The load voltage was monitored going over 1.5 V which is dangerous for the longevity of the chip and will piledrive regular cooling methods into the ground. Even more ridiculous is allowing users to select a profile good for 5.0 GHz with 1.475 V on the VCore without any form of warning when selecting the profile. Despite this, MSI felt the need to drive 1.25 V on the VCore to achieve this across all cores. The takeaway from the overclocking experience is that the preset overclocks are quite tragic given that the default boost of the Core i7-8700K processor is 4.7 GHz. By comparison with manual overclocking we managed to achieve 4.8 GHz with just 1.2 V in the BIOS with a load voltage of 1.226 V using MSI's Dragon Centre monitoring software. Performance in POV-Ray when using the Game Boost profiles started to decline around profile 6 which is a 4.8 GHz overclock with 1.38 V on the VCore. There seems to be a common trend so far with the Z390 boards we have tested so far to throttle quite hard when using the more ambitious predefined overclocking profiles. Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (90✬+). These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.įor manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from the previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with POV-Ray and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. Our test bench Core i7-8700K isn't the greatest of silicon, but the MSI MEG Z390 ACE did manage to hit 5.1 GHz without fanfare. Overclocking on the MSI MEG Z390 ACE was painless and settings entered into the BIOS applied first time on this sample with the latest firmware version available. Even with one of the best aftermarket AIO CPU coolers on the market, it would be just too much heat to cope with.Ĭhanging the CPU VCore and frequency beyond default values automatically disables Intel's power saving features. Available is a total of seven different predefined overclocking profiles ranging from 1 to 11 the 11 setting applies a very high 5.0 to 5.4 GHz overclock with 1.475 V on the VCore. MSI's Game Boost automatic overclocking utility is featured in both hardware (a button with a twisty knob) and within the BIOS with a virtual representation of the OC dial. MSI has given the MEG Z390 ACE a very generous limit of 1.9 V on the VCore for overclockers. The MSI Click BIOS 5 firmware is very consistent throughout which is becoming the norm for MSI motherboards both on the AMD and the Intel options over the last year. This kind of setup, in reality, is eminently more than acceptable and it is very capable to push a processor to its thermal limits on ambient cooling solutions. The MSI Z390 ACE in this regard has a 12-phase VCore power delivery which is split into a 6-phase design with the use of six doublers. This is apparent as the Z390 chipset is seemingly forcing the envelope with power delivery designs, especially when compared with the last couple of generations including Z270 and Z370. This puts demand and pressures upon both the motherboard vendors and integrated memory controllers on the processors themselves. This has also stretched to memory frequencies, as vendors have been releasing high-performance kits with fast speeds escalating with each generation upgrade. Intel has taken clear strides with clock speed capabilities of its latest processors. Overclocking Experience with the MSI MEG Z390 ACE & Intel Core i7-8700K
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |