Is my 4690k a bad overclocker?

[stinson1013]

Hi, I built a desktop with an i5 4690k about a month ago and I am now attempting to overclock my CPU for the first time. I'm using a Gigabyte z97X Gaming 5 motherboard and a Nepton 280L AIO.

Based on a bit of research, the first thing I did was set the core multiplier to 44, set the core voltage to 1.25v, set the "VRIN voltage" to 1.9v from the stock 1.8, and make sure my memory was using its XMP profile. Into about 5 minutes of Prime95 stress testing this gave me a BSOD. From there I reduced the multiplier by one until I could make it through 20 minutes of Prime95 and finally arrived arrived at a multiplier of 41.

So, am I doing something wrong or is 4.1 GHz the most I can expect to get out of my CPU? Based on other results I've seen online, this seems to be a pretty abysmal overclock. Also, during the 20 minutes of testing, my CPU's temperatures were between 50-60C except for two brief spikes where it maxed at 76C. Is this a bad sign?

Thanks, I appreciate any help.

 

[ttimberlak443]

So the highest stable overclock you got was 4.1GHZ at 1.25v? If the highest temp you got was 76C, you could boost the voltage a bit to try to squeeze a slightly higher multiplier out of it, but I'm not sure how much higher you will be able to get it. It would seem that you got a chip that doesn't like to overclock very well.

I'm on a 4670k running at 4.5GHZ at 1.24v stable. I could MAYBE get a little bit more out of the CPU, but I'm pushing the limits of my cooling as it is. Keep in mind, I have not overclocked very many chips (maybe 2 or 3), but from my experience it would seem that you got an unlucky chip.

 

[stinson1013]

I actually was able to get it stable at 4.3 Ghz and 1.26v, however I seem to have another problem. After the overclock I'm getting these really short freezes and frame skips in games. During these skips my GPU will drop to ~40% usage for just a moment. Could the overclock have somehow damaged my CPU, despite it being stable and temperatures being good? I've tried reverting all bios settings to what they were prior to the overclock and the problem remains. The only other thing that changed before the problem started is that I updated my bios from Gigabyte's F3 to F5. Could a bad bios update cause this? Thanks.