XMP is basically just an "automatic" manufacturer's preset for memory timings. Always handy to use as a default. But serious overclockers will always tweak timings and try to push them a little faster. Specific details about timing and speeds aren't as important (to me) as total overall real-world memory bandwidth/throughput, there is just no substitute for "fastest possible" unless you're targeting an impressive spot on certain benchmarking high score lists.

The processor's iMC has limits, of course, and overclocking performance varies with each individual part. The X79 chip also has limits, but (unless you got a lemon mobo) this will have much less impact than the CPU. You may need to find an optimal balance of maximum-CPU-overclock vs maximum-DDR3-overclock because few processors are good enough to run both at extreme speeds simultaneously. You'll probably have to bump several voltages. Your watercooling should help a lot, but an i7-4820K at 4.8GHz pushes past the sweet spot (usually 4.2GHz-4.5GHz) - it will generate a lot of excess heat, it will be subject to sudden and dramatic failure (instability). If your cooling is up to the task and you can live with the odd BSoD (maybe once every hour or three) then go for it, otherwise you'll have to throttle down a few notches or upgrade to faster parts.

Best practice is to overclock a single component at a time. In careful, conservative increments working from bottom upwards until you notice instabilities. Reconfiguring everything over stock all at once is reckless and uncertain.

@Nate152, finally a responce, thank you.

yeah, i expected i would need around 1.5 for 5GHz.

this weekend i've only worked on my 24/7 clock.
i am now runnig, for 24/7, 4.1GHz at 1.088 Vcore with -0.14 offset, giving 0.688V at idle

there are still a few sitting i want to mess around with for 4.8GHz at 1.35 Vcore, like VCCSA, PPL, power phase control, LLC, current capability, and possible VTT.

otherwise i think it wouldn't be a problem at 1.4 Vcore.

right now at 4.1GHz i'm running VCCSA at 1.075 (goes up to 1.1) and VTT at 1.1, wich seems a bit low, but it seems to be stable 😛

i'm just happy that my 4x 8GB 2400MHz RAM kit seems stable at 4.5GHz 😄

vccsa is for instability of high speed ram, if your ram is stable you don't need to fool with this. I know our boards and cpu's are not the same but I had to set the vccsa voltage to 1.275v to get my ram stable at 2800MHz.


Vcore as you know needs to be bumped up for stability when overclocking your cpu.

LLC helps with vdroop and medium is the preferred setting, if you use ultra high or extreme it will overshoot the vcore you set.

Setting the cpu current capability as high as it will go will also help with overclocking your cpu.

This is all I have played with on my board and my cpu is running at 5.0 GHz with 1.45v

Hmmm not sure what happened to your post but read mine above please.

If you're shooting for 5.0GHz you could set the power phase to extreme but this will also make temps rise a little.

yeah you have very good temps and the temperature controls how far you can overclock your cpu. Stress testing temps will always be higher than your gaming temps. You don't want to see gaming temps over 75c although the lower the better but stress testing temps can sometimes hit 90c+. It just depends what you're going for and how good your cooling is. It seems you have good cooling and can probably hit 5.0GHz.

One thing, there is a point where our cpu's will hit a wall and will need ALOT more voltage to hit the next 100MHz. I don't know if I'm at the wall or not this is the highest I've taken this cpu. But just be aware of it in case you find your cpu needing a lot of voltage and not becoming stable.