Ever since taking possession of my shiny new 9600KF I noticed that while it was a great overclocking chip (capable of 5.3GHz all core for benching), it required a bit more voltage than a 9900K at the same OC speed. I would then have to increase voltage by .05v for every 100mhz to be fully stable so 5ghz was my max 24/7 before pushing over 1.39v for 5.1ghz+. I was curious as to why this hexacore chip required more juice since the cores are essentially identical between the two processors.
After messing around today for most of it, it turns outs cache ratio is the issue. As soon as I go above 45x cache I have to add a lot more extra voltage to get the chip to be stable. And when you are at the higher end of the processor limits, pumping excessive juice into any CPU can really limit your OC headroom and your OC reliability as well.
So I did a little test and kept cache at 4.5ghz and surprise, surprise, I am stable so far at 5ghz @ 1.248v... so then out of curiosity, I went back and tried the cache at 4.6GHz and that config demanded over 1.300v core to maintain stability. In fact, my old/original 5.0GHz OC required 1.373 volts to keep it stable, while running the cache at 4900MHz.
So to make sure I am fully stable @ 1.248 volts I ran the AIDA64 stability test for a couple hours. Results below. I am also using LLC mode 3, which is not very aggressive at all and pumps up the voltage only very slightly under full load. But as you can see here, it's flawless, the test went perfectly, no throttling, with the highest core temp reaching only 160*F. Not only that, but I am doing it on a custom loop that has some obstructions which really limit flow rate (fixing next week). This rig, presently, has one 120mm alphacool monsta (this is a chunky 80mm deep rad) and one 360mm fractal designs radiator. For this stability test I had the pump running at full speed (3400rpm) and all 4 rad fans running at a static 1500 rpm.
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Not sure if any other Intel 14nm chips are effected by this phenomenon but I thought I'd at least make it known that it worked wonders for me and if your 8th/9th gen intel chip is demanding lots of voltage to be stable, you might try running it with the cache at 4.5GHz instead. Now the major question is will this give me more OC headroom? Well, I'm about to find out. Will report back later with new OC results. Keep in mind before the max OC was 5.3GHz all core.... but at a much higher voltage, and temp.
Here is CPUz reporting for the new 5.0GHz OC
![Image]()
After messing around today for most of it, it turns outs cache ratio is the issue. As soon as I go above 45x cache I have to add a lot more extra voltage to get the chip to be stable. And when you are at the higher end of the processor limits, pumping excessive juice into any CPU can really limit your OC headroom and your OC reliability as well.
So I did a little test and kept cache at 4.5ghz and surprise, surprise, I am stable so far at 5ghz @ 1.248v... so then out of curiosity, I went back and tried the cache at 4.6GHz and that config demanded over 1.300v core to maintain stability. In fact, my old/original 5.0GHz OC required 1.373 volts to keep it stable, while running the cache at 4900MHz.
So to make sure I am fully stable @ 1.248 volts I ran the AIDA64 stability test for a couple hours. Results below. I am also using LLC mode 3, which is not very aggressive at all and pumps up the voltage only very slightly under full load. But as you can see here, it's flawless, the test went perfectly, no throttling, with the highest core temp reaching only 160*F. Not only that, but I am doing it on a custom loop that has some obstructions which really limit flow rate (fixing next week). This rig, presently, has one 120mm alphacool monsta (this is a chunky 80mm deep rad) and one 360mm fractal designs radiator. For this stability test I had the pump running at full speed (3400rpm) and all 4 rad fans running at a static 1500 rpm.
Not sure if any other Intel 14nm chips are effected by this phenomenon but I thought I'd at least make it known that it worked wonders for me and if your 8th/9th gen intel chip is demanding lots of voltage to be stable, you might try running it with the cache at 4.5GHz instead. Now the major question is will this give me more OC headroom? Well, I'm about to find out. Will report back later with new OC results. Keep in mind before the max OC was 5.3GHz all core.... but at a much higher voltage, and temp.
Here is CPUz reporting for the new 5.0GHz OC
