Stuttering during overclock stress tests, safe to proceed?

[WhaSAAB713]

Trying to finish validating the overclock on my i7 8700K. Got the temps where I want, got it up to 4.4Ghz at 1.2V, and I've done some short stress tests and it does fine except that it will have small stutters/freezes every 5-10 minutes (2-3 second stutters). My question is: is this something to worry about/lower the speed or voltage for, or is it normal and I'm ok to run my longer stress tests? Any advice on my next validation steps would be appreciated.

 

Also, I've heard you should set your voltage to "adaptive mode" after validating an overclock, does this just mean change the setting from manual back to auto?

 

Thanks!

[WhaSAAB713]

1 minute ago, RandomGuy13 said:

In my BIOS I have a few options, Automatic which is the stock adaptive voltage, Manual offset, which is a fixed voltage offset from stock, and adaptive offset, which is an adaptive offset from stock.

 

As for your stuttering problem, you don't want your stress test programs to stutter, Personally I really like 3Dmarks stress test because it will factor stutter, FPS and temperature into their stability rating. But 3Dmark isn't free and I don't use anything else so I can't recommend an alternative for you. I would say that you need to bring the clock speed back until the stuttering is gone. Or you can add extra voltage as long as its within safe limits and your cooler can handle the extra heat.

So what should I set it to after I validate my overclock? Automatic or adaptive offset?

 

Good to know, I will bring the clock speed back down to 4.2GHz and see where that gets me.

[WhaSAAB713]

3 minutes ago, RandomGuy13 said:

For a 8700k, I wouldn't go any higher than 1.3V unless you really know what you are doing.

 

Try using Prime95 to stress test, that one is quite good at finding problems, Its quite sensitive in my experience which is quite good.

I've heard some not-so-great things about Prime95. I think LTT even mentioned it in one of their videos. I've got RealBench at the moment, but I don't mind paying for programs like 3DMark and AIDA64 if it means I can ensure that my system is stable.

[WhaSAAB713]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy13 said:

AIDA64 is another great one, I use the trial version which works fine for me and includes all the features that I need, I just use the stability test. Yea I haven't really use prime95 for a while now so I don't know, 3Dmark is great but its CPU tests aren't that amazing, but its hands down the best for Graphics card OCs.

Passmark is another one but I haven't used that for ages.

So I've been still messing around with my OC using RealBench to test it, and I've tried every combination of speed and voltage from 4.0-4.4GHz and 1.2-1.3V and I'm still getting small stutters 2-3 times per 15 stress test. Either I'm doing something wrong or my chip is a sad chip that can't even OC 300MHz. Thoughts?

[WhaSAAB713]

1 minute ago, RandomGuy13 said:

Does it stutter even with the stock settings, if it does then it might not be a overclock thing, it could be your ram isn't set to the right XMP profile or something wrong with software.

It does stutter the same way, even at stock speeds. I have the RAM set to run at it's rated XMP settings.

[WhaSAAB713]

I've heard that RealBench can stress the system in different ways than a lot of the other stress tests, could it just be the way that RealBench is testing it?

[WhaSAAB713]

7 minutes ago, RandomGuy13 said:

Yea It might just be a thing that realbench does, Perhaps you could test with other programs see if they experienced similar issues. I have never used RealBench so I can't say for certain. I would give prime 95 a shot, try some others as well, Aida 64. Maybe you can run handbrake a few times ashwell to see if that causes any errors or crashes, (Not the most elegant test but there is no harm in trying). You could also try running cinebench metro bench for a good few iterations to see if the program locks up or throws errors.

Ok, I'll try using some other programs and see what happens. I'm not trying to do anything crazy, just shooting for 4.2GHz at 1.25V. I feel like that's pretty reasonable for this processor with a 240mm water cooler on it.

[WhaSAAB713]

1 minute ago, RandomGuy13 said:

You might find that you were completely fine at 4.4GHz at 1.25V, I haven't yet had the pleasure of owning the new coffee lake chips to test out.

True, if I can hit 4.4 I'd be thrilled. But it hasn't quite been a pleasure having one yet, lol.