PRO Z690 A Wifi DDR5 - Beginner's Guide to overclocking

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sovitzk154402d7

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My 2nd post - so exciting! ;)

Anyway, purchased a decent gaming rig with the following:
PRO Z690-A Wifi DDR5
Intel i9-13900KF (liquid cooled, of course) plenty of case fans
Purchased - (2) 32GB G.Skill RipJaws S5 Series (Intel XMP) DDR5 5600 (64GB)
Came with - (2) 16GB Avant DDR5 4800 (32GB)
RAM = 96 GB
(Windows and BIOS reports System RAM running at 4000 Mhz)
Came with - 1 TB M.2 Kingston SNV2S1000G NVMe Gen4 SSD
My own - 2 TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus (Gen3?)
AUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti 12GB GDDR6X (531.41)

I think that's the main guts. What I am looking for is a guide for newbies on overclocking. I know I can't enable the XMP Profile 1 in the BIOS because of the 'crap' RAM they put in. I would need to purchase add'l XMP ram or take out the initial 32 GB.

The only change I have made from the stock is changing the P-core ratio from 30 (3000 Mhz) to 33 (3300 Mhz). Windows still reports the same base speed (3.0 Ghz). I know I don't know what I am doing so I am just looking for quick advice or a link that can help me understand what my options are and what I can reasonably and safely get away with. :)
1680883028545.png


On the CPU Turbo Max line you can see it is at 33 x 100 = 3300 Mhz. I assume that didn't do as I expected (up the base CPU freq from 3.0 to 3.3 Ghz). Do I also need to adjust the multiples for the E-core's too? (See, I told you I was a newbie).

Thank you for any and all assistance you can provide!
 
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Yes, that's what i always say, waiting for a crash is not a good way of determining stability. You want to throw some stress-testing at the RAM, see my RAM thread under 5).

I see you have set CPU VDDQ voltage to 1.2V, where have you picked that up? For me (completely different RAM, DDR4 even), i had to make it go to 1.3V for stability, see here.
 
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citay said:
Yes, that's what i always say, waiting for a crash is not a good way of determining stability. You want to throw some stress-testing at the RAM, see my RAM thread under 5).

I see you have set CPU VDDQ voltage to 1.2V, where have you picked that up? For me (completely different RAM, DDR4 even), i had to make it go to 1.3V for stability, see here.
Click to expand...
Interesting.

I have a different system, 12700k z690, 2x16gb ddr5, and almost all of the memory try it profiles put it at 1.2V on my system too.
 
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I will definitely try memtest and other stress-testing utils to verify.

Plus, I don't remember ever adjusting the CPU VDDQ voltage myself...I would bet Memory Try It adjusted it. Would you recommend I set it to 1.3V?
 
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VDDQ 1.3V might be necessary to stabilize DDR5-5600. We know DDR5-5600 at its default settings wasn't very stable, so don't even boot Windows before your DDR5-5600 settings have passed Memtest86, this is the bare minimum requirement. Other memory tests are harder to pass, but when you already get errors in Memtest86, it's time to head back to the BIOS and try something else, not boot Windows. It would be interesting to see if enabling DDR5-5600 XMP sets VDDQ at 1.2 or 1.3V, probably 1.2V. So then you can try 1.3V.
 
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OK. So, still running at Memory Try It at 5400, I upped the CPU VDDQ to 1.3V. Booted to memtest86 and getting errors. 27 right now after 9 minutes. :(

So, will head down to 5200Mhz via MTI. Any other settings I should try?

Thanks.
 
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As soon as you see an error in Memtest86, abort and go back to the drawing board. You're too far away from stability, especially if it the error comes quite soon. But for me it was the same with VDDQ 1.2V, i had errors very quickly, and with 1.3V they went away (i also used higher DRAM voltage, but still below my XMP profile voltage, plus i think VDDQ was the main thing in my case).

If you want to try a setting, try DDR5-5600, we want to see if we can stabilize that easily somehow. With Memory Try It! at -5400, you don't know what kind of timings it sets, they might be tighter than the XMP at 5600. Because when you have RAM instability, there's three things you can do to counteract it: Lower speed, loosen timings, raise voltages. So tighter timings = more risk of instability. Experiment with different VDDQ at -5600, from 1.2V to 1.4V maybe.
 
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OK. At least I got more evidence, if not progress.
First, updated to the latest BIOS (3/24/23). I know this is a large debate, but I am on the side of staying up-to-date in that respect. Plus, it mentioned improved memory compatibility. ;)
I tried XMP on and everything else Auto (RAM). Tried CPU VDDQ at 1.2V (memtest errors), 1.3V (memtest errors), and 1.4V (the setting went read when I set it) - memory overclock fail.

I noticed when I went back to where I am now (XMP off, Memory Try It! 5200-CL38), there is also a DRAM VDDQ voltage. Anyway, these are the changes it made when I went back to where I am now.
20230414_155126.jpg


If you have any ideas on where to go from here, I'm all ears. ;) Thanks again for all your help!
 
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Ok, so CPU VDDQ doesn't achieve much on its own. Then another thing to test with would be CPU SA voltage, and potentially a combined adjustment of CPU VDDQ and SA.
Set CPU SA Voltage mode to [Override], set 1.2V for it, verify that it's applied after F10 to save and exit, and check if it does anything about the Memtest86 errors at DDR5-5600.
 
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Well, amazing how fast time flies. Almost 4 months since the last update.

Anyway, I wanted to write an update here...I made some progress, I think. Since April, I was running at 5200Mhz Non-XMP. Stable, no issues in Windows at all. Ever since the July BIOS update, and noticing the bullet point about memory OC compatibility as a fix, I said "What the hell?" So, I bumped the Memory Try it from 5200 to 5400. Again, things were stable for a few days, no issues in Windows. Just now, I bumped it up to 5600 and enabled Memory XMP.

Holy Balls! This was already a fast system, but OMG! Everything just freakin' OPENS. Crazy how fast it is. I've only had Win11 up for 12 minutes - what? - but things are stable. Task Manager reports 5600Mhz memory. And, seriously, looks like the XMP makes a BIG difference in the transfer speeds between CPU <-> RAM, etc...

So, a disclaimer - NO, I have NOT booted into Memtest to check for errors. Yes, I am an idiot and unjustified in reporting these results. I know Windows could 'handle' potential low stability indefinitely, but, I could be sitting on a land mine.

I get it. Anyway, I do plan to boot into memtest and check for errors at this speed. But, wow, what a difference. Between upgrading the Boot SSD to the 990 PRO and then enabling XMP 5600 RAM...very cool. :)

I will post more news as it is warranted. Thanks again for everyone's help here, especially 'citay.'

- Michael
 
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Honestly, it's always been much more dependent on the RAM itself.....good sets of RAM hit the XMP without issue. Take my 13900k/Z790 Ace with 7000 MHz, still using the initial BIOS. Worked no problems out of the box.

I honestly believe that for some reason, cheaper RAM at higher speeds just don't work as well as everyone thinks they will. Spending a little bit more seems to avoid the problem.
 
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Well, minutes after I posted my last update Friday, I got a BSOD. ;) I have since gone down to 5400 XMP. Still having issues. :(

I think I just need to blow some serious time and develop a table/matrix of the insane amount of configurations I could do. I mean, one look at the Advanced OC settings in this BIOS and you see there are thousands of combinations.

So, I guess I'm looking for someone to do this template work for me. :) Not that anyone has any obligation to do so. But, I would appreciate what key settings should be included in a table. This includes the setting/attribute in BIOS and the possible settings for said attributes.

For example:

Memory Try It (5200 36, 5200 38, 5400 36, 5400 38, 5600 36, 5600 38, etc.)
Memory XMP Enabled/Disabled (What exactly does this do? Does this single setting change any other settings, or override them?)
CPU SA Voltage Mode (Dynamic, Override, etc.)
CPU Sa Voltage (1.2V, 1.3V, 1.4V, etc.)
CPU VDDQ Voltage
DRAM VDDQ Voltage

It goes on and on...

So, when you matrix this, seeing all the combos, setting aside about 10-12 minutes safely to make the change, reboot, let the system 'try' the setting, run memtest86, wait for any errors, reboot back into BIOS....it's a lot of time!

Anyway, nothing new under the sun. If anyone wants to go above and beyond, I would appreciate it. I have NOT been in the OC mode of experience for probs two decades. :)

Thanks again!
 
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