9900k overclock

[jamesfoley]

Bit the bullet and upgraded to a 9900k, but I'm a little disappointed that I seemingly have the worst chip for overclocking.

 

Motherboard is the Z390 Aorus Pro, RAM is 16gb of Corsair 3200 LPX, CPU cooler is the Noctua D15 with NT-H1 paste.

 

With everything installed out of the box with no overclock I'm seeing mid 90s in P95 v29.8 Small FFTs (AVX), low 80s in P95 v26.6 (no AVX).

 

To me, those temps already seem very warm without too much room for an overclock already. Tried a couple of re-seats of the cooler but no joy, still as warm as ever.

 

I've currenty got 4.8Ghz working with 1.32 vcore, but that puts my non AVX P95 into the 90s temp wise. Anything higher than 4.8Ghz though and temp doesn't matter as its just a BSOD fest. I went as high as 1.35 to try 4.9 but the temps at that point instantly started to hit 100.

 

So I have a couple of questions:

• Is my only option to try water cooling at this stage? 
• Are there any other BIOS settings worth trying? 
• Is my RAM a limiting factor? 
• Do I just have a bad chip?

BIO Settings for 4.8:
Core ratio @ 48
CPU Vcore @ 1.32
Cache ratio @ 46
AVX offset @ 1
All current limits set to max
LLC set to "Turbo"
Integrated graphics disabled
XMP enabled

[Jurrunio]

voltage seems excessive, silicon quality loser most likely

 

Try increasing cooler mounting pressure. Is the case well ventilated?

 

28 minutes ago, jamesfoley said:

• Is my only option to try water cooling at this stage? 
• Are there any other BIOS settings worth trying? 
• Is my RAM a limiting factor? 
• Do I just have a bad chip?

• Custom loop, yes. Dont bother with AIO at this point
• VRM switching frequency can go up to trade CPU stability for VRM thermals, though I'd keep this as the last ditch effort and not what I'd use 24/7
• No, separate thing. Though cache frequency could be a limiting factor, for performance keep that about 300-500MHz below core frequency
• Not impressive for sure, not certain if it's bad

[TahoeDust]

It sounds like you got a not so great chip.  Also in Prime95 Small FFT w/AVX at 1.32v you are probably pulling close to 250w...that is probably more than your D15 will be able to handle.

[jamesfoley]

14 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

voltage seems excessive, silicon quality loser most likely

 

Try increasing cooler mounting pressure. Is the case well ventilated?

 

• Custom loop, yes. Dont bother with AIO at this point
• VRM switching frequency can go up to trade CPU stability for VRM thermals, though I'd keep this as the last ditch effort and not what I'd use 24/7
• No, separate thing. Though cache frequency could be a limiting factor, for performance keep that about 300-500MHz below core frequency
• Not impressive for sure, not certain if it's bad

I agree the voltage seems high considering all of the posts I've seen of people with some decent overclocks. I guess you just don't hear about the people that have bad chips, only those that have good ones and can achieve a decent overclock...

 

I'm no overclocking expert so I don't think I'm going to try and push any other settings further as I'm starting to feel a little out of my comfort zone.

 

I think if a custom loop is where I need to go I'll just leave it stock for now, as its really not worth pouring more money into it. I was just after something reasonably future proof.

 

6 minutes ago, TahoeDust said:

It sounds like you got a not so great chip.  Also in Prime95 Small FFT w/AVX at 1.32v you are probably pulling close to 250w...that is probably more than your D15 will be able to handle.

That's fair, I'm just testing for the worst case scenario really.