X79 and/or rampage IV OC'ing thread for those of us still left....

[Kanan]

I have fun in it too, just somewhat different. Just a few hours ago I was trying to overclock to 5 GHz for the new Time Spy bench. Didn't quite work, too much heat for the cooler or too less voltage to still be stable with cooler temps - used that 4.8 GHz @ auto voltage again to benchmark. So the fun for me is, if it has any practical use, that's it. Plus maybe I don't think overclocking RAM is funny at all. But well...

I think what would be to your liking, is a 5820K or 5960X - I heard Broadwell-E isn't that great of a overclocker. Skylake-E will be great too, that voltage regulator moved to the board again, compared to Haswell/Broadwell where it's integrated, yields better overclocks.

btw. some results:

HTT off + 4.5 GHz @ 1.29V + GPU @ 100% PWT:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/14695493?

HTT on + 4.8 GHz @ ~1.45V + GPU @ 110% PWT:
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/14696387

Comparison:
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/spy/409962/spy/410161

that's fun for me!

 

[cdawall]

Yeah, that's what I've got just ES vs retail, so far I'm loving it, liked it before but once I realized my board was faulty and now I got quad memory vs dual and I'm learning what settings I need to push it it's doing great! Tight timings so far aren't its forte but for pure megahertz at decent timings seems this cpu has a very good IMC and memory also is clocked way the hell beyond what it was rated for...however that I expected they are micron d9 chips from what I gathered and I read peoples' luck with these modules and they OC'd like mad so I figured I'd have good experiences with them.

This is a retail chip on the same board as you. Didn't play with it much system ended up popping a PSU so I am dealing with that. Will OC it tomorrow.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

Well, the memory is kinda part of your system so very nice results btw!, but yeah you're kinda limping around the memory considering all that overclocking you do won't achieve jack shit in the "gaming" that you claim is your fun. I'm not picking on you, just having an honest intellectual debate which you started by somewhat poo pooing my memory overclocking and your obvious opinion that ivy bridge wasn't worth the time of day-which ironically is why I got this CPU and never got an ivy bridge to plop in because I have many of the feelings you do just maybe not as strong or entrenched. But all of your benches ironically are suffering if you aren't tinkering with your memory dude, if you can see what you can accomplish with that you can squeeze a few more percent out of 3dmark and whatever else you may use. There is nothing that isn't affected by your memory (even if only in a minor sense). So again big thanks for those results! That is why I set up this page, also I will continue to plow on with my memory and see what this setup can do.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

This is a retail chip on the same board as you. Didn't play with it much system ended up popping a PSU so I am dealing with that. Will OC it tomorrow.

Oh wow that isn't good...was the PSU just faulty or was something in your system possibly the cause? I know you can only get a new PSU and see what happens really but in all my time with all my systems I only had one PSU that ever didn't work, and it didn't from second I plugged it in it was a dud that never worked. So I admit unless it was a low wattage and/or low quality brand PSU I'd tread carefully with whatever you do. I hope it is only the PSU you had. Also very cool you have my board! I have another but it's only good for parts lol, so I have 2 if you include that poor board with smushed cpu pins.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

Also I had a free version of 3d mark at some point but no longer so I may break down and just buy newest version of it along with Everest which would give me two things I could always play with when I feel like benchmarking, which right now I can't considering I got no benchmarking programs!

 

[Kanan]

Well, the memory is kinda part of your system so very nice results btw!, but yeah you're kinda limping around the memory considering all that overclocking you do won't achieve jack shit in the "gaming" that you claim is your fun. I'm not picking on you, just having an honest intellectual debate which you started by somewhat poo pooing my memory overclocking and your obvious opinion that ivy bridge wasn't worth the time of day-which ironically is why I got this CPU and never got an ivy bridge to plop in because I have many of the feelings you do just maybe not as strong or entrenched. But all of your benches ironically are suffering if you aren't tinkering with your memory dude, if you can see what you can accomplish with that you can squeeze a few more percent out of 3dmark and whatever else you may use. There is nothing that isn't affected by your memory (even if only in a minor sense). So again big thanks for those results! That is why I set up this page, also I will continue to plow on with my memory and see what this setup can do.

Well okay if you assure me it's worth the time to play with the Ram settings I can do it - I never touched it besides playing with 1T or 2T timings. I though it's not worth it or not good to overclock the Ram, because it's already more what's officially supported.
Overclocking yields me that 4.5 GHz with low Voltage I use everyday, that 4.8 GHz @ 1.45V is probably something I'd never use for gaming, not worth it. If the CPU is too slow someday I need a whole new one, that few MHz won't save it I guess, 4.5 GHz is already a lot I think. I reenabled HTT, seeing that big difference in Time Spy changed my opinion I had a few days ago. I think it's strange to have something good and not use it, it's part of a i7 after all.

And yeah, do some benching! I thought it's very useless what you do, unless you do some serious benching. I want to see some big numbers changed.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

Hey, burntest is Gigaflops which is certainly a measure of performance as well as stability, besides the numbers of my overclock speak for themselves. As I said ONLY reason I haven't gotten to benchmark it is all the free trials for every program I have is used up and the programs are smart enough to tell I already used them when I redownload them lol. But no, if you are having fun and enjoy a challenge I don't think it's ever a waste to OC, because simply the number you hit (ghz) whether it's cpu/gpu/memory it's all an accomplishment plus you learn about your setup and settings and what works and what simply don't lol. So yes I'll do some benches but I kinda need to get my outer parameters set before I bench anything anyway, this is step 1, step 2 will be when I exhaust my settings and then I have to bench, besides I now will need to get my cpu speed up higher WITH the memory to get full advantage of benchmarks. So yeah, I have more work to do.

 

[Kanan]

Sounds like fun, you could simply start with the same Time Spy I used, it's free, or Firestrike. Everything basically besides Intel Burntest, hahaha. That's boring ³.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

Boring yes, but if you really want something that is stable and I mean really stable, that is how to test it. Between passing that and the board booting normally (as it does now no more 00 code rebooting crap!) are 2 ways I feel very confident I have a machine operating as it should and I don't get weird crashes or slowdowns and other program glitches that is due to settings that are "almost" stable but not quite.

 

[Kanan]

Well I always used Prime (Small FFT with my 3820, now Blend) for that. That Intel tool won't install since I upgraded to Win 10. Somewhat derpy.

 

[cdawall]

@dalekdukesboy not my rig. Customers box, already tested with a new psu and it's fine.

 

[Ithanul]

Yeah that 5960x should be nice almost as good as it gets at the moment, minus the newer 10 core monsters on 14nm but ridiculously expensive and don't OC that well with that many cores, last review I read 4.1 ghz was about it on air for those...if you can get that 8 core 22nm to 4.5 ghz or more it will perform about the same I'd bet even in multithreaded apps. How much and what did you get with that 5960x setup? I was looking on OCN for deals and I do see potential there, what other places have you had luck? Other than Ebay and here which I know already.

I nabbed this one off OCN. $720 for the CPU, $100 for the mobo. The guy had it up to 4.6GHz on air I believe.

Those 10 core monsters I are nice, but I rather by then just get a Xeon instead. Which I do plan down the road to build a 2P or 4P monster Xeon rig for BOINCing.

Though, if AMD can bring it with Zen. I would not mind nabbing one of those to BOINC with. The 1090T been a champ at BOINCing for me.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

Well I always used Prime (Small FFT with my 3820, now Blend) for that. That Intel tool won't install since I upgraded to Win 10. Somewhat derpy.

Thanks, you gave me one more reason NOT to ditch windows 7, which I happen to like and windows 8 was a hideous mess performance wise as well as the God awful huge icons making it akin to a tablet/phone ick, and windows 10 is better but still more like windows 8 than 7 and older...enough reason for me to stay with 7...hell I'd go back to XP if it performed ok and still had any support/updates.

 

[Kanan]

Well I upgraded, that's the reason probably it's not working - I should've done a clean install. btw. 8.1 is nice, I never used 8. Used 8.1 before with start button app, was like 7 really but more up to date. 10 is something else, the transformation is completed. I never missed 7 when I updated to 8.1.

 

[Ithanul]

I keep coming across other folders and boincers at times having issue with W10.

Reason I'm waiting out, plus not much point for me since I don't really heavily game on a PC in the first place.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

So close but so far...still was good for 8 runs so it's probably "stable" to most minus the nuts who insist you need 24 hours of stress testing passed to prove stability. I didn't pull up the memory speed etc because I didn't pass and only took screenshot for reference on settings etc, but this is at 2502 mhz memory with all the same timings I've had CAS 12 etc so I'm very close to getting this stable. I just wish I could "set" the memory but it's inexorably linked to your bus speed and strap so I have to start at 2400 and just push the bus and so far I'm up to 104.3 as you can see and unfortunately this platform only gives you 4-6 points and that may be generous...I read in one OC guide for x79 NOT to go over 104 lol. So I'm definitely going to not only run into memory limits but the bus strap limitation. It's stupid you have different straps but every one you have 2666 mhz memory there isn't a 2500 or 2550 etc that I could work with. Definitely hope in future they unlink memory and bus and/or the memory controller is in the board not the cpu which makes the cpu a wildcard for the last few generations of intel platforms set up this way.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

Just had to play around with it slightly and got it to run a full 10 times stable 2502 mhz...Not sure how much is left in the tank it sucks I can only get between 2400 and 2666 by OC'ing the strap and for whatever reason intel didn't give us any option inbetween no matter what strap you pick...Not sure it was done intentionally to limit Sandy bridge e to make it even less appealing once Ivy Bridge E came out or if I'm thinking too much ahead and intelligently for intel to have done. Regardless, pretty good result but what would be really nice is if I can get a good enough cooler on this thing to run this memory speed at 4.4-4.5+ ghz and then I will have a great overall result.

 

[Kanan]

The E platform never striked me as something intentionally limited, it's rather how Intel (E-)CPU's work I think. Good luck

 

[dalekdukesboy]

The E platform never striked me as something intentionally limited, it's rather how Intel (E-)CPU's work I think. Good luck

Yes I know, hence why I doubt the validity of my own theory it just hit me as I was typing. I found a good OC'ing guide or two which I had read years ago when I got this then "new" platform and checked it out and highest I saw for mhz on this was 2570 I believe it were...and that was after he went through multiple cpu's and was using same board I'm using. I admit I always want more but fairly psyched I got 2502 very stable and now I'm fiddling with 2512mhz but especially with no fan directly on the vrm and my voltages rising quickly I think heat maybe even moreso for the board then the cpu is my enemy at this point. Memory still hasn't even hit the platform standard 1.65 volts...heck only needed 1.60 volts to get 2500, this ram sips voltage, I think the cpu and the board are the bits that are crying for mercy as I go.

 

[cdawall]

Got the 3960x up to 4.3 with 1600 on the ram. Thing is dead stable with 1.325v great little chip, not quite as zippy as my 5960x, but customer didn't want me to kill it lol.

 

[Kanan]

I'd say 2500 is a good point to stop, you should not overdo it. Even 2400 is more than enough. I'd aim for high CPU overclock with 2400 or 2500 on Ram now and rockstable.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

Nope, I'm definitely satisfied that I've got quite a good chip overall, also glad you got a decent chip Cdawall...but if that's good this thing is great. This thing I got stable @ 4.5 ghz 1.325 volts and 2400 mhz ram. Actually I think that's about where I was at when I started this thread and decided to push the memory and see how far it goes. I still don't think it's at its' limit yet though, especially if I got better cooling on the cpu and by doing so freed up space I could get a fan directly over the board and cool it better, cpu cooler does a good job but if anything it just blocks a lot of the board and no way I can angle a fan and really get it to hardly touch board to cool it, that is main reason I've mulled over getting the best AIO kit I can get so I get 2 things, better cpu cooling plus a wide open board I can get spot fans directly on the bits that heat up most from what I'm doing.

Wow I actually had cas 11 timings on the ram @ 2400 and the cpu at 4.5 which gave me slightly more Gigaflops then getting memory to 2500 cas 12 timings with the cpu roughly at 4.2 ghz.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

Actually correction, kinda interesting results....with memory at 2500 Cas 12 Cpu 4.2 ghz with bus OC'd at 104 vs 100 and the cpu at 4.5 and memory at 2400 mhz cas 11 the gigaflops were almost exactly the same. So the bus overclock and faster memory at least in how gigaflops are figured made up for about 300 mhz difference in clock speed.

 

[cdawall]

This was stable for a while at 4.3/1.3v, but it appears to be degrading on the guy. I bumped the volts and set the ram in hopes it gives him a couple more years of usage.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

Ah, yeah degradation=not good. Admittedly my hardware must be idiotproof because I torture every setup I have and have it OC'd to the hilt and have pushed for suicide run validations (all on air at that), and besides when I literally make fireworks everything keeps working and never required me to up the voltage on a single component I had from day 1 till the day I retired it. The more I think about that hearing about other peoples' setups dying or degrading or a PSU croaking etc I guess I should be happy at how lucky I've been overall.