Core i7-4790K Overclock Tutorial

 Unlocking the full potential of your computer's performance can be an exhilarating journey for enthusiasts and power users alike. If you're seeking to squeeze out every last drop of power from your system, then overclocking is the name of the game.

Warning: Overclocking is a process that can damage your System from Cpu to Chipset (vrm etc...), please do at your own risk!!! I am not responsible for any damage, and stay away if you are not experienced in hardware.  

Today, we delve into the world of overclocking, specifically focusing on the powerhouse processor, the Intel Core i7 4790k.

The Intel Core i7 4790k is a high-performance desktop processor that was released by Intel in 2014 as part of their 4th generation Haswell lineup.It was the king of Gaming, Render and Overclocking PC Builds of 2014 to 2016 (Successed by Intel Skylake, i7 6700k and its variants). It is built on a 22nm manufacturing process and features a quad-core architecture with Hyper-Threading technology, allowing it to handle up to eight threads simultaneously. The processor operates at a base clock speed of 4.0 GHz, which can be boosted up to 4.4 GHz using Intel's Turbo Boost technology.One of the standout features of the i7 4790k is its unlocked multiplier, which makes it an excellent choice for overclocking enthusiasts, that makes users to manually increase clock speed using Core Clock Multipler.Intel Core i7 4790k is designed for LGA 1150 Processor Sockets, motherboard Chipsets are Intel B85, H1, H85, Q87, H87, Z87, Q87, H97 and Z97. 

Chipset is the most important part of the overclocking, after making sure of your CPU is overclockable, you need to make sure your Motherboard can overclock using core clock multipler, otherwise you can overclock by BLCK which is not affective and dangerous. For this range of motherboards, we can use Z87 and Z97 for overclocking since they are supporting core multiplier overclocking.

Core multiplier is working by setting the core clock by multiplying your BLCK with Core Multiplier you or your CPU defined at factory. For example, assume that your BLCK is 100mhz, and your Core Multiplier is 40, you get 100mhz * 40 = 4000mhz , that is 4.0Ghz which is stock non-turbo activated clock of Intel Core i7 4790k. Also never forget that you can set the core clocks to each of your CPU Cores or you can set all cores to one synchronized.4790k comes with 42-44 multiplier per core within factory settings at Turbo Boost enabled.    

As you can see here at the CPU-Z, 4790k comes with 100mhz * 44 core clock =4.4Ghz at Turbo Boost.Having 88W TDP and stock 1.309V adaptive core voltage. 

    

So lets begin the overclocking process...We have Asus Z97 Pro Gamer which was the one of the king motherboards for the Intel Haswell series that support all the cpu's without any problem, also supporting core multiplier unlocked. Also with Dual Channel 4GBx2 1866Mhz Gskill DDR3 Ram (we will overclock ram too...) 

We used Xigmatek Red Scorpio II as our Cpu Tower Cooler which is a great cooler for i7 4790k at both stock turbo clock and overclocking. Triple piped cpu cooler, without busting the bank with a Water Cooler. Installed with its stock high airflow 12cm 4 pin pwm fan. For case fans, I have standard silent 3x 12cm case fans installed at case, 1 at rear , 2 at front. Also I have a 12cm 0.3A Server case fan feeding the GPU and CPU from bottom with insane airflow but creates sound. The server fan turns on when Cpu reached 60 Celcius Degrees, preffered because of extreme noise but impressive airflow it creates.  

For thermal paste , I used GD900. GD900 is a budget Chinese thermal paste with 4.8 W/M-K thermal conductivity. This is a thermal paste that preferred instead of MX4 for being budget and having similar performance with MX4 or other expensive thermal pastes at the market today. It is 30Grams which will let you use alot. Im obsessed with thermal paste that I replace it every 3-6 months so I preferred GD900 after researching. Also will do great job at overclocking. 

First, we open the BIOS and directly navigate to AI Tweaker, and set our Core Multiplier as all cores syncronized (Sync All Cores), and with multiplier of 46, which will overclock our CPU to 4.6 Ghz. 

Lets now move to the bottom of the Core Ratio Limit, we keep CPU Cache at Auto which its 40 (4.0Ghz) of its stock cache clock from factory. 

Now lets roll down to CPU Core Voltage, set it as Manual Mode as seen at here, and set it 1.25V. I set this to 1.27V because I got Watchdog error BSOD at 1.25V which means the core voltage is not enough for the requested core clock. Also the core voltage is the parameter that defines your CPU's TDP. Setting the core voltage to 1.25V first worked but after overclocking the ram, it failed so I did this to 1.27V and using the system at this settings since 2-3 weeks without any issue. 

For air cooling , 1.3V is safe for 4790k.For water cooling you can move upto 1.4V (Do at your own risk!!!)

 

Now lets overclock the ram for having a better performance combined with the overclocked CPU. I set the DRAM Frequency to DDR3-2133Mhz from 1866Mhz, xmp not enabled (manual). 

Move bottom again and increase the DRAM voltage to something like 1.54-1.55 slowly from 1.50 to not have watchdog or similar errors to carry the extra voltage for overclocking. Upto 1.60-1.65V are safe for DDR3 Rams but please do this job at your own risk!!!

Here is my CPU-Z result after overclocking the 4790k to 4.6Ghz. 

Core voltage 1.27v stable...

CPU-Z Bench Resulted the max point of 2600. Which fights with the result of i7 7700k.

i7 4790k overclocked to 4.6Ghz directly beated the i7 6700k (2377 points CPU-Z Bench)

Core temp values after overclock while benchmarking.Really good results with overclocked system.We can go further to 4.7 or 4.8Ghz but I will keep more stable with 4.6Ghz.Staying below 80 celcius is safe with benchmark. Assume that we dont use %100 of CPU while gaming, theese temperatures are about 60 Celcius while gaming, which is pretty safe and stable...