i7-8700 = 4.30 Ghz on all six-cores (Turboboost)

[m0k]

I’m writing this partly out of frustration, but mostly to inform/educate potential buyers – people who are interested in buying a new CPU and are on a tight budget - and may benefit from buying the intel I7-8700 as opposed to an overclockable I7-8700K. EDIT::: and/or if you need something that runs quiet and cool / doesnt consume much power.

Right off the bat, there’s vast savings to be had by purchasing a regular i7-8700 – you don’t need to invest in a higher end z370 motherboard and you don’t need to purchase an aftermarket CPU cooler.

I had already read this article from Gamers Nexus which mentioned the Intel Coffee Lake turbo behaviour in a easy to read chart – (see below).

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3077-explaining-coffee-lake-turbo-8700k-8600k

Intel Coffee Lake Turbo Behavior
	i7-8700K	i7-8700	i5-8600K	i5-8400	i3-8350K	i3-8100
	6C/12T	6C/12T	6C/6T	6C/6T	4C/4T	4C/4T
Intel Turbo Spec	1C: 4.7GHz	1C: 4.6GHz	1C: 4.3GHz	1C: 4.0GHz	4GHz Locked	3.6GHz Locked
	2C: 4.6GHz	2C: 4.5GHz	2-4C: 4.2GHz	2-4C: 3.9GHz
	3C: 4.5GHz	3C: 4.4GHz	5-6C: 4.1GHz	5-6C: 3.8GHz
	4-5C: 4.4GHz	4-6C: 4.3GHz
	6C: 4.3GHz

 

TLDR: under a full six core load on the CPU, the maximum turbo speed on all six cores = 4.30 GHz.
Intel’s spec for the 8700 is a 65W TDP but this is only for the base clock of 3.2 GHz. See the Wendell’s video where he goes on to mention that as soon as turbo boost kicks in that TDP can go much higher, in this case on all six cores as per Intel XTU as well, it can go up to 115W.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDFhVo8-UfM
 

SO…with all the knowledge I knew that needed to purchase a new CPU, new Motherboard, and new RAM (as my old pc was a DDR3 based platform) and everything else I can re-use form my old pc. For the CPU knew I would benefit from the hyperthreading when working in premiere pro, and I knew the single core turbo of 4.6ghz would benefit me in adobe lightroom and other tasks in the OS in general.

I was concerned that the 115W TDP under full boost may cause issues with lower end H310 and B360 motherboards and mediocre looking VRMs – so I started asking reviewers on amazon if they were able to hit the 4.3ghz 6core turbo without any issues….And literally every single response I got was something along the lines of: 
 “no you idiot, you can not overclock the I7-8700, if you want higher clock speeds on all 6 cores, then get the i7-8700K and Z370 motherboard”

Great….thanks captain obvious (unfortunately I received similar responses on the LTT forums)

So anyways I bit the bullet as I didn’t see any mention of people complaining about not being able to hit turbo speeds. So, I went ahead and bought the MSI B360i ITX motherboard with an I7-8700 – and guess what, Gamers Nexus and Wendell from Lvl1tech were right. I was able to hit the 4.30 Ghz on all 6 cores with ease, (on the stock cooler)
Now I personally wasn’t happy with the noise under load of the stock intel cooler. So I picked up a hyper 212 Evo.

 

 

In conclusion my system: I7 8700, B360 mobo, 16GB ram, GTX 1060 6GB = I am happily able to max out all modern games at 1080p and can easily work with the large RAW files from my Sony A7iii with ease in the adobe suite.  And I did not have to shell out more money for parts that ran hotter and consumed more power.

 

 

 

 

[m0k]

I'm a bit of a scatter-brain so i apologize if this post has terrible flow and grammar issues

[IdiotPenguin]

Dope post. I have the same CPU with an H7 and I set the windows power limit to max performance and I've had 4.3 on all cores 24/7. I got the H7 on that one Newegg sale like a few months back and I don't get more than like 65c under load so it's been a great run

[m0k]

7 minutes ago, IdiotPenguin said:

Dope post. I have the same CPU with an H7 and I set the windows power limit to max performance and I've had 4.3 on all cores 24/7. I got the H7 on that one Newegg sale like a few months back and I don't get more than like 65c under load so it's been a great run

Thanks, i really hope more people see this before they run out and spend money on the K-sku chips. 

The only downside to using my B360 mobo is that i cant undervolt the I7-8700, i feel like 1.24v is a little unnecessary.
Since you have a Z370 mobo, and if you have spare time, let me know if you can run the cpu at a lower voltage under full boost

 

[shooter2749]

22 hours ago, mok said:

-snip-

what were your temps with the stock cooler ? I currently got my 4th gen stock cooler on the 8700 cause it has a copper base and the 8th gen stock cooler does not and I'm hitting 100 degree in gaming

[m0k]

4 minutes ago, shooter2749 said:

what were your temps with the stock cooler ? I currently got my 4th gen stock cooler on the 8700 cause it has a copper base and the 8th gen stock cooler does not and I'm hitting 100 degree in gaming

In my Define R5 case with the stock intel cooler i was getting temps of 85-95 under full load - But i was never thermal throttling. 
If i were you, i would go into the bios at reduce the turboboost to 4.00 ghz which should really help with the temps - or even disable intel turboboost until you can afford to upgrade you cpu cooler.

 

in my own testing i was able to max out all my games on the stock 3.2ghz with turboboost disabled. 

[KarathKasun]

This is how turbo boost works.

 

My i5-7300hq laptop runs at 3.1ghz (all core boost) 24/7 when the base clock is only 2.5ghz.  If cooling is an issue (over ~100c) it will drop back to base clocks.  If the VRM gets too hot, clocks drop as well.  Under AVX load your clocks will also drop AFAIK.

 

You are not overclocking.

 

If you want to undervolt, get Intel XTU.

[WereCatf]

I don't get the point with this thread: OP is saying they got the speeds Intel said they would. Umm, okay...?

[-rascal-]

16 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I don't get the point with this thread: OP is saying they got the speeds Intel said they would. Umm, okay...?

 

He's indicating people who are on the Amazon Q&A section, as well as users on the LTT forum, are not familiar with how Turbo Boost 2.0 works.

Intel simply indicates a 3.2 GHz Base Clock, and a maximum Turbo Boost of 4.6 GHz.

 

You can't really blame the though; Intel doesn't obviously outline the boost frequencies when various amounts of cores are active.

[m0k]

20 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

This is how turbo boost works.

 

My i5-7300hq laptop runs at 3.1ghz (all core boost) 24/7 when the base clock is only 2.5ghz.  If cooling is an issue (over ~100c) it will drop back to base clocks.  If the VRM gets too hot, clocks drop as well.  Under AVX load your clocks will also drop AFAIK.

 

You are not overclocking.

 

If you want to undervolt, get Intel XTU.

i never made the claim that i was overclocking

19 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I don't get the point with this thread: OP is saying they got the speeds Intel said they would. Umm, okay...?

I made this post because everyone assumed i was trying to overclock when really i was just asking questions about the all-core turbo speeds to which everyone said i was wrong and told me to spend more for a K part.

[jones177]

Hi

 

The Gamers Nexus article is about multi core enhancement. With it on voltage is high but you can get the same result with lower voltage overclocking manually.

To give you an example, my i7 8086k with 5ghz on all cores needs 1.488 v using multi core enhancement. My manual overclock at 5ghz on all cores uses 1.344 v. Stock is 1.280 v.

 

The reason for the article was that some youtube testers were not aware that it is on by default on ASUS z boards and it skewed the results. I thought this strange because multi core enhancement has been set to default on ASUS boards since the Z170. 

 

I think this video is more about your subject. 

 

 

 

 

[m0k]

3 hours ago, jones177 said:

 

unfortunately i cant undervolt on the B360 chipset motherboard

I tried using Intel XTU but it doesnt seem to hold the setting after a restart

 

its not an issue for me, temps never go over 65c and i keep the power profile in Balanced mode, so it underclocks on idle

[KarathKasun]

8 hours ago, mok said:

unfortunately i cant undervolt on the B360 chipset motherboard

I tried using Intel XTU but it doesnt seem to hold the setting after a restart

 

its not an issue for me, temps never go over 65c and i keep the power profile in Balanced mode, so it underclocks on idle

XTU modifies processor registers, basic settings will not persist beyond a reboot unless you tell the program to load at startup & load a profile.  It works like MSI Afterburner.

[m0k]

1 hour ago, KarathKasun said:

XTU modifies processor registers, basic settings will not persist beyond a reboot unless you tell the program to load at startup & load a profile.  It works like MSI Afterburner.

thats odd because on my old dell laptop my intel XTU profile persists without having to boot into XTU after every restart
IM curious, for the profile to stay persistent do i also need to enable XTU to boot on startup ? or just the profile on startup ?

[KarathKasun]

Profile on startup should do it, It just wont load the GUI.

 

Some boards will have the settings persist if they have the provisions in the BIOS to do so.  Most systems I have messed with do not get persistence of settings.

[swordsm3n]

On 10/13/2018 at 8:03 PM, mok said:

Thanks, i really hope more people see this before they run out and spend money on the K-sku chips. 

 

The people looking at the k series aren't going for 4.3Ghz though. They will be aiming for around 5Ghz. You actually get less performance than the way intel markets it on the non k sku. They market it as being able to turbo to 4.6, which most uninformed consumers would probably expect all cores to run at 4.6 even though it's only 1 core that will. I think this post might be informational to some, but not in the way you were expecting. Most people who buy the k series wont be running at stock speed, so I'm not really sure what you are trying to point out here.

[SkilledRebuilds]

17 minutes ago, swordsm3n said:

The people looking at the k series aren't going for 4.3Ghz though.Most people who buy the k series wont be running at stock speed, so I'm not really sure what you are trying to point out here.

Even with my shitty cooler (120mm AIO), I'd still be trying for above stock on a K-skew.

OC 200-400Mhz+ on all cores similar to where Turbo would sit or surpassing it in performance by some margins, every little bit helps.

Point is fair valid, bigger budgets have better cooling, aiming for higher clocks. But even lowend cooler users,...will have a crack at overclocking further.

[bobhumplick]

if you buy an oem system you will get limited down to 3.7 or so.  you have to use intel xtu to unlock them.  had to do this with a friends oem hp omen.  he didnt talk to me before he bought.  friends dont let friends buy rprebuilt

[Mister Woof]

8700nonk is a great value if you aren't going to OC.

 

Boost table is effectively identical as the k.

 

My 870/k at stock always ran at 4.3ghz all the time, 4.7 never happened

[oveek123]

On 10/14/2018 at 1:34 PM, mok said:

unfortunately i cant undervolt on the B360 chipset motherboard

I tried using Intel XTU but it doesnt seem to hold the setting after a restart

 

its not an issue for me, temps never go over 65c and i keep the power profile in Balanced mode, so it underclocks on idle

sir can you upload some pictures of your bios settings, my temps are very high.thanks

[oveek123]

On 5/8/2019 at 10:37 PM, Plutosaurus said:

8700nonk is a great value if you aren't going to OC.

 

Boost table is effectively identical as the k.

 

My 870/k at stock always ran at 4.3ghz all the time, 4.7 never happened

sir can you upload some pictures of your bios settings, my temps are very high.thanks

[oveek123]

On 10/14/2018 at 6:59 AM, IdiotPenguin said:

Dope post. I have the same CPU with an H7 and I set the windows power limit to max performance and I've had 4.3 on all cores 24/7. I got the H7 on that one Newegg sale like a few months back and I don't get more than like 65c under load so it's been a great run

sir can you upload some pictures of your bios settings, my temps are very high.thanks

[Zando_]

On 10/13/2018 at 7:51 PM, mok said:

I'm a bit of a scatter-brain so i apologize if this post has terrible flow and grammar issues

Post was informative af, and I thought it was formatted very well. People do often gloss over the non-K SKUs, but on the 8700 you only lose 100MHz at each turbo step compared to the 8700K. So if you won't or can't (due to heat concerns or something) OC, the 8700 is a damn good value. I have an i5 8400 I should use more too, may sell some other stuff and get parts to make an mITX setup with it. What speed are you running your RAM at as well? I have an H310 mATX mobo for that i5 right now, haven't bothered to pull some of my 3200MHz RAM from my main rig to test, only other stuff I have on hand is 2400Mhz. I've seen some articles saying the lower chipsets don't even support XMP or something like that, I'd really like to run 3200MHz stuff but not need to buy a Z series board. 

[Mister Woof]

1 hour ago, Zando Bob said:

Post was informative af, and I thought it was formatted very well. People do often gloss over the non-K SKUs, but on the 8700 you only lose 100MHz at each turbo step compared to the 8700K. So if you won't or can't (due to heat concerns or something) OC, the 8700 is a damn good value. I have an i5 8400 I should use more too, may sell some other stuff and get parts to make an mITX setup with it. What speed are you running your RAM at as well? I have an H310 mATX mobo for that i5 right now, haven't bothered to pull some of my 3200MHz RAM from my main rig to test, only other stuff I have on hand is 2400Mhz. I've seen some articles saying the lower chipsets don't even support XMP or something like that, I'd really like to run 3200MHz stuff but not need to buy a Z series board. 

It's not even 100mhz difference..assuming adequate cooling and real life tasks both the k and non k will run at 4.3ghz.

 

The can't actually remember any scenario where the k got to 4.7ghz, and it was always at 4.3ghz

[Princess Luna]

On 10/13/2018 at 9:51 PM, mok said:

no you idiot, you can not overclock the I7-8700,

Excuse me?