Requesting Overclocking Advice

[Qwinn]

Ok, I'm brand new to overclocking... not that I wasn't aware of it, I was just always concerned about system degradation. My current rig is pretty solid, though, and over the last few months I found that I've overclocked a fair bit almost despite myself.

Please assume I'm an idiot on this stuff because, well, I am. I've read a lot but have little actual experience.

Here's all the useful information I can piece together, beyond what's in my signature:

I've used the AI Suite 3 features (which appears in BIOS as CPU Level Up) which wound up setting me at BCLK 100.0 Mhz, Ratio 44, for 4.4 Ghz. Power is set to Adaptive. Offset\Voltage is 0.075, OC Voltage 1.200, for total 1.275. There doesn't appear to be any CPU Cache overclocking at all, I believe it's running at 3 Ghz.

For my 980Ti video cards, I didn't touch the voltage, I just added +125 Mhz and 500 to the memory clock in MSI Afterburner. This is on top of the factory overclock.

The above has passed XTU and Realbench stress tests, plus several weeks of intensive Witcher 3 running on mostly ultra settings with 3D Vision at 1440p, with FPS in the 35-55 range. Crashes in Witcher 3 are infrequent and generally only when alt-tabbing back into the game.

Max temperature of the CPU during the XTU stress test was 68c. Max temperature running Witcher 3 as described is generally 81c on GPU1 and 78c on GPU2.

This would all seem to be to be fairly decent overclocking, however, when doing online compares of XTU and Realbench benchmark scores, I seem to be pretty far down the list. Oddly, some people who scored better than me with the same CPU seemed to have lower settings... one guy is 100 BCLK and only 36 ratio, the only difference I see is that he's Static where I'm Adaptive.

Now, here are my questions:

1) Is any of the above likely to increase degradation of parts? I presume no on the video cards since I haven't increased voltage, but maybe increasing frequency alone can cause wear and tear? Like I said, I is noob so I don't know. And until now I didn't realize the CPU Level Up had increased voltage at all, though I presume it only does so when Turbo is engaged? Does Turbo work properly, or Is it better to turn off Adaptive and just make it run at the 4.4Ghz all the time?

2) Is there any performance improvement to be gained by upping the CPU strap, if it results in the same total Ghz? For example, would 125Mhz strap with a ratio that gets it to 4.4Ghz be worse/better/same as one with 100Mhz strap and 44 ratio? And does upping strap cause additional degradation if it can be done with similar voltage adjustments?

3) Should I try to overclock the cache? I read somewhere that there's no point in getting the cache frequency higher than the processor frequency, but as it's based at 3 Ghz rather than the processor's 3.5 Ghz, I'm nervous about changing it in any corresponding way. Since AI Suite didn't do it automatically, I'm wondering if there's a reason for that.

I presume I'm doing ok on the silicon lottery if I was able to click in to the highest CPU Level Up option (4.4Ghz) and have it work perfectly and stable out of the gate. I'm wondering if I should try to overclock further, or if I'm getting about as good as I can expect for low risk/cost and trying to get it any higher would have a poor cost-benefit ratio.

Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated, and if I've failed to provide any relevant info, please just ask.

[Qwinn]

Hmmm... this surprised me a bit. I decided to be brave and changed my ratio to 45. Booted, passed XTU stress test, everything worked. So I went for 46. *Still* works great. Here's what I didn't expect tho: According to AI Suite, my OC Voltage is now 1.225, instead of the previous 1.200. With the 0.075 offset, I'm now at 1.3v. As most guides I've read are saying shoot for 4.5 Ghz at 1.3v, and I'm getting 4.6 Ghz, I'm guessing I've done pretty well in the silicon lottery? But still rather surprised that the voltage changed by itself... is that just the nature of being on Adaptive?

Still wondering if I should leave Adaptive on, or go manual. Not sure what "OC Voltage" and "Offset Voltage" mean, as they only exist under Adaptive. Does that mean that it's running at 1.225 now even when it's not in Turbo mode, and then Turbo ups it another 0.075? Why would it need to up the voltage when I'm running in non-turbo 3.5 Ghz mode? I assume if I am advised to turn off turbo and just go manual, that I should go to 1.3v (the total of OC and offset voltages), not 1.225.

Oddly, this made zero impact on my FireStrike score, in fact it went down a little (though well within the regular variance you usually get). I really wouldn't have thought I'd be GPU bound, considering 980Ti's in SLI, but I guess I am.

Still never went over 69c on the XTU test (5 minutes), so happy there. Will 1.3v cause any real degradation, or is that generally considered relatively safe?

Still haven't touched cache ratio/voltage, and I really don't see where to do so in the BIOS. I see where to mess with it in AI Suite, but still a bit nervous about it. No idea if it'll automatically adjust the voltage the way it did for the processor.

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Hi Qwinn 🙂

First post
1) yes, of course....
2)No...and no
3)No for gaming general computing...yes, if you want to or if you want to score higher in RAM benchmarks..or if you want to score higher in Firestrike...at 4.6GHz cache OC to say 4 or 4.2 will help score a bit

Second post
Volatge will change yes...CPU is dynamic in request for voltage and LLC settings etc if left on auto will vary voltage depending on frequency and load type.

Speedstep is a great feature...you want it on....don't go manual for 24/7 OCing. or 125 strap...

You should be able to see your voltage in CPUz...use this and only this to monitor voltage...don't have multiple monitoring programs running at the same time

XTU is a CPU destroyer...stop running it at 4.6GHz ;)temps might be good but it is not only about temps...current draw through processor causes degradation...Again YES overclocking risks degradation...will it happen...who knows...you have to imagine Clint Eastwood asking "do you feel lucky...."

Max cache ratio is field to change in BIOS for cache multiplier....keep a close eye on cache voltage in BIOS after change...don't go above 1.3v for long...in fact for 24/7 I would say don't go above 1.2v

I love OCing and benchmarking...I run my system at stock day to day....

[Qwinn]

Thanks for the input!

I'm probably not going to go back to stock, the OC *does* make a difference in my Witcher 3 gaming, but I may dial it back down to 4.4 Ghz.

I tried fiddling with the cache settings, but couldn't make anything fly. The only suggested numbers I've gotten were from the guide on these boards which said 1.35v and 46 ratio. Didn't go well. Honestly there's too many options on these settings, I have no idea if I want to go manual, adaptive, or what, and if I go adaptive (which would seem to be the way to go), what I should put in for the offset that will actually yield 1.2v or 1.3v. AI Suite, XTU, all describe the base as "default", which isn't helpful.

Wouldn't have guessed that an Intel stress test would kill Intel chips 😕 What should I use then? Realbench?

I ran Firestrike again at the 4.6 Ghz and this time it actually did show a significant increase... my previous best was 24990, went up to 25330. Not bad.

I'm sad to hear that degradation is a real concern even at only hitting 1.3v when in turbo. I had read elsewhere that 1.3v was pretty safe, and you only really start getting significant issues around 1.35v. Oh well.

[Qwinn]

Ok, did a bunch more playing around today. 4.6 didn't appear to be stable, froze up in Realbench after about 6 minutes, and I didn't feel like messing with the voltages to try to get it to stay there (though I suspect I could get it stable with effort and voltage, but eh, I probably wouldn't feel comfortable leaving it there). Dropped it to 4.5, and ran Realbench and XTU for 30 minutes each with flying colors. Highest temp I saw any individual core get to in XTU was 75c. At 4.5 the adaptive core voltage setting dropped back down to 1.2, offset remained at 0.75, which theoretically should mean turbo voltage of 1.275, but during the XTU run the core voltage stayed pegged at 1.285. I'm okay with that.

(Yes, I know, you said not to use XTU... but damn if that isn't one of the most beautiful UI's and best monitoring options I've ever seen. Realbench seems to have *no* monitoring options whatsoever).

I'll go with your guidance on cache frequency, and just take whatever boost I can get at 1.2v for 24/7 use. I still have no idea how to actually get the cache voltage there, though. I'd like to keep it adaptive same as the CPU, but the fact that the base voltage is "default" leaves me no idea of what to set the offset to so that I get a final 1.2v cache voltage. Do I just have to go with a manual setting that sets it to 1.2v all the time?

It seems that my voltages stay the same whether at 44 or 45 ratio, so I may as well keep the extra 100Mhz.

Please note that all the above testing has been in Adaptive mode. I'm still running 3.5Ghz in non-turbo, and I plan on leaving it at 4.5Ghz turbo mode for general use/gaming. The fact that it downclocks so nicely when there's no need for overclocking makes me a lot less worried about degradation - that really is a wonderful feature. And even at maxed load, from what I've read 1.285v doesn't seem to be all that dangerous and I'm getting a pretty good multiplier for the cost, so seems worth it. Again, though, I am noob, so correct me if I'm wrong on this.

[Qwinn]

Well, never mind, I sorta figured it out. As per your advice I just set the Max Cache Ratio to 40, leaving everything else on Auto. This set me to manual, continuous 1.25v cache voltage, and otherwise seems to be stable. I tried setting it to Adaptive in the BIOS, leaving the specific voltages on Auto, and this screwed things up fairly royally, so continuous 1.25v it is, I guess. Well, it will be if it passes the RealBench I'm running right now *and* it actually improves my Firestrike performance. My first attempt after the change actually lowered it a bit (to 24500). I know there's a variance, though, so I will try a couple more runs and see if it's actually doing anything for me.

EDIT: 3.8 Ghz cache frequency gets me 1.2v. Final Firestrike score 25005. Good enough.