i7-7700k multiplier locked?

For some reason, I can’t get this i7-7700k to shift to a higher multiplier than 44:

Under Prime 95 load:

At idle:

Notice how

  • the multiplier says 8 - 47
  • the voltage goes from 0.736v / 800 Mhz at idle to 1.376v / 4400 Mhz under prime95 load

…but it never goes above a 44 multiplier!! Heck that’s not even the 4.5 Ghz I paid for…

The mobo is an Asus Z-170A with latest BIOS, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what I’m doing wrong here. I did load all BIOS defaults at least once to try that.

I think I’m gonna clear CMOS, it is just too much of a coincidence that 44 multiplier (same as previous i7-6700k I had in here) is what it is stuck at.

Huh no, clearing CMOS didn’t help. Still seeing 4400, with multiplier range of 8-45… bizarre. I should contact ASUS support this seems like a legit bug on their Z170A. Annoying you don’t even get the 4.5 Ghz stock you paid for…

I know you said your bios was up to date, but did you check that processor was supported by the motherboard yet? Maybe they are coming out with a new bios for these chips?

If you haven’t done it in a couple years, overclocking is a bit different now. I had similar confusion with my 6700K.

First turn off all the power saving stuff, speedstep, E1C, etc. It will screw you up, as it’s rather tricky to get working properly with an overclock. Once that’s off, set a 45x static multiplier in the BIOS. Burn-in at the highest multiplier you can, trying 46 then 47, etc, get it stable, then you turn the power saving stuff back on and get it to work properly (which is not trivial).

You will almost certainly have to increase the TDP ceiling and voltage in your BIOS to hit 5Ghz. Turning on vCore loadline calibration will help as well to counteract droop in the vCore.

He could be doing it manually, but Asus boards can usually do that stuff automatically

Yes, the motherboard probably has an automatic overclock feature somewhere. Could give that a shot, but I haven’t had great experiences with them.

Asus makes it very easy. If nothing else, there should be some canned settings to go above 4.5 and maybe it could be tweaked from there.

I think he already mentioned having to do it manually. In the other thread.

Yeah, you are right, I forgot. Something is definitely screwy.

This was a useless thing to write, as you can see in the damn screenshots the multipliers are enabled. Hell even the 45x stock multiplier isn’t working, for some reason…

Anyways, I opened a topic on their support forum and hopefully someone can advise. I’d hate to have to dump my mobo over this; replacing CPU is pretty easy but ripping everything out and putting in a new mobo is significantly more work.

And I’m lazy.

Doesn’t speedshift basically provide overclocking benefits without any effort?

That’s the turbo frequency, and that doesn’t turn on when all of the cores are under load.

Even with only 1 core active it never reaches 45 multiplier.

I did get a reply on the Asus site asking about temps and power so I will check that next. I already reset CMOS which they advised.

edit: temps seem totally fine. Prime95 max load (8 threads going apeshit)

Ehhh screw it I’ll just upgrade to the Z270-A motherboard. What a pain.

It is possible I got a marginal chip that needs crazy voltage just to reach its rated speeds or something.

Yes. I’ve had that happen in the past. How long did you run Prime 95? Those are low temps for Prime95 if you’d been running it for 30 minutes or more. You’re not really supposed to use Prime 95 on the last few classes of Intel cpus because after a bit they just go crazy hot after ramp up. I used to use Prime95 for burn in, now it’s impossible with an overclock.

@wumpus are those temps with the stock box cooler?

Intel’s K-series don’t come with coolers anymore. They figured that anyone who buys one will wind up replacing it, so they may as well save themselves a few bucks.

I’m using the Thermalright Venomous X

That looks an awful lot like my Noctua NHU12PSE