APEX ENCORE +14900KS +Dominator Titanium 7200 stability help.

[SinisterDev85]

Long time no see folks! 

Got this new build together and I've been riding the struggle bus trying to get a modest overclock stable.

Im honestly a bit overwhelmed with all the new settings this board has vs my previous Z590 Apex. Unfortunately it doesn't seem i hit the silicon lottery this time. My cpu scores a mediocre SP93/MC 75.

After some recommended voltage tweaks I've successfully been able to get the memory running stable in XMP Tweaked profile. Ran memtest in the bios and it did 7 passes with 0 errors.

I decided to tweak just a few familiar settings and see how good a job the AI overclock does. Made it into windows and ran Cinebench 24 and followed the usual routine for the AI to set a decent OC.  However, trying ro get that OC to run while on an XMP profile is where I've hit a roadblock. After about 5-10 seconds of running Cinebench, the program freezes and I need to force close it.

So here's so more details. I feel like im close to discovering stability. Im using the new TG Contact Plate and TG Kryosheet. This is my first time using a contact plate. At first I tightened down the thumb screws too much and that was causing instability issues. Cpu would thermally throttle instantly upon starting Cinebench, however my H170i would bring the temps down quick, but temps did spike high throughout the test. After redoing the thumb screws by hand only, not using a screwdriver, the difference was night and day!! Cpu never thermally throttled during the benchmark and temps overall were much lower. Lesson learned!

So now im trying to get a decent cpu overclock with the ram running in one of the 3 xmp profiles, and that's where I hit a wall. I think im going to have to abandon the AI OC and start manually tweaking the cpu. Which has been a little intimidating cuz i havent done this since the 11900k lol. Sooo many more options now.

Anyone have any advice, or could point me in the direction of a good video guide to watch? Im not seeking the highest OC available. I just wanna get a nice moderate cpu oc, hopefully with ram running one of the XMP's, and perform an undervolt (which i also need some direction on how to do properly.)

Im having trouble finding a helpful guide for my specific configuration. If anyone has any advice or can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it! 

Btw, it's good to be back, fam!

[Silent_Scone]

Feel free to try the attached profile, you can lower the DRAM Freq.

[SinisterDev85]

So, after much deliberation, I decided to return the 14900k and exchanged it for a KS today. Not the best bin unfortunately, SP99. (although I read a new bios update for the KS may improve this score). Didn't get a ton of time to play around with it tonight but I literally had more success tonight than weeks of struggling with the previous Cpu. Got the ram running in XMPII pretty effortlessly. With a few tweaks to the 5 voltage values Nate recommended, it made it through an hour of Occt mem test with only 3 error. A big improvement vs millions of errors in the first 60 seconds with the previous Cpu lol. Looking forward to getting it dialed in better soon.

Now that I know I'm dealing with a better IMC, I restored everything to defaults and am going to focus on the Cpu first and then I'll revisit getting XMP working. 

My main focus now is to achieve nice, stable performance and get temps down a bit. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all these changes since my 11th gen build. Many people have pointed to this guide, but if I'm being honest, I've been dealing with some wicked Long Covid brain fog and this guide is melting my brain lol. https://www.overclock.net/threads/asus-maximus-z790-and-intel-i9-13900k-14900k-an-overclocking-and-t...

Do you think I should leave this post open? Or would it be better for me to start a new one seeking advice on stability and undervolting in a new post, since my situation has changed a bit? 

[Silent_Scone]

You can post here. Depends on what you're looking to achieve, are you just gaming? If you want to reduce temps, I'd look at doing this later—work on stabilising XMP first.

For temps, a quick-fire test;

Disable MCE

Set SVID to Best Case Scenario

Test stability.

[SinisterDev85]

Thanks! I'll give that a try after I get some sleep. Ultimately I want the system stable enough for simultaneous gaming and streaming on Twitch. I'm returning to streaming again soon and really want the system to handle the workload smoothly. I do work on digital art projects and occasionally some video editing. 

[Silent_Scone]

Ok. Yeah, Intel shines when it comes to productivity, however, that is where you can expect to see power draw increase significantly. You can see how your setup handles these things before trying to limit performance.

[SinisterDev85]

So i finally got some time to work on this and it would seem that im still riding the struggle bus, even with the new KS I swapped for. Not the greatest bin. SP99  Pcore112  Ecore 73 MC 82.

MC is significantly better than the K I returned. But im still having so much trouble. I swapped over to the Gskill 8000 kit and tried what you recommended to quickly test for stability. Results have not been good. With the Trident Z5 8000 kit, i get various BSODs as soon as i try to log into windows. I even looked at a guide for specifically tuning this kit and tried tweaking the 5 voltages along the recommended values and I still keep getting BSODs every time so far. Very frustrating/disappointing when I see soo many claims of "easily" having this kit running at 8800MT/s CL36 on the encore board, when I can't seem to get into windows with XMP enabled at 8000 CL40. 

I was experimenting with getting XMP stable on the 7200 Dominator kit and having much more luck in that area. Just started to struggle with getting the whole system stable with XMP + cpu tuning, cuz I'm still reading so much conflicting information/opinions about how to best go about tuning the bios, and there's so many new settings im not familiar enough with yet. 

As much as the Dominator is esthetically pleasing, and convenient that I can FINALLY have ram leds that match the rest of my system, I'd much prefer to get the Gskill kit stable. I purchased that with my initial order and the return window is closed on it. I picked up the Dominator kit quick on Amazon, cuz my original K cpu had a very low MC and figured maybe it'd handle the 7200MT/s kit a bit more easily. Which has proven to be true so far. 

Im really hoping there isn't something wrong with the mobo itself. I've never had to RMA an Asus mobo, and I've been using em since the old P4 era lol. 

[Silent_Scone]

If unstable with the selected SVID behaviour, clear CMOS

SVID Behaviour - Typical

Disable MCE - Enforce all limits

Set LLC to 4

Select XMP II

[SinisterDev85]

The journey begins again! 

Whelp. I was STILL struggling with the 14900k. Even with all the helpful advice, every time I thought I got it stable to the point where I could start focusing on the ram or getting XMP to work, I'd run a few stress tests, go back into the bios and profiles I saved were mysteriously widely unstable again! So, tomorrow was the last day I could return the cpu, and today I made a decision. Micro Center got a few of these in stock this morning and I made the exchange. Got a discount for using my Micro Center card, so the difference wasn't too bad. 

Here's to hoping I have a nice binned chip and much less frustrating time getting it all stable! 

 

[MOC7]

I too picked up a 14900ks from Microcenter yesterday morning. Will also be putting it into an Apex Encore in the next week or two. Looking forward to hearing more about your experience with the combo. 

[SinisterDev85]

How are things going with your KS? What kinda scores didja get? Mine could definitely be alot better, but the MC is significantly higher than the K I returned. However I'm really struggling to get this build stable. Hoping you've had some better luck than I!