Need guidance on boosting your i7 8700K performance?
Need guidance on boosting your i7 8700K performance?
Hey everyone, I was testing my gaming rig and considered boosting the CPU. But stability problems popped up, and I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with the components listed. The parts are: Arous Z390 Ultra, i7 8700K, TRIDENT Z3200, CL15, 32GB Sapphire Speed 5700X, Corsair Vengeance AIO cooler, Evga 850 power supply. I started with a low OC of 4.8 (overclock by 4.7), changed Vcore to turbo, and increased voltage to 1.25V. Everything booted normally and games ran well. I moved to 4.9, then boosted to 1.3V – still stable, though it got hot. I went back to 4.9 and 1.3V and tried Prime 95, but it failed instantly. I adjusted the overclocks and voltages without success, only getting hotter above 1.35V. I returned to 4.8 again and tried the same settings, but Prime still crashed on even small FTP tests. All other programs worked fine – just the games and benchmarks were affected. I’m worried because Prime is a reliable CPU, so I’m thinking about rebuilding with a 3950X if I can’t get a stable OC. Would be great if you could help or suggest any fixes.
Don't discard a 8700k for a 3950x, that seems illogical... Unless your workload is heavily multi-threaded. Then an OC for the 8700k won't be as important as for a 3950x. Overall, it doesn’t really add up. Your 8700k remains a solid CPU choice. P95 can be tricky, though—I’d prefer stability with that benchmark too. I’d recommend running AIDA64 and focusing on the FPU test for a more realistic evaluation. Cinebench R20 is fast but too quick to judge long-term performance. A solid 8700k at 5 GHz still outperforms a 3950x in most games. Ryzen processors shine, but top-end Intel chips still edge out in gaming. If you’re building now, a 3700k offers great value. It’s surprisingly impressive for its price. Still, unless you notice overheating or instability in AIDA64, it’s fine to keep it. My 8700k handled 5 GHz at 1.3V reliably, running smoothly in AIDA64. I’m surprised it didn’t cause issues at that temperature—I’m still on a custom loop, but it’s manageable. If you hit 90-95°C in AIDA64, that’s normal. That level is typical for gaming performance. My 9900k stays in the low 90s in AIDA64 and high 50s in games.
I saved it using the 4.9 OC at 1.3v with an AVX offset of -1. It’s working smoothly on AIDA64 without any errors or overheating, max temperature reached 70°C. It handled stress CPU, FTP, and system memory issues instantly, showing no random problems so far. Likely AIDA will display any prime errors as expected.
Only the FPU is considered. That increases performance significantly, almost like a prime boost. I managed to run 22 hours with all selected at 5 GHZ @ 1.248 vcore. I couldn't reach 4.9 GHz using just stressing the FPU and ~1.255 vcore. Try testing the FPU alone to see the results. It will also heat up more, but 70°C is solid—it should reach around 82-85°C with just the FPU.
I enjoy realbench since it offers a stronger challenge than A64, is available for free, and demands both CPU and GPU resources.