Overclocking i7 920

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DrinkTea

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 21, 2013
Messages
377
Originally I was going to get Haswell, but it sounded like it wasn't worth it. So I got a liquid cooler and decided to overclock my old 920 to keep it for a bit longer.
Before, I had a stock cooler at it was at a bit over 3.4GHz with vcore around 1.16V. I have it up to 4GHz now and it needs vcore around 1.375 to be stable. Did I do something wrong? Because that increase seems quite large. Or is that to be expected.
Thanks.
 
Well, more specifically, I'm just surprised that I could undervolt with a reasonably large overclock before but the extra 600 MHz needed so much. It seemed like there would be a way to get that more easily.
 
Have you tried better cooling? It's not clear from your post. If not, see if better cooling will help, but otherwise, CPUs have different points for stability. Sometimes it takes a large jump going from one setting to another, with stability.
 
With th cooler I have its in the 50s or 60s under load. The issue is stability and I can barely get it to boot with lower voltages. But can stability issues arise from voltages that are too high?
 
Too high of a voltage can cause a shorter lifespan for the processor, but as mentioned, it should be safe for your processor. If that voltage is what it takes for stability, you should be fine. Your temps seem good as well. My 965x @ 4Ghz ran around 75C at full load and that was with a huge HSF (Thermalright HR-02 Macho) and I ran that OC for over a year. I added a new video card a couple months ago and ever since my OC fails. I haven't taken the time to go back and figure it out, but I hope to at some point (full time student and have a full time job, so not a ton of free time). Running the processor at 4Ghz with plenty of RAM and a newer video card should allow the system to continue to be useful another year or two before needing an upgrade. At least that's my hope ;)
 
I ran mine at that speed with something similar to that for 4 and a half years, it'll be fine. For whats it's worth my Haswell has been a treat, you don't think it makes a huge difference until you see the old CPU related slow downs in BF3 and Firefall beta disappear completely.
 
Kor said:
I ran mine at that speed with something similar to that for 4 and a half years, it'll be fine. For whats it's worth my Haswell has been a treat, you don't think it makes a huge difference until you see the old CPU related slow downs in BF3 and Firefall beta disappear completely.
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Definitely. I agree on Firefall, and will add Planetside 2 to the "big difference" list.

I came from a 4GHz i7-930. I ran it at +0.120v, which yielded a 1.336v Vcore, and it's been rock solid for 3 years.

My i7-930 refused to go any faster though. Even 4.05GHz failed to boot with a ridiculous 1.4 Vcore; it just hits a wall.
 
Womper said:
Definitely. I agree on Firefall, and will add Planetside 2 to the "big difference" list.

I came from a 4GHz i7-930. I ran it at +0.120v, which yielded a 1.336v Vcore, and it's been rock solid for 3 years.

My i7-930 refused to go any faster though. Even 4.05GHz failed to boot with a ridiculous 1.4 Vcore; it just hits a wall.
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Going from 20-30 fps in copa to a solid 60 was quite a surprise :p

Also no matter the scenario in BF3 my framerate doesn't move if I'm playing single screen (which I am at the moment since Nvidia still haven't got their shit together for SLI surround).
 
That's a pretty impressive gain. I thought haswell was supposed to not make that huge of a difference for gaming, even over nehalem? Hm, well, I don't game that much these days.
Anyway, another question I have is how much can the motherboard or other parts, like GPUs, affect the ability of a chip to overclock?
 
DrinkTea said:
That's a pretty impressive gain. I thought haswell was supposed to not make that huge of a difference for gaming, even over nehalem? Hm, well, I don't game that much these days.
Anyway, another question I have is how much can the motherboard or other parts, like GPUs, affect the ability of a chip to overclock?
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Depends on the game ;) I'm also willing to get that anything coming over from the next round of consoles is going to require sandy or better as a minimum spec.
 
Mine's a D0 and I can't get anywhere near that overclock with such low voltages. Is it possible that setting them too high can lead to instability or even not being able to boot?
 
Been running my 920 at 4.2 with 1.39-1.4v for years. Never skips a beat. Also running on water, so.
 
To be fair, the four EX58-UD3Rs that I have (various revs from 1.0 - 1.6) are kind of odd.
The actual voltage is higher, but with LLC enabled, the voltage dips under load. IIRC, it was closer to 1.1V at idle.
 
HydroBudz said:
Been running my 920 at 4.2 with 1.39-1.4v for years. Never skips a beat. Also running on water, so.
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What are your other settings? No matter what I do I can't seem to get it above 4. Right now it's a bit below and seems stable.
 
DrinkTea said:
What are your other settings? No matter what I do I can't seem to get it above 4. Right now it's a bit below and seems stable.
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Did you try bumping up the CPU pll and vtt voltages too?
 
What I did was give in and get a 4670K and am now selling the 920. Some people may find it fun to spend tons of time on overclocking, but the marginal utility drops off very quickly for me.
 
HydroBudz said:
Been running my 920 at 4.2 with 1.39-1.4v for years. Never skips a beat. Also running on water, so.
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Same here except I'm on air (TRUE 120). Still debating jumping on haswell or waiting for ivy-e, what do you guys think?
 
I don't think Haswell is much of an upgrade over the 920 (OC'd that is). Ivy-E should be nice though.
 
I came from an i7 920 at 4.2ghz and I can tell you haswell is worth it :). I game at low resolutions though. Even at stock haswell out performs.
 
Zicro said:
Same here except I'm on air (TRUE 120). Still debating jumping on haswell or waiting for ivy-e, what do you guys think?
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Unless you can open up task manager or perfmon and see one of those 920 cores maxed in a game or application you use, dont do it!.

I came from a OC [email protected] to a [email protected] and notice little tangible difference, well all but one game I play.

Looking at your sig do your GPU first, you will notice a difference even going from a GTX580 to a 680 I did.
 
Battleneter2 said:
Unless you can open up task manager or perfmon and see one of those 920 cores maxed in a game or application you use, dont do it!.

I came from a OC [email protected] to a [email protected] and notice little tangible difference, well all but one game I play.

Looking at your sig do your GPU first, you will notice a difference even going from a GTX580 to a 680 I did.
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That's what I figured but I can sell the cpu/mobo now before they totally lose their value.

With the best bang for the buck ivy-e cpu which I'm guessing will be priced around $500 do you think it will be worth buying with its soldered overclock potential or will the 4670k still be the best bang for the buck for purely gaming?
 
Zicro said:
That's what I figured but I can sell the cpu/mobo now before they totally lose their value.

With the best bang for the buck ivy-e cpu which I'm guessing will be priced around $500 do you think it will be worth buying with its soldered overclock potential or will the 4670k still be the best bang for the buck for purely gaming?
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At this point, I would wait and see if Intel releases a respin of the 4770K (as a new stepping like the old Q6600), or see how Ivy-E turns out..
 
It's interesting looking at everyones overclocks as we all use different math to got there as i am at 4050Mhz at 1.32v on my i7-930 useing a multiplier of x20 with a bus speed of 202.5 and QPI Link of 3645.5

I could go up to a x21 multiplier and drop my fsb speed a QPI Link and go faster but one needs to know how far you can push the fsb before the wall is hit and more vcore is not always the answer as we have to keep that ram in check at all times.

(I came from an i7 920 at 4.2ghz and I can tell you haswell is worth it . I game at low resolutions though. Even at stock haswell out performs. )

You would need to match the same clock speeds to say that.. take it down to 2.66Ghz or the i7-920 up to 3.5Ghz to compare but i see no upgrade for 500-600 more dollars and if anything people are rebuying used i7-920 because of this.
 
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