i5 7600k can't passe 4.6Ghz
i5 7600k can't passe 4.6Ghz
I have a Z270x with a 1.5Gbige and an i5 7600k, air cooler: Be quiet! Pure rock. Overclocked at 4.6 at 1.3v stable in Prime95 but temperatures around 95-100°C°. LLC set to high (standard-high-ultra). At 4.7 at 1.35v it fails and temperatures are already high for 4.6. Did I miss something? Is this a bad chip?
The cooler supports up to 130w of power dissipation.
Several elements influence its cooling effectiveness:
Airflow in the case
Additional heat generation from other components, such as the GPU(s)
Quality of thermal paste
Proper mounting
Use of a low-quality power supply
Spare 212 Evo? It could be useful to borrow the fan from it and place it on the opposite side of your cooler to enhance airflow. If that doesn't work, try swapping to another 212 model with two fans to check if it improves performance.
Ensure proper seating and collect temperature readings at the stock.
Are you certain the voltage remains at 1.3 under load, or is it just the setting you mentioned in the BIOS? With high load line calibration, sometimes it can overcompensate and raise the voltage too much. I had a motherboard that increased the voltage from 1.3 to 1.45, so I had to set the LLC to its lowest level to correct it. Use cpu-z to monitor the voltage during load in Windows and provide updates.
Ensure proper seating and monitor temperature readings at stock. I reinstalled my Pure rock with plenty of paste on the CPU. Despite this, stability issues persist when overclocking to 4.6Ghz—temperatures remain steady but Prime95 shows peaks around 75-80°C, reaching up to 85-90°C in some cases, while idle temps sit between 35-40°C. At 4.2Ghz, temperatures are 65-70°C with peaks at 80°C. My case is a sharkoon BW-9000 with two 140mm intake fans and one 120mm fan at the rear for exhaust; I previously used two rear exhaust fans but kept them off to reduce noise. I’m confident my cooler is correctly seated, as I’ve done this multiple times.
Airex :
Are you certain the voltage is 1.3 under load, or just the setting you mentioned in the bios? With load line calibration enabled on high, sometimes it overcompensates and raises the voltage too much. I had a mobo that increased 1.3 to 1.45, so I had to set LLC to the lowest level to balance it. I used cpu-z to check the voltage in Windows while in load mode and reported the results.
I manually set it to 1.3v, or I let it auto (which keeps it at 1.3v) with LLC high or auto, and the temperatures matched :/
MYELbe :
I reinstalled my Pure rock with plenty of paste on the CPU.
Whooaaaah!
Not a lot of paste is enough—use just a little to avoid issues!
Excessive paste can act like an insulator and might cause leaks if too much.
A single pea-sized amount in the middle of the chip works well.
Place the heatsink gently while securing it, and it should spread evenly.
Testing with newer Prime 95 versions leads to excessive and unrealistic heat readings... consider doing a burn test with Intel instead and let me know what you find (after removing the Nutella spread, I assume!)
Are you certain you need 1.3+ volts for 4.6Ghz? I’m running at 1.31v with my 7700k and can handle up to 5Ghz just fine.
I believe 1.25vcore should suffice, but make sure to test without the XMP profile enabled. It raises your RAM voltage and affects the CPU since the memory controller is integrated on the chip.
During stress tests, aim for no more than 85 degrees, though a decent air cooler won’t help much.
For 7xxx chips, temperature spikes are common—keeping temps below 70-75 degrees during gaming is safe.
Good luck!