Inquiry Regarding My CPU Performance: Intel Core i7-7700K
Inquiry Regarding My CPU Performance: Intel Core i7-7700K
DrumsXO :
Here's an update, for anyone who cares.
Last night after I got home from work, I got to work manually overclocking my CPU instead of allowing the BIOS to do it automatically. Keeping my overclock at 4.8GHz, I was able to lower my voltage down quite a bit from what it was. The OC Genie had been pushing almost 1.4 volts into my CPU, which explains why the temperatures were so high.
After doing a lot of tinkering and testing, I was able to settle, stably, on 1.15 volts. At one point I managed to run Prime95 for over an hour at 1.135 volts, but when I started doing a reboot cycle to see if it would crash on boot, it did. The same happened at 1.14 and 1.145, but at 1.15 volts it ran Prime95 for over an hour and the max temp was 77 Celsius. 30 minutes of GTA V on Ultra and I only hit 55 Celsius, and 30 minutes of Ghost Recon: Wildlands on Ultra and I only reached 61 Celsius.
Those temperatures are a massive improvement from what I was previously seeing, and everything seems to be stable thus far. Only time will tell, but I think I'm golden here at 1.15 volts.
It's great you've taken your first step into manual overclocking each step you take going forward you will learn more and more as you establish your base foundation to build your overclocking knowledge upon. Congratulations! Ry
You are right about lower temperatures.
The AVX instructions are quite demanding and not very common in everyday use, so it's fine to keep their clock speed at a lower setting.
You might consider reducing other CPU voltages such as SA and IO. Just avoid making too many changes at once; this helps you identify what needs fixing if the system becomes unstable.
I also suggest learning about those additional voltages—SA for instance is the memory controller voltage, and its value is typically higher than the core voltage. The difference varies based on factors like MB, RAM, and overclocking settings.
Last night I changed the CPU Ratio to Dynamic Mode and quickly switched it back.
Checking Core Temp and CPU-Z showed the CPU fluctuating rapidly between 4.8 and 4.4GHz—just a lot of back-and-forth at around 10% load.
Do you have any specific recommendations for SA and IO voltages? I’m not sure if experimenting with them is a good idea, since I usually adjust the CPU Core Voltage confidently.
the jumpy behavior is normal. mine works well across any frequency range from 800MHz to 4.5GHz. that’s the typical performance. it can occur hundreds of times each second. regarding voltages, i lack sufficient experience with Sky Lake and even don’t own one at home. it really depends on the clock speed of your RAM and how much the memory controller must manage at specific CPU frequencies. BIOS values often use color coding to indicate safe, slightly above safe, and extreme levels—this can vary by manufacturer. I’m content with a +0.3v offset over the core, which matches what you have. your CPU being 3 generations newer might handle it well even with lower offsets. just consider adjusting the offset to smaller numbers.
the jumpy thing is completely acceptable. mine jumps in any range from 800MHz to 4.5GHz. that's the normal behavior. and it can occur hundreds of times per second.
regarding the voltages, i lack sufficient experience with sky lake and even don't own one at home. it really depends on the RAM clock speed and how much the memory controller must manage at the given CPU frequencies/temperatures. the BIOS values often use colors to indicate safe, a bit more than that but still safe, and extreme. these can vary depending on the manufacturer.
i'm completely satisfied with a +0.3v offset over the core. that's what you have, but your CPU is 3 gen newer and might handle it well with less.
just experiment with adjusting the offset instead of changing the values directly.
my concern about the frequency fluctuations is that they could keep happening while i'm gaming, which might affect my performance...
so, should i adjust the offset rather than modifying the actual values?
i tried manually setting the SA Voltage value last night to 1.3 as suggested by someone here, and it was marked in red. the value that was highlighted seems too high, because 1.30 was also red.
the section about SA voltage default said it should be around 1.050, and IO Voltage around 0.950 or similar. those seem quite low, so i left them unchanged.
no, it won't jump under load. just run a benchmark and observe the frequency. regarding the voltages, on ASUS boards (and i don't use anything else for various reasons) those voltages (SA and IO) are set as offsets. you can apply values between 1 and 1.3v. io needs to be lower than sa.
No, it won't jump under load. Just run a benchmark and observe the frequency. Regarding the voltages, on ASUS boards (and since I don't use anything else for various reasons) those voltages (SA and IO) are set as offsets. You can apply values between 1 and 1.3v. IO needs less than SA. Will these values behave similarly to Core Voltage? Meaning if it's too low, the system might not boot, freeze, or crash, etc?