Overclock.net banner
Cancel
Create thread New Forums

Reaching Higher OC with BCLK/Straps (Haswell)!

Jump to Latest
1 - 20 of 21 Posts

Belial

· Registered
Joined
·
3,464 Posts
Discussion starter · #1 ·
i7-4770k, bad binning/below average (does 4.6ghz @ ~1.35 for stable, 4.6@1.2 is lucky to post)
Delid CLU/CLU
H110 4x140mm YL-H blues
Z87X-UD3H v1.0
F6 BIOS
2x4GB Hynix CFR
Temps stay below 80C as max
Uncore 4.5ghz@1.3VRING unless otherwise noted

Using ~40minute H264 benchmark as stability test (way more intense than AIDA, seems like it's more intense than p95 according to a few people, non-AVX) for stability testing.

So I verified my chip stable in the first few days as stable at 4.8ghz@1.45vcore/1.95VRIN. The next day, suddenly, it was unstable. Chip degradation, break-in, whatever.

So, I have to settle for 4.7ghz@1.43vcore/2VRIN.

Then, I find out, that using 125 BCLK Strap, I can do 4.75ghz@1.44vcore/2.03VRIN. Awesome, right? I thought BCLK straps were worse or something, but it was pretty easy, quick 50mhz bump up.

I try to make 4.8ghz work many, many times - I try 1.475vcore (which is 1.506v on DMM), I try to do way more VRIN, etc, etc, no dice.

Then, I try 47 x 102.14, and it works! 4.8ghz, 4.49uncore, pretty sweet, this was with some 2600mhz+ ram speeds too (haswell's IMC is beast, I can do 3ghz easily on these $55@newegg ram). Going to raise BCLK a bit so I can get uncore to 4.5ghz, but I did not have these kinds of results on Ivy.

I also tried 125BCLK strap for 4.8ghz, it was fail post but I'm pretty sure that's because I had uncore at 4.55ghz, I know it's just right on the limit of stable at 4.5@1.3vring, but if you guys want I can test it (just set uncore to 4.45ghz, i just personally dont care ill just use bclk only because i dont want to sacrifice uncore if i dont have to).

I mean the difference is night and day. 47x101 is just stable, no change in voltage from 47x100=4.7ghz. 48x100=4.8ghz, it crashes within 5 minutes.

TLDR I've had a lot of success increasing my core overclock significantly using both BCLK and BCLK straps, this is part advice and part anecdotal/discussion. I thought this finding was worth it's own thread rather than a post in a club.
 
#2 ·
could of newbie questtions i seen VRIN thrown around alot what dose that mean? i am guessing Input Volatage but unknown i am getting the same without in respect one day i can get 4.7Ghz @ 1.307 successfully did IBT on max, i only have 16gb running at 1066 not sure if this will change anything? NB at 3.5Ghz, this was stable for like 3 days, then it crashed, now i can even do 4.4 at even the same Voltage, i try 4.4 at 1.450 Vcore and still crash, i am wondering if my issue is a windows 8 issue not an actual cpu issue now?
 
#3 ·
I have mine stable at 4.6ghz with 1.325v, gonna try your advice and squeeze out some extra mhz by playing around with the blck/bclk strap.
 
#4 ·
I tried using the 125 strap on mine and it crashed imemdiately (by that I mean the BIOS locked up). What was the process you followed to change it? Like, load defaults, change BCLK, then set all the rest of the settings? I think my issues was the RAM was still trying to do 18.67X125 and that's what killed it.
 
Save
Reply Quote Rep+ Rep+
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Forceman View Post

I tried using the 125 strap on mine and it crashed imemdiately (by that I mean the BIOS locked up). What was the process you followed to change it? Like, load defaults, change BCLK, then set all the rest of the settings? I think my issues was the RAM was still trying to do 18.67X125 and that's what killed it.
Click to expand...
yea IMO take all your diiders(remember uncore divider is also affected to their lowest values) then apply the 1.25x strap.

You also can't apply the strap without a reboot, as the system needs a full reset, so IMO set 8x Core, 8xmem, and 8x uncore and disable turbo, and then set the strap. It shoudl work, if it doesn't you need to reflash your BIOS your ME firmware is corrupted.

On GBT Z87X boards, all the BCLk straps: 1.00x, 1.25x, and 1.67x work for sure since 2 months before launch and still do today.
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
Yea it took a few tries, you have to adjust your uncore and RAM to be straight. Most boards should display what your RAM and uncore speed will be with the new strap. On gigabyte though your turbo multis wont tell you what they applied to, so what I do is play with the uncore or core ratio, which has a little thing telling you what the multi changes to, so I know what to use for the turbo's.

Like 4.75ghz/4.5ghz is 38/36.

Going from 1866 mhz to 2333mhz (18.66 x 1.25) is a huge boost. If you got decent RAM ic's Im sure you could do it though (with 1.75v+ of course), I can do 3.2ghz easily on my $55 hynix CFRs (gskill 2400 CL11 2x4gb). Haswell's IMC is just insane, my Ivy couldn't even handle 2400mhz 8gb ram.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
if you aren't doing a cmos reset after every single setting you change you aren't doing it right
thumb.gif


Can't modern systems, like ivy/haswell, handle like up to 103-104bclk without having to mess with anything else at all, no problem? I mean just a tiny bump in bclk, or just use the bclk straps, for desired effect.
 
#9 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belial View Post

if you aren't doing a cmos reset after every single setting you change you aren't doing it right
thumb.gif


Can't modern systems, like ivy/haswell, handle like up to 103-104bclk without having to mess with anything else at all, no problem? I mean just a tiny bump in bclk, or just use the bclk straps, for desired effect.
Click to expand...
Usually I just load optimized defaults. It depends tbh, 125MHz is quite impressive!!
 
#10 ·
I tried messing around with the blck but I found out i can be more stable with lesser voltage if i straight up set 47 multi, 100 blck instead of something like 46 multi, 102.2 blck, on my asrock mobo, etc.
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartouille View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Belial View Post

if you aren't doing a cmos reset after every single setting you change you aren't doing it right
thumb.gif


Can't modern systems, like ivy/haswell, handle like up to 103-104bclk without having to mess with anything else at all, no problem? I mean just a tiny bump in bclk, or just use the bclk straps, for desired effect.
Click to expand...
Usually I just load optimized defaults. It depends tbh, 125MHz is quite impressive!!
Click to expand...
No, I think you are confused. There is BCLK, which you can set to 100-110, I think 102-104 is where you usually max out for 24/7 use without causing issues or having to increase odd voltages. And then, on Haswell and SB-E, there are BCLK straps, in the form of 125/166/200/233/etc, that basically increases BCLK only for the CPU, RAM, and Uncore, without affecting pci-e and sata and all that stuff. This is on top of BCLK and multi.

So CPU = BCLK Strap x BCLK x Multi. So conventionally you see stuff like 1.00 x 100 x 45 = 4.5ghz, but with BCLK strap you can do like 1.25 x 100 x 36 = 4.5ghz. The idea is maybe you can do 4.5ghz using BCLK straps or BCLK and use less voltage, or conversely hit a higher overclock than you could normally, ie you are at your limits of voltage/heat but you can maybe crank another 50-100mhz using BCLK or BCLK straps.

It's never really been popular, there have been varied reports of it, but I've had success with it.
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belial View Post

No, I think you are confused. There is BCLK, which you can set to 100-110, I think 102-104 is where you usually max out for 24/7 use without causing issues or having to increase odd voltages. And then, on Haswell and SB-E, there are BCLK straps, in the form of 125/166/200/233/etc, that basically increases BCLK only for the CPU, RAM, and Uncore, without affecting pci-e and sata and all that stuff. This is on top of BCLK and multi.

So CPU = BCLK Strap x BCLK x Multi. So conventionally you see stuff like 1.00 x 100 x 45 = 4.5ghz, but with BCLK strap you can do like 1.25 x 100 x 36 = 4.5ghz. The idea is maybe you can do 4.5ghz using BCLK straps or BCLK and use less voltage, or conversely hit a higher overclock than you could normally, ie you are at your limits of voltage/heat but you can maybe crank another 50-100mhz using BCLK or BCLK straps.

It's never really been popular, there have been varied reports of it, but I've had success with it.
Click to expand...
I know what you're talking about now! Sorry I was confused and wasn't talking about the same thing. I'll give it a try. Does the computer refuse to boot just like increasing BCLK too much? I find it annoying opening the case lol
 
Discussion starter · #13 ·
i dont think ive ever had my side panel on my pc for more than 6 months lol. But you can always mod a cmos reset button onto your motherboard, you just put the 2 pin reset switch or 3 pin if your cmos is 3 pin, onto it, just like a mobo header. Better yet, get another case switch, and stick it on there, and then drill a hole or just have it coming out one of your fan grill holes. I mean there's a million ways to do it.
 
#14 ·
I tried 1.25 BLCK strap with 38 multi (4.75GHz) and reduce uncore multi so it ran at 3.5GHz and reduced memory multi so it ran at 2133MHz as specified. I crashed about as fast as 4.8GHz only using multiplier (about 30 sec). 4.7GHz using multi lasts 2 hour on Aida64 because I stopped it. All tests done with 1.35V Vcore. To be honest I don't think it really matters how you achieve the clocks, multi, BLCK and multi, mix of both etc etc. In the end you still need the same Vcore, you can't really escape that. But that's just my quickly done tests, not very meaning I know lol Glad it worked for you tho.
wink.gif
 
Discussion starter · #15 ·
No, I've consistently had great results with (personally).

So first I find 4.7ghz@1.44v/2.03VRIn is stable. 4.8ghz isn't stable even on 1.475v (it was a while ago, but i guess my cpu 'broke in', it's nowhere close to stable anymore even on 1.475v).

I used bclk strap so it's 4.75ghz at same vcore/vrin, and it's stable. I've ran it stability test like 20+ times too (testing RAM at the moment).

I'm having 4.8ghz via 102.14 x 47 work every time (with 4.49uncore). However, I can't get 102.28 stable (which brings it up to 4.8ghz with 4.5uncore), i think due to uncore being like 4.51 sometimes.

Even weirder, sometimes it won't boot (error 15, beep beep beep beep, reboot to bios). Could be a few things causing this though. I think it might be ram related but it's a little nonsensical.

edit: okay i think, but im not sure, it was because I was manually entering in tWR and tWL. On auto, they go to 24/8 respectively on my 2800mhz CL12-14-12-26-1-1.8v ram (gskill $63 hynix CFR 2x4b). Which is odd, twl is supposed to be like CL-1 but hey it's stable so w/e, anyways, I've been manually entering them in. No problem. I guess when using 102 BCL though, they sohuldn't be entered in manually? I dont know, whatever, that appears to be the issue but like this no-boot weird issue is also really random too, so we'll see.
 
#16 ·
Looks like I'll be trying this once I get home. I have been trying to get stable at 4.8ghz on my 4670k, but nothing seemed to be working - and I haven't been willing to go up to 1.5 on the vcore....

UPDATE: No amount of increasing the BCLK was stable for me. Using the strap was unstable, along with the actual BCLK adjustment.
axesmiley.png
 
#18 ·
Nope, no updates in here for a while....Using the BLCK for Haswell is pretty much useless in most cases....You're better off sticking to adjusting the multi....
thumb.gif
 
#19 ·
Hi,

I successfully applied BCLK Strap at 125Mhz x 37 on my I7-4770K with ASUS Z87-Plus board. Everything is stable.

However, I encountered one issue with Windows 8.1. I normally set the power button to "Sleep". On a fresh reboot, pressing it would cause the system to enter "sleep" mode. On waking it up again, any subsequence power button press will do nothing. The system can still goes to "sleep" if I initiate it from Windows, but not using the power button. If I reboot, then it's ok again for the first time.

If I change the BCLK Strap back to 100Mhz, then the issue goes away. Anyone with this experience?
 
1 - 20 of 21 Posts
About this Discussion
20 Replies
10 Participants
Last post:
Arxontas
Overclock.net
posts
28M
members
562K
Since
2004
The premier forum for overclocking experts and enthusiasts. Discuss hardware optimization, custom builds, benchmarking, cooling solutions, and pushing the boundaries of computing performance. From beginner guides to extreme overclocking, join our technical community to master system tuning.
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
Intel CPUs Hardware News NVIDIA PC Gaming Water Cooling