rodion.zissou

@HairlessMonkeyBoy Nope, manual @ 1.355 Think I'll cease working with Prime95 at this point because I'm passing all other tests at 4.6GHz core clock and 3200MHz mem clock

@HairlessMonkeyBoy What do you think about just avoiding prime 95? I just made it to like 760(512-4096 test) at 4.5GHz and stock voltage and my temps hit 95C! Can I realistically avoid Prime95 and validate a stable OC?

Removed the memory OC and readjusted DRAM Voltage to 1.35v Fatal rounding error in Prime 95. I suppose my poor CPU can't maintain @ 4.6GHz. I might be running into cooler limitations. My x42 seems adequate at idle at ~38C and games rarely get me over 78C but Prime 95 produces max temp of 92C (all prime 95 tests at all settings have done this so far, though I haven't tested with CPU OC removed). I guess now I'll pull the CPU down to 4.5GHz. Disappointing...

@HairlessMonkeyBoy Any advice regarding the rounding errors in the context above? At some point during the tweaking I think I may have corrupted my windows install as I ran into the following errors in the following order around 30 min apart playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider. 1st - kernel security check failure 2nd - system thread exception hot handled 3rd - kmode exception hot handled Also I should note that I also ran some debloat scripts which cleared some "bloat" registry keys, so this may have led to the system errors. Not sure. I've reinstalled Windows and am running at the following settings with no issues so far. Do you have a personal favorite app/suite for testing stability? CPU - 4.6GHz Core Voltage - 1.355 DRAM - 3.2GHz DRAM Voltage - 1.4058 Cache Ratio - 4.4GHz VCCIO - 1.272v/AUTO VCCSA - 1.248v/AUTO I'm going to run a few benchmarks as a recap to this thread and let then let it die as I actually pulled the trigger on a 5600x, B550 and 360mm cooler for a good deal. It'll be interesting to look back and illuminate the bottlenecks I was experiencing with the 6600k.

That is absolutely not helpful in any way. I second this. You should notice a pretty nice performance bump with an SSD,

I ran your suggested Prime95 test for 40 minutes with 2 errors right off the bat. Expand spoiler below.

@HairlessMonkeyBoy Zero errors on all 4 passes wtih 3200 @ 1.4v. Thought I'd take a break from MemTest86 and run some benchmarks. Looks like decent gains across the board except on oddity in R20. Re-running produces similar results, some even drop into the 1690s. Heaven and Time Spy gains probably mostly attributable to GPU tweaking. See below and attached. Heaven Score from 2692 > 2773 > 2923 = 9% gain overall FPS from 106.9 > 110.1 > 116.1 = 9% gain overall Time Spy from 7698 > 8161 > 8521 = 11% gain overall Cinebench R15 from 639 > 666 > 716 = 12% gain overall Cinebench R20 1806 > 1762 = 2% loss (margin of error?)

Working on it now. 3200 @ 1.4v. I'll keep inching the clock speed at 1.4v until I get errors. Would a pass validate the OC/OV just as well (or better) as booting into Windows and successfully running the gamut of software benchmarks/stress tests? Basically, I'm wondering if MemTest86 straight up proves whether or not the current RAM settings are stable? I read 1.5v is the max limit for DDR4 in that comprehensive guide I linked, but that it shouldn't be run at that voltage for everyday use. Would 1.45v theoretically be safe? When do I need to start worrying about the AUTO voltages set for VCCIO and VCCSA?

@HairlessMonkeyBoy MemTest86 Passed @ 3066 and 3100 with zero errors. (saved results but it prints serials so keeping offline) Failed at 3200 again (exited test after 4 errors). See below for voltages. Should I let the test complete to nail down which tests are throwing which errors? Errors are thrown within just a couple of minutes into test suite.

Also, FYI, main reason I'm holding off on any hardware upgrades RN is I'm waiting on AMD to launch their new platform with DDR5 support so I can future proof as much as possible. Hopefully it won't be much longer after that for GPU prices to return to sanity.

That'd be awesome, I appreciate your time. How about I get the DRAM freq as high as possible without errors and then upload a shot of the BIOS showing current VCCIO and VCCSA settings and then going from there?

I get that, but I explicitly stated I'm not looking for hardware suggestion ATM. And I've actually been able to get some decent performance gains working with @HairlessMonkeyBoy

IIRC 1.27, but I'm actually in the middle of a memtest @ 3033Mhz (2 passes no errors so far)

In addition to my update above, which voltage/s would I want to adjust and how far would you recommend I go to get the 3200Mhz stable? Which voltage settings? How much should I step up for each test? What is the limit I should stop at?

I got a ton of errors @ 3.2Ghz in the first pass alone. ( > 300) Passed with 0 errors @ 3Ghz Going to inch it up by one step and re-test tonight. As an aside, my OC on the GPU was all wrong too so I was able to get a really nice gain by pulling down core clock and upping VRAM by +500Mhz. I'll post final results in a couple days. Thx again for the help.

SWEET. Crossing my fingers for The Last of Us/TLOU 2 being next on their list.

I don't even understand how ads are so (apparently) lucrative or worthwhile for companies. obv I'm not in marketing. But TBH when I see ads for products/services invading my personal space I actively avoid said product. I'm not sure what my subconscious thinks about it, but I am a true ad hater.

I'll work on this tonight, thanks for deterring me from potentially unnecessary frustration.

I planned on tackling this next. I found this guide, but TBH it's a lot to digest. I was getting tripped up in the ASUS BIOS because I couldn't find tRP and tCWL. Also want to make sure I disable AUTO on the correct voltage settings. I got the impression that OCing the RAM can cause a lot of voltage to get thrown into the slots if AUTO remains enabled. But out of curiosity I boosted to 3.2Gz without adjusting timing or anything and booted fine. Didn't run any tests though. If you could provide any help executing the guide I linked, that'd be sweet, but what do you think? Unnecessary?

Alright, so here's what your advice has netted me so far! Thanks so much for the tips. I'd be thrilled if you saw any more opportunities. Maybe I should post in another thread regarding the GPU to see if there's any room for improvement there. Heaven Score from 2692 to 2773 = 3% gain FPS from 106.9 to 110.1 = 3% gain 3D Mark from 7698 to 8161 = 6% gain Cinebench R15 from 639 to 666 = 4% gain Cinebench R20 1806

The following boot, even ran Prime 95 (20 minutes), but crashed on Cinebench R15 4.8Ghz at 1.54v - 3.9Ghz cache 4.7Ghz at 1.354v - 3.9Ghz cache The following failed boot 4.6Ghz at 1.355v - 4.6Ghz cache The following boots, completes Cinebench R15, crashes on Prime 95 4.6Ghz at 1.355v - 4.5Ghz cache The following booted, completed Cinebench, completed RealBench, but Prime 95 pushed package temps to 95C (hadn't seen it go that high yet, I aborted) 4.6Ghz at 1.355v - 4.4Ghz cache

Does this answer your question, i suppose i should go refresh myself with an OC guide to see what I've done wrong? Any advice?

Thanks for the info, any suggestions for the current system as is?

unfortunately i do not, and ya IIRC i got that 4790k to 5Ghz

TBH I'm not sure how to answer your question as I OCd this chip so long ago. Can you recommend some steps for improvement? BTW, I'm running Time Spy to add results to OP. And yes, z270e