Help break 5ghz please. Z270 7700k

[erickpk]

Hi guys,

I need some help/ideas on how to reach 5ghz. Just updated specs in bio.

Currently running @ 4.9GHz 1.31v manual, sync all cores. Everything else auto. 3200MHz 14-14-14-34 (xmp). Prime, aida stress, and realbench stable; more importantly, battlefield 1 stable. At 5ghz 1.35v aida stress test passes but real bench crashes the system. I did the Asus tuner thing and it passed 5ghz on all 4 cores (crashed at 5.1, forget whether 2 or 4 cores?), 3000mhz.

Somewhere there's a combo that'll let me still run my ram fast and break 5ghz? Does anyone know what max vccio and sa voltages I can apply are for the z270? Since the board seems to undervolt a bit I'm gonna try 1.36 after hearing some safe sa and vccio voltage.

The cpu (according to hardware monitor) never seems to ask for more than 1.296 volts, even at 5ghz vid is still 1.296 max. Surely there's something I'm missing?

Thanks in advance for your help/replies.

[NemesisChild]

If OCing Kaby Lake holds true to Haswell & Skylake, you will need at least 0.070 more volts for 5.0GHz.

So if 4.9 is stable@ 1.31v, you'll need around 1.38v and maybe more.
SA and VCCIO voltages are for tweaking 3200+ memory, will not help OCing the CPU.

Try a LLC value of 5 or more to reduce or eliminate Vdrop under load.

[Menthol]

Nemesis gave you good advice, the only thing I would add is you may be maxing the cooling capacity of the heatsink

[erickpk]

Menthol wrote:
Nemesis gave you good advice, the only thing I would add is you may be maxing the cooling capacity of the heatsink

NEVER say this to a man with an itchy credit card trigger finger... but now that the cats out of the bag... I've been thinking about water; however, this nd-d15 is pretty good, so it would have to be something less than spectacular, but better than most of the common aio's I've been seeing. Got any recommendations?

[Raja]

You can always delid the CPU, remove the black sealant that holds the IHS onto the die, reapply some good paste, and then relid, which will reduce the gap between the IHS and die, leading to lower temps. Should help improve overclocking margin. Will void warranty, though, so all disclaimers apply.

[Tsvetan]

Hello @erickpk,

5ghz for me has been pretty straightforward, except for cooling it down 😄
I have a Z270-A and 7700K and all I have to do is turn on my XMP profile (Memory's at 3200), change the multiplier to 50 on all cores and put 1.36v vcore. And then it's stable. But I've never had a CPU that behaves like this one - the slightest load makes temps go up and when I'm stress testing if, for example I'm at full load and 75C, there are some temperature spikes on random cores that go up to +15C from that or sometimes more and cause problems. Maybe that's the infamous crappy IHS paste effect, I don't know, but a much weaker cooler was holding my AMD FX-8350 @ 4.4ghz without issues (and they say AMD is crazy hot).
So I found the sweet spot for my cpu at 4800mhz and 1.21-1.22v where I can cool it adequately with my AIO fans at around 900-1000rpm so it can be relatively silent. 4700mhz is stable at 1.16v.

I still can't get my memory to run at 3600mhz with Kaby Lake though - worked great at that setting on my Z170 ASRocK Extreme4 with my 6600K....then with the Kaby i5-7400 it couldn't even post above the XMP setting of 3200, so I though "aha, there's the catch of z170 supporting the new processors!" and sold the i5 and z170 for this combo, but I'm still having trouble with the memory. In BIOS tho, no matter what I set up the memory voltage to (up to 1.385v) after reboot it never shows above 1.344 or something, so maybe that's an issue here with the ASUS. Or I need to play with some other voltages when pairing it with a 7th gen processor to achieve stability? Haven't figured it out yet.

[erickpk]

Tsvetan wrote:
Hello @erickpk,

5ghz for me has been pretty straightforward, except for cooling it down 😄
I have a Z270-A and 7700K and all I have to do is turn on my XMP profile (Memory's at 3200), change the multiplier to 50 on all cores and put 1.36v vcore. And then it's stable. But I've never had a CPU that behaves like this one - the slightest load makes temps go up and when I'm stress testing if, for example I'm at full load and 75C, there are some temperature spikes on random cores that go up to +15C from that or sometimes more and cause problems. Maybe that's the infamous crappy IHS paste effect, I don't know, but a much weaker cooler was holding my AMD FX-8350 @ 4.4ghz without issues (and they say AMD is crazy hot).
So I found the sweet spot for my cpu at 4800mhz and 1.21-1.22v where I can cool it adequately with my AIO fans at around 900-1000rpm so it can be relatively silent. 4700mhz is stable at 1.16v.

I still can't get my memory to run at 3600mhz with Kaby Lake though - worked great at that setting on my Z170 ASRocK Extreme4 with my 6600K....then with the Kaby i5-7400 it couldn't even post above the XMP setting of 3200, so I though "aha, there's the catch of z170 supporting the new processors!" and sold the i5 and z170 for this combo, but I'm still having trouble with the memory. In BIOS tho, no matter what I set up the memory voltage to (up to 1.385v) after reboot it never shows above 1.344 or something, so maybe that's an issue here with the ASUS. Or I need to play with some other voltages when pairing it with a 7th gen processor to achieve stability? Haven't figured it out yet.

I'm in the process of rma'ing a z170 right now (bios bricked the board). I might give that board a shot if this one doesn't hit 5? Although I'm loving the two m.2 slots on this one.

I was thinking of going faster on the ram, but am going to hold off until I hear more. I was also thinking that one of the reasons I wasn't stable at 5ghz was because I insisted on running 3200mhz? Might try dropping it down to stock just to hit that magical mark?

**edit**

Interesting your comments on voltage and the bios not reporting over 1.344v. I have noticed that, no matter what, the cpu vid never rises above 1.296 in hardware monitor, even when doing limited stress testing at 5ghz.

[quark54]

erickpk wrote:
Hi guys,

I need some help/ideas on how to reach 5ghz. Just updated specs in bio.

Currently running @ 4.9GHz 1.31v manual, sync all cores. Everything else auto. 3200MHz 14-14-14-34 (xmp). Prime, aida stress, and realbench stable; more importantly, battlefield 1 stable. At 5ghz 1.35v aida stress test passes but real bench crashes the system. I did the Asus tuner thing and it passed 5ghz on all 4 cores (crashed at 5.1, forget whether 2 or 4 cores?), 3000mhz.

Somewhere there's a combo that'll let me still run my ram fast and break 5ghz? Does anyone know what max vccio and sa voltages I can apply are for the z270? Since the board seems to undervolt a bit I'm gonna try 1.36 after hearing some safe sa and vccio voltage.

The cpu (according to hardware monitor) never seems to ask for more than 1.296 volts, even at 5ghz vid is still 1.296 max. Surely there's something I'm missing?

Thanks in advance for your help/replies.

Why?

If you're already at 4.9, an additional 100 MHz equates to virtually nothing in terms of frame rate.

Unless this is some kind of competitive thing, just for the sense of achievement. Then I understand.

[Tsvetan]

Probably just because 5GHZ looks and feels good! 😄
That was my reason. 🙂 Never managed to get there with my E8200 and QX9650 years ago with Phase Change cooling+modded top-end ASUS, but now I am finally at 5ghz with a crappy 60$ AIO and a budget mobo 😄 Now there's this evil voice saying "use your Amex and order a new Phase Change unit for 6ghz" 😄 😄 😄 Not that I need any of this really...I was perfectly fine even with my FX8350 😄

[erickpk]

quark54 wrote:
Why?

If you're already at 4.9, an additional 100 MHz equates to virtually nothing in terms of frame rate.

Unless this is some kind of competitive thing, just for the sense of achievement. Then I understand.

Because it's achievable. I'm going to run at 4.9 24/7, but I want this. 😉