Help with i7-4770K overclock

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Wolfdale75

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
133
Hi Guys,

1) I was overclocking my CPU quite happily on air under Win 7 at 4.5 GHz stable. But since I last weekend went over to Win 10, I no longer seem to have that stable overclock.

Instead, looking at CPU-Z (latest version), my CPU speed and multipiler seem to be jumping around quite a bit. This is despite me having set the multiplier to 45 in the BIOS. CPU voltage is set to 1.25 and RAM voltage at 1.5.
Quite often the CPU speed goes down to 800 GHz, and the max it gets to is 3.5 GHz. Only if I apply a full load using CPU-Z does the CPU go to the desired 4.5 GHz.

But I want the CPU to be running at 4.5 GHz all the time. What am I doing wrong?

2) I'd also like to check with you my RAM is running at the right speed for standard-speed DDR-3 1866 MHz?

I'm attaching screenies of both phenomena with this post.

Sorry if these are dumb questions...

Thanks and cheers! Ed

CPU-Z 1.jpg


CPU-Z 2.jpg
 
Is Intel SpeedStep disabled? Power Plan set to High Performance? If you go into Chance Advanced Power Settings for your High Performance plan and expand Power Management, do you have the minimum processor state and maximum processor state set to 100%?
 
1) as AlphaQup said Above set the windows power plan to performance mode, it should lock the speed at max turbo frequency. by default windows power plan is set to balance which behave as you explain, set frequency according load.

2) to check if your ram is running at rated 1866mhz go in CPU Z to the memory Tab (left side of SPD) in DRAM Frequency it should say 933mhz.

is worth to remember that overclock stability is not related to what you are described, what you have is the machine down-clocking to save power depending on load. an unstable overclock will cause things as lockups, freezing, crash, sudden shut-downs... you are all fine.
 
Many thanks, guys.

I set the BIOS power plan to Performance and disabled SpeedStep.

Now my system seems to be running at a solid 4.3 GHz.

But something strange has happened. The multiplier has shrunk from 45 to 43, so I can no longer overclock at 4.5 GHz, as I was doing before. The BIOS won't let me enter 45 as a multiplier. I have no idea why.
 
Update: My DRAM frequency is only 667.7 MHz, not 933 MHz as you mentioned it should be - should I be worried?
 
No problem! Sounds like your ram is no longer OC'd, reverted back to the stock speed. Are the memory options locked down like the multiplier is?

Any other BIOS changes you notice? Auto/smart voltage versus you being able to manually set it? Definitely odd it choose to slightly decrease the multiplier...

What motherboard by the way?
 
Thanks, Alpha.

I've never tried to OC my RAM, just the CPU. I just want to check my RAM is running at its rated stock speed. But a frequency of 667.7 MHz, not 933 MHz, doesn't sound right?

I'll look in my BIOS to see if I can see any obvious other changes.

Mobo is ASUS Z87-A. Thanks!
 
Abolutely, you're welcome. Looks to me like your ram isn't running at the 1866 speed advertised in your sig, the above CPU-Z screenshot says it's running at 1333 speeds. That should be simple to restore from the BIOS, just leave every other option on Auto and type in the 1866 for the speed.

As for the multiplier, maybe step through the first part of this guide and see if you can get the multiplier unlocked, still thinking something is set to auto and locking it down at 43, specifically the AI Overclock Tuner (or something similar on yours, w/e they've decided to call it.)

https://rog.asus.com/articles/maximus-motherboards/maximus-vi-series-uefi-guide-for-overclocking/
 
Thanks again. I've tried specifying 1866 MHz in the BIOS, but I don't know enough about CPU-Z to know if it's now running at the correct speed. Could you let me know, please? The BIOS reports 1866 in one place and 1333 in another. It's confusing.

Mem 1.JPG


Mem 2.JPG
 
DRAM Freq is the value to look at, should be half of what you set your RAM speed in BIOS to (when referring to DDR). Looks good there.
 
I had same issue going from win7 to win10. Fixed by adding more volts to core.
 
Thanks once again, Alpha, that's very useful to know. You rock! :)

That's interesting, Pasic, I will have to look into that.

I don't think I'm going to mess much more with OC'ing the system now as I've apparently got something reasonably fast and stable. But we'll see - I might just be tempted to try :)
 
Np Wolf, thanks. Couple hundred MHz won't make or break anything, maybe 1-2 fps if any at all lol. Glad to hear you got it straightened out.
 
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