Letting it run overclock x299 i5-7640X

[Burnmaester]

I have another thread in here where I asked about updating my system. I decided to let it run instead of buying new equipment.

So I decided to overclock. My strategy for this overclock is letting the components go faster without pushing hard. If that makes sense.

I'm also trying to gather as much quantifiable data as possible to see that it is actually doing something.

I will be primarily trying the "easy button" over clocks in the motherboard bios and see how they fair, and what they do.

I'm not aiming for bleeding edge speed, just letting the components go a bit faster. Also by turning up all the fan speeds.

 

First round of results looks like I may be able to get 10% increase without to much effort!

 

Let me know your thoughts.

 

Here is my current old build:

MB: Asus TUF X299 Mark 2

CPU: Intel Core i5-7640X Kaby Lake-X

GPU: Nvidia GTX1080 Founders Edition

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 2800

SSD: WD Black 256GB NVMe

SSHD: Seagate Firecuda 1TB 7200rpm

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master RR-212X-20PM-R1

PS: Corsair CX750

 

i5-7640X

4C/4T 4.0Ghz base 4.2Ghz Boost

 

I'll post results as they come in:

All tests ran 5x times and averaged

Its all in a big spreadsheet. I may post it at the end.

There are also other benchmarks in the sheet. I'll just post some of them here.

 

Step one: Baseline benchmarks only memory XMP

PCmark 8 Demo: 5650

Cinebench R20: 1656

Unigen Superpostion 1080p high: 10678

 

Step 2: small GPU step, CPU default

Changes:

Nvidia Control Panel set to high performance

MSI Afterburner set power percentage and temperature to max, voltage and clock speeds all left at default

 

PCmark 8 Demo: 5680 +0.5%

Cinebench R20: 1654.8  -0.07%

Unigen Superpostion 1080p high: 3645.6 +7.35%

 

Step 3: small CPU step, GPU default

Changes:

Motherboard Bios "EZ Tuning Wizard" Gaming and Tower Air Cooler

Resulted in a CPU overclock to 4.5 Ghz, Bclk 103, Multiplier 44, all core, default voltage, Dram 2746

 

PCmark 8 Demo: 5870 +3.89%

Cinebench R20: 1787.2  +7.9%

Unigen Superpostion 1080p high: 3630.4  +6.9%

 

Step 4: medium CPU step, GPU default

Changes:

Motherboard Bios "EZ System Tuning" set to Fast Tuning... this is different from the "EZ Tuning Wizard"

Resulted in a CPU Overclock to 4.8 Ghz, Bclk 100, Multiplier 48, all core, Asus multicore enhancement, default voltage, dram 2666

 

PCmark 8 Demo: 6010 +6.37%

Cinebench R20: 1841.4 +11.19%

Unigen Superposition 1080p high: 3609.6  +6.2%

 

Step 5: I'm debating the "EZ System Tuning" set to "Extreme Tuning" or calling it good and applying XMP or GPU to see what happens then

Edited June 15, 2020 by Burnmaester
Added more info

[Guest]

Well this is really nice and informative!! Great information here.

 

But can you tell us the clock speed changes you're making to the Cpu please? 

All I know is this chip is stock 4ghz and turbo 4.2ghz.....

Other than that, the overclocking is helping!

 

OH NVM I see it on step 4. You're up to 4.8ghz. Nice

[Burnmaester]

Thanks! I'm honesty taking the slow easy way. I'll update the OP with the basic specs.

 

I just found a guide from Asus that if I want to push it, meaning voltage, I may be able to hit 5Ghz!

 

I don't know if I want to push that hard though.

 

https://edgeup.asus.com/2017/kaby-lake-overclocking-guide/

 

[Guest]

4.8ghz is a decent overclock. 

 

I'd be trying to keep load temps as low as possible.

Rule of thumb for any overclocking. (In most cases)

 

1. The faster you go and the higher the voltage, the lower the temps should go. 

 

That means at 4.6ghz 80c

Then 4.8ghz 70c

 and so forth. That's just examples, not entirely always that extreme.

A misconception that many have is that 100c is the max and with the overclock it's safe. NO. That is safe with a stock frequency. (This is example numbers, not directed to your chip.) When overclocking, you really seek to lower temps as significantly as possible. There becomes a point that Heat and Leakage go hand in hand. I can prove that on a variety of processors from any generation. Sometimes, more voltage isn't the answer, but lower top thermals is. 

So a 5ghz OC at 90c wouldn't be ok. 

TJuncion for your chip is 100c. It'll throttle hard to prevent thermtrip. You don't want to be anywhere near this. 5ghz maybe keep it under 80c for a daily use.

 

Because you've mentioned that you want to take it slow and do it right, I'll lead you to the door. But you must open it. 

[Burnmaester]

14 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Because you've mentioned that you want to take it slow and do it right, I'll lead you to the door. But you must open it. 

Thank you very much, I respect that. I will probably not go through that 5Ghz door but I will take another look at my temps. Currently still at stock voltage.

Currently I had been doing my temperature bench by using CPUZ to stress the cpu for 5 minutes and take the highest CPU temp and CPU power during that time.

Reading more articles I found that OCCT is a better temp stress. 

As I'm in the middle of my process I don't want do step back to get more data, I will list what I have.

 

Step 1: CPUZ 5 min stress, max temp 52C max power 31.7W

Step 2: CPUZ 5 min stress, max temp 52C max power 31.8W

Step 3: CPUZ 5 min stress, max temp 52C max power 33.6W

Step 4: CPUZ 5 min stress, max temp 63C max power 47.7W

still step 4: OCCT 15 min stress, max temp 82C max power 80W

 

I had set a more aggressive fan profile for steps 1-3 but I got lazy having to always put in my manual profile. Step 4 is the "turbo" fan profile.

 

I'm going to change up the fan curves and see what the temps do.

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, Burnmaester said:

Thank you very much, I respect that. I will probably not go through that 5Ghz door but I will take another look at my temps. Currently still at stock voltage.

Currently I had been doing my temperature bench by using CPUZ to stress the cpu for 5 minutes and take the highest CPU temp and CPU power during that time.

Reading more articles I found that OCCT is a better temp stress. 

As I'm in the middle of my process I don't want do step back to get more data, I will list what I have.

 

Step 1: CPUZ 5 min stress, max temp 52C max power 31.7W

Step 2: CPUZ 5 min stress, max temp 52C max power 31.8W

Step 3: CPUZ 5 min stress, max temp 52C max power 33.6W

Step 4: CPUZ 5 min stress, max temp 63C max power 47.7W

still step 4: OCCT 15 min stress, max temp 82C max power 80W

 

I had set a more aggressive fan profile for steps 1-3 but I got lazy having to always put in my manual profile. Step 4 is the "turbo" fan profile.

 

I'm going to change up the fan curves and see what the temps do.

That's decent. OCCT can be heavy AVX2 instructions with 10 minute swings in temps (20c as you experienced) and likely would reflect the heaviest of loads. Prime95 with AVX is just as heavy. OCCT is good for Linpack and testing your memory overclock with what ever cpu usage you want to do. I use this quite aften.

You can also have fun with Intel Burn Test and XTU as well. Check out QuickCpu also, but never run all these at the same time. That will help avoid software conflicts. 

[Burnmaester]

What is Linpack in OCCT?

 

Thank you

I will look into a few more programs. I'll check back in tomorrow. Out of time for today.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Burnmaester said:

What is Linpack in OCCT?

 

Thank you

I will look into a few more programs. I'll check back in tomorrow. Out of time for today.

LinPack if for stress testing the memory. Out of 16GB, I usually request 10-12GB to be stressed.

[Burnmaester]

21 hours ago, ShrimpBrime said:

LinPack if for stress testing the memory

I don't know about memory only. Wow it hits the CPU like a hammer. I'm seeing peaks up to 89C! and that is when I pull the case fan filter out of an abundance of caution. Could that be just because of the AVX?!?!

Maybe I should set some AVX offset?

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, Burnmaester said:

I don't know about memory only. Wow it hits the CPU like a hammer. I'm seeing peaks up to 89C! and that is when I pull the case fan filter out of an abundance of caution. Could that be just because of the AVX?!?!

Maybe I should set some AVX offset?

Haha, yea its a really good program for a burn in.

 

You can choose which instruction set it uses or even none at all. Some programs like cinebench will use AVX.

 

You could try AVX offset and see where it takes you.

[Burnmaester]

1 hour ago, ShrimpBrime said:

You could try AVX offset and see where it takes you.

Well I opened the door to 5Ghz in a way.

I figured "why not" plus I was curios what asus considered the "extreme tuning" preset. 

No change to voltage. VCore is still 1.12

Still my manual Fan curves that pretty much hit 100% at 65C

BCLK 100

Multiplier 51

DRAM 2666

Sync all and "Asus Multicore Enhancement"

Although I overrode it and set the AVX offset to 4.7Ghz

 

Just finished a quick 5 min CPUZ stress and had Max temp 71C, Max power 63.1W

I did notice quick drops to 4.7Ghz which must have been the AVX code.

I know its not a major test but I figured it was an easy start.

Next up is OCCT for a while. I figure if one of these is deemed unstable then no need to do the other benchmarks.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Burnmaester said:

Well I opened the door to 5Ghz in a way.

I figured "why not" plus I was curios what asus considered the "extreme tuning" preset. 

No change to voltage. VCore is still 1.12

Still my manual Fan curves that pretty much hit 100% at 65C

BCLK 100

Multiplier 51

DRAM 2666

Sync all and "Asus Multicore Enhancement"

Although I overrode it and set the AVX offset to 4.7Ghz

 

Just finished a quick 5 min CPUZ stress and had Max temp 71C, Max power 63.1W

I did notice quick drops to 4.7Ghz which must have been the AVX code.

I know its not a major test but I figured it was an easy start.

Next up is OCCT for a while. I figure if one of these is deemed unstable then no need to do the other benchmarks.

Temps go up even without additional voltage. Just a fair bit of warning.... even though it's been two hours and you've probably already figured that out lol. 

 

Yea the AVX offset will drop the clocks. It's good and bad. Good for keeping temps in check, but doesn't reflect the OC performance.

[Burnmaester]

16 hours ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Temps go up even without additional voltage

Yeah more work is being done even without more voltage, more amps/watts are being drawn.

 

I do have a question about CPU voltages.

I understand part of the answer is "it depends" because like the frequency the voltages can change depending on cpu needs.

In bios Vcore is set to 1.120V

I assume this is the default max voltage? it has not changed even when I defaulted the bios.

What do all the other core voltages mean and are there other ones I should be paying attention to?

 

Currently at 5.1Ghz OC 4.7Ghz AVX

At idle

CPUz says Core Voltage: 0.672V

HWMonitor say

VCORE: 0.672V

IA: 1.331V

LCC/Ring: 1.331V

VID#0-#1: variable between 1.331V and 1.338V

 

under load CPUZ stress

CPUz says Core Voltage: 0.664V or 0.672V

HWMonitor say

VCORE: 0.664V or 0.672V

IA: 1.331V

LCC/Ring: 1.331V

VID#0-#1: variable between 1.320V and 1.327V

 

under load OCCT AVX stress

CPUz says Core Voltage: 0.640V or 0.672V

HWMonitor say

VCORE: 0.664V or 0.672V

IA: 1.331V

LCC/Ring: 1.331V

VID#0-#1: variable between 1.252V and 1.369V

 

So I guess My question is what voltage is my CPU actually getting? 1.2V ish or 0.6V ish?

 

I don't have the actual Asus Motherboard software installed because it is one of the few software listed to directly conflict with Steam VR

 

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Burnmaester said:

Yeah more work is being done even without more voltage, more amps/watts are being drawn.

 

I do have a question about CPU voltages.

I understand part of the answer is "it depends" because like the frequency the voltages can change depending on cpu needs.

In bios Vcore is set to 1.120V

I assume this is the default max voltage? it has not changed even when I defaulted the bios.

What do all the other core voltages mean and are there other ones I should be paying attention to?

 

Currently at 5.1Ghz OC 4.7Ghz AVX

At idle

CPUz says Core Voltage: 0.672V

HWMonitor say

VCORE: 0.672V

IA: 1.331V

LCC/Ring: 1.331V

VID#0-#1: variable between 1.331V and 1.338V

 

under load CPUZ stress

CPUz says Core Voltage: 0.664V or 0.672V

HWMonitor say

VCORE: 0.664V or 0.672V

IA: 1.331V

LCC/Ring: 1.331V

VID#0-#1: variable between 1.320V and 1.327V

 

under load OCCT AVX stress

CPUz says Core Voltage: 0.640V or 0.672V

HWMonitor say

VCORE: 0.664V or 0.672V

IA: 1.331V

LCC/Ring: 1.331V

VID#0-#1: variable between 1.252V and 1.369V

 

So I guess My question is what voltage is my CPU actually getting? 1.2V ish or 0.6V ish?

 

I don't have the actual Asus Motherboard software installed because it is one of the few software listed to directly conflict with Steam VR

 

I can better explain all this once Im at a key board later on. Im at work the phone sux to type with lol.

 

.670v is idle and 1.120 is a load voltage.