Two year of stable OC now unstable?

Nate_007

Member
May 13, 2013
129
0
0
I have my i7 2600K OC @ 4.7 Ghz, 1.375 stable for two years 24/7 under prime blend and temps were under 70C. This was last tested on Windows 7.

I upgraded to Windows 8 as soon it was made available to the public and I have not tried stress testing again until today. PC crashes under Prime95 blend within a minute.

My idle temp is 30C, but it gets hot playing Crysis 3 max 69C. Cant verify Prime95 temp because it crashes.

I haven't changed anything really in my set up beside the GTX 780, from GTX580 SLI. So could it be degrading CPU, Windows 8 or cooler?

Thanks
 

Soulkeeper

Diamond Member
Nov 23, 2001
6,714
143
106
is there a lot of dust in your pc ?
when was the last time you cleaned the fans/heatsinks ?
 

blackened23

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2011
8,548
2
0
If it's not a heat issue, it could be electro-migration. I've had some 870 chips go bad after 2-3 years of heavy manual over-voltage. Were you using manual voltage or offset? I would hope you were using offset. Manual 24/7 voltage is bad news for overclocking.

As paul stated, revert to stock clock to see if it persists. If everything works okay from there, it could be an electromigration issue. What happens in that case is that previously stable overclocks will become unstable, and then your chip will very slowly get worse over time. I had an 870 with the same symptoms as you, and had to revert to stock (which worked). That worked for a couple of months and then stock was unstable. Replaced the chip with a new 870, and all issues disappeared.

These days I always use offset voltage as to prevent electromigration from occurring. Manual 24/7 over-voltage isn't a good idea for overclocking, generally speaking.
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
5,212
0
76
I've been running 4.8 GHz @ 1.38V for the past 2 years on my 2700K (offset voltage and EIST enabled) so I'm interested in how your situation turns out. Hopefully it's not the CPU going bad.


70C is actually not that bad under load, especially in Prime95. That said, I'd try cleaning out the heatsinks and also resetting your BIOS and re-inputting your old settings. Have you tried any other stability tests, like IBT or LinX?
 
Last edited:

jhu

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
11,918
9
81
These days I always use offset voltage as to prevent electromigration from occurring. Manual 24/7 over-voltage isn't a good idea for overclocking, generally speaking.

Can't prevent, only delay or slow it down.
 

Nate_007

Member
May 13, 2013
129
0
0
Thanks for the replies guys! Man I've been doing manual voltage, as most OC SB guide at that time always tells you to adjust manual voltage and it worked out fine for me. I'm well aware of CPU degradation but I didn't expect my CPU to degrade this fast since I was mostly in College and just graduated this year.

I will clean my cooler first, maybe even re-apply thermal paste. Then I will revert to stock clock see if its stable. I will try to do offset method just to prolong the life a bit more. I will report back on result of stock clock.
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
5,212
0
76
Thanks for the replies guys! Man I've been doing manual voltage, as most OC SB guide at that time always tells you to adjust manual voltage and it worked out fine for me. I'm well aware of CPU degradation but I didn't expect my CPU to degrade this fast since I was mostly in College and just graduated this year.

I will clean my cooler first, maybe even re-apply thermal paste. Then I will revert to stock clock see if its stable. I will try to do offset method just to prolong the life a bit more. I will report back on result of stock clock.

Enabling EIST should help as well. I have it on and when I'm doing less intensive tasks the CPU's cruising along at 1.6 GHz @ 1.0V instead of 4.8 GHz @ 1.38V.