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i7 860 overclocking woes

P

Pwoz

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 2, 2005
Messages
74
Having a hell of a time with this processor.

Hardware in question:

Gigabyte P55A-UD3
i7-860
4x2GB Corsair XMS 1600


I can do 3.8ghz (190x20) at 1.35 vcore 1.29 vtt no problem, as long as hyperthreading is off.

If I put HT on I've tried up to 1.45 vcore without success and only get stability around 3.4ghz (180*19).

Is it normal for HT to kill the OC this much? Load temps with HT off top out ~64C. With HT on I am topping out at 68C.

Am I safe to keep adding voltage? It seems like it is dropping a lot under load. From what I read I do not want LLC on if I value the lifespan of my chip.


Edit: Been running 3.4 with HT on at 1.35 volts without a problem for a while now. Any increase in speed and I get prime 95 errors almost right away. I'm leaning toward it being a motherboard issue at this point rather than a chip issue.
 
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You should keep the vcore under 1.4v for daily use.AFAIK 1.45v is just too high for 3.4GHz and daily use.
Is it normal for HT to kill the OC this much? Load temps with HT off top out ~64C. With HT on I am topping out at 68C.
Click to expand...
I don't think so.
Am I safe to keep adding voltage? It seems like it is dropping a lot under load. From what I read I do not want LLC on if I value the lifespan of my chip.
Click to expand...
Without LLC enable,you'd probably reduce the lifespan of your chip by pumping lots of voltage into it.

Have you tried OCing with only 2 RAM modules?
 
My understanding is LLC enabled is not Intel spec and in fact increases the voltage to the chip. Am I backward on this?

I haven't tried with just 2 ram modules. Has this caused problems with this setup historically?
 
IIRC then Vdroop keep the chip from voltage shock,but when you OC,it'll hold you back.It doesn't increase the voltage to the chip,it just reduce the amount of dropping in Windows and under load (compare to the value you set in BIOS).So enable it would be better.
I haven't tried with just 2 ram modules. Has this caused problems with this setup historically?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure.Just trying to find the wrong setup here.

Have you manually set PCIe Frequency at 101MHz?
 
PCIe is locked at 101, yes.

2 sticks of ram doesn't seem to change anything. Still falls apart past 3.4 with HT on. I may just have a crappy OCing chip.
 
Been running prime 95 for ~2 hours now. 3.4ghz 180x19 HT on.

vcore is down to 1.3, vtt 1.25. These may go lower still. Seems like I hit a wall past this speed with HT on. Even with massive voltage increases I get rounding errors almost instantly in p95.
 
Maybe you got a bad chip.

Why don't you try 21 multiplier?Some guys claimed that the OCing can be affected by the multiplier.

And what's your BLCK:RAM ratio?
 
I've tried various multipliers with no success.

Ratio is 8 right now, but I put it as low as I could when OCing the CPU to remove the ram as the issue. The ram is also DDR 1600, so I'm still running it below its rated speed anyway.

Just chalk it up to a bad chip. Makes me want to upgrade even though I still don't need it regardless of the poor OC.
 
Most i7 860s are like that. IIRC I used around 1.3v under load to get 3.6ghz without HT. After that it started to really want juice.

Pwoz said:
My understanding is LLC enabled is not Intel spec and in fact increases the voltage to the chip. Am I backward on this?

I haven't tried with just 2 ram modules. Has this caused problems with this setup historically?
Click to expand...

I don't use loadline, it just makes the chip run hotter and usually ends up requiring more core voltage under load for stability. Thats just from my experience.

I kept my chip at just under 1.4v in bios on the same motherboard without HT for 3.6ghz.
 
Most i7 860s are like that. IIRC I used around 1.3v under load to get 3.6ghz without HT. After that it started to really want juice.
Click to expand...
My 860 requires only 1.232v for 3.6GHz (165x22).After the 3.8GHz mark,it requires 1.35v and more to keep it stable.All with HT enabled.
 
Makes me wanna overclock my 870 now. Wonder how much more PPD I can squeeze out of it; I just don't wanna shut it down while I overclock.
 
Silent Knight said:
My 860 requires only 1.232v for 3.6GHz (165x22).After the 3.8GHz mark,it requires 1.35v and more to keep it stable.All with HT enabled.
Click to expand...

There are always exceptions, most chips don't clock like yours. People whos chips do are more likely to brag and not everyone does stress tests.
 
Well, as a benefit to my sad overclock, I can run the heatsink passively and it's still only hitting 75C :rolleyes:
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
There are always exceptions, most chips don't clock like yours. People whos chips do are more likely to brag and not everyone does stress tests.
Click to expand...
I'm not bragging at all.I'm just giving out info for reference and my chip was stable through 5 rounds of LinX 2048MB and a few hours of gaming.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
Thats what I mean, thats not what I call stress testing.
Click to expand...
The stress testing methods and definition are much different from each person,to the point of a personal preference.

Sure,my result may not be considered stable for you.But it passed my tests and hasn't given me any BSOD in the last 2 months (since i bought it) then i'd call it stable,for me and my application.
 
Unstable overclocks can do things other than cause BSODs. They can cause data corruption, I've seen it cause artifacting in games, it can make weird things happen. I would rather throughly test my overclocks for a day or two and be 100% sure that when I do run into weird issues that its a software issue and not related to my hardware.
 
As i said,stability is the matter of personal preference.I'd rather give my CPU no more than 15-20 rounds in LinX to make sure that it can handle the overclocking.If it passes then it'd unlikely to cause instability for my daily use.
 
With 2GB or ram? I disagree, but I've run into mildly unstable overclocks causing me headaches in the past so I like to get that out of the way.
 
Yes,my daily use consists mostly normal gaming and web surfing/office applications so a quick test with 2GB of RAM is enough for me.

And well,when things go south,i always know where to start anyway.
 
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