On Core i7-7700K
If you have close look at the latest Z270 motherboards from MSI, you find a knob allowing you to automatically overclock your CPU. This feature should allow novices to increase overall CPU performance, while in the background the board boosts the vCore pretty significantly to achieve these increased clock speeds.
Automatic overclocking on MSI boards is basically not a new thing. It’s been around since 2008 and we’re aware that it was first presented in that year at the European MOA qualifiers. Meanwhile “automatic overclocking” is part of the so called “GameBoost” feature, which is capable of driving your Intel Core i7-7700K CPU at 5.20 GHz and 1.5 volt.
Based on a trial and error routine the MSI software determines a stable voltage for the highest possible clock speed. The process requires several reboots in order to find the maximum MHz number and suitable voltage. In order to reach the highest possible frequencies MSI recommends water cooling and high-end memory.
A few weeks ago we have tested a retail Intel Core i7-7700K CPU in combination with a 240mm all-in-one cooler at stock frequencies as well as overclocked. Pushing the CPU to 4.8 GHz at 1.35 volts already caused the temperatures to rise to 80°C under heavy load. Since increasing the voltage has an exponential influence on the heat generated by the CPU, upping the value to 1.5 volt would make the temperature of our test CPU go past 90°C easily. In the end our test CPU, if overclocked to 5.2 GHz at 1.5 volt, would reach 100°C and start throttling. That in other words would mean that the chip would not run at a constant 5.2 GHz but at a much lower frequency, thus render the automatic overclocking useless.
At a later stage we’ve tested almost 200 Intel Core i7-7700K processors and during these tests we’ve found several CPUs, that were capable of stably running Cinebench R15 at 5.2 GHz and 1.35 volt. Using an air cooler temperatures were between 70°C and 80°C. During this testings session we’ve been looking for processors that were capable of running particularly low voltages at high clock speeds and about 5% of them did Cinebench R15 at 5.2 GHz and 1.35 Volt.
In the end this means the following: while reaching 5.2 GHz stably is already a hard thing, reaching that at temperatures below 80°C or even 90°C is even harder. Most CPUs would require more than 1.4 volt or actually 1.5 volt and that would simply drive the chip’s core temperature above 100°C and make it throttling, thus overclocking would not make sense anymore since the processor automatically downclocks to prevent damage.
Last but not least: automated overclocking features are a nice thing to have for novices who want to get a little bit more performance out of their processor, but that should all happen within reasonable boundaries. In the case of an Intel Core i7-7700K we would not recommend more than 4.8 GHz.
Source: Techpowerup
Automatic overclocking on MSI boards is basically not a new thing. It’s been around since 2008 and we’re aware that it was first presented in that year at the European MOA qualifiers. Meanwhile “automatic overclocking” is part of the so called “GameBoost” feature, which is capable of driving your Intel Core i7-7700K CPU at 5.20 GHz and 1.5 volt.
Based on a trial and error routine the MSI software determines a stable voltage for the highest possible clock speed. The process requires several reboots in order to find the maximum MHz number and suitable voltage. In order to reach the highest possible frequencies MSI recommends water cooling and high-end memory.
A few weeks ago we have tested a retail Intel Core i7-7700K CPU in combination with a 240mm all-in-one cooler at stock frequencies as well as overclocked. Pushing the CPU to 4.8 GHz at 1.35 volts already caused the temperatures to rise to 80°C under heavy load. Since increasing the voltage has an exponential influence on the heat generated by the CPU, upping the value to 1.5 volt would make the temperature of our test CPU go past 90°C easily. In the end our test CPU, if overclocked to 5.2 GHz at 1.5 volt, would reach 100°C and start throttling. That in other words would mean that the chip would not run at a constant 5.2 GHz but at a much lower frequency, thus render the automatic overclocking useless.
At a later stage we’ve tested almost 200 Intel Core i7-7700K processors and during these tests we’ve found several CPUs, that were capable of stably running Cinebench R15 at 5.2 GHz and 1.35 volt. Using an air cooler temperatures were between 70°C and 80°C. During this testings session we’ve been looking for processors that were capable of running particularly low voltages at high clock speeds and about 5% of them did Cinebench R15 at 5.2 GHz and 1.35 Volt.
In the end this means the following: while reaching 5.2 GHz stably is already a hard thing, reaching that at temperatures below 80°C or even 90°C is even harder. Most CPUs would require more than 1.4 volt or actually 1.5 volt and that would simply drive the chip’s core temperature above 100°C and make it throttling, thus overclocking would not make sense anymore since the processor automatically downclocks to prevent damage.
Last but not least: automated overclocking features are a nice thing to have for novices who want to get a little bit more performance out of their processor, but that should all happen within reasonable boundaries. In the case of an Intel Core i7-7700K we would not recommend more than 4.8 GHz.
Source: Techpowerup
News by Luca Rocchi and Marc Büchel - German Translation by Paul Görnhardt - Italian Translation by Francesco Daghini
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