Can someone confirm if this OC is running ok or am i going to break something?

davedurg09 · Jul 9, 2013

Hi,

First here's my build:

ASUS P8Z77-V/PRO Motherboard
CORE i5 3570K
8GB 2x4GB Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A2133C11R
1TB WD10EZRX SATA3 HDD 64MB
250GB Samsung 840 SSD Basic
XFX ATI 5850 1GB
OCZ Fatal1ty 550w PSU
Zalman z11 plus case
Hyper 212 evo cooler
6 case fans + 1 cpu fan

I'm new to overclocking and just built my new pc. Need someone to tell me if the following screenshot looks normal. I ran prime95 small ffts test
for only 30 minutes just in case im in danger of breaking something. Temps never go about 69. Heres a screenshot:

I set:

1. the overclock in the bios to use the XMP profile which is running my ram @ 2133 @ 1.5v
2. the multiplier to 39 to get to 3.9GHZ
3. I set the Load Line Calibration to Medium.
4. I left the Vcore in offset mode and set the offset to -0.050

Think that's it.

What is scaring me is the VID in core temp, hope im not sending that amount of voltage to my CPU, although CPU-Z is reporting
1.192 as the vcore. does everything seem ok? I know 30 minutes is hardly enough but just need some advice.

Thanks

bigcyco1 · Jul 9, 2013

Looks fine bud enjoy!

gmkos · Jul 9, 2013

Hi,

Few things.

Its a modest overclock for that CPU. You are sending that much voltage to your CPU. It has to do with your LLC. Thats not considered too high of voltage for that CPU on load.

I'm confident you can get a higher overclock with the same voltage at load if you change your LLC settings. Its going to be trickier to find the optimized overclock spot. With that in mind, you'll probably run into stability issues before temperature issues.

davedurg09 · Jul 9, 2013

Ok thanks for the help, so should I increase the overclock or change the LLC. Im hoping to get to 4.2-4.4. don't really care about going any higher than that.

Am I on the right track with the negative offset voltage? and is the VID in the screenshot above anything to worry about or will changing the LLC affect the VID?

bigcyco1 · Jul 9, 2013

Just a tip your aftermarket cpu cooler isn't going to be able to keep the cpu cool enough at 4.4ghz stick with 4.2ghz any higher is not a good idea.

davedurg09 · Jul 9, 2013

I just set the LLC in the bios to Regular which says 0% and ran prime 95 again same test.

The VID has increased from 1.2810v to 1.2860v
The vCore has decreased from 1.192v to 1.168v
the processor is now using 71.3 watts vs 70.4 watts when LLC was at Medium

Temps have dropped around 2 degrees

Should I leave the LLC at regular? also why has it caused the VID to increase, is this normal/safe?

Should I increase the negative vcore offset more to see if it can go lower?

gmkos · Jul 9, 2013

davedurg09 :

You're getting the right idea. The LLC affects voltage. You can see exactly how in the chart below.

For the moderate overclock (4.2-4.4) that you're aiming for, Ultra High would be the ideal setting, while remembering its going to require an adjustment to the offset voltage to remain at your target VID.

How should you do it?

Get your LLC to Ultra High with a safe load VID by adjusting offset accordingly.

Set a lower VID @ 3.9Ghz, run prime for X amount of time until you feel its stable (people have varying opinions of what a stable OC consists of), lower the VID a bit more, run prime, keep lowering and testing until it crashes.

Then start adding to your overclock and testing 100Mhz at a time, adding a bit your VID if prime crashes, until you reach the overclock you're looking for with safe temperatures, then you can start subtracting bits of VID to help further with temperatures, the whole while falling back on the previous safe settings of each if it crashes.

That last one was a terrible sentence, but it gets the idea across.

bigcyco1 · Jul 9, 2013

gmkos :

davedurg09 :

You're getting the right idea. The LLC affects voltage. You can see exactly how in the chart below.

For the moderate overclock (4.2-4.4) that you're aiming for, Ultra High would be the ideal setting, while remembering its going to require an adjustment to the offset voltage to remain at your target VID.

How should you do it?

Get your LLC to Ultra High with a safe load VID by adjusting offset accordingly.

Set a lower VID @ 3.9Ghz, run prime for X amount of time until you feel its stable (people have varying opinions of what a stable OC consists of), lower the VID a bit more, run prime, keep lowering and testing until it crashes.

Then start adding to your overclock and testing 100Mhz at a time, adding a bit your VID if prime crashes, until you reach the overclock you're looking for with safe temperatures, then you can start subtracting bits of VID to help further with temperatures, the whole while falling back on the previous safe settings of each if it crashes.

That last one was a terrible sentence, but it gets the idea across.

+1

davedurg09 · Jul 10, 2013

Thanks for the help : ) Could you maybe help me understand a little more, I would like to understand exactly what Im doing.

I have been reading forums etc about LLC and using an Offset Vcore voltage and have read some contradicting stories.

Some say to turn LLC to regular or off and use a positive offset voltage.
Others say for moderate overclocks like what I want to achieve (4.2GHz) LLC is not needed.
And I think what you are saying above (correct me if im wrong) is to use an Ultra High LLC and then use a negative offset to bring the voltage down.

It is my understanding from reading online that enabling LLC will increase the voltage to make the system more stable but if I enable it and set to Ultra High and then set a negative offset will they not just cancel each other out as 1 is adding voltage while the other is subtracting voltage?

As Im only aiming for a 4.2GHZ overclock do I even need LLC enabled?

gmkos · Jul 10, 2013

davedurg09 :

Ultra High gives you the least change in voltage from what you see in the BIOS, to system idle, to system load. A lower setting means that you're giving your CPU less voltage at load than you are at idle, as a result, a stable OC at load with a low LLC setting, means that you're giving more voltage to your CPU than it needs when its idle.

davedurg09 · Jul 10, 2013

Ok I have set the LLC to Ultra high and have set a negative offset of 0.10 volts.

My idle temps are around 30 and the lowest I've seen the Vcore drop to was 0.96v but it jumps around from
0.96 to 1.0+

My load temps under prime 95 small ffts are on average 67 although 2 cores are at 69-70 and the other
2 at 61-62 degrees, is this normal? Mt load voltage is 1.192v which is the same load voltage as when I
had LLC to regular and a negative offset of 0.050 volts.

The VID reading in core temp has now increased from 1.2810v to 1.2860v, is this ok? why is it getting
higher?

Am I on the right track, should i keep adding to the negative offset until my computer becomes unstable? or
am I doing it wrong.

Thanks for the help.

gmkos · Jul 10, 2013

Yes, get the VID as seen in Core Temp lower by adjusting the offset voltage incrementally. When you get there, your failure will likely be in the form of your weakest core dropping its Prime95 worker thread. That is the point where you want to note your previous good settings. Then you can start aiming for higher clock speed, adding more to the VID only as needed.

Don't go over 1.3V for that processor on air cooling, its simply not recommended. It won't blow up if you do it once, but the chip will die faster with prolonged use. I suspect with your cooler, when you get your clock speed high enough, you'll have stability and/or temperature concerns before you come close to needing 1.3V.

Unless you have the worst chip die ever, at 1.28V, you should be able to get a fair amount higher than 3.9Ghz with your Evo cooler. Again the best way to do it is to slowly work your way to the limit, which gives you the added benefit of having stable overclocks to fall back on.

Here is another chart, this was not done by me either, but its done with Ivy Bridge. Before comparing, you should note its either done with an exceptional chip sample, or an exceptional cooler, so you shouldn't expect your results to be exactly the same, though the curves should be similar and it should be a great reference still:

So, the 3570K build I did last year with a Phanteks PH-TC14PE cooler followed the above curve almost identically. I was initially aiming for the sky (4.8GHz) on clock speed, but after some rather lengthy and extreme stability tests that were failing, and hours of tweaking and failing, I ended up running the system at a very stable 4.5Ghz, 1.25v with maximum load temperature of 72c.

davedurg09 · Jul 10, 2013

Ok but im getting a little confused, I have read online that the VID reading in Core Temp is not the actual Vcore voltage.

Its just the voltage that intel automatically determines is required for the current blk freq x multiplier to run completely stable, is this correct?

My VID at idle @1.6Ghz seems to hover around 1.2009 - 1.2560v while my actual vcore reading in CPU-Z at idle is 0.936 - 0.960 volts.

My VID at full load @4.0Ghz (I upped it from 3.9) seems to hover around 1.2860 - 1.2910v while my actual vcore reading in CPU-Z at Full Load is 1.112 - 1.120 volts.

When you say VID do you mean vcore? any changes I make to any of the settings in the bios never seem to affect the VID reading in Core Temp. Is the fact that the VID reading in Core Temp is always high matter if my actual vcore in CPU-Z never gets anywhere near it at load?

gmkos · Jul 10, 2013

davedurg09 :

So, I took these screens just now just to show you the discrepancy and the reason for the confusion.

You can see mine below.
From BIOS, vCore varies a bit between 1.13-1.14, mode is Offset + 0.045.

You can avoid the reading confusion by running vCore at manual for a static amount, but without offset you're losing power efficiency and just feeding a straight amount of voltage to your CPU at all times.
IDLE

LOAD

gmkos · Jul 10, 2013

As far as your question about the difference between the terms, this explains it better than I can:
http://rog.asus.com/51092012/overclocking/overclocking-using-offset-mode-for-cpu-core-voltage/

Edit: Just want to point out the above link is a Sandy Bridge article, hence the higher voltage references.

davedurg09 · Jul 11, 2013

Im not at home at the minute so i will have to confirm this later when i get home today but from looking at the idle screenshots you have just posted both core temp and CPU-Z are reading that your frequency is at 1600mhz which is correct as speedstep kicks in when idle.

But on my machine whenever im at idle I think Core Temp always reads that my frequency is 4000mhz where as looking at CPU-Z at the same time will read that my frequency is 1600mhz which is what i would expect as im at idle with speedstep enabled. Again I will need to confirm this when i get home but im pretty sure that is what I have been seeing happen.

Do you know why Core Temp is always saying im running at 4000mhz even when im at idle where as CPU-Z states 1600mhz, this could explain why my VID in Core Temp is so high when im at idle.

Is there something wrong with Core Temp or have I accidentally turned off something in the bios that core temp needs on?

Thanks for all the help BTW really appreciate it.

davedurg09 · Jul 11, 2013

Ok so I think I have cracked it.

I have a Samsung 840 250gb SSD which has tweaked my windows power option profile to get the best performance out of the SDD but for some reason it has set the "Minimum Processor State" in the power options profile to 100%. This is why Core Temp is always reading that my frequency is 4000mhz when its not and explains the high VID. I have changed this to 5%, here are my new Idle and Load Temps/Voltages:

IDLE

LOAD

Do you think these voltages are now low enough? or could I try lower. I'm afraid to increase the negative offset anymore in case my computer becomes unstable at idle due to the idle voltage being too low. My negative offset is currently at -0.110. From reading on other forums no-one seems to have gone anywhere near -0.110 when using a negative voltage which is also scaring me a little.

Can someone confirm if this OC is running ok or am i going to break something?

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