i5 overclocking query

[Englander]

As of late, I have decided to start tinkering with my computer again to see how much it and my watercooling loop can handle. On the whole it has been going very successfully apart from issues with the RAM. I can get it to boot happily at 3.8GHz (as high as I cared to try before the about to be mentioned stumbling block) but I seem to be getting memory issues, in the form of BSODs citing "Memory management" as the problem. Of the couple of times I got these before I put it back to stock, they appeared perhaps 10 minutes after some light web browsing. I ran memtest and it did indeed show that errors were popping up - not good, I thought to myself. So back to stock it went and reran memtest I did and the result this time was no errors.

This is despite memory being set at stock voltage, stock timings and using a memory divider that runs it at a bit less than stock speed (stock is 1333MHz).

So does anyone know what exactly needs to be done to sort out my memory so that it can handle the faster processor speeds? Indeed, can anything be done apart from getting faster memory?

Hopefully the combined knowledge of Hexus might have some experience/idea of this problem.

Thanks,
Michael

[kalniel]

BSOD on web browsing is sometimes caused by having too tight a command rate - make sure to set it to 2T rather than 1T.

Memtest test 8 is usually the one that finds this kind of error.

[sadbuttrue]

What is your bclk and vtt voltage? From my experience, the minimum for 100% stability on my board are:
160bclk = 1.16vtt
180bclk = 1.24vtt
190bclk = 1.30vtt

Not enough vtt results in bsods and memory related errors. You'll see a lot of people report being able to run their i5 750 at relatively low vtt, but I guarantee you their system is NOT 100% stable. I can run linx/prime95 all day at 190bclk/1.24vtt, yet it will randomly bsod/crash.

Have you set the qpi link to x32 instead of auto/x36? This will slightly lower the required vtt voltage.

[Englander]

Ah, some interesting ideas.

I've set the QPI link to result in the lower speed, that was more of a guess than anything, I don't even know what it does/what is safe, so I stuck with the lower.

I haven't moved vtt off of auto yet so the first thing I'll try is ramping that up a few notches.

If that fails, then I'll try the 2T command rate as suggested by Kalniel and see what happens then.

Thanks for the pointers

[Englander]

Hmm, unfortunately that hasn't seemed to have done much at all. P95 instantly fails, but I've been able to surf around my desktop for a few minutes thus far.

When I get back from the post office I'll have to see about lowering the base clock and seeing what happens because that seems to be playing quite a large role in this performance.

[nibbler]

What vcore are you using?

[Englander]

What vcore are you using?

1.17V with a bclk of 190. vtt is at 1.30 as per sadbuttrue's suggestion.

[sadbuttrue]

My figures shouldn't be used directly on your board/setup. They are simply provided as an indication of how vtt needs to be raised in conjunction with bclk.

1.17v vcore would barely get you to 3ghz. You're going to need 1.3v-1.4v for 3.8ghz.

As someone new to overclocking (at least on the i5/7 platform) you really should start out low and possibly read a few guides. 160bclk is a good starting point. Anything close to 200 is pushing both your board and chip and will require some high voltages.

[Englander]

Well I've backed off to 3.6GHz for the moment so I'll see how that goes. If I'm tempted, I'll track down a couple of more in depth guides and look at what all the different voltages should be/are.

[Pob255]

As I'm running the same msi p55-gd65 I'll check my setting when I get home.

Although I'm held back by my really pants 1066mhz memory, still it got me to 3.2ghz with out any issues.

[nibbler]

I'm on a GD65 and mine requires 1.36vcore for 3.71 GHz. It might go lower, but I don't really care, it's rock solid like this.

[nibbler]

Windows 7 Snipping tool is good

[Englander]

This wasn't stress tested at all, just wanted to see how far it could go. It wouldn't even reach the BIOS at 235 so I've back it off to 200x19 (3.8GHz) for the moment.

[nibbler]

With what vcore...?

[Englander]

With what vcore...?

1.328V like it says, unless you mean vtt which was 1.32V ish

[nibbler]

No, I mean at 3.8GHz unless that is with the same vcore?