5960x X99-Pro Overclock Issues

[caracal77]

Hi all,

Running into a few problems when trying to overclock a 5960X on an ASUS X99-Pro/USB 3.1.

It's been a few years since I last overclocked anything, so any help would be great.

I'm using 32GB Patriot Viper 4 which is rated to run @ 2800Mhz (16-18-18-36), at 1.2v.

Without XMP, the system is stable for several hours of RealBench with:

5960x @ 4.1Ghz (my target speed), 100 BCLK.
Uncore @ default clockspeed.
vCore: 1.03
Cache voltage: default (0.815v)
VCCSA: +0.001 offset (0.85v)
Input voltage: 1.8v

This is with the RAM running at the stock 2133Mhz.

When I apply XMP, the overclock fails, causing freezing or rebooting relatively quickly when I try HCI MemTest (or Intel XTU).

When XMP is applied, it sets VCCSA to 1.14v and input voltage to 1.9v. I've noticed it also occasionally sets the DRAM voltages to 1.5v! It also attempts to set the cache multiplier to 31, for some reason.

Considering it wasn't working anyway, I therefore disabled XMP, entered RAM timings manually, and attempted to tune VCCSA.

Using any variation of VCCSA between 0.85v and 1.1v, the overclock still fails. This is with the RAM voltage set to the default 1.2v.

Since the RAM is rated to run at 2800Mhz @ 1.2v, I haven't tried changing RAM voltages.

Any idea where to go from here? What should I be looking at tweaking next to get the overclock to stick?

Thanks for any help.

[cekim]

caracal77 wrote:
Turns out the problem was with the cache voltage as you suggested, cekim.

Final voltages are:

Vcore: 1.03v (though AiSuite reports this rising to 1.04v while stress testing)
VCCSA: 0.85v
Input Voltage: 1.8v (I believe this is stock?)
Cache Voltage: 0.98v (anyone know what the stock voltage is for this one?)

Do these voltages all seem OK, again with the focus being on longevity? (Hence the conservative overclock). Temps are fine.

Thanks again for any help.

1.8 is stock for input at no load.
stock cpu/cache is around 0.80 stock with no load, but may ramp up as load increases.

Those voltages are beyond fine, they are at or below what "auto" is going to be doing in a typical system (who's bios would be coded to leave head-room that any given processor may or may not need). 1.03 vs 1.04 variance is also entirely normal.

Those are extremely conservative voltages compared to what many/most who go beyond stock will use as well as well within Intel's various guidance for keeping things below 1.35v (IIRC). People have been driving haswell cores hard for a while now and they don't seem terribly fragile, but as you well know its a lottery, so there is nothing wrong with playing it safe.

[cekim]

0.80, not 0.85, sorry - I double checked...

Also, I think I misspoke earlier - the offsets are obviously relative to those starting points unless you use "manual" in which case they aren't offsets. Sorry for any confusion, but you seem to have found a good setup despite my goofs.

[Gobe]

Just a comment on the eventual voltage. My understanding is that you should only need to set the memory voltage on the main page and leave the eventual voltage alone if you plan to run at the same memory voltage as boot. When eventual voltage is set to Auto, the memory voltage during operation will match the boot voltage.

The reason for the ability to manually set the eventual voltage is for cases where you need extra voltage to get a successful boot but you can run stable at a lower memory voltage once successfully booted. The eventual voltage manual setting provides the ability to specify a LOWER memory voltage than the boot memory voltage upon successful completion of boot.

[cekim]

Gobe wrote:
Just a comment on the eventual voltage. My understanding is that you should only need to set the memory voltage on the main page and leave the eventual voltage alone if you plan to run at the same memory voltage as boot. When eventual voltage is set to Auto, the memory voltage during operation will match the boot voltage.

The reason for the ability to manually set the eventual voltage is for cases where you need extra voltage to get a successful boot but you can run stable at a lower memory voltage once successfully booted. The eventual voltage manual setting provides the ability to specify a LOWER memory voltage than the boot memory voltage upon successful completion of boot.

I did eventually go back and try this and much to my dismay, the result of auto on the eventual voltage was 1.5V shown when I went into BIOS settings....

I have no idea what their auto voltage is doing here, but it's been reasonably horrible on both the RVE and X99-PRO for me. I haven't been able to allow it to do its own thing without randomly seeing horrifying values.

So, I went back and pegged them both at the sticker value and it it obeys. I still can't get 3000 to even boot regardless of any voltage so far, so it is entirely possible I'm doing something else wrong, but this 1.5V was with a very tame and otherwise stable setup (1.25vcore, 1.0 vcache +0.22 SA 2800MHz DDR)

Auto doesn't always do that, just "sometimes", but once is too much.