Thoughts on my current overclock? core i5-3570k with Asus P8Z77-V Pro

[TheInternal]

Howdy all. I'm experimenting with my first attempt at overclocking in about half a decade. I'm currently trying to run my core i5-3570k Ivy Bridge at a 4.4 GHz overclock, and my Samsung RAM at 9-9-9-24 at 1600.

I have the BLCK set to 100... the Asus P8Z77-V Pro liked running it at 103 BLCK, but I dialed it down, and the CPU ratio up to 44.

My main concern is that the Asus has the chip at around 1.328-1.336V while I allow all the automatic everything else. AIDA 64 extreme has the hottest core listed at around 65C at full load while on the bench. Is this voltage significantly over the recommended / stock voltage levels? What the heck ARE the stock voltage levels (I've been unable to google them for this proc).

Lifespan of the processor is important to me, so if I'm running it hotter than necessary, I'd be glad to take advice on what voltage to aim for, or if I should just lower the overclock a tad?

I am currently using the IGP while I wait for my dual Geforce 670 GTX cards to come in.

 

[dahhbears!]

Those voltages seem a little too high. Did ASUS give you the automatic voltages or did you put in those voltages?

Stock voltages are 1.25v but you could lower them and see if your system runs stable with prime95.

 

[TheInternal]

the voltages are all automatic via Asus motherboard and/or their software. Any suggestions for voltage to aim for?
As for Prime95, I still remain unclear on how to properly configure it to make sure it keeps running indefinately. I've been using LinX and BOINC for testing in my most recent round of experimenting.

 

[dahhbears!]

the voltages are all automatic via Asus motherboard and/or their software. Any suggestions for voltage to aim for?

NEVER USE ANY AUTO OVERCLOCKING PROGRAM. NEVER. Revert back to your stock settings and do everything manually.

 

[TheInternal]

I reverted back to "optimized defaults" with the EPU and TPU switches enabled after trying Asus's "auto-overclock" and being a little uncertain about some of the results. This is "manual" for the most part, I just have (what I think is) the automatic power adjustment of the board enabled.

Also, I'm unclear as to why when setting the "CPU Voltage" down to 1.275V, the "CPU Core" is still showing 1.3xxV in AIDA64 Extreme Edition. Perhaps I should try turning off the EPU and TPU switch?

 

[dahhbears!]

I reverted back to "optimized defaults" with the EPU and TPU switches enabled after trying Asus's "auto-overclock" and being a little uncertain about some of the results. This is "manual" for the most part, I just have (what I think is) the automatic power adjustment of the board enabled.

Also, I'm unclear as to why when setting the "CPU Voltage" down to 1.275V, the "CPU Core" is still showing 1.3xxV in AIDA64 Extreme Edition. Perhaps I should try turning off the EPU and TPU switch?

Why is your voltage 1.275v if you sent back to stock settings? Should it be 0.968v or similar? Are you running at 3.4ghz?

Do you have CPU-Z or HW Monitor? What do they read?

 

[DigitalWolf]

I reverted back to "optimized defaults" with the EPU and TPU switches enabled after trying Asus's "auto-overclock" and being a little uncertain about some of the results. This is "manual" for the most part, I just have (what I think is) the automatic power adjustment of the board enabled.

Also, I'm unclear as to why when setting the "CPU Voltage" down to 1.275V, the "CPU Core" is still showing 1.3xxV in AIDA64 Extreme Edition. Perhaps I should try turning off the EPU and TPU switch?

The TPU switch is one of the ways to "auto" overclock on the Asus boards. You'd want to turn that off... My Maximus V Gene with cores on 44 at "auto" voltage runs in the 1.2x range for voltage under load.


*edited to add*


To the above... my 3570 reads something like that when its idle... it certainly isn't at .9xxx under load which is what I assumed he was referring to. I suppose that needs clarification...

 

[TheInternal]

Like I said, I loaded the motherboard's "optimized defaults," which reset the system to a fairly tame if not stock setting before I tried some manual adjustments. The 1.275V is something I set it to after your reply.
AIDA64 is supposedly a more accurate measurement program, which is what I've been using in addition to CPU-Z and Asus's monitoring software.
AIDA's sensor readings follows:


--------[ AIDA64 Extreme Edition ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version AIDA64 v2.50.2000
Benchmark Module 2.7.421-x64
Homepage http://www.aida64.com/

Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 6.1.7601 (Win7 RTM)
Date 2012-06-14
Time 05:57


--------[ Sensor ]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type Nuvoton NCT6779F (ISA 290h)
Motherboard Name Asus P8Z77-V Pro

Temperatures:
Motherboard 27 °C (81 °F)
CPU 45 °C (113 °F)
CPU Package 65 °C (149 °F)
CPU IA Cores 65 °C (149 °F)
CPU GT Cores 62 °C (144 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 58 °C (136 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 60 °C (140 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #3 65 °C (149 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #4 59 °C (138 °F)
SAMSUNG SSD 830 Series [ TRIAL VERSION ]

Cooling Fans:
CPU 1439 RPM

Voltage Values:
CPU Core 1.312 V
+3.3 V 3.344 V
+5 V 5.040 V
+12 V [ TRIAL VERSION ]
+5 V Standby 5.236 V
CPU PLL 1.800 V
VCCIO 1.050 V
South Bridge Core 1.038 V
DIMM 1.337 V

Power Values:
CPU Package 62.38 W
CPU IA Cores 43.87 W
Debug Info F 0 1439 0 0 0
Debug Info T 27 37 255 / 255 45
Debug Info V A4 7E D1 D1 80 FF FF (03)
Debug Info I C1 C562

 

[dahhbears!]

.09 for idle, I meant. Unless he was talking about his 1.275 during 100% load.

 

[dahhbears!]

Right now, are you trying to overclock?

When I told you the stock voltages for achieving a 4.0-4.4ghz overclock, I meant that the 1.25v is the average voltage that most people can achieve to reach those overclocking numbers. The voltages that the ASUS auto-overclocking gave you were too high. However, when you overclock there are two methods. The first method is offset mode and the second is fixed mode. Fixed mode is what you can set your voltage at if you don't want to use offset mode.

 

[TheInternal]

As stated in my initial post, yes... this is my attempting to overclock. I just want a mild overclock. I don't need anything massive. My goal was 4.4GHz having read a little about Ivy Bridge, and it sounded like the "high end" of a "mild" overclock.
Having not overclocked in over half a decade, I'm not sure if I'm doing offset or fixed mode. I did disable the TPU switch last reboot and went back into the BIOS to once again manually set the RAM to 9-9-9-24 timings and the CPU ratio to 44.
I didn't touch the power settings in the BIOS.
The ASUS TurboV EVO program currently has the BCLK Frequency set at 100.5, which I am turning down to 100, and it lists the CPU voltage at 1.300 which I'm turning down to 1.250 now. AIDA64 says the CPU core voltage is now at 1.28xV
If I'm going significantly above the stock settings voltage, I'd rather kick it down a 100 MHz or so if it would mean running at or close to stock voltage.

 

[dahhbears!]

Look at HW Monitor, CPU-Z or whichever program you prefer, when you're idle, does your voltages increase or decrease? If it stays constant, you are at fixed mode. How our the temperatures? At 4.4ghz with 1.28v, I think you can try to set the ratio to 45. But watch your temperatures, test using Prime95, Intel Burn Test or whichever for at least 6 hours to see if everything is stable.

 

[TheInternal]

ah, I'm not fixed voltage then. I'm guessing it'd be better on the processor to allow it to lower voltage when not in use (which will pretty much be never for me, since I'm a BOINCer). I have the CPU Voltage Frequency set to "auto" by default in the ASUS DIGI+ Power Control, with spread spectrum off. I'm not sure if I shoudl enable that or not, or set the "VRM Fixed Frequency" to something. Not areas of familiarity for me, regardless.

 

[TheInternal]

frankly, I'm having trouble figuring out how the heck to set the OC voltage to a specific value and have it stay there. According to my sensor software, CPU Core is regularly fluctuating by a few hundredths of a volt on a regular basis... often significantly above the value I set as "CPU Voltage" in the ASUS TurboV EVO application.
I'd like to try voltage in the 1.2xx range (unless folks think that's too high), but I don't understand HOW to make that happen.

 

[dahhbears!]

Go into your BIOS under CPU configuration. Set it to fixed mode, enable C1E, C3, C6, and keep package C State Support at auto.

 

[TheInternal]

dahhbears, will the suggestions you made lower temps, elongate life of the proc, or lower the power consumption?

 

[Kenmitch]

Turn both the epu and tpu to off(default settings)


If you only need help lowering your vcore then the best way to do it is to just switch the cpu voltage to offset mode with a + value of 0.005v's to see what you get at 4.4ghz. Once in windows you'll need to load it down to see your vcore under load. Once you see what you get then you just need to go back and play around with the offset value. Example if you get 1.200v's and it's unstable then you would just up the offset amount to something like 0.050v's. If you get 1.300v's and you want to try lower then you would change the offset value to - and try something like 0.050v's

Pretty easy to do....LMK if you need anymore pointers

 

[TheInternal]

I flipped off the other switch.
With the offset thing (it was already set to) and setting the + to .020v, I'm sitting at 1.144V at 100% load, and temps at 57C on the hottest core at 4.4GHz. That feels a lot safer than the high 1.2xxV. BCLK at 100.0 and CPU ratio at 44 seems stable with BOINC at 100%. Bumping to 45 ratio causes instant system crash / won't boot. I may just stick with 4.4GHz for now if the voltage can stay pleasantly low.

So, from what I've gathered, offset is essentially what the system "thinks" is right, then a manually set allowance for flex?

First few runs at LinX resulted in BSOD, but upping the offset + to .050V, so far, has it running steady at 1.160V with peak thermals at 63V on the hottest core.

 

[dahhbears!]

Well the only real difference between offset and fixed mode is that offset uses less power and therefore saves you money on your electric bill. There are no real differences between offset and fixed mode in terms of advantages. For some, offset mode can be time consuming because you're trying to see if your idle voltages and load voltages are stable enough to run your computer on a day to day basis. Fixed mode, you just put in the standard voltage, 1.25, and see if your system can run your overclock at a lower voltage or higher voltage. However, fixed mode, your voltage will stay the same whether it is idle or load. As long as you're not needing 1.5v to run a 4.4ghz overclock, you'll be fine.

 

[TheInternal]

passed two runs of LinX at 1.160v at a 4.4GHz OC. still peaking around 61-63C on the hottest core. I'm thinking I may stay with that for now if it passes 20 runs and other stuff.

....


Alas... BSOD on third or fourth run. looks like I gotta keep bumping the voltage up. Is the likelihood of my system being damaged from BSOD a real threat, or is it generally going to be a rather harmless event if it's (likely) due to a lack of voltage?

 

[dahhbears!]

Well, it will cause instability and you may not know when it can happen. It can happen during games, writing documents or anything.

 

[TheInternal]

Hurm. I'm getting something new while running LinX... a warning from an Asus program;

"Warning! +12V 24.480V"

CPU core is at 1.168 V, 100 BLCK at 44 clock, and holding study thus far, 6 runs in on Linx. My PSU is the Seasonic Platinum 860 watt, and the only things hooked to the system at the moment are the motherboard, processor, RAM, an SSD, and a blu-ray.

Is this something to be worried about?

 

[dahhbears!]

Check the BIOS, what does it say your 12v is running at? Usually, the ASUS program can give you wrong readings.

 

[Kenmitch]

Hurm. I'm getting something new while running LinX... a warning from an Asus program;

"Warning! +12V 24.480V"

CPU core is at 1.168 V, 100 BLCK at 44 clock, and holding study thus far, 6 runs in on Linx. My PSU is the Seasonic Platinum 860 watt, and the only things hooked to the system at the moment are the motherboard, processor, RAM, an SSD, and a blu-ray.

Is this something to be worried about?

Check 12v in bios to see. Most likely the error was in the app.

You'll have to play around with the offset till stable. Probably will need about 1.2v's or so tho. Make sure you test single/dual core loads also as sometimes you'll be stable under 4 core load but can bsod doing light loads such as surfing the web etc. Has to do with the way the chips VID is programed as it'll ask for less voltage under single core load vs full load. You just gotta change the threads to 1 or 2 in LinX or Intel Burn Test. This seems to only effect those using offset vcore but looks to be more of an issue at higher overclocks. You'll be temp limited on overclock so I doubt it will be an issue for you. If you think your stable and you do run into random bsods at idle or light load most likely this is the cause. Most of the time at lower overclocks it's just a matter of bumping up the vcore a couple more tics to fix it. The other option is to disable the c3 and c6 states which will eliminate the lower 1-2 core vcore but still allows the chip to idle down speed and voltages.

I found a quick way to use prime for stability testing in another forum which seems to work pretty good for me. I do it after some Intel Burn Test runs to double check stability.

You can also try a FFT value of 1344 to double check. Changing the memory to use to whatever you want I guess. Default is plenty to start as It might just bsod anyways. If your chip can hang for 30 minutes most likely your voltages are close. If you vcore is not close it'll bsod within minutes or seconds even.

 

[TheInternal]

Thanks for the suggestions, Kenmitch. I'll have to try that when I get home.

As for the current state of things, I had a successful run of 20 back to back LinX runs with no errors. I ran it overnight, but to my knowledge, the thermals topped out around 63C on core three (it always likes to run hot) with a 4.4GHz OC, and voltage topping out at 1.184V but generally staying closer to 1.176V.

If it stays stable at or near this voltage, I'm guessing that's going to be pretty close to ideal. Anyone able to get the voltage and temps lower with a 4.4GHz, or is this pretty damn good?