Question So I'm seeing 6ghz idling on my 9700k
Question So I'm seeing 6ghz idling on my 9700k
I'm experimenting with my OC settings once more and finally managed to activate Intel boost 2.0 on my Z390 Aorus Ultra. I achieved 5.1 Ghz and a stable 4.7 Cache with adaptive voltage (around 1.410 if locked), but pushing it to 5.2 gives a noticeable improvement in Cinebench R15, though it isn't consistent. Yesterday I left the PC idle and unexpectedly saw 6Ghz, which made me think about ways to further increase OC without risking unsafe voltages. Since it reached 6Ghz without crashing (it was stable at idle too), I'm curious if there are tips to reach 5.2 safely. I noticed the safe voltage range is between 1.35 and 1.5 according to some online sources. My CPU is an i7 9700k running at 5.1 Ghz with adaptive voltage, turbo boost enabled, all C states active, power limit disabled, and speed steps turned on. The motherboard is Z390 Aorus Ultra Rev 1.0, I have four 8Gb Hyperx Fury HX436C17FB3K4 RAM modules at 3600Mhz with various TRFs, and the GPU is an RTX 3070 Galax SG paired with a Noctua NH-D15S cooler featuring two fans directing airflow.
'Idle' just means nothing is occurring. The 6GHz might be misread, but even if correct, it would have almost no CPU load and would only last a brief moment—so it doesn't matter practically. 'Safe' voltages are subjective and depend on the board's specs, the cooler, and other details. The commonly used ~1.4V has remained relatively stable over time. 1.5V is quite far from what's typical. If you can't increase voltage much, reaching 5.2V seems unlikely. Perhaps an AVX offset could help if you haven't already implemented it.
It is clearly incorrect. Proper measurement shows the actual BCLK remains unchanged at 0.1 MHz. HWINFO falsely reports BCLK reaching 117.8 MHz, which never occurred. Adjusting BCLK to 100 MHz restores the correct value of 5100 MHz. (100.0 / 117.8) × 6009 MHz ≈ 5101 MHz. Moving from 5100 MHz to 5200 MHz represents only a 2% speed increase. The additional voltage needed for stability is not justified by the extra heat and stress. It's time to stop using Cinebench R15 and switch to R23, which supports newer AVX instructions and is a more appropriate benchmark.
I notice a 6.5GHz+ processor with HWInfo on my CPU, but I don't give it much importance.