i7 6700k - bad game performance after overclock

Globespy · Sep 17, 2018

I have been running my 6700k at 4.5ghz (1.29V) rock solid for two years. Water cooling.

Since this is a pretty decent chip I thought I would try for 4.6ghz or even 4.7ghz.

After much work and testing I managed to lock in what I thought was a solid 4.6ghz OC at 1.38V and ran it overnight on RealBench/Aida64 etc without issue.

But then I started to notice that my game FPS were horrible - fluctuating between 120 all the way down to 60FPS, but mostly in the 70-90FPS range (GTX1080FTW)
I play Destiny 2 and for the most part I get 150FPS (capped as my monitor is 144hz) nearly all the time, with some dips here and there to 115-120FPS in heavy multiplayer activities.

I looked at sensors in HWinfo, I checked temps (never above 75C in any game) and individual core performance (all cores reporting the 4600Mhz clock speed) and could not find any logical reason as to why this was happening?
I went back to my 4.5Ghz OC and everything was immediately back to normal.

I know that over 4.5Ghz these chips really fall off with less and less actually being able to maintain that OC without very high voltages. But 1.38V is well within my comfort level and it's universally agreed that under 1.4V is where you want to be.

So why would this happen? Could it be voltage being too low even if stress tests completed successfully over 8 hour runs, and games never crashed?

I'm truly perplexed and would appreciate some input from more knowledgeable overclockers.

Thanks.

arif1752002m4a1 · Sep 17, 2018

First thing you should have to overclock only when you actually need.
And in your case it is unstable overclock. Just rise voltage about. 0.2volt per GHz.(as Intel suggests).
May be you can check overclocking guide from Intel.

Supernova1138 · Sep 17, 2018

You might be running into CPU current limits with the higher voltage that is causing the CPU to throttle back under heavy load. If you haven't already lifted the CPU Current Limit, you may have to find it in the BIOS and change it from Auto to whatever the maximum value is.

Globespy · Sep 17, 2018

Supernova1138 :

Thanks for the answers.
Not sure what you mean by CPU current limit in BIOS?
I also don't understand what you mean by changing it to "whatever the maximum value is"?

Are you simply talking about adaptive voltage (DVID offset) vs auto or manual Vcore?
If so, why on earth would I want to "change it from Auto to whatever the maximum value is"?
That would result in swift death of CPU and/or motherboard if I set voltage it maximum!

Or perhaps you mean Load Line Calibration settings?

You seem to have been around a long time in the forum, so I'm quite confused by what it is you are suggesting I do?Current and Voltage are two entirely separate things - Voltage is the difference in charge between two points. Current is the rate at which charge is flowing.
I've honestly never heard anyone ever talk about 'current' in this context?

Maybe are you talking about something else?
The only other setting in the BIOS that refers to voltage is under power states - "voltage optimization" which is set default to "auto" or can be turned "off".

Globespy · Sep 17, 2018

arif1752002m4a1 :

Thanks Arif

I'm getting the 2080ti before the end of the month (pre-ordered day 1) and I'm concerned that my i7 6700K may be a bottleneck for this card on my 1080p 144hz monitor.
Hence why I am looking to push any leftover performance out of it.

Stock voltage for my 6700K at stock speeds is 1.22V, so would seem Intel's theory that 0.2V per Ghz would run true if I am at 4.5Ghz at 1.29V.
So going up only 100Mhz should not take an additional 0,09V?

If the stock clock speed of the 6700k is 4Ghz then I should get 5Ghz at 1.32V, but we both know that won't happen!
5Ghz generally requires a custom water loop at a minimum but likely LN2 and Vcore in the 1.5+ range.

Only a couple of % of all chips will reach 4.9Ghz let alone 5Ghz.

Supernova1138 · Sep 17, 2018

Globespy :

Under CPU power settings there should be a setting for CPU current limit, this restricts the maximum amount of power the CPU can draw. If you start pushing up to high voltages you will start hitting that limit when it is set to default. The tooltip in the BIOS should tell you what the maximum value is, and that's probably the best setting to use when overclocking. Otherwise, you'd have to figure out how much power your CPU wants to draw at 1.38V and change the current limit to match that.

Globespy · Sep 18, 2018

Thanks for the help.

I don't think I will actually ever notice 100Mhz of difference in clock speed, and the extra voltage needed to be stable at 4.6Ghz isn't worth the hassle.
If the CPU becomes a bottleneck then I'll likely get the new i9 9900 and plan on a custom water loop and I doubt I will need to update that CPU for 4-5 years just for gaming.
I think 4 core CPU's are going to be borderline in the coming year or two, but it will be a long time before 6 cores are common place let alone 8 for gaming.

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