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Overclocking i7 950 - Page 3

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Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20344 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-21 04:24:23
November 21 2011 04:22 GMT
#41
Anything below 1.26 will bluescreen within 30 sec of reaching desktop, even @ 3.2ghz, so i bumped it up to 1.3 to be sure of stability anyway as ~75c p95 max is like 15c lower than i had before and it was fine even then.


Im pretty sure your motherboard and/or CPU is just a ton better than mine, cooling too, im gonna make sure to get either an NH-D14 or if i dont have the space, a high end water cooler with my next build (ivy bridge? not even sure if there will be quads etc)
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Phayze
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada2029 Posts
November 21 2011 04:23 GMT
#42
you wouldnt happen to have all the power saving features enabled would you?
Proud member of the LGA-1366 Core-i7 4Ghz Club
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20344 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-21 04:27:05
November 21 2011 04:24 GMT
#43
On November 21 2011 13:23 Phayze wrote:
you wouldnt happen to have all the power saving features enabled would you?


None of them... Its a pretty horrible result (3.8ghz w/o hyperthreading) but i guess im stuck with it when i cant move bclck above ~170 without instant bluescreen at any voltage, nor move multiplier past 23, and hyperthreading gives me >10c more heat, which i cant really afford either
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20344 Posts
November 21 2011 04:44 GMT
#44
It bluescreened. Same bclk, mult, RAM, uncore, qpi settings as you, 1.3 vcore, qpi/vtt on auto... I was running @4 with hyperthreading for almost a year using 1.35vcore, qpi/vtt on auto... a bit hot but it never actuly passed ~80c outside of benchmarks, just doesnt work anymore.

I think my CPU got permanantly damaged or something
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
mahnini
Profile Blog Joined October 2005
United States6862 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-21 05:30:49
November 21 2011 05:29 GMT
#45
On November 21 2011 11:34 Boblhead wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 21 2011 11:18 Cyro wrote:
On November 21 2011 11:18 Boblhead wrote:
On November 21 2011 10:21 Phayze wrote:
81 is too high for first gen i7's.


They aren't first gens..... But yes the temp is way too high even though its a prime 95 temp.




Yes they are



I consider the 1156 lynnfields to be first gen

they are part of the generation of architecture. if anythign the bloomfields came first.

On November 21 2011 13:44 Cyro wrote:
It bluescreened. Same bclk, mult, RAM, uncore, qpi settings as you, 1.3 vcore, qpi/vtt on auto... I was running @4 with hyperthreading for almost a year using 1.35vcore, qpi/vtt on auto... a bit hot but it never actuly passed ~80c outside of benchmarks, just doesnt work anymore.

I think my CPU got permanantly damaged or something

some people experience degradation with high voltage overclocks so that might be what's happening in your case.
the world's a playground. you know that when you're a kid, but somewhere along the way everyone forgets it.
Phayze
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada2029 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-21 07:13:57
November 21 2011 07:08 GMT
#46
Yep, your friend was quite stupid to have you running that processor at 1.35V for a 4ghz OC on a d0. Look up your motherboard online and see what OC's other people achieved. It could be a limitation of the board just not being able to handle the higher bclk. So at like 1.24V Vcore and 1.22 QPI/VTT is instant BSOD at 166 BCLK? It could be a case of TOO much power. Like remember, stock i7-950 is 1.181V. Google the BSOD code. You want to look whether it's caused by memory or the OC (power related/failure).
Proud member of the LGA-1366 Core-i7 4Ghz Club
SoulWager
Profile Joined August 2010
United States464 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-21 12:38:54
November 21 2011 12:13 GMT
#47
That CPU cooler should be enough, have you tried reseating it w/ fresh thermal paste?

Each CPU is different, if yours got damaged or not you should probably start from scratch on it's overclock:

If you're new to overclocking, you should probably leave all the voltages except vcore on auto.

with good 1600 memory, the RAM overclock will be limited by the IMC in the CPU, not by the ram it's self. IIRC those CPUS were only rated to run RAM at 1066. but for ease of overclocking, just load the XMP then manually override the memory multiplier down to 8.

If you're aiming for a substantial OC, you should disable Hyperthreading and all the power saving features of the CPU.(HT is like adding 25% increase in performance for highly threaded environments, it generally won't help as much because you'll hit a higher cooler OC without it. It won't help at all for sc2) If you want a stock voltage OC, you can leave HT on.

set vcore to 1.2v, CPU multipler to it's highest, then starting at about 150 increase BCLK in increments of 5 until you can't pass 5 minutes worth of prime.

Then start incrementing vcore very slowly, until you get stability back, then BCLK till you lose stability.

Repeat until you hit your maximum tolerable voltage/temp(I'd stay under 1.3v and 80°C in prime were it my machine), or you hit your desired OC, or stop when increasing voltage doesn't improve stability.

Now you have your highest 5minute stable CPU overclock at that multiplier, try reducing CPU multiplier by 1, and increasing BCLK by about 10-15, to see if you can get a higher stable overclock with that multiplier. after you make that call, you pick your multiplier and start fine tuning the stability:

drop BCLK by about 5 from the highest 5 minute OC, run prime for a couple hours to see if it's stable, then repeat the above process with smaller increments and 1 hour stress tests to narrow down the ideal settings. When you think you're done, run a 24 hour torture test to make absolutely sure it's stable.

as for me, I have an i7 930 @ 3.61Ghz, 1.175v w/ HT on. I didn't bother with a huge overclock because it's fast enough to stream sc2 at stock voltages, and I prefer a cooler running CPU(less heat= less noise, and yes my CPU is slightly undervolted).
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20344 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-21 22:40:56
November 21 2011 15:48 GMT
#48
On November 21 2011 16:08 Phayze wrote:
Yep, your friend was quite stupid to have you running that processor at 1.35V for a 4ghz OC on a d0. Look up your motherboard online and see what OC's other people achieved. It could be a limitation of the board just not being able to handle the higher bclk. So at like 1.24V Vcore and 1.22 QPI/VTT is instant BSOD at 166 BCLK? It could be a case of TOO much power. Like remember, stock i7-950 is 1.181V. Google the BSOD code. You want to look whether it's caused by memory or the OC (power related/failure).



I tried stock vcore @166x20 mult and it wouldnt boot either with other stuff on auto. The RAM has like 20 reviews from people stating they hit 4ghz+ with it with no problems on the same cpu's.


Thanks for all comments, il have another whack at it later
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20344 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-21 23:47:01
November 21 2011 22:45 GMT
#49
Ok i read some more stuff and spent a lot of time running prime95, it seems that everything works fine aside from increasing my base clock, at ~150bclk i can run x24 (3.6ghz) with hyperthreading @1.2vcore, but as i increase base clock, at ~160 i start to hit errors in prime95 after around 5 minutes (just 1 thread here and there drops) and @166+, the whole system is just unstable, bluescreening when put under major stress. I tried everything from 1.2 to 1.32vcore and a few other voltage options, but everything works fine, no problem @1.2vcore until ~160bclk, where it suddenly goes to shit.


What should i do from now? Can i push it further, is it a problem with motherboard/cpu etc, am i maybe missing a setting etc, or just stuck @3.6ghz? Heat is fine, 80c @1.3v with hyperthreading when i tested it at that an hour ago.


Thanks for all your help everyone either way.


Im looking a lot more into vtt voltage and running memtest as that seems to be a potential problem
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20344 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-22 00:24:43
November 22 2011 00:22 GMT
#50
I read some stuff about vtt/qpi voltage and base clock being related, and after another guide i decided to step back and run higher baseclocks with lower mults close to stock frequency to test for stability, it seems to be running fine atm @180 (3.06ghz) so im gonna bump up to 200x15.


More knowledge of what runs and what doesnt cant hurt right?
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Phayze
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada2029 Posts
November 22 2011 00:59 GMT
#51
You should not have any trouble as long as you are careful with how much power you pump into the processor. If theres not enough power, it blue screens, you reset cmos, no harm done. Too much power, cause damage, then you have problems. Experiment all you want with different multipliers/bclk combinations but try to stick to multiples that keep your ram at it's rated speed.
Proud member of the LGA-1366 Core-i7 4Ghz Club
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20344 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-22 01:04:28
November 22 2011 01:01 GMT
#52
On November 22 2011 09:59 Phayze wrote:
You should not have any trouble as long as you are careful with how much power you pump into the processor. If theres not enough power, it blue screens, you reset cmos, no harm done. Too much power, cause damage, then you have problems. Experiment all you want with different multipliers/bclk combinations but try to stick to multiples that keep your ram at it's rated speed.



Yea ive always been watching RAM frequency etc, manually set it to 1.6v 9-9-9-24 and favoring going under the rated 1600mhz instead of OCing it using the mult.


Interestingly enough, it seems i need >1.26vcore to boot at higher base clocks, even on lower overall frequencies...


200 instant crashes regardless, but 180x22 @1.31v seems pretty stable (166x(>20) is not) so im gonna keep testing for a bit.


On a side note, when do i evolve into a reaver?
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20344 Posts
November 22 2011 01:30 GMT
#53
Dropped a thread in Prime95 after 40 mins, rounding error.


Im at 3960mhz (180x22) 1.31v with RAM underclocked to 1440mhz, floating 74-80c across cores, should i bump up the vcore a bit?
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20344 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-22 04:24:11
November 22 2011 04:23 GMT
#54
Had and dealt with some more issues, through a lot of trial and error i learned that my system is not stable at >~3.6ghz with under 1.3vcore, and i got errors in prime95 after half an hour or so at ~1.31, so eventuly with vtt voltage tweaks im running @166x24 with hyperthreading @1.35vcore, seems stable, I dropped P95 after 5 minutes because temps were approaching 90c very slowly and started stress testing with xsplit, hasnt hit 80c in an hour or so through various stuff, replays at x8, skyrim gameplay while streaming, etc, so i think this will work for me, it sucks i have to use such high vcore though... I can boot @4ghz with like 1.26 but it just instantly crashes when CPU gets to high load.


Hyperthreading cuts 10c off those temps, so i was considering running Prime95 with it disabled at the same voltage, would that be an accurate test of stability though? Im not sure what effect disabling hyperthreading would have on potential errors (would they not occur with the reduced load/heat?) but if you think i should il run it for like 8 hours or something.


It took me 2 hours to get a second thread to crash @1.3v with error (after i couldnt even run at 1.28) so i think 1.35 should be stable, provided temps are not an issue (and i havnt found anything capable of driving them nearly as high as p95)
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
SoulWager
Profile Joined August 2010
United States464 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-22 06:56:27
November 22 2011 06:51 GMT
#55
Why do you have hyperthreading enabled in the first place? If you're increasing voltages to get a better OC, that should be disabled regardless of what programs you're running. It sounds like you wasted a lot of time with the trial and error method. While the systematic approach in my earlier post might take a couple days of work to find the limit of stability, you're going to get better results.
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20344 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-22 07:08:44
November 22 2011 07:01 GMT
#56
On November 22 2011 15:51 SoulWager wrote:
Why do you have hyperthreading enabled in the first place? If you're increasing voltages to get a better OC, that should be disabled regardless of what programs you're running. It sounds like you wasted a lot of time with the trial and error method. While the systematic approach in my earlier post might take a couple days of work to find the limit of stability, you're going to get better results.



Because i dont loose anything by enabling it as far as i know. I wasnt going to use it for xsplit/sc2/skyrim anyway, actuly disabled atm.


I cant run at lower voltages anyway, because the system is unstable. 1.3v gets me some 3.4-3.5ghz, anything less will throw up prime95 errors or flat out bluescreens. I tried your approach, but i cant get anywhere near 4ghz with it, HT on or off.


It might be a problem with my motherboard (or just a shitty motherboard) or i might be missing something, but i cant get anywhere on the lower voltages mentioned. 166x23 on 1.26v instant crashes in p95, ~1.3v throws up errors, and this is 3.84ghz without hyperthreading.

My 1600mhz RAM is @ 1440mhz at rated timings and voltage meanwhile, and i tried various uncore multiplier settings but it had zero effect on stability
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
SoulWager
Profile Joined August 2010
United States464 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-22 11:13:09
November 22 2011 10:46 GMT
#57
well, you can find out what's limiting you by minimizing all the multipliers, scaling up BCLK till you lose 5min stability, then go through the multipliers one at a time first just CPU, then just RAM, etc. to see exactly where the instability is coming from.


for further reading: http://www.overclock.net/t/538439/guide-to-overclocking-the-core-i7-920-or-930-to-4-0ghz

That guide works just as well for an i7 950, you just have the option of higher multipliers.
necrosed
Profile Joined March 2011
Brazil885 Posts
November 22 2011 11:52 GMT
#58
Well, I just got my D0 950 recently, but haven't got the time to overclock it (I'll do it in two weeks or so).
I'm shooting for 4GHz. I also have a trio of Kingston's HyperX Ti 1800, so I'm gonna ask for some early advice on what should I tweak to get the maximum from it. (as you can see, I'm not very experienced). Are memory timings > memory frequence? What should I shoot for?
btw, My heatsink is a ThermalTake SpinQ VT.
Shadow of his former self.
Phayze
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada2029 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-22 12:43:25
November 22 2011 12:11 GMT
#59
Would it be possible to try to run it at stock frequencies at 1.181V? I'm starting to think your processor needs the extra voltage to be stable. maybe the mobo just doesn't want to run with a lower voltage, bios update might help (with all settings at stock i might add). As far as hyper threading goes, your processor will run 5-6 degrees hotter with it enabled. If you're putting extra volts in you probably should disable it.
Proud member of the LGA-1366 Core-i7 4Ghz Club
SoulWager
Profile Joined August 2010
United States464 Posts
November 22 2011 16:35 GMT
#60
On November 22 2011 20:52 necrosed wrote:
Well, I just got my D0 950 recently, but haven't got the time to overclock it (I'll do it in two weeks or so).
I'm shooting for 4GHz. I also have a trio of Kingston's HyperX Ti 1800, so I'm gonna ask for some early advice on what should I tweak to get the maximum from it. (as you can see, I'm not very experienced). Are memory timings > memory frequence? What should I shoot for?
btw, My heatsink is a ThermalTake SpinQ VT.

http://www.overclock.net/t/538439/guide-to-overclocking-the-core-i7-920-or-930-to-4-0ghz That guide will work just as well for a 950, as for memory, you won't notice a difference in performance outside of huge spreadsheets or other niche applications so it probably isn't worth the time to optimize. as for timings vs clock, that depends on how much more clock you get from loosening the timings and the reverse. Considering the CPU isn't going to like running memory that fast, you're better off optimizing for latency. If you really want to optimize your RAM, try 7-8-7-24 @ ~1400 and work your way up.
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