# SkyLake Overclock Setup



## zerokill2006 (Jan 20, 2016)

Hey Guys,

Just finished stabilizing my skylake i5 from 3.5 stock to 4.6.  My settings are below:

Ratio:  45
CoreV: 1.48v
Idle Temp: 28c
Load temp: 51-55c

I have not touched or explored any other settings, however I have the following settings that I do not have a lot of experience with....I was hoping someone could tell me which ones to tweak as I have plenty of room to go temp wise, and was told that I should try to stay under 1.5v for the Vcore voltage:

DMI Voltage - .95v
VPPDDR Voltage - 2.5v
Core PLL Voltage - 1.0v
VCCIO Voltage (I think this is used for OC memory) - .95v
PCH Voltage - 1.0v

Which voltages should I try tweaking first?

My Hardware:

Intel i5 6600k
32GB Corsair Dominator@2133 (oc 3000 stock advertised)
Mobo - Asus z170 deluxe
Graphics - 980ti
Cooling - Nepton 270 (or something like that...water cooled)

Thanks for your time in advance.


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## EarthDog (Jan 20, 2016)

1.48v is a ton for that CPU.... do not go past 1.42v for 24/7 or risk damaging that CPU (this according to ASUS).

Those load temps are also VERY low.. please define "load". Did you bother stress testing this configuration? Your temps would be nowhere near 55C....

As far as the other voltages, I wouldn't bother touching them as you don't need to at all. Leave them on auto.

Also, 2133 DDR4? Damn... that is boderline useless, LOL. Why get DDR3 speeds with DDR4 Latency? Also, why 32GB? Do you use more than 16GB or close to it? Seems like a waste of cash there that should have been spent on DDR4 2800-3000 CL15 (the sweetspot for price and performance).


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## cdawall (Jan 20, 2016)

AIO water cooler and way to much vcore... you didn't stress test it very well.


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## zerokill2006 (Jan 20, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> 1.48v is a ton for that CPU.... do not go past 1.42v for 24/7 or risk damaging that CPU (this according to ASUS).
> 
> Those load temps are also VERY low.. please define "load". Did you bother stress testing this configuration? Your temps would be nowhere near 55C....
> 
> ...



Definition of load:  Tested with Prime95 for 12 hours.
DDR4:  I have not started overclocking the memory yet.  2133 is just the stock clock.  The advertised memory speed is 3000, and then I guess I can overclock it beyond that?  I don't have a lot of experience overclocking so not sure what I can do with that memory.  How high can I OC the memory with the 6600k?

I need 32GB because I constantly setup and tear down whole virtual environments.  VM's are hungry for memory.

So are there any other settings I can mess with to inch the OC higher or just accept 4.6 as the max this piece of silicone can handle?


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## EarthDog (Jan 20, 2016)

zerokill2006 said:


> Definition of load: Tested with Prime95 for 12 hours.


With a 2x120mm AIO? No way... no way... what are your ambient temperatures, like 3C? I have a full custom loop with 5x120mm worth of radiator attached to a 6700K. At 4.7GHz 1.4v, I hit 70C in a ~20C room. There is no way in hell, with 2x120mm AIO and more voltage you peak 15C less, evne with a 6600K.. Something isn't right there to me... 



zerokill2006 said:


> The advertised memory speed is 3000


That is its XMP settings. Just enable XMP, and leave it alone.



zerokill2006 said:


> So are there any other settings I can mess with to inch the OC higher or just accept 4.6 as the max this piece of silicone can handle?


Not at the voltage you are at... Are you sure you are at 1.48v?


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## rtwjunkie (Jan 20, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> 1.48v is a ton for that CPU.... do not go past 1.42v for 24/7 or risk damaging that CPU



I'm glad you confirmed this, I looked at 1.5v and thought "that looks really high."


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## trog100 (Jan 20, 2016)

the prime95 i have has three basic choices.. large.. small.. and blend.. the difference in tempts between large and small on my 4790K is around 20 C.. 

unless people say what setting its being run at quoting the temps is meaningless.. 

trog


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## EarthDog (Jan 20, 2016)

Very good point here trog... (did I just say that?!!! )

Being serious though, even if you add 20C, there is still no way a 2x120mm AIO can max out at 75C at that voltage and clockspeed unless the ambient is not-indoor-temperature low.


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## cadaveca (Jan 20, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> Very good point here trog... (did I just say that?!!! )
> 
> Being serious though, even if you add 20C, there is still no way a 2x120mm AIO can max out at 75C at that voltage and clockspeed unless the ambient is not-indoor-temperature low.


I'll gladly second that, can't even run my chips @ 1.4V; they get too hot. But I'm using more "traditional" cooling, like H90, H100, and several air coolers.

I will say though, which version of P95 you use makes a SIGNIFICANT difference, and what you are reading for CPU temps, depending on the board, may actually give "socket" temps. The Z170 DELUXE isn't really one of those boards, though. Either way, something is reported incorrectly, either by the OP, or his software.


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## trog100 (Jan 20, 2016)

my reasonably well air cooled 4790K running the latest prime95 on 8 threads small blocks hits 85 C at 4.6 gig on 1.25 vcore.. that is after de-lidding.. before that it used to easily hit 100 C and throttle..

an I5 skylake would not run as hot.. but at the vcore quoted the prime95 temps quoted do seem a tad low.. 

i would not dream of running a vcore that high but whenever i see prime95 quoted on its own as a heat source it annoys me.. cos without some more information it really is meaningless bollocks.. 

trog


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## cadaveca (Jan 20, 2016)

Skylake runs surprisingly cool, to be honest, and at least mine clock well. I'm currently running 1.325V for 4.6 GHz with 4x 4GB @ 3200 MHz, under a H90, and I get 70c max under AVX, and like 50-65 under more "normal" loads. Using MSI GAMING GTX 980's, the system is almost completely silent, since the 980's fans don't even run while at the desktop. But I'm on an open test bench, it's -12C outside, and I need to wear a sweater or I get cold. But then there's all the dust in the H90....


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## trog100 (Jan 20, 2016)

i wish all my fans would switch off while browsing and the like.. the system spends most of its time this way it would sure help keep the dust build up out.. none of the fans are needed tis a shame they dont all auto switch off.. they are quite enough while the system isnt doing much but blowing dust into the case when it isnt needed dosnt make much sense to me..

the fans all crank up to maximum when the graphics cards are working hard but they have to.. i have too much heat generating machinery packed into what is really too small a case..

running something like heaven my bottom graphics card runs around 55 C my top one around 75 C and my cpu around 58 C with something like wprime.. i dont mind the extra fan noise whilst gaming as long as all is quite while browsing and doing other things.. i have to over cool my lower card simply to keep the temps of the top card in check.. 







case side fans feed cool air to the hot bits and top and rear fans shift it all away.. tis a room heater when its all working hard.. 

trog


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## zerokill2006 (Jan 20, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> With a 2x120mm AIO? No way... no way... what are your ambient temperatures, like 3C? I have a full custom loop with 5x120mm worth of radiator attached to a 6700K. At 4.7GHz 1.4v, I hit 70C in a ~20C room. There is no way in hell, with 2x120mm AIO and more voltage you peak 15C less, evne with a 6600K.. Something isn't right there to me...
> 
> That is its XMP settings. Just enable XMP, and leave it alone.
> 
> Not at the voltage you are at... Are you sure you are at 1.48v?



Ambient temp when I ran the test was 64F.....don't know what else I can tell you unless my temp tool is off.  Its the tool that comes with the asus z170.  I have always had really good results with cooler master.  I also have a beasty case with lots of room and airflow.

Can you enable XMP from the asus tool or do I need to do it from the bios?

Confirmed at 1.48.  I did some more searching and some other guys are reducing their BCLK frequency and adding more to the ratio.  Right now I'm at 103 bclk and 45 for the ratio.  They seem to be able to squeeze out a bit more on the ratio by lowering the bclk frequency.....is that a good idea?



trog100 said:


> the prime95 i have has three basic choices.. large.. small.. and blend.. the difference in tempts between large and small on my 4790K is around 20 C..
> 
> unless people say what setting its being run at quoting the temps is meaningless..
> 
> trog



I used blend.


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## EarthDog (Jan 21, 2016)

What confirmed 1.48v? Are you overclocking from software (dont!) or from the bios? What voltage does your bios show for the cpu?

Enable xmp from bios, yes.

Use realtemp to confirm temps... I'm betting money that whatever software you are using to see the voltage is wrong. Again, confirm your voltage with hardware monitor in the bios.

No point in touching bclk in any direction really... no performamce gains to be had...leave it at 100 and use the multi.


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## zerokill2006 (Jan 21, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> What confirmed 1.48v? Are you overclocking from software (dont!) or from the bios? What voltage does your bios show for the cpu?
> 
> Enable xmp from bios, yes.
> 
> ...



Ok so I confirmed that the voltage was indeed 1.48, but I think my temps may have been off.  I used a more detailed view of the temp software and did some spot tests and it gave me a completely different picture.  This time average was around 68c spiking up to 77c with prime95 blend spot testing at 5 minute increments.  Ambient temperature is now 71 though so that may have increased them as well (not by a whole 10 degrees I doubt).

I turned the blck freq back to 100 and was able to get 4.6ghz@1.4 even.  I read that the intel recommended max voltage for 6600k is 1.45 and no higher.  

For some reason using an xmp profile would auto tune the CPU as well so I just disabled it.  I had a drop down menu for the memory and 3000mhz was selectable so thats what I did.  Had to bump the DRAM voltage to 1.35 to get it bootable and stable with spot checks.

I am going to run prime95 blend tonight for 12 hours to see how well this stabilizes.  Hopefully I didn't do any damage running it last time with false temps :/

Thanks guys for all your time and recommendations.


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## EarthDog (Jan 21, 2016)

Ok...


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## trog100 (Jan 21, 2016)

zerokill2006 said:


> I used blend.



which means that most of the time you will see the lower more normal tempts but occasionally you will see the big jumps to the higher ones depending on which instruction set is being run at the time an observation is made.. it can also up the vcore as well.. its not a good tool for accessing tempts..

trog

ps.. "Ambient temperature is now 71 though so that may have increased them as well (not by a whole 10 degrees I doubt)."

i think there is direct link between room ambient and the PC temps.. up the room ambient by xx degrees and the PC tempts will go up by the same amount.. which means summer time will cause problems for some folks in hot climes without air con.. or it means the average PC  is quite happy being a hell of a lot hotter than the average enthusiast thinks it should be..


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## rtwjunkie (Jan 21, 2016)

zerokill2006 said:


> For some reason using an xmp profile would auto tune the CPU as well so I just disabled it.



Admittedly I'm still hanging out on stone-age Ivy Bridge, but since when did XMP auto tune the CPU?  I've got full control of all CPU settings and using XMP.  Did Intel digress on this?


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## zerokill2006 (Jan 21, 2016)

rtwjunkie said:


> Admittedly I'm still hanging out on stone-age Ivy Bridge, but since when did XMP auto tune the CPU? I've got full control of all CPU settings and using XMP. Did Intel digress on this?



It could be something else I am missing, but whenever I enable XMP....the CPU voltage and clock both switch to "auto".  I didn't think about it yesterday, but it might be that XMP turns something ELSE auto....and then that setting turns the CPU clock to "auto"....

Either way, I woke up this morning and no crash   So tonight I will try to bump the clock up a notch and then run it.  Turning back the blck frequency appears to have allowed me to have a stable OC at a lower voltage because my previous settings I had to use 1.48 to get it stable (which is higher than the recommended max by intel so that was me being a dumbass admitedly).  However, it would seem that the skylake is a resilient chip since I can't see any apparent damage yet outside of the fact I probably shortened its life.  Which is fine since I am on the base new architecture....in a year I will probably just upgrade the CPU to the latest i7 anyways.


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## cadaveca (Jan 21, 2016)

rtwjunkie said:


> Admittedly I'm still hanging out on stone-age Ivy Bridge, but since when did XMP auto tune the CPU?  I've got full control of all CPU settings and using XMP.  Did Intel digress on this?


Not intel, ASUS. 6700K is 4.2 GHz Turbo on one core, it'll adjust that to all cores. But the BIOS of the ASUS Z170 DELUXE does ask you if you want that or not.


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## EarthDog (Jan 21, 2016)

+1 ASUS.

Typically. I set XMP first. Boot to windows to make sure it takes (though checking in the bios is fine). Then I change cpu related items. NO issues that way. ASUS, MSI, ASRock, Giga...

On the X99 platform, I believe anything 3000 Mhz or above on (most?) boards, it will switch to 125 BCLK. But that is the only thing it adjusts.



trog100 said:


> i think there is direct link between room ambient and the PC temps.. up the room ambient by xx degrees and the PC tempts will go up by the same amount..


+1, you are spot on.


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## zerokill2006 (Jan 21, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> On the X99 platform, I believe anything 3000 Mhz or above on (most?) boards, it will switch to 125 BCLK. But that is the only thing it adjusts.



Damn so if the XMP does that.......that means 100bclk might be too low for 3000mhz ?


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## EarthDog (Jan 21, 2016)

Your platform is Z170... not X99 where that happens.

Most boards on the X99 platform do not have the multipliers to reach those speeds. So it has to use a raised BCLK.


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## zerokill2006 (Jan 21, 2016)

Gotcha...


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