Thanks, I'm going to need this as I've only used Asus and Asrock before and also first time I'll need to do per core OC.

Also did you get 4200CL14 to work on your ram?

 

Also did you get 4200CL14 to work on your ram?

Yes. Take a look at the screenshot in the spoiler. TM5 anta777 ABSOLUT stable.

 

Great guide! What voltage are you running at 5.7ghz with your chip? And how many years have you been running your B-dies at 1.65v?😊

 

5.7 GHz all-core requires quite a lot. It's not a good chip. Hence, I just have it on 5.6 with most cores at 5.7 instead.
But now chip has degraded, so none of it is applicable anymore.

This kit of RAM is perfectly fine no matter how much voltage I hammer it with. But I do have it under water to keep it cool as an ice cube.
For most folk, testing up to 1.60V max is best.

 

If you are successful, move to Step 12

I think that's meant to be 13.

Thanks for the guide handy for someone like me who has only ever done all core overclocks (just upgraded from an 8600k to 13600KF). Currently sitting at 5500P, 4400E but I'll follow your steps to see if some cores can be bumped up.

Regarding the CPU degradation is that generally caused by exceeding the IccMax values? I think for my CPU it's 170A so was planning on keeping my max power draw around 220W, <1.3V. The only time I'm ever going to hit those kind of values is stress testing/benchmarking so I'm not going to go too overboard, probably just stick with R23.

 

Thanks for correcting my typo.

The degradation basically caused by wattage. You really shouldn't be going above Intel's max turbo spec of 253W, regardless of cooling.

 

What worries me a little bit here is that some boards will just pump insane voltages by BIOS defaults and basically slowly eat your chip away without you ever realizing. My MSI Pro Z690-A pumped something like 1.35V with all power limites removed as a BIOS default, causing my 13600K to consume ~220W in Cinebench. At first I thought I mounted the cooler wrong, but nope, just the board going balls to the wall by default. The board is brand new, BIOS updated with flashback.

 

My MSI Pro Z790-A does the same with an i7-13700k. Insane voltages with BIOS defaults. Was able to reduce temperatures 15-20C in both Cinebench R23 and Prime95 by undervolting what the board does by default while unleashing all-core turbo too. It's odd to me that their defaults are so far off from what is needed. I guess they are defaulting to something that will make the worst possible chip work, but somehow I doubt there's any i7-13700k chips that need the voltages they are applying.

 

@Ichirou

Enable "BCLK 100 MHz Lock On".

Does this stop the BCLK from auto downclocking to what it does at auto BCLK?

Like on my current board I have to set it to 100.25 to lock the actual OC numbers.

 

@Ichirou

Enable "BCLK 100 MHz Lock On".

Does this stop the BCLK from auto downclocking to what it does at auto BCLK?

Like on my current board I have to set it to 100.25 to lock the actual OC numbers.

It's just a hotfix for Z690/Z790 boards where the BCLK is on 99.8 MHz by default. It makes it 100.0 MHz instead.

 

Thanks for the guide Ichirou. Now to find the equivalent settings on Asus..

For step 5, I can set "All-core ratio limit" sync all to 54 and open up "specific performance core" and set specific ratio limit in there, per core.

Just checking this sounds right for an Asus board?

 

Hey man! Thanks for the guide. I just got a 13700kf on the Z790 Tomahawk Wifi DDR4 board and I am trying to set a higher ring ratio after disabling the E-cores but it doesn't seem to budge from its base 4.5ghz. How do I fix this?

 

Raise Vcore.

 

Any scripts to automate the 0-1-7 steps for y cruncher?

Also, I sometimes get 80-95 second start to end wall times then I'll change one thing (lower voltage by .1, still stable and no crashes) and it goes back to 140 seconds.. When doing this, should I take the best timing as a "better overclock" or does it not matter? There isn't this much of a range when running cb23.

 

I asked the creator of y-cruncher the same. Nope. Just gotta get used to pressing the same combination over and over again.

Some of your cores are getting parked. That's why the result gets worse. Gotta monitor the Effective Clocks in HWiNFO.

 

Hi @Ichirou, what settings need to be changed to stop the CPU from downclocking (in my case to 4.9) under some AVX2 loads? (like the last test in IPDT)

Asus boards apparently don't do it, and I've tried every combination of settings I can think of, and various BIOS versions (1.40, 1.90, etc) but it still persists.

If I recall correctly, the 1.00 BIOS didn't do it, but the RAM oc on that was so terrible there's no going back....

Thanks

EDIT: Sorry...nevermind. Turns out its throttlestop that causes it with 1.90 at least, even if its been ran on startup then closed. Hadn't thought to try disabling that until after I posted. But handily I don't need it for anything, so problem solved.

 

@Ichirou

Any idea why my E-core frequency won't change? multiplier works on the p-cores @ 5.5ghz (13700kf) but no matter what I set the e-core it stays stuck at stock 4.2ghz. Perhaps a setting I'm missing? thanks so much. Using an MSI Z790 Tomahawk

 

Show me a screenshot of the multipliers section.

 

Ooo interesting VDDQ. I never explored higher than 1.45v vddq since it stabilized 4800 1.65vdimm. Is it the secret to higher gear 1 scaling?

 

Depends on the ram and IMC. I needed 1.4v VDDQ to boot 4000G1 on my 12600K but couldn't stabilize it with even a tiny CPU OC.

I've currently tried it all the way down to 1.25v on my 13600KF and 4300CL14 still boots, but not 100% sure if instability was due to the VDDQ or temperature as it turned out I needed a better fan even at 1.4.

Will explore further with reducing VDDQ and SA later, focusing on getting my storage drives set up currently and backups take a long time. My fault for not having backed up my game drive to HDD array sooner.

 

Great thread thank you.

 

@Ichirou any idea what I'm doing wrong here, I set all core and per core values to 52, but I'm still stuck at 5100 in windows:

NVM, for some reason dynamic mode isn't working and wont let it run at 5200 under cinebench, fixed mode works.

 

You can also try going from Auto to Turbo Ratio Offset and setting that to +1

 

Set P-core ratio to auto. Raise only in Per-p core ratio.

 

Sometimes Intel XTU messing with the frequencies.

 

This is what it was thanks, couldn't get the per cores to stick again after fubarring my ram OC.

 

Stress Testing: Cinebench R23 (Game Stable) OR y-cruncher (Rock Stable)

@Ichirou - what would you say about being y-cruncher stable at AVX-1 and running AVX0 for daily?

Couldn't get y-cruncher to behave until I added the offset. I know the OC has problems with OCCT small AVX too, both extreme cases that aren't seen in daily usage... the last time I tried I could stabilize it but it wasn't worth running that voltage daily.

 

You can use AVX offsets if you like, but in today's day and age, pretty much 80% of all modern software/games use AVX, unless the program is known to not use it.
So adding an offset tends to not really result in anything meaningful. But you can experiment.

 

This is a very simple guide to overclocking your 12th or 13th Gen CPU on an MSI Z690 or Z790 motherboard.
It is not complex, and is designed to optimize your CPU for maximum performance at your desired voltage. Memory overclocking is not covered here.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prerequisites
Monitoring: HWiNFO
Stress Testing: Cinebench R23 (Game Stable) OR y-cruncher (Rock Stable)
Patience

Ideal Voltage
Everyone's risk tolerance is different, and degradation is real. I've degraded a few chips already from my own testing, so I can speak from experience.
I won't tell you what is a "guaranteed" safe voltage to stay under, but Intel states for the 13900K/KF that 253W is the max they support.
You should also try to keep your max core temperature under 80~85C at the most. That's one possible metric to determine how much headroom you have.

If you only want to be bare minimum "game" stable, Cinebench R23 is enough. But you're going to experience issues with any intensive workload.
y-cruncher gets pretty much to rock stable under any workload, but hammers the CPU quite hard and requires a lot more voltage is pass.
So they are akin to the minimum and maximum voltages you would need for any workload.
If you want to settle in the middle, you will need to field test your own workloads over an extended period of time to see what voltage is required.

MSI has graced users by automatically clocking down CPUs and lowering their voltage and power consumption during idle/light loads.
Even with an override (manual) voltage setting, this feature effectively makes the CPU work as if it were set to adaptive voltage.
(Changing the power plans in Windows doesn't really do anything either in my experience.)
Hence, there is no reason to overcomplicate the overclocking process. Just stick with using the override voltage setting for simplicity.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Initial Settings
1) Enter the BIOS by holding DEL while booting up the PC.
If you have issues trying to get into it, try doing it just after the underscore on the screen disappears, but before the MSI logo appears.

2) If you are prompted to choose a cooler type, go with Water for now. You can always limit the wattage later.

3) On the main screen, go into Advanced mode by pressing F7 or clicking the button at the top.
Click Settings > Boot, and then enable GO2BIOS. This will make overclocking much easier.
Whenever you have issues getting into the BIOS, turn off the PC, and then press and hold the power button for four seconds to directly enter the BIOS.

Afterwards, navigate to the overclock (OC) section on the left.
View attachment 2583341
4) Set the "P-Core/E-Core Ratio Apply Mode" to "All Core". Set the "Per P-Core/E-Core Ratio Limit" to "Manual".

5) Start with the stock settings of your CPU for now to establish a baseline.
Google for your CPU to figure out what the default P-Cores, E-Cores, and Ring (cache) clocks are.
For example, with the 13900KF, Intel states that the Performance and Efficient core max turbo frequencies are 5.40 GHz and 4.30 GHz respectively.
The Ring (cache) clock tends to be general knowledge, but if you can't find your chip's base value, just assume it is 4.00 GHz for now.

Plug in the values of each into the "X-Core Ratio" and "X-Core #" fields, like below.
Be sure to convert the frequencies to multiplier values by multiplying them by 10. (Example: 5.40 GHz => 54)
Plug in the baseline ring/cache frequency into the "Ring Ratio" field.
View attachment 2583342
6) Enter the "Advanced CPU Configuration" menu.
Enable "BCLK 100 MHz Lock On".
You can disable "Hyper-Threading" here. You can also set the "Active E-Cores" to 0. I recommend leaving them, but everyone's use-case differs.
Disable "Intel C-State". You can set the "Long Duration Power Limit (W)" to limit your max desired wattage here.
And the "Short Duration Power Limit (W)" for instantaneous power spikes (it should be set equal to or higher than the Long Duration).

7) Enable "Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)".
There are more specifics to memory overclocking, but they are beyond the scope of this guide.
If you cannot boot to desktop after enabling XMP, you may need to change the "CPU IMC : RAM Clock" to Gear 2.

8) Set the "CPU Core Voltage Mode" to "Override Mode". Enter your desired voltage below.
If you want to play it safe, start with a value under 1.30V. You can always work your way up from 1.15-1.20V.

9) If you are keeping your E-Cores active, set the "CPU E-Core L2 Voltage Mode" to "Override Mode". Enter 1.35V below for now.
This voltage helps stabilize higher ring/cache frequencies when the E-Cores are enabled. 1.35V is typically more than enough.
You will be optimizing this later, once the primary overclocking is done.
View attachment 2583343
10) Enter the "DigitALL Power" menu. Set the "CPU Loadline Calibration Control" to "Mode 5" to start.
There are lots of specifics to get into about loadlines (LLC), but they are beyond the scope of this guide.
It's a bit time consuming to find the ideal LLC value, and as the Mode value increases, the Vdroop does as well.
Vdroop is healthy for CPUs, but if you want a flat LLC, go with Mode 2/3 instead.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finding A Baseline
11) Boot up Windows, and run HWiNFO. Open the Sensors window. Look for the section that contains "VR VOUT". This is your true VRM voltage reading.
The far left first column is the active (ongoing) value. The second column is the minimum. The third is the maximum. And the fourth is the average.
The "Current (IOUT)" and "Power (POUT)" are important values as well, as they are the true current and wattage readings.
If you're just a beginner, all that you should care about is the Power (POUT) reading.
(If your motherboard or BIOS does not reveal these values, the CPU Package Power reading is good enough, albeit somewhat inaccurate.)
View attachment 2583347
12) Do a quick test with Cinebench or y-cruncher to determine if the voltage you set is enough to begin with.
With Cinebench (game stable only), you will want to do a quick 10 minute test to start.
Click File > Advanced Benchmark to show the "Minimum Test Duration" parameter, and select 10 minutes. Start the "CPU (Multi Core)" test.

With y-cruncher (virtually rock stable), you will want to run the main pi benchmark to start.
Press 0 and hit Enter. Then 1. Then enter the value which corresponds with the most memory your RAM capacity can handle.
For example, 16 GB would be 7, 32 GB would be 8, and 64 GB would be 9. Press Enter to start the test.
(Warning: y-cruncher requires much more voltage than virtually all other stress tests, which means it is more likely to degrade your CPU.)
View attachment 2583345
There are various possibilities for how your tests will turn out:
If your Cinebench test is successful, the program will give you a score next to the start button for Multi-Core.
If your y-cruncher test is successful, the program will give you a "Total Computation Time" and a "Start-to-End Wall Time".
If either test is unsuccessful, you will either encounter an error, or your PC will crash with a BSOD (which is most likely pointing to too low voltage).

Note: With either test, if HWiNFO reveals any "Windows Hardware Errors" (WHEA errors), it is considered unsuccessful.
Note 2: On Windows 10, y-cruncher might have an issue forcing all cores to run at 100%. To verify this, monitor the Effective Clocks in HWiNFO.
If you notice that only the E-Cores are maxed out while the P-Cores are not active, you will need to run the full test instead (see Step 16 below).

If you are successful, move to Step 13. If not, set a higher CPU Core Voltage value. Increase it by +0.01V increments, retesting after each change.
At this point, you have found the minimum voltage required to run your CPU's baseline clocks on all-core.
View attachment 2583346
13) Keep boosting up your CPU Core Voltage setting until you reach a true voltage/wattage which you no longer wish to go any higher.
Each time you gradually raise the voltage, you will need to retest the chip, but you don't need to run it for the full duration of time.
You can just let it run for 10-20 seconds and check the active voltage and power values. It's fine to interrupt the test to revise the voltage.
Once you have found the voltage that leads to the current and wattage you wish to permanently stick with, proceed to the next step.

If the voltage required to pass either test surpasses your maximum acceptable wattage, chances are, you have a poorly binned chip.
There's not much you can do about that, so you have to decide at this point whether you want to proceed, or resort to underclocking instead.

To underclock, reduce all of the multipliers of either the P-Cores or the E-cores in Step 5 by 1 until either test passes.
The errors/crashing could be from either the P-Cores or the E-Cores, so you will need to test both out to see which is the weaker link.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Core Optimization
14) After finding a baseline and establishing your maximum voltage, return to the BIOS's overclocking menu.

15) Raise the "P-Core Ratio" by 1 to raise the maximum. Do not raise all of the "P-Core #" multipliers at this time.
Go from top to bottom for simplicity. Raise a single "P-Core #" multiplier by 1.

Load up Windows and go through a short test. If it passes, raise the same multiplier by 1 again. And also raise the "P-Core Ratio" to follow suit.
When it fails, revert the change and make a note about how it failed.
For example: Did it BSOD? Or did it simply error? How quickly? Any WHEA errors? How high could the multiplier reach?

Repeat this process for each of the P-Cores. It will take some time. Based on your notes and findings, sort your P-Cores from strongest to weakest.
You do not need to revert a core back to the base multiplier to test a second one. If one is successful, keep it as-is and adjust the next.

16) After you've found the highest multipliers each core can pass tests at, run the full test instead and try to pass it.
In Cinebench, that would be the 30 minute stability test instead.
In y-cruncher, you enter 1, then 7, and then 0. (You only need to pass one loop, so stop the test after it does.)

If you succeed, proceed to Step 17. If not, then based on your notes, start reducing the weakest cores by 1 until it does pass.
You are done optimizing your P-Cores at this point.

17) Raise the "E-Core Ratio" by 1 to raise the maximum. Do not raise all of the "E-Core #" multipliers at this time.
Repeat the exactly same process as the one in Step 15. The E-Cores are built in clusters of four, so they cannot be adjusted individually.
You are done optimizing your E-Cores at this point.
View attachment 2583344
18) Raise the "Ring Ratio" incrementally by 1 or 2. Keep retesting until it fails to pass.

19) Gradually reduce "CPU E-Core L2 Voltage" by -0.05V decrements and keep retesting until it fails to pass.

20) Attempt to increase the LLC Mode by 1 to see if you optimize the voltage a little more. (But it's probably not going to work.)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU overclocking and performance maximization finished! Feel free to ask questions

Spoiler: My Own 13900KF Sample

Baseline: 8x 56 on the P-Cores / 4x 45 on the E-cores / 51 on the Ring, at 1.28V VR VOUT. 41,800 points in Cinebench.
Optimized: 5x 57, 3x 56 on the P-Cores / 1x 46, 3x 45 on the E-Cores / 51 Ring, at 1.28V VR VOUT. 42,300 points in Cinebench.
View attachment 2583348
View attachment 2583349

I tried it all and can't seem to stop getting whea errors or going above 253w and seeing 100c on my 13700kf trying to get 5.6 all core , I don't understand how my stock 5.3ghz all core runs fine at 1.13v r23 but 5.6 all core errors out at 1.24v, I'm still new to this so if you could help understand abit more please

 

Raise E-Core L2 Cache Voltage.
Raising multipliers involves more Vcore; you haven't given it enough. If you're overheating, you need a better cooler.

 

undervolting all night to try figure this out everything set to auto in bios, now I'm the minimum stable is -0.1v stable r23 and still 80c, any help is advice would be appreciated ekwb 360mm aio, remounted aio today and repasted pump rams seem correct at 2600 and cpu fans max out at 2200 on idle 40c max fans and if this helps I turned of cpu aio fans and still 40c at 400rpm vs the 2200rpm, I'm baffled only had this pc a week

 

Nice guide.

I'm also thinking, as far as I understand it, you set your pc as "All core" with different multiplier depending on how good a core is. Now .... wouldnt it be even better to go further and limit "if only 3 cores are active and temps are below 60C then used multiplier 5.8G on XX cores" ??I think this is possible right ?

 

Yes, you can achieve this by using TVB.

 

Thank you! interesting for me to get up to speed on 13th gen oc now!

I need my 13700k delid though, I can't go past 53x on pcores without getting close to thermal throttle on prime95 small FFTs

 

P95 version 26.6 onward use PFU and generate far more heat, so I think people are not using it anymore for stability test...
Only way to pass P95 is setting clock ratio downgrade for AVX

Deliding helps a lot, mine temp dropped by 8C without changing the IHS for copper, just using liquid metal between CPU and IHS

 

Please keep in mind that the settings above won’t work on all MSI boards as some use different VRMs which use different impedances.

 

hi, long time reader, first time poster; recently purchased a 13700kf with msi z690 edge ddr4 but seem to be struggling a little with the overclocks for both cpu and ram while trying to keep the volts and power in check. my current stable seem to 5.5P, 4.3/44E, 47 ring, micron e-die 32gb (2x16) dual rank at 4000@1.44v (bios) but 1.45 in hwinfo, cpu has been undervolted and running LLC6 with AC/DC at 13/80 under advanced offset. I was able to run the ram on my 10900kf at 4200 with the same voltage and slightly better timings on my z590 ace. I am using arctic LFII 280 but replaced the fans with noctua A14 ippc 2000rpm fans, also using thermalright contact frame, also have an alseye fan ram cooler. Any tips or suggestions would be welcome?

ps in hindsight i maybe should have got the z790 edge instead but that was £150 more than the z690 (paid £220).

pps scrap that gone back to my previous stable of all core 5.4P, 4.4E and 47 ring due to temps exceeding 90c managed to stabilise all core 5.5P, 4.4E, 47 ring with max cpu package temp at 90c. 3 full runs of y-cruncher passed before stopping.

 

hi, long time reader, first time poster; recently purchased a 13700kf with msi z690 edge ddr4 but seem to be struggling a little with the overclocks for both cpu and ram while trying to keep the volts and power in check. my current stable seem to 5.5P, 4.3/44E, 47 ring, micron e-die 32gb (2x16) dual rank at 4000@1.44v (bios) but 1.45 in hwinfo, cpu has been undervolted and running LLC6 with AC/DC at 13/80 under advanced offset. I was able to run the ram on my 10900kf at 4200 with the same voltage and slightly better timings on my z590 ace. I am using arctic LFII 280 but replaced the fans with noctua A14 ippc 2000rpm fans, also using thermalright contact frame, also have an alseye fan ram cooler. Any tips or suggestions would be welcome?

ps in hindsight i maybe should have got the z790 edge instead but that was £150 more than the z690 (paid £220).

View attachment 2593471

pps scrap that gone back to my previous stable of all core 5.4P, 4.4E and 47 ring due to temps exceeding 90c

Have a look at

https://skatterbencher.com/2022/11/24/skatterbencher-50-intel-core-i7-13700k-overclocked-to-6000mhz/

Probably you will get a better overall result with his strategy #3 ?
Cheers

 

I have a question. I was running my 13900K at 56/45/48 with settings of LLC7 with tuned values of AC LL 1, and DC LL 69 which netted me 1.228V under load. I just switched it to LLC8, DC LL 98, and AC LL 13 and that gets me stable at 1.210V. I am actually trying to lower the AC LL a bit more and I think I can get it in the 1.20 area. Can you see any drawbacks of using such a high LLC? So far, I don't see any negative effects.

 

Unlikely to have problem since you are using fixed frequency for p-cores. Is it stable for CBR23 multi-thread and single thread?

 

Did more testing tonight and I was able to lower AC LL to 10 which bought full load voltage to 1.202 at 56/45/48. That's a .026V drop. I can't wait to see what it does when I go DD. At the moment I am below my temperature threshold of 80C after an hour of Realbench. Considering I was at ~88C after an hour of Realbench before I started tweaking, I think I made some real progress.

 

ps when setting DC LL for LLC6 on z690 edge, should VID=vcore or VID=VR VOUT?

 

VR VOUT. It's more accurate.