Possible 6700K overclock instability after 6 months?

[King Mustard]

• i7-6700K @ 4.5 GHz
• Zotac GTX 1080 Amp Extreme (factory OC) (latest drivers)
• Asetek 570LXL CPU liquid cooler (2x 120mm)

I've had my CPU overclocked to 4.5 GHz with a 1.300v VCore for around 6 months now (see included screenshots below).

I play quite a bit of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and for the past week or two, after around 15 minutes of gameplay, sometimes, the screen freezes.

However, in-game audio/voice chat, Windows etc. still work, so it could simply be the game.

Temperatures are all fine (60C CPU, 70C GPU), even in the UK summer (average room temperature of 25-30C).

Any thoughts?

 

[Sasqui]

However, in-game audio/voice chat, Windows etc. still work, so it could simply be the game.

In my experience, that has usually been the GPU. What's your audio output, the MB or HD Audio from the 1080?

 

[sneekypeet]

Save the overclock in a profile if possible with the BIOS, reset to defaults. If the issue persists, you can rule out the overclock deteriorating.

 

[King Mustard]

Save the overclock in a profile if possible with the BIOS, reset to defaults. If the issue persists, you can rule out the overclock deteriorating.

Simple but genius!

Will try now.

 

[erocker]

You can also check the event viewer.

 

[phanbuey]

In my experience, that has usually been the GPU. What's your audio output, the MB or HD Audio from the 1080?

^ i would put my money on this.

 

[jaggerwild]

Its over heating time of year

 

[MrGenius]

If you're not cleaning the dust out of your entire system at least every 6 months...you're doing it wrong.

 

[King Mustard]

Save the overclock in a profile if possible with the BIOS, reset to defaults. If the issue persists, you can rule out the overclock deteriorating.

I can confirm it's not the CPU overclock.

I reset the BIOS to the defaults and 20 minutes into my second round (I came first in the first round!), the image froze again, requiring me to use Task Manager to end the game's process.

The whole system is clean and dust free, which is evident by the decent temperatures.

Since this has only been happening for the past week or so (I've performed no driver updates in this time, they're all up-to-date), it still could be the game.

I'll see what today's patch notes state.

 

[hapkiman]

Yes clean the system out good as MrGenius suggested (if you don't already) but I too suspect the GPU (that i7 6700k can handle that OC indefinitely as long as you are cooling it properly). Zotac has the history of pushing their products to the utmost limits, often causing instability. I've only owned one Zotac card, so I'm by no means an expert, but I had issues with it from the get-go, and their customer service left something to be desired. I promptly unloaded that card on someone else and have not purchased another Zotac product since. Do you have a different card you could use for a week or so to see if the problem persist with a different GPU?

 

[King Mustard]

Yes clean the system out good as MrGenius suggested (if you don't already) but I too suspect the GPU (that i7 6700k can handle that OC indefinitely as long as you are cooling it properly). Zotac has the history of pushing their products to the utmost limits, often causing instability. I've only owned one Zotac card, so I'm by no means an expert, but I had issues with it from the get-go, and their customer service left something to be desired. I promptly unload that card on someone else and have not purchased another Zotac product. Do you have a different card you could use for a week or so to see if the problem persist with a different GPU?

I've had the card for 11 months without any issues, yet.

Could be the card. I haven't play any other games that test it.

Maybe I'll give things like FurMark a whirl.

 

[micropage7]

Oc with raising the voltage will open you for 'damage' the chip
It could be from your processor that suffer from high voltage or from the quality of the chip
Have you tried uninstalling your card driver and use stock driver

 

[oinkypig]

shoot the power supply with air.

 

[Komshija]

Clean or undust the whole PC with air compressor if you have one. There's possibility that something is overheating.
In BIOS, in OC Explore mode choose "expert" and select "adaptive" mode just above the "CPU core voltage". Also set VCCSA to 1.17 and VCCIO to 1.12. It should be stable.

If it's happening in only one or two games, forget about all that. It's either the game or drivers.

 

[eidairaman1]

System specs?

 

[hat]

Next step, try looping something like the Heaven benchmark over and over and see if it crashes. If not, maybe you updated your video drivers or something recently and PUBG doesn't like it.

PUBG isn't exactly a polished final product either, is it? If you can pass loops of stressful benchmarks like Heaven but crash in PUBG, it's probably PUBG. If it looks like a duck, etc...

 

[OneMoar]

PUBG is known to push UE4 to its upper limits in terms of draw distance/scale

run superpostion benchmark for a hour or so

 

[FC Copenhagen]

Sure sounds like a GPU issue than a CPU issue. Have you tried to underclock your card 100 MHz? Sometimes those factory OC cards are problematic in some games.

You could also try to roll back Geforce drivers.

 

[OneMoar]

Sure sounds like a GPU issue than a CPU issue. Have you tried to underclock your card 100 MHz? Sometimes those factory OC cards are problematic in some games.

You could also try to roll back Geforce drivers.

can we not suggest random stuff untill we confirm the op accually has a problem

 

[FC Copenhagen]

can we not suggest random stuff untill we confirm the op accually has a problem

But he has a problem. His game is freezing. Some users in Steam forums report similar freezes and downclocking has helped some.

He asks for help and we shouldn't try to give help until he confirms that he actually has a problem?

 

[OneMoar]

I won't argue with you
op needs to run a stablity test and go from there
but I would bet its just pubg being pubg its not exactly the most stable of things in its current state

 

[FC Copenhagen]

I won't argue with you
op needs to run a stablity test and go from there
but I would bet its just pubg being pubg its not exactly the most stable of things in its current state

Not here to argue either.

Some claimed that by uninstalling Bitdefender fixed their freezing.