Ideal voltage for 3930K overclock

[Carfax83]

There are some folks here that brush off any concerns of electromigration, but i've had CPUs in the past become unstable from previously stable overvoltaged clockspeeds from going too hard on manual voltage, so offset is definitely better in the long run.

That happened to me as well, with my Core i7 920. However, I was using very high voltages, 1.467v if I recall, and my QPI voltage was 1.55v.

What voltages did you use?

I don't think electro-migration is much of an issue as long as you don't use excessively high voltages.

For my 3930K at 4.4ghz, I have it set to a fixed voltage at only 1.285v with LLC enabled on medium and it's been rock solid. I haven't had a CPU related crash or freeze since I got my 3930K.. 1.3v is the highest I would ever take it using air cooling.

 

[Carfax83]

Our motherboards are different but both are from Asus, so maybe you can use my settings as a starting point for running offset and go from there.

Using offset for 4.8Ghz I use 0.055 CPU Vcore, LLC on Medium, 1.125 VTT, 1.11709 2nd VTT, 1.12 VCCSA, 1.8625 CPU PLL. WIth these settings my vcore maxes out around 1.39

For 4.6Ghz I can run all the same as above but 0.045 CPU Vcore and 1.85 CPU PLL. With these settings my vcore maxes out around 1.365

I was going to say those voltages are pretty high, but I see your rig is underwater ^_^

What are your temps like?

 

[YBS1]

Here is what is really weird, I use manual voltage and mine drops while not under load (sitting here at 0.840 currently). I assumed this was normal behavior until reading this. I guess certain settings or combinations of settings causes this depending upon board/bios revision because it's obviously not strictly manual/offset doing it.

BIOS versions can have a lot of affect on settings as well. I updated my BIOS a few days ago and I'm having to change all my settings around. I still seem to be able to attain the same clocks but with a lot more work involved. I could pretty much "auto" everything up to around the 4.6-4.7GHz range before, now I'm having to manually play with the settings. The most aggravating actually being just to get the thing to boot at default clocks with optimal ram timings, it kept rebooting after saving and then (without request by me) trying to apply "AI Tuner" auto-overclock. *shrug*

 

[Grooveriding]

I was going to say those voltages are pretty high, but I see your rig is underwater ^_^

What are your temps like?

Mid 60s to mid 70s depending on the core in linx. Real world temps in gaming are mid 40s to low 50s. Idles are low 20s to low 30s. Idle voltage is 0.86 usually. The temp ranges depend on which core you look at. There is generally a 10c difference between the top and bottom cores temp wise. I think most sb-e have that characteristic though ?

Drove me nuts when I first got mine, but multiple cooler and block reseats as well as two different 3930ks all behaved like that.

Also, about the above, for offset voltage to work properly c1 state and speedstep have to be enabled in the bios. The other c states can be disabled, and in my experience are better left off as they cause instability with otherwise stable overclocks.

 

[blackened23]

Mid 60s to mid 70s depending on the core in linx. Real world temps in gaming are mid 40s to low 50s. Idles are low 20s to low 30s. Idle voltage is 0.86 usually. The temp ranges depend on which core you look at. There is generally a 10c difference between the top and bottom cores temp wise. I think most sb-e have that characteristic though ?

Drove me nuts when I first got mine, but multiple cooler and block reseats as well as two different 3930ks all behaved like that.

Also, about the above, for offset voltage to work properly c1 state and speedstep have to be enabled in the bios. The other c states can be disabled, and in my experience are better left off as they cause instability with otherwise stable overclocks.

^Yep, speedstep on with C1 enabled with C3/C6 disabled works best in my experience. Another side effect, which is strange, is that my SSD write speeds are faster with C3/6 disabled...

Anyway, to answer the earlier question - I had 2 i7-870s that went flaky from being 1.35-1.4V for roughly two years (both systems). They both had the same symptoms: previously stable OCs didn't work anymore, but if I went stock everything worked fine. I know it was electromigration because in both cases, a drop in CPU replacement worked fine even at the same overclock (4ghz). I also had a celeron 300a OC'ed to 450 years ago that did the same thing with the same symptoms after roughly 2 years.

It's not a big deal if you replace your systems bi-yearly (which is what I do, generally) so I didn't mind terribly much. But, since I usually sell my old gear I find that offset / adaptive voltage is a nice insurance policy to prevent electromigration damage - over voltage always causes electromigration, the only question is how long it takes for it to become symptomatic; in my experience it takes years. My 870s lasted around two, while others have had systems over volted for 5 years or more. It's not an exact science I guess, but I prefer to err on the side of caution since (as mentioned) I generally sell my old gear. Also, power consumption during idle with offset voltage is far, far better - it's kinda nice not going full blast when you're idle.

 

[Makaveli]

That happened to me as well, with my Core i7 920. However, I was using very high voltages, 1.467v if I recall, and my QPI voltage was 1.55v.

Those are crazy high voltages was this a C0 920?

 

[Carfax83]

Those are crazy high voltages was this a C0 920?

d0. It was 1.467 in the BIOS, but it reported as much lower in Windows. Also dropped down under 1.4v for load, which is high, but still safe.

Still, I had the chip for about 4 years I think, which is a really long time and it did start to degrade towards the end.

 

[SexyK]

Well I played with the offset a bit this morning and after several reboots and crashes it seems to be stable with a -.005v offset. Seems like a tiny change but reported voltages at 4.4GHz have dropped from ~1.45 to ~1.36 which is making a significant difference in power draw and heat output. Will play around some more tonight.

 

[tweakboy]

Can Ivy E 4960x
give 5Ghz without sweat ?

 

[Carfax83]

OK I switched from fixed mode to offset mode for my 4.5ghz 3930K. I have it at .055v offset, which equals about 1.32v with LLC on low.. All power saving features enabled. Right now, it's idling at 0.856v :biggrin:

OK you guys were right. Offset mode is definitely better :hmm:

Does anyone know what long and short duration power limit settings do?

 

[Carfax83]

My 3930k is 4.3 stable with auto voltage, which ends up being right around 1.28v. It looks like your chip is right where it should be. I don't use load line calibration or any of the BIOS performance features. I leave it all on normal or off. All it seems to do is simply increase voltage and heat and its not needed.
Also, I noticed that 4.3ghz is a wall for me, meaning that I need a LOT more voltage to get stable at 4.4 than I do at 4.3. If going to 4.5 or higher, forget it. I'll need custom water and have to screw around too much for it to be worth it.

Looks like you and I have the same chip moonbogg. My chip is exactly the same as yours. I tried to see how high my chip would go using auto voltage without any LLC and I ended up at 4.3ghz just like you, at 1.28v and fully stable in Prime. Anything higher required a lot more voltage.

I think I'm just going to keep it like this. As temps are much lower than when I had my CPU at 4.5ghz (required 1.356v and LLC set to medium to be Prime stable), and 200mhz isn't going to make a noticeable difference in performance anyway..

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

I was running in off set mode for 4.9Mhz (RIVE board) +.10, never checked what the voltage was at cause with all feature's on it only ramped up for Intel burn test. That is under water @ 4.5 I could just leave everything alone it auto volted I think around 1.4v under water.

I'm on phase change now so I normally game at 4.9 or up to 5.2Mhz-1.48v-1.5v

 

[Carfax83]

I was running in off set mode for 4.9Mhz (RIVE board) +.10, never checked what the voltage was at cause with all feature's on it only ramped up for Intel burn test. That is under water @ 4.5 I could just leave everything alone it auto volted I think around 1.4v under water.

Did you have to turn on LLC? That's my biggest issue. My chip won't run at 4.5ghz (at least not fully stable) without LLC, and one thing about LLC I've found, is that it has a significant effect on temperatures.

One of my cores is about 10c higher than the others, which is normal for these CPUs I believe. But when I turn LLC on, that core can easily hit the low to mid 80s at times, but it doesn't remain there at least. Without LLC, it never goes above 80c.

Anyway, I did some further testing and I tried to see how much voltage (without LLC) my CPU required to hit 4.4ghz. It required an offset voltage of .30v, which is basically 1.31v at load. And it's Prime stable too..

So I'm just going to keep it there, just so I can say that I upped moonbogg

 

[moonbogg]

Did you have to turn on LLC? That's my biggest issue. My chip won't run at 4.5ghz (at least not fully stable) without LLC, and one thing about LLC I've found, is that it has a significant effect on temperatures.

One of my cores is about 10c higher than the others, which is normal for these CPUs I believe. But when I turn LLC on, that core can easily hit the low to mid 80s at times, but it doesn't remain there at least. Without LLC, it never goes above 80c.

Anyway, I did some further testing and I tried to see how much voltage (without LLC) my CPU required to hit 4.4ghz. It required an offset voltage of .30v, which is basically 1.31v at load. And it's Prime stable too..

So I'm just going to keep it there, just so I can say that I upped moonbogg

Nice. 4.4 is good. I had mine at 4.5 just to bench against a friend and I could leave it like that just for gaming, but I said forget it. I went back to 4.3. I'm looking forward to see how our chips stand up against Devil's Canyon quads at 5ghz.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Did you have to turn on LLC? That's my biggest issue. My chip won't run at 4.5ghz (at least not fully stable) without LLC, and one thing about LLC I've found, is that it has a significant effect on temperatures.

One of my cores is about 10c higher than the others, which is normal for these CPUs I believe. But when I turn LLC on, that core can easily hit the low to mid 80s at times, but it doesn't remain there at least. Without LLC, it never goes above 80c.

Anyway, I did some further testing and I tried to see how much voltage (without LLC) my CPU required to hit 4.4ghz. It required an offset voltage of .30v, which is basically 1.31v at load. And it's Prime stable too..

So I'm just going to keep it there, just so I can say that I upped moonbogg

I have the RIVE board LLC was set to automatic so not even sure what it was at. I know it went up, just not sure where . I know it went to high or better.....

 

[Carfax83]

Nice. 4.4 is good. I had mine at 4.5 just to bench against a friend and I could leave it like that just for gaming, but I said forget it. I went back to 4.3. I'm looking forward to see how our chips stand up against Devil's Canyon quads at 5ghz.

I see in your specs that you're on a 1080p screen. Are you CPU bottlenecked at all? It's harder for me to be CPU bottlenecked as I'm on a 1440p screen..

And those Devil's Canyon quads are going to be blisteringly fast. Their clock speed and IPC enhancements will allow them to get higher performance in game engines that support four threads.

In game engine that support more than four threads (which is becoming more common), I think the hex core CPUs will be hard to beat; assuming they are at parity, or near parity in clock speed.

Thats why I can't wait to see the Watch Dog benchmarks, as the Disrupt engine will have a multithreaded renderer and support more than four threads.

 

[Carfax83]

I have the RIVE board LLC was set to automatic so not even sure what it was at. I know it went up, just not sure where . I know it went to high or better.....

Well if it's anything like my board, when LLC is set to auto it's effectively disabled.

 

[moonbogg]

I see in your specs that you're on a 1080p screen. Are you CPU bottlenecked at all? It's harder for me to be CPU bottlenecked as I'm on a 1440p screen..

And those Devil's Canyon quads are going to be blisteringly fast. Their clock speed and IPC enhancements will allow them to get higher performance in game engines that support four threads.

In game engine that support more than four threads (which is becoming more common), I think the hex core CPUs will be hard to beat; assuming they are at parity, or near parity in clock speed.

Thats why I can't wait to see the Watch Dog benchmarks, as the Disrupt engine will have a multithreaded renderer and support more than four threads.

I was CPU bottlenecked with BF3, but I haven't bothered to check BF4. I think I'm GPU limited there.

 

[thanulee]

Hi guyz i know its an old post, but i was wondering how to oc this 3930k. I have no clue about these stuff so i need a step by step process. I want to reach as much as possible with like 70-75 degrees tops for 24/7 use cause im doing 3d rendering. My motherboard is a p9x79 deluxe. thanks!

 

[Giorgosgr]

@thanulee Whats your current cooling system ?

 

[Villanut]

Can anyone help me with overclocking my i7 3930k to 4.3ghz ? I've a Asus p9x79 and it's set to optimised defaults atm.
Here are some bios screenshots.
I can post more if I've missed something.

 

[Villanut]

Anyone ?

 

[moonbogg]

When I had mine, I just set the multiplier to 43 and left voltage on auto. It should be around 1.28v under load. Try that, run some tests and let us know how it goes.

 

[Villanut]

Looking at the screenshots above is that all I've got to change ? vcore is set to offset and vccsa as well,I tried putting vcore to manual and set it at 1.28 and put vccsa to auto and it froze on the desktop.
That's why I wasn't sure if I needed to change more settings,obviously I changed the multiplier all cores to 43 as well.

 

[moonbogg]

Leave Vcore on auto and see where it lands when changing multiplier to 4.3. There are also tons of Sandy Bridge overclocking guides out there, both video and written.