Few questions about Overclocking the 8700k.

Pavel Pokidaylo

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Jun 8, 2013
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Hi. I have a new build with an 8700k, Maximus X Code mobo and 16GB 3200RAM and an h115i plat cooler. I have a few questions about my OC please.

Currently, I have it at 5GHz synced on all cores and voltage at 1.23V. I've tested it with many programs and it's stable. Should I try to raise the core clock or maybe lower the voltage for better temps? I've read that on the 8700k for anything over 5ghz you'd want to delid and I'm not interested inn doing that. 5GHz is fine for me I'm just curious.

I use the ICUE program to control the cooler and with fans/pump set to extreme the temps are in the 50-60 range during gaming and once in a while when the CPU is close to full load I might see 70 but that's about it. Is it safe seeing 70 sometimes? Also, is it ok the run the fans/pump at the extreme setting whenever I'm gaming? I game a lot. If I set to the fans/pump to quiet mode I can see temps as high as 77 degrees on the CPU is that ok too?

ICUE also shows the temps of the RAM modules and I've seen as high as 55 degrees is that ok for RAM? It's usually in the 40's during gaming I think but I have seen it as high as 55.

AVX Instruction mode. What's the point of this exactly? I have it set to 1 and the clock drops 100mhz most of the time from 4995 to 4895. If I set it to 0 it always stays at 4995. Do I need to keep this at 1 or can I just drop it to 0 and have the clock at 4995 at all times?

Load line Calibration. I have this set to 6 any point dropping it to 5?

Thanks
 
Solution
I'd say turn the AVX offset off you probably don't need it. You can push for a higher overclock without delidding as your temps are still good. Generally speaking once you start getting up to about 1.35V or higher that's when you usually have to start delidding as temps start to get too high otherwise regardless of cooling. You probably could do 5.1 easily without delidding if you aren't having stability problems at 1.23V. If you want to be more sure of stability you can always try running the Asus Realbench stress test for a couple of hours. That test also includes AVX workloads so if you can pass that, you shouldn't have any problems.
I somehow doubt you are actually stable at 1.23V at 5.0GHz, if you are stable you have yourself a golden sample chip and you probably could get something like 5.2 or 5.3GHz out of it if you delidded and pushed up to 1.4V. What utilities are using to stress test and for how long?

As for your temps, they are all fine, you don't really have to worry about those until you are going past 85 celsius on the CPU.

AVX Instruction mode is an offset meant to aid in gaining stability without causing super high temps. Some AVX workloads can cause extremely high thermals, and getting stability in AVX workloads often requires more voltage, so using the AVX offset can get you stable at a lower voltage. An AVX offset of 1 reduces your CPU speed by 1 multiplier when software running AVX is running. With even web browsers using AVX now, you almost might as well just run an overclock 1 multiplier lower full time rather than using the offset.

As for LLC, you'd have to see what your Vcore is in something like HWInfo64. If you are still getting droop below the voltage you set at Level 5, you can move up to Level 6 to see if that helps, though at that point you are likely to see a voltage overshoot under lighter workloads.
 

Pavel Pokidaylo

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Hey thanks for the reply. I actually followed a video guide and it said at first to start at 4.8ghz and 1.3V and during Aida I saw temps reaching into the 90s. Then I saw one guy posted that he was stable at 4.8ghz and 1.23V. So I tried that and it seemed fine so then I did 5ghz and 1.23V. I've run Aida64 for half hour, Cinebench, Intel Burn Test on Standard, Very High and Maximum 10 loops each. I've also been playing games like Overwatch and AC Odyssey for a week and have not had any issues. The guy in the video guide also said I must have a monster chip lol. Sounded too good to be true and still does. There's still one test I need to run that he shows in his guide but that test is more of a CPU and GPU test at same time.

Delidding isn't something I want to do and I think it's perfectly fine at 5GHz. I was actually wondering if I could drop the voltage some more haha but I probably shouldn't push my luck. So going to 5.1 or 5.2 GHZ requires delidding then or is it possible without it? Not that I'm going to try just curious.

Yea with the fans/pump set to quiet mode the highest temp I've seen the CPU reach while playing AC Odyssey was 77 degrees but even in quiet mode the fans will still ramp up to 1600RPM each to keep temps down. I play with my headset on anyway and don't really hear anything and even at the extreme preset the fans are not THAT loud. I'm just wondering if it's bad for the cooler to have it set to extreme.

So with this AVX instruction. Do I need it at all? Can't I just set it to 0 and leave the core at 5ghz and call it a day? It was stable at 5ghz with 0 on AVX I just turned it on for the hell of it cuz he did same in the video.

My LLC is set to 6. That seems to be what all the overclockers in the guides set theirs to.
 
I'd say turn the AVX offset off you probably don't need it. You can push for a higher overclock without delidding as your temps are still good. Generally speaking once you start getting up to about 1.35V or higher that's when you usually have to start delidding as temps start to get too high otherwise regardless of cooling. You probably could do 5.1 easily without delidding if you aren't having stability problems at 1.23V. If you want to be more sure of stability you can always try running the Asus Realbench stress test for a couple of hours. That test also includes AVX workloads so if you can pass that, you shouldn't have any problems.
 
Solution