4770k: Trying to overclock RAM and CPU itself help needed

[RedNano]

Hi!
I've never been that much into overclocking, but lately, some games are pushing my hardware more than what I'd like.

This is my current full setup:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (€377.81 @ Electronicamente)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler (€41.80 @ Amazon Espana)
Motherboard: MSI - Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair - Dominator Platinum 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory (€185.64 @ Amazon Espana)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€153.85 @ PC Componentes)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB Video Card (€519.92 @ Amazon Espana)
Case: Zalman - Z3 ATX Mid Tower Case (€31.93 @ Amazon Espana)
Optical Drive: LG - GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer (€14.50 @ Amazon Espana)
Monitor: LG - 29UM68-P 29.0" 2560x1080 60Hz Monitor (€490.09 @ Amazon Espana)
Total: €1815.54
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-30 01:48 CET+0100

My last attempt was to improve the RAM and see how much my games would benefit from 1600Mhz to 2400 now. I know what they say but wanted to try by myself and since it's either hit or miss with some games, I wanted to give it a try.

I was overclocked @ 4.4 and enjoying life and I did my research before purchasing. Checked the motherboard's page and verified that 2400 was a supported speed (OC'd)


In the moment I plugged in the sticks, I went into the BIOS and activated the XMP profile, rebooted and man, that was blue-screen town. So, I went and loaded a live USB and performed a Memtest. Red everywhere. I thought the ram sticks were bad, but before jumping into conclusions, I went to the UEFI bios and deactivated the OC. I basically loaded default settings, and performed another memtest with the RAM @ 1333. The errors were gone, but I don't want to downgrade, so i left it only with the XMP profile activated, CPU untouched. I have random crashes, no ram errors with memtest, but some games crash, I have the ocassional BSOD with "RESOURCE_NOT_OWNED" and "WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR". I mean, I can't even run my PC with normal settings. I need help.


This was my config before when I was attempting to OC to 4.4, but just being able to run the RAM would be the first step IMO

https://imgur.com/a/AcnQM

I need your help so I can diagnose it and either make it run or take this weekend to decide if I return the RAM to amazon and call it quits.


I entrust my hardware to you guys!!!

 

[||Console||]

Did you try not using XMP and setting the ram Multi speed ?
That looks like nice ram did you try Clearing the cmos and starting from scratch ?
I would try first ram @ stock
CPU @ 4.5 ~ 1.25-1.3v
see how that does
Then Bump ram to 1600 then 1800 then 2000 then 2133 then 2400 last @1.65 for the last setting (maybe anything over 1600)
Then you should get that Cache speed up 40x @ 1.1-1.2v schould be fine .

How old is the Windows install ? they can crap the bed if there was mem issuses .

 

[RedNano]

The windows install is like 4 months old or so and I keep it pretty clean. I don't install anti virus or other unnecessary stuff. I work IT since 10 years ago, but I'm a bit lost at overclocking....

Clearing the CMOS tomorrow and configuring from scratch...

 

[||Console||]

TBH in most games I see more of a boost from overclocking my cache to 40x + than I see with 1600 vs 2000 mhz , but every last bit adds up .
Any reason you stopped @ 4.4?
4.5 should be pretty easy . I bench my haswell @ 4.9 pretty stable and 4.99-5 (way less than stable) and run 24/7 @ 4.7

looks like you are a new member don't hesitate to ask any questions this is a Great community with vast knowledge

With a It background Overclocking shouldn't be that bad ( but watch out it is very addicting ) check out the benching team for some fun .

I give props to ppl for working in IT I did it for a few year but I couldn't stand 1 being bored all the time ( once I fixed the problems @ the company I worked for I had very little calls ) 2 in a office not moving . I moved over to construction ( as an electrician ) the It and trouble shooting and already knowing Ohms law and such helped greatly . and 3 dealing with PPL that won't @ least try a reboot before calling for help . =)
( im half way through my bottle tonight so don't mind the excessive chatter vs real help )

My main point is don't give up The first system I overclocked was a P1 200mmx to 233 with the DIP swtiches once you start it is hard to give up the Extra free performance you get from overclocking .

 

[RedNano]

I think I'm throwing the towel: Even at stock values, even setting the RAM @ 1800, I get strange behaviour. Some benchmarks refuse to run the graphics card part and I get no improvement in performance at all.

I guess just normal CPU OC leaving the previous RAM I had @ 1600 will be enough for me.

Activating OC genie (I know it's not the best solution), I got a 4.0 OC and my temperatures were through the roof wile running prime95.

 

[RedNano]

Ok, from the top:

CAn it be possible that my motherboard doesn't support 2400 Mhz altogether?

Yesterday I managed to get 4.4 with 2400Mhz ram, but prime95 was throwing my temps through the roof. After 3 or 4 minutes, i stopped the stress test because the temp was 91C....


I'm back to the 1600Mhz sticks, but later I'll try again.... any more advice?

 

[JLK03F150]

Can you open 3 instances of CPU-z for us showing your overclock & capture a screenshot.
1. CPU tab
2. Memory tab
3. SPD tab
Also a screenshot of HW Monitor might be helpful to see your temperatures.

 

[RedNano]

Can you open 3 instances of CPU-z for us showing your overclock & capture a screenshot.
1. CPU tab
2. Memory tab
3. SPD tab
Also a screenshot of HW Monitor might be helpful to see your temperatures.

OK, I'm on it. The temperatures screenshot.. on idle or with prime 95 running?

 

[JLK03F150]

Running prime 95 blend 10-15 minutes then capturing a screen shot would be most helpful.

 

[RedNano]

This is the result of around 10 minutes of prime 95 with the corsair 2400 RAM, just selecting the XMP profile on the UEFI, no OC applied to the CPU whatsoever.

One of the workers gave an error at 3 minutes and a couple of them gave errors at 9 minutes..... The effect of this was unexpected force closes with games at random times....

 

[RedNano]

I went to the UEFI OC menu and the DRAM voltage value was set to auto and in grey, i assume indication what the motherboard was supplying, the value was 1.54 or so.... so I switched it manually to 1.65, rebooted and ran prime95 blender for 20 minutes without errors.... could that be the reason for previous errors?

I will keep stress testing the system.

EDIT: However, userbenchmark's results for the ram are very low:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/6540614

I know benchmarks are to be taken with a pinch of salt, but this result is way way low....

EDIT2: Just noticed tweaking the voltage deactivated the XMP profile and my RAM was running@1333Mhz... Manually tweaking again and posting results soon...

 

[RedNano]

More than 20 minutes and no errors.... seems stable... I'll keep this speeds an volts still and see what happens.

This is more like it....
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/6541234

 

[RedNano]

And finally, this is 2400 Mhz ram 4.4 Ghz. However, had to stop after 4 minutes because the temperature reached 100C.
And the userbench test result: http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/6544988

I'm going to try lowering some voltage, see what happens.

EDIT1: Played PUBG for a while, like half an hour more or less, no glitches at all. Came out of the game, launched prime95 and got another bsod "RESOURCE_NOT_OWNED"

I'm starting to dislike the RAM: No real improvement from 1600 to 2400 and now my OC is unstable and way hotter

EDIT2: Mi PC just froze playing battlefield 1, I switched back to the kingston ram and now, it does not boot at all. Tries to power up but before I see anything on screen, it powers down, boot again. I'm done OC'ing. I hope I can still recover it....

 

[trents]

You have been violating one of the cardinal rules of overclocking by overclocking the CPU and the RAM at the same time. Get you CPU overclock problems settled first and then go for the RAM. Having said that, there is very little to be gained by overclocking the RAM from a performance perspective and you can incur a lot of frustration in the process. Set the RAM at XMP and leave it alone.

Your attached pics are fuzzy and the details are hard to read. Just a tip, don't try to cram so many images into one screen shot attachment.

Looks like your cooler is not working right. Those temps are too high for that voltage. How's your case airflow? Have you tried reapplying your TIM and re-seating the heat sink? That's Cryorig H7 is a good cooler and should do better than that unless your room temps are extremely high. Do you live in a hot place?

 

[RedNano]

You have been violating one of the cardinal rules of overclocking by overclocking the CPU and the RAM at the same time. Get you CPU overclock problems settled first and then go for the RAM. Having said that, there is very little to be gained by overclocking the RAM from a performance perspective and you can incur a lot of frustration in the process. Set the RAM at XMP and leave it alone.

Your attached pics are fuzzy and the details are hard to read. Just a tip, don't try to cram so many images into one screen shot attachment.

Looks like your cooler is not working right. Those temps are too high for that voltage. How's your case airflow? Have you tried reapplying your TIM and re-seating the heat sink? That's Cryorig H7 is a good cooler and should do better than that unless your room temps are extremely high. Do you live in a hot place?

Hi! I tried to do it in separate stages but just activating the XMP was a no go for me. There was something else wrong and the system wouldn't be stable enough, until I manually set the voltage, then, I went on to overclock the CPU.

About the images, you can click on the banner on top of them and expand them but if they are still too small, you can right click on them, and open on a new tab, they will have the original size!

About the cooler, I made sure when I installed that it was properly done, however, I might re-do it at some point to see if there's something to improve: I too expected more from it, seems like it's under-performing.

The case has another two fans, one intake one at the back and one extraction one at the top, just over the CPU cooler. (120mm) and the room is 21C. However, The graphics card is a monster (It's a 1070ti) and takes a lot of room.....

I figured out what happened: My system froze, i halted it manually, decided to give up the ram OC and just shifted the sticks before de-activating the XMP profile, and the motherboard didn't like that at all. Had to clear the CMOS so it would drop the XMP profile and now I'm back with my 1600 Mhz sticks at stock speed.... I'll post some new OC tomorrow, I gave it up wth the ram, however, so only CPU OC. As said, no performance gain for the RAM OC... so I will focus on just the CPU.

Thanks and hapy new year

 

[Mandrake4565]

Looks like your cooler is not working right. Those temps are too high for that voltage. How's your case airflow? Have you tried reapplying your TIM and re-seating the heat sink? That's Cryorig H7 is a good cooler and should do better than that unless your room temps are extremely high. Do you live in a hot place?

Could be just one of those Hot Haswells Mr. T. My 4770k will only do 4.4 @ 1.23 V on my custom loop due to temps in the high 90's.

 

[trents]

Yeah, I forgot about those hot Haswells. I always delidded mine and it was a problem no more.

 

[RedNano]

Ok, I finally got it to be "Stable" and these are the results:

https://imgur.com/0BD6BYf

Room temperature: 21.0 C
•Change cpu multiplier to 44

•Change cpu vcore voltage to 1.25V

•Change VCCIN voltage to 1.9V (processor input voltage PIV)


I have to stop Prime95 after 5 or 6 minutes because the temps get really high, and if I lower any of the voltages, I will get BSOD with prime95 quite fast. Normal usage, gaming and so doesn't trigger the BSOD, though....

 

[Mandrake4565]

Ok, I finally got it to be "Stable" and these are the results:

https://imgur.com/0BD6BYf

Room temperature: 21.0 C
•Change cpu multiplier to 44

•Change cpu vcore voltage to 1.25V

•Change VCCIN voltage to 1.9V (processor input voltage PIV)


I have to stop Prime95 after 5 or 6 minutes because the temps get really high, and if I lower any of the voltages, I will get BSOD with prime95 quite fast. Normal usage, gaming and so doesn't trigger the BSOD, though....

Rednano, use the in forum picture attachment tool to host the pics please. Reason being is because down the road this post may help someone and if the pics disappear because you're no longer registered at imgur it doesn't help. Anyhow, if it's stable for you for your uses then you're good to go. I will not deem my Pc stable unless I can pass a minimum of 2 hours of Prime blend or 4 hours of Aida 64. You can always try running Aida because it doesn't heat the Cpu up like prime does. The other option is try and get it stable at 4.3 and see.

 

[RedNano]

But the voltages are within safe values, right?

I've been gaming the whole day without any problem at all.

I don't want to deviate from the main topic (CPU) but I already returned the RAM sticks @ 2400 that didn't seem to run stable. Would you recommend me trying again with slower speed ram, say 1866, and see if I notice any improvement? I might create a thread under the corresponding subforum....