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Question about overclocking the i7

T

TitanT30

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Messages
78
Alright I have a question about overclocking the Intel Core i7. If I do overclock my i7 920, up to how much would I be able to overclock it without getting long term damage to it? If I do overclock it, what would be the best area to keep it overclocked on?

Thank you. :)
 
If you want to be safe don't go above 1.35 Vcore, that is the max set by intel.
 
No one is sure.

Keep everything in Intel's spec and you should be fine. The frequency isn't the problem, it's the voltages. I make no guarantees. I have a bad feeling about how this processor runs at 100c. Looking at the Intel processor finder I saw no other desktop processors that were running that hot.

Then again, my laptop CPU runs that hot and it's still kicking, so I don't know.
 
Zero82z said:
I would recommend staying below 1.45V with a Core i7 CPU.
Click to expand...



This is good advice; especially with the stock heatsink & fan, the processor is virtual guaranteed to throttle to slower speeds with this much voltage.


For example, at 3.2ghz and 1.10 vcore, my i7 920 processor will throttle down to ~2.8ghz when running a good cpu stress tester like core damage after about 7 minutes. At 4.0ghz and 1.475 vcore, it will throttle down to 950mhz after just 5 seconds and completely overheat and reboot in under 2 minutes.


However, certain less computationally intensive applications won't throttle at all; so I get the full benefit of running at 4ghz. So I would say it depends on your cooling more than anything; when in doubt, test your processor under worst-case-conditions by running a good CPU stress tester.


By the way, I've never "blown out" a CPU and I've been overclocking since 50mhz. Burnt up a few motherboards yes-- but never a CPU ;)
 
old skool said:
This is good advice; especially with the stock heatsink & fan, the processor is virtual guaranteed to throttle to slower speeds with this much voltage.


For example, at 3.2ghz and 1.10 vcore, my i7 920 processor will throttle down to ~2.8ghz when running a good cpu stress tester like core damage after about 7 minutes. At 4.0ghz and 1.475 vcore, it will throttle down to 950mhz after just 5 seconds and completely overheat and reboot in under 2 minutes.


However, certain less computationally intensive applications won't throttle at all; so I get the full benefit of running at 4ghz. So I would say it depends on your cooling more than anything; when in doubt, test your processor under worst-case-conditions by running a good CPU stress tester.


By the way, I've never "blown out" a CPU and I've been overclocking since 50mhz. Burnt up a few motherboards yes-- but never a CPU ;)
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with the voltage specifically. When the CPU exceeds the Tjmax temperature of 100C, the internal thermal protection mechanisms will kick in and throttle the CPU to its lowest multiplier.
 
Zero82z said:
It has nothing to do with the voltage specifically. When the CPU exceeds the Tjmax temperature of 100C, the internal thermal protection mechanisms will kick in and throttle the CPU to its lowest multiplier.
Click to expand...


Uh right well don't you think the extra heat comes from higher voltage??
 
old skool said:
Uh right well don't you think the extra heat comes from higher voltage??
Click to expand...

My point is that the throttling you encountered is not a direct result of the amount of voltage you used, but a result of the temperature the CPU reached. Obviously the voltage is partially responsible for that. However, there is no direct link between throttling and voltage.
 
And my point was that such high voltages would easily create enough heat, on the stock heatsink anyway, to hit TJ max and throttle the CPU. We all know higher voltage leads to more heat, so why state the obvious?
 
Also, how many i7 920's are not making it to 3.2GHz with aftermarket air cooling? Of course it is not guaranteed, but are there any reports?
 
High voltage is what you need to be worrying about more than temps. The processors are designed to run at higher temps but they aren't designed to run with high volts through them. Voltage kills a processor faster than anything else and it's not directly related to temps. Processors on LN2 and running at 0C will still die the same death due to the high volts. It's only a matter of how long the processor can last at a given voltage. The smaller the die process the more voltage sensitive the silicon becomes. I believe I saw someone state that an Intel doc showed 1.375v as the max voltage to run the i7 processors.
 
xorbe said:
Also, how many i7 920's are not making it to 3.2GHz with aftermarket air cooling? Of course it is not guaranteed, but are there any reports?
Click to expand...

Unless you got a serious dud there she be almost no 920's uncapable of running 3.2Ghz.
 
There is no fixed stock voltage for all i7 chips. The VID varies depending on the specific processor, so you need to use something like Real Temp to read it off your chip.
 
xorbe said:
That's an amazingly hard piece of info to Google up, haven't found the answer yet. Even Newegg only says 0.80V-1.375V in the specs.
Click to expand...

Do any of them run up to 1.375V though with the voltage set to Auto? That seems like a pretty high voltage to be labeled in the Intel specs for the processor. Shouldn't worry about running 1.375V then if Intel has that high of voltage listed as being OK. I honestly hadn't even looked outside of what I had seen users stating for voltages form the Intel docs.
 
xorbe said:
That's an amazingly hard piece of info to Google up, haven't found the answer yet. Even Newegg only says 0.80V-1.375V in the specs.
Click to expand...

Mine for example was at 1.05 before I overclocked, if that helps.
 
ahh so their is plenty of headroom to up the voltage then. thats why i asked the question. because say if the i7 come in 1.275 in stock, that doesnt provide much headroom to up the voltage if need be
 
Yeah mine is right now at 1.312V at my current clockrate, but I have a feeling I can drop that down some. I just don't want to mess with it right now because it's perfectly stable and the temperatures are about in line with what I expected to see from other reviews.
 
Zero82z said:
That is absolute maximum, not maximum safe voltage. The absolute maximum voltage is the voltage at which point the processor is no longer guaranteed to function properly. CPU damage can happen at voltages lower than that point.

I would recommend staying below 1.45V with a Core i7 CPU.
Click to expand...

I agree, maybe I should have said I agreed with a ~1.35-1.45v limit depending on cooling for 24/7 reliability. I am using 1.264 load (1.30 BIOS) for 4ghz no HT (sigh, up from 1.244 which was stable with colder ambients). With HT I'm using 1.360 load (1.40625 BIOS). I wonder if the ~0.1 volt delta between HT on and off holds true for most i7 processors or not.
 
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