Intel Haswell i7-4770K IPC and Overclocking Review @ [H]

I just built my new rig:

Corsair 650D case
Intel i7-4770K 3.5 OC'ed to 4.3
ASUS MAXIMUS VI FORMULA LGA 1150 Intel Z87
2 NVIDIA GTX 680 04g-p4-2686 (SLI) 4 gigs of mem
GSkill F3-2400C10D-16GTX CL 10-12-12-31 1.65V
Corsair H100i cpu water cooler
Corsair 1050 watt PSU
Intel 520 series 120 gb SSD
Kingston Hyper 120gb SSD
WB Velociraptor 70 gb HD 10,000 rpm
Seagate 2tb hybrid ssd/reg Hard drive
Sony DVD read/write 40 speed
Logitech YUY-95 illuminated keyboard
Corsair M-60 mouse
Razor Nostromo mini keyboard
Creative Labs 7.1 T7700 speaker system
Cyber Power 850 AVR voltage regulator and power backup
Three Dell 24" monitors
TYKE 73B - Triple Monitor Stand Free Standing Curved Arm
OS= Win 8.1 Pro 64 bit


I just added the 2nd GPU a few days ago, and it was quite an improvement over
a single card playing BF4 with three screens.

I have spent so many hours reading forums and having people give me advice
and reading guides and I am convinced that I should try doing different cores
at different settings to achieve my goal of getting my CPU to 45.

I can only do 43 and then test it with ANY stress tester and it passes.
as soon as I go to 44, it fails.

I can set it up for 45 and it will run fine, until I do a game or test.

I was thinking about selling my cpu to someone who does not care for
OC'ing, and then buying one that was pre tested for 48, but Ive been told
that it would not be worth the money as to go from 43 stable to 48 stable
may only mean the difference of 3-5 FPS difference playing BF4.

Once I added the new GPU, I am getting 77 FPS average on the three screens
in surround nvidia setup.

I just am going crazy as Ive spent so many hours and hours trying this and that
and there are SO many settings on the Asus VI Formula Bios.

I have read where I cant add a third card to my MB, as that may have been a
way for me to actually SEE a big difference as like when I added a second card.

I have a H100i for my CPU cooler and I do not feel that heat is the problem in my
OC'ing attempts.

45_zps5beb1755.jpg


So if I can boot into my OS and everything is fine at 45 until I play a game or Stress Test
does that mean its just a matter of more tweaking, or do I just have a bad chip ?

Thanks for your help and info.

Mike

*******************************************************************************************************************
Edited later in the day...

I have good news !! I was able to lower just my #2 core to 43 and keep the rest at 45 and I passed the stess test, but the temps were up at 99 and so I stopped the test. I then noticed that my #3 core was running hot
so I lowered that to 44 and while the stress test was hot, I then tried to play BF4, and HERE are my results after playing BF4:


BF4at45cpu_zps6b5cb323.jpg


FPS were great playing BF4 and my temps look great !!!

You have no idea how great I feel to finally be at 4.5 after trying for weeks and weeks !!!!
 
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I upgraded from a i7 920 to a i7 4770k. Kept my GTX 580 3gb video card but upgraded the system RAM from 6 to 16GB and the mobo is new. Holy cow what a profound upgrade this was! The old mobo, RAM, and CPU were severely choking the 580. This upgrade has cut that race horse free and games that were running in the high 20s with dialed back options now run in the 40s and 50s maxed out! I'm talking heavy hitters like Rome 2, Battlefield, even Arma 3 all run maxed out.

I don't build my own, but farm it out to Bear Computer in Belevue WA. These guys build all the computers for Valve. Small shop. Some guy had his computer in for an upgrade and they offered me his old Lian Li case for free. Beautiful black case, nothing wrong with it at all. Also I had them install a liquid cooling system for the CPU. It is a small, simple system and it was only about 40 bucks more than a fan would have been. Super quiet.
 
Hey peeps, i just upgrading my bro's pc last night i5-4670K, asus Z-87 A and a 4 gig stick of Corsair vengeance.

I started reading a thread on Overclock last night, i saw no mention of using Offset voltage they all seem to use Manual voltage, with my sandy bridge it was a little different everyone said Offset voltage didnt matter. Obviously from what i have read these Cpu's require alot more tweaking then SB.

So im guessing using Offsets with this CPU is not a good idea?

Edit- Where on earth do i disable the IGPU on this Bios :S i cant see any mention of it anywhere

Oh yeah i never actually installed the Driver for the onboard GPU, so is that good enough as disabled?
 
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piXel said:
Hey peeps, i just upgrading my bro's pc last night i5-4670K, asus Z-87 A and a 4 gig stick of Corsair vengeance.

I started reading a thread on Overclock last night, i saw no mention of using Offset voltage they all seem to use Manual voltage, with my sandy bridge it was a little different everyone said Offset voltage didnt matter. Obviously from what i have read these Cpu's require alot more tweaking then SB.

So im guessing using Offsets with this CPU is not a good idea?

Edit- Where on earth do i disable the IGPU on this Bios :S i cant see any mention of it anywhere

Oh yeah i never actually installed the Driver for the onboard GPU, so is that good enough as disabled?
Click to expand...

People only use manual because all the other options allow the Internal Voltage Regulator to overvolt the chip way out of spec.

The iGPU needs to be disabled in UEFI iirc, it's in Tweakers Paradise or one of the menus right next to it.
 
Bluesun311 said:
People only use manual because all the other options allow the Internal Voltage Regulator to overvolt the chip way out of spec.

The iGPU needs to be disabled in UEFI iirc, it's in Tweakers Paradise or one of the menus right next to it.
Click to expand...

If Intel is boosting the voltage for AVX instructions on their processor, how is it out of spec? I'd say they do it for a reason. :D
 
GeneO said:
If Intel is boosting the voltage for AVX instructions on their processor, how is it out of spec? I'd say they do it for a reason. :D
Click to expand...

How the heck do you boost the voltage for a single instruction. That sounds absurd.
 
xorbe said:
How the heck do you boost the voltage for a single instruction. That sounds absurd.
Click to expand...

I don't think they do it for a single instruction, I think they do it when they detect a load of these instructions. But they do. A heavy AVX2/FMA3 load probably requires more voltage than Integer unit.
 
I am getting ready to pick up a 4770k at Microcenter and was wondering if I should be looking for anything in particular? I remember that my i7 920 was a better overclocker because of the D0 stepping.

Just checked and it looks like the prices went up $20 too. Now $269. My luck.
 
any real world performance diff upgrading from a 2500k to a 4770k? or am I better of waiting till the next gen?
 
Overclocked to 4.2 and running prime95. Disappointing overclocking results. I've run it for about 10 hours and here's the temperature distribution. What causes such high temperature differences across the cores? I wonder if my cpu cooler isn't well contacted with the cpu.

http://i.imgur.com/o9eEikS.png

[edit] well, my computer just crashed after 12 hours of prime95. Rerunning it again with increased voltage.
 
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I have a 4770K and a corsair H110 with stock fans. Oem thermal paste for the H110 and the CPU. I feel as though my temps are lower than they should be. I'm using real temp as a monitor and here are my results. I have everything I need to delid and I even have Alaska viper 140mm fans ready to mount on my H110 but wondering if it is really needed.

4.1 @ 1.23v. Max load temps from real temp are 65c on the hottest core and around 56c on the lowest core. This is running prime 95 for roughly and hour.

What do you all think? I want to push it more but since I just built my new rig I figured id ease into it. Plus I've been playing to much Titanfall/BF4!

The stuff I have to delid are the Coollabratory liquid pro and artic silver 5. Also the 2 Alska Viper 140mm fans I feel like I have a lot of room to play with if I use 1.3v to OC to around 4.6-4.8 maybe?

Edit: also this is with HT on.
 
Temps are unrelated to OC headroom, technically. Better temps will just make it easier to validate an OC is stable. I've not seen long-term stability gains from going any higher than 1.3v on a 4770k but my experience is limited, of course. This is also the voltage rumored to be the safe ceiling to avoid fast degradation, though I suspect this is conservative. More speculation on my part: 1.35v is probably OK too and delidding probably helps to make these higher voltages less damaging. Either way, benchmarks that simply rely on ridiculous heat output like linpack seem unnecessary to me, and turning HT off seems to help a little when stability testing, but doesn't seem to change the results. It seems to me an OC that is stable with HT off is also stable with it on, just runs a tad bit hotter.
 
For me what I've always done to check an OC is a quick prime 95 and then go play games and see what happens. I don't know of a single programs that taps all my cores and logical cores to the max at one time.
 
Delidded my 4770K. Huge temp drops as expected. My load temp running realbench is 63C with a Corsair H110. I've very very happy with that all in one.

4.5Ghz @ 1.37v
Uncore is @ 2.075
Cache vcore is @ 1.3
 
damstr said:
Delidded my 4770K. Huge temp drops as expected. My load temp running realbench is 63C with a Corsair H110. I've very very happy with that all in one.

4.5Ghz @ 1.37v
Uncore is @ 2.075
Cache vcore is @ 1.3
Click to expand...

I will be the first to say that you got some serious power going through the CPU. 1.37v for 4.5Ghz? wow...?
 
Enilder said:
I will be the first to say that you got some serious power going through the CPU. 1.37v for 4.5Ghz? wow...?
Click to expand...

You know what they say!
If there's grass on the field...

I mean,

If it's stable... :D

I personally wouldn't run that voltage, but it's not obscenely out of spec. I could probably get 4.7 stable if I was willing but I'm not. I've never gone over 1.27v unless you count the one or two times I messed up and left it on adaptive or auto and then tried to run Unigine Valley.

No one ever engages me in a discussion about voltage modes and 4th gens but with this M6H motherboard (I have used 2 of these boards and a handful of 4770k's) the only way to cap the voltage is with manual mode. Just Unigine valley (which really doesn't get CPUs hot at all) on adaptive voltage my chip asks for 1.36V (well you're there already lol, but I didn't need the extra .1V. I guess Valley uses an instruction set that Haswell thinks its going to need an extra 100mV for? Annoying. I run Manual voltage mode all the time and set Windows minimum cpu to 1% so that it will still downclock to 800Mhz when idle. The only difference I can see using adaptive is that the VID changes (and does what it wants, exceeding your max voltage set in UEFI, wtf is VID anyway), other than that the Vcore itself seems to follow the same loads the same way in both modes--they downclock and undervolt the same.

Please someone tell me a motherboard that implements adaptive or offset voltage modes "correctly" when overclocked, or how to do it correctly on my board. Or better yet, just tell me I'm doing it right.
 
So I decided to start back from stock all over again because I wasn't happy running that voltage all the time. I'm pretty sure it was because of my uncore.

This is where I'm at right and am pretty happy.
4.2 @ 1.245v
35 cache ratio
1.8 Eventual output voltage
DDR3 @ 2400Mhz

I was all the way up to 1.3v and 4.4 still wasn't stable. I can't justify that much more voltage for only 200Mhz more. I'm content with what I have now. Temps are around 52C load on the hottest core during BF4 and realbench 2.

This is on a delidded 4770K with a Corsair H110.

Bluesun311 said:
You know what they say!
If there's grass on the field...

I mean,

If it's stable... :D

I personally wouldn't run that voltage, but it's not obscenely out of spec. I could probably get 4.7 stable if I was willing but I'm not. I've never gone over 1.27v unless you count the one or two times I messed up and left it on adaptive or auto and then tried to run Unigine Valley.

No one ever engages me in a discussion about voltage modes and 4th gens but with this M6H motherboard (I have used 2 of these boards and a handful of 4770k's) the only way to cap the voltage is with manual mode. Just Unigine valley (which really doesn't get CPUs hot at all) on adaptive voltage my chip asks for 1.36V (well you're there already lol, but I didn't need the extra .1V. I guess Valley uses an instruction set that Haswell thinks its going to need an extra 100mV for? Annoying. I run Manual voltage mode all the time and set Windows minimum cpu to 1% so that it will still downclock to 800Mhz when idle. The only difference I can see using adaptive is that the VID changes (and does what it wants, exceeding your max voltage set in UEFI, wtf is VID anyway), other than that the Vcore itself seems to follow the same loads the same way in both modes--they downclock and undervolt the same.

Please someone tell me a motherboard that implements adaptive or offset voltage modes "correctly" when overclocked, or how to do it correctly on my board. Or better yet, just tell me I'm doing it right.
Click to expand...
Even when mine is set on manual it still adds another .1v when under 100% load. Otherwise it sticks at what I set in the bios.
 
damstr said:
So I decided to start back from stock all over again because I wasn't happy running that voltage all the time. I'm pretty sure it was because of my uncore.

This is where I'm at right and am pretty happy.
4.2 @ 1.245v
35 cache ratio
1.8 Eventual output voltage
DDR3 @ 2400Mhz

I was all the way up to 1.3v and 4.4 still wasn't stable. I can't justify that much more voltage for only 200Mhz more. I'm content with what I have now. Temps are around 52C load on the hottest core during BF4 and realbench 2.

This is on a delidded 4770K with a Corsair H110.


Even when mine is set on manual it still adds another .1v when under 100% load. Otherwise it sticks at what I set in the bios.
Click to expand...

I actually feel a bit better about my processor now, I thought mine was the bottom of the barrel, needing 1.18 volts to even reach 4.1GHz.
 
You guys think your processors are bottom barrel?

Mine took 1.36V to get to 4.2 GHz stable.

$500 custom loop. Wasted. Terrible.
 
Mine does 1.256 CPU-Z for 4.2.

It's gaming stable but haven't tested for much higher. I did p95 for a while but seeing 90C on my NH-U12S made me reach for the abort button real fast.

On the plus side, it did increase the SC2 framerate from stock to the point where I can 'feel' an increase...

I guess I'm considered better off (although not by much) =/
 
My phanteks cooler came in today, so I could fiddle a bit more now that I have real cooling. I settled on 4.3GHZ, cache at 40x, multiplier at 43x on all cores with 1.259v at the core. At 1.35v it still wasnt stable at 4.4.
 
eth3ton said:
I am getting ready to pick up a 4770k at Microcenter and was wondering if I should be looking for anything in particular? I remember that my i7 920 was a better overclocker because of the D0 stepping.

Just checked and it looks like the prices went up $20 too. Now $269. My luck.
Click to expand...

$269 looks like $40.00 less expensive than on line sellers and ebay. Thinking I'm doing a Cambridge safari tonite.

4670K is $189.00 best online was $219.00.
and forget about ebay.

In for a penny, in for a pound. Just have to decide between them. Pretty sure 4670K is more overhead room than I'll need.
 
Still can't decide between a socket 2011-based setup (3930k probably) with 4 x 4Gb quad-channel ram, or a 4770k and 2 x 8Gb dual channel (both sets are 2133Mhz).

I don't game at all, but like to have a nice smooth system. Either way, I'd like to be sitting on 4.5ish Ghz.

Value any thoughts/guidance.
 
4.2GHz at 1.225V. Ran Prim95 for 24 hours without a problem. Not planning on clocking this any higher.
 
eth3ton said:
I am getting ready to pick up a 4770k at Microcenter and was wondering if I should be looking for anything in particular? I remember that my i7 920 was a better overclocker because of the D0 stepping.

Just checked and it looks like the prices went up $20 too. Now $269. My luck.
Click to expand...

$269 is cheap considering I got a used one for a/b $290 w/ shipping on ebay.
 
Decided to experiment more with overclocking yesterday since I added another 780 I wanted to reduce any bottleneck as much as possible.

Right now I'm at 4.4Ghz @ 1.4v. Temps during Aida 64 never go past 70c. Temps during BF4 conquest 64 player maxed at 60C. This is a delid 4770K on an H110 mind you. Temps are still well within safe I'm just wondering how far I can go with voltage.

I will go for 4.5Ghz tonight and see where that gets me.
 
I've seen higher. 4.5Ghz seemed to be stable I'll do some more testing tonight. I saw max temp of 71C while running Aida 64.
 
I mean we were all worrying about 1.3Vcore causing degradation in another thread. Of course someone else made a solid argument that there wasn't any utterly concrete founding for that... but yeah.. well take it as you will.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1793932

This is that original topic. Again take the contents as you will, there's really concrete evidence presented for anything in there. Shrug.
 
Honestly if this chip dies I don't care so whatever. Guess we will see what the lifespan on this thing will be. I'll stay at 1.4vcore and see how far I can take it.
 
Is there anyway to set a max voltage limit when using adaptive voltage? I would like my voltage to drop like the clock freq does when not needed and ramp up when under load.

When setting adaptive I saw it go as high as 1.54v.
 
damstr said:
Is there anyway to set a max voltage limit when using adaptive voltage? I would like my voltage to drop like the clock freq does when not needed and ramp up when under load.

When setting adaptive I saw it go as high as 1.54v.
Click to expand...

You actually quoted me answering this question on the previous page...

Bluesun311 said:
...with this M6H motherboard (I have used 2 of these boards and a handful of 4770k's) the only way to cap the voltage is with manual mode. I run Manual voltage mode all the time and set Windows Power Options to High Performance and change the minimum cpu to 1% so that it will still downclock/undervolt when idle. The only difference I can see using adaptive is that the VID changes (and does what it wants, exceeding your max voltage set in UEFI, wtf is VID anyway), other than that the Vcore itself seems to follow the same loads the same way in both modes--they downclock and undervolt the same.
Click to expand...

If that isn't working for you then something doesn't match between our UEFI settings.
 
Well I give up on this proc. Even @ 1.4v 4.5Ghz wasn't completely stable. BF4 would crash after like an hour +. Back to 4.2Ghz @ 1.24v. F this chip!
 
Yeah 1.4 should be getting you 4.5 if it's a halfway decent chip :/ This is the Haswell lottery we play. I bought 4 to bin awhile back and never got around to it. Thinking it would be best to sell 3 and just do whatever with the last one. Anything is an upgrade over a Q9550.
 
I was able to hit 4.3GHz at 1.155V (1.176 in CPU-Z) but only had time to run P95 (v25.11) for about an hour. BSODed at 4.4GHz. My cooler is optimized for low noise rather than heat dissipation though, so temps were getting pretty high at around 82-83. If I had a better heatsink (fans are fine) I'd be willing to push the Vcore and try again.

edit:
wow, reading this thread makes me think I actually got a pretty decent chip. Before I bought the chip, I had read that a "decent" chip should be able to do 4.6GHz at 1.2V. Looks like that was far too optimistic.
 
I'm about ready to throw the towel in with my 4770k.

I can't get stable at 4.4GHz with the following settings

VCore - 1.30V
VCache - 1.25V
SA - 1.2V
DIO - 1.2V
AIO - 1.2V
SVID - Disabled

Speed-step disabled
LLC of about 50%
Phase control set to extreme
Current capability of 120%

I think 4.3GHz is going to be the limit of my chip and I believe it will sustain that at about 1.2875V (give or take). Failing that, 4.2GHz it is :(

Lost the lottery this time I guess.
 
Syphon Filter said:
I'm about ready to throw the towel in with my 4770k.

I can't get stable at 4.4GHz with the following settings

VCore - 1.30V
VCache - 1.25V
SA - 1.2V
DIO - 1.2V
AIO - 1.2V
SVID - Disabled

Speed-step disabled
LLC of about 50%
Phase control set to extreme
Current capability of 120%

I think 4.3GHz is going to be the limit of my chip and I believe it will sustain that at about 1.2875V (give or take). Failing that, 4.2GHz it is :(

Lost the lottery this time I guess.
Click to expand...

What are you using as your stress test? The OCN overclocking thread doesn't suggest using Linpack or P95 28.1-28.3 as the tool of choice. I think most of them are doing overnight loops of x264. I tried one on my system and it's been working fine (but it won't pass P95 28.3) so I'd try that out before throwing in the towel.
 
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