Overclocking Rampage IV BE & 4930k - Help needed!

[RononDex]

Hello there

I am trying to overclock my 4930k on my Rampage IV black edition and I am experiencing some strange issues.

My specs:
- Mobo: ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro Black (2x, 8GB, DDR3-1866, DIMM) CMY16GX3M2A1866C9
- CPU: i7 4930k
- CPU cooling: Corsair H100i
- Graphics card: 1x Asus R9 290X DirectCU II
- PSU: be quiet! POZWER ZONE - 1000W

So first off I tried to overclock it to 4 GHz by setting the multiplier to 40 and VCore to 1.3v.
I know 1.3v is much for that overclock, I wanted to raise the multiplier till prime95 crashes.

Speed-Step, C-States and Turbo mode is disabled.

Now I boot the windows (which works) and run prime95. After a few minutes the pc just shuts down (and i have no idea why).
After that I found out that the BIOS always resets my multipliers to 34 when I disable turbo mode??? why???
And if I reset my multiplier to 40 it enables turbo mode again automatically...

I tried all kind of settings, voltages, etc... I even tried 1.35v for 4GHz and it still shut down when running Prime95!

Also in the Digi+ section I set all capacities to 110% - 120% and cpu LLC to medium (also tried high) and all other calibrations to High... Same results.
Futhermore I tried the same thing with X.M.P mode and Manual mode. Also tried with Base clock at 125MHz... still same result...
I also raised the VCCSA and PLL voltage a bit, still not better...

This is driving me nuts (it's my first time I do some overclocking).
I think there must be something I am doing wrong, but can't figure out what. Also why does it always enable Turbo mode when setting multiplier??? This is totally nonsense to me as it makes the cpu unstable.

Can someone help me out here? Thanks

 

[Woomack]

If you start from the beginning then set all on auto , run Prime95 for ~30 mins. If there won't be any issues then set memory to XMP1 profile and run Prime95 blend for ~30 mins.
Next start to raise CPU ratio without touching voltages. You should be able to reach ~4GHz.
When you see any instability then slowly raise vcore and nothing else.
For clocks up to 4.5GHz you don't need much. Almost only higher vcore and ratios. Memory controller is designed to work with 1866 memory so it should also run stable without raising VCCIO/VCCSA.

On some boards Turbo has to be enabled to use additional CPU ratios above stock. I have the same on standard RIVE.

 

[redduc900]

Turbo mode needs to be enabled on that particular board in order to raise the multiplier above 34. For a 4.0GHz clock (100 BCLK x 40; 600MHz overclock), you should be able to leave all voltages on Auto (Vcore, VTT, PLL, etc.). You should be able to hit 4.4GHz at ~1.23-1.25v, 50% LLC, CPU Current Capacity: 140%, and CPU VTT Switch at 1.3x. A Vcore of ~1.35v should net you a 4.5GHz clock. Leave the gear ratio at 1.00 for the time being, but make sure XMP Profile 1 is enabled (DDR3-1866 profile), and the timings and DRAM voltage are set correctly (9-10-9-27 at 1.50v).

 

[RononDex]

Thanks for the fast reply! I will give it a try as soon as I get home this evening

 

[RononDex]

Okay, I finally got it stable at 4.4GHz @1.28V
I left everything else besides from multiplicator and VCORE untouched. Seems like this board does a really great job hepling overclocking.

At the moment I am stress testing 4.5GHz (CPU-Z shows 4440 MHz) @1.32 VCORE and it looks promising so far (currently at around 30 minutes in prime 95)

Is 1.32V safe for daily use? My PC is not running 24/7. It should only run a few hours a day. Also temparatures when running prime95 are at 50 - 55 °C.

Thanks for your help!

 

[redduc900]

Make changes to the settings I suggested at 4.4GHz, and you may be able to lower the Vcore even more.

 

[Daddyjaxx]

It's all in the temperature of the CPU. Anytime you overclock, you shorten the life span of the CPU. That's why there is air, water, phase, cascade, DICE, and liquid nitrogen cooling. The first three are really the only good ones for 24/7 use. What are your temps running Prime?

1.32 on air shouldn't be bad. I was running a phase system on a 4930 @ 4.8 @ 1.35v where the phase would run at -50c and under full load, the temps of the cores were in the teens. That means it was only producing 65c or so heat load.

BTW, 30 minutes of Prime is nothing and in my opinion is not necessarily stable. You want stable? Run five cores of Prime for at least 8 hours while the other core loops through 3dmark for 8 hours. You do have to buy 3dMark for looping.

Stable is a relative term really. Some people don't consider it stable until you run 10-20 passes of Linx and 24 hours of Prime. If you can run Prime and 3dmark for 8 hours, it will be "relatively" stable.

 

[EarthDog]

The point of woomack mentioning 30 mins above is to make sure that stock, and then memory wasn't the issue... A quick test if you will, since the op was havingissues.

Temperature does not equate to heat load either. To put it another way, which is hotter, a bonfire with yellow flames or a lighter with a yellow flame? They are both the same temp...however the amount energy at the same temperature is clearly a big difference.

Sorry about the thread Jack...

 

[Daddyjaxx]

For a short test, Linx is a better test IMHO. With only 16GB of RAM, 10 passes would be quick.

 

[RononDex]

I did run prime95 (and watching films simultaneously) for 1.5 hours at 4.5GHz @1.32VCORE.
Seemed stable so far. Had to shut it down beceause I went to sleep, will stress test the hell out of it this weekend

It's all in the temperature of the CPU. Anytime you overclock, you shorten the life span of the CPU. That's why there is air, water, phase, cascade, DICE, and liquid nitrogen cooling. The first three are really the only good ones for 24/7 use. What are your temps running Prime?

If I understand the physics behind correctly, then the factors which have an impact on the lifespan are: Voltage, Temperature, and transistor size.

The smaller the transistors are, the greater is the impact more voltage has on the cpu.
The greater the temperature, the faster it degrades. Also the higher the volrage, the faster it degrades.

I just don't know how much I shorten the life of the cpu with my setup. I would like to keep it running for at least 5 years or so.

BTW it is running on a H100i watercooler and runs at 50-55°C during Prime95 testing

Make changes to the settings I suggested at 4.4GHz, and you may be able to lower the Vcore even more.

I am not sure if I should touch these settings. Everytime I tried to optimize something in the digi+ section or on the VCCSA / PLL voltage it caused random reboots when using prime95 afterwards. Never figured out why...
At the moment it seems to run pretty smoothly. If I can keep it stable with this voltage I don't gar about 0.01 volts more or less