# Maximum safe voltage for i7-3770K



## Iwamotto Tetsuz

Temps are more important than voltages. Making sure that your cpu, motherboard nb,sb and vrms are kept cool


----------



## Cyclops

Actually, voltage is far more important than temperature. You can degrade a CPU within minutes with high enough voltage even if you're using LN2.

For ivy bridge, you want to keep it bellow 1.35V. 1.38V should be the cut off, with anything over 1.4V bringing degradation in a few months depending on usage.


----------



## Lex Luger

You should be able to run 4.6 safely. I dont know about 4.7 though which will probably require close to 1.4+.


----------



## SauronTheGreat

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cyclops*
> 
> Actually, voltage is far more important than temperature. You can degrade a CPU within minutes with high enough voltage even if you're using LN2.
> 
> For ivy bridge, you want to keep it bellow 1.35V. 1.38V should be the cut off, with anything over 1.4V bringing degradation in a few months depending on usage.


what did you mean when you said 1.38V should be the cut off ?


----------



## Lex Luger

Just keep in under 1.4 volts and don't stress test with something like Intel Burn Test.

Use Asus Real Bench for 2 hours and you should be set if it passes.

I learned the hard way with IBT. It will definitely shorten the life of your CPU at higher voltages.


----------



## SauronTheGreat

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Lex Luger*
> 
> Just keep in under 1.4 volts and don't stress test with something like Intel Burn Test.
> 
> Use Asus Real Bench for 2 hours and you should be set if it passes.
> 
> I learned the hard way with IBT. It will definitely shorten the life of your CPU at higher voltages.


i have been stress testing with Prime95 blend tests , i have reached 1.38V but prime95 shuts down which is a sign of in stability


----------



## Marc79

With Ivy I wouldn't go above 1.35 vcore under load, Haswell 1.3v with sandy and the new skylake stay at or below 1.4v under load.


----------



## CravinR1

When I was researching the 3770k overclocking it seems they said less than 1.3v for 24/7


----------



## Slink3Slyde

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SauronTheGreat*
> 
> I am running my i7-3770k @ 4.5Ghz , 1.31V and i also have a corsair h115i AIO cpu cooler. i want to take my cpu to 4.7 just want to know the maximum safest voltage.


Been running my 3570k at 1.328 ish volts under max load most of the time since 2012. Even Folded on the CPU for a year or so, as well as a fair amount of gaming.

Id be happy with around 1.35v if temps are in check. Some people have even push closer to 1.4 24/7, but that depends on how easy it is for you to replace it if it or the motherboard does pop.

4.6 at 1.31 is good, if you cant get 4.7 for 1.35ish Id just stick with that, its not a difference you would notice IMO.


----------



## The EX1

Max safe voltage is always an ongoing argument. For what it is worth, I have been running my 4770k at 1.425v for 2 years and it has never had a problem. Still passes stress tests at the same speed and voltage it always has. I do run a custom loop however and the CPU rarely sees above 60c. It usually stays in the low 50s while gaming.

IMO 1.4v is a good stopping point for the i7s and i5s with nice cold water flowing over them.


----------



## Dasa

try get more out of your ram
going up from 1600c9 could get you much more in games than another 300mhz higher cpu oc if you get far enough
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2455994

im running my 3770k at 4.5ghz 1.375v on a custom loop at sub 60c
before deliding with vise\hairdryer method it was at 4.2ghz 1.3v 85c

4.8ghz wouldnt boot at 1.5v
4.7ghz ran 3dmark at 1.425v


----------



## 7ha7a5ian

Whispers I'm currently running mine at 1.45v at 4.78 Ghz.... For the past 6 months..... Benchmarking both GPUs and CPUs.... One a custom loop of course. All depends. At this point what I'm doing is out of curiosity. My temps range from 30c idle to 100c for benchmarks like Intel burn in test or Prime95 or Cinebench and Asus ROG Benchmark program. Vasrious results and still pushing to see about hitting that 5Ghz range. I was running this at 4.5Ghz at 1.4v ever since this chip was released.


----------



## Autonomic Archer

This is an old thread but I wanted to chime in too. I need 1.43v just to hit 4.5Ghz stable overclock on my 3770K. But I've been running it like that for years, 24/7. I use an AIO liquid cooler too but it has a 280mm radiator so it has no issues keeping it under 80C. I definitely didn't hit the lottery on my chip, but to this day, with DDR3 2400 CL 10, and a GTX 1080ti this thing still runs screaming fast when gaming at 4K. I'm still tempted everyday by the new 8700K, but screw RAM pricing right now!!


----------



## gabeomatic

This really makes me think, like how did people really hit 5ghz with these chips at under 1.5v? After upgrading to the h80v2 and delidding the chip, I was always running my 3770k at 4.7ghz @ 1.35v, but the bump up to 4.8 requires 1.44v. The law of diminishing returns really applies here. Fortnite, CSGO and a few other games push one of my cores to 72C which is honestly fine imo..repeated cinebench runs get the chip to 74C. I am not pushing this chip hard for hours on end so I'm not too worried.

Using a Maximus V Formula. (I also lowered my PPL voltage to 1.55v and it helped a bit with temps as well.)

My old vengeance 1600mz ram seems slow now, anyone have any oc tips? Haven't really fiddled with memory speeds and timings yet. (2x16gb C9)


----------



## webguy2003

gabeomatic said:


> This really makes me think, like how did people really hit 5ghz with these chips at under 1.5v? After upgrading to the h80v2 and delidding the chip, I was always running my 3770k at 4.7ghz @ 1.35v, but the bump up to 4.8 requires 1.44v. The law of diminishing returns really applies here. Fortnite, CSGO and a few other games push one of my cores to 72C which is honestly fine imo..repeated cinebench runs get the chip to 74C. I am not pushing this chip hard for hours on end so I'm not too worried.
> 
> Using a Maximus V Formula. (I also lowered my PPL voltage to 1.55v and it helped a bit with temps as well.)
> 
> My old vengeance 1600mz ram seems slow now, anyone have any oc tips? Haven't really fiddled with memory speeds and timings yet. (2x16gb C9)


Well Im currently running my 3770k at 4.7ghz @ 1.24v so I guess it's just silicon lottery. (Checked CPU-Z and it reads 1.27v though I have the voltage set to 1.24v. Turns out this was a problem with software OC and now that I set OC in bios its running at a stable 1.24v)


----------



## somethingbrite

Silicon lottery - I have a 3770k which will do 4.9 at 1.265v and the temps peak at 61c (hottest core) under Prime95 load and 5.0Ghz at 1.330v - but that reaches 66c 
De-lidding, lapping the IHS and using liquid metal between die and IHS have all helped with the temps but I also got very lucky with the silicon lottery with that chip.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk


----------



## Kamikazi

Not sure if it was totally dubbed but he said safe max is 1.45 vcore. Of course its not written in stone. Here's the thing if you have LLC on ultra high or god forbid Extreme then it will spike over that setting in bios. Ok say 4.50v set in the bios, but the LLC will spike it over when required (to prevent vdroop) to usually about 1.448v so bear that in mind. I have had 3 3770k's, all oc'd. The 1st was a 5.0Ghz job, vcore was 1.455 but I ran it a year like that. The next chip would not go beyond 4.9Ghz no matter what I threw at it voltage wise but it still was prime 12 stable at 1.385v a good chip. 3rd was already 6 years old by then and best I could manage was 4.8 @ 1.365 a decent chip but 4.9 was still crashing even at 1.440v. I'm giving it one more shot, this time at 1.445 which is right at the limit and prob 1.448 with LLC. CPU current capability is 140% and LLC is ultra high to hopefully manage the v-droop. Last attempt tonight, will update.
Here's a goodie, I have windows desktop gadgets installed on my desktop, these are like the 'Canary in the coal mine' if you see them freeze or disappear you can bet a fail is close at hand, even priming the margins show no errors or workers stopped but those little gadgets are sensitive enough to alert you of any instability. Keep an eye on them, if they act weird forget what you have in bios and add voltage before an imminent crash.


----------



## Kamikazi

Not sure if it was totally dubbed but he said safe max is 1.45 vcore. Of course its not written in stone. Here's the thing if you have LLC on ultra high or god forbid Extreme then it will spike over that setting in bios. Ok say 4.50v set in the bios, but the LLC will spike it over when required (to prevent vdroop) to usually about 1.448v so bear that in mind. I have had 3 3770k's, all oc'd. The 1st was a 5.0Ghz job, vcore was 1.455 but I ran it a year like that. The next chip would not go beyond 4.9Ghz no matter what I threw at it voltage wise but it still was prime 12 stable at 1.385v a good chip. 3rd was already 6 years old by then and best I could manage was 4.8 @ 1.365 a decent chip, but 4.9 was still crashing even at 1.440v. 
I'm giving it one more shot, this time at 1.445 which is right at the limit and prob 1.448 with LLC. CPU current capability is 140% and LLC is ultra high to hopefully manage the v-droop. Last attempt tonight, will update.
Here's a goodie, I have windows desktop gadgets installed on my desktop, these are like the 'Canary in the coal mine' if you see them freeze or disappear you can bet a fail is close at hand, even priming the margins show no errors or workers stopped but those little gadgets are sensitive enough to alert you of any instability. Keep an eye on them, if they act weird forget what you have in bios and add voltage before an imminent crash.


----------



## b0uncyfr0

Im just about to delid mine and i'm sitting at 4.6Ghz at 1.24v so i think i have some headroom. 4.8 at 1.35v would be really awesome.


----------



## EzekielSR405

I just saw this thread but I figured I would post my OC set up just in case anyone like me is looking around. For the last 7 years I have been running my 3770k at 4.784ghz with a cooler master h100 with a base clock of 104mhz, 46x multiplier, with 1.3v (1.128v with dynamic vcore .172)

I can get it to a 47x multiplier but with stress testing (prime95) it starts to going above 70ish degrees so I went to 46x to keep it from getting into that throttling threshold.


----------

