FRONTPAGE 3 Step Guide to Overclock Your i7 / i5 Haswell Platform

Alright, I have opened a thread for this topic now:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7595767

The point "Triple Channel" you are talking about is an interesting point. Until some weeks ago I also thought that Triple Channel and Quad Channel memory configurations probably deliver better framerates in Arma 2/3 than Dual Channel configurations. But since I have investigated this issue further (I tried to find as much information as possible and compared several values. Unfortunately this was quite difficult because it's almost impossible to find all the specific information in the Internet) Nevertheless, I do not think anymore that it is really a big benefit. As far as I understand the problematic Dual Channel/Triple Channel/Quad Channel mostly is a great benefit if an application is Multithreaded. Single Threaded applications do not benefit a lot from Multi-Channel-memory configurations. Arma was always one of the few games that required a high performance per Core. It has always delivered better framerates on configurations with CPU's which have a small number of high-performing cores in comparison with configurations with CPU's which have a big number of cores which are mostly optimized for multi-threaded applications but have a worse performance per Core. It is a more single-thread optimized game and therefore I do not really expect it to run better on a Triple Channel or Quad Channel configuration.

Ok I'm completely new to overclocking, I've never tried it before but I got an i5 4670k and a Noctua NH-C14 cooler so here I am.

At the moment, I'm thinking I must be doing something wrong because the guide here mentions that at a 1.25 voltage and 46x clock the temperatures should be just about maxing out at 90c. Well I've set the core voltage and clock to that and it seems to be working, but the temperature is only averaging 50c during the stability test (core 1 is pushing 60c, the 0, 2 and 3 are around 45-48). I just figure I must not be configuring it right because there's no way it can run that cool if I'm actually overclocking it properly right?

So if anyone can tell me how to verify that everything is working up to this point or else point out what I am missing I would appreciate it.

I'm new to this myself, but I've heard of 4770K's hitting over 1.39v at tolerable temps even during the stress test. Heck, I've done it, no core over 79C. I've seen another who put a stable OC at 1.35V. Some chips have excellent heat dissipation. Meanwhile, I OC'd my neighbor's 4770k, and it could go faster with less voltage, but overheated at anything over 1.25v. Literally, it was throttling. at 1.26v

Now to compare.. at 1.29v, my 4770k sometimes spikes to 71 C. At 1.25, I still reach 65 C although the averages are lower. I thought I might have a chip from a batch with particularly good heat dissipation qualities, or it was my water block and 240mm radiator. Could be some chips are even better at heat dissipation without delidding.

I would encourage you to check out the 4670k/4770k Results Thread and compare, results do vary. Post a screenshot too. Also curious if you noticed what batch your CPU was manufactured in.

I think I've found a stable voltage for 48x at 1.42V and it only seems to be running 70-80C during a stability test. Ok it doesn't seem to be perfectly 100% stable, it can usually run a stability test for 10+ minutes just fine, but it can crash if I try to do several other things while the stability test is running.

Here's a screenshot of what I'm currently getting on the stability test. The batch# is 3319C231.

I can't even run at 1.25v on 43x for 10 minutes in Prime95.

Running the 4670k, and an Asus VI Hero motherboard. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you

Edit: CPU-Z is reporting a voltage of 1.264, Prime95 Small is running for 15+ minutes now, along with an HD Youtube video in Chrome (100% load for sure). 43x with the same set 1.25v. RealTemp is reporting 80c average temp. No BSOD yet! We shall see how it goes.

How is 80+ degreec temp even possible?

1st of all, excellent article! My i5-4670K, GA-Z87x-OC, and H100i will be here on Tuesday and I will be following this article to a "T." However, I do have a quick question that's been on my mind for a few weeks now. How is it possible that folks are hitting 80, 90, 95+ temps with their (Haswell) CPUs?

Take the i5-4670K for example. Per http://ark.intel.com/products/75048/ this CPU has a Tcase of 72.72°C as the max temp. I thought I understood Tcase and Tjunction, but apparently I'm way off. I figured the CPU would be throttling once the Tcase temp is reached. Perhaps throttling IS happening but the CPU continues to heat up to the 80+ temps many folks are reporting?

Clearly I'm missing something here so please don't hesitate to set me straight on this. In fact, I would greatly appreciate it.

blacksheep242 said:

1st of all, excellent article! My i5-4670K, GA-Z87x-OC, and H100i will be here on Tuesday and I will be following this article to a "T." However, I do have a quick question that's been on my mind for a few weeks now. How is it possible that folks are hitting 80, 90, 95+ temps with their (Haswell) CPUs?

Take the i5-4670K for example. Per http://ark.intel.com/products/75048/ this CPU has a Tcase of 72.72°C as the max temp. I thought I understood Tcase and Tjunction, but apparently I'm way off. I figured the CPU would be throttling once the Tcase temp is reached. Perhaps throttling IS happening but the CPU continues to heat up to the 80+ temps many folks are reporting?

Clearly I'm missing something here so please don't hesitate to set me straight on this. In fact, I would greatly appreciate it.

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I'm running a 4670k and an h100i as well, but having a ton of problems dialing in a voltage that works. Hopefully you'll have an easier time than me.

blacksheep242 said:

1st of all, excellent article! My i5-4670K, GA-Z87x-OC, and H100i will be here on Tuesday and I will be following this article to a "T." However, I do have a quick question that's been on my mind for a few weeks now. How is it possible that folks are hitting 80, 90, 95+ temps with their (Haswell) CPUs?

Take the i5-4670K for example. Per http://ark.intel.com/products/75048/ this CPU has a Tcase of 72.72°C as the max temp. I thought I understood Tcase and Tjunction, but apparently I'm way off. I figured the CPU would be throttling once the Tcase temp is reached. Perhaps throttling IS happening but the CPU continues to heat up to the 80+ temps many folks are reporting?

Clearly I'm missing something here so please don't hesitate to set me straight on this. In fact, I would greatly appreciate it.

Click to expand...

My understanding about that from asking around elsewhere is that Tcase temp isn't the same as core temp and tends to be much lower, from what I've heard about 20 degrees lower which would explain the throttling around 95.

sotanaht said:

My understanding about that from asking around elsewhere is that Tcase temp isn't the same as core temp and tends to be much lower, from what I've heard about 20 degrees lower which would explain the throttling around 95.

Click to expand...

Ran some gpu and cpu mining, temps on cpu hit 84c but just now I got a bsod with error 101. Putting up voltage to 1.26v and turning off LCC (read that it doesn't matter for haswell). Running OCCT with avx enabled.

Edit: 1.26v caused another bsod error 101 running OCCT with AVX enabled. Going to 1.265v in bios and seeing if OCCT will do minimum 30 minutes with avx. Two minutes in and OCCT has failed due to temps getting to 86c. I feel if I knock out of avx mode, it won't be an accurate test of the 24/7 load that I'm throwing at this PC as I am doing cpu based crypto mining.

Edit 2: Running at 1.265v, cpu miner is stressing the cpu at 100% load for about 15 min now, max temp is 75c which is pretty good, starting opening Chrome and a few tabs in, bsod error 101. Have to hard reset my PC. At this point I don't think it's a basic vcore voltage issue. Any one have any advanced steps I can try out here?

mysticode said:

Ran some gpu and cpu mining, temps on cpu hit 84c but just now I got a bsod with error 101. Putting up voltage to 1.26v and turning off LCC (read that it doesn't matter for haswell). Running OCCT with avx enabled.

Edit: 1.26v caused another bsod error 101 running OCCT with AVX enabled. Going to 1.265v in bios and seeing if OCCT will do minimum 30 minutes with avx. Two minutes in and OCCT has failed due to temps getting to 86c. I feel if I knock out of avx mode, it won't be an accurate test of the 24/7 load that I'm throwing at this PC as I am doing cpu based crypto mining.

Edit 2: Running at 1.265v, cpu miner is stressing the cpu at 100% load for about 15 min now, max temp is 75c which is pretty good, starting opening Chrome and a few tabs in, bsod error 101. Have to hard reset my PC. At this point I don't think it's a basic vcore voltage issue. Any one have any advanced steps I can try out here?

Click to expand...

Use P95 blend test for your initial OC stability and the blue screens will go away. I found that using anything else for stability,I was failing F@H all the time. So I stabilized with P95 blend and no problems since.

Johan45 said:

Use P95 blend test for your initial OC stability and the blue screens will go away. I found that using anything else for stability,I was failing F@H all the time. So I stabilized with P95 blend and no problems since.

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I was starting off doing P95 Small, and would for sure get a BSOD.

I'm running just a CPU miner, called minerd.exe, and it's BSOD with error 101, so this has me worried.

mysticode said:

I was starting off doing P95 Small, and would for sure get a BSOD.

I'm running just a CPU miner, called minerd.exe, and it's BSOD with error 101, so this has me worried.

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I don't know anything about minings but if you get your cpu stable with P95 blend torture test, I'm pretty certain you error will go away. Just sounds like your CPU is unstable to me. The small ffts gets it hot but doesn't test your IMC/Memory very much. That's where the blend test comes in. I see you're using the Hero. Try setting defaults then usinf the CPU UP option and set it for 4.4, run P95 with some type of monitoring software, I use HWMonitor free. This will show you a voltage that the board will set automatically. I tried this with mine for 4.6 and it ran stable with P95blend. Keep an eye on your temps though, it may be more than your cooler will handle.

That's a really good idea! Is Cpu_Up the max boost setting? Do you know exactly where I can find it in the BIOS?

Thanks again, this is a great idea.

It's about midway down the tweaker menu. And I think it's just called CPU UP. When you select it you'll have auto 4.4 , 4.6 can't remember if there was a 4.2 option. Like I said this is likely to set the voltage higher so you really should monitor the temps for a while.

P95 Small get things really hot, like low 80s. OCCT with AVX got things to around 86c and auto stopped, a bit too toasty for my liking. I'd like to keep things around 80c as close as possible.

Should I bother setting anything on my memory? I have it at 1600mhz for a low base, to make sure it's not the issue. Also what's your take on LLC? Use it or no.

Just give it a shot and find out. With my straight OC at 4.5 G I have the memory at 2400, the cache at 4200 and LLC set to 3. When I did the Auto I had 1866 memor in the machine and that's where it set it cache stayed at 3900 didn't check LLC. What I liked the most was all the power saving stuff is still enabled as well which made it really convenient. It was literally the easiest "stable" OC I have ever done. Just set it and go. There's no guarentee it'll work for you but it did for me.

sotanaht said:

My understanding about that from asking around elsewhere is that Tcase temp isn't the same as core temp and tends to be much lower, from what I've heard about 20 degrees lower which would explain the throttling around 95.

Click to expand...

Ahh, great info thanks!

Tried stock bios settings, manual tweaking level (no xmp), cpu level up at 4.6, ran p95 blend, and in five mins or so my PC reset. Temps never got over 65c though.

Doing 4.4 now.

Nothing happened with stock and 4.4. Prime95 small and the cpu stayed at 3.8ghz. So confused.

mysticode said:

Nothing happened with stock and 4.4. Prime95 small and the cpu stayed at 3.8ghz. So confused.

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Ya don't know what to say. I did check and ther's a 4.2 setting. Try just setting that and leaving everything else alone. I did 4.6 CPU Level UP last night and ran P95 blend torture test for 4 hours. Like I said what works for me may not work for everyone. Either wayTry the 4.2 setting and pay attention to the voltages in your monitoring software to see what your BIOS thinks that cpu needs. Initially you were trying to get 4.3 and couldn't so 4.4 may not be realistic. 4.2 is a good starting point IMO and maybe you can work up from there.
EDIT: I don't see anywhere what ram you're using but I have put some 1866 in for this test. The Hazwell needs more volts to run higher speed ram , at least mine does. When you use the Level up it set the ram to the XMP profile so what ever that is in your case may be throwing it off?????