[section_title title=”Overclocking”]
Overclocking
As with every generation since Sandybridge, overclocking remains almost purely multiplier reliant. BCLK wasn’t usually a thing that could be tweaked much beyond a couple of MHz either side of the relevant strap, until Skylake hit. The ability to change the BCLK is now possible due to the separated frequency bus, which allows for some insane memory frequencies to be hit when pushing the limits with some -196c liquid nitrogen poured over the module(s).
As our Intel Core i7-6700K was an engineering sample (ES) from Intel, we were discouraged from pushing more than 1.45 volts through the core. I obeyed their wishes, and stuck at 1.45 volts for the maximum overclocking allowance. 4.8 GHz was the highest that the chip would put out as 4.9 GHz just crashed on boot. 4.8 GHz was stable enough to pass XTU at 1.45 volts, and here’s the proof.
Intel XTU @ 4.8 GHz with 1.45 volts – manual overclock
It would be a good idea to detail my experience with the MSI instant overclocking feature that is on the board too; you know, that dial at the bottom which has a big red button that you usually shouldn’t push in other instances…? Yeah, that’s the one! It worked very well which was a nice surprise due to the fact that automatic overclocking usually doesn’t bode in the motherboard’s favour. The voltages were almost spot on, but they weren’t bang on, which is completely expected. They’re programmed to hit certain speeds at certain voltages which are guaranteed to work for a fairly large majority of the CPUs out there. Each CPU is entirely different, though, so it is hard to hone in on such a fine tweaking zone. Unfortunately, the voltage was a little too low for our particular chip from Intel. It was able to boot into Windows, but unable to complete the XTU benchmark. For those of you whom have run it in the past, you’ll know that it is a highly stressful benchmark – it is Prime95 after all.
