Need help overclocking

[JoeQuartuccio]

So I have a i7-10700k and its currently clocked at its base 3.8MHz. I paid for the unlocked version so I want to use that, is there any good video out there taking me through the steps of overclocking this. I dont need the full 5.1MHz. Im only looking for maybe 4.5MHz or so. Also is there anything I need to change, I have a AIO on my CPU. 

[BiotechBen]

14 minutes ago, JoeQuartuccio said:

So I have a i7-10700k and its currently clocked at its base 3.8MHz. I paid for the unlocked version so I want to use that, is there any good video out there taking me through the steps of overclocking this. I dont need the full 5.1MHz. Im only looking for maybe 4.5MHz or so. Also is there anything I need to change, I have a AIO on my CPU. 

Do you have a Z series chipset?

[RONOTHAN##]

6 minutes ago, JoeQuartuccio said:

I dont need the full 5.1MHz. Im only looking for maybe 4.5MHz or so.

The chip is rated for 5.1GHz turbo, it will boost there on its own (just not for extended periods of time without enabling MCE or whatever your motherboard calls it), so you do want to go for at least 5GHz all core in order to make overclocking worth it. 

 

First off, what motherboard do you have? That will determine some more specific things that you need to do to overclock. The general process is this:

1. Download some monitoring software (HWiNFO64 is the big one), some stress testing software (IntelBurnTest, Linpack Xtreme, OCCT, Prime95, etc.), and some benchmarks. Run a couple benchmarks to get some baseline numbers, as well as see where the VCore voltage goes to under load. 
2. Go into BIOS and set an LLC. For the most part, you want something with a fair amount of VDroop since that will get you the best voltage regulation (resulting in better clock speeds) at the expense of slightly higher idle temps. On ASRock and MSI boards, the higher the number the more VDroop there is (if there are 9 levels on an MSI board, you want level 7 usually). On ASUS, it's reversed, so the higher the number the less VDroop there is (level 1 has the most VDroop so usually you want level 2 or 3). Gigabyte is weird and I don't have their values memorized, so you need to check on the graph in the BIOS if you've got a Gigabyte board.
3. Disable C states and most other power saving stuff in the BIOS, it doesn't help that much at idle and it can sometimes cause issues with static OCs. 
4. Enter in a multiplier value (enter something like 48, that will get you 4.8GHz) and enter in a voltage (enter in the voltage you measured at idle plus 100mV to account for the VDroop). 
5. Go into Windows and spot check for stability (run benchmarks and stress tests for a not super long amount of time). 
   1. If stable, increase multiplier and repeat step 5. 
   2. If unstable, check temps. If temps are OK (<~95C), increase the voltage 25mV. If temps are not OK, lower voltage until temps are under control, then lower multiplier until it's stable
6. Do a full stress test (1 hour at least of one of the aforementioned stress tests).
7. OPTIONAL: overclock the cache/ring/uncore (different boards call it different things). This helps a lot in certain circumstances (gaming especially), 500MHz under the core clock is usually stable and a fair improvement over stock, though this is hard to stress test so you might want to avoid doing so.

There are official tutorials out there for most motherboards (other 10th gen CPUs will have the same general process), though they will all follow some version of that. 

[Guest]

Do you mean GHz and not MHz? 1GHz is 1000MHz.

 

Lock your clock speed to something that should be stable like 4ghz, and set a good voltage that should work and slowly go up from there. Every cpu uses different voltages, some may be fine with a high voltage while that same voltage on a different chip could overheat it immediately.

 

So start with something low like 1.15v and check temperatures, the higher you go the higher the temps. If your temps get too high (80c and above) then that means your voltage is too high.

 

Also you can try turning off hyper threading which reduces temperatures which may allow for higher overclocks. And it increases single core performance and reduces latency, which is good for gaming, assuming thats what you use the system for.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

For reference i think most chips do somewhere around 4.8-5g at 1.2-1.25v and going any higher is mostly a waste of power due to how much volt you need (exponential increase in volt requirement at a certain point)

 

14 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

overclock the cache/ring/uncore (different boards call it different things). This helps a lot in certain circumstances (gaming especially), 500MHz under the core clock is usually stable and a fair improvement over stock, though this is hard to stress test so you might want to avoid doing so.

Uncore iirc is more ram related so use a stress like p95 large ffts, or is it cpu related? Depends what volt it scales with ig

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

For reference i think most chips do somewhere around 4.8-5g at 1.2-1.25v and going any higher is mostly a waste of power due to how much volt you need (exponential increase in volt requirement at a certain point)

 

Uncore iirc is more ram related so use a stress like p95 large ffts, or is it cpu related? Depends what volt it scales with ig

it can show up in any stress test, usually memory stress tests, but its not really guaranteed to show up in any particular type. 

[JoeQuartuccio]

35 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

The chip is rated for 5.1GHz turbo, it will boost there on its own (just not for extended periods of time without enabling MCE or whatever your motherboard calls it), so you do want to go for at least 5GHz all core in order to make overclocking worth it. 

 

First off, what motherboard do you have? That will determine some more specific things that you need to do to overclock. The general process is this:

1. Download some monitoring software (HWiNFO64 is the big one), some stress testing software (IntelBurnTest, Linpack Xtreme, OCCT, Prime95, etc.), and some benchmarks. Run a couple benchmarks to get some baseline numbers, as well as see where the VCore voltage goes to under load. 
2. Go into BIOS and set an LLC. For the most part, you want something with a fair amount of VDroop since that will get you the best voltage regulation (resulting in better clock speeds) at the expense of slightly higher idle temps. On ASRock and MSI boards, the higher the number the more VDroop there is (if there are 9 levels on an MSI board, you want level 7 usually). On ASUS, it's reversed, so the higher the number the less VDroop there is (level 1 has the most VDroop so usually you want level 2 or 3). Gigabyte is weird and I don't have their values memorized, so you need to check on the graph in the BIOS if you've got a Gigabyte board.
3. Disable C states and most other power saving stuff in the BIOS, it doesn't help that much at idle and it can sometimes cause issues with static OCs. 
4. Enter in a multiplier value (enter something like 48, that will get you 4.8GHz) and enter in a voltage (enter in the voltage you measured at idle plus 100mV to account for the VDroop). 
5. Go into Windows and spot check for stability (run benchmarks and stress tests for a not super long amount of time). 
   1. If stable, increase multiplier and repeat step 5. 
   2. If unstable, check temps. If temps are OK (<~95C), increase the voltage 25mV. If temps are not OK, lower voltage until temps are under control, then lower multiplier until it's stable
6. Do a full stress test (1 hour at least of one of the aforementioned stress tests).
7. OPTIONAL: overclock the cache/ring/uncore (different boards call it different things). This helps a lot in certain circumstances (gaming especially), 500MHz under the core clock is usually stable and a fair improvement over stock, though this is hard to stress test so you might want to avoid doing so.

There are official tutorials out there for most motherboards (other 10th gen CPUs will have the same general process), though they will all follow some version of that. 

ASUS ROG Strix Z490-E Gaming Z490- WiFi 6, LGA 1200 (Intel 10th Gen) ATX Gaming Motherboard, 14+2 Power Stages, DDR4 4600, Intel 2.5 Gb Ethernet

[JoeQuartuccio]

34 minutes ago, rippy4500 said:

Do you mean GHz and not MHz? 1GHz is 1000MHz.

 

Lock your clock speed to something that should be stable like 4ghz, and set a good voltage that should work and slowly go up from there. Every cpu uses different voltages, some may be fine with a high voltage while that same voltage on a different chip could overheat it immediately.

 

So start with something low like 1.15v and check temperatures, the higher you go the higher the temps. If your temps get too high (80c and above) then that means your voltage is too high.

 

Also you can try turning off hyper threading which reduces temperatures which may allow for higher overclocks. And it increases single core performance and reduces latency, which is good for gaming, assuming thats what you use the system for.

thanks, i will try this out

[JoeQuartuccio]

8 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

For reference i think most chips do somewhere around 4.8-5g at 1.2-1.25v and going any higher is mostly a waste of power due to how much volt you need (exponential increase in volt requirement at a certain point)

 

Uncore iirc is more ram related so use a stress like p95 large ffts, or is it cpu related? Depends what volt it scales with ig

thanks for the tips, i will try this out

[JoeQuartuccio]

46 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

Do you have a Z series chipset?

i believe so