8700K/8600K OC strategies applied

How are you overclocking your CPU ?

Manual Voltage ?

Adaptive Voltage ?

SVID On or Off ?

LLC Level ( cannot be compared across vendors, only Asus to Asus, Asrock to Asrock etc.. ).

After beating my poor CPU up to 5.2G with Adaptive Voltage and LLC2 or LLC4, including dozens and dozens of XMP test runs ( all not lucky yet ) I have totally changed my approach.

I went to MANUAL voltage, LLC-6 and SVID Off (!). As a result, I can run that same CPU now with 1.30V dialed in, which results in an idle voltage of 1.296 and drops to 1.28x under full load ( thanks to LLC6 ).

Since Asus, Asrock, MSI, Gigabyte..they all approach LLC from different angles and you just CANNOT compare LLC-6 from Asus to LLC-6 on Asrock. One runs coolm the other would prolly melt.

Understanding LLC for my/your board is still a bit of a secret to me but a YT vid from der 8auer has shed some more light on it. he also pointed out the different approaches form vendors.

Yeah..I have not mastered my 3600XMP yet...but this find is even better.

I have not yet tried a value below 1.30v, it may go even lower and prime. Temps are no problem and a short peak into 5.3G was rather prosperous.

What I still struggle with is VCC-IO and VCC-SA. Those 2 values are ultra critical when I go XMP with 4 modules. 2 Modules work out of the box just 4 wont be stable. I guess it needs another Bios or two to get them running above 3200.

I will try to tighten latency with 3200 to 15 or 14 and 1T and see if that works and compensates a little.

A low latency 3200 is just as good for gaming as a 4133 with moderate latency, I dare to say it's superior. latency comes before bandwidth in gaming imho.

Anyway...just a little chatting about CPU torture and curses about Asus ..haha

What frame rate improvement did you achieve?

with a default 8700k i cannot max out the 1080ti with my settings, mostly top out at 88%.

A MCE of 4.7 gets almost always 99%, 5G and beyond are an insurance the gpu stays 99% loaded.

With a card 20-30% faster we need Vulkan or a 6GHz cpu...lol

----

my actual goal is the mildest 5g daily and 5.2g dcs.

already down to 1.250v manual vcore llc6...like 30-50watts less already, depending on app tested.

prime95 v26.6 at 1.243v full load is much better than my previous 1.397v..much much better.

That’s a lot of numbers. For us plebs, what frame rate improvement did you get?

around 10%, direct proportional to the GPU load.

depending on resolution and LOD that can be 5fps or 10fps or 15fps.

That's why i did not mention fps, it is too setup specific.

+10% +/- is it for me.

I mean, it also matters what clock your GPU runs at. This is with a solid 2GHz Asus default, if I OC it it is even more, like 2050 to 2101 MHz, that is another 2-5%, for which again one needs the CPU cycles to use them. I guess a default 8700k that clocks to 4.3G when more cores are used and stressed coupled with a highly overclocked 1080ti or even 1180 is kinda wasted GPU cycles, unless you crank up the resolution or LOD to somehow make use of the GPU power.

btw...down to 1.240v stable...wonder where this ends.

each 0.010v down is at least 1h prime95 + 1h Aida64 to verify...takes ages.

..and again, quickly tried 3600 again with the CPU that low in Volts but still the same. i get them booting but they bsod or fail early in any stresstest...haha.

I should stop overclocking and fly some more !

Sounds like a lot of effort for 5fps, particularly when that new operational status of your kit is probably a good deal more marginal.

I dont consider this work, it is fun & art & relaxing in one for me.

in fact, with 1.230v manual and LLC6 my actual wattage and volts applied are LOWER than what Asus applies by default just when you hit the XMP button.

10 fps can be a lot, it can be the Gsync ON or OFF if I drop below 50 fps. I dont care too much for the highest fps, I care a lot for the lowest fps..and that it is fairly high.

Right now, with WQHD and a 1080ti the rig needs all it's got to eat through it without hiccups at maxed out settings. 2.5 looks so good I am not turning LOD down 1 notch, I rather wait for Vulkan. A Faster GPU w/o Vulkan will be hard to feed, since the new nVidia will be released sooner than DCS 2.5-Vulkan we will find out what it takes.

Tweaking at the limit is not very paying in terms of performance gain, it's a passion, a hobby. And with this knowledge you can get the max value of any of your rig. Notably with manual settings. Many peoples use those auto setting software who set more voltage than what he need. The CPU heat up and discourage you of the work required.

5.2G @ 1.330v_idle and 1.313v_loaded...temps are in the mid 60°C's when priming.

This is less wattage than my previous 5G oc needed, astonishing results so far.

The RAM is tricky, I have nailed down the 3 dials, I can boot them and prime them but I keep getting a IME error and booting is a pain. So, I am still stuck at 3200MHz..but hey..I lowered the CL to 15-15-15-35-1T and it keeps stable. That is roughly 10% less latency accordig to Aida64 bench.

This specific CPU is a good pick indeed, so i may only change the board and keep the CPU.

Not sure yet but not getting XMP speeds is somewhat irritating :music_whistling:

tonight I will fly DCS.. not OC!!! I promise ! LoL

I have an 8700k and ASRock Z370 Extreme4. My daily setting is 4.7GHz all cores at 1.29v and LLC2. This allows for vdroop down to 1.232v in AIDA64. I also have a 4.9GHz all core setting at 1.33v and LLC1. This gives a min and max voltage of 1.33v. My chip will do 5.0GHz but requires 1.36v to do so. This pushes temp spikes to 90C even with an AIO with a liquid temp of under 30C. My chip is stock, no delidding done.

Stock voltage on my board without any overclocks applied is 1.33-1.35v. This typically yields temps in the 80's. That does mean my 4.7GHz normal setting is not only faster than stock, but uses less power and runs cooler.

That does mean my 4.7GHz normal setting is not only faster than stock, but uses less power and runs cooler.

isn't that amazing ?

I can prime at 5G and almost stay within TDP for most of the part.

But to be honest, the first 5 month I spend with this board I had 0.1x Volts more on that poor die.

The key was to disable VSID and go manual, screw their presets.

I used fixed voltage from day one for vcore when overclocking. Never tried offset since I didn't trust it not to instantly blow the chip.