Hi, RedTez
Automatic settings on the Maximus boards are configured for several degrees of CPU quality that were arbitrarily chosen. A below average CPU may not work at 4.6 GHz and have to fall back to stock turbo 4.4. It takes quite a good CPU to run at 4.8GHz at all, let alone with 24/7 stability. It appears from what you say that your CPU is almost good enough to work at 4.8 GHz and may need only a little additional tweaking. The difference and inconsistency is in Haswell CPUs, not in the M7F. That's what we call the silicon lottery. You actually have a winner if it's close at 4.8GHz
A first suggestion is to manually drop the core clocks back to 4.7 GHz - in BIOS or AI Suite, set the max multiplier to 47. That will back off speed to a point that may be stable while still being snappy quick. I usually run a 4790K at 4.6 GHz for 24/7 use.
Before I make any suggestions about 4.8GHz that may bring forth smoke, please tell me about your cooling setup and about the Vcore that CPU is getting for 4.8GHz. I ask because the watchdog error (101?) has as much to do with heat as with voltage, so "increase Vcore" isn't a clean solution here.
Jeff
Automatic settings on the Maximus boards are configured for several degrees of CPU quality that were arbitrarily chosen. A below average CPU may not work at 4.6 GHz and have to fall back to stock turbo 4.4. It takes quite a good CPU to run at 4.8GHz at all, let alone with 24/7 stability. It appears from what you say that your CPU is almost good enough to work at 4.8 GHz and may need only a little additional tweaking. The difference and inconsistency is in Haswell CPUs, not in the M7F. That's what we call the silicon lottery. You actually have a winner if it's close at 4.8GHz
A first suggestion is to manually drop the core clocks back to 4.7 GHz - in BIOS or AI Suite, set the max multiplier to 47. That will back off speed to a point that may be stable while still being snappy quick. I usually run a 4790K at 4.6 GHz for 24/7 use.
Before I make any suggestions about 4.8GHz that may bring forth smoke, please tell me about your cooling setup and about the Vcore that CPU is getting for 4.8GHz. I ask because the watchdog error (101?) has as much to do with heat as with voltage, so "increase Vcore" isn't a clean solution here.
Jeff
As chevell said, your cooling sounds great and at 32C, that's good for normal uses 24/7. 50's in stress is also good. That makes me think you are using AI Suite temperature monitor. That measures a sensor on the MB under the CPU. You should use HWMonitor, Aida64 or another monitor that shows core temperatures. Core temperature is always higher because that's where the power is burning and that's the place most sensitive to heat. Brief core temperatures over 80C are acceptable in stress testing as long as normal use temperatures stay under 70C.
It's also true that manual overclocking is much more effective than automated. I don't even have AI Suite installed and do all CPU and RAM overclocking in BIOS. Here are two OC guides from this very site. They're the ones I learned the most from. Don't worry that they're for Maximus VI and 4770K. Everything applies equally to 4790K in M7F.
http://rog.asus.com/254052013/maximus-motherboards/recommended-settings-for-overclocking-maximus-vi-...
http://rog.asus.com/242142013/labels/rog-exclusive/maximus-vi-series-uefi-guide-for-overclocking/
Memtweakit is okay for reporting RAM settings, but Haswell architecture won't let us change anything from within Windows. Sorry, don't know why you're getting an error message.
As to 4.8GHz -- My 4790K takes 1.49 Vcore (!) to be stable at 4.8GHz ( and 1.33v at 4.7GHz). At that point, it burns over 160 watts and core temperature goes over 90C in stress tests. That's with a water loop about like yours and the CPU not delidded. That's just barely in the max temperature range before the CPU starts throttling. No way do I use that 24/7. The question was what core voltage your CPU uses when it nearly works at 4.8? If it's over about 1.4 volts, really, think about settling for 4.7 GHz which could run with voltage under 1.35 and be much cooler. If you have some headroom, you can try core voltage in the 1.4 - 1.45 range if you are monitoring core temperatures and don't let them go too high.
That may improve to the point where the watchdog errors quit. If the errors don't improve, or even get worse, the CPU is probably running hotter than it likes for that clock rate. Watchdog (code 101) errors are symptomatic of that - regardless of the temperature and the 100C throttling limit, a CPU comes to some temperature where it doesn't run that clock rate, the clock stops on one or more cores and the watchdog catches the error.
It's more likely the CPU would need to be cooler. With your good water cooling in place already, any meaningful temperature improvement requires delidding. That lets you replace the so-so TIM under the lid with something better like liquid metal. That's a big step, fraught with risk and voids the CPU warranty. Your choice may come down to 4.7GHz or delidding.
Jeff
It's also true that manual overclocking is much more effective than automated. I don't even have AI Suite installed and do all CPU and RAM overclocking in BIOS. Here are two OC guides from this very site. They're the ones I learned the most from. Don't worry that they're for Maximus VI and 4770K. Everything applies equally to 4790K in M7F.
http://rog.asus.com/254052013/maximus-motherboards/recommended-settings-for-overclocking-maximus-vi-...
http://rog.asus.com/242142013/labels/rog-exclusive/maximus-vi-series-uefi-guide-for-overclocking/
Memtweakit is okay for reporting RAM settings, but Haswell architecture won't let us change anything from within Windows. Sorry, don't know why you're getting an error message.
As to 4.8GHz -- My 4790K takes 1.49 Vcore (!) to be stable at 4.8GHz ( and 1.33v at 4.7GHz). At that point, it burns over 160 watts and core temperature goes over 90C in stress tests. That's with a water loop about like yours and the CPU not delidded. That's just barely in the max temperature range before the CPU starts throttling. No way do I use that 24/7. The question was what core voltage your CPU uses when it nearly works at 4.8? If it's over about 1.4 volts, really, think about settling for 4.7 GHz which could run with voltage under 1.35 and be much cooler. If you have some headroom, you can try core voltage in the 1.4 - 1.45 range if you are monitoring core temperatures and don't let them go too high.
That may improve to the point where the watchdog errors quit. If the errors don't improve, or even get worse, the CPU is probably running hotter than it likes for that clock rate. Watchdog (code 101) errors are symptomatic of that - regardless of the temperature and the 100C throttling limit, a CPU comes to some temperature where it doesn't run that clock rate, the clock stops on one or more cores and the watchdog catches the error.
It's more likely the CPU would need to be cooler. With your good water cooling in place already, any meaningful temperature improvement requires delidding. That lets you replace the so-so TIM under the lid with something better like liquid metal. That's a big step, fraught with risk and voids the CPU warranty. Your choice may come down to 4.7GHz or delidding.
Jeff
Jeff!! Nice to hear from you especially the above information - I tried everything I could to get to 4.8 ghz but it just wasn't stable - I used AIDA64 and the temp spiked at over ninety every so often but I think I only tried 1.3 volts. Eventually I set my sights down and decided to work with 4.7 ghz as stability is much more important than 100 mhz. I ended up with the following stress test using xmp and auto everything with dialled in 2400mhz ram settings and 47 multipliers on all cores. I think I am very close to 4.8 but every bsod on my luverley new shiney pc was like a stress test on the heart not to mention the stress test to my senses when thinking of the two matrix platinum 780ti's in there exposed to every bsod. Lol to make matters worse - in the middle of the 4.8 configuring - win 8.1 decided it had 15 updates to install (please do not turn off your pc) lol at me.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]421
24[/ATTACH]
Anyway if you would be so kind to take a look at the pic and give me your opinion?? When I ended the test the temps were very close to normal instantly. Maybe a couple of degrees up from normal.
Thankyou and the autos were much better than I originally thought - just 4.8 though showing initial promise is maybe too tall a hill for my cpu??
[ATTACH=CONFIG]421
24[/ATTACH]Anyway if you would be so kind to take a look at the pic and give me your opinion?? When I ended the test the temps were very close to normal instantly. Maybe a couple of degrees up from normal.
Thankyou and the autos were much better than I originally thought - just 4.8 though showing initial promise is maybe too tall a hill for my cpu??
