakadam]

Temps increase quite rapidly as you approach 1.3v, I wouldn't do it with a 212 Evo unless you delid the chip and replace the TIM with something better (liquid metal preferrably).

[Gravewyrm]

Well i can tell you exactly the same for my current asus mobo. Can not even get a stable 4.0 auto-overclock...

4.0 is as simple as setting the multi to 40. Don't even bother touching voltages. My Hero VI has been solid for months now, by just setting those settings. Voltage is auto *Adaptive*. I literally just set the multi, rebooted, and was done. Beyond that, voltage tweaks are needed. Asus's AI Suite (for RoG boards) sets its lowest auto OC at 4.2, not 4.0. It also sets the vCore @ 1.200v for that 4.2 auto OC. Sounds like both of us have had "Fun" with the different softwares. Haswell being the way it is.. I'll be glad when the next gen hits *not Haswell 2.0 A.K.A "Devil's Canyon".