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How well does the Maximus Z170 Hero Overclock the i7 7700K with KabyLake Bios

IconicEyE
Level 7
I was wondering since Asus added TWO Bios Update's for the KabyLake CPU's on the Z170 Maximus Hero, how decent is this motherboard when it comes to handling the Kabylake CPU's. Also are there any quarks or drawback with respect to Overclocking Kaby on the Z170 bios for the Maximus hero. Other than a few minor limitations that Kabyhas on Z170 like lack of Optaine memory support, is there anything else I should be aware of?

Thanks for those of you that have read my post and I would really appreciate those fo you that have any good advice or first hand experience regarding this matter.
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10 REPLIES 10

Luca1980
Level 7
Mine runs with BIOS 3401 at 4900 MHz / 1,25 V with no issues. Not bad for a non-delidded CPU.
As far as I know the only thing we miss with respect to Z270 is Optane.

Luca1980 wrote:
Mine runs with BIOS 3401 at 4900 MHz / 1,25 V with no issues. Not bad for a non-delidded CPU.
As far as I know the only thing we miss with respect to Z270 is Optane.


Would you be able to share the BIOS settings to reach 4.9GHz at 1.25V? Also what temps do you get at 4.9GHz? Just wondering if it's worth the upgrade from 6700K @ 4.6GHz/1.24V to a 7700K.

Luca1980
Level 7
The temp is 35 °C idle and 75 °C after 1-2 hours under consistent load (OCCT / Mafia 3 / Battlefield 1). I have never seen temperatures over 83 °C on the hottest core.
I don't think it's worth to upgrade from a Skylake @ 4,6 GHz because it has the same IPC, therefore you would only have a 5-6% increase of performance.
By the way my settings are all Auto BUT:

AVX Offset: 2
Ai overclock profile: XMP
Core ratio limit: 49
CPU Core / cache voltage: Adaptive
Offset mode sign: +
Additional turbo mode CPU core voltage: 1.25
DRAM frequency: 2666
DRAM voltage: 1.20
CPU VCCIO Voltage: 1.0
CPU System agent voltage: 1.0

Basically I followed the ROG guide at this link and then "retouched" the voltages step-by-step in order to lower the temperatures and test the stability at each adjustment:
https://rog.asus.com/articles/guides/the-kaby-lake-overclocking-guide/

aceisme
Level 10
Yes, you're probably right about the upgrade. With my settings below, the CPU barely gets to 60C under load. My VCCIO and System Agent Voltage are set on AUTO but it shows at a much higher voltage than 1.0V. Are yours set to AUTO or did you enter the figures manually? Not sure how low I could go on these since I'm running the memory at 3466MHz (16-18-18-38 1.35V 3200 DIMS)

BIOS version 1302
Ai overclock profile: XMP
Core ratio limit: 46
CPU Core / cache voltage: Adaptive
Offset mode sign: +
Additional turbo mode CPU core voltage: 1.24
DRAM frequency: 3466
DRAM voltage: 1.35
CPU VCCIO Voltage: 1.224 [AUTO]
CPU System agent voltage: 1.280 [AUTO]

Luca1980
Level 7
No, I adjusted the idle voltage, VCCIO and VCCSA all to 1,0 V manually. When set to Auto, they were at 1,1 - 1,15 V (don't remember well).
The reason why your VCCIO and SA are so high is the very high frequency of your RAM. You could try to lower them at steps of 0,05 V but I don't know if it will be stable then with the RAM at 3466 MHz. By the way if your CPU is stable and cool (60 °C under load is a very good temp), I would rather try to push it at 4800 MHz with Vcore 1,28 - 1,30. You should also set an AVX offset of 1 or 2 because under AVX loads the CPU gets very hot.
In the end it is a matter of trading between RAM frequency (and consequent VCCIO and VCCSA voltages) and CPU frequency.
Maybe the additional thermal headroom obtained by lowering the voltages connected with the RAM controller will give you the opportunity to push the CPU further (better solution for gaming scenarios if you look at the comparison between different frequencies of DDR4 - negligible benefits over 2400 MHz with the core architecture!)

aceisme
Level 10
Not sure where this AVX setup is. I cannot find it anywhere. Is it possible because of the BIOS version? I am planning to upgrade with the next BIOS release. What does the AVX offset do anyway?

Luca1980
Level 7
It sets a negative offset for AVX loads. For example with an AVX offset = 2 if your multiplier is set to 46, when the CPU is under AVX load the frequency will be 4400 MHz (44x100)

aceisme
Level 10
Thanks. And where is this AVX offset settings?

Luca1980
Level 7
In the "Extreme tweaker section". You can read this guide which is comprehensive and with BIOS menu screenshots.
https://rog.asus.com/articles/guides/the-kaby-lake-overclocking-guide/
I believe you need minimum BIOS 2202, better if you update to 3401.