Intel Haswell 4670k + 4770K Overclocking guide

[Ryoku]

You should try and push your core frequency up to 4.7GHz. You'll have to increase the Vcore, but see how high you have to push it. I'd be curious to see what your temps would be with a higher Vcore to support 4.7GHz. If your average temps stay below 78-80, why not run with it? After that, you can always try and bring up the cache frequency and voltage.

 

What kind of motherboard do you have?

 

I have a Gigabyte. I wouldn't recommend using one in terms of OC a CPU because it doesn't offer a simple way to implement adaptive and static voltage for the core and cache. ProKoN recommends using an MSI mobo.

 

Gigabyte only offers a VRING voltage offset, which is bullshit because even if you set it properly, your uncore frequency won't budge in terms of downclocking to save power. I've tried many times without luck. I could be doing it wrong, but I doubt it...

 

Fucking Gigabyte...

 

Yea that's not fun, I'm using a Asus Maximums VI Gene which has been working well for me, was a bit puzzled at first following this guide because they named some of the settles differently in the bios. 

 

Yeah, I'm not a massive fan of Gigabyte's BIOS either. Same goes for ASRock. ASUS and MSI offer a good BIOS experience. I haven't tried eVGA's yet.

 

I'm liking Asus and I've heard good things about eVGA's Z87 and newer line of boards.

[BigDay]

Gigabyte boards are usually a little bit better value for money for the same features and warranty, yeah. It's just I personally feel their BIOS is still slightly lacking.

 

I have an MSI Gaming 7 Z97 board. I had an ASRock Z87 Extreme4 before that that broke two weeks after the 1-year warranty was up. I did not like that BIOS, but it had much cleaner and clearer audio. I also quite liked its subtle looks. Why more boards can't be plain black is beyond me.

 

BigDay, are you running stress tests when your voltages are set to auto/adaptive?

 

Nice. I've heard good things about that MSI board. I would prefer a plain black BIOS as well

 

No, I'm not running any stress tests with any of my voltages set to adaptive or auto. When I stress, I set the Vcore and Vring to "static" by entering in custom values. Same with frequencies

 

Yes, I agree the Gigabyte boards are lacking in terms of BIOS functionality. I still can't get over the fact that they don't allow you to set adaptive or static voltage modes. Also, they don't interact with IETU as well as MSI boards do. There are far more features available in IETU if you have an MSI board

 

Do all MSI boards have the same BIOS? If I were to buy one today and my budget was $150-160, which one would you recommend for my i5-4670K?

[BigDay]

Yea that's not fun, I'm using a Asus Maximums VI Gene which has been working well for me, was a bit puzzled at first following this guide because they named some of the settles differently in the bios. 

 

 

I'm liking Asus and I've heard good things about eVGA's Z87 and newer line of boards.

 

On your ASUS board, do you have the option to change your Vcore and Vring to "Adaptive" or "Static" mode without having to resort to offset settings? Have you tried using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility? If so, do you have access to a lot of BIOS options in the software?

 

Thx

[AngryGoldfish]

Nice. I've heard good things about that MSI board. I would prefer a plain black BIOS as well

 

No, I'm not running any stress tests with any of my voltages set to adaptive or auto. When I stress, I set the Vcore and Vring to "static" by entering in custom values. Same with frequencies

 

Yes, I agree the Gigabyte boards are lacking in terms of BIOS functionality. I still can't get over the fact that they don't allow you to set adaptive or static voltage modes. Also, they don't interact with IETU as well as MSI boards do. There are far more features available in IETU if you have an MSI board

 

Do all MSI boards have the same BIOS? If I were to buy one today and my budget was $150-160, which one would you recommend for my i5-4670K?

 

I meant the motherboard itself being all black, not the BIOS. I'm not fussed what colour the BIOS is as long as it's not garish and ridiculous. Gigabyte's BIOS actually looks quite nice.

 

[arniks8]

On your ASUS board, do you have the option to change your Vcore and Vring to "Adaptive" or "Static" mode without having to resort to offset settings? Have you tried using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility? If so, do you have access to a lot of BIOS options in the software?

Thx

Gene needs offset for adaptive, but it can be simply set to 0.001v and that's it. In IETU there's possible to change vcore, cache voltage, core multiplyer, chache multiplyer, voltage mode adaptive/static.

[ProKoN]

i describe how to set manual and adaptive voltages in this video for gigabyte boards

 

 

JJ describes how to set manual and adaptive voltages on asus boards here. im sure the same goes for the gene

 

[Ryoku]

On your ASUS board, do you have the option to change your Vcore and Vring to "Adaptive" or "Static" mode without having to resort to offset settings? Have you tried using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility? If so, do you have access to a lot of BIOS options in the software?

 

Thx

 

Uhh I believe so if they are the setting I think your talking about, they are named differently in the Asus bios. Pretty sure I can change all the same setting With IETU that I can in my Bios (well all the ones you would want to or a tleast most of them).

[BigDay]

i'm stressing an i5-4670k @ the following settings using XTU:

 

x46 core @ 1.30v (vcore)

x46 cache @ 1.36v (vring)

VCCIN = 2.00

 

what's the highest i can safely take my vring? i'm trying to find stability at a 1 to 1 ratio between the core and cache for a 24/7 oc

 

thanks

 

edit: i'm using an antec kuhler 620 h2o (120mm fan) aio water cooler

[blueballs]

i'm stressing an i5-4670k @ the following settings using XTU:

 

x46 core @ 1.30v (vcore)

x46 cache @ 1.36v (vring)

VCCIN = 2.00

 

what's the highest i can safely take my vring? i'm trying to find stability at a 1 to 1 ratio between the core and cache for a 24/7 oc

 

thanks

 

edit: i'm using an antec kuhler 620 h2o (120mm fan) aio water cooler

depends how cold and what safely means to you/for most people 1.5v is way over the limit for a 24/7 but for me 1.55 is just fine 

[BigDay]

depends how cold and what safely means to you/for most people 1.5v is way over the limit for a 24/7 but for me 1.55 is just fine 

 

trying to stay under 85 degrees celcius with an average temperature below 80 degrees during 100% load on XTU

 

i've heard 1.5v would kill most cpu's on air

[blueballs]

trying to stay under 85 degrees celcius with an average temperature below 80 degrees during 100% load on XTU

 

i've heard 1.5v would kill most cpu's on air

what you heard is shit do some real life experience and make your own opinion 

 

 

btw with a h110i and a 21c ambient temperature my h110i keep my cpu under 60c at 1.536

[BigDay]

alright. thanks

[fury]

Great guide prokon really helped me a lot

Im stable at 4.6ghz now with vcore 1.30 (12 hrs stable) trying to get 1:1 cache ratio now but im having a hard time.

Im at cache voltage 1.34 and cpu input voltage 2.02. Aveeage temp is 71. Higher cache voltage is ok right?

Btw my cpu is 4790k with h100i gtx cooler.

[BigDay]

Great guide prokon really helped me a lot

Im stable at 4.6ghz now with vcore 1.30 (12 hrs stable) trying to get 1:1 cache ratio now but im having a hard time.

Im at cache voltage 1.34 and cpu input voltage 2.02. Aveeage temp is 71. Higher cache voltage is ok right?

Btw my cpu is 4790k with h100i gtx cooler.

 

According to ProKoN, you can go as high as 1.45v on the vring (or cache voltage)

 

Also, he doesn't recommend you go any higher than 2.10v on the cpu input voltage

 

What's your cache frequency at?

[fury]

Trying to go for 46 also 1:1 cache

[BigDay]

Trying to go for 46 also 1:1 cache

 

good luck

 

i was unable to do so at the same frequency @ 1:1

 

i stopped after my cache voltage got to 1.40v

 

i don't feel like pushing it any further so i settled for 46 on the core and 45 on the cache

[fury]

4790k @4.6 ghz 1:1 cache success 12 hrs stable. Temp 69-70c

Vcore 1.30

Vring 1.35

Vccin 2.02

Ill try to reduce vccin to 1.9 tom hope it works.

[BigDay]

4790k @4.6 ghz 1:1 cache success 12 hrs stable. Temp 69-70c

Vcore 1.30

Vring 1.35

Vccin 2.02

Ill try to reduce vccin to 1.9 tom hope it works.

 

congrats! that's huge

[fury]

Thanks bigday...first i was worried that cache>vcore is not good. But now my chip is acting weird im at 4.7ghz 8hrs stable with ave temp 71-72 vcore 1.35 and cache at auto. Before I got bsod when at vcore 1.35 just by running benchmarks. 4.7 is better than 4.6 with 1:1 right? I'll probably end up with 4.6-4.5 cache with 4.7

[BigDay]

Thanks bigday...first i was worried that cache>vcore is not good. But now my chip is acting weird im at 4.7ghz 8hrs stable with ave temp 71-72 vcore 1.35 and cache at auto. Before I got bsod when at vcore 1.35 just by running benchmarks. 4.7 is better than 4.6 with 1:1 right? I'll probably end up with 4.6-4.5 cache with 4.7

 

According to ProKoN, having a higher vring over your vcore is fine, but having a higher cache ratio over your core ratio is when things start to get weird. He doesn't recommend that.

 

I wouldn't stress test using AUTO voltages. Keep things static.

 

When it comes time for you to set your 24/7 overclock, use the voltage values you used in static mode, but apply adaptive mode on your motherboard. What kind of motherboard do you have?

 

What are you currently stressing? What is your VCCIN?

[fury]

Sabertooth mark 1 z97. Right now im doing 47 core speed at 1.35 vcore manual voltage. Like I said I tested this setting before and it crashed when running benchmarks. Now everything is ok running for 8 hrs now 4 hrs left before I test what core ratio I can reach with 4.7

[BigDay]

Sabertooth mark 1 z97. Right now im doing 47 core speed at 1.35 vcore manual voltage. Like I said I tested this setting before and it crashed when running benchmarks. Now everything is ok running for 8 hrs now 4 hrs left before I test what core ratio I can reach with 4.7

 

Nice. Good mobo. You mean cache ratio that you can reach with 4.7 GHz on the core right?

[fury]

Nope core speed

[BigDay]

which cooling solution are you using?

[fury]

H100i gtx. 10hrs now running everything ok temp average 70c. With ac about 65c. I'll probably settle for 44-46 uncore clock with 47