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5960x Max Safe Voltage

Dayaks

Dayaks

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Feb 22, 2012
Messages
10,283
I was curious what everyone's take is on max voltage for the 5960x. Currently sitting at 1.3V, which most review sites seemed to use, at 4.5 Ghz and 60C max temps. I've seen on a ROG site they suggested 1.35-1.4V is ok on water. Some random posts up to 1.45V. And Dan_D's "beat the piss out of" Intel's CPUs and never had one fail, seemed to suggest the built in fail safes do a good job.

I'd like it to last a few years, perhaps 3-4, but will have it on a chilled water loop (so 60C should become 40C). I feel like 1.35V is ok, 1.4V probably pushing it. I've been having a tough time finding concrete data on this. [H] your thoughts?
 
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For the record, from the friendly neighborhood Asus rep (I'm impressed):

Raja@ASUS said:
I don't use more than 1.30V on the 5960X. Have seen two degrade when pushed with stress tests even around that voltage.

You will never find "concrete data" on these things - there is variance and most results come in from non-controlled test environments. Logic tells us not to exceed more than 2X the current the die was rated at. Usually don't see fast degradation on lots of processors if sticking below that threshold.
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I run 1.26v on mine (see sig). I don't really care too much about temps, I'm a "noise freak" so all my fans are hard set at 500RPM. I think there is some failsafe with Asus Fan X-Pert that the CPU ones will ramp up if the temp gets too high, but this has not yet happened. Idle temps are kind of high (again, fans are running low) at around 35-40 and load temps (Im a gamer) I think are around 60-65. Im not at home right now so i cant verify it, just going by memory.

But I'm running 1.26v at 4.0-4.2ghz
 
Rule of tumb for me has always been 10% over stock voltage. Try to stick with that and never had a cpu fail on me. I have gone a little higher when I was running a chilled loop. But 10% over stock is a good rule if your worried about it dying.
 
Anything above 1.35v and my system locks up. I keep it at 1.3v and 4.3/4 GHZ overclock. I can push it up to 4.5GHz and 1.35v but I get artifacts on the screen and such and then a nasty hardlock or BSOD.
 
The Cobra said:
Anything above 1.35v and my system locks up. I keep it at 1.3v and 4.3/4 GHZ overclock. I can push it up to 4.5GHz and 1.35v but I get artifacts on the screen and such and then a nasty hardlock or BSOD.
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That's interesting. Does 1.35V at 4.4 cause issues?
 
I know this is [H] and whatnot but....

Im really happy with 4.0 at 1.26v. It will usually boot and run at 4.2 w/ 1.26v (running AIO Corsair H110i GT with very low RPM rans) but sometimes will BSOD/crash under heavy gaming. So I normally dial the multi back to 40 x and keep it at 4.0 which brings me to my question....

Do we really need 4.4-4.6 out of this thing? What do you guys "do" that you'd actually see / feel a benefit from 4.4/4.6 vs an even 4.0? I haven't video encoded with it since I had a single 980 and it was damn quick at that. Now I have 2 x Titan X's and it literally plows thru any game I can throw at it, albeit @ 3440 x 1440 / 60hz. But Im willing to bet "normal" 1440p at 144hz or 4k @ 60hz would also present zero challenge to this thing.

Maybe just dial it back to 1.26-1.3v at 4.0 and leave it alone?
 
I'm at 1.3V core right now. Yeah that's what I've been asking myself... I'd rather spend $$ on something besides replacing a $1k processor. The base voltage is 1V too, so that's pretty substantial increase already. When I get my cooling system going full bore the lower temps alone might let me OC higher at the same voltage.

You're completely sane and logical skypine27 :) Games barely touch this thing and I shouldn't care if encoding a video takes an hour or an hour and six minutes.

I think I'll listen to all the wise folks here and keep it around 1.30V or lower. The ROG overclocking guide http://rog.asus.com/365052014/overclocking/rog-overclocking-guide-core-for-5960x-5930k-5820k/ lists 1.35V for triple radiator setups (lower temperature extends life... but it's hard to judge how much it balances out with voltage since this is like a black art). I justified this processor by having it for years, so I'd like to not f' that up.

Thanks for all the advice guys!
 
CPU life is a strange thing.

By far, the longest lasting socket I had was the 1366. I had a 970, 980, then 990 in that thing. I think it was like 5-6 years. And Im STILL not sure games were even hurting that 6 x core 990x. I had all those things OC'ed modestly, on strictly air (they didnt AIO water for most of that era). But finally it was time for a new build, hence the 8 core 5960x.

The only CPU I ever toasted (about 1999) was a Pentium 'something' that I put a Peltier on and OC'ed+O'V'ed to god knows what, running sub-zero temps, complete with condensation, while using Napster 24 x7... One day, I woke up, and instead of downloading music, everything was black, and it never turned on again.

I don't want a repeat of that, so now I don't push things too far. Thats my advice. 4.0-4.2 on the 5960x will even play Star Citizen. So fuck it. What the [h]ell are you trying to play now anyway??
 
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The only CPU I have toasted is an Core 2 Duo E6600. Was pushing it pretty hard on my WC loop and started to notice massive image corruption in Photoshop even when back at stock. I still have the Q6600 that replaced it.
 
skypine27 said:
The only CPU I ever toasted (about 1999) was a Pentium 'something' that I put a Peltier on and OC'ed+O'V'ed to god knows what, running sub-zero temps, complete with condensation, while using Napster 24 x7... One day, I woke up, and instead of downloading music, everything was black, and it never turned on again.
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That's pretty awesome. :cool: Actually sounds like fun to me.
 
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I do 1.32V @ 4.44 Ghz. Seems to work like a charm and the H105 with the Noctua fans, keep the temps low.
 
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