i5 4690k, ASUS Z97-A MOBO overclocking trouble, core clock spikes

Hello all, I am new here and was hoping the experts could shed some light on what I am experiencing with my overclock.

I was able to OC my cpu to 4.4ghz at 1.265 and have it stress test stable but it would crash in games after so long. What I have noticed is that even though I set the multiplier to 44, I will see in HWMonitor that the clock speeds spike up to around 4.5ghz. It does this regardless of the multiplier that I set, for instance I went back into the BIOS and bumped the multiplier to 45 and upped the voltage slightly and it would start out great in the benchmarks (prime95 26.6, OCCT) and then after maybe 3-5 minutes I would see that the core clocks spiked up past what is set in the BIOS. I cant for the life of me figure out why it is doing this. I have turned off the C-states and speedstep.

I have a pretty good feeling this is why my OC wont stay stable while playing games.

I have searched and searched for an answer on this but I have only found two other instances of people complaining about this issues and neither were resolved. Any help is appreciated and please let me know if I can provide more information.

Thank you in advance!

Firstly reset everything to default/stock. Run a test. Does it spike past the normal turbo frequency? Turn off turbo altogether and then does the stock frequency also do this?

Also update your bios to the latest.

Please post the rest of your system specs or better yet create a signature.

What temps do you get as well and what cooler are you using?

Okay, Updated BIOS. Ran everything at default and it seems to operate normally beginning at 3.5ghz and going up to 3.9ghz. From memory I have seen it shoot up to 4.1ghz but I did not see it occur during the test.

I turned off Turbo altogether and while running OCCT, it stays right at 3497mhz and randomly will spike to 3564mhz. This is the behavior that occurs when OCing I believe.

I ran another test with my old OC settings and I set the multiplier to 44, well the test started as usual but it randomly and very briefly, probably a second, shot up past 4500+ mhz in HWMonitor.
In addition I have tried 45 for multiplier and during tests it shot up to 4600mhz...

My temps when running at default are around 50c at 100% load in OCCT. I am using a Noctua D14 cooler.
When running at 4.4ghz @ 1.250 temps go up to around 60c.

It is my understanding that seeing fluctuation is normal but up to 100mhz is not.

Just noticed that when these spikes occur the bus or baseclock jumps from 100 to 102.

The baseclock changing would more or less explain the difference, as if at 4.4 to 4488 with 102 base vs the 100 is roughly 4.5ghz.

In the bios is the base clock set automatically or manually?

I have it set manually at 100 and it still jumps.

Only thing I could find was This if you wanted to look into this, but I've never played around with that setting myself (post 6)

Tried what was said and I dont have the option to adjust it like that but I set the strap to 100mhz and it still happend. Not sure what to do at this point because it seems that I have exhausted every available BIOS option that would cause this to occur. Could it be a faulty MOBO?

Set it at 4.4ghz and manually set your bclock to 102 on its own. Does it still jump? (Increase voltage a touch to compensate).

Or just leave it at 100, let it do its spike, but give it a touch more voltage, your temps are great and the D14 can handle it. Then see if you're stable. Don't forget to set LLC/your VDroop appropriately too.

Setting it to 4.4ghz with the 102 bclock saw it jump to 104mhz and crash.

I'm trying now to leave it at 100 and bumped voltage up to 1.27 with LLC set to level 8. Its still jumping up to 4.5ghz but ill let the test run for awhile and see if its stable.
the bus is jumping from 98mhz to 103mhz...

This is frustrating to say the least. I really appreciate you helping me out Mjolnir!

I've seen things move between several mhz. But not 100 odd like yours. The bus jumping around like that is very odd...

Don't suppose you could screenshot/picture of your BIOS settings for your OC settings here?

let me know if the link doesnt work