i5 4670k OC

[Tazman192]

Hi.

 

Hoping I could get some help here.

 

I've oced my 4670k to 4.4ghz at 1.265v (not great I know), and I've run multiple stress tests from 1-3 hours long using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. They've all passed.

 

But when I run GTA 5, the game crashes and my PC restarts 5 mins in. I have no clue why the stress test passes but GTA makes my system crash, My temps aren't even high (55c~) when it crashes,

 

For the record, the only things I've change in my my bios are multiplier ratio to 44, and adaptive voltage to 1.265v.

 

Any help would be great, cheers.

[ImBleu]

Did it crash without a CPU overclock? If it still crashes at stock voltage/multiplier there is another issue in your system. - Probably Ram. I had 8gb and the game crashed a lot, but I threw in another 8GB and it hasn't crashed since.

[Tazman192]

Did it crash without a CPU overclock? If it still crashes at stock voltage/multiplier there is another issue in your system. - Probably Ram. I had 8gb and the game crashed a lot, but I threw in another 8GB and it hasn't crashed since.

 

Nope, been playing it fine pre-oc.

[Darkman]

Nope, been playing it fine pre-oc.

Unstable, add more voltage, try something like 1.27v or 1.28v. Or lower the multiplier.

[Tazman192]

Unstable, add more voltage, try something like 1.27v or 1.28v.

 

But why does it pass the stress tests? I find that really unusual - it seems stable on 1.265 (ran gta 5 for 10 mins so far, no crashes, normally it would have crashed). It crashed on 1.26 earlier but passed stress tests on that voltage.

 

Fingers crossed.

[Darkman]

But why does it pass the stress tests? I find that really unusual - it seems stable on 1.265 (ran gta 5 for 10 mins so far, no crashes, normally it would have crashed). It crashed on 1.26 earlier but passed stress tests on that voltage.

 

Fingers crossed.

how long did you run the stress test?

[Tazman192]

how long did you run the stress test?

 

1 hour monitored and then a ~3 hour test while I was afk. Intel Extreme Tuning Utility reported no problems.

[Darkman]

1 hour monitored and then a ~3 hour test while I was afk. Intel Extreme Tuning Utility reported no problems.

very odd... Wonder if GTA hates overclocked cpus like it hates 970s and 290Xs.

Seriously, it crashes 970s drivers at stock clocks and they haven't even tried to fix it.

[Tazman192]

very odd... Wonder if GTA hates overclocked cpus like it hates 970s and 290Xs.

Seriously, it crashes 970s drivers at stock clocks and they haven't even tried to fix it.

 

If that were the case there would be alot of talk about it considering how many people OC their cpu/own GTA.

 

It just crashed at 1.265V. I have no idea why. Is my PSU (in sig) adequate for my specs?

 

Edit: There isn't even a pattern. I tried to blow shit up, get alot of police on me, etc and it was fine. It crashed when I was just casually driving outside my apartment online.

 

I'm wondering whether it's anything to do with adaptive voltage. I was monitoring with Intel XTU, and when it was at 4.4Ghz, the vcore never reached its peak. I'll try again using manual voltage, but I really don't fancy running at 1.27V 24/7.

[Tazman192]

I got this in my event viewer:

 

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck.  The bugcheck was: 0x00000124 (0x0000000000000000, 0xffffe00191141028, 0x00000000bf800000, 0x0000000000000124). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 060215-20906-01.

 

 

 

When I try to open the above file/attach it, says I don't have access to open the file and need to contact the system administrator. I've reversed my OC for now as I don't want to damage my components. Anybody have any idea whats going on?

[ApolloX75]

Take it off adaptive voltage. Use manual only.

Adaptive voltage is shit. You can use offset mode after you dial it in manually.

Also turn off CPU spread spectrum and adjust your VCore In to 1.8v (not your actual VCore, that shouldn't go over 1.35V). Knock your CPU cache modifier to x38. All that will improve stability.

[Tazman192]

Take it off adaptive voltage. Use manual only.

Adaptive voltage is shit. You can use offset mode after you dial it in manually.

Also turn off CPU spread spectrum and adjust your VCore In to 1.8v (not your actual VCore, that shouldn't go over 1.35V). Knock your CPU cache modifier to x38. All that will improve stability.

 

So after I find my vcore, I change it from manual to offset? I don't exactly get how the offset works. Wondering if you can provide a screenshot of your settings so i can get an idea? Cheers

[ApolloX75]

So after I find my vcore, I change it from manual to offset? I don't exactly get how the offset works. Wondering if you can provide a screenshot of your settings so i can get an idea? Cheers

Sure! I'll post some for you tonight when I get home.

[Tazman192]

Sure! I'll post some for you tonight when I get home.

 

Thanks alot, would be awesome if you could show all the settings I need to change. Would help greatly.

[ApolloX75]

Thanks alot, would be awesome if you could show all the settings I need to change. Would help greatly.

Alright combed through and took a bunch of shots for you. Now a lot of my options are back to Auto since I hit stable so I will comment where appropriate. I also seem to have a golden 4670K as I now notice I didn't have to disable a lot of the usual troublesome options like Core Parking or SpeedStep. I kicked mine to 4.4GHz as a "day-to-day" overclock, and I've had mine successfully hit 4.7GHz with very little tweaking, but there's no guarantee you will have as easy a time.

 

This is the top of the OC Section (AI Tweaker on my Z87-A)

 

This details the current settings of the CPU (Yellow) and has the CPU Strap (B-CLK) which you should never have to change. Ever. LC PLL setting is for playing with the B-CLK. When it is set to LC mode it prevents "jitter" and is made for maintaining a stable multiplier OC. You may or may not have this option.

 

Scrolling down you find each Core multiplier. You can do this multiple ways. I have chosen the simple method of achieving the highest clock possible across all four cores. The higher you go the less stable you will be in this mode. You can chose a per-core method which will make it work like the stock Turbo Boost mode. Core 0 and Core 1 will have the same multiplier, Core 3 will be one lower and Core 4 will be lower than 3. This maintains stability but makes it so the more cores you use the slower your CPU works overall. Below that is your CPU Cache multiplier, it's speed does not need to be matched to your Core speed, go ahead and keep it around 38 or so.

 

Here we get to the meat which is the voltage settings. It is best to keep it on manual or use the Offset mode, never use adaptive unless you can dial the system in and watch it like a hawk. Currently mine is working at 1.264V and Asus AI Suite keeps me apprised if it starts to misbehave. I seem to be able to step up to 4.5GHz and 4.4GHz using 1.264-1.268V, so I think I'm lucky. I've hit 4.7 using 1.285V.

 

Here is the CPU Input Voltage I mentioned. This can be and should be higher than your actual VCore value. 1.8-1.85 is a good starting point and you shouldn't need to move from there. The only other one on this section is Spread Spectrum and this can be a take it or leave it setting.

 

This is within the VRM Control (DIGI VRM on an Asus board) which gives you control over the Load Line Calibration. This will help prevent Voltage Drop under heavy loads and maintain a stable voltage setting. Generally you don't have to go crazy, you can start at Level 1 or 2 (Low settings, depends on the board) and work your way up if you notice your CPU voltages are dropping by large values under load and crashing.

 

Last one, I swear.

 

This is under CPU Config and (for my Z87-A anyways) the only option of note is the mode you're operating in. I have mine set to Max Non-Turbo Mode meaning my CPU runs at it's max speed all day long. Once you have everything stable you can, if you choose, run it in Turbo mode so it will clock up to your chosen speed under demand. I don't really trust it to be honest so I just keep it pinned all the time.

 

There. Those are all the parts and settings of note than I can think of. Hope I've explained everything well enough and like I said most of my options I've tuned out now that everything runs stable 24/7. If you get a random crash for no reason outside of a stress test, then you're not 100% stable. You can be 99.999999997% stable and still get a random crash here and there. You don't want that. Also a failed overclock may not always result in a blue screen. Sometimes it will just hang or act strange, and at that point it means you're very close.

Sometimes you'll need to turn off Core Parking or SpeedStep, and of course Spread Spectrum when nothing else seems to work. Temps are important too, mine never seems to go above about 74C using a Hyper 212 Evo.

 

As for benching I used Intel Burn Test, 3D Mark, and just gaming in general. Also used HWMonitor, HWinfo64 and CPUID to keep an eye on things.

[Tazman192]

Alright combed through and took a bunch of shots for you. Now a lot of my options are back to Auto since I hit stable so I will comment where appropriate. I also seem to have a golden 4670K as I now notice I didn't have to disable a lot of the usual troublesome options like Core Parking or SpeedStep. I kicked mine to 4.4GHz as a "day-to-day" overclock, and I've had mine successfully hit 4.7GHz with very little tweaking, but there's no guarantee you will have as easy a time.

 

This is the top of the OC Section (AI Tweaker on my Z87-A)

 

150602155832.jpg

This details the current settings of the CPU (Yellow) and has the CPU Strap (B-CLK) which you should never have to change. Ever. LC PLL setting is for playing with the B-CLK. When it is set to LC mode it prevents "jitter" and is made for maintaining a stable multiplier OC. You may or may not have this option.

 

150602155846.jpg

Scrolling down you find each Core multiplier. You can do this multiple ways. I have chosen the simple method of achieving the highest clock possible across all four cores. The higher you go the less stable you will be in this mode. You can chose a per-core method which will make it work like the stock Turbo Boost mode. Core 0 and Core 1 will have the same multiplier, Core 3 will be one lower and Core 4 will be lower than 3. This maintains stability but makes it so the more cores you use the slower your CPU works overall. Below that is your CPU Cache multiplier, it's speed does not need to be matched to your Core speed, go ahead and keep it around 38 or so.

 

150602155859.jpg

Here we get to the meat which is the voltage settings. It is best to keep it on manual or use the Offset mode, never use adaptive unless you can dial the system in and watch it like a hawk. Currently mine is working at 1.264V and Asus AI Suite keeps me apprised if it starts to misbehave. I seem to be able to step up to 4.5GHz and 4.4GHz using 1.264-1.268V, so I think I'm lucky. I've hit 4.7 using 1.285V.

 

150602155911.jpg

Here is the CPU Input Voltage I mentioned. This can be and should be higher than your actual VCore value. 1.8-1.85 is a good starting point and you shouldn't need to move from there. The only other one on this section is Spread Spectrum and this can be a take it or leave it setting.

 

150602155932.jpg

This is within the VRM Control (DIGI VRM on an Asus board) which gives you control over the Load Line Calibration. This will help prevent Voltage Drop under heavy loads and maintain a stable voltage setting. Generally you don't have to go crazy, you can start at Level 1 or 2 (Low settings, depends on the board) and work your way up if you notice your CPU voltages are dropping by large values under load and crashing.

 

Last one, I swear.

 

150602160105.jpg

This is under CPU Config and (for my Z87-A anyways) the only option of note is the mode you're operating in. I have mine set to Max Non-Turbo Mode meaning my CPU runs at it's max speed all day long. Once you have everything stable you can, if you choose, run it in Turbo mode so it will clock up to your chosen speed under demand. I don't really trust it to be honest so I just keep it pinned all the time.

 

There. Those are all the parts and settings of note than I can think of. Hope I've explained everything well enough and like I said most of my options I've tuned out now that everything runs stable 24/7. If you get a random crash for no reason outside of a stress test, then you're not 100% stable. You can be 99.999999997% stable and still get a random crash here and there. You don't want that. Also a failed overclock may not always result in a blue screen. Sometimes it will just hang or act strange, and at that point it means you're very close.

Sometimes you'll need to turn off Core Parking or SpeedStep, and of course Spread Spectrum when nothing else seems to work. Temps are important too, mine never seems to go above about 74C using a Hyper 212 Evo.

 

As for benching I used Intel Burn Test, 3D Mark, and just gaming in general. Also used HWMonitor, HWinfo64 and CPUID to keep an eye on things.

 

 

Thanks alot for this, very much appreciated!

 

I'll play around with it tomorrow and see if I can get stable. Isn't having your voltage on manual 24/7 unhealthy for the CPU? Even if my CPU is only at 5% load it'll constantly run at that voltage therefore higher idle temps?

 

Cheers

[ApolloX75]

Thanks alot for this, very much appreciated!

 

I'll play around with it tomorrow and see if I can get stable. Isn't having your voltage on manual 24/7 unhealthy for the CPU? Even if my CPU is only at 5% load it'll constantly run at that voltage therefore higher idle temps?

 

Cheers

Nah. Just because it's running at that speed doesn't mean it's actually running at 100% usage all the time. It sits around 30-34C idle and ramps up to 70C average under really heavy loads. The voltage doesn't really effect the temps much at idle as far as I have seen.

 

Once everything is tuned up and you know what voltage you need, you can eventually switch it to adaptive with offsets and switch it to turbo mode. I just don't like the hassle.

[Tazman192]

Nah. Just because it's running at that speed doesn't mean it's actually running at 100% usage all the time. It sits around 30-34C idle and ramps up to 70C average under really heavy loads. The voltage doesn't really effect the temps much at idle as far as I have seen.

 

Once everything is tuned up and you know what voltage you need, you can eventually switch it to adaptive with offsets and switch it to turbo mode. I just don't like the hassle.

 

When I was testing stability with manual voltage, I was getting around 35c idle which dropped down to my normal 25-28c with adaptive/auto. No idea why

[ApolloX75]

When I was testing stability with manual voltage, I was getting around 35c idle which dropped down to my normal 25-28c with adaptive/auto. No idea why

Makes sense, the adaptive will allow it to downclock on its own when not under use. Core parking and all that, good for power saving. Could also be the Asus EPU taking over, I have mine disabled.

[Tazman192]

Makes sense, the adaptive will allow it to downclock on its own when not under use. Core parking and all that, good for power saving. Could also be the Asus EPU taking over, I have mine disabled.

 

 

EPU is disabled by default I believe.

[Tazman192]

Makes sense, the adaptive will allow it to downclock on its own when not under use. Core parking and all that, good for power saving. Could also be the Asus EPU taking over, I have mine disabled.

 

I'm just thinking, can my PSU be at fault for my PC shutting down during GTA? Bearing in mind it doesnt BSOD, just hangs for 5 seconds and then restarts.