i7 6700k max OC at 4.6Ghz - 1.36V , did I hit a wall?

[Patchouly]

Hello,

First, I am perfectly aware that 4.6Ghz is perfectly fine vs 4.7Ghz

 

I have been working on the OC of my new i7 6700k (on Asus z170 Pro Gaming, 16Gb Corsair ddr4 2133mhz) and found a stable result at 4.6Ghz - 1.36V. With air cooling the temp can go up to 80 degrees but it's usually in the 70 range.

I have tried working at 4.7Ghz but even with a 1.4 voltage, I get immediate errors on OCCT and Realbench can get me through 2/3 benchmarks before BSOD. The temperature stays ok, though (83 degrees big max).

 

I am waiting for my custom watercooling loop and I was wondering if getting my CPU to lower temps would have enough impact on the stability for me to reach 4.7Ghz. I actually know you can't answer for sure because there are many parameters involved, but I read somewhere that temperature has an impact on stability, even when critical temps are not involved. 

What do you think?

Also, I never changed VCCIO nor VCCSA, should I try?

I'll keep you posted with my results with watercooling

 

Thanks!

 

[tom_w141]

@Patchouly

 

No a custom water loop would only prevent thermal throttling/emergency shut down (with temps in the 80s you are not experiencing this type of shutdown so don't worry).

 

Monitor voltage during your tests. If voltage drops under load to the point where the provided voltage is insufficient then try enabling load line calibration. This boosts the voltage slightly to help maintain the desired voltage when under load.

 

This drop is called voltage droop.

[Bananasplit_00]

some LCC could help, watercooling would allow you to run higher voltage but i wouldent go above 1.4V tbh, it could help a bit probably. i have constantly been limited for what i can do with my chips by temps, like my I5 4690K could do 4.8GHz but the temps got insaine so i just stuck to 4.7GHz in the winter and 4.5GHz in the summer untill i got my NH-D14 which alowed me to run 4.7GHz all year around lol. and now the NH-D14 is limiting me from overclocking my I7 4790K  anyway it seems you kind of hit a wall there, i would go after the RAM now if you care about that(takes ages to do and is a HUGE pain but i had some fun with that too) and definatly redo the overclock once you get your loop

[FiveNine]

I did 4.8 on those volts but it's fine with 1.250 on 4.7, doesn't break 70 ever... It's just luck. On the other hand my IMC is trash though, i can't get my ram on rated speed... lol

[Patchouly]

13 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

some LCC could help, watercooling would allow you to run higher voltage but i wouldent go above 1.4V tbh, it could help a bit probably. i have constantly been limited for what i can do with my chips by temps, like my I5 4690K could do 4.8GHz but the temps got insaine so i just stuck to 4.7GHz in the winter and 4.5GHz in the summer untill i got my NH-D14 which alowed me to run 4.7GHz all year around lol. and now the NH-D14 is limiting me from overclocking my I7 4790K  anyway it seems you kind of hit a wall there, i would go after the RAM now if you care about that(takes ages to do and is a HUGE pain but i had some fun with that too) and definatly redo the overclock once you get your loop

Did build my water loop today, got to 4.7Ghz stable (at 1.39 but I didn't have the time to try lower voltage), that's a start .

I probably should have bought better RAM. I'll see what I can do with it. If I'm brave enough.

Watercooling is so rewarding

[Patchouly]

9 hours ago, FiveNine said:

I did 4.8 on those volts but it's fine with 1.250 on 4.7, doesn't break 70 ever... It's just luck. On the other hand my IMC is trash though, i can't get my ram on rated speed... lol

As you say... luck

[Patchouly]

13 hours ago, tom_w141 said:

@Patchouly

 

No a custom water loop would only prevent thermal throttling/emergency shut down (with temps in the 80s you are not experiencing this type of shutdown so don't worry).

 

Monitor voltage during your tests. If voltage drops under load to the point where the provided voltage is insufficient then try enabling load line calibration. This boosts the voltage slightly to help maintain the desired voltage when under load.

 

This drop is called voltage droop.

It seems that watercooling helps a bit because I was able to achieve a stable 4.7 today. But I'll check my LLC. I have chosen a lvl 4 I think. Maybe it's too low. 

Don't you think also that RAM might be a problem?

[FiveNine]

1 hour ago, Patchouly said:

It seems that watercooling helps a bit because I was able to achieve a stable 4.7 today. But I'll check my LLC. I have chosen a lvl 4 I think. Maybe it's too low. 

Don't you think also that RAM might be a problem?

RAM doesn't matter when OCing cpu. Leave it at default. Turn off all Turbo's EIST, C States etc.when overclocking.  Generally when the amount of voltage increase for a 100mhz gain increases a lot then you back off to the previous one. In my case, i keep it at 4.5ghz on 1.220v because i don't want to do 0.1v more for 300mhz. 

If you have errors or BSOD you're not stable, which means lower speed or increase voltage. If you can't increase voltage you have only 1 option left. Temps in 70 is normal, 80 max for bench is fine too as long as it's not in every day use

[Patchouly]

8 hours ago, FiveNine said:

RAM doesn't matter when OCing cpu. Leave it at default. Turn off all Turbo's EIST, C States etc.when overclocking.  Generally when the amount of voltage increase for a 100mhz gain increases a lot then you back off to the previous one. In my case, i keep it at 4.5ghz on 1.220v because i don't want to do 0.1v more for 300mhz. 

If you have errors or BSOD you're not stable, which means lower speed or increase voltage. If you can't increase voltage you have only 1 option left. Temps in 70 is normal, 80 max for bench is fine too as long as it's not in every day use

Thank you. I'll stay at 4.6 or 4.7, I'll see the best voltage:clock ratio I can get. 

I'm going to return my DDR4 though and change it for a 3000mhz. I saw some benchmarks and 2133mhz is way below. 

 

Next step will be watercooling my Asus Strix 980 Ti, but I've spent enough money this month