6700k - what to do to squeeze out max performance?

[TheMadDutchDude]

4.4 at 1.3v and 4.6 at 1.4v? You got a terrible sample, by the looks of it.

I'm still pissed that my 4.8GHz 1.3v AIDA stable CPU went missing in the mail.

 

[vega22]

I don't think delidding will help. Tbh it sounds like you have good tim. Mine thermal throttles on those volts and it would help me but I cba doing it again.

As others have said, the scaling sounds like you lost the IC lotto on that one. Like mine. Another reason I never bothered to slap it in a vice a wack it with a 2 by 4 xD

 

[Vario]

I don't think delidding will help. Tbh it sounds like you have good tim. Mine thermal throttles on those volts and it would help me but I cba doing it again.

As others have said, the scaling sounds like you lost the IC lotto on that one. Like mine. Another reason I never bothered to slap it in a vice a wack it with a 2 by 4 xD

I agree. Delidding will not help it overclock further, its a dud overclocker.

 

[dirtyferret]

I have my i7 6700k build ( full spec in system spec menu in my profile ). Currently running at following config

i7 6700k @ 4.4 GHZ 1.3v
Corsair Vengeance 2400 Mhz @ 3000 MHz 16-16-16
MSI Z170A Gaming M5 motherboard

Now, I want to go more with OC, but crossing 4.4 giving me big headache. I cant got 4.6 unless I go for 1.4 vcore. That is too high for me.
On Memory side, 3000 Mhz is max I can squeeze out of this kit. Any suggestion for tweaking this further to efficiently overclock to atleast 4.6 Ghz?

Here is my validation link in case it is any helpful.

Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4400 MHz - CPU-Z VALIDATOR

[70gi5y] Validated Dump by HOMEPC (2019-07-20 19:27:30) - MB: MSI Z170A GAMING M5 (MS-7977) - RAM: 16384 MB

valid.x86.fr

Other then an increase in synthetic benchmarks what will the extra 200mhz get you?

FYI, Tom's hardware recently posted a how to delid your CPU

Redirect Notice

 

[yotano211]

The main question to ask if, why do you want to overclock it further. Is it for gaming or production work.

If its for gaming, the extra 100-300mhz wont really help at all. If for work or production, the extra 2-4% is not worth it.

 

[Steve-007UK]

Silicone lottory diff mobo's not all CPU's clock the same then we have the place we live and ambient temps then the case we use can also effect things and when it comes to AIO's and proper water cooling there seems to be less air over teh VRM's so has all this been taken into account?

If it has sorry for not reading the hole thread proper had a few drinks so might be missing a few things but also seems when a lot of these same questions come up many people have ideas but forget the deep down nitty gritty bits that still apply today.

 

[amit_talkin]

Well, I guess it seems I got a bad chip and it can't be overclocked further. Although, I will think about deliding it atleast for learning about it.

 

[HUSKIE]

Meanwhile, I found a video for making liquid metal to use with delided CPU.

They're everywhere, flooding on YouTube.

So take the risk when cracking up the sealed.

Good luck

 

[amit_talkin]

They're everywhere, flooding on YouTube.

So take the risk when cracking up the sealed.

Good luck

Yeah, I am doing this for first time, so instead of taking risk, I bought the conductonaut .

 

[Final_Fighter]

Something not quite right here, I have a 6700k, similar volts at 4.4gig, 1.320V for 4.5 and 1.375 volts for 4.6, what is puzzling me is your temps, at 4.4 gig mine never goes above 64C gaming or benching and that's just on a middle of the road 240mm AIO, it sounds to me as you may have an issue with your cooling setup, I don't hit 70C until I am stressing the GPU at 4.6gig, why not try for middle ground and go for 4.5gig on around 1.325v and check that watercooling.

im with you on this. i would like to know how he got a 360mm cooler in that case to begin with.

 

[Wavetrex]

Going forward 4c/8t will also be running circles around 6c/6t for the foreseeable future, in gaming. Its usually equal to, and in rare cases 6c/6t falls apart completely, such as FC5.

HT is certainly useful now for these CPUs.

9700K if he likes Intel an only plays games.

- 8 true cores instead of 8 "virtual" ones
- no SMT (HT) to deal with, since games can "accidentally" put 2 heavy threads on the same core, slowing both of them down significantly. SMT is not double the performance... FAR from it.
- can clock to 5ghz if lucky
- no need to change RAM
- better in every possible way (double the cores, higher clocks)


So it's just mobo + CPU, to get the "best gaming CPU" in the world right now (yeah, that's not 9900K since very few games can actually use more than 8 threads, but there are PLENTY that CAN use 8 !)

There's also Zen 2 option for more future proofing, a much cheaper 3600 would be quite a good option as alternative to 9700K (but that one is still faster - marginally - in high-fps games)

 

[HenrySomeone]

Plainly not true.
4c/8t is still a viable count for 99% of anything you do including gaming. There are only a handful of applications that use more than 4 cores.

Precisely, even the spanking new Ryzens will game no better than a 6700k in 99% of games. For any meaningful upgrade, you would have to go to at least 8700k/9700k, but as others have suggested, delid an wait for Ice Lake.

 

[amit_talkin]

im with you on this. i would like to know how he got a 360mm cooler in that case to begin with.

My case supports 360mm radiator. Actually I have 1x120mm radiator on backside as well. Loop is as following.

Reservoir > GPU > 360mm > CPU > 120mm > Reservoir

 

[Vayra86]

What's this based on as I see them having relatively equal results in most gaming benchmarks if not a slight lead to high frequency six cores.

FC5 is an awful benchmark tool unless you are building a PC for FC5. GN dropped it completely on their new suite and Tom's showed ryzen was smoother without SMT then with it on the ryzen 1600.

FC5 mostly, but its really just a repeat of what we've seen with the Core i5 quads, you can blame FC5 for it or you can look at past history . For pure quads that exception is now already the rule... When games can thread well across all cores, any background load and even peak gaming loads can create stutter or major framedrops. That is where HT is there to save the day, the extra 2 threads only being used 'when needed' and only 'on top of' the work the core is already doing. Non-HT/SMT CPUs are not quite as flexible, also in scheduling tasks.

At the same time, the performance benefit of >4c/8t (and vs 6c/6t) is not really always there, or its in places where you don't really benefit all that much (Max FPS, slightly higher avg), I'd say that is just as much an exception as the FC5 example is. The real question is what you consider likely in the future. I consider it likely that high thread counts will eventually kill the purpose of these low thread high clock CPUs. Threading is already better and games already rely much less on that single heavy game thread, and this trend will continue. The writing is on the wall: smaller nodes don't like the added heat and current gen CPUs are already clocked to near max out of the box. Thread count is the only way to noticeably boost performance.

This ties into the Ryzen for gaming debate as well; is it really that great that a few top end Intel CPUs hit somewhat higher averages? Its great if that is what you're looking for, but for the common denominator it holds no value at all. Ryzen does - and optimization happens around these common denominators; for that exact reason Intel's been the gaming choice for a long time.

In the end, the outliers, mostly the negative ones, are what makes or breaks a CPU. Not a tiny FPS advantage.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Ideally this is the way you should be hooking everything up I know you dont have a front rad but since its only a 120mm you could place that between the CPU and GPu at the back.

The way you have it configured - your CPU is picking up the heat from your GPu first before passing it down to your CPU which elevates temps a little.

Also. You havent mentioned what fans youre using on your rad so maybe thats somewhere where you can improve. Get some Static Pressure orientated fans on the radiators and maybe upgrade your intake fans on your case for more airflow perhaps.

Apart from a few QoL improvements i think you might be on an uphill struggle as India does get quite hot and ambient temps will affect everything.

 

[dirtyferret]

FC5 mostly, but its really just a repeat of what we've seen with the Core i5 quads, you can blame FC5 for it or you can look at past history . For pure quads that exception is now already the rule... When games can thread well across all cores, any background load and even peak gaming loads can create stutter or major framedrops. That is where HT is there to save the day, the extra 2 threads only being used 'when needed' and only 'on top of' the work the core is already doing. Non-HT/SMT CPUs are not quite as flexible, also in scheduling tasks.

At the same time, the performance benefit of >4c/8t (and vs 6c/6t) is not really always there, or its in places where you don't really benefit all that much (Max FPS, slightly higher avg), I'd say that is just as much an exception as the FC5 example is. The real question is what you consider likely in the future. I consider it likely that high thread counts will eventually kill the purpose of these low thread high clock CPUs. Threading is already better and games already rely much less on that single heavy game thread, and this trend will continue. The writing is on the wall: smaller nodes don't like the added heat and current gen CPUs are already clocked to near max out of the box. Thread count is the only way to noticeably boost performance.

This ties into the Ryzen for gaming debate as well; is it really that great that a few top end Intel CPUs hit somewhat higher averages? Its great if that is what you're looking for, but for the common denominator it holds no value at all. Ryzen does - and optimization happens around these common denominators; for that exact reason Intel's been the gaming choice for a long time.

In the end, the outliers, mostly the negative ones, are what makes or breaks a CPU. Not a tiny FPS advantage.

I see your opinion and I'm not arguing with it one way or another. From what Ive seen on the current testing suites from pc gamer, techspot, gamers nexus (they all include FPS along with 97th percentile or greater) the 7700k matches the 8600k/9600k in FPS and percentile smoothness and in several games the six core i5 leads in FPS avg and/or smoothness. In no games (in their current suites) did the 7700k truly lead in either category. Now that said, IMO they are basically the same in performance and when one is no longer capable of being a gaming CPU so will the other and I don't think it will be any time soon (assuming you won't need greater then 100FPS in every game).

I'm not looking past FC5 (its engine has been around a while) and both CPUs have excellent 99th percentile performance in game. I know many people like to run the .1 performance up the flagpole against intel i5 six core users and AMD SMT and that's fine assuming you are dedicated to that game like its the new Skyrim. In some of the "latest greatest" this year (Rage 2, Metro Exodus, Three Kingdoms) both the Intel i7-7700k and i5-8600/9600k offer similar excellent performance.

Taking one look at steam hardware survey, anyone with six or more threads with a current CPU (regardless of Intel or AMD) is ahead of the game (pun intended) for gaming. The niche of people demanding greater then 100FPS will take turns staking their flag on top various mountains (low FPS, high FPS, 99th percentile, etc., etc.,) and deny any claim from any other flags.

 

[amit_talkin]

Ideally this is the way you should be hooking everything up I know you dont have a front rad but since its only a 120mm you could place that between the CPU and GPu at the back.


The way you have it configured - your CPU is picking up the heat from your GPu first before passing it down to your CPU which elevates temps a little.

Also. You havent mentioned what fans youre using on your rad so maybe thats somewhere where you can improve. Get some Static Pressure orientated fans on the radiators and maybe upgrade your intake fans on your case for more airflow perhaps.

Apart from a few QoL improvements i think you might be on an uphill struggle as India does get quite hot and ambient temps will affect everything.

I wanted to try as You suggested, but my HAF-X can only allow limited radiator configuration. I can't change it the way You mentioned as it just clutters everything inside. I am using 4x Corsair HD120 fans on it. Instake fan is 1x 200mm in front of the case. I sometimes use side 200mm fan for intake but its so much dusty here that I better disable that fan to avoid dust buildup inside case.
And ultimately, its hot ambient which ruins everything related to get better cooling. I am now considering to change CPU block to a better one however I am not sure its what affecting cooling performance here, but it has served me more than 7 years already. Should I change my PC case?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Then theres your problem. Bad airflow.

It would be better if you took a picture of your pc and show how you have everything laid out. It would save some folks a lot of time.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Ideally this is the way you should be hooking everything up I know you dont have a front rad but since its only a 120mm you could place that between the CPU and GPu at the back.

The way you have it configured - your CPU is picking up the heat from your GPu first before passing it down to your CPU which elevates temps a little.

Very little. Order of components in loop makes no discernible difference as the loop temp equalizes itself.
As long as the res feeds the pump first, the rest of the order makes no difference.