Can't overclock 3570k on Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3?

[IronDoq]

I was recently able to acquire a 3570k to replace my old 2500. It's not like I expect to see any noticeable improvement in my gaming, but hey it's a newer processor and I figured I might as well use it.

But before I get into my problem/question, I'll list my rig specs.

Corsair 400d Case
Antec 750w psu.
EVGA gtx 560 Ti.
GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 revision 1.3 motherboard with f13 bios
500gb Hitachi 7200rpm drive
120gb Mushkin ssd
8gb 1600 g.skill ram
CM Hyper 212+ cpu cooler
i5 3570k

OK I think that's it. So yesterday I flashed to the newer bios and replaced the old i5-2500 with the i5-3570k, and all was well (except for a minor derp moment where I didn't push one of the ram sticks all the way down which caused boot loops). After a few hours of Prime 95 I decided to go for the overclock. I went into the bios and the bios does indeed recognize the chip as a 3570k, however when I go to the CPU clock ratio it limits me to a cap of 3.8 GHz. Why is this? Is there something I need to do inside of windows (maybe driver related), which will help the mobo to realize that my processor is unlocked? Here are some pictures I took of the bios screens, thank you for looking/helping!










I've tried updating the bios to U1a, (had issues with that in a post over on Toms, http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/339669-28-cant-overclock-3570k-gigabyte-z68a#t2572511) and i can't get it to overclock!!!!!! Need help because, believe it or not, I want to do that. :sneaky:

 

[Kenmitch]

Welcome to the forum

Edited after a little poking around.

I think it's a known issue with Gigabyte boards.

We have to give Gigabyte some credit here as they were honest with us and told us that there is a BIOS limitation that they are aware of and that anyone that has a Gigabyte P67 or Z68 motherboard won't be able to unlock and overclock an Intel Ivy Bridge processor (The Intel H61 and H67 chipsets have limited overclocking due to chipset limitations, so those two chipsets aren't that critical.). The newer Gigabyte Z77 motherboards use a new UEFI BIOS that works great with both Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge processors and it overclocks with ease as we showed you in our Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H motherboard review here. So, this is a BIOS issue and once again the older Award BIOS has come back to haunt Gigabyte.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1917/1/

The article is a little dated so I'm not sure if it still hold true today.

 

[IronDoq]

Thank you for the fast reply. I'm definitely going to read that article, but do you think this is something that can be solved in a future bios update, or will I be stuck with a poor, sad, lonely stock 3570k?

 

[IronDoq]

Edit: after reading that article it reminded me that they have in fact released a new UEFI bios for these boards -> U1a. However, when I tried to flash to it in windows (as they say to), the command prompt that shortly opened up stated that it was not happy with my 64-bit enviornment (Windows 7 64-bit). Does this mean that I will have to run that bios updater-thingy in a 32-bit enviornment? How would I go about doing that?

 

[Kenmitch]

Digging around on the web not much info pops up. I did find the following tho.

The downloaded bios file contains 3 separate files:
autoexec.bat
FLASHEFI.EXE
Z68XUD3H.U1H
When you run the downloaded EXE file, it should extract all 3 files.

You will need to create a bootable usb drive or cd/dvd with these files on the drive.

The autoexec.bat file contains only 1 line:
FLASHEFI Z68XUD3H.U1H

This means that when you boot from your usb or optical drive, FLASHEFI will automatically run and flash using the Z68XUD3H.U1H file.
Be sure to let the flashing process complete!!!

It's safest to flash using optimized bios settings that are NOT overclocked.

Might wanna take a look at this link. It's were the quote is from. Most likely it's the way to do it but didn't have much time to search as off to work.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios-618-print.html

 

[IronDoq]

That's actually the same EXACT page that I found looking last night! Nice job haha. Anyway I'm going to try that and I will get back to you with the results. Thanks for the help!

 

[borisvodofsky]

When you overclock make sure to set phase to extreme mode. and actively cool them.

You've only got 4+2 on that board I believe. They're going to be sweating and crying.

 

[IronDoq]

Ok so I flashed the bios all fine and dandy, and everything is working. . It's all good now, I have the UEFI bios, and I'm steadily working up my overclock (probably stop around 4.6GHz). Thank you all for the help!

P.S. Where would I find the extreme mode? Which setting is that. I haven't actually bothered to look yet, but being informed never hurts.

 

[borisvodofsky]

Ok so I flashed the bios all fine and dandy, and everything is working. . It's all good now, I have the UEFI bios, and I'm steadily working up my overclock (probably stop around 4.6GHz). Thank you all for the help!

P.S. Where would I find the extreme mode? Which setting is that. I haven't actually bothered to look yet, but being informed never hurts.

It might not be labeled "extreme" mode under your bios

The setting I'm talking about is the difference between Balancing the load across "ALL" phases and "adjusting" the load based on Heat of each phase.


The reason why you want the "ALL" option is because the "adjust" option depends on thermal sensors which have a history of being Messed up and inaccurate. This results in Poor wear leveling of the phases.

 

[IronDoq]

Alright. I have it now at 4.2GHz with no other changes. When I first begin to see instability should I adjust Load Link Calibration or just up the vcore?

 

[Kenmitch]

Ok so I flashed the bios all fine and dandy, and everything is working. . It's all good now, I have the UEFI bios, and I'm steadily working up my overclock (probably stop around 4.6GHz). Thank you all for the help!

P.S. Where would I find the extreme mode? Which setting is that. I haven't actually bothered to look yet, but being informed never hurts.

Had to do it the USB boot able way?

Alright. I have it now at 4.2GHz with no other changes. When I first begin to see instability should I adjust Load Link Calibration or just up the vcore?

Try leaving LLC low as possible. Are you using fixed vcore or adjusting with offset or DVID as gigabyte calls it?

Use something like Intel Burn Test and make sure you test with 1 and 2 threads also. Its possible to be stable at full load and bsod under light loads.

Good luck on your overclocking adventure

 

[stumbata]

IronDoq, can you update us with some info about your progress? thanks!