Safe core voltage OC i5 8600k

iklop

Reputable
Mar 16, 2018
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4,510
Hello. I OCed my i5 8600k to 4.8Ghz. Voltage is 1.232V and temps around 65°C when using cinebench. My mobo is msi z370 sli plus. I have on XMP, OCed by writing multilpier 48 and voltage auto. At 5Ghz I have 1,36V.

1. What else should I set in bios or windows options if I am missing something importnant.
2. What is safe voltage for i5 8600k?
 

Gaidax

Distinguished
Try to stick to 1.35v, 1.36v is fine***, 1.4v is maximum really and you don't want to be there, ***because voltage is not some sort of set deal, if your motherboard has load line calibration at some decent level turned on it can overshoot way into 1.4+v.

You need to trace what you really get with CPU-Z and HWMonitor and such, because setting motherboard to 1.36v does not mean that's the reality when CPU is used. It will either drop hard to like 1.33v on load and then you will eventually crash or it will overshoot to 1.4v+ and you don't want that, because it's bad for CPU.

Then you need to stress test CPU *A LOT*, read this and do it - https://overclocking.guide/stability-testing-with-prime-95/

Then do IBT/Linx, guide here (in your case set 6 threads): https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/how-to-test-your-cpu-memory-with-linx.5361/

Things are a bit more complicated then just setting 5GHz 1.36v booting and running Cinebench. The worst kind of instability is when things seem to be running OK, while in reality you are piling up errors and dumping these on disc which can result in permanent application crashes and corruption, even after you disable OC, simply because of corrupted data written while you were OCed.

You need to stress test for many hours, not kidding. Start with first guide with Prime95, that should be what you need, then top off with second guide to ensure you are stable. If you BSOD or crash - you are not stable and there is no way around it, reduce OC.

Also - make sure your cooling is top notch - these tests push CPU to the limit - track temperature and if you get above 95c - stop the test and reduce OC and voltage. Stability is most important, pushing clocks is useless if you get errors and most errors you won't even see until it's too late, which is the issue and why this testing is needed.