Beginner overclocker
Beginner overclocker
I have been using prime95 for 18 minutes without my CPU temperatures going above 54°C.
My setup includes a 9600K with the Corsair H100i platinum AIO cooler on an ASUS Z390m-Pro gaming board.
Looking at other users' results, mine seems to be stable and low. Does this indicate I can achieve a solid overclock or is it just unrelated?
I’m not facing any issues with games or tasks; I just like experimenting and bought the K model to try it out.
There's more to overclocking that strictly temperature - and you should see you temperatures raise a little more over time, as the liquid is heatsoaked.
Even so, 54'C is a great starting point !!
To increase your clocks, you will have to increase voltage at some point - with Intel, likely from the outset.
Additional voltage = additional heat. That's where most people will find their first barrier, as the cooling solution has to be adequate for the additional generated heat.
Then ,there's a generally observed upper limit in terms of voltage for the health of your CPU, iMC and VRM - for a 9600K, that's typically accepted to be 1.35-1.4V (ideally less). That's not to say you can't get your OC stable at 1.45V (for example), provided temperatures are under control -- but you may be reducing the lifespan of various aspects by doing so.
OC theory remains consistent regardless of the manufacturer—whether it's ASUS, MSI, or Gigabyte—the core principles stay the same, only the terminology shifts. Now is the time to dive into research. Study everything about OC, focusing on your specific motherboard and CPU. Forums like Asus ROG are full of overclocking tips, adjustments, and general information about ASUS boards and the 9th generation CPU. This knowledge applies broadly; avoid getting bogged down in details that aren't relevant to your setup. You're after the general insights—what works, what doesn’t, and how things perform.
This includes other resources such as Anandtech, Overclockers, and even YouTube (with a cautious perspective).
When you feel confident about concepts like LLC, limits, PLL, ring voltages, VID, and vcore differences, revisit the material to confirm your understanding.
For optimal speeds under OC, aim for Prime95 small fft (AVX/2 disabled) at around 70°C, and gaming at about 55°C. If you stay within those ranges, you might still have some headroom, though hitting CPU voltage limits could reduce performance. Currently, your temperatures are excellent.
54C in Prime95? (Does this apply in the default Prime 95 or Blended mode? Use small FFTs)
You might be in economy mode in your Windows power plan settings.
Temperatures should likely be around 65-70°C.
Using that aio with a half-pint i5 and default configurations seems reasonable, though the temperatures are expected. It’s likely the best results come from a short warm-up period—around half an hour or more—to let the coolant adjust to the workload, which can slightly influence overall CPU temperatures. Simply sticking to stock settings and boosting turbo to 4.3GHz across all cores won’t push performance beyond around 120w on a 250w+ i5.
Yes, the process was completed in the blended mode. No adjustments were made while using prime95.