Is overclocking an i7 920 to a 24/7 stable 3.4-3.8GHz guaranteed?

[Jumpem]

The i7 860 is clearly faster in stock form. Is getting the clock speed up on an i7 920 a sure thing?

 

[alyarb]

i would be surprised if you couldn't do 3.8 ghz with 1.3v or less, and 4 GHz at ~1.35.

3.6 ghz is a given, though.

 

[faxon]

Make sure you get a D0 stepping and you are g2g for like 3.8 at least

 

[Zap]

Likely? Yes... with the proper motherboard and a D0 stepping.

Guaranteed? Nothing guaranteed but death and taxes, yo!

I hate it when people throw that word around - "guaranteed." All it takes is one example that cannot (regardless if it is the CPU itself or the motherboard or RAM causing the lack of overclockability) that "guarantee" just failed.

Just yesterday I saw a thread at another forum where someone wanted to RMA a GTX 285 because he felt it was faulty... because he could "only" overclock it to around 690MHz and he was told it "should" go higher.

 

[Ben90]

I can do 3.8 at 1.125 volts prime stable all day; stock cooler

The d0's are so easy to oc... i have my money on 99.9% of d0's can do 3.4, and 95% of d0's can do 3.8

obviously im pulling numbers out of my ass; but for all intended purposes i would say u can do 3.8

 

[Pneumothorax]

From lurking around Lynnfield posts, I've noticed the majority of i7 8XX & i5's will not go to 3.8+ without a decent voltage increase due to the on-die PCIe. I've gone through 3 920 d0's from different batches and all 3 went to 3.8 Prime/OCCT Stable with HT, Turbo, and speedstep on WITH stock voltage. OTOH only 1 went to 4.0 on stock, the others needed around 1.275 & 1.35 to hit 4ghz. BTW you're definately going to need upgraded cooling, the stock cooler is only decent up to about 3.3, if you care about the temps your chip will hit.

 

[Zensal]

You can get 2.66GHz guaranteed. Other then that, it's all up in the air.

People used say that 2.6GHz was "guaranteed" on an Opty 165, but I could never take mine past 2.4.

So....3.8 guaranteed, No. Very good chance, Yes.

 

[v8envy]

Actually, 2.9ghz is as guaranteed as 2.66 with the i7 920. 2.9 is the 22x "turbo mode" speed of any single core. I'd be shocked if a single otherwise properly functioning i7 920 would fail to run at base clock of 145 mhz with turbo mode disabled assuming a good motherboard and sufficient cooling and power.

3.3 ghz at 1.05 volts and 2.9 ghz at .94 volts are my data points. I think I could do 3.3 at lower voltage, just gotta get the time to do enough testing for a plot of frequency vs voltage for my CPU.

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: Zap
Likely? Yes... with the proper motherboard and a D0 stepping.

Guaranteed? Nothing guaranteed but death and taxes, yo!

I hate it when people throw that word around - "guaranteed." All it takes is one example that cannot (regardless if it is the CPU itself or the motherboard or RAM causing the lack of overclockability) that "guarantee" just failed.

Just yesterday I saw a thread at another forum where someone wanted to RMA a GTX 285 because he felt it was faulty... because he could "only" overclock it to around 690MHz and he was told it "should" go higher.

This, but with good components and skil, it's highly likely.

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: Gillbot

Originally posted by: Zap
Likely? Yes... with the proper motherboard and a D0 stepping.

Guaranteed? Nothing guaranteed but death and taxes, yo!

I hate it when people throw that word around - "guaranteed." All it takes is one example that cannot (regardless if it is the CPU itself or the motherboard or RAM causing the lack of overclockability) that "guarantee" just failed.

Just yesterday I saw a thread at another forum where someone wanted to RMA a GTX 285 because he felt it was faulty... because he could "only" overclock it to around 690MHz and he was told it "should" go higher.

This, but with good components and skil, it's highly likely.

This, but skill not needed, just good components. I have little/no skill and have mine at 3.8 @ 1.19v (I have only changed BCLK and vcore, doesn't take skill to do that)

 

[Jumpem]

Originally posted by: Pneumothorax
From lurking around Lynnfield posts, I've noticed the majority of i7 8XX & i5's will not go to 3.8+ without a decent voltage increase due to the on-die PCIe. I've gone through 3 920 d0's from different batches and all 3 went to 3.8 Prime/OCCT Stable with HT, Turbo, and speedstep on WITH stock voltage. OTOH only 1 went to 4.0 on stock, the others needed around 1.275 & 1.35 to hit 4ghz. BTW you're definately going to need upgraded cooling, the stock cooler is only decent up to about 3.3, if you care about the temps your chip will hit.

Not sure I would be overclocking the i7 860. I'm debating between affordable, simple, and fast (860); or a little more money, little faster if overclocked to 3.5GHz+, little less straight forward (920).

The i7 860 is guaranteed to hit 3.46GHz, and stay at 3.33-3.46 while gaming.

 

[alyarb]

yeah but with a slight bump in voltage an i7 920 could be at 4 GHz 24/7 regardless of load.