I7 6700k overclocking questions

Notexactly · January 31, 2022

Hello everyone. I have an older PC that still runs very well. I won't be changing my 6700k yet so i wanted to overclock it which is a reason why i bought this CPU back then. PSU, case fans and case are not quite good and i'll be changing them soon. This is long and i'm not an expert so please bear with me.

PC: i7-6700K, Z170 Pro Gaming AURA, Hyper 212 EVO, 2x8 Fury 2666, HyperX Fury 240GB 2.5" SSD, Samsung 870 EVO 1TB SSD, WD Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5", TT Smart 730 W 80+, GTX 1060, 2 stock case fans

I tried couple of different OC settings just changing ratio and vcore in manual mode. Ai overclock Tuner was set to XMP. I didnt try adaptive or offset modes until i get a stable system. I ran only Realbench benchmarks for these first 4 just to see how it goes step by step.

4.2Ghz at 1.250v 2 x Benchmarks OK

4.3Ghz at 1.250v 2 x Benchmarks OK

4.4Ghz at 1.250v 2 x Benchmarks OK

4.5Ghz at 1.300v passed 1 benchmark but BSOD happened after the second benchmark.

Temperatures were mostly fine for all tests with max at 71/72C but mostly between 60 and 70 when under load (for 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4).

After that BSOD i cant even go for 4.4Ghz with 1.250v or 1.275v. Benchmark passes well but AIDA64 stops saying "Hardware failure detected". It fails after 10 minutes at 1.250 and after 20minutes at 1.275. 4.2Ghz and 4.3Ghz at 1.250v still work well.

I just tried 4.5Ghz at 1.325v and i ran Realbench Benchmark and AIDA64. CPUZ showed vcore at 1.328 but AIDA64, AI Suite and HWmonitor show vcore at 1.344 and 1.360. Temperatures got higher with max at 83/84 while mostly being between 65 and 75. I stopped AIDA64 after 33 minutes while it failed at 4.4Ghz 1.275v after 20minutes. It seems stable but temperatures are high and i'd like core voltage to be lower.

Whatever ratio and vcore i set in Bios, vcore is shown a bit higher in AIDA64, HWmonitor and CPUZ but never drops when idling. When i revert to stock, set everything on auto and run benchmark and Aida64, vcore is above 1.3 (mostly 1.36 and 1.376) which i'm not happy about especially at 4Ghz. It does drop to 0.7/0.8 when idling.

Why is vcore always higher than vcore set in Bios?

Why is vcore at stock settings so high?

What type of adaptive/offset and LLC settings should i try?

Could i set lower vcore for 4.5Ghz and would that lower my temperatures to under 75 or so?

Should i do some other tests too?

I'm not trying to get to some high OC levels and chip might not be able to go far but i'd like to get 4.5Ghz at good temperatures and reasonable core voltage.

Any suggestions highly appreciated. Thanx and sorry for the long post.

Somerandomtechyboi · January 31, 2022

1. Might just be llc and you set it to max or its adaptive voltage kicking in

2. Retarded intel boards overvolting the sht out of cpus for no reason

3. Ill just leave someone else to answer this

4. Youve pretty much reached the max oc your cooler can handle so get a better heatsink and also delid for better temps (there are delid tutorials on yt)

5. Personally i use prime95 so id suggest using that too for stress test, use large ffts to see if its just ram/imc screwing you over by raising cpu voltage to the highest the cooler can handle, use small(est) ffts to stress cpu and see if that screws you over though it really stresses the crap out of the cpu so expect the temps to be quite abit higher compared to large ffts (~5-10c)

Cpu is fine upto 100c so not a concern to run mid 80s on a low volt (<1.4v), if you do plan on going higher than 1.4v make sure the cpu doesnt go over 80c for stability and longevity reasons, over 1.5v youd want ~75c but pref under 70c mainly for stability. Volt shouldnt be a concern since intel 14nm volt spec is 1.52v unless you are hooking up a car rad to your cpu or something stupidly overkill that can run the cpu at under 70c at these volts