9700K / 1080 Ti Overclocking guides and data

[Elbow]

Tried overclocking for the first time and after a lot of tinkering I finally got it to work properly. I did a run of Userbenchmark to see what I'd get and it says CPU and GPU is in 98~99th percentile, are they way too generous or did I just end up getting really lucky with the silicon lottery? Going to share my settings and guides used for anyone with a similar build wanting to attempt overclocking so they might have an easier time finding the information than I did.

 

BUILD

GPU Asus ROG Strix OC 1080 Ti

CPU Intel 9700K

RAM G.Skill TridentZ 2 x 16 GB 3200 MHz CL14

MOBO Aorus Master Z390

SSD Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB

SATA WD Red 6 TB 256 MB

PSU Corsair HX850 Platinum

Cooler Kraken X62 280MM

Case Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2

 

CPU overclocking guide used for Gigabyte and their affiliates motherboards https://www.gigabyte.com/FileUpload/Global/multimedia/2/file/525/946.pdf

Good information about the settings for other brands of MOBOs can be found in the comments of ''My 9700k ain't boosting to 4.9ghz'' thread on Reddit

Clock Ratio 51 / 5.1 GHz

Uncore 47 / 4.7 GHz

Vcore Loadline Calibration - Turbo

Voltage 1.31V

 

Kraken X62 settings, basically Performance mode +5% at each point of the curve

Fan speed 0-35C 55%, 40C 65%, 45C 75%, 50C 85%, 55C 100%

Pump speed 0-35C 75%, 40C 80%, 45C 95%, 50C 100%

 

1080 Ti overclocking guide used for MSI Afterburner https://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/nvidia_gtx_1080ti_oc_guide/

Core Voltage +20%

Power Limit 120%

Temp Limit 90C

Core Clock +35

Memory Clock +260

Fan speed 0-30C 40%, 50C 50%, 70C 80%, 80C 100%. Could probably lower the curve a bit since the ROG Strix OC model comes with an excellent cooler but this should be a good fan curve in general for most 1080 Ti models.

 

Keep in mind that the amount you can overclock differs from model to model as well as some variance in production quality for individual cards. Guide creator got +100MHz more while adjusting Memory Clock and Core Clock but since my model came factory overclocked I had to lower it a fair bit to compensate but still ended up getting similar benches.

 

Userbenchmark for GPU and CPU below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jurrunio]

19 minutes ago, Elbow said:

Core Clock +35

Memory Clock +260

when will people stop using offsets as a comparable measurement...

[Elbow]

7 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

when will people stop using offsets as a comparable measurement...

It's not really meant to be a measurement of the card but the settings used in MSI Afterburner, guide I linked goes deeper into it but as I also mentioned the numbers differ depending on which model of 1080Ti you're using. Might be useful as a reference point for ROG Strix OC owners to save an hour of trial and error but people should still do what the guide says and try their way forward.

Edited July 19, 2019 by Elbow

[Jurrunio]

17 minutes ago, Elbow said:

It's not really meant to be a measurement of the card

so how can we tell if you win the silicon lottery on it?

[Elbow]

13 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

so how can we tell if you win the silicon lottery on it?

Here are the base specs for the card so basically just need to add the overclocked settings on top of it, otherwise the regular values for the model are 1683 MHz / 11010 MHz  https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/asus-rog-strix-gtx-1080-ti-gaming-oc.b4306

 

As said it's my first time overclocking and I just assumed I'd gotten lucky in the silicon lottery due to the GPU benching high but maybe the values are within normalcy? I manage to get 2012 MHz base /  5764 MHz boost under load which should be good compared to the benches I've seen, and as mentioned Userbenchmark did really well too.

 

 

[Jurrunio]

14 minutes ago, Elbow said:

Here are the base specs for the card so basically just need to add the overclocked settings on top of it, otherwise the regular values for the model are 1683 MHz / 11010 MHz  https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/asus-rog-strix-gtx-1080-ti-gaming-oc.b4306

I'm talking about actual frequency, I can't care less about the base and boost.

 

15 minutes ago, Elbow said:

5764 MHz boost

Not happening, even liquid nitrogen pushes a 1080ti to about 3GHz only

[Popi]

25 minutes ago, Elbow said:

Here are the base specs for the card so basically just need to add the overclocked settings on top of it, otherwise the regular values for the model are 1683 MHz / 11010 MHz  https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/asus-rog-strix-gtx-1080-ti-gaming-oc.b4306

 

As said it's my first time overclocking and I just assumed I'd gotten lucky in the silicon lottery due to the GPU benching high but maybe the values are within normalcy? I manage to get 2012 MHz base /  5764 MHz boost under load which should be good compared to the benches I've seen, and as mentioned Userbenchmark did really well too.

 

 

Dat boost clock though.

[Elbow]

12 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

I'm talking about actual frequency, I can't care less about the base and boost.

 

Not happening, even liquid nitrogen pushes a 1080ti to about 3GHz only

Yeah my bad, was looking at the wrong numbers in Afterburner. Here's what I get while running Kombustor in the background

[xg32]

2ghz is the average oc for a 1080 ti iirc.

[Jurrunio]

1 minute ago, Elbow said:

Kombustor

that looks like heaven

 

and Furmark derivatives are no good for testing overclocks, they dont stress the hardware out like games or proper benchmarks do which is ultimately what the overclock is for.

 

that 5764MHz number is memory clock doubled or data rate halved.

 

In this case you're scoring better than what I expect in userbenchmark. Probably they renewed something in the software so new scores are better. Just over 2GHz is nothing to write home about for a custom card as overkill as the Strix.

[Elbow]

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

that looks like heaven

It's Kombustor, but I do have Heaven benchmark as well which I get similar scores with.

4 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

In this case you're scoring better than what I expect in userbenchmark. Probably they renewed something in the software so new scores are better.

Yeah it's possible, maybe using LTSC helps optimize it by tiny bit as well?

6 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Just over 2GHz is nothing to write home about for a custom card as overkill as the Strix. 

Just what I wanted to hear! Are there any settings you recommend I use to increase performance or should I already be at max if I did it as in the guide? It only recommended running Heaven benchmark in the background while increasing/decreasing values so I did exactly to the point it didn't crash/show artifacts though instead of basic settings I did it on high 1440p, maybe that would mean I could overclock the card even higher?

[Jurrunio]

10 minutes ago, Elbow said:

Yeah it's possible, maybe using LTSC helps optimize it by tiny bit as well?

Windows tends to break things rather than improving things

 

14 minutes ago, Elbow said:

Just what I wanted to hear! Are there any settings you recommend I use to increase performance or should I already be at max if I did it as in the guide? It only recommended running Heaven benchmark in the background while increasing/decreasing values so I did exactly to the point it didn't crash/show artifacts though instead of basic settings I did it on high 1440p, maybe that would mean I could overclock the card even higher?

Heaven in my testing is not even the most stressful benchmark/game. That goes to FFXV and Metro Exodus. Maybe try push the voltage even higher?

 

Also for the CPU part, is the voltage what you typed in the bios or what you're getting when running stress test?

[Elbow]

7 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

Heaven in my testing is not even the most stressful benchmark/game. That goes to FFXV and Metro Exodus. Maybe try push the voltage even higher?

Is it safe to push the voltage over 120% or might it fuck the card? I know that the 1080 Ti has internal limitations set to its overclocking capabilities so you'd have to hardwire it if you want to remove them, but are they good enough? I mean I've heard of people setting it to 200% but I'm not really sure what effect that would have on the card.

 

Maybe I should set card limitations of what I can get away with without crashes and artifacts in 1440p ultra graphic games (Vermintide 2 and Total War Warhammer 2) rather than set them after benchmarks?

 

7 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

Also for the CPU part, is the voltage what you typed in the bios or what you're getting when running stress test?

It's my settings in the bios but I heard you're likely to get 0.3~0.4v more in actual use so even though people say you can go up to 1.4V in bios without any danger I'm not entirely sure about that. Just ran HWinfo, CAM and Intel burn test to crosscheck it and at most I got up to 1.354V and 89C. Powerwise I guess I could up it a little and go up to 5.2 GHz but unsure how high I wanna go on the temps, not like I have maxed out the fan & pump but still the curve is very aggressive. I read that only 28% of 9700Ks could go up to 5.1 GHz so I should've already done well in the silicon lottery https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-core-i7-9700k-5.1ghz-pricing,37991.html

 

[Jurrunio]

46 minutes ago, Elbow said:

Is it safe to push the voltage over 120% or might it fuck the card? I know that the 1080 Ti has internal limitations set to its overclocking capabilities so you'd have to hardwire it if you want to remove them, but are they good enough? I mean I've heard of people setting it to 200% but I'm not really sure what effect that would have on the card.

Without unofficial BIOS or hardware mods, max voltage caps at 1.093V set by Nvidia. In other words, it's safe. However the extra heat could make you lose performance instead, so you should raise it in steps.

 

47 minutes ago, Elbow said:

Maybe I should set card limitations of what I can get away with without crashes and artifacts in 1440p ultra graphic games (Vermintide 2 and Total War Warhammer 2) rather than set them after benchmarks?

You can try that, but results can differ

 

48 minutes ago, Elbow said:

It's my settings in the bios but I heard you're likely to get 0.3~0.4v more in actual use so even though people say you can go up to 1.4V in bios without any danger I'm not entirely sure about that.

Just stare at software say HWinfo's CPU core voltage reading (not VID). LLC should be just enough to keep idle and loaded voltage as close as possible

 

1 hour ago, Elbow said:

1.354V and 89C. Powerwise I guess I could up it a little and go up to 5.2 GHz but unsure how high I wanna go on the temps, not like I have maxed out the fan & pump but still the curve is very aggressive. I read that only 28% of 9700Ks could go up to 5.1 GHz so I should've already done well in the silicon lottery https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-core-i7-9700k-5.1ghz-pricing,37991.html

ooo that's really hot for a soldered chip. Maybe the thermal paste or mounting pressure isnt that good?

[Elbow]

33 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Just stare at software say HWinfo's CPU core voltage reading (not VID). LLC should be just enough to keep idle and loaded voltage as close as possible 

Spoiler

Is this the data you're after?

33 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Without unofficial BIOS or hardware mods, max voltage caps at 1.093V set by Nvidia. In other words, it's safe. However the extra heat could make you lose performance instead, so you should raise it in steps. 

Yeah I'll do benches when I change settings to make sure I don't lose performance from it. I don't really think heat is a big issue when it comes to my GPU since at least when I compare it to the guide it has a lot lower temps for the same settings (probably due to a difference in models) and I know since before that the Strix is among the best models when it comes to cooling when looking at the array of 1080 Ti. That's the reason I got it in the first place anyway.

 

Airflow in my chassi should be very good as well since it's a large one with a dual frontal intake and I'm leading CPU heat directly out the top using the liquid cooler so should be helpful for the GPU temps.

Spoiler

Warning for partial reflective nudity

Spoiler

 

33 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

ooo that's really hot for a soldered chip. Maybe the thermal paste or mounting pressure isnt that good?

I think the mounting pressure should be good seeing as I tightened the screws as hard as I could a week ago. Thermal paste might be increasing a few degrees since I'm using the pre-applied paste on the Kraken (which isn't bad afaik but not as good as top brand paste).

 

I also have a thermal pad I bought for shits and giggles so could always use that or order some expensive paste I guess?

[Elbow]

Also here's the fan curve of the CPU cooler, might be easier to see than just the numbers from OP. As said I think this is already very aggressive so I don't think there's much improvement to be had here.

 

Spoiler

 

[Jurrunio]

27 minutes ago, Elbow said:

s this the data you're after?

Vcore yes

 

28 minutes ago, Elbow said:

I also have a thermal pad

dont use that, while they are durable their performance isn't that good.\

 

[Elbow]

1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

Vcore yes

 

dont use that, while they are durable their performance isn't that good.\

 

So peaking at 1.344 then with 1.31V in bios? I guess I've still got some way left to go then at least voltage wise, 1.37V in bios should be fine as a max. Am I right to assume that since going from 5.1 GHz to 5.2 GHz is a ~2% increase I should increase voltage by 2% in bios from 1.31 to ~1.34? Obviously I'll try my way forward aiming for the minimum but in using it as a starting point.

 

I could also order some Grizzly Kryonaut and cleaning kit to reapply thermal paste, probably wont make a huge difference but hey a few degrees is a few degrees. I googled ''mounting problems Kraken X62'' and saw that some people put some extra space between MOBO and back-screws to increase maximum screw-in length thus increasing pressure, I think I have some rubber disc things from MOBO extra screws that I can try applying as well when reapplying the paste.

 

Will probably take a week to get the goods but that's fine since I'm still waiting on my third WD Red 6TB to set up a raid 5 so still have some tinkering left to do, I'll be back once I've done it to post results!

 

Spoiler

IF CPU BREAKS IT'S YOUR FAULT