Does overclocking a 9700K to 5GHz cause persistent BSODs and freezing without an obvious cause?
Does overclocking a 9700K to 5GHz cause persistent BSODs and freezing without an obvious cause?
Motherboard:
Gigabyte Z390 UD
Hello everyone, I was curious if anyone has any background on overclocking this board. I suspect there might be an issue that I haven’t noticed yet. The problem seems to appear when running prime95, which crashes within about three minutes. I’ve looked into BIOS adjustments, VRM temperatures, CPU and core temperatures, voltage settings, etc.
The voltage I’m currently using is 1.360V, and I’ve tried increasing it up to 1.400V, which felt quite high for a 5 GHz overclock on a 9700K processor. When the crashes happen, the VRM temps are usually low—around 70°C—and the CPU temperature is typically between 80-85°C. The ring clock multiplier is set to 45x, and the core clock multiplier is at 50x with a base frequency of 100 MHz. Enhanced multi-core performance and VT-d settings are disabled.
XMP is enabled, and I’m using Corsair Vengeance sticks with 2x16GB 2133MHz memory running at 3600MHz. I’m not very familiar with memory overclocking or XMP, so I’m unsure if boosting the memory to 1500 MHz would be stable, though I haven’t experienced any issues before.
Could anyone share tips on identifying the exact cause or provide more details about the board? I’d really appreciate any advice on this situation.
Note: It doesn’t appear to be a memory-related problem. I used y-cruncher and prime95 for testing and didn’t encounter any freezes or crashes.
Update your update with complete hardware details and operating system specifics. Provide PSU specifications, model, wattage, age, and condition of the components (original, new, used, refurbished). List any error codes, warnings, or events from Reliability History/Monitor or Event Viewer. Confirm whether the build will start in Safe Mode.
If this is an old overclock that has become unstable, CPUs do degrade over time, especially at voltages above 1.35 volts.
Single core was 4.9Ghz. All core turbo stock is 4.6Ghz, so 400Mhz across all 8 cores is going to add up to a bit.
Low to mid 80s is about right for daily use, but lower is better of course.
When you say all the voltage management settings, does that include load line calibration? If you are using a fixed voltage you might be experiencing voltage droop that is causing your instability.
LLC can push the voltages above where they are set, so best to be careful with it. But I would say lower the voltage back down to 1.36, bump up LLC if it isn't running now, and see if that helps at all.
AVX on or off testing with Prime 95. AVX loads do quite the number on the CPU, generally not needed if you are testing for gaming stability. Did you do any AVX offsets? Might be worth it.
What you're referring to is the apparent reason behind the situation. You're forcing the CPU to perform beyond its intended capacity, which might mean either the silicon wasn't successful or your voltage levels are too high, requiring adjustments to your VRM settings.
If turbo behaves as its name implies, it shouldn't be used with 1.36 and 1.4 volts as previously discussed. This could damage your chip. You should verify using low voltages (such as 1.2v) to determine the appropriate LLC setting before increasing the voltage.
I own a 9700k with 5.2/4.9 (core/uncore) configuration. It reached 1.5V for the vcore. HWiNFO65 shows VRVOUT never exceeds 1.506V. Intel's datasheet states 1.52V is the upper limit for vcore.
I might consider reducing the vcore since system instability seemed due to memory overclock (3995 @ 14-16-16-32, tRFC 325). Alternatively, I could raise the core/uncore clocks further instead of lowering vcore.