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OC Genie 4 (Automatic) Overclocking:
Activating MSI's OC Genie 4 automatic overclocking tool resulted in a CPU frequency of 4.0GHz. OC Genie 4 really is as quick and easy to use as MSI's advertising suggests; the system is overclocked just seconds after clicking (or pushing) the OC Genie 4 button.
4.0GHz was achieved by way of a 40x multiplier meaning that the base clock remained at the default 100MHz. Memory frequency remained untouched at 2133MHz.
While a 500MHz overclock for the 4770K chip is little to get excited about, the fact that the CPU voltage has been reduced by 100mV does help to give an additional sense of worth to the OC Genie 4's automatic configuration.
The automatic overclock validation can be found here.
Manual CPU Overclocking:
After spending many hours trying to tweak various settings in the hope that we could smash through the 4.5GHz barrier, we realised that we were out of luck. Not even pushing up to 1.400V core voltage, reducing memory frequency to 1333MHz, or tweaking a variety of other settings could get the 4770K past 4.5GHz.
One final attempt using a 1.375V core voltage and 2.0V on VCCIN did give us stability for the few minutes of Prime95 that we ran at 4.6GHz. Temperatures were reaching the 90°C mark though, so we wouldn't be happy using this configuration on a daily basis. 4.6GHz proved to be our limit; not even 2.25V on the VCCIN could change that.
We settled for a stable and well-cooled 4.5GHz CPU frequency throughout overclocked testing.
4.5GHz is a respectable overclock for the hit-or-miss Haswell chips, but we were hoping for a little more with our retail 4770K processor being powered by an overclocking geared motherboard. We have several other 4770k samples and most of them so far seem fairly limited to around 4.4ghz-4.5ghz. Disappointing when you consider the last generation 3770k could easily hit 4.8ghz-5.0ghz with good cooling.
It would be unfair to criticise the Z87 XPower for only managing a mid-range overclock until we discover what our potentially-mediocre chip is capable of when coupled with other boards.
To reach 4.5GHz, we needed to provide the i7 chip with 1.350V. We opted to set the CPU ring frequency to its default value of 3.5GHz but increased its voltage to 1.15V in an attempt to gain stability. VCCIN voltage was left on auto in an attempt to reduce temperatures as an increase wasn't required.
Our 4.5GHz frequency validation can be viewed here.
Base Clock Overclocking:
We wanted to see how high we could push the base clock while still maintaining a respectable level of stability. Base clock overclocking is unlikely to interest the wide majority of people using K-series chips, but it can help to provide additional megahertz to an overclock – something which could prove very important for extreme overclockers.
We reduced the core ratio, CPU ring multiplier, and DRAM frequency to maintain near-stock frequencies, hence allowing us to increase the base clock to its stability limit. 1.350V was provided to the CPU in an attempt to reduce power limitations.
Using the 1.67x base clock strap, we managed to push up to 155MHz. This setting appeared to be on the edge of stability in Windows; we completed multiple short period stress tests, but also suffered more than one BSOD.
Memory Overclocking:
While a system's maximum memory frequency may be heavily swayed by the CPU's individual memory controller, the motherboard's performance can also help to obtain higher speeds.
We switched to our 2933MHz set of G.Skill Trident X memory, but the board would not post no matter what we tried. We reinstalled the previous memory to disable Intel X.M.P and manually set the DRAM frequency to 1333MHz, but we still didn't have any luck booting with the G.Skill set.
This is where Asus' MemOK button would come in very handy and allow us to boot at a stable setting, but MSI doesn't have any sort of comparable implementation.
We had no choice but to resort to our 2133MHz Team Xtreem memory kit which we know is capable of 2666MHz with our 3570K chip on the Z77 platform.
With relaxed timings of 11-12-12-28-1T and a voltage of 1.70V, we managed to post at 2600 and 2666MHz, but we couldn't obtain enough stability to allow a successful boot which didn't BSOD within five minutes. 2400MHz proved to be the limit for MSI's Z87 XPower and our retail Core i7 4770K.
While overclocking results are never guaranteed from platform to platform or chip to chip, we would have expected at least 2600MHz from the Z87 XPower and 4770K's enhanced memory controller. Only time and more testing with other motherboards will tell if the chip's IMC is to blame.
Our 2400MHz memory overclock validation can be viewed here.
Especially during our time spent overclocking memory, we noticed that the MSI Z87 XPower motherboard was reluctant to operate at high frequencies (which were known to be stable) after a failed overclock attempt. We counteracted this shortfall by booting at near-stock settings before returning to overclocking attempts.
