Problems overclocking Lynnfield while gaming.

[EvilNodZ]

Hey folks long time reader 1st time poster.

Currently running an i7-860.

I can oc the cpu upto about 4.0-4.2ghz with turbo and all power saving states enabled and the system is stable for hours in IBT/Linx etc but if i start playing games i get crashes, gpu hangs dx & mantle errors.

I have a feeling its because in lynnfield increasing the blck also increases the frequency of everything on the bus. I.e the graphics card and it does not like running at the higher bus frequencies.

I have even tried enable LLC i think its called, in bios to help but it still crashes eventually.

Does anyone else have similar experience? I crashes using my 5870 and just upgraded to a 290X and both crash.

I want to keep the CPU for another gen but not if i have to run it at stock for stability. Mantel helps this cpu in BF4 but in DX mode and other games its just not upto the task at stock.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Hey folks long time reader 1st time poster.

Currently running an i7-860.

I can oc the cpu upto about 4.0-4.2ghz with turbo and all power saving states enabled and the system is stable for hours in IBT/Linx etc but if i start playing games i get crashes, gpu hangs dx & mantle errors.

I have a feeling its because in lynnfield increasing the blck also increases the frequency of everything on the bus. I.e the graphics card and it does not like running at the higher bus frequencies.

I have even tried enable LLC i think its called, in bios to help but it still crashes eventually.

Does anyone else have similar experience? I crashes using my 5870 and just upgraded to a 290X and both crash.

I want to keep the CPU for another gen but not if i have to run it at stock for stability. Mantel helps this cpu in BF4 but in DX mode and other games its just not upto the task at stock.

I skipped the Nehalem/Lynnfield and socket-1156 cores, so no firsthand experience. It had been my earlier experience that you could fix the PCI_E bus speed of earlier processors to avoid this problem with graphics, SATA and other components.

There are enough Nehalem veterans here, so they should be able to steer you properly.

 

[tarmc]

Try setting pci-e frequency manually also try adjusting memory timings

 

[Arkaign]

Yep, you've probably put your memory out of spec. Also, what volts.cooling are you running?

 

[tygeezy]

I am still rocking an i7 860 and use it at stock. What kind of speed increase are you seeing going from dx to mantle in bf4? I'm running it with a geforce 480 and it tends to dip into choppy territory. I'm hoping nvidia new efficiency drivers will improve things quite a bit because the experience is much smoother on my gf's 3930k and geforce 660. The only type of over clocking I tried was to bump up the speed on default voltages and it blue screened at 3.3 ghz. The auto over clocking on the board gets it to 3.1 I believe, but I just keep it at stock.

 

[Arkaign]

How much ram you have with that 860? BF3/4 run massively better with even 6GB vs. 4GB. 8GB is best.

i7 860 should be fast in BF4 even at stock in terms of not being choppy. FPS might not be blistering, but you shouldn't be choppy unless your settings are too high, or your ram is too small.

 

[Phynaz]

I'm betting your overclock isn't stable. 4+Ghz is very high for Lynnfield. Dial it back to about 3.6 and see what your result is.

 

[tygeezy]

How much ram you have with that 860? BF3/4 run massively better with even 6GB vs. 4GB. 8GB is best.

i7 860 should be fast in BF4 even at stock in terms of not being choppy. FPS might not be blistering, but you shouldn't be choppy unless your settings are too high, or your ram is too small.

I have 12 gigs of ram. The game will dip into low 30 at times and that feels choppy to me in this game. Bf4 I guess just feels rigid, what how your guy bounces as he runs, the screen shaking with explosions, blurred screen from suppression, the gun play doesn't feel smooth. On the gf's comp her fps is always in the green but i still feel that sense of roughness which I guess is what they intended. Still, you add in my larger fps fluctuation that often dips into yellow and sometimes in the red and it is an inferior experience.

 

[Tristor]

What board do you have? On my P55 FTW, I have the ability to set memory dividers and PCI-E bus dividers when BLCK overclocking to keep them pretty much within spec. I've had an i5-750 running at 4GHz 24/7 stable for ~5 years now w/ 2x 5770 in Crossfire. If you set your dividers properly you shouldn't really have any issues. As a general rule you should try to get RAM that is capable of running at 1:1 or 1:2 with the CPU at it's overclock for the best performance on the Lynnfield/Nehalem platforms.

 

[EvilNodZ]

Try setting pci-e frequency manually also try adjusting memory timings

Im not sure i can set pci-e frequency manually? It increases automatically with blck increase no?

As for memory timings everything was stock or XMP, the problem with XMP if i remember correctly is it increases memmory speed with blck also?

 

[EvilNodZ]

Yep, you've probably put your memory out of spec. Also, what volts.cooling are you running?

I may have memory out of spec its not something i have much experience of playing around with and generally dont touch much. Only thing i tried increasing mem voltage from 1.5 to 1.65 but it didnt help.

Cooling is a zalman cnpx10, vcore is auto +.100mv offset

 

[EvilNodZ]

I am still rocking an i7 860 and use it at stock. What kind of speed increase are you seeing going from dx to mantle in bf4? I'm running it with a geforce 480 and it tends to dip into choppy territory. I'm hoping nvidia new efficiency drivers will improve things quite a bit because the experience is much smoother on my gf's 3930k and geforce 660. The only type of over clocking I tried was to bump up the speed on default voltages and it blue screened at 3.3 ghz. The auto over clocking on the board gets it to 3.1 I believe, but I just keep it at stock.

Running stock in BF4 just on test server i get 140fps dx11 on 290x, on mantle its always 190+ It was only when i play multiplayer on dx that i ever had fps drops, mantle is much smooother in mp. Stock i7 860 is fine under mantle but in other games that dont support mantle and are single threaded the speed helps.

 

[EvilNodZ]

How much ram you have with that 860? BF3/4 run massively better with even 6GB vs. 4GB. 8GB is best.

i7 860 should be fast in BF4 even at stock in terms of not being choppy. FPS might not be blistering, but you shouldn't be choppy unless your settings are too high, or your ram is too small.

I only have 4GB ram cant remember the speed think its 1600 but it does run fine in most scenarios. I dont think the mem size would cause the pc to crash more likely its the timings being changed from overclocking cpu.

 

[EvilNodZ]

I'm betting your overclock isn't stable. 4+Ghz is very high for Lynnfield. Dial it back to about 3.6 and see what your result is.

Its only 4ghz on 1 core its 3.6ghz max on all cores i think with turbo enabled. I run it this way cos 4 cores pegged at 4ghz +HT gets too hot for me.

I have also tried it at various low overclocks and when i change blck even a small amount it still causes crashes.

 

[EvilNodZ]

What board do you have? On my P55 FTW, I have the ability to set memory dividers and PCI-E bus dividers when BLCK overclocking to keep them pretty much within spec. I've had an i5-750 running at 4GHz 24/7 stable for ~5 years now w/ 2x 5770 in Crossfire. If you set your dividers properly you shouldn't really have any issues. As a general rule you should try to get RAM that is capable of running at 1:1 or 1:2 with the CPU at it's overclock for the best performance on the Lynnfield/Nehalem platforms.

Thanks tristor, Its an Asus P-55 deluxe i think. Im not sure my board supports memory dividers & pci-e bus dividers but this sounds like the thing that will make it more stable. I never usually mess with the memory page in the bios. Does anyone know if the asus board supports these dividers and how to set it? How do i know my RAM will run at 1:1 or 1:2? Sorry im not very clued up on memory side of things.But thanks for the suggestions.

 

[EvilNodZ]

I read this page below and it sounds like the problem i have?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2832/19

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I read this page below and it sounds like the problem i have?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2832/19

Looks like it to me.

 

[Dave3000]

Then run your CPU at stock settings then, simple. Not worth the hassles and time of figuring out stability problems due to overclocking. If you can afford a faster CPU and a new motherboard I would recommend an i7-4771 and a good quality Z87 motherboard since you said that you don't want to keep your 860 if you can only run it stable at stock settings. In my opinion, if you can afford to upgrade to a faster CPU and avoid overclocking then I think it's worth upgrading to a faster CPU. The i7-4771 is much faster than and i7 860. The i7-860 4 core turbo boost = 2.93GHz, whereas the i7-4771 4 core turbo boost = 3.7GHz + 25-30% IPC increase over i7-860.

 

[sm625]

Try a lower QPI ratio.

 

[coffeejunkee]

I read this page below and it sounds like the problem i have?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2832/19

That's not it at all, if it's even a problem at all. You can adjust the QPI ratio to make sure the uncore isn't being overclocked to stupid heights.

What's more likely:
1. You are simply not using a high enough vcore or qpi voltage, even if you run just 1 core at 4GHz.
2. C-states are causing instability.

Use this guide: http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/07/3-step-overclocking-guide-lynnfield/2/ and try again.

 

[ehume]

I ran my i7 860 at 4004MHz 24x7. The key for me was keeping the BCLK at 182, so I could peg the multiplier at x22. The other trick I used was to use the lower QPI strap -- 32x IIRC, not the normal 36x. Vcore setting was 1.31250v, but it ran a little higher, to 1.318v.

Ironically, I started the year-later i7 875k at a BCLK of 133 and a variable multiplier of up to 30x/4GHz (courtesy of Real Temp). That chip held up a couple of years, but it couldn't hold the OC and had to be dropped to 3.6GHz, where it is now. OTOH, Vcore went up to 1.36v when it peaked (normal+ x).

IIRC, PCIE was a separate setting. I think when I tried messing with it, had to give up and leave it stock.

I still love my i7 860.

 

[Deders]

I'm pretty sure that your PCIe and Sata frequencies aren't affected by the overclock or it would be unstable at much lower BLCK.

I would try disabling C-states as people have mentioned, just in case it is causing problems. Test it for a while and if that isn't the culprit, try isolating your CPU/RAM and MB so that only one of them is overclocked to the speed you want at any time.

So start off by lowering your memory speed, just to rule that out, then after testing lower your CPU. If it is still unstable then it must be your motherboard that isn't stable at such high frequencies.