6600K Preset overclock to 4.4 Works Flawless. Can't go any higher

Recently I bought a Zotac GTX 1070 AMP Extreme GPU. While trying to cram that beast inside the case, I basically broke my mobo. I figured that was a divine message telling me it was time to upgrade my whole system. That's what I did. Here is my configuration.

CPU: i5 6600K
Cooler: Coolermaster 212 Evo
MOBO: Gigabyte Z170-HD3-CF
RAM: 16GB Single stick Kingstin Fury DDR4 2134mhz(while buying i though this was 2x8 later I didn't want to wait for a replacement. )
GPU: Zotac GTX 1070 Amp Extreme(da beast)

Obviously, the first thing I did after setting up Windows 10 was delving into the overclock. On my mobo there is a preset overclock setting. I selected "i5 6600K 4.4". Booted up the windows, run Prime95 small FFT test. And in short order saw my first BSOD.

Decided to mess around with voltages, after some trial and error, I changed vCore from AUTO to 1,280V, disabled AUTO on the other voltage settings and basically left them stock. Run prime95 for 2-3 hours. No problems at all. Temp doesn't go higher than 76. System is rock solid. I actually run Furmark alongside Prime95 for a few hours. No problems.

After a while I wanted to push my oc a little further. I saw lots of people reaching 4.8Ghz with this setup.

Thing is, as soon as I change the preset 4.4Ghz overclock and switch to manual, I see crashes. Pushed the vCore as high as 1.4V. No use. Prime95 says returned a wrong value or something, then PC crashes.

Tried disabling Intel Turbo, disabling power states, nothing works. If the preset 4.4 wasn't running so smoothly I'd blame the "silicon lottery" and go on with my life but, using manual settings I can't even get a stable 4.4Ghz. So I'm clearly doing something wrong. Unfortunately there are no presets for clock ratios higher than 4.4Ghz. So I have do use manual.

So my question is, if anyone has that same mobo, what settings I should change to get at least a stable 4.4Ghz manually? What settings those presets change to give that rock solid overclock?

PS:I updated bios to latest version 7F I believe

Id start over and put everything back to stock, and manually get to 4.4GHz again. Once there, try climbing up.

+1 set Bios to default and try vcore 1.33v peak in CPU-Z for 4.5GHz. Use +0.075 vcore increase we have the same motherboard.

wingman99 said:

+1 set Bios to default and try vcore 1.33v peak in CPU-Z for 4.5GHz. Use +0.075 vcore increase we have the same motherboard.

Click to expand...

Do you mean set vcore to 1.33v or set it to "normal" and increase offset by +075?

Second option for some reason gives me 1.4v+ vcore under load. And even with that it crashes.

Should i change system agent etc. Voltages?

Set the option for CPU clock speed to 4.5GHz then set the vcore "normal" and increase offset by +0.075. That works for me with my i5 6600k prime95 stable 15 hours.

You don't need to change system agent voltage or Vccio that is for high speed memory like I have, the board is good about setting that in XMP for high speed memory.

wingman99 said:

Set the option for CPU clock speed to 4.5GHz then set the vcore "normal" and increase offset by +0.075. That works for me with my i5 6600k prime95 stable 15 hours.

You don't need to change system agent voltage or Vccio that is for high speed memory like I have, the board is good about setting that in XMP for high speed memory.

Click to expand...

I actually tried that. But since other options are left as AUTO, even with only +0.010V offset, I get 1.4V+ Vcore under load. What are your frequency settings? Did you disable sleep states? What about intel turbo boos?

All I did is change the CPU upgrade mode to i7 6700k 4.5GHz then vcore "normal" and increase offset by +0.075. I did nothing else, been ruining this way since June 24/7.

You should see vcore in CPU-Z when running prime95 = 1.272v to 1.332v

I tried i7 preset. It crashed. But I think my vcore was on auto during that, I'm at work atm, I'll give it a try once I'm home. Thanks for suggestion.

Normally I wouldn't spend so much time for 100-200mhz increase in CPU but ever since I got the GTX 1070, I realized for many games, CPU is bottlenecking, so every 100mhz increase has a very noticeable effect on FPS in games.

With the i5 6600k at 4.4GHz it will drive SLI 1080s with ease. It might be another problem like single channel memory or something else.

That's what I was expecting. I didn't think CPU would bottleneck. But I play Overwatch in ultra ~@130 FPS. When I check resources while I play, I see my GPU is at 70% but all CPU cores are at 90%+ constantly. Considering the benchmarks I've seen on the net suggest 230 fps for overwatch is achievable for GTX1070, there is definitely something funky going on with my setup....

Do you think using a single channel ram can cause this big of a problem? Should I return my ram and get 2X8GB?

Or better yet, 4X4GB

How about these? https://www.webdenal.com/kingston-hx430c15pb2k4-16_734487.html?ref=akakce&ref2=113&v=1.45.9

EDIT: I've been reading on Single ch vs Dual vs Quad on the net, from what I gather, most are not even sure if there is a performance difference between a single channel and quad channel. Should single channel ram cause me such a massive FPS hit(~100FPS)? Unless it's causing a bottleneck I can't see how this could be the case.... On the other hand, I can't imagine what else might be the problem. Guess I'll just replace the RAM and hope for the best.

The RAM won't work in quad channel with your CPU (Dual channel max).

What resolution do you play at?

Tír na nÓg said:

The RAM won't work in quad channel with your CPU (Dual channel max).

What resolution do you play at?

Click to expand...

Sorry I misspoke, I meant dual channel (i.e 4x4GB). I play at 1080p. With that system. I should be getting far higher FPS in games. I'm pretty sure RAM is causing the bottleneck. Not only i have only a single stick, it's not really as high end as rest of the system.

Now that i think about it, this might even be the cause of prime95 tests failing.. I'll order Kingston XMP Predator 16(4x4)GB 3000MHz DDR4, in a few hours.

What about trying with everything stock?
What is the CPU usage when idling?
CPU/GPU benchmark below:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1180-overwatch-benchmarks/page2.html

Tír na nÓg said:

What about trying with everything stock?
What is the CPU usage when idling?
CPU/GPU benchmark below:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1180-overwatch-benchmarks/page2.html

Click to expand...

At idle, usage jumps aroundt 1-5% temps are 30-40C(24C ambient)

I suspect that my 4.4Ghz OC'd 6600K is having to wait for the 2133mhz single stick ram to catch up. I think even if i had just 2 sticks, this bottleneck would be alleviated. I just ordered 4x4GB 3000mhz DDR4s. They should arrive tomorrow or the day after. I'll let you guys know when they arrive.

The memory isn't holding things back... though a single stick is curious...2x8gb would have been better.

EarthDog said:

The memory isn't holding things back... though a single stick is curious...2x8gb would have been better.

Click to expand...

I ordered it as single stick by accident. I thought it was 2X8Gb. I'm pretty sure at least some of my problems are directly related to having a single stick. Probably not the overclock problem, that's probably due to incorrect voltage settings. But, I can't see any other reason for the low FPS I'm getting in games.

We shall see soon enough

I would say its the GPU drivers myself, unless the RAM is bad it should not impact FPS in that fashion. But as you say, lets wait and see

Honestly.. if I was you, I would return/sell everything you have and buy 2x8gb ddr4 3000 cl14/15. 4x4 leaves no room for expansion and is again a curious purchase. Ask us next time first!

I'm pretty confident it's not the GPU. I run Furmark. I don't remember my score of the top of my head, but it was pretty close on the ladder to Founders Edition 1080. Also, I monitor CPU and GPU usage in game. CPU usage is always above 90%+ GPU usage rarely goes above 60-70%.

Unless there is something wrong with my mobo or CPU(which is unlikely since I run Small FTT test in prime95 for hours without issue), only other alternative is the RAM.

From what I read on the interwebs, it's frowned upon to use single stick ram.

Furmark really shouldn't be used either, honestly. It was considered a power virus and isn't a realistic load. Try looping unigine heaven or unigine valley.

It isn't optimal to use single channel, correct.