3770k stability problems @ 4.5ghz

[Hybrid_theory]

For about a year I was running 4.5ghz just fine from the asus software overclocking the machine on its own. But since my ssd died, I lost that and havent been able to obtain that through the software. Which is probably better in the end, as Ive read you typically want to leave the BCKL alone, and it was set to 105.8 i believe.

Anyway I've been trying to get it stable with:
BCKL 100
multi: 45

forced memory to (which it supports):
mhz: 1600
timings: 9-9-9-24
1.5v

Ive gotten my vcore upto 1.275 at this point. This is plenty for 4.5ghz for what I've seen on other forums and such.

I ran prime95 for 8 hours last night, no problems. My second test is to encode a couple larger video files. Started that up and after a couple minutes, ffmpeg crashed. But if I set the cpu back to stock, they encode just fine.

I ran memtest on my memory for a couple passes on stock settings, no errors.

A few other settings I've tweaked in the BIOS from defaults are:
CPU Current Capability: 120%. Initially when setting the voltage manually, or the multiplier, the BIOS puts this at 140% marked in red. I would think that to be a bit high. But for the record, last week this wasnt stable either.

EPU: off

Everything else is auto/stock settings.

Should I just keep bumping the vcore, see what happens? Or is there something else im missing?

 

[Shou Miko]

have u flashed the board with the newest bios?

and have u enabled "CPU Load-line Calibration" in bios to prevent vdroop on the cpu?

 

[Hybrid_theory]

have u flashed the board with the newest bios?

and have u enabled "CPU Load-line Calibration" in bios to prevent vdroop on the cpu?

Yeah I updated to the latest BIOS the other day. I tried setting the LLC from auto to high (50%), and got a BSOD after starting prime95. so i set that back to auto.

should i start it on low or medium?

 

[Shou Miko]

i haven't touched LLC myself on my Maximus IV Gene-Z/Gen3 board, but u should be able to get ur i7-3770k stabil at 4,5ghz but how is ur temps?

 

[Hybrid_theory]

i haven't touched LLC myself on my Maximus IV Gene-Z/Gen3 board, but u should be able to get ur i7-3770k stabil at 4,5ghz but how is ur temps?

max hit over the 8 hours was 78C.

edit: the mobo hit about 61C. Asus displayed a warning for it.

 

[Shou Miko]

do u have a high room temp or is the airflow in ur case not that good?

bcs i say 61c for ur mobo is high, have u tried checking all the sensor with Aida64?

 

[Hybrid_theory]

do u have a high room temp or is the airflow in ur case not that good?

bcs i say 61c for ur mobo is high, have u tried checking all the sensor with Aida64?

just installed the aida trial, and set the LLC to high (50%).
started up prime and the cpu temps in aida jump to 61C, but he mobo stays at 30. Ill run prime for a bit see if it can be stable with the LLC set. But i suspect not. after the reboot, an ati program had a crash.

I think the asus monitoring could be broken. Before rebooting to change the LLC, it had a warning for voltage at 1.51, CPUZ was open and showed 1.27, the computer was basically idle. so not sure i can trust those sensors.

edit: the room is reasonably chill. im cheap on the heat. set to 19.5C right now

 

[Hybrid_theory]

and the sensor just reported motherboard at 127C, while aida shows it at 30.

Before it wasnt 61, it was -61. I thought it just used the - as a hyphen, not a minus. till i saw the 127.

 

[Hood]

Here's a copy of the reply I made to a similar question on another forum, regarding an Asus Sabertooth Z77 & i7-3770K;
Before proceeding further, I would reset everything by using the clear CMOS jumper, some people even re-flash the BIOS to start a new OC session, however, it's not necessary, unless you have version 1805, then I would definitely flash to version 1908 (BIOS version 1805 caused problems with overclocking for some users, including me). After setting your clock speed, RAM speed & timings, voltages, peripherals, etc., go into BIOS advanced interface, AI Tweaker tab, Digi+ Power Control, and set CPU Load Line Calibration to ultra high, CPU Power Phase Control to extreme, CPU Power Duty Control to extreme, CPU Current Capability to 130%, CPU Power Thermal Control to high or extreme, CPU Power Response Control to ultra high. Start at 4.2 and get it stable, then go up a step to 4.3, bumping up the vcore as you go to remain stable. You should be able to get 4.5 stable at around 1.230 - 1.250 vcore, but try slightly lower volts to reduce temps while testing for stability at each change. Temps when running IBT or Prime95 will be high, 70-85c, but normal programs and games will stay under 60c, even under maximum CPU load. I just went through the same process with my Asus P8Z77-V & 3570K, it wouldn't clock over 4.3 stable, until I tweaked the Digi+ settings. I'm using the H100, so your temps should be similar if not better. Ignore the occasional temp/voltage warnings from AI Suite, they are false readings, perhaps caused by using other sensor monitoring programs (RealTemp, HWiNFO64, SpeedFan, etc.). I uninstalled all the Asus AI Suite programs, too buggy to be relied upon, 3rd party applications work better (HWiNFO64 works great for me monitoring temps and volts). Don't get discouraged, OCing takes a lot of time and patience to get it right, but the satisfaction of blowing away much more expensive hardware cannot be denied. I'm now at 4.5 GHz, 1.25 vcore, max temp running IBT is 85c.
After playing with +offset, I got it stable at .025 positive offset, with max temps ~80c running IBT.

 

[Hybrid_theory]

so a couple problems after resetting the bios via jumper.

the main problem is that its only detecting 8/16gb of memory. i tried resetting the bios again, as well as reseating the memory. but still 8gb only

The second is that i cant get the multiplier settings to show in the bios now. usually shows after settings manual for the overclock settings.

 

[Hybrid_theory]

So it seems the hardware is fine. In the BIOS, if i goto Tools > SDP info. I can see a stick of RAM in each DIMM slot. In Windows, it shows 8gb, but CPUZ picks up 16gb.

Ive tried reinstalling the BIOS via Windows, and another jumper reset. But it wont show 16gb.

Any ideas?

 

[erocker]

You're most likely going to need more CPU voltage. While yes, there are a lot of chips that can do 4.5ghz at 1.275v and under, I've seen quite a few that cannot.

 

[Hood]

What BIOS version are you using? Also there's a setting in Windows for how much RAM to use, in msconfig, boot tab, advanced settings. Make sure it allows max RAM usage.

 

[Hybrid_theory]

What BIOS version are you using?

Ive tried 1908 and 1708. no difference. I've tried most of the suggestions in this thread:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168166

I have also now noticed that ati is only picking up one of my cards in crossfire. I got in touch with asus. The tech suggested it could be a short and to try it after taking the parts out of the case.

I looked to see if there were any spare cables with their connectors touching the case. looks ok. ill tackle pulling it out later as sc2 dream hack finals are on right now.

Another thought with power, I have an Antec 1200 OC edition, which comes with a knob on the back for the 12v rail. Its not something Ive intended to use, i bought the psu at a really good price. But i wonder if the knob isnt where it should be. I put it in the middle at 12.2v, would think that would be fine.

 

[Hood]

Uninstall AI Suite II

Maybe it's the Asus AI Suite II causing problems. I uninstalled mine a while back because of the same problems you're having (bad sensor readings & warnings). There's even a program someone made just to clean AI Suite from your system; http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?28319-AI-Suite-II-uninstall-cleaner
There's nothing in the suite that you really need, and mostly the programs don't work anyway (USB 3.0 Booster gave me no better speeds, Virtu MVP is a joke, and the automatic overclocking program will set volts way too high & increase bclk).
Since you & I have the same motherboard, we can share BIOS profiles; you're welcome to try this cmo file I saved after getting my settings as perfect as possible at 4.5 GHz, pos. offset .025, Digi+ settings on ultra or extreme, etc. If you load it, you may have to go into & set memory speed & timings, also advanced tab and set wifi, Asmedia SATA ports, PCIe generation, USB legacy settings, etc. to suite your build. But the OC settings should all be good, and when you get your other settings right, you can then save the new profile to a USB drive. With this profile, my temps are lowest, my vcore agrees with my VID volts, and it's stable as tested with IBT & Prime95. EDIT - You have the 3770K, so be sure to enable hyper-threading.

 

[Hybrid_theory]

Maybe it's the Asus AI Suite II causing problems. I uninstalled mine a while back because of the same problems you're having (bad sensor readings & warnings). There's even a program someone made just to clean AI Suite from your system; http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?28319-AI-Suite-II-uninstall-cleaner
There's nothing in the suite that you really need, and mostly the programs don't work anyway (USB 3.0 Booster gave me no better speeds, Virtu MVP is a joke, and the automatic overclocking program will set volts way too high & increase bclk).
Since you & I have the same motherboard, we can share BIOS profiles; you're welcome to try this cmo file I saved after getting my settings as perfect as possible at 4.5 GHz, pos. offset .025, Digi+ settings on ultra or extreme, etc. If you load it, you may have to go into & set memory speed & timings, also advanced tab and set wifi, Asmedia SATA ports, PCIe generation, USB legacy settings, etc. to suite your build. But the OC settings should all be good, and when you get your other settings right, you can then save the new profile to a USB drive. With this profile, my temps are lowest, my vcore agrees with my VID volts, and it's stable as tested with IBT & Prime95. EDIT - You have the 3770K, so be sure to enable hyper-threading.

uninstalled AI suite, didnt solve the ram/xfire problem.

I went to load the profile see if it would help. But seems it didnt want to detect it on my usb stick. dont think that would do it anyway, considering a jumper reset was no good.

I tried a psu i had in my old system with the new one. no change. so gonna pull the system out as the asus guy suggested and see what happens.

edit: after pulling the system out, placed mobo on a book. Booted it that way. still same symptoms. guess its RMA time,
On this note, about a month back my SSD died on me. Now the mobo is having problems. Any chance the PSU is causing this? anyway to test that?

 

[LagunaX]

More voltage.
For my 3770k at 4.8ghz, IBT and P95 only need 1.21v give or take.
When I encode an HD file conversion on Sothink HD DVD maker, I need 1.25v otherwise the same codec ffmpeg like thing will crash stop working.

 

[Hybrid_theory]

After getting my mobo fixed decided to finally start tackling this again. I got the mobo profile from Hood, tweaked things to my setup. I ran prime and got a BSOD after a few minutes of 0x3B, suggesting more vcore voltage. After playing with it Im now testing prime with a .040 offset (1.29vcore under load), and increased the LLC from 50% to 75%. just wondering if this seems high. One of my cores have hit 81C after 15 minutes or so.

 

[Hood]

After getting my mobo fixed decided to finally start tackling this again. I got the mobo profile from Hood, tweaked things to my setup. I ran prime and got a BSOD after a few minutes of 0x3B, suggesting more vcore voltage. After playing with it Im now testing prime with a .040 offset (1.29vcore under load), and increased the LLC from 50% to 75%. just wondering if this seems high. One of my cores have hit 81C after 15 minutes or so.

That looks about right, mine hits 80-82c running IBT@ 27c ambient, ~75 running prime. I am also now at +040 offset, 1.232vcore, LLc on 100%, 45 x100. This is the sweet spot for stability/temps/performance, by my testing. I've had my 3570k up to 4900 MHz (to maximize my score in Intel XTU benchmark), at insane vcore (1.45!), temps hitting 102c at times, but stable enough to run the benchmark. I tried 4600 and 4800 for a while as full time turbo overclocks, but temps were too high and programs were crashing when I lowered the voltage, so I settled for a cool, stable 4500, and it runs very fast with no problems whatsoever.

 

[Hybrid_theory]

That looks about right, mine hits 80-82c running IBT@ 27c ambient, ~75 running prime. I am also now at +040 offset, 1.232vcore, LLc on 100%, 45 x100. This is the sweet spot for stability/temps/performance, by my testing. I've had my 3570k up to 4900 MHz (to maximize my score in Intel XTU benchmark), at insane vcore (1.45!), temps hitting 102c at times, but stable enough to run the benchmark. I tried 4600 and 4800 for a while as full time turbo overclocks, but temps were too high and programs were crashing when I lowered the voltage, so I settled for a cool, stable 4500, and it runs very fast with no problems whatsoever.

Wish I could get your voltages. I was running +045 with a 10 hours stable prime test. but ive had a couple random restarts just browsing the web, so upto +050 now which is 1.304vCore.

 

[Hood]

Wish I could get your voltages. I was running 045 with a 10 hours stable prime test. but ive had a couple random restarts just browsing the web, so upto 050 now which is 1.304vCore.

I had the same problem at first, until I started playing with the Digi+ section - these boards overclock well, but the digital VRM chip must be set to high, ultra, or extreme on most settings, then you can set your base vcore lower and still be stable, the Digi+ handles the spikes. Your random restarts under light load are not normally caused by overclock settings - reboots caused by too-low vcore happen under stress testing. Your problem sounds more like a RAM issue (a DIMM starting to go bad?) Had that happen to a 2500K build last year with Corsair Vengeance 1600.

 

[Hybrid_theory]

I had the same problem at first, until I started playing with the Digi+ section - these boards overclock well, but the digital VRM chip must be set to high, ultra, or extreme on most settings, then you can set your base vcore lower and still be stable, the Digi+ handles the spikes. Your random restarts under light load are not normally caused by overclock settings - reboots caused by too-low vcore happen under stress testing. Your problem sounds more like a RAM issue (a DIMM starting to go bad?) Had that happen to a 2500K build last year with Corsair Vengeance 1600.

Did a memtest with overclocking settings on. 2 passes, no errors, so i assume theyre fine. I did some reading and one suggestion was the lower voltage rating wasnt high enough and causing instability. I upped to +050, and still had a random crash. So i went back to manual vcore setting, put it to 1.300 in the bios, and under load now it sits at 1.312, which it was around before. But now its hitting 85c on one of the cores in about 30 minutes. thats getting to the edge of my comfort zone, thinking i might drop to a 4400ghz clock so i can lower the voltage a bit.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Memtest86+ should be run at least overnight (hopefully 4 passes) and then confirmed with 8 HCI memtest instances in windows, also overnight. Prime really needs 24 hours, and even then it's not guaranteed to be stable. You could try OCCT (not the linx tests) after that. Up to 90c is ok when stress testing these. Don't mess with IBT on Ivy, too much heat for a test that won't show you errors like prime will.

I'd try pushing vccsa to 0.975v. That ram shouldn't need it but sometimes Ivy is sensitive to that so I'd cover your bases.

 

[Hood]

Don't mess with IBT on Ivy, too much heat for a test that won't show you errors like prime will.

Very good point - as much stress and heat as it causes, I've passed IBT many times but had errors in prime within a few minutes. I use it now mainly for a quick temp & stability assessment, to see if my BIOS settings are heading in the right direction. IBT will run 20-30c hotter than any program or game you're likely to run, even at 100% CPU. It's main utility is to "burn in" a chip or accelerate the curing of TIM paste.