9600k overclocking help

[vishy92]

Hey!

 

I have been trying to OC my 9600k all day, but no matter what I try the intel xtu stress test freezes every time. I can run cinebench r15 and aida64 just fine. Havent tested for long periods tho since xtu just locks up.

Hardware:

MSI z390 Gaming Edge AC

Gskill ripjaws v 3200mhz cl16

Dark Rock Pro 4

 

I made a few pictures of my settings. Am I doing something wrong? This is my first time trying to overclock, but googling just made me even more confused.

 

Any tips I could try or some setting I'm obviously missing?

[-rascal-]

You have XMP enabled, but it is still using 1.2V instead of 1.35V.

You can't just jump straight to 5.0GHz, and think it will work on ALL CPUs...

Have you tried to see if 4.9GHz / 4.8GHz with a -2x AVX offset is stable first?

[vishy92]

6 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

You have XMP enabled, but it is still using 1.2V instead of 1.35V.

You can't just jump straight to 5.0GHz, and think it will work on ALL CPUs...

Have you tried to see if 4.9GHz / 4.8GHz with a -2x AVX offset is stable first?

Yeah i set it to default in frustration and havent saved thats why its showing 1.2v for the ram. I tried 4.8 too xtu still fails. If i disable xmp it passes on 5ghz with decentish temps (mid 70s). If I manually dial in the voltage and the timings it still happens. What would be a good baseline to start again? 

[-rascal-]

30 minutes ago, vishy92 said:

Yeah i set it to default in frustration and havent saved thats why its showing 1.2v for the ram. I tried 4.8 too xtu still fails. If i disable xmp it passes on 5ghz with decentish temps (mid 70s). If I manually dial in the voltage and the timings it still happens. What would be a good baseline to start again? 

 

Hmm, so it looks like your CPU overclock is not playing nice with your RAM kit when XMP is enabled for DDR4-3200.

There are a few things you can try, depends on how you want to approach it.

 

1) Leave your RAM at defaults (e.g. XMP disabled) and tweak your CPU overclock until you are satisfied. Once that is done, THEN go a tweak your RAM.

2) The other way around, enable XMP or tweak your RAM first, and then CPU second.

3) Try to get the two working simultaneously...may or may not be tricky.

 

 

The Integrated Memory Controller (IMC) on Intel CPUs are typically quite robust, and DDR4-3200 should be easy to do.

I'm wondering if the motherboard is to blame here.

What version BIOS are you using?

If it's quite a bit older, consider updating it first -- latest version available on the MSi site is 7B17vA9 released June-12-2020, with description "Improved memory compatibility."

 

When you set the Core Voltage to 1.340V, do you see it dip below that OR goes above that target range?

If so, you need to adjust your CPU Load-Line Calibration setting so the VCore stays as stable and as close to 1.340V as possible.

If VCore droops too much, then it will cause instability.

 

You can also set your CPU SA Voltage to 1.10V ~ 1.15V, and CPU IO Voltage to 1.10V ~ 1.15V, and see if will help stabilize things on the RAM side.

 

What options do you have under the CPU Switching Frequency setting?

Right now, it is just on Auto.

 

Which memory slots are you using (assuming 2x sticks)?

MSi recommends slots A2 and B2 when you have 2x DIMMs.

[vishy92]

18 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

 

 

 

Wow! Very descriptive thank you!. I have installed the ram as msi recommends. I cant really check if its not seated right since the cooler is humongous, but I don't think that's an issue.

I have no clue what cpu sa or io voltage is but i'll try play around with that. Nice catch on the bios version I'm 1 version behind. I tried different llcs, namely mode 3 and 4 and auto. I found a post saying on reddit saying 4 usually is recommended for stability, but it didnt help much.

 

Couldn't monitor vcore fluctuation much, since xtu and occt almost instantly crashed with xmp. Were fine for a few minutes without. In cinebench r15 I didnt see any big change in vcore. I could run that as many times as i wanted it doesnt crash. I attached a screenshot of the CPU Switching Frequency setting.

 

Thanks again for a detailed eli5:D will report back after a bios update.

[-rascal-]

21 minutes ago, vishy92 said:

Wow! Very descriptive thank you!. I have installed the ram as msi recommends. I cant really check if its not seated right since the cooler is humongous, but I don't think that's an issue.

I have no clue what cpu sa or io voltage is but i'll try play around with that. Nice catch on the bios version I'm 1 version behind. I tried different llcs, namely mode 3 and 4 and auto. I found a post saying on reddit saying 4 usually is recommended for stability, but it didnt help much.

 

Couldn't monitor vcore fluctuation much, since xtu and occt almost instantly crashed with xmp. Were fine for a few minutes without. In cinebench r15 I didnt see any big change in vcore. I could run that as many times as i wanted it doesnt crash. I attached a screenshot of the CPU Switching Frequency setting.

 

Thanks again for a detailed eli5:D will report back after a bios update.

 

It looks like all 16GB of RAM is detected, so should be seated properly.

 

They are in your 2nd picture, Auto is setting it to 1.044V, and 0.948V.

You have to be gentle with VCCSA and VCCIO votlages.

You shouldn't need more than 1.10V ~ 1.15V for both, unless you are doing higher frequency RAM overclocks and/or aggressive memory timings, especially with DDR4-3200.

 

Use HWInfo for monitoring software.

There is a difference between the Core Voltage of what the CPU is requesting, and what it is actually getting -- HWInfo should show this.

(Not at home at the moment..will need to check my notes, etc)

 

Are you using the built in Stability Test in AIDA64?

That should be good enough...

 

How many modes are available for the LLC?

0 ~ 5?  7?

 

CPU Switching Frequency is for the VRMs.

See if setting it to 375KHz or 450KHz helps.

The higher the frequency, typically the more stable the VRMs with regulating the voltages...but can cause the VRMs to run a little warmer ... by a few *C.

Surprised MSi has such low options (e.g. 180KHz ~ 285KHz) ... don't know why / who would want to use anything that low...

[vishy92]

23 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

 

There are 8 llc modes and an auto option. Did the bios update. Pc still locks up at stress tests like aida with xmp. Runs seemingly fine otherwise altho i just ran it for a few minutes.
I can only find whats the current, min, max and avg. vcore in hwinfo. Maybe im missing something. With mode 4 llc vcore gets to 1.36 when its set to 1.35 in the bios.

 

Gonna try to change vccsa and vccio to 1.10 and see if it changes anything. What voltage and frequency should I try first? 4.8ghz with 1.3v sound good?

[-rascal-]

23 minutes ago, vishy92 said:

There are 8 llc modes and an auto option. Did the bios update. Pc still locks up at stress tests like aida with xmp. Runs seemingly fine otherwise altho i just ran it for a few minutes.
I can only find whats the current, min, max and avg. vcore in hwinfo. Maybe im missing something. With mode 4 llc vcore gets to 1.36 when its set to 1.35 in the bios.

 

Gonna try to change vccsa and vccio to 1.10 and see if it changes anything. What voltage and frequency should I try first? 4.8ghz with 1.3v sound good?

 

Okay, so LLC4 seems to be pretty good.

Overshoots, but only by 0.01V.

 

Yes, try 1.10V for both VCCSA ans VCCIO.

Give 4.8GHz a try with 1.3V; if that doesn't work, see if bumping it up to 1.32V helps.

[vishy92]

2 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

 

Okay, so LLC4 seems to be pretty good.

Overshoots, but only by 0.01V.

 

Yes, try 1.10V for both VCCSA ans VCCIO.

Give 4.8GHz a try with 1.3V; if that doesn't work, see if bumping it up to 1.32V helps.

huh. Interesting. I set vccsa and vccio to 1.12 (is it safe?) and tried 4.8ghz 1.28v with xmp enabled and it passed intel XTU twice. Every single time I tried to run that stress test with xmp it instantly crashed. Could it be that I tried to set the voltage way too high? Going to run 10 minutes of aida64 and slowly increase the cpu ratio

[vishy92]

So I ran a 10 minutes of aida64 and intel xtu twice with 4.9ghz 1.28v (-2 AVX). No issues so far max temp was 72C, but my room temp is really high right now. Going to try occt too.

I set the CPU Switching Frequency to 375khz as you suggested and left vccio and sa at 1.12.  MOS temp is 62C max. Doest that seem okay? Im assuming the CPU Switching Frequency influences that.

[vishy92]

After further testing today I can't get 4.9 to be stable. Eighter I suck or my cpu:D 

 

Should I try to push voltage higher than 1.35? I read that its what most people consider safe, but MSI recommends 1.42 for a 9600k@5ghz. I didnt have the balls to push that high.

[Marcos81]

Have the same CPU, different RAM and Mobo though. This is the guide I followed, being a newbie at OC : https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/cpu-overclocking-guide-and-tutorial-for-beginners.3347428/

 

Still trying to figure out stable results. But I got a 4.8 with 1.29V working, with IO and SA at like 1.04V. I have my RAM OC though... 3600 16-16-16-36 to 3866 16-16-16-36 with an increase from 1.35 to 1.385V.

 

i am now in the process of getting a stable 4.9 for the CPU, but I am at 1.33V, with IO and SA at 1.14 (I just boosted it to only have core voltage to change and test). I'll try 5GHz afterward, and finally, tweak down IO and SA to lower values.

 

I tested some "per core" settings as well, but didn't go into deep testing with them. Highest I tried, which was going into Windows and seemed to have no problem was the following :

1 core - 5.2

2 and 3 cores - 5.1

4 and 5 cores - 5.0

6 cores - 4.9

core voltage was set at 1.34

IO and SA at 1.14.

 

by the way, if I let the MB set those 2 last values automatically (IO and SA), it was set at something like 1.34. that is way too high.

 

As per the other settings, I pretty much went as per the guide I provided a link to. I know my RAM OC is good though. That's why I am keeping it as is. I have to push a lot more voltage to get 3900MHz. And I don't want to tweak the timings. 3866 with CL16 made me happy.

 

One thing I try to keep in mind, is that there is not much room for shortcuts as far as OC go. I know my actual 4.9 "seems" ok as I can game with those settings, but it's not 100% stable. I've been on this OC for weeks, in my spare time.

 

Good luck, and be patient.

[vishy92]

26 minutes ago, Marcos81 said:

Have the same CPU, different RAM and Mobo though. This is the guide I followed, being a newbie at OC : https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/cpu-overclocking-guide-and-tutorial-for-beginners.3347428/

 

Still trying to figure out stable results. But I got a 4.8 with 1.29V working, with IO and SA at like 1.04V. I have my RAM OC though... 3600 16-16-16-36 to 3866 16-16-16-36 with an increase from 1.35 to 1.385V.

 

i am now in the process of getting a stable 4.9 for the CPU, but I am at 1.33V, with IO and SA at 1.14 (I just boosted it to only have core voltage to change and test). I'll try 5GHz afterward, and finally, tweak down IO and SA to lower values.

 

I tested some "per core" settings as well, but didn't go into deep testing with them. Highest I tried, which was going into Windows and seemed to have no problem was the following :

1 core - 5.2

2 and 3 cores - 5.1

4 and 5 cores - 5.0

6 cores - 4.9

core voltage was set at 1.34

IO and SA at 1.14.

 

by the way, if I let the MB set those 2 last values automatically (IO and SA), it was set at something like 1.34. that is way too high.

 

As per the other settings, I pretty much went as per the guide I provided a link to. I know my RAM OC is good though. That's why I am keeping it as is. I have to push a lot more voltage to get 3900MHz. And I don't want to tweak the timings. 3866 with CL16 made me happy.

 

One thing I try to keep in mind, is that there is not much room for shortcuts as far as OC go. I know my actual 4.9 "seems" ok as I can game with those settings, but it's not 100% stable. I've been on this OC for weeks, in my spare time.

 

Good luck, and be patient.

I just read through that guide. I tried setting it per core, but on the same paragraph the guide suggests turning turbo boost off, but when its set to per core it just runs at 3.7 ghz. Found it a little confusing. Guess I'll settle with 4.8ghz@1.28v no avx offset VCCIO and SA is set to 1.05 and 1.10. It ran occt for 2 hours stable with xmp enabled and a maximum temp of 70-72 degrees and the pc is nearly silent. It idles around 42-45C. If I try to push 4.9 with xmp it crashed in occt instantly even with 1.35v. I tried messing around with auto voltage just to see how much the mobo feeds to the cpu, but it got as high as 1.42 at 4.9ghz.

 

Thanks for the suggestion!

[vishy92]

Quick update. Found the culprit for the instability. After I read a few articles I set the uncore frequency to 4.5ghz most of my stability issues are gone. Higher uncore with xmp just doesnt play nice with my setup. I realised 4.8ghz core clock was stable because I always set uncore to 3x lower than the actual core frequency and it was at 4.5ghz lol. Right now Im at 4.9ghz@1.31v with a -1 avx offset and it seems stable. I ran aida64 and occt for 1 hour and passed intel xtu a few times. Probably could go lower with the voltage, I'll try tomorrow.

I enabled speedstep to lower idle temps and adjusted the case and cpu fan curve for the hellish temps outside this week:D

 

Thanks for the help!