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Is My i7 A Mutant or Am I Doing Something Wrong?

S

Scionix

Senior member
Er, I don't know if this is an example of the vaunted ease of i7 overclocking, but I have my i7 @ 4Ghz right now on STOCK voltage (underwater). Am I being retarded and not actually overclocking it, or did I just get lucky? CoreTemp is reading 4Ghz, and the frequency in BIOS says 4Ghz with the BUS speed at 200...

If the i7 is this easy to OC my mind is officially blown! Mobo is an ASUS P6T (not deluxe)
 
TuxDave said:
Has it been tested for stability?
Click to expand...

Well, I haven't given it the old P95 burn test yet, but for 1-2 hr gaming sessions it's been fine. I'm going to P95 it tonight.

I just didn't think I'd even be able to boot on stock voltage @ 4Ghz...
 
ExcaliburMM said:
Whats the actual voltage you're using?
Click to expand...

Just left everything at auto, and kept upping the bus. I thought I'd hit a wall were I wouldn't POST and then I'd up the voltage (like every other clock I've done), but I just got to 4Ghz without even touching the voltages. Granted, I've done Quad core OCs and not the i7, but I did a little research beforehand and I'm pretty sure the auto voltage isn't just going up with my clock (which would seem really weird to me).
 
Scionix said:
Just left everything at auto, and kept upping the bus. I thought I'd hit a wall were I wouldn't POST and then I'd up the voltage (like every other clock I've done), but I just got to 4Ghz without even touching the voltages. Granted, I've done Quad core OCs and not the i7, but I did a little research beforehand and I'm pretty sure the auto voltage isn't just going up with my clock (which would seem really weird to me).
Click to expand...

STOP ASAP!
Auto on most mobos (I am sure gigabyte, I THINK but I am not 100% positive about ASUS) will automatically overvolt the hell out of your CPU if you overclock it! It will fry in a matter of weeks!

My experience with those was that it was perfectly stable at ridiculously high ghz... but after mere hours it was unable to OC as high on actual stock voltage!

What you should do is record the stock voltage, and change "auto" to the actual stock voltage to manually lock it into stock voltage and prevent the massive and damaging overvolt. You can verify that it is doing it by using certain programs like OCCPT or CPUz to look at the actual current voltages and see how ridiculously high they are.
 
Stock for an i7 is 1.25 volts right? Or at least thats the maximum it ever uses with stock settings, dont leave it on auto OP, manually set it to 1.25v in the AI tweaker section and see how far it will overclock with that.

What are the temps like btw? They should be some indication that the mobo is putting too much voltage through the chip. 4ghz + auto + assuming you havent turned off HT = crazy temps no?
 
taltamir said:
STOP ASAP!
Auto on most mobos (I am sure gigabyte, I THINK but I am not 100% positive about ASUS) will automatically overvolt the hell out of your CPU if you overclock it! It will fry in a matter of weeks!

My experience with those was that it was perfectly stable at ridiculously high ghz... but after mere hours it was unable to OC as high on actual stock voltage!

What you should do is record the stock voltage, and change "auto" to the actual stock voltage to manually lock it into stock voltage and prevent the massive and damaging overvolt. You can verify that it is doing it by using certain programs like OCCPT or CPUz to look at the actual current voltages and see how ridiculously high they are.
Click to expand...

Actually you may find that manually setting the stock voltage is the same as Auto. On my numerous Gigabyte boards, that is the case. Just recently on a 550 BE x4, which is listed at 1.3v stock, Auto or Manual with a setting of 0* would put the voltage at 1.39. I had to set the voltage to +0.025 to get it to run at 1.31v.

Another GB board with an Athlon II 240 was running it at 1.49v (1.4v is stock). Same thing with an x4 620 and 705e. It could just be Gigabyte, but as has been said, check the voltage.

*The CPU voltage options are listed in the Bios as +0.025, 0, -0.025, etc. rather than an absolute number.
 
I also had an i7 and a P6T. If you up the bus speed to 200, you can definitely hit those speeds without a problem. Just be careful though. Abuse it too long and those miracle speeds will disappear. ease off the voltages and find one that works for you.
 
ExcaliburMM said:
You should put your voltage in manually before you fry your chip.

Don't say we didn't warn you. 🙂
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Woah guys, I get it! Going to manually put in the voltage now! The CPU only went from idling at 35 degrees to 38 degrees, so I don't think it's going to fry right now...

EDIT: All the voltages have been bumped the lowest amount after auto (core at 1.25v, etc) and it boots fine. Wat. Temps are exactly the same (idling one core at 38, one core at 41).

EDIT 2:

The only thing weird here is that is says the voltage is 1.28v even though I set it at 1.25v...Hrm? After further BIOS tinkering, there's the OC page where I set it to 1.25v, and then there's this list that has like 1v voltage, 5v voltage, 10v voltage, and 12v voltage or something, and it's at 1.28 there, but the only other option is to "ignore", so I dunno what that stuff is. All the other voltages were the same as the title would suggest (5, 10, 12). Also, how do you turn off "turbo" and hyperthreading? Been meaning to do that.
 
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Not all motherboards increase voltage as you overclock when the CPU voltage is left on auto(mine doesn't), but some of them do. It's better to be safe than sorry and manually set your voltage.
 
While I've heard of i7 920 D0s that can do 4 or close to it on stock, it's pretty rare, and auto is definitely overvolting your chip.

To give you some perspective, mine does 4.2 at 1.37v
 
Setting voltage manually is the way to go. It is over volted on auto setting probably like the guy said... gl
 
Idle temps don't mean anything, what are the load temps? Also, if you accidentally disabled two cores on your chip (which man socket 1156 mobos have options for), that explains why it overclocks so well 😛. Make sure you have all four cores enabled and check your load temps.
 
dguy6789 said:
Not all motherboards increase voltage as you overclock when the CPU voltage is left on auto(mine doesn't), but some of them do. It's better to be safe than sorry and manually set your voltage.
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it is indeed possible that your mobo did not overvolt it on auto mode. It is common enough occurance that you shouldn't take a risk by leaving it on auto. with all their power saving features (asus power saving chip), they might have it at stock voltage when not loaded and automatically increase voltage as load increases or something weird; better safe then sorry.

readymix said:
killed 2 already, easy. lol
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heh... how many cores does windows task manager show? if your chip arrived with 2 cores defective and nonfunctional, then you are potentially running only 2 cores, which would explain the beastly OC you are getting... but it could also be just an issue with the CPUz so don't freak out yet.
 
uhh 2 cores out of 4?

no something is wrong..

Did u check in bios to see if u accidentally disabled them?
 
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