Core i7/X58 Overclocking Thread

[GenTarkin]

Yeah. 3836B043 is sucking now! My first impressions of it were good, but upon further testing, I believe it sucks. It wont do 3.8GHz stable at 1.296v, but my 940 will. On the other hand, the 3836B043 will boot into Vista at 4GHz with 1.296v, and the 940 won't!

So far I've tested:

3836B043 (920)
3836A394 (920)
3837A728 (920)
3838A332 (940)

None of them will do 4GHz Stable without at least 1.4V+, but all will do 3.8GHz at <1.35v. I've tested this on eVGA X58 and Asus P6T with 4 different kits of Corsair Dominator 6GB 1600.

I don't know how you guys are getting these things to do 4GHz at low volts like this. I am on a Noctua Air cooler, but my temps are only topping 74 C.

What happens is prime blend just freezes, and 10 seconds later BSOD.

Anyone know if Frys has any good steppings in right now? (Bay area).

Its funny this sucks =( rofl....my prime acts the SAME exact way on my chip.
Freezes into about 15mins of it, then BSOD's 10 seconds later with "an uncorrectable hardware error has occurred" Its that same message each time.
I have a 3836B043 chip.
I wonder if there is one or two settings for this batch that specifically need tweaked....and we just gotta find them.
Oh well, so much for B's being good chips...I went through hell to get this one with frys rofl. First I bought a 3839A chip, didnt even open it..just took it back and fought for the last B chip they had.

[derektm]

Its funny this sucks =( rofl....my prime acts the SAME exact way on my chip.
Freezes into about 15mins of it, then BSOD's 10 seconds later with "an uncorrectable hardware error has occurred" Its that same message each time.
I have a 3836B043 chip.
I wonder if there is one or two settings for this batch that specifically need tweaked....and we just gotta find them.
Oh well, so much for B's being good chips...I went through hell to get this one with frys rofl. First I bought a 3839A chip, didnt even open it..just took it back and fought for the last B chip they had.

Same here. I've tested 4 chips so far. I've tried every setting / voltage combination imaginable to no avail.

If anyone's in the bay area and wants to test these CPU's, let me know. I'd be interested in what someone else can do with them.

[jcool]

Try higher VTT... or lower mem divider/laxer mem timings. At least that's the issue for me when that error shows up, not the Vcore.

[GenTarkin]

Try higher VTT... or lower mem divider/laxer mem timings. At least that's the issue for me when that error shows up, not the Vcore.

whats max safe VTT and Im assuming this is QPI/VTT right?

[derektm]

Try higher VTT... or lower mem divider/laxer mem timings. At least that's the issue for me when that error shows up, not the Vcore.

I've tried up to 2.1V on PLL and 1.5V on the VTT (QPI/DRAM). Lowest mem dividers as well. I'm going to sell a couple of these chips and buy a good watercooling setup and see if that helps me any.

I may go to Frys and see if I can find a 3837 or 38B next. It would be awesome if I could find a chip that does 4GHz with <1.3v because then I could just stick with air cooling.

[YukonTrooper]

Just to add some confusion to the mix, running QPI on the "slow" setting makes my setup super unstable. I can attain much better clocks when it's left at x36. F4k BIOS on DS4.

[SteveRo]

Just to add some confusion to the mix, running QPI on the "slow" setting makes my setup super unstable. I can attain much better clocks when it's left at x36. F4k BIOS on DS4.

They call is slow for a reason - I ran 3dmark06 on slow and my score dropped from 24k to 3k.

[YukonTrooper]

They call is slow for a reason - I ran 3dmark06 on slow and my score dropped from 24k to 3k.

Yup. Just wanted to reflect on what some people were saying about running it on "slow" for benching higher clocks. It seems that it runs so slow that it causes instability. Even when I select the OS on boot, it clears the screen very slowly compared to normal.

[GenTarkin]

derektm can you try clocking it without HT enabled and see if clocks go higher?

[derektm]

derektm can you try clocking it without HT enabled and see if clocks go higher?

Sure. I'll test in about an hour. Need to get some groceries!

[The-Fox]

Its funny this sucks =( rofl....my prime acts the SAME exact way on my chip.
Freezes into about 15mins of it, then BSOD's 10 seconds later with "an uncorrectable hardware error has occurred" Its that same message each time.
I have a 3836B043 chip.
I wonder if there is one or two settings for this batch that specifically need tweaked....and we just gotta find them.
Oh well, so much for B's being good chips...I went through hell to get this one with frys rofl. First I bought a 3839A chip, didnt even open it..just took it back and fought for the last B chip they had.

Seems very unlikely that its the CPU/vcore as you are getting same errors with different chips.
Maybe higher QPI/vtt although below 200blck you usually don't need any increase from stock voltage.

Does higher vcore helps to get the chips stable ?

[jcool]

whats max safe VTT and Im assuming this is QPI/VTT right?

No one knows for sure yet. Intel says 1,375V max, most people use 1,5-1,55V for higher clocks. If you aren't prepared to lose your CPU I'd recommend staying at or below 1,45V for 24/7 air, but that's just a rough guesstimate and my personal opinion on the matter.

[GenTarkin]

ok, cuz Ive only tried 1.325v or so...

[burningrave101]

ok, cuz Ive only tried 1.325v or so...

Yeah bump it on up to at least 1.375v-1.4v to see if that helps any. Even the Corsair XMP memory profiles set the QPI/Vtt voltage at 1.35v.

[GenTarkin]

Yeah bump it on up to at least 1.375v-1.4v to see if that helps any. Even the Corsair XMP memory profiles set the QPI/Vtt voltage at 1.35v.

Yeah I have the OCZ 1333 stuff and their XMP profiles both bump it up to 1.4v .. I was just makin sure because intel spec sheet says 1.35 the highest, and then I saw what XMP set it at and I was like hrm....dangerous or ok? hehe
So, I will try higher.

Also, question is LinX a decent program to stability test with? Ive been running it on max memory and like times to run of around 200

[derektm]

derektm can you try clocking it without HT enabled and see if clocks go higher?

With HT off temps go down drastically, which may allow for more overclocking headroom. With that said, I still couldn't get 4GHz stable on it even with 1.4v. Hopefully you'll have better luck than me. I always get the worst of the worst chips!

[Aberration]

I've tried up to 2.1V on PLL and 1.5V on the VTT (QPI/DRAM). Lowest mem dividers as well. I'm going to sell a couple of these chips and buy a good watercooling setup and see if that helps me any.

I may go to Frys and see if I can find a 3837 or 38B next. It would be awesome if I could find a chip that does 4GHz with <1.3v because then I could just stick with air cooling.

I am really not sure where the variation is coming with regards to clocks on batch numbers. Need to get a good database going.

Mine is 3838A557, and it doesn't matter how much voltage I give it, it wont do 4GHz stable.

But it runs 3.8Ghz with 1.27V.

I am on water.

Eh, its good enough. I am not one to hunt around for a chip. Sure wish I would have waited to purchase though, down $70 from what I paid. If it fails I will RMA, but if not I will stick with it.

[burningrave101]

With HT off temps go down drastically, which may allow for more overclocking headroom. With that said, I still couldn't get 4GHz stable on it even with 1.4v. Hopefully you'll have better luck than me. I always get the worst of the worst chips!

I don't think temps are the limiting factor on these i7's unless you are either running the Intel stock cooler or using a real high vcore. I'm at 3.8Ghz with 1.3v testing right now and Prime95 Blend isn't even pushing me over 65C with aircooling. I still stay under 80C with 4Ghz and 1.4v+ while running LinX as well.

Personally I think the limiting factor is the memory controller and it's becoming unstable at high clocks. I know it has to be something like that in my case because I can get 190x21 stable but 211x19 won't work for me and the lockups and BSOD's look memory related.

I've also noticed that a lot of the people with the highest overclocks are running 3x1GB of RAM instead of 3x2GB. Would be interesting to compare overclocks between running 3x1GB and 3x2GB to see what if any difference there is. Also note that some people are running Vista x64 while others are running XP or Vista 32-bit, especially if they only have 3 gigs of RAM. That does make a difference because it's going to be harder to get stable on Vista x64 due to the 64-bit excecution.

[derektm]

I am really not sure where the variation is coming with regards to clocks on batch numbers. Need to get a good database going.

Mine is 3838A557, and it doesn't matter how much voltage I give it, it wont do 4GHz stable.

But it runs 3.8Ghz with 1.27V.

I am on water.

Eh, its good enough. I am not one to hunt around for a chip. Sure wish I would have waited to purchase though, down $70 from what I paid. If it fails I will RMA, but if not I will stick with it.

Yeah... I agree entirely. Its almost not worth it just to have that extra 200mhz. I've been through 4 chips that won't do 4Ghz reliably, but all did 3.8 with ease. That chip you have is better than my B chip which takes just a bit over 1.3v for 3.8Ghz.

[liftedcj7on44s]

I don't think temps are the limiting factor on these i7's unless you are either running the Intel stock cooler or using a real high vcore. I'm at 3.8Ghz with 1.3v testing right now and Prime95 Blend isn't even pushing me over 65C with aircooling. I still stay under 80C with 4Ghz and 1.4v+ while running LinX as well.

Personally I think the limiting factor is the memory controller and it's becoming unstable at high clocks. I know it has to be something like that in my case because I can get 190x21 stable but 211x19 won't work for me and the lockups and BSOD's look memory related.

I've also noticed that a lot of the people with the highest overclocks are running 3x1GB of RAM instead of 3x2GB. Would be interesting to compare overclocks between running 3x1GB and 3x2GB to see what if any difference there is. Also note that some people are running Vista x64 while others are running XP or Vista 32-bit, especially if they only have 3 gigs of RAM. That does make a difference because it's going to be harder to get stable on Vista x64 due to the 64-bit excecution.

I agree with you 100%. This is why i hate that intel has put the on die memory controller on these chips. It just like when i was overclocking socket 939 AMD's. Alot of my overclocking problem were due to a weak memory controller. Only way to test this theory is set the multi to the max and mem to the lowest and see what happens.

[Chicken Patty]

I agree with you 100%. This is why i hate that intel has put the on die memory controller on these chips. It just like when i was overclocking socket 939 AMD's. Alot of my overclocking problem were due to a weak memory controller. Only way to test this theory is set the multi to the max and mem to the lowest and see what happens.

what saved AMD is that you can get black edition CPU's for $200-300, but if you wanted that on a i7, you'd have to spend $1000+ on the 965! I still have my AMD rig in my sig, and overclocking those things is a bit hard because the old gen phenoms dont clock very high, so it was a bit of a challenge getting a good clock out of it. But the unlocked multipliers were awesome, it was hard to overclock it, but easy to tell what was the problem. I simply upped the multi, while keeping the HT, and the NB at default clocks along with the ram since I was not raising the fSB. automatically you knocked everything out of the equation as to where your instability was coming from.

Now with the i7, god knows what is causing this instability, this platform is still very young and alot is to be learned as time passes. however, blaming the IMC could be a good good guess!

[Xello]

I've seen Fugger himself remark how stable the new 'uncore' is (memory controller / L3 cache), especially at super high clocks, maybe it varies greatly between chips.

Mine is 3838A557, and it doesn't matter how much voltage I give it, it wont do 4GHz stable.

But it runs 3.8Ghz with 1.27V.

Not the first time i've seen that, there are many posts with people doing 3.2ghz - 3.8ghz with 1.1v-1.2v, but i wouldn't be surprised if half of them won't go much higher without tons of extra voltage, that seems to be the way with these chips and a better quality chip really means you have more room before you hit this wall / ultra-diminishing returns. I remember Anandtech stating in one of their pre-launch articles how it would be childsplay to take i7 to 4ghz but anything above that would be what 'seperates the men from the boys' so to speak, perhaps they were partly right but it may more come down to getting a chip that doesn't have that low ceiling.

[SteveRo]

No one knows for sure yet. Intel says 1,375V max, most people use 1,5-1,55V for higher clocks. If you aren't prepared to lose your CPU I'd recommend staying at or below 1,45V for 24/7 air, but that's just a rough guesstimate and my personal opinion on the matter.

In the table below I think max qpi v is vtta and vttd -

[anzial]

There's no VID on i7s, right?

[ACS]

Ive got problems getting my board to even post at anything above 196bclk, 21x196 is prime stable for me with HT on @ 1.39vcc 1.35 qpi/pll .

When i put 197 no post , im sure i have more juice in this proc ;/ Tried anything i can think of , lowest mem/uncore/qpi dividers - bumped qpi voltage up to 1.55 , dram to 1.7 , vcc to 1.55. Laxed memory timings , tried skew settings - nothing. No post at 197 and up at all.

There was one time that PC posted at 197 noticably slower (watching the detect dram/cpu on the little lcd asus board has)and then froze on post. Cant reproduce this again thou, no post.

Tried 0903 and 0904 bioses, dunno if cpu just cant do above 196 or its a dummie board problem.

Any ideas ?