Overclocking i7 7700k

[Chris_86]

Right so this was on Discord, moved it here. I've been overclocking my i7 7700k to 4.7 GHz, and seem to be getting temps around 70 degrees with a 280mm radiator. The voltage seems pretty low compared to my previous chip (i7 6700K), at only 1.27 volts, peaking briefly at 1.308 volts. LLC is default. On my previous chip I needed 1.35V just to get it to 4.6 GHz.

This seems to be a very low VCORE voltage. Is this really likely to be stable long-term? The AVX offset was cautiously set to -7 (-700 MHz) however this reduced clock speeds during BF1, which I'm guessing uses AVX, to 4.0 GHz. I've now set AVX offset to Auto which I believe is 2 and the results are the same. XMP is on (3,000). It's a GigaByte Z270 Gaming 7 motherboard.

Do you guys reckon I should be pushing it higher, or should I just leave it where it is? I'm wondering if it could do 4.8 or higher really. Certainly people have got the 7700k to 5.0 but that's with delidding and I've not yet been brave enough to try that... if so what's the highest voltage you'd go to? 1.35v?

Screenshot of stats here:

https://1drv.ms/i/s!Asvf3T7C5Yiq0h6tn4NnDpwsSSOn

[0v3rz34l0u5]

How do you overclock it?

[Chris_86]

Increased the base clock multiplier, nothing else. Left AVX offest, LLC, Vcore, memory settings all as is (Auto, and I think LLC is 4 at Auto and AVX offset is 2 so 200 MHz). Hell I can still leave the mobo's power saving settings switched on. It's crazy. But I'm seeing different things elsewhere on the web about what the safest =< VCore voltage is.

[0v3rz34l0u5]

Sorry Panda, do you use the BIOS or a piece of software to overclock it?

[warlock359205]

Apart from cooking some eggs while playing, why would you want to overcook an i7 to those speeds.

[Chris_86]

Zealous: BIOS mate, I wouldn’t use software even for fan control

Warlock: I play at 1440p at as many frames as possible (95-120 FPS on Ultra for Battlefield 1) and therefore sometimes my CPU was at around 80-90% usage feeding my GPU. I found at 60fps the usage went right down. Didn’t want to bottleneck the GPU so I figured some extra headroom wouldn’t hurt so I had a tinker yesterday.

[warlock359205]

I play bf1 on my aged non top of the range pc at 3.5Ghz , it runs perfectly ,why over stress your chip there is really no need ,unless you do actually like to count just how many petals are on each flower in bf1 .

[Age.]

People get aroused by high (and constant) FPS numbers Warlock. Apparently.
Personally if it looks pretty and runs smoothly I couldn't give a flying one what my FPS is.

[Chris_86]

If you read the OP you'll see I'm a long way from overstressing it. What's the point? Simple, I get a free, safe boost in performance that ensures the GPU is the bottleneck for a higher percentage of time, meaning the CPU has spare capacity for other tasks for a higher percentage of time, equating to fewer frame drops, and more stable frames per second!

Computers interest me, and I like tinkering with them, so I see no reason to defend myself. My question was specifically about safe voltages, directed at others with experience of overclocking, since I'm a relative newbie.

[Ztranier]

good shout Chris from my Point of vief.

why does a dog lick his balls? because he can.
(thats what i once have heard from a japanies engeneer developing the new Honda Jazz at the Honda research Center in Offenbach GER when a Journalist asked him why they put a 7spped autmatic gearbox into such a small car)