My 4770k OC experience, fussy chip.

[Exotath]

Not frustrated as I know it is a lottery, but I am flat out baffled by the results of this chip.

 

Thus far the best I have achieved is 4.2Ghz/1.225v with a Ring of 39 at default Vring. 1hour stable in Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. Temps in the mid 70's

 

4.3Ghz will pass the same stability but needs 1.25v which ends up around 1.265v actual, and temps hit 80c.

 

4.4Ghz 1.275v - Fail

4.5Ghz 1.3v - Fail

4.6Ghz - Fail @ anything (obvious sign chip is below average)

 

Funny thing is the chip will run all day 4Ghz all cores at stock voltage, 1.085v But anything above that gotta start upping the voltage into the 1.2v area. Just plain odd to me to need such a bump in voltage for a few hundred Mhz.

 

Ring Bus (which confuses the hell out of me as to how it affects stability) appears to be unstable at anything above 39 regardless of voltage. Gone as high as 1.205 without going above Cpu Vcore.

 

VCCIN doesn't appear to help much in terms of stability. Tried as high as 2.0v and it helped a little but didn't put an end to any crashes.

 

SA volt @ stock - Reading 0.856v

Z87 Mpower using 1.43 beta bios, made no difference from 1.3 bios.

 

So ok whatever .... 4.2Ghz. After I felt comfortable it was stable I went and changed voltages to adaptive, turn on C1E etc...all the power saver features....BSOD on start up.  :unsure:  :wacko: lol.

 

I've fiddled with it for a good bit of two days now (a whole lot of googling)...gotta say this is one of the hardest chips I have ever overclocked in terms of getting stable results. Sharing my experience for sake of others, and maybe a pointer here or there.

[Exotath]

Ultimately if I can get some pointers in terms of getting some kind of OC with adaptive voltage on I will be pretty thrilled.

[jamesisninja]

Is your BIOS up to date?

[Exotath]

Yes, I updated the bios when I got the board to v1.3. And then after hours of attempts I went and picked up the beta bios, v1.43.

[blknight88]

Are you using an auto setting for the ring bus voltage?

[BlackOutCrisis]

Honestly I suggest getting the intel tuning plan thing and just have them send you another one lol

[Exotath]

Are you using an auto setting for the ring bus voltage?

 

Currently or when I was trying higher clockspeeds? Currently it is at auto for 39 with chip @ 4.2Ghz.

[blknight88]

Currently since you said it would BSOD on start when you went to adaptive voltage.

Oh and here are my OC settings if it helps.

 

i7 4770K @ 4.4 GHz

Ring Bus @ 39

 

Vcore: 1.26v (Adpative)

Ring Bus Volt: 1.16v (Static)

 

All C states/power save functions are on.

[Exotath]

Yea I have it on auto which seems to be reading 1.12v for 39 Ring Bus.

 

It seemed to only bsod the one time during boot...so far since then no issues. I will give ring bus a static bump.

[Exotath]

Do you think I could be having issues due to running 4 sticks of ram? IMC issue?

 

...issues as in OC's walling at a certain point.

[guybates]

Try a manual CPU Core voltage since you are currently using adaptive. I also own a 4770K and it required 1.37V to achieve 4.5GHz (Asus A87 Pro, Kraken X60 cooler). I don't recommend going any higher than 1.25-1.27V on the Xigmatek Dark night II.  Some require as high as 1.4V to achieve 4.5GHz, so it is all about the luck of the draw. Also try running you're memory at 1333MHz and see if that is causing instability for the memory controller on the cpu.

[ProKoN]

officially the msi bios is at version 1.2 thats what im running.

 

i haven tried the beta 1.43 bios.

 

you should be able to hit 4.4 on your cooler, however you may want to upgrade it if you wish to go past 4.4GHz

 

Have you tried finding stability with the ring bus decreased to 3000MHz

 

what program are you using for stability testing.

 

i suggest the IETU. a version came with your utility disc from msi

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-boards-software-extreme-tuning-utility.html

 

 

always make sure your ram is set low at first when overclocking the cpu. i suggest setting your ram at 1333MHz with auto timings and input the stock voltage manually.

[ProKoN]

Do you think I could be having issues due to running 4 sticks of ram? IMC issue?

 

...issues as in OC's walling at a certain point.

yes 4 sticks of ram can cause instability when overclocking.

 

start with two sticks untill you find cpu stability.

 

then pop the other two in and see if its still stable. if not you may have to scale back your OC a bit to run 4 sticks.

[Exotath]

I have not tried 3000 Ring bus, I'll give that and the two sticks a whirl to see where I get. I use the IETU for testing.

[Equlix]

I also have an msi mpower and I have the exact same issue only I have a custom loop with an xspc ex240 and rx240 with a koolance 380i, ram is an 8gb kit @1600. Exact. same. problem. my temps are insane even at 4.4 I cant even run a stability test without hitting 95c. I may just end up buying a new board like the gigabyte ud4h.

[ProKoN]

I also have an msi mpower and I have the exact same issue only I have a custom loop with an xspc ex240 and rx240 with a koolance 380i, ram is an 8gb kit @1600. Exact. same. problem. my temps are insane even at 4.4 I cant even run a stability test without hitting 95c. I may just end up buying a new board like the gigabyte ud4h.

get the IETU for proper stability testing

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-boards-software-extreme-tuning-utility.html

[Equlix]

get the IETU for proper stability testing

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-boards-software-extreme-tuning-utility.html

 just downloaded it

[Exotath]

Well, I tried everything discussed. Was able to do some cinebench at 4.4Ghz for a score of 9.51....but IETU would crash after 30 seconds lol.

 

I think I'll just focus on getting ring bus closer to my 4.2Ghz overclock as I think this chip just won't go higher stably.

[ProKoN]

Well, I tried everything discussed. Was able to do some cinebench at 4.4Ghz for a score of 9.51....but IETU would crash after 30 seconds lol.

 

I think I'll just focus on getting ring bus closer to my 4.2Ghz overclock as I think this chip just won't go higher stably.

Im not to sure what bios you are on

 

i would suggest downloading and installing V1.2 from the msi website. ( i know this is functional, stable, no bugs)

 

install v1.2 bios

 

clear cmos

 

change your multiplier to 44 and your vcore voltage to 1.22V

 

set your ram at 1333MHz and manually input the stock voltage for your ram ( your ram calls for 1.35V i would set it at 1.5V to start)

 

leave all other settings, dont change anything else.

 

try to boot and stress test

 

let us know what happens.

 

I would like to see you hit 4.4 on your cooler

[Exotath]

I'll give it a go tomorrow afternoon.

 

Bioses I have tried are 1.3 and 1.43 beta. Will try 1.2 as suggested.

[ProKoN]

i was able to stress test for an hour straight by doing what i recommended above and i was only at 1.2V.

 

worth a shot.

[AryanXD]

I have the exact same problem... I have an H100i I really wanted to get my 4770K to 4.5GHZ but it took 1.28V to do so. If you run any stress tests above 1.25V your temps will be insane. I saw someone on youtube using a heatsink and achieving 4.5GHZ @1.21V which is INSANE. It's just luck of the draw :(

[ProKoN]

I have the exact same problem... I have an H100i I really wanted to get my 4770K to 4.5GHZ but it took 1.28V to do so. If you run any stress tests above 1.25V your temps will be insane. I saw someone on youtube using a heatsink and achieving 4.5GHZ @1.21V which is INSANE. It's just luck of the draw :(

1.28V is not abnormal for a 4770k to hit 4.5 GHz, fairly average.

 

an improper stress testing program can sky rocket temps.

 

use the IETU to properlly stress test your haswell cpu

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-boards-software-extreme-tuning-utility.html

[SSOB]

Bad chip... you can do anything in the world but if the chip is bad well you're basically screwed

[orangecat]

Your profile picture sums up this entire thread lol