i7 unstable at high volts

7448 Views 71 Replies 21 Participants Last post by Zensou, Jul 7, 2010

Zensou

Discussion Starter · Nov 24, 2009

2

I don't know what to do. Someone said that it might be my motherboard that's at fault. I don't know, it seems like I've downgraded from a Q6600. My Q6600 was a lot easier to overclock and was a lot more stable than this i7.

I can't even get it stable at 4ghz.

I have:

IOH: 1.2v
ICH: 1.2v
vDIMM: 1.65v
CPU PLL: 1.88v
QPI/Uncore: 1.35v
vcore in Bios: 1.325v

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i7bigrig

· #2 · Nov 24, 2009

Try using a lower baseclock and a higher cpu multiplier. You should be able to get 21x on that chip. The higher bclock affects alot of things besides the CPU and can be the cause of instability.

Also is your ram supposed to be 8-8-8-20?

One more thing: you still have more headroom in terms of vcore so your not at the limit yet

Zensou

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 24, 2009

Isn't 1.325vcore already really high for an i7 D0?!
My RAM isn't supposed to be 8-8-8-20, It's supposed to be 8-8-8-24. I don't know why it's 8-8-8-20, I have it set on auto. I tried going in and changing the timings but it gives you a huge long list of changeable options and I didn't know what to change. I looked at the list of i7 overclocks and most people have their i7 920 oc'ed to 4 @ 1.2-1.3v. I guess I have a really bad chip.

u238

· #4 · Nov 24, 2009

No, 1.375 is the limit of intel specs, and you can safely go even higher than that. If you want to overclock, you need to figure out that list of timings because auto isn't going to cut it. Open you ram timings to something like 9-9-9-24-88-2t. And, contrary to popular belief, not all 920s do 4GHz easily or at all. Mine won't break 4.0 at all, even above 1.375V.

88EVGAFTW

· #5 · Nov 24, 2009

Start from stock volts and see how high it goes on 21X multi, if you can get close to 4.0 Ghz add a bit if IOH and a bit of QPI till its stable. At first when I had my QPI and IOH too high it was unstable at 4.0 so I started back from stock and added a bit here and there. I am runing almost stock voltages now perfectly stable

Almost all i7 can do 4 Gh with stock or very close to stock Vcore, if u have HT Off, if it is On then it will need a bit of Vcore raise.

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Zensou

Discussion Starter · #6 · Nov 24, 2009

3

Quote:

Originally Posted by u238

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No, 1.375 is the limit of intel specs, and you can safely go even higher than that. If you want to overclock, you need to figure out that list of timings because auto isn't going to cut it. Open you ram timings to something like 9-9-9-24-88-2t. And, contrary to popular belief, not all 920s do 4GHz easily or at all. Mine won't break 4.0 at all, even above 1.375V.

Thanks for your reply. Is it supposed to be 1t or 2t? Because auto sets it to 1t.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 88EVGAFTW

View Post

Start from stock volts and see how high it goes on 21X multi, if you can get close to 4.0 Ghz add a bit if IOH and a bit of QPI till its stable. At first when I had my QPI and IOH too high it was unstable at 4.0 so I started back from stock and added a bit here and there. I am runing almost stock voltages now perfectly stable

Almost all i7 can do 4 Gh with stock or very close to stock Vcore, if u have HT Off, if it is On then it will need a bit of Vcore raise.

Thanks for your reply. I'll try your suggestion now. You're using a C0 and you're beating my D0. D:
Btw, I always keep HT on.

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rpm666

· #7 · Nov 24, 2009

Max voltage is 1.45 - Max VID is 1.362.

Up your vCore one notch and try again. Also, set your timings on your ram to what it has listed on the box.

FSF-Foxhound

· #8 · Nov 24, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by u238

View Post

No, 1.375 is the limit of intel specs, and you can safely go even higher than that. If you want to overclock, you need to figure out that list of timings because auto isn't going to cut it. Open you ram timings to something like 9-9-9-24-88-2t. And, contrary to popular belief, not all 920s do 4GHz easily or at all. Mine won't break 4.0 at all, even above 1.375V.

that's not a limit. That's the maximum VID they'll sell you. If it is higher, they'll find a use for it.

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Zensou

Discussion Starter · #9 · Nov 24, 2009

My VID is 1.208 I believe. I set everything to auto, disabled speed step and stuff. Ran prime95 with cpuz and it read 1.208v. Is that good or bad?

suphiceto

· #10 · Nov 24, 2009

Did you try runing your uncore at x16? I know you are runing your uncore double of your memory. But I would give it a shot.
Also you might wanna lower you OPI to 1.25 it is supposet ot be in .4v range of your Dram.

devsk

· #11 · Nov 24, 2009

Actually, turn all your voltages, except for vDimm, settings to Auto and restart your OC. Use turbo, which gives 21x multi, which will get you to 4.4 with 210 BCLK. Also, enable "Without vDroop" in BIOS (default is "with vDroop"). Set your vDimm to 1.65 (or rated voltage on your RAM) and RAM timings manually to 8 8 8 24 1T.

Now start raising the BCLK and see how far you can go with Auto vcore. Once you hit a limit (LinX fails), adjust the vcore to the value just higher than what you see in eleet when you had Auto vcore. Again start increasing BCLK. Adjust vcore/VTT. Rinse and repeat.

D0 is overclocking at Auto voltages (other than vDimm, VTT and Vcore) nicely, so don't touch any voltage other than VTT and Vcore unless required to.

I have 21x194=4.1 on Auto vcore for my D0. I have it LinX 25x25000 stable at 21x210 on Manual vcore of 1.3125 (mine is a freak chip).

ChickenInferno

· #12 · Nov 25, 2009

4

Set your multiplier to 21x and leave it there. Running a higher base clock does nothing but cause more instability/the need for higher voltage. 21x190~4.0ghz.

The reason your ram is changing timings when you lower the speed is because each set of ram has multiple speed/timing tables that it can run called an SPD. Generally for initial overclocking, I manually set the timing to the stock timings at a lower speed (completely elimintates the ram timings/speed as a variable.) So your muskin set is stock at 8-8-8-24-1T so set that and move the ram to the lowest speed possible and the qpi to the lowest speed possible. This will actually be lower than you have it set not, because when you increase your multiplier and decrease your baseclock, your QPI and DRAM speeds decrease.

Using the 19x multiplier on this motherboard is absolutely worthless. You have a motherboard that can force the 21x so USE IT.

Also, one thing that I may have forgotten to change in the PM was CPU PLL can be dropped to 1.81 (lowest possible value), because it doesn't seem to do anything to help stabilize overclocks on our board (Some people with other boards have found dropping it to 1.30v has decreased temperatures without decreasing stability but our board has a minima at 1.81v)

What is killing you currently is the fact that your QPI is so high (7600gt/s as it shows in the bios), which is very close to the 8000gt/s wall that almost all Core i7 chips run into. Lower the baseclock and increase multiplier. Retry stability tests, and you should be set.

I'm splitting your quote into two for good advice and bad advice for this particular board. For the EVGA boards it may be fine, but the RIIE is a little aggressive.

Do not do this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by devsk

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Actually, turn all your voltages, except for vDimm, settings to Auto and restart your OC. Asus boards love to overestimate your voltages and will skyrocket them past 4.0ghz
Now start raising the BCLK and see how far you can go with Auto vcore. Once you hit a limit (LinX fails), adjust the vcore to the value just higher than what you see in eleet when you had Auto vcore. Again start increasing BCLK. Adjust vcore/VTT. Rinse and repeat. Again Asus boards overestimate really horribly. Conservative overclocking is required. Take the time and it won't take that much more time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by devsk

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Use turbo, which gives 21x multi, which will get you to 4.4 with 210 BCLK. Also, enable "Without vDroop" in BIOS (default is "with vDroop"). Set your vDimm to 1.65 (or rated voltage on your RAM) and RAM timings manually to 8 8 8 24 1T.

The attached pictures are what my board was capable of. One is a custom test in prime95 (4096K Custom Large) that really pushes your ram/qpi to the limit. The reason I attach these is not to gloat, but to say that my definition of stability is way beyond yours and my speed is higher because of the way I know this board.

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Zensou

Discussion Starter · #13 · Nov 25, 2009

2

Quote:

Originally Posted by devsk

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Actually, turn all your voltages, except for vDimm, settings to Auto and restart your OC. Use turbo, which gives 21x multi, which will get you to 4.4 with 210 BCLK. Also, enable "Without vDroop" in BIOS (default is "with vDroop"). Set your vDimm to 1.65 (or rated voltage on your RAM) and RAM timings manually to 8 8 8 24 1T.

Now start raising the BCLK and see how far you can go with Auto vcore. Once you hit a limit (LinX fails), adjust the vcore to the value just higher than what you see in eleet when you had Auto vcore. Again start increasing BCLK. Adjust vcore/VTT. Rinse and repeat.

D0 is overclocking at Auto voltages (other than vDimm, VTT and Vcore) nicely, so don't touch any voltage other than VTT and Vcore unless required to.

I have 21x194=4.1 on Auto vcore for my D0. I have it LinX 25x25000 stable at 21x210 on Manual vcore of 1.3125 (mine is a freak chip).

Thanks for your reply. We have different motherboards and I don't think there is a Turbo or "With/Without vDroop" setting on my motherboard.

I reset my cmos and disabled the spectrum/c1e/speedstep/cpu TM function.
Set multiplier to x21, set my RAM to DDR3-1600 w/ 8-8-8-24-88-1T timings manually ( 2:12 FSB

RAM ). Set IOH and ICH voltages to minimum manually ( 1.11 and 1.51 for PCIE ICH and IOH ). Set vCore to 1.184v. Running LinX right now, so far I'm stable with load temps of 58,53,53,51. What to do if it fails and what to do if it passes?

I'm sorry that I'm such a bother but I'm basically clueless. I just want to run 4.0 stable 24/7 with possibly lowest possible voltages ( but still be stable ).

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ChickenInferno

· #14 · Nov 25, 2009

2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zensou

View Post

Thanks for your reply. We have different motherboards and I don't think there is a Turbo or "With/Without vDroop" setting on my motherboard.

I reset my cmos and disabled the spectrum/c1e/speedstep/cpu TM function.
Set multiplier to x21, set my RAM to DDR3-1600 w/ 8-8-8-24-88-1T timings manually ( 2:12 FSB

RAM ). Set IOH and ICH voltages to minimum manually ( 1.11 and 1.51 for PCIE ICH and IOH ). Set vCore to 1.184v. Running LinX right now, so far I'm stable with load temps of 58,53,53,51. What to do if it fails and what to do if it passes?

I'm sorry that I'm such a bother but I'm basically clueless. I just want to run 4.0 stable 24/7 with possibly lowest possible voltages ( but still be stable ).

The turbo mode is just simply setting the CPU Ratio to 21x and in CPU configuration make sure it also says 21X. The Without Vdroop option is there.

If it passes, then I would increase speed. If it fails with a BSOD 0x000000101 then increase vcore. If it fails with a BSOD 0x0000000124, then that means either too much or too little QPI/DRAM voltage. If it just errors and stops, then I ussually increase vcore by one notch.

Why did you put your ram speed higher than the lowest setting? We need to completely rule this out at as an option. Overclocking only a few mhz past 4.0ghz, will start overclocking your ram which is the exact opposite of what we want. Overclock them seperately or you will give yourself more headaches than it is worth.

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Zensou

Discussion Starter · #15 · Nov 25, 2009

Ok, here is what I've done so far:

Upped BCLK to 191
Upped vCore to 1.3v
Upped QPI/DRAM to 1.35v
Set RAM to lowest possible. DDR3-1149
Set UCLK to lowest possible. 2298
Set timings to 8-8-8-24
Set CPU PLL to 1.81v
Set QPI Link Data Rate to lowest.
IOH/ICH and IOH/ICH PCIE set to mimum voltage.

I tried setting vCore to 1.25 and QPI/DRAM to 1.3 but I get vertical colored lines after a few seconds on Windows desktop.
This is what I currently have.

I have AIM and MSN. I think it'll be easier/faster if we IM.

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ChickenInferno

· #16 · Nov 25, 2009

I've never seen vertical colored lines overclocking before, but it might just be something where the crash screws with your video card right before it gives out.

I would say back the vcore down as low as it will go without giving you the vertical lines and start stability testing there. The .05v jump was just arbitrary and too large of a jump (I just go over the voltage and hit the + key to increase the voltage one notch). Anything more than one notch at a time is just rushing through it, which tends to miss the sweet spot for stability.

My only other comment is that 1.30v for the QPI/DRAM voltage may be a little high but nothing to change at least at this point. You're on the right track now.

Zensou

Discussion Starter · #17 · Nov 25, 2009

Ok, so the settings in my previous post failed during p95. I read in a guide that 2:8 memory ratio is best for stability. How do I set that? Mine is only 2:6, maybe that's the problem. I increased vcore to 1.3 and decreased qpi/dram to 1.2. Going to test now.

Edit: I just ran SuperPi and the available memory and real memory show -1. Could that be a sign of unstable memory or something?

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devsk

· #18 · Nov 25, 2009

I somehow concluded that you had evga board. I did not realize you had Asus....silly me! Sorry for that. Yeah, with Asus, Auto was definitely not the way to go. In fact, it was excatly opposite. With Asus, I had to choose each and every voltage manually.

Both Asus and Gigabyte are pretty bad at Auto settings. So bad that they may even kill your hardware. I had gigabyte pass 1.42 for VTT for a 3.6Ghz overclock on Auto settings, which was insane.

ChickenInferno

· #19 · Nov 25, 2009

The 2:8 ratio is more to keep people away from using the 10x memory multiplier while first overclocking. A 2:6 or 2:8 is the best for stability (while doing initial overclocking), but use 2:6 if 2:8 comes close to your ram's rated speed. Later we can worry about clocking up the ram and getting stability back (ussually involves bumping up the QPI/DRAM voltage).

In all reality, the real ratio to worry about is qpi:uncore (NB frequency as seen in CPU-Z) of > o r=9:8.

It is true that the 8x memory mutliplier gives you the exact 9:8 ratio, but as long as it is greater than or eqal to 9:8, you are in the sweet spot.

ArmenianLegend

· #20 · Nov 25, 2009

have you flashed to the latest bios?

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