Gigabyte Z77 Overclocking Guide

I generally leave all the power state thingies enabled as it made no difference to my maximum stable OC. Plus I benefit from the machine idling properly while doing simple desktop stuff. I just find it satisfying that the machine is being efficient like that when the power isn't needed.

My old Q6600 needed those things disabled to remain stable at 3.6ghz, but Sandy B. - or my motherboard - just seem much better at switching the power states so it's not been an issue.

Sometimes it's nice to disable them while you're experimenting, so you can see more constant voltages as the chip isn't clocking down, but once you're there I'd try re-enabling it. I'm under water, so my PC is near silent regardless of what it's doing, but an air cooled system would potentially run quieter, if the fans are linked to temps.

Scoob.
I agree :D I try to enable C1E where possible. Works fine on my 3570K @ 4.6GHz on a fixed OC. For beginners though I think it's easier to keep things black and white.
 
tinytom, thanks for all the great videos over the years! You have brought me much wisdom.

Not sure if Gigabyte boards have offset voltage options, but, one thing you didn't touch on was OCing using an offset and how to go about correctly setting an offset voltage. In my case through trial and error, I found an OC with a 48x and an offset of +.040v to maintain stability with voltage fluctuating between 1.37v -1.38v while running OCCT per your guide. Voltage will drop to a cozy 1.040 with no load. This is with the specs in my sig.

My understanding is that the offset is determined using Vcore and your VID. Just not sure I totally get it.

I guess my question is how to do you properly set an offset? Maybe another tutorial vid? Thnx!!!
 
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My spec:
i7 3570k @ 4Ghz (currently)
ASUS Maximus V Formula
16 gigs of corsair vengence ram 9-9-9-24 Cmd 2
Cool Master Silent Pro 1200 Watts
Silvestone Raven rv02b-ew
Corsair H80i

Bios Setup:

C3/C9/C1E Disabled
EIST Disabled
Loadline: Extreme
Thermal Monitor: Disabled
Turbo: Disabled (well greyed out)
CPU Voltage: 1.100v
Dram Voltage: 1.5v
Using the X.M.P Profile for my ram.

So I ran in to an interesting problem, I did a stress test on stock for awhile, and anything seemed fine. Upped the core ratio to 40, everything was going good, then suddenly OCCT's cpu usage drops, and then SPIKES back up to 100%. The temperature on my core 1 goes from 55 degrees to suddenly 70 and stays there. My core 4 temperature drops to about 35 and doesn't change.

I loaded up Corsair Link 2 to see what the issue was (and I loaded up hwmonitor for an additional comparison, and the temp was bouncing around 57ish average for all my cores.

So did OCCT s**t the bed?
 
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I have a similar issue with my board (Asus P8Z77-V). Two of my core temperatures give odd reading, sometimes one is 1.5 and the other is 127. The other two give more accurate readings.

It is a common issue on Asus boards. Also sometimes all of the readings, including voltages, go to zero then back to normal.
 
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I have a similar issue with my board (Asus P8Z77-V). Two of my core temperatures give odd reading, sometimes one is 1.5 and the other is 127. The other two give more accurate readings.

It is a common issue on Asus boards. Also sometimes all of the readings, including voltages, go to zero then back to normal.

Yes! Exactly! Have you come up with a solution?

I'll most likely try the newest bios and see if that fixes it. Either way or just run Prime95 with HW Monitor
 
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The issue is with the AI suite software, Asus say that if it is running alone it is fine but when another piece of software is polling the same information (occt in you'r case) it causes problems.

It is very difficult to fix because AI Suite does not uninstall cleanly. I had the same problem on my p5n32-e sli motherboard, I thought that they may have fixed it by now but they don't accept that it is their problem.
 
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Asus AI Suite can be a little flaky, but it's a good idea to not have more than one tool monitoring the same sensor at one time. Many such tools can have a degree of overlap in what they detect, so if you are getting odd errors it's worth checking.

Personally, when benchmarking / stress testing, I run the following tools together with no issues:

Core Temp
CPUz
GPUz x2 (one for each GPU)
Process Explorer

I pop these up on my 2nd monitor and they seem to work fine together.

Note: I did have an issue with an older version of GPUz causing crashes, but newer updates saw that problem go away.

Scoob.
 
Thank you so much for this Guide :)

Now i'm not stranger to OCing but i came from a i7 950 and it worked a bit different.

I used this for my new Haswell Upgrade and achieved my goal of 25% OC in about a day :)

4770K @ 4,4 GHz (1.155v in Bios, goes to about 1.180v when OCCT is started)
 
Have manged to achieve an OC of 4.6Ghz on the following system.....

GIGABYTE Z87X-UD5H
i7-4770K
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB 1600MHz
MSI HD7950 3GB XFIRE |



Im now aiming for a 4.8Ghz OC.
Only settings i have changed from my 4.6 OC is the....

CPU Clock Ratio 4.8
Uncore Freq 4.7
Turbo ratio 4.8 (for all 4 cores)
CPU Offset +0.195

CPU-Z is reporting a voltage of 1.320 which im not sure if im cofortable with for 24/7 use, OCCT lasts about 3 minutes before it blue screening!. Is there any other options i should look at tweaking other than the CPU voltage to get this 4.8 OC stable?
 
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You need to have a manually set voltage not an offset.

1.32 is WAY too high and youve not said anything about temps etc.
 
I though off set is best to use, as it down clocks the voltage when not being stressed, it worked ok for the 4.6 OC?

For the 4.6 OC the temps never went above 63c on any cores with a volt of 1.205. The 3 minutes i got in OCCT with the 4.8 OC at 1.32v the max temps were 70c on any of the cores.
 
Is load line calibration needed for Haswell? I have a Maximus 6 Gene and been playing with the settings, which goes from Level 1 to Level 8. Not entirely sure what the different levels correspond to, although it seems that when I try to run at Level 8, the voltage level stays stable but also consistently ever so slightly above the Vcore I set. The Vcore seems to be pretty stable even with it set to Auto (not perfect, but it only spikes by roughly 10%).
 
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Quick question about the occt software.

Is it better to use "linpack:cpu" for checking stability for extended periods of time (12 hrs+ ), or the "occt:cpu" option?
 
Thanks for this guide, I'm now really keen to have a go at my systems.

One question though around undervolting: is this a step to create a really low-power stock clock for everyday non-gaming use, and is there a way to easily switch between power profiles?
 
Thanks for this guide, I'm now really keen to have a go at my systems.

One question though around undervolting: is this a step to create a really low-power stock clock for everyday non-gaming use, and is there a way to easily switch between power profiles?

No its to show you what you cpu actually needs at stock so you have a point to work up from. Its in the video.........
 
Hi all!
First time here, and first time OC'in (well actually UC'in)
But I've run into a problem, I think at least.
First hardware:
Gigabyte GA-z68xp-UD4
2500k stock cooler
Corsair vengeance 2x4gb 9-9-9-24 1.5v
GTX 570.

So my motherboard doesnt have load line calibration.
Instead I've managed to find another option called Multi-Steps Load-Line.
And I am fiddling around with it to keep it sort of in line with my set voltage.
First off:
My i5 was auto on 1.265v, aint this a bit high?
And second of, when I run OCCT test my boost clock will only let it rise to 3,4GHz.
Is this normal or do I have a problem?
ATM I am around 1.075v and it seems to be the same as when I have it on 1.265.
But basicly what am I supposed to look for to see when I've gone too low on VCore?
 
Stability test

Hi all!
First time here, and first time OC'in (well actually UC'in)
But I've run into a problem, I think at least.
First hardware:
Gigabyte GA-z68xp-UD4
2500k stock cooler
Corsair vengeance 2x4gb 9-9-9-24 1.5v
GTX 570.

So, I've found that 1.075 is stable for 30 minutes of OCCT and I've also found that my VCORE is jumping.
I've included the results from OCCT, are there anyone else you'd like to see?
From my knowledge this is stable right?
And does anyone know why the usage aint stable at 100%?
 

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