First Time OC (i7-4770k)

[Tinsley847]

Trying to overclock my i7-4770k w/ a Noctua NH-D14. But I really am having trouble finding haswell information for some reason.

I went into the bios and just changed the multiplier from 35 to 42 and left everything else on auto. Is this not right? I think my voltages are higher than they should be, but its stable. Temps seem to be fine while running Prime95 blend test.

EDIT: Sorry the picture didn't come out right. I was trying to show it was running at 4.2 around 68-70C on full load.

 

[Yuriman]

I'm sure someone else who has a Haswell K chip will come by and give more complete advice, but here's what I know:

Haswell adds voltage, and quite a bit (~0.1v), whenever AVX is used. A lot of people opt for stresstesting for both with and without AVX. Prime95 in its latest versions uses AVX.

I dunno how your bios is laid out, but with ASRock boards you'll generally want to change voltage from "auto" to "offset" to prevent automatic voltage scaling with clocks.

 

[Tinsley847]

I can't find a guide for haswell OC with asrock. I found Asus & gigabyte, but not asrock. I don't want to push the limits of my chip, I just want to run it at 4.2

Not sure what voltage settings have to be tweaked if any. Also not sure if I need to turn off the intel boost & whatever the other intel one is.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Every voltages are fine and very safe. You should check for Sin0882 guide about Z87 overclocking. It's a gigabyte uefi Bios but it is a very detailed one.

You could reach 4.4ghz easily and maybe 1866mhz Ram or more.

 

[TreVader]

It looks like you have a decent chip, if it posts just by setting the multiplier to 42. You can always run it like that, but using the voltage offset is much safer.


If it works on auto with a 42 multiplier it's likely with some tweaking you could do 4.4 or 4.5.

 

[NewYorksFinest]

I really want to build a PC with a 4770K. Its in my futre, a real step up from a core i3-2100

 

[tweakboy]

Make sure you got a SSD ......gl

 

[mojothehut]

I too simply set my multiplier to 42. I've been running my4770k at 4.2 for several weeks now that way, stock voltage. 12+ hours of Prime95, zero errors.
Works great =)

 

[Tinsley847]

I too simply set my multiplier to 42. I've been running my4770k at 4.2 for several weeks now that way, stock voltage. 12+ hours of Prime95, zero errors.
Works great =)

Which CPU cooler are you using?

My motherboard "AsRock Z87 Extreme6" is on bios version 2.1. The most recent bios version is 2.3. Should I update it even if i'm not having issues? Or if its not broken don't fix it?

Also, if I update it. Is it safe to use the AsRock "A-Tuning" software to perform the update? Or should I be doing it myself with a usb.

 

[KaRLiToS]

You should always flash the BIOS from whether the BIOS tool or with a USB.

Do not overclock with AsRock A-Tuning, do everything into the BIOs itself.

 

[Tinsley847]

You should always flash the BIOS from whether the BIOS tool or with a USB.

Do not overclock with AsRock A-Tuning, do everything into the BIOs itself.

So flashing it, means update it right? And the a-tuning bios updater is ok to use? There is nothing to worry about going wrong with a bios update in general?

 

[Yuriman]

So flashing it, means update it right? And the a-tuning bios updater is ok to use? There is nothing to worry about going wrong with a bios update in general?

Don't interrupt the update, or bad things will happen.

 

[Tinsley847]

So did I understand the guide correctly? It seems a little too easy, and a lot of the lingo is going above my head…

Set multiplier to 42x > Set Vcore to 1.111V > Leave everything else on auto > Confirm Stability > Profit?

I didn’t plan on OC my memory, or pushing the limits of my air cooler.

Don't interrupt the update, or bad things will happen.

Also, as far as flashing the bios goes. Everything I am reading says not to update the bios unless there is a hardware compatibility issue that the update addresses specifically. So should I really be doing it to facilitate a mild OC?

 

[nwo]

I have my 4770k on manual voltage with 1.2 vcore. Anything lower than that, and it is unstable. So I'd say you're right about on target. Some (better) chips might be able to do 4.2 with 1.15v or less, but I wouldn't count on it in most cases.

 

[Tinsley847]

I have my 4770k on manual voltage with 1.2 vcore. Anything lower than that, and it is unstable. So I'd say you're right about on target. Some (better) chips might be able to do 4.2 with 1.15v or less, but I wouldn't count on it in most cases.

Thank you very much for replying to both of my threads. It is much appreciated.

Do you mind me asking what motherboard manufacturer you are using?

 

[KaRLiToS]

Those are the important voltages and in my opinion, those informations are the most inportant one for the OC.

CPU VRIN External Override is the voltage your motherboard’s VRM provides the CPU, this always has to be higher than the VCore or any other CPU voltage. The LLC in the 3D Power Control menu is for the VRIN(VIN) and can be helpful because by default the VIN droops which might produce instability, you can set that to Extreme or Turbo. A trick to increase stability is to increase VIN to around 2v (for VCore between 1.2-1.5v); for VIN Override I would start at 1.8v and move towards 2v on air. Too high of a VIN can result in added heat (and death@ close to 3v on air) while setting VIN too low can cause instability and VCore droop if the VIN is 0.1-0.2v away from the VCore. Intel recommends keeping VIN Override at least 0.4v above the VCore. Below is a graph showing the effect of the delta between VIN and VCore on power loss:

A setting of 1.8v - 1.9v for VRIN is good, auto is fine for 4.2 Ghz

ALSO NAMED CPU INPUT VOLTAGE FOR ASROCK

The Uncore: (Uncore frequency)
First of all Uncore Frequency isn’t going to help stabilize the CPU frequency unless you lower it, lowering it can help reduce uncore as an issue when it comes to BCLK, memory, and CPU OC. The Uncore on Haswell combines the L3 cache and the Ring Bus, so the multiplier will control the speed of the CPU cache. The CPU’s cache is very important, and before was just tied to the CPU frequency meaning it was usually at the same speed, however Haswell has cache that has twice the bandwidth as Ivy Bridge and thus doesn’t need to run at the same speed. Some programs and benchmarks will benefit greatly from higher uncore frequency, so it is beneficial to increase the Uncore above 3500mhz when overclocking to keep up with the cores. A note on GBT Z87 boards: at the 35x Uncore multiplier the motherboard will automatically increase the Uncore frequency to 3.9 GHz to 4 GHz as per Turbo guidelines. The Ring Bus Voltage(vRing) will help stabilize the Uncore multiplier as well as the CPU OC, below is a list of optimal vRing ranges for certain Uncore frequencies, notice that some say “use cold” next to them, this means that you will need to cool your CPU below ambient to even be able to clock the Uncore that high. You want the Uncore frequency to be anywhere from 300-500MHz below the CPU Frequency to un-bottleneck the CPU, however if you bring it closer or at the CPU frequency there might be some minor performance gains you could see in benchmarks, going above the CPU speed can create issues with memory.

It is best to clock the CPU first and then the Uncore after you have stabilized the CPU

So basically, if you want to OC the CPU at 4.2 Ghz, you want the Uncore Frequency to be at around 3700mhz to 4000mhz.

In your case, leaving it at auto gives you a Uncore Frequency of 3900mhz (39x multiplier) as shown in the first post of your thread. Which is perfectly fine.

Also a vRing of 1.1v - 1.2v (ish) should be plenty or auto.

VRING = CPU Cache VOLTAGE

__________

Now the Memory

The first thing you should do is to load XMP on your module, if for some reason your kit doesn’t work then just disable XMP and then select your memory divider for the speed you want. The motherboard has auto timings built in for every divider and it differs divider to divider. The 28x divider for instance will have much looser timings than the 21.33x divider. Also please realize that if you set XMP and then manually change the divider, the timings will change to the auto timings of that divider. It is best to manually insert the memory timings for the XMP kit if you change the divider. In the image above you can see an option called “Memory Upgrade” this will have a list of kits and profiles for which GIGABYTE has provided overclocking timings for, this list can be seen in the bottom of the picture above and the list will be expanded as time progresses. The best part is that all boards (UD3H and up) have these memory profiles, so you don’t have to purchase a Z87X-OC or Z87X-OC Force to be able to access these memory profiles.

Memory voltage is also under the voltage menu which was shown a few scrolls up, memory voltage is important for memory OC,

however there are other voltages that help as well.
- The system agent voltage(VCCSA)
- and CPU IO Analog and Digital are directly tied to the memory controller on the CPU,
(these voltage helps a lot with memory OC.)
- Also CPU IO Analog and CPU IO Digital also help with much higher memory frequencies,

these can be left on auto as the BIOS will automatically increase these two voltages with progressing memory speed,

however if Auto does not work please set +0.25 on CPU IO Analog and Digital and System Agent.

Max Ranges are once again provided below:


So if you want to try to get higher frequencies with your RAM, you will bascially have to change the

-CPU Analog IO Voltage + 0.15v up to +0.25v
-CPU Digital IO Voltage + 0.15v up to +0.25v
-System agent voltage + 0.15v up to +0.25v

You will also have to Raise the DRAM voltage up to 1.7v (to be safe) to get higher frequencies (such as 2133mhz ) but you will have to loosen the timing, especially the primary timings (11-11-11-30-2T) And I bet you can use 1.65v to reach 2133mhz with your Ram

An Easy 4.4/4.5/4.6GHz Template:
Here are the settings I used; you can use them as a template for your settings:
Profile #1 Basic Profile:
CPU VRIN Override LLC: Set to Extreme (this is to make sure VIN doesn’t droop)
CPU VRIN Override Voltage: 1.7-2.0v (reduce if temperatures too high is causing instability, increase if temperatures are fine and you are unstable)
VCore: 1.24-1.34v
Ring Voltage: 1.15 or 1.2v
CPU Multiplier: 44x-46x
BCLK: Auto
Turbo: Auto
C1E, C3, C6/C7, and EIST: All Disabled (There is a table in Step #1 which describes the behavior or different power saving features and what to enable/disable to get the behavior you want.)

Profile #2(trade VIN for vRing):
CPU VRIN Override LLC: Set to Extreme (this is to make sure VIN doesn’t droop)
CPU VRIN Override Voltage: 1.7-1.8v
VCore: 1.25-1.32v
Ring Voltage: 1.2-1.26v
CPU Multiplier: 44x-45x
BCLK: Auto
Turbo: Auto
C1E, C3, C6/C7, and EIST: All Disabled (There is a table in Step #1 which describes the behavior or different power saving features and what to enable/disable to get the behavior you want.)

 

[nwo]

Thank you very much for replying to both of my threads. It is much appreciated.

Do you mind me asking what motherboard manufacturer you are using?

I am using an Asus Z87-A motherboard for the 4770k :$

When I used the fast OC feature of the motherboard (in Windows) I believe it took it up to 4.1GHz and 1.25vcore. Manually OCing the CPU, the best I was able to get (for now) was 4.2GHz on 1.2vcore with 3.9GHz uncore.

 

[Tinsley847]

""

Thank you very much for breaking this down for me. I just spent 30 minutes drooling over that LG 34UM95 you're looking at. Really an amazing looking screen.

 

[guskline]

Good luck with the new build Tinsley847. Looks like a beautiful gaming rig!