Overclocking the i7-4790k

[Marius_S 4]

I have tried searching on google for an answer on this, but haven't found anything useful.

 

First, my PC specs:

 

CPU: i7-4790k

MB:  MSI B85M-E45

GPU: Geforce GTX 770 2GB

RAM: 8 GB

OS: Win 10 64-bit

 

So, I decided to try OC my CPU to get some more FPS. Since I never have done this before, I went to google and started reading a few guides. One guide I found, was using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, and I started with that one.

My problem is that I cannot go any higher than 44x on the multipliers for the active cores. 

I also tried overclocking in BIOS, with the same result. My computer runs stable at these settings, and the temperature is not an issue yet, so I believe it should be possible to go higher, but I´m unable to.

 

Any advice?

[Charlatan 68]

I would hazard a guess that the 44x is all the board is capable of.  You need a z87 or z97 board for serious overclocking

[Marius_S 4]

You are probably right. So that means a new motherboard then, and probably a new CPU aswell. Did someone say this hobby is expensive?

[Usmcmba 4]

Before you make major changes, I would clean the contacts between your CPU and cooling and reapply the thermal paste. I have the same CPU, had it overclocked to 4.7 and ran fine for couple years until one day I would get BSOD when I start a flight on P3D. Reapplying new paste worked .

[caaront 109]

I fly with 4.8 on my 4790K, and I use the same program, but with a Z97 MB.

[Gary A 8]

Make sure you have 10.9 bios.  I wish you good luck.

[TurboKen 221]

That is a very basic motherboard, I don't believe it will give you the option to select past x44, and even if it did the motherboard would not be able to handle the current reliably. There's a reason good overclocking boards start at $180 USD.

 

With that said 4.4 is not bad, even with a higher end board and delidding I'm only 400 mhz over what your running. Not night and day by any means, hold off the upgrade till your ready to upgrade the whole system.

[Marius_S 4]

Thanks for all the answers. At the moment I get acceptable performance with my current settings. Going from 4 to 4.4 Ghz made a huge difference. But I will probably start saving for a new MB and CPU to buy sometimes in the future. Is it still the case that a good CPU is more important than the graphic card for P3D?

[TurboKen 221]

Thanks for all the answers. At the moment I get acceptable performance with my current settings. Going from 4 to 4.4 Ghz made a huge difference. But I will probably start saving for a new MB and CPU to buy sometimes in the future. Is it still the case that a good CPU is more important than the graphic card for P3D?

Yes, unfortunately even with LM moving much of the processing to the GPU it is still very much CPU driven.