Processors
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Overclocking alot

CHouc1
Beginner
772 Views

Heres the new pc I got.........

​9th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 9700K (8-Core, 12MB Cache, Overclocked up to 4.6GHz across all cores)

NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) RTX 2080 SUPER(TM) 8GB GDDR6 (OC Ready)

32GB Dual Channel HyperX(FM) FURY DDR4 XMP at 2933MHz

1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD

My question is, does my CPU supposed to be overclocking ALOT? Anytime I open anything up the CPU is running at 4.4-4.6 Ghz. Is it supposed to fluctuate and more less run wide open when I game with it? I can make a seperate profile and set it to not go over 3.6 nut of it's supposed to be doing that I dont want to mess it up. My 2080 super is staying at around 60°celcius. Idk what to do. Any help is much appreciated.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
741 Views

Let's clear up the misconceptions ​before anything else.

  1. Y​ou have an unlocked (K) processor. This means that it can be overclocked by increasing the base clock multiplier (which is what is locked in non-K processors). Saying it another way, it is not overclocked by default but it is overclockable.
  2. The base clock multiplier is the easiest way to overclock the processor. There are other methods for doing so that, in some cases, also work for non-K processors too.​ For example, using an XMP profile to run the memory buses at frequencies potentially higher than the processor is validated to do is also a form of overclocking - and can generate additional heat and can tax the lifetime of the processor.
  3. Your example is actually a bad one. Windows 10 has a plethora of maintenance tasks that run when there is little running in the foreground. Bottom line, the processor is rarely idle when you want it to.

...S​

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4 Replies
n_scott_pearson
Super User
741 Views

You are the one who chose to overclock your processor. It is doing what you asked. You are not going to see fluctuations in clock frequency because you are likely generating a thermal load that prevents the Turbo Boost feature from being utilized. Is this bad? Not necessarily. If you have a good cooling solution and are holding temperatures to 80c or less, then there is no reason why it cannot continue to run this way for its full warranted lifetime. On the other hand, if you want to maximize its lifetime and save as much power as possible, then turn off all the overclocking and let the Intel Turbo Boost feature take care of doing the Core-level overclocking when conditions warrant.

 

...S

CHouc1
Beginner
741 Views

Hey Scott, thanks for replying. I must have not worded my question right. But I have manual overclock off, but it came as a over clocked cpu, and I was wondering if it was supposed to overclock as much as it does.​ So as long as the overclocking is off and it is, just let it run however and dont worry about it? As for temps, cpu is around 55°c and GPU is staying around 65°c. I just havent had a pc in about 15 yrs and was wondering to preserve its life should I make a separate overclock profile and set the Ghz to 3.6 or something. So it doesnt go above that. But at the same time if it NEEDS to be overclocking, I don't want mess anything up.

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CHouc1
Beginner
741 Views

Like for example I'm on the home ​screen and the only thing running is Discord and the Alienware command center and it's going from 4.2 to 4.6, I just havent had a pc in a long time and I'm probably worrying over nothing.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
742 Views

Let's clear up the misconceptions ​before anything else.

  1. Y​ou have an unlocked (K) processor. This means that it can be overclocked by increasing the base clock multiplier (which is what is locked in non-K processors). Saying it another way, it is not overclocked by default but it is overclockable.
  2. The base clock multiplier is the easiest way to overclock the processor. There are other methods for doing so that, in some cases, also work for non-K processors too.​ For example, using an XMP profile to run the memory buses at frequencies potentially higher than the processor is validated to do is also a form of overclocking - and can generate additional heat and can tax the lifetime of the processor.
  3. Your example is actually a bad one. Windows 10 has a plethora of maintenance tasks that run when there is little running in the foreground. Bottom line, the processor is rarely idle when you want it to.

...S​

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