Clock speeds always at boost ?

[FezzyIsFoxy]

Hi all! I wasn't 100% sure on where to post this, but i'm after a little advice / clarification please.

I recently put together my new rig with an i7-6700k, Maximus VIII Hero and ASUS GTX1070 Strix OC.

I haven't started OC'ing anything yet, as i want to 'run it in' first.

I have seen that my CPU is always running at its boost clock of 4.2GHz, and my GPU is always in OC mode.

I havent altered anything in the BIOS yet apart from XMP and tweaked the Fan EQ.

Cpu utilization is normal and near 0% however, and rarely goes above 25oC at idle, and GPU clock speed idles at around 278MHz around 33-35oC. GPUTweak II shows GPU speed at 107% though.

All i would like to know, is, Is this normal? and will it affect the longevity of my system atall ?

[Nate152]

Hi FezzyisFoxy

Check you have the windows power plan set to balanced, at default settings this should throttle the cpu speed and voltage.

It's fine to run in OC mode it's Asus's maximum overclock but you can overclock it a good bit further if you like, there is the ROG Strix 1070 OC gude at the bottom of my post in my signature, just click on it.

The GPU speed at 107% is probably the power target and in OC mode Asus increases it some, you can crank it up all the way if you want, have a look at the guide and post your results.

All looks good to me, what are your gaming temps? If cpu temp is below 70c that's fine and the lower the better, you want to keep the GPU temp below 80c, anything below that is fine and again the lower the better.

Let me know if you try the OC guide. 🙂

[FezzyIsFoxy]

Nate152 wrote:
Hi FezzyisFoxy

Check you have the windows power plan set to balanced, at default settings this should throttle the cpu speed and voltage.

It's fine to run in OC mode it's Asus's maximum overclock but you can overclock it a good bit further if you like, there is the ROG Strix 1070 OC gude at the bottom of my post in my signature, just click on it.

The GPU speed at 107% is probably the power target and in OC mode Asus increases it some, you can crank it up all the way if you want, have a look at the guide and post your results.

All looks good to me, what are your gaming temps? If cpu temp is below 70c that's fine and the lower the better, you want to keep the GPU temp below 80c, anything below that is fine and again the lower the better.

Let me know if you try the OC guide. 🙂

Thanks for the guide, Very informative! I will start tinkering with the OC Soon. though while my rig runs everything i own at the moment on the highest settings at 60fps (V-Sync), i will probably keep it stock until i can justify a need to push it a little.


I did check my power settings, and it seems Samsung magician has added a Samsung SSD High performance plan. Switching to balanced doesnt affect boost mode atall.

So I'm assuming it's fine to leave my CPU clock settings on auto for now in the BIOS, which keeps the CPU at boost clock all the time, without hurting the lifespan of my PC?

The most intensive game i have on my PC at the moment is Fallout 4, here are some temps/figures with the settings cranked to 11. maintains a solid 60 fps (Using adaptive V-Sync)

CPU Runs at around 42-50oC max while playing FO4. I have a corsair H100i V2 AIO Cooler. Ambient room temp is around 16oC. GPU rarely topped 60oC.

The GPU clock is mostly at 1633MHz, occasionally boosting to 1785MHz, and i saw 2025MHz only once or twice. (This was with GPU Tweak in its stock OC Mode)

[Nate152]

Your temps look good and it's fine to run a static voltage.

Try setting the Minimum Processor state to 5% and see if this gets your cpu to throttle.

Click the pic a few times to make it bigger.