Good, stable performance for continuous use on an i7 6700k.
Good, stable performance for continuous use on an i7 6700k.
Here are the specifications rewritten with varied phrasing while keeping the original meaning and structure:
The Corsair Carbide 300R Windowed ATX Mid Tower Case is paired with the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO Z170. It runs an Intel Core i7 6700k at 4.625 GHz with a clock speed of 1.395V. The system includes 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 RAM at 3250MHz, supporting speeds up to 16-18-18-36-2T. Two EVGA GTX 970 FTW+ graphics cards are connected via ACX 2.0+ with a power draw of 1506.5/8000MHz and voltages of 1.275V/1.281V, delivering up to 300W. Additional components feature the Corsair H100i v2 Hydro unit, equipped with two SP120 fans and two Thermaltake RIING 12 Blue LEDs (Push/Pull/Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut). The setup also includes five Thermaltake RIING 12 Blue LEDs. An EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2 is installed, offering a power output of 1.3kW and fully modular design. Storage options include ADATA drives (480GB, Winblows+programs; 960GB for Games-Origin/Steam/GoG) and a Seagate 1TB Barracuda drive for music, videos, and storage. The system runs Realtek ALC1150/SupremeFX 2015 with Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. Build details can be found at the provided link.
Current overclock settings:
- Core clock: 125 BCLKx37 = 4.625GHz
- Uncore clock: 125 BCLKx33 = 4.125GHZ
- RAM clock: 125 BCLKx26 = 3.250GHz
- Clock frequency: 125 BCLKx10 = 1.250GHz
- Voltage: 1.395V in UEFI, 1.408V in Windows, under 100% load at 1.424V
- LLC voltage level: LVL 6
Feedback on performance is requested. TIA!
Screenshots and validation links are also provided for reference.
It depends on what you value more—staying at 4.5 ghz for better stability or risking a much higher voltage. The performance gain might justify it, but the extreme voltage could be risky.
My current reading is around 4.6 with a slightly lower voltage, not entirely certain of the exact value (just received the new bios a week ago and I'm still adjusting settings Z170 Sabertooth). It reaches its maximum at 78°C during stress tests, but generally stays below 70°C. Staying under 80°C isn't too bad; personally it feels a bit high, but that might just be me since it's during stress. During regular gaming sessions it tends to stay in the 52/54 range, which is acceptable for me. If I recall correctly, you're right about the highest safe voltage... though maybe off, as my old memory isn't as reliable now.
While playing games, I notice temperatures around 46C-55C. Idle temps sit between 26C-28C. I understand the ideal max voltage is 1.35v, so 1.4v is a bit high. I recall Intel datasheets say voltages up to 1.52v are safe, but I haven’t done that again, haha. Also, this chip hasn’t been delided yet, which might matter. It also reaches overclocks at 4.4GHz with 1.256v, 4.5Ghz at 1.280v, and 4.6Ghz at 1.370v.
It's all about keeping temperatures in check. Based on what you're saying, you seem okay so far, just a bit of space to adjust, but those voltages can easily go haywire if you're not careful. When I first updated my bios, I didn't realize all the changes would be lost and I'd have to overclock again. It ended up getting hotter than expected for the same settings, so I had to lower the voltages to make it stable and get decent performance.
Yeah man, the updated 2202 BIOS seems a bit problematic. The performance numbers were inconsistent—4.7GHz needed 1.46v with a 79C load and 4.8GHz required 1.510v at 83C. It’s pretty unstable. There’s also the issue of diminishing returns and how much the chip can scale with different voltages. Temperatures could be lower, but the average is around 75C, while the hottest core reached 80C under full load for an hour.
It depends on what you value more—staying at 4.5 ghz for better stability or risking a much higher voltage. The performance gain might justify it, but the extreme voltage could be risky.
I'm using an ASUS Z170-P with a 6600k and found that reaching 4.6ghz needed the same voltage as yours. When I tried auto voltage and auto LLC just for fun, I was surprised to see that only 30 runs of Intel burn tests reached the maximum voltage—just 1.338! That was significantly better than manually setting voltages. I keep all power-saving settings on, so typing this means I’m not even hitting 1.0v. The highest spike I’ve seen is 1.38v, which isn’t bad—maybe you’ll be surprised if you try it.