Can't seem to overclock 9900K past 4.8GHz

[alenbasic]

My hardware is as follows:

 

i9 9900K

Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi

16GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM

750W Corsair HX PSU

Corsair AIO Cooler (360 Rad)

 

I am a complete noob when it comes to overclocking, so I may have misread or taken on bad advice in what I've done so far, but here's where I am at:

I have read that it's unsafe to have your CPU at a voltage of 1.4 or higher so I haven't tried that, but everything up to about 1.385V doesn't seem to be sufficient. I seem to have it stable at 4.8GHz at 1.33V, but I can't get 4.9GHZ or higher to work.

 

Notable settings that I've changed:

* Multi Core Enhancement is disabled as that's what most people suggest to do from what I can tell.

* A setting I believe called load line calibration (will edit in the proper term when I get the chance) has been set to normal. It ranges from Automatic to Extreme and there's about 7 or 8 settings on a curve.

* The voltage itself (which as mentioned I've tried up until 1.385V without success)

 

I know that there's a possibility that I just have an unremarkable chip that can't hit those speeds, but is there anything else I should try in order to see if I can squeeze more out of it? From what I've seen online, 1.33V for just 4.8GHz seems to be quite abnormal.

 

Thanks,

[xhackforeverxdx]

Is it really worth it for that littel bit of perf that u will prob not notice ^^ maybe u just have a unlucky chip keep it at lower settings and it runs cooler / saver / and on less power  

[alenbasic]

It's not so much because I want/need the extra power but I just like the idea of tinkering and getting a bit more out of my system. If I can't, I can't but it would be nice in order to satisfy my hobbyist urges

[SpookyCitrus]

Could be you just didn't get lucky in the silicon lottery. Is the CPU overclocking higher on that voltage and then just crashing or restarting once back in windows? Best thing to check would be temps when testing the overclock, if  you have a bad seated aio and the chip isn't being significantly cooled it could be overheating and turning off do to that. Most newer Z390 motherboards have an overclock profile for 5ghz on the 8th and 9th gen K series CPUs, I know my Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming and my Asus Z390-E do, if you haven't tried that then give it a shot and see what voltages it assigns and if it works.

[Juular]

Looks like you've just been extra unlucky with the silicon lottery. I guess the CPU are out of return window ?

[Jurrunio]

Where did you read the voltage? The number you typed in is never what it's actually running on, just so you know

[Levent]

Overclock your CPU as much as you want, as long as you can cool it down you are fine. I never care about those "safe" voltages, nor should anyone. Intel never releases "safe limits" for their cpu.

[xg32]

if you bought the cpu after the KS came out, that is pretty much expected as all the better bins went to the KS. If you bought it earlier then you got really unlucky (bottom 10%)

[alenbasic]

11 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

Where did you read the voltage? The number you typed in is never what it's actually running on, just so you know

Thanks for that info. That's what the calibration setting was referring to I found out. Still in the middle of tinkering but moving that from "Normal" to "Turbo" has allowed me to hit 4.9GHz stable at 1.275V.

[alenbasic]

12 hours ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Could be you just didn't get lucky in the silicon lottery. Is the CPU overclocking higher on that voltage and then just crashing or restarting once back in windows? Best thing to check would be temps when testing the overclock, if  you have a bad seated aio and the chip isn't being significantly cooled it could be overheating and turning off do to that. Most newer Z390 motherboards have an overclock profile for 5ghz on the 8th and 9th gen K series CPUs, I know my Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming and my Asus Z390-E do, if you haven't tried that then give it a shot and see what voltages it assigns and if it works.

The temps are fine. When stress testing at stock I'm not getting above the high 60s but yeah, essentially what is happening is when I'm stress testing it, it'll either BSOD or my stress testing software (e.g. RealBench) will warn of instability. 

12 hours ago, Juular said:

Looks like you've just been extra unlucky with the silicon lottery. I guess the CPU are out of return window ?

I got it second hand so yeah, if it turned out I was unlucky not much I can do really (not that I'm complaining as I got an amazing deal).

[Jurrunio]

14 minutes ago, alenbasic said:

Thanks for that info. That's what the calibration setting was referring to I found out. Still in the middle of tinkering but moving that from "Normal" to "Turbo" has allowed me to hit 4.9GHz stable at 1.275V.

Again, where did you get that voltage number?

[Mister Woof]

Most people aren't getting good overclocks on conservative or "normal" LLC.

 

I have mine on "High" (this is not the highest setting) to maintain stability at fixed 1.365v. (1.37-1.38 in monitoring software, as low as 1.34 under heavy load, as high as 1.4 on idle)

[alenbasic]

26 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Again, where did you get that voltage number?

Are you asking where I set the voltage number, or where I was reading it within the OS? If the latter, I wasn't reading it from the OS. If you mean where I was setting it in the BIOS; right where it asks to set the CPU voltage.

[Mister Woof]

3 minutes ago, alenbasic said:

Are you asking where I set the voltage number, or where I was reading it within the OS? If the latter, I wasn't reading it from the OS. If you mean where I was setting it in the BIOS; right where it asks to set the CPU voltage.

What software are you using to monitor the voltages

[Jurrunio]

4 minutes ago, alenbasic said:

If the latter, I wasn't reading it from the OS.

Then where?

[alenbasic]

14 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Then where?

I guess my reply was ambiguous; I was not monitoring my voltage. I was unaware that I needed to do so. As I pointed out in my earlier reply (albeit not explicitly) I was unaware that setting the voltage to my desired value didn't guarantee that this is the voltage that'd be supplied. Essentially I set the voltage, open HWMonitor to check the speeds and so on matched what I entered (I noticed voltage was listed there but I didn't notice anything disconcerting) in the BIOS and then I'd open up RealBench to stress test the system. Should I be leaving it open while stress testing to monitor the voltage as things go, or should I monitor it for a while prior to stress testing? What would be the appropriate process here?

[Mister Woof]

Monitor while stress testing to see if you can sustain your overclock. Look for thermals, voltages are within your desired parameters, and ensure no WHEA errors.

 

Voltage bounces around all the time depending on load. Even then, monitoring software isn't perfect and likely it's higher than what's being reported.

[alenbasic]

6 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

Monitor while stress testing to see if you can sustain your overclock. Look for thermals, voltages are within your desired parameters, and ensure no WHEA errors.

 

Voltage bounces around all the time depending on load. Even then, monitoring software isn't perfect and likely it's higher than what's being reported.

Fair enough, thanks for the info mate. Now that I know that LLC effects the voltage supplied it looks like I might be able to get 5GHz yet with some playing around. Will give it a crack and see how I end up going. Thanks again for your help.

[Mister Woof]

Check for VR VOut sensor value; I have read it is more accurate than your standard vcore reading. But not all boards have this sensor. Mine doesn't.

[Jurrunio]

1 hour ago, alenbasic said:

I guess my reply was ambiguous; I was not monitoring my voltage. I was unaware that I needed to do so. As I pointed out in my earlier reply (albeit not explicitly) I was unaware that setting the voltage to my desired value didn't guarantee that this is the voltage that'd be supplied. Essentially I set the voltage, open HWMonitor to check the speeds and so on matched what I entered (I noticed voltage was listed there but I didn't notice anything disconcerting) in the BIOS and then I'd open up RealBench to stress test the system. Should I be leaving it open while stress testing to monitor the voltage as things go, or should I monitor it for a while prior to stress testing? What would be the appropriate process here?

monitor it at all times until you're done with further tuning. With HWinfo (not HWmonitor) sensor mode, Find VR Vout reading if possible. If you can't, the Vcore reading will have to do which is less accurate, but better than reading the VID still.

 

1 hour ago, alenbasic said:

Fair enough, thanks for the info mate. Now that I know that LLC effects the voltage supplied it looks like I might be able to get 5GHz yet with some playing around. Will give it a crack and see how I end up going. Thanks again for your help.

You shouldnt use LLC that lets load voltage get past idle voltage though, preferably let it drop 0.05V for the sake of voltage regulation.

[alenbasic]

52 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

monitor it at all times until you're done with further tuning. With HWinfo (not HWmonitor) sensor mode, Find VR Vout reading if possible. If you can't, the Vcore reading will have to do which is less accurate, but better than reading the VID still.

 

You shouldnt use LLC that lets load voltage get past idle voltage though, preferably let it drop 0.05V for the sake of voltage regulation.

Thanks for the info. Looks like there's plenty more reading for me to do on this front. Really appreciate the help.

[alenbasic]

On 1/3/2020 at 7:24 AM, Mister Woof said:

.

 

On 1/3/2020 at 9:04 AM, Jurrunio said:

.

Thanks for the help guys, thought I'd let you know that with a bunch of tinkering around I can now get 5GHz, but at a pretty high VCore setting (1.39V with LLC on High). Because of droop VR VOUT only reads about 1.35V at idle and around 1.29V under load. 4.9GHz can be achieved at around 1.32V so I might just end up doing that, but for now I'm leaving it at 5 for bragging rights and so forth  

[Guest]

1 hour ago, alenbasic said:

 

Thanks for the help guys, thought I'd let you know that with a bunch of tinkering around I can now get 5GHz, but at a pretty high VCore setting (1.39V with LLC on High). Because of droop VR VOUT only reads about 1.35V at idle and around 1.29V under load. 4.9GHz can be achieved at around 1.32V so I might just end up doing that, but for now I'm leaving it at 5 for bragging rights and so forth  

Pretty normal round a bout votlage for 5ghz on 14nm.

My 8700K posts with voltage on auto 5ghz and is about 1.40v.  The chips start running hot at this voltage an up, be careful.