[i7-6820HK] Overclock Settings for 4.0GHz to 4.3GHz (Stable)

Rebirth of this thread now that the 17R4 / 15R3's are out.

As the thread states, 4.3GHz Stable. It passes the necessary benches that it needs to pass. Everything else like normal day to day tasks, gaming and even encoding does fine without issues.

43X Test Run - wPrime - (Preliminary run.)




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* Mileage may vary. Try the settings below, but if they don't work for you then adjust accordingly. To be frank, if those settings don't work then it might be that you'll need to do a lot of trial and error to find the sweet spot and/or it is an indicator that your chip probably isn't a lucky winner in the Silicon Lottery. Don't be sad though as you may just need some more fine tuning. Not all chips are created equal. Use the settings below as a base and work form there. Good luck!

::iunlock:: Project 6820HK:

So can the 6820HK hold 4.6GHz? - Kind of. It's still in the tuning process, but it's getting there. Right now it's dipping, but it does not go below 42x from monitoring the apps while testing. It's been about 5 days already of just pure tuning. Hoping to get it there soon as the goal is to get it 46x stable for a daily driver.





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Still turning to get it registered at 46x. In due time...but for now...


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Greetings Everyone,

For those of you with the i7-6820HK; if you're lucky enough to have a winning chip in the silicon lottery, you may be able to successfully run at 4.3GHz (stable) with the following settings (as a base to work from) provided here in this thread. (I'm still testing it extensively so please make sure to check back.)

This thread is intended to provide an organized list of what has "worked," for me along with clearing up a lot of confusion on overclocking the 6820HK's. Not all silicon are created equal so mileage may vary. (My OCD kicks in a lot when things are scattered...I'm sure some of you with OCD as well will appreciate this, so lets keep things organized.)

Should I use BIOS or XTU to OC?
Both. The BIOS will take precedence over XTU, rather it'll set a base. Keep in mind that whatever you set in BIOS is what you'll be limited to with XTU, kinda. The reason for this is because BIOS sets a max/ceiling to the settings. ie...XTU is good for tweaking the multipliers in the BIOS to your desired settings. It is a bit confusing I know, but just roll with it as the BIOS is strange to begin with.

So use your BIOS to OC set to your desired settings that works for your silicon, then fine tune i t.

Try these settings in the BIOS to set a base: (~Mileage my vary.)

Tip: Do not bother with the preset OC Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 settings found in BIOS. It's a waste of time and worthless (Shame on Dell). Instead, try this...

[Select Default, the Reboot, Enter BIOS again... -> Then select Custom and enter the following values.]

For 4.3GHz
1-Core Ratio Limit Override: 43
2-Core Ratio Limit Override: 43
3-Core Ratio Limit Override: 43
4-Core Ratio Limit Override: 43

Core Extra Turbo Voltage: 1150 to 1200
(It holds stable for me at 1150, while it holds steady for my buddy 15R2 at 1200. Try both and the values in between.)

Power Limit 1: 100000
Power Limit 2: 100000

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For 4.2GHz
1-Core Ratio Limit Override: 42
2-Core Ratio Limit Override: 42
3-Core Ratio Limit Override: 42
4-Core Ratio Limit Override: 42

Core Extra Turbo Voltage: Left this at 1200

Power Limit 1: 100000
Power Limit 2: 100000

Update: 4.2 runs very stable for me with gaming and other resources intensive tasks like Photoshop (large files) etc...however, I can not tell a difference really compared to 4.1 or even 4.0, as expected.

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For 4.1GHz
1-Core Ratio Limit Override: 41
1-Core Ratio Limit Override: 41
1-Core Ratio Limit Override: 41
1-Core Ratio Limit Override: 41

Core Extra Turbo Voltage: Left this at 0

Power Limit 1: 100000
Power Limit 2: 100000

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The OP will be updated with any new info.

To be continued...

 

i7-6820HK running at 4.3GHz possible?

The question is...is it practical? IMO...no. But can it be done and is it running stable so far? - Yes, until proven otherwise...



Is faster better?

That's subjective and of course it depends on what you're doing, but from my tests for gaming, there is no difference from what I can see....even with some benchmark tests, running at 4.3GHz actually came out lower and/or throttled down to around my daily driver 4.1GHz setting.

XTU @ 4.3GHz


XTU @ 4.1GHz


Currently Ranked #1 @ 4.1GHz, while the runner up tested at 4.2GHz. I'm looking forward to another fellow 6820HK'er to beat that score! I'll help you....


It's nice to see the i7-6820HK hanging out with the 6700K's....we need more 6820HK's in the crowd.

 

AW 17R4

I have reached 901cb....will post soon...


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AW 17R3

Cinebench R15 runs...

CPU: 892cb
OpenGL: 146.16fps

Just crazy....


Odd that it shows the stock 2.72GHz....anyhow...


Test done @ 4.1GHz...

 

4

 

Do you mind placing all your XTU settings. When I have tried to OC to x41 core frequency does not change, and processor does not pass 3.6. I have flashed the Bios

 

If you're wanting to run 4.1GHz, just use the settings in the OP for BIOS over clock 4.1GHz. It's very stable. That's all you need to change. Nothing more, nothing less.

I only use XTU to OC when running 4.3GHz, since I need to change additional settings that I can't do in BIOS.

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Question on core extra voltage in bios. By default it's at 0. At level 3 it's set to 100. Isn't setting it to 1200 a bit overkill? Probably fry something. Unless somehow your bios is showing different values than mine.

 

Your screenshot shows maximum processor frequency less than 4.1GHz, not 4.3GHz

 

Those are mV2 values, which are balanced out with lowering the core offset in XTU.

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Oops, thanks for bringing that to my attention. However, that run was also done at 4.3 and so happened to be a run that throttled back with the highest mark with the multipliers set to 43. I'll upload another screenshot, which happens to be even lower at 4.3 ..

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Great thread........ nice to see your XTU ranking up there.

i look forward to totally pounding my CPU to see just how much BGA Skylake can deliver!!

 

can you get a stable 4.3Ghz via XTU..?? or are you using the BIOS for that.

 

Thanks mate

Haha give that bga a beating! Lol...

Hope to see you break 900's?! For some reason I have a feeling it can....I'll be messing with the settings more today for fun and update the OP accordingly.



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4.3 via XTU only holds together for low intensive tasks....once you push it, it kicks the bucket....

However, after hours and hours of trial and error....I think we're getting close to a combo the silicon likes.....I'll keep you updated.

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Great stuff!!

 

Those settings for 4.3 and 4.2 do not even boot for me. I'll try 4.1 tomorrow.

 

As stated, mileage may vary. Are you using XTU as well? Make sure to put your XTU to default profiles then try again.

 

BIOS only.

 

Hmmm...yea I think it's just the luck of the draw. The 4.1 Settings should be fine and work for you....

 

For XTU score try increasing your cache ratio and especially push RAM. If you can push it higher than your current 2667MT/S and/or tighten timings it can have a great impact on scores.

 

Anybody know if it's possible to get XTU to auto start when you load up windows? Even if it requires using another program to assist?

 

evening all.....

iunlock.... how you getting on with your buddy..??, got some 4.3 love to show us yet

 

=) I've spend the better half of yesterday running through a ton of combos for 4.3GHz. The trick seems to be a fine balance between the voltage offset and core voltage settings. Also when at 4.3, the slightest of adjustments can throw it off track.

I've tried gaming again on 4.3 and only received a BSOD with Battlefield 4...I've concluded that it's a sudden spike in heat issue, as 4.3 brings about sharp spikes of heat fluctuation, which is triggering the threshold limit.

For all other non intensive tasks, it runs fine. Only with BF4 it hiccups.

With all these benchmark and stress tests lately, I'm pretty sure the cheap silly putty of the factory thermal paste is about to kick the bucket....I'd highly recommend repasting if 4.1 or higher will be your daily driver settings.

It's definitely important to find a base to see where ones balancing point is with their 6820HK. From there it'll take a lot of patients to run through the numbers to find that balance.

It's like trying to guess that winning lottery number, while hoping the very paper that it's printed on will stay in one piece and not disinagrate lol....

Another interesting thing is....while at just 4.0Ghz on stock voltage, it's benchmark numbers like CPU-Z hangs with the 6700K.

The 6820HK is panning out to be one of those classic engines like the bullet proof 4G63 turbocharged engines...it's a keeper nonetheless....the combo of having the efficiency of the lower power draw to being able to run at 6700K clock speeds in a mobile setting makes it already a winner.

More to come....


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well.... without some seriously efficient thermal grease, and some huge fans attached to my cooling pad were really gonna struggle to get the heat out!!!

heres what im seeing when trying to run 4.3ghz..... i have 'power limit' warning which denotes a lack of vcore i believe but anymore voltage and the thing will fry!!, im at about 90c avg.... once its starts to throttle, game over... i could probably game at 4.3ghz but temps would be through the roof.

1.3570v !!!!! .... thats insane!!

 

Sizzlin'! LOL....looks great. At least now you know it can be done haha....

I'm going to repaste soon (Grizzly Kryonaut) and will be pushing it to the 4.3 altitude again extensively.

 

I have done this, Unfortunately my max still steams to be 3.6. any suggestions?

 

Hmmm....you've mentioned that you're on a new BIOS? Perhaps something is overwriting something somewhere....that would be my only guess as that seems to the the only major variable that is different for mine.

 

Whoa, if you mean really, really fast temperature spikes you should avoid them before possibly killing the chip. At some point with overclocking comes a point of diminishing returns. IMHO best to just to accept that it is what it and work within that. But hey, it's just my opinion.

Power throttling is due to set power limits being reached. Increasing voltage will generally only exasperate things.

 

Indeed...I'll mess with it more at 4.3 after a repaste. Right now I'm just running it at 4.1 and it's rock solid on stock voltage. Just gamed for the past 2 hours non stop....solid as a rock.

The 6820HK is a beast....lower TDP...stock voltage and running at 4.0-4.1 nicely. It's comforting to know that it will run at 4.0 in its sleep, let alone 4.1.

Pretty happy about that.

 

That power efficiency of the 6820HK looks really good compared to Haswell. IIRC my 4700MQ needed something like ~110W for CBR15 @ 896.

 

Surprise surprise!

4.6HGz LOL...ran benches, browsed the Web etc...haven't gamed yet...but, with a lot of fine tuning.... here it is....

What a Beast....



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This run was actually at 4.1...not 4.6...


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wow.......... wheres the laptop, in the freezer..????

impressive stuff!!! if itll complete the 1024 wprime, you can game all day long on it.

what temps are you seeing..??

 

lets get some XTU images with the graphs .... need to see those settings lol!!

 

Sorry iunlock those scores are too low for 4.6GHz, probably throttling down by ~500MHz. Check power limits.

 

Yes, it's obviously throttling. For example the CPUZ test was done at 4.1GHz, as that is what it kept registering during validation.

Therefore, there's nothing to be sorry about.

It is what it is. There's no plans to obviously run it at 4.6 lol....these are tests to see how far my silicon can be pushed. That's all....

Regardless, I'm pretty darn impressed. With the proper cooling, I have no doubts these 6820HK's could do well at higher clock speeds on par with the desktop big brother, the 6700K. It's already proven that to a reasonable extent. (Solid 4.1, 4.2 and pretty stable 4.3 tests with stock cooling.)

 

@skunk1, indeed I'm pretty impressed. I have it on performance fan mode and slightly elevated the laptop on some books lol, sitting on my glass top desk. It definitely has good air circulation / flow.

I'll be posting some info soon on the hours of trial and error haha... I've been making sure to log everything with screen shots and uploading them to the respected sites.

I think I'm onto something to make it more stable at higher clock speeds....I'll report back shortly.



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For a quick test, drop the CPU cache multi down to 18x...

I run batch jobs on the 5950HQ, and found a sweet spot at 35x x4 cores, 35x cache, -70mV - runs for hours right at the 47w power limit, and I get great performance results. No throttling.

LSS, I dropped the cache multi, and kept dropping it, while raising the cores multi - and also dropping the core / cache voltage offset, and now run for hours at...

37x x4 cores, 20x cache, -70mv core/cache offset. And temps are high 70's/low 80's - depends on ambient. No throttling.

Spoiler

For this measurement run temps are higher because I am doing builds on a Centos 7 VM constantly in addition to the batch jobs.

Getting awesome interactive response too, runing VM's doing builds, running video streaming, even gaming if I feel adventurous - batch jobs can restart if the whole shebang drops dead on me

Still in progress, working toward 38x 4x cores - probably need to drop voltage offset a bit, and maybe try 18x cache.

Just a tip to try to get that power draw down so you don't throttle at higher core multi's

 

Can you show us a Wprime 1024M and Cinebench 11.5 with your stable 4.3Ghz profile. Run maximum performance in Win power plan and run Hwinfo for validation of clock speed, temp and package power.
Maybe I missed to see the 4.3 bench test you run with Wprime/Cinebench. Or put in link to those bench scores.

 

Definitely noted =) Thanks mate. The whole tuning aspect of OC'ing is where the fun is at since all CPU's are not created equal. I'll surely report back with new findings.

 

I have no reason to not believe that the mobile quads are cut from the same silicon as their desktop counterparts. The main difference being clocked down and given a fair less amount of power to work with.

So is the throttling your experiencing power or temperature? If power have you tried increasing values only to have them ignored? If so what is the long term throttling power that is displayed?

 

Indeed... as for the throttling, it is thermal throttling, however, it only hits 1-2% pass the threshold limit, so it's really not that much. I'm really close to getting this thing stable for the most part. Heck, I even played BF4 while on 4.6GHz last night just fine. Then I ran XTU and that's when it kicked the bucket.

I'll be reporting back shortly.

 

If you are trying to run the benchmark on XTU it uses prime95 and is based on best score of many prime95 runs during the bench. Therefore if you adjust PL1 time to say 5 seconds or so and keep PL1 power to somewhere around 45W or even less while PL2 power is set above what the bench needs to run full tilt then you can still get the highest possible score while working within the thermal limits of the system. When running from cold idle there is a fair bit of thermal latency in the system to absorb that initial kick in heat.

 

Hi Guys

Is anyone experiencing Graphics driver stability issues when running a relatively high OC? My Nvidia driver when running 4.0GHz has a tendency to to crash (TDR Failure) but if I wind the clocks back to say, 3.8GHz then all seems ok.

This feels like some sort of power issue (the lack of?).

There is also the possibility that the driver is generally unstable (361.91) as I hear the latest batch of Nvidia drivers are a bit flaky.

My OC settings are below:

1-Core Ratio Limit Override: 40
1-Core Ratio Limit Override: 40
1-Core Ratio Limit Override: 40
1-Core Ratio Limit Override: 40

Core Extra Turbo Voltage: 1150

Power Limit 1: 105000
Power Limit 2: 105000

I'm only using the settings within the BIOS.

 

add more voltage and try again....... my drivers often fail if it just needs the slightest bump in juice.

 

Thanks for the reply, I kinda thought as much though, I now have another issue..... I seem to be locked at 3.6GHz

I've seen this mentioned before but wasn't sure if anyone figured out what the deal was?!

I'll reset the bios to "default" and report back....

 

Ok so resetting the bios sorted the 3.6GHz thing out so that's all good.

Now I'm just testing my 4GHz oc. Just out of interest as I've not seen anyone mention it, I would normally stress test using RealBench on my desktop, theres no reason I can't use it on my laptop, no?

 

Can someone explain the following terms?

Core Extra Turbo Voltage: Default is 50 for OC level 1/2 and 100 for OC Level 3. What exactly does this mean, given that you specify 1200 for 4.2ghz and above?

Power Limit 1/2: 92000 standard for OC L1/L2, 100000 specified for 4.1Ghz. What do these values really mean?

I got blue screens trying to run 4.1 with the recommended settings (Core Extra Turbo Voltage 0 and PL1/PL2 at 100,000)

Appreciate any explanation as I think a better understanding of these values will help with tuning to get it running stable at 4.1Ghz.

PS. Fan Performance Mode = sounds like the laptop is taking off!

 

I think mine must have a really dodgy paste job. At stock my laptop gets up to 83-89c under load while playing black desert online for example.

With stock temps like that I'm almost afraid to even bother with OCing lol.

I don't run my fans in performance mode though, because it makes the laptop sound like a plane lol.

I assume anything that is 90c+ sustained is pretty bad for the health of the CPU?

 

Yeah that sounds pretty high, I don't know if that game is particularly CPU heavy but even when I run CPU intensive games my CPU temps hover around 75c. That said, I have re-pasted with Grizzly Kryonaut.

I would dive in and re-paste, the stock job is almost dangerously crap...

 

I agree, the stock paste has no hope and at those temps it is for certain that degrading of the CPU at a faster rate is occurring.

I too have repasted with Grizzly and my temps are as follows under max load when gaming:

Note: This is without performance fan mode.

CPU: High 60's to Low 70's at default clocks...Even when OC'ed it sits in the low 70's.

GPU: At stock CPU clocks and with no GPU OC = 58C-61C .... At 3.8GHz CPU OC and with GPU OC 135/75 (stock voltage) = 63C-65C.

I have a ton of screen shots that I can post when I get back to the office.

One thing that I know is that my temps after repasting far exceeds just -10C of improvement. It's night and day. According to the 89C being reported while gaming, that would mean that repasting improved our temps by ~20C!

Repaste = Mandatory. Absolutely a must.

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