Post Your Overclock! [2]

If you open up Core Temp and stress your system for a few minutes, you can find out what your VID # is. It's right below the frequency. It will jump around some, but you want to find the most consistent number. Once you have that, take your lowest stable manual voltage and subtract your most often seen VID # in Core Temp. That will be your offset. You may end up with a +/- depending on the VID. So if your lowest stable manual voltage is 1.270 and your most consistent VID is 1.260, your offset would be a +.010. If your lowest stable manual voltage was 1.255 and your VID was the same 1.260, your offset would be a -.005. The more "extreme" your LLC setting, the more extra juice it will provide OVER what your manual/offset setting is. For example, your manual voltage is 1.270, and your LLC is let's say Ultra....when stressing your CPU you may see a total voltage of 1.272-1.280. It's a way of keeping a static voltage, but giving it a little headroom for those times it needs to draw more power.

I have mine running on an offset and most of the time it's around 1.150 or less except if I'm stress testing. Just because your computer is running at 4.5 or 4.7GHz doesn't mean it's using your MAX allowable offset voltage. I can play games and it never hits my max of about 1.240-1.250. That only comes when running IBT/Prime/AIDA64.

You can set an offset voltage, save changes and boot back into Windows. Fire up your stressing application, Core Temp, and CPU-Z and see what it jumps up to. If it seems to go way above what your manual voltage was, go back into the BIOS and take the offset down a notch. I did some fine tuning that way and got my offset voltage while stressing down to 1.240-1.248 @ 4.5GHz.

These systems take a little knowledge and a little trial-and-error as well. I can only tell you what I've done that works, and what doesn't work, but at the end of the day, I'm not sitting where you are and your components might run differently than mine. There's not going to be a perfect frequency/voltage/temp because it's always changing and you have to tweak it to find a good stable frequency that doesn't require too much voltage so it doesn't put out too much heat. I think that's half the fun though!

Here is an example of running at full frequency and not using all available voltage. I have Chrome and Firefox open, Outlook open, Yahoo and Skype open, CPU-Z and Core Temp open all while playing a 1080p video off YouTube......AND streaming an HD movie from my computer to my TV with Plex Media Server.

Kelly is pretty much right on the money. Finding the right stable offset requires a lot of trial and error. It is also Dependant on your CPU and board. It took me many hours of prime to find mine. For some people, depending on hardware set up, the formula of Vcore- VID is right on. For others, like me, it is an 'in the ball park' thing. Also, all the other settings in bios affect it. For instance, I told you my C states are off. My 4.5 is very stable and has been for months. But, if I go to bios and enable the C states, I'll BSOD when I see 'Starting Windows'. I've always said, overclocking is not a science, it is an art. It is a matter of figuring out your bios and CPU and have everything pretty well balanced. What works well for one person will not work at all for someone else. But, there are general guidelines that work for most people, with a little tweaking.

BTW, Kelly. Excellent post. I tried to rep you for it, but I guess you'll have to wait a while.

I've been running with CPU C1E state ENABLED, and the other 3 Disabled since I started overclocking and have never had a problem. I just followed the IB OC'ing guide.

BTW, Kelly. Excellent post. I tried to rep you for it, but I guess you'll have to wait a while.

I tend to ramble sometimes, and lose track of what I'm saying lol....but thanks Steve!

I think I have C1 enabled too, I misspoke, I guess. My bios is set up pretty much exactly as in the guide.

kbrady1979 said:

I tend to ramble sometimes, and lose track of what I'm saying lol....but thanks Steve!

Dazzle them with...

JOKE!

A Guy

I think you said our BIOS settings were very similar, which would make sense because we read and went by the same guide. I can't tell you how many times I've recommended that guide to people!

Same here, Kelly. And Bill, with 33,000+ posts, no doubt you are an expert at that.

My initials are B.S.

A Guy

Kelly when you use the Vcore-VID=offset formula, where is the starting point?
The Haswell always says VID is .8250 no matter if idling or under load regardless of the clock, SB bounces a lot.