Increasing the performance of i7-4790k to its highest settings
Increasing the performance of i7-4790k to its highest settings
I've been trying to boost my i7-4790k's performance and wanted to know the maximum overclock possible.
budgetbuilds760 :
Looking at the thread title, I thought, Alright! budgetbuilds760 is definitely aiming for the gold ring of overclocking!
After reading your first post, I was surprised!
Perception can be misleading and often leads to assumptions about what's possible with an i7-4790k. The goal here is to understand the limits of your hardware, not just the theoretical maximum overclock.
budgetbuilds760 :
I've been trying to overclock my i7-4790k and wanted to know the highest achievable setting.
COOLER: hyper 212 Evo
MOBO: MSI Z97 pcmate
RAM: DDR3 1600 CAS 9 1.5v (TD8G16C9-OC16AK)
I...
I don't know about the other stuff but I wouldn't set my CPU voltage that high. Have you tried any stress tests or is that the idle temperature? The stress test temperatures I used were 'Heavy Load' and 'MSI Afterburner'. As for the voltages, I reset everything to default now.
I thought we were discussing VCORE and almost reacted instinctively! 😄
As you likely know, the VCCIN is the CPU input voltage, coming from the motherboard to the CPU voltage regulators. VCORE is delivered from the motherboard directly to the CPU cores. A VCCIN of 1.796 works fine, though I've seen people reaching up to 1.9 VCCIN. Your results might differ.
From my experience, begin by increasing VCORE and once you reach your limit, gradually raise VCCIN. Make small adjustments and monitor the temperature; patience is key, but this is the most effective method.
budgetbuilds760 :
Looking at the thread title caught my attention—I thought, Alright! budgetbuilds760 is definitely aiming for the gold in overclocking!
After reading your initial comment, I was surprised!
Understanding can be misleading, and it's easy to jump to conclusions about what overclocking means. What matters is how much you can push your hardware, not just the absolute top limit for a 4790K. That’s why I’m sharing my thoughts here.
budgetbuilds760 :
I’ve been trying to boost my i7-4790k and wanted to know the highest achievable overclock.
COOLER: hyper 212 Evo
MOBO: MSI Z97 pcmate
RAM: DDR3 1600 CAS 9 1.5v (TD8G16C9-OC16AK)
Previously, I clocked it at 4.7ghz with temperatures around 70°C. I increased the multiplier to 47 and kept the VCCIN voltage at 1.796. But when I disabled all overclock settings and reset everything, the voltage was too high.
At first, changing the base clock caused blue screens. I checked the Intel site and found that my CPU didn’t support RAM faster than DDR3 1600. I thought about pairing a high overclock with a fast RAM speed, but it’s tricky.
What should I set to get the best overclock without temperatures exceeding 85°C?
Overclocking demands knowledge, compatible hardware, and solid cooling—something I don’t have here.
The main challenge is maintaining CPU stability under heat. Even if you manage multiplier and Vcore, poor cooling can cause throttling. Remember: your CPU is built to protect itself, so performance drops after the overclock.
Many of us proudly claim high stable scores but often ignore thermal limits until we see our results drop significantly.
I’ll share a link to an overclocking study where they tested their i7-4790K with air cooling. It might help you gauge what’s possible with your setup.
http://lab501.net/intel-core-i7-4790k-in...ing-study/
A few tips: avoid changing the base clock—keep it at 100MHz!
To keep temps low, run the system memory at 1600MHz; anything higher risks overclocking your memory controller.
Everyone, I see how much I don’t understand. The VCCIN voltage isn’t important; it’s the core voltage that really matters. I’ve learned a lot from your assistance and it’s hard to picture what a bicycle repairman would think when I mentioned the CPU voltage was at 1.796 (actually it was VCCIN, but I didn’t say that in the thread because I wasn’t sure about the topic). I’ll focus on overclocking by increasing the multiplier, gaming, and keeping an eye on temperatures. The Intel burn-in test is really demanding for CPU usage and not very realistic. I’ll check other programs that use less CPU power next time. Thanks again for all your help.