2020 / 2021 - best CPU's for overclocking on either side?

[MrGuvernment]

Hello everyone,

Has been some time since I really really overclocked a rig, my last real one with WC was a Pentium 4 PressHot i got to 4.06Ghz for a suicide run!

So, with the lingering urge to build a new rig, but of course Zen 3 no where to be found, I wanted to ask the experts about what chips (Intel or AMD) are the king of overclocking these days? Whether using high end air, or a WC loop.....

Do you "need" a $300 mobo with a cpu to get a high OC ?

Any info would be appreciated.

 

[Spartacus09]

What kind of usecase are you looking for? gaming?
What do you consider a high OC? ~ are you looking for alot of cores running fast or fewer cores running insanely high speeds?
Are you looking to just go for above average/really high or maximum feasible for the chip safely?

 

[spine]

I'd previously been spending big bucks on a high end mobo, specifically for better overclocking, but these days, it's just wasted money.

So latest rig I just went for a relatively cheap half decent MSI mobo (previously I'd be dead set on Asus Hero, nothing less than) and I've been thoroughly impressed with it's overclocking capability. All this talk of VRM phases and blah de blah just don't actually mean anything when it comes down to it. If a chip can't reach a certain speed stably on a cheap mobo, you'd be hard pressed to get even 100mhz more out of it with an expensive one.

Best OC setup these days is z490 mobo and 10700K. AMD's latest don't overclock for shit, but then again they don't have to as they're just simply better now.

 

[TheSlySyl]

My 3900X runs at 4.2 all core and its rated for 3.8ghz, all I did was slap a decent cooler on it and undervolt it. (This isn't a *good* overclock, but it is technically an overclock.)

Most overclocking these days, unless you're getting into RAM timings, is almost purely cooling with a big helping of Silicon Lottery.

 

[somebrains]

I've had issues with the current builds of Warzone and Cold War not liking overclocks.

I also had HyperV crash when I took my 9700kf past 5.2ghz

 

[doyll]

What the TheSlySyl said is what I found as well. Modern CPUs need better cooling than older ones. Older ones didn't throttle until they reached high temps, while newer ones progressively throttle as temps rise running slower the hotter they get.

 

[chameleoneel]

If you want the overclock bang for buck king, its probably the 10700 non k. You can tweak the turbo behavior to make it essentially never stop turboing. And as long as you have a decent cooler, its speeds will be competitive.

Trouble is, prices on it can vary wildly. but if you have a a little bit of patience and look around a bit, you should be able to get it a lot cheaper than a 10700k

 

[kirbyrj]

If you want the overclock bang for buck king, its probably the 10700 non k. You can tweak the turbo behavior to make it essentially never stop turboing. And as long as you have a decent cooler, its speeds will be competitive.

Trouble is, prices on it can vary wildly. but if you have a a little bit of patience and look around a bit, you should be able to get it a lot cheaper than a 10700k

I wouldn't say you'll get the "best" overclock, but you do get a good bang for the buck compared to the 10700k when it's not on sale. I mean it's tough to justify the non-k when the k was going for $300 on BF. When the k was $399 and not in stock and the non-k was $330 and in stock, it was an easier purchase.

I ran mine at ~4.8Ghz all core OC with a BCLK at 102 and I took off the turbo limits. I mean, you can't really go wrong.

 

[chameleoneel]

I wouldn't say you'll get the "best" overclock, but you do get a good bang for the buck compared to the 10700k when it's not on sale. I mean it's tough to justify the non-k when the k was going for $300 on BF. When the k was $399 and not in stock and the non-k was $330 and in stock, it was an easier purchase.

I ran mine at ~4.8Ghz all core OC with a BCLK at 102 and I took off the turbo limits. I mean, you can't really go wrong.

10700k is $320 at bestbuy right now. 10700 is $279. IMO, $40 less for only about 200mhz less all core, is a good deal.

 

[KickAssCop]

If you want overclocking fun just buy Intel. AMD PBO is poop as there is no fun to be had. Only frustration unless you leave everything on auto and let it do it’s thing.

 

[RanceJustice]

As others have said that modern chips are a little different vs the old days. I personally wouldn't make availability a really major issue unless you absolutely NEED new hardware now (ie your last mobo died etc) and instead its better to wait or use some of the "better chance" techniques (ie running your own bot, notifier communities etc... check out DPI's thread in the Deals forum about availability ) in order to get the chip/mobo you really want at something near the MSRP.

When it comes to overclocking, Intel gets more benefit out of the traditional OC methodology (ie max turbo, single core or all core etc..) these days but even with latest Intel (and presumably upcoming Rocket Lake) it isn't like the old days of my very own 5960X Haswell-E where I could take it from a standard 3.5ghz single core turbo to a 4.5ghz all core turbo on AIO liquid 360mm rad cooling! AMD on the other hand thanks to their new PBO setup actually manages things pretty well itself provided it has the cooling (possible voltage tweaking) and decent RAM speed/performance. Now of course if you want to make OCing itself the fun activity and you're willing to use sub-ambient "extreme" cooling, you can do so with either Intel or AMD, but if you are talking about getting the most out of a general use / gaming chip with a good OC, that's something different.

I personally think that in most situations AMD Zen3 is the way to go in terms of performance. To get the most out of it, regardless if you'll let its latest gen PBO auto-regulate (ie It will clock up based upon your use) or you want to do things like undervolt or manually tweak certain things depending if you're more interested in an all core max vs few/single core max, but many veterans seem to report that so long as you A) provide solid cooling - if you want to go high end air something like the best of Noctua is an option, but there are also the AIO liquid at 240, 280, or 360mm rads that are minimal configuration for low noise and good performance. Custom water is of course a benefit as well, but unlike in the old days the chips themselves are often limited at a certain point so it isn't like spending a ton of custom water is going to give you a new massive "tier" of OC performance that is otherwise left on the table. B) Have solid performing RAM. Thanks to the way that AMD Zen 3 chips operate, you'll get the most raw performance when you have RAM up to the task. Unless things have changed, I've read that good CAS latency kits of DDR4 3600mhz are the "sweet spot" for performance and value. Going below may be hampering you a bit, but going above will give you some minimal benefits (sometimes only in benchmarks) to overall performance at much higher cost.

When it comes to motherboards I do think that while others have caught up a bit over the years, there are still some benefits in terms of VRMs, cooling, power and features to the higher end boards. However, the gulf may not be quite as bit as it was back in the day. Many manufacturers haven't created new high end X570 boards for Ryzen 5000 series, owing in part to how the Ryzen 3000 series boards were already a BIG step forward in terms of features and cost (with PCI-E 4.0 among other elements), so the overall viability of mid-grade and up X570 boards have been somewhat uniform with certain features here and there. However, I have been reading about one particular element of note to OCing that harkens back to the days when Asus ROG boards had a different socket design with more/better pins on their Intel HEDT .

There is a reason that THE board to have for a Ryzen 5000 (especially a high end 5900X or 5950X) build is the hard to find Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero - one of the very few new X570 made for the Zen3 era. It has a number of benefits including a good cross-section of features but its 90A rating for VRMs seems to be the highest (with older Asus ROG as well as competing AORUS, MSI etc.. boards seeming to range from 50-70A), but its most notable for its "DOS" feature. This Dynamic Overclock Switcher I read is exclusive to the Dark Hero and lets the board automagically switch not just between normal PBO settings ,but between auto PBO and a manual overclock, or multiple overclock profiles as needed by usage! That is to say, you can swap between a stock PBO which will clock as high as possible (perhaps even to 5.0ghz single threaded!) in single/few core usage, but then you set a flag for a certain amount of amperes or other demand on the CPU and you can move to a manually tweaked maximum all-core OC when necessary, and back again! Some data here - https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...-most-briliant-zen-2-and-3-oc-feature.274473/ - I've been served well by high end Asus ROG mobos for ages and I'm glad to see that not only did they make a revision alongside Zen3 hardware but implemented such a feature. Now, it may or may not be worth it to you to pick up a board like this, but this kind of feature along with the Dark Hero's other benefits and updates make it seemingly "the" board to have for a Ryzen 5000 high end build.

Hope this helps a bit!