6700k unstable overclock

Geraltofskylake · Aug 27, 2016

Hello

I have tried to overclock my i7 6700k and I can´t get it stable no matter what.I have set the core clock to 4.3 GHz and voltage goes up to 1.375v with adaptive voltage, but even this isn´t fully stable.

I notice the instability when I boot up my system it boots for a second or a few, but then turns off and reboots. I have had the error overclocking failed on bootup while having higher clocks and I´ve always dialed the overclock down.This current 1.375v has not given me any blue screens, but it has the same bootup issue as the earlier higher OCs.

I also can´t set the voltage manually from the Bios. When I manually set it to for example 1.350 v and turn all power saving options off HWmonitor reports well over 1.4v voltages. I can only set a voltage by setting it to adaptive and even then the computer seems to add about +0.035v to the maximum combined voltage of the desired and offset voltage. I´ve red all the guides about OC´ing a Skylake CPU with Asus motherboards and tried all the suggestions, but nothing has helped.

My motherboard feeds a lot of juice to my CPU even at default bios settings. 1.385v and I have even seen higher. Is it normal or could it be related to my issue?

Many of you might think that the PSU is not powerful enough to run the system, but the highest power draw from the wall which I have recorded is 650 Watts. That leaves a 200 Watt headroom so I think power should not be an issue. If you think that the reason is the lack of power, could you explain in detail why do you think so?

(Not trying to deny it, but just don´t understand how it could be an issue if my system power draw peaks only at 650 W under max load)

I have all the latest drivers so they should not be an issue either.

UPDATE: I used to have an overclock of 4.7 GHz on my 2 cores and 4.6 GHz by AI suite 3 5 - way optimization. I had this OC when I built my system in the beginning of the year, but after some bios updates I lost it and could not get even close to these results with AI suite 3 or manually. I had very little knowledge of overclocking at them time and thought that this will give me the best safe OC possible. I do not know the voltage it set to me and I only monitored the temps using Ai suite 3 which gives very inaccurate results.

Summary of questions:

1. What might be the reason I can´t get a stable OC?
2. Why can´t I manually set the CPU voltage?
3. Is my default voltage normal for this processor?

Thank you in advance to anyone who is willing to help and give suggestions!

PS: Is there a way to display my Specs other than copying them in the signature, or do you have a better solution to automatically display them in all my posts and comments? Update: Apparently I can´t fit all my Specs on the signature

My specs

(CPU - 6700k)
(CPU Cooler- Noctua NH-D15)
(Motherboard - Asus Z170 Pro Gaming)
(RAM - G.Skill RipJaws DDR4-3000 DIMM CL15-16-16-35 2x8GB)
(GPUs - 2x SLI MSI 980 Ti Gaming 6G)
(PSU - EVGA 850W Supernova 850 G2 Gold)
(Case - Fractal Define S)
(SSD - Samsung Evo 500GB)
(HDD - SEAGATE Barracuda Desktop 4TB 5900RPM)
(Case Fans - 2 x 140mm Noctua NF-A14 FLX, 2x 140mm Noctua
NF-A14 PWM, 1 x stock Fractal case fan)

Specs are in brackets because they are easier to read on the profile page. Can I display the specs on the profile page or have them attached to all my posts/comments?

ael00 · Aug 27, 2016

what PSU / mobo are you using ?

Geraltofskylake · Aug 27, 2016

ael00 :

I´m sorry that the specs were not in the original post. I tried adding them automatically, but now I added them manually to the post.

Jim90 · Aug 27, 2016

For the CPU, Have you checked a number of 6700k reviews online? Even though the systems might not compare exactly this should give you very valuable pointers and ballpark settings.

Similarly for the mobo?

Only to get an idea of where you stand - within the BIOS pages is there a way to get it to try to find the best overclock itself...Asus is usually good at offering you this.

If the PSU was a factor try removing one of the 980Ti's. Now try overclocking. More stable?

It may be, unfortunately, that you have been unlucky with the silicon lottery - your CPU is not a great overclocker.

Geraltofskylake · Aug 27, 2016

Jim90 :

Asus overclocking utilities in Bios or Ai suite 3 give me very poor OC with dangerously high voltages.

I´ve checked online and tried to use similar clocks/voltages but when it is unstable I add more voltage.

I´ll try removing the GPU when I have more time and don´t have to use the PC so much.

Is it possible to disable the second GPU without removing it in order to save time?

Jim90 · Aug 27, 2016

You're correct about the Ai Suite applying high voltages for an auto overclock though it at least gives you a quick check of the CPU. I do use Asus BIOS profiles to enable/disable HDD+SSD combinations to isolate various boot options, however, I'm not sure about PCIe combinations.

Geraltofskylake · Aug 28, 2016

Jim90 :

I followed instructions from this post https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?52937-Sudden-Overclocking-Failed-w-o-OC-Rampage-V

Not sure if it helped yet as I only tired it with 1.15v. I noticed that when i boot, the system reboots and it refuses to boot without restarting the red DRAM led is on in my motherboard, which relates to a memory related issue. Do you know how could I deal with it or to be sure that my memory sticks are broken?

Geraltofskylake · Oct 31, 2016

Hello and sorry for not replying to my own thread for so long

I tried removing one GPU and I have a new 1300W PSU now, but the issues still persist.

I have been in contact with Asus customer support, but they did not give very helpful answers and mostly blamed the PSU. They were also a bit reluctant to help when they found out that I bought my motherboard from another EU country. According to Asus their warranty does not cover products bought from abroad even between EU nations. Hope this information will be helpful for someone considering to buy abroad to save a couple of euros.

I have now contacted Intel and Gskills about the issue. I hope that they will be more helpful than Asus.

My specific RAM Model: http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-3000c15d-16gvrb

Skidushe · Nov 1, 2016

I recommend updating BIOS if there is a newer version, resetting BIOS defaults if not.
Enter Advanced mode in the bottom right I believe and click on the AI tweaker tab at the top.

https://gyazo.com/c5e0e6d38e86a9f4903122b9c8b23597

Here Enable XMP as shown and Disable ASUS multicore enhancement as shown in the bottom of the image.

http://gfx.cdfreaks.com/guides/skylake_overclocking/core_ratio.png

Change CPU core ratio to sync all cores and where you see '1 core ratio limit' Change this to to your multiplyer.
Assuming your BLCK is 100 which it should be if you set BIOS defaults:
42 = 4.2GHz
43 = 4.3GHz
44 = 4.4GHz
45 = 4.5GHz

I would recommend setting this to 44 for now.

https://gyazo.com/2002bac8483e67700edc4c4dd9828727

Now this is the important part. Scroll down to where you see CPU core voltage and change it from auto to manual. Leaving it on auto applys WAY more voltage than is needed to the CPU. Enter a value of 1.35.

1.35 is for the purpose of this thread for your testing. 1.35 is still very high for 4.4GHz.

This works with all 6700k's I've seen and *should* be stable. Run a stress testing utility such as Prime 95:

http://windows-downloads-center.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/prime95-266.html

Run a blend test and leave it for a while, if you don't know what you're doing I recommend reading the Intel Temperature guide, section 11-14. The whole guide is a good read if you wish.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

If it passes without any error and the temperatures aren't going past 80 degrees then you're fine. I recommend lowering the voltage by increments of 0.01 until it crashes then raise it back to the last previously know stable voltage, you shouldn't' need 1.35v to run 4.4Ghz unless you really have lost the silicon lottery.

Geraltofskylake · Nov 3, 2016

Thank you for your reply. I´m currently experiencing system instability and trying to troubleshoot it. I have all settings at default in order to pin point these issues.

I get high CPU voltage, over 1.4v at default and my CPU runs quite hot, since it is only at default and I have a NH-D15, when running Prime95.

I have a couple of issues which pinpoint to system instability. The major issue is that when I turn off my PC windows shuts down but the PC keeps running with a blank screen until I manually shut it down. Sometimes I get the Windows task bar not disappearing while watching fullscreen videos. Changing browsers does not help and I have not found a solution from google, only rebooting fixes this. I also have a issue where the windows start menu goes crazy and doesn't work. All the images flicker and nothing works. Only rebooting helps.

I am pretty sure that the culprit is either the motherboard or the CPU. I will keep testing and will replace the faulty component. Until then I won´t be doing any overclocking.

Skidushe :

Skidushe · Nov 3, 2016

Geraltofskylake :

Thank you for your reply. I´m currently experiencing system instability and trying to troubleshoot it. I have all settings at default in order to pin point these issues.

I get high CPU voltage, over 1.4v at default and my CPU runs quite hot, since it is only at default and I have a NH-D15, when running Prime95.

I have a couple of issues which pinpoint to system instability. The major issue is that when I turn off my PC windows shuts down but the PC keeps running with a blank screen until I manually shut it down. Sometimes I get the Windows task bar not disappearing while watching fullscreen videos. Changing browsers does not help and I have not found a solution from google, only rebooting fixes this. I also have a issue where the windows start menu goes crazy and doesn't work. All the images flicker and nothing works. Only rebooting helps.

I am pretty sure that the culprit is either the motherboard or the CPU. I will keep testing and will replace the faulty component. Until then I won´t be doing any overclocking.

Skidushe :

I recommend you clear cmos on your mobo, this may fix your shut down problem. The high voltages are probably due to the voltage it feeds automatically being WAY too high. My previous post's intention was to tone the voltage down. The Other problems in windows I wouldn't think are hardware related at all. Only thing I can think of is doing a fresh install of Windows.

Geraltofskylake · Nov 6, 2016

Thank you for your reply. I am currently testing RAM settings which I got from G Skills.

The settings they gave me:
DRAM Frequency: 2800MHz
DRAM Voltage: 1.25V
CL-Timing: 15-15-15-35 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS)
Command Rate: 2T

They seem to be working fine and system has not hung up on shut down since I put these settings manually in the BIOS. My CPU is still power hungry and often eats over 1.4V. Looks like the issues were caused by wrong RAM timings and a bad CPU.

Skidushe :

Geraltofskylake :

I recommend you clear cmos on your mobo, this may fix your shut down problem. The high voltages are probably due to the voltage it feeds automatically being WAY too high. My previous post's intention was to tone the voltage down. The Other problems in windows I wouldn't think are hardware related at all. Only thing I can think of is doing a fresh install of Windows.

Skidushe · Nov 6, 2016

Geraltofskylake :

Thank you for your reply. I am currently testing RAM settings which I got from G Skills.

The settings they gave me:
DRAM Frequency: 2800MHz
DRAM Voltage: 1.25V
CL-Timing: 15-15-15-35 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS)
Command Rate: 2T

They seem to be working fine and system has not hung up on shut down since I put these settings manually in the BIOS. My CPU is still power hungry and often eats over 1.4V. Looks like the issues were caused by wrong RAM timings and a bad CPU.

Skidushe :

Geraltofskylake :

I recommend you clear cmos on your mobo, this may fix your shut down problem. The high voltages are probably due to the voltage it feeds automatically being WAY too high. My previous post's intention was to tone the voltage down. The Other problems in windows I wouldn't think are hardware related at all. Only thing I can think of is doing a fresh install of Windows.

Have you tried my originally instructions, they should cure the CPU getting too much voltage. Remember to tone down the voltage to the lowest stable.

Geraltofskylake · Nov 10, 2016

I already did it before. The issue is not the voltage itself, but the instability.

My CPU is clearly a dud. A friend of mine recently got a similar setup and when I compare my results with his I can clearly see that there is an issue with my CPU. My CPU eats way too much voltage inconsistently and the temperatures are way too high for my cooling solutions. I have to run CPU benchmarks with all fans at 100% to keep the temperatures from not jumping well above 70c. My friend can run same tests with his similar cooling solution at around 50% fan usage and same or lower temperatures.

My original question was to pinpoint to the cause of my issues. I wanted to know is it motherboard or CPU related. Manually locking the voltage to the lowest possible will not make my CPU much cooler.

If anyone is having similar issues I recommend getting a new CPU. I´m going to stick with this one until the system, becomes too unstable for me to use and then get a new CPU.

Skidushe :

Geraltofskylake :

Have you tried my originally instructions, they should cure the CPU getting too much voltage. Remember to tone down the voltage to the lowest stable.

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