7700K OC on Asus Strix Z270 Gaming E | OCCT report

[g_tse]

Hello folks!

Nate152 could you please give me a hand with this?

Moved my Crosshair VI Hero mobo with a 1800X setup to the office for productivity and I have now moved my 7700K setup home.
I am now trying to OC it and determine what is the maximum I can get out of it and what would be the optimal 24/7 setup (hopefully with adaptive voltage).
Bear in mind that I will be switching my case and cooler to a 360 AIO in the next month, so my thermal might improve even more.

This PC is used solely for gaming, here are the specs:

Asus Strix Z270 Gaming E
Delided 7700K | Watercooled by a Coolermaster ML240
16GB Gskill 3200mhz (TRIDENTZ F4-3200C16-8GTZB)
Corsair RX850M
EVGA 1080ti FTW3 Hybrid

I have definitely lost the silicon lottery as the chip seems to need a lot of juice but there is also a big probability that I am doing something wrong.
I started off tinkering and followed MindBlank Tech's video here.

LLC 7, changed VRM settings to allow for maximum current draw & changed all power targets to maximum.
The PC passed cinebench, Aida 64 (for 1 hour) and OCCT (for 1 hour) @ 4900 with manual 1.4V but I think that it is running way to high for my liking and I don't know if it's worth it if the chip needs so much voltage for 4.9...
Here are some OCCT screens.

[g_tse]

Ok, decided to lower the clocks to 4800 with a 1,350 Vcore and LLC 6 to see what the temps are like.
I haven't tested this setup in gaming but it passed 1 hour of Realbench, here is a screenshot of HW Info.



As far as I can understand, it's not worth going up to 4,9 with my current case/ cooling solution as it requires much more juice and produces much higher temps.

How can I now check what is the lowest stable vcore for me to sit on @ 4,8 (so I can lower those temps)?
I would be nice to set up an adaptive vcore but I honestly don't understand how that is different than speedstep.
Doesn't speedstep lower your vcore when idle leading to lower temps?

Thanks!

[Menthol]

If all settings are default volts will scale with CPU frequency, once you start OCing things are different as you are no longer running at Intel specs.
Adaptive vcore is used when OCing so vcore will scale when not running Intel specs

Lower vcore and test stability to find lowest required vcore for your chip, you can do this using Intel XTU as it allows changing CPU multiplier, cache multiplier, blck, vcore, vccsa, vccio, depending on which motherboard, in real time while in Windows



This screenshot is with an X Apex and 8700K which allows more control than most boards but you get the idea, also I keep a list of Silicon Lottery's binned CPU's as a guide for needed vcore, all Silicon Lottery's chips are delidded before binning

[Menthol]

If all settings are default volts will scale with CPU frequency, once you start OCing things are different as you are no longer running at Intel specs.
Adaptive vcore is used when OCing so vcore will scale when not running Intel specs

Lower vcore and test stability to find lowest required vcore for your chip, you can do this using Intel XTU as it allows changing CPU multiplier, cache multiplier, blck, vcore, vccsa, vccio, depending on which motherboard, in real time while in Windows



This screenshot is with an X Apex which allows more control than most boards but you get the idea, also I keep a list of Silicon Lottery's binned CPU's as a guide for needed vcore

[g_tse]

Menthol wrote:
If all settings are default volts will scale with CPU frequency, once you start OCing things are different as you are no longer running at Intel specs.
Adaptive vcore is used when OCing so vcore will scale when not running Intel specs

Lower vcore and test stability to find lowest required vcore for your chip, you can do this using Intel XTU as it allows changing CPU multiplier, cache multiplier, blck, vcore, vccsa, vccio, depending on which motherboard, in real time while in Windows

This screenshot is with an X Apex which allows more control than most boards but you get the idea, also I keep a list of Silicon Lottery's binned CPU's as a guide for needed vcore

Thanks for the reply Menthol!

So what exactly is the procedure? Test what is the lowest vcore for 4.8?

I had previously tried 1.325, LLC 6 and Realbench crashed. It's stable @ 1.350, LLC 6, however, if I am reading the HWinfo correctly Vcore spiked up to 1,394, so I don't have any idea what to use in adaptive settings.

Also, I am starting to question the deminishing returns of this overclock if I have to run these settings 24|7...

Another thing that I do not understand is this. When using the smallest automatic overclock option from the mobo's bios, the system raises the BCLK to 103 X 47 = 4841mhz which also is stable at an even lower auto vcore (I think it spikes at 1.375)...

As I said, what I am trying to determine is the max oc I can get before the required Vcore increases exponentially - taking into account the benefits I will see in game.
I would also like to know if the AVX offset affects games and if using it would offer anything.

[Menthol]

For most of us that use our PC's for gaming, daily internet etc. AVX is of little concern, if you are using RB ver. 2.56 or even AIDA uses AVX to some small degree, just set it to -2 or 3 and forget about it.
If you require 1.35 volts manually, set Adaptive Mode and enter the same value in additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage, leave Offset on Auto and test
You can set Offset to a negative or positive value for additional control if needed, your biggest concern is CPU temperature, more so than a small voltage fluctuation

[g_tse]

I figured that much before you replied and I had already started a new stress test with Realbench.
Followed the steps in the Asus Rog Kaby Lake overclocking guide by Raja, I tested 48 (with an AVX offset of 2) with a 0.01 load line, etc. with an adaptive voltage of 1.300 + 0.050 and it crashed...

I have 2 questions.

1. Why does the adaptive setting have a plus and minus since you are already setting the voltage?
Is it so you can determine the max extra voltage given extra to the adaptive setting?

2. Do you know of any games that use AVX instructions thus diminishing the usefulness of the overclock?
The reason I am asking is because as I wrote, I use this PC solely for gaming, I work on a Mac AND in the 2 games I play the most seem to be using AVX.
While playing them, I have a afterburner stats in the left and both run at AVX speeds (4600)...What gives?

If that is the case, I should be looking for the highest OC of the system without an AVX offset as it is not worth running such high voltage and temps for a 100mhz benefit - bearing in mind that the system works flawlessly on the default XMP settings @ 4500 with the asus multicore enhancement...

Do I have such a bad chip, that needs so much voltage even for 4.8?
If you see my initial post, it needed 1,46 for 4,9!!!

Either that or I am doing something terribly wrong 🙂

[g_tse]

Tweaked around for a couple of days and seeing that my chip is on the lower end of the silicon spectrum, I decided that my sweet spot for the chip was a 48X overclock (with no AVX offset) using auto adaptive voltage & LLC 5.

I tried this setting with a 42X cache speed and it runs around 1,340 and with a 45X it runs around 1,395.
Since the CPU is delided, temp max out at 80C with this setting after running 2 hours of realbench and 6 hours of Intel's XTU.
XTU gives me a benchmarks of 1450 marks.

The question here for me are 2.

1. Do games benefit from higher cache speeds? I am also under the impression that my board has a hardlock of -3 from the Cpu for cpu cache speed.
2. Are these memory speeds any good? Would I benefit if it tried with a 14CL at 3200 instead (currently running 16-18-18-38 1T @ 3333 @ 1,45V)?