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Overclocking the Ryzen 7 1700X was a practically identical procedure to that of the 1800X. The main settings worth tweaking for CPU overclocking are the CPU VCore, loadline calibration, and SOC voltage to aid stability especially with higher-speed memory kits. If your motherboard has the option in its UEFI (which ASUS' C6H does not), bumping NB voltage up to around 1.10-1.15V can aid stability.
Default voltage for manual tuning should start at around 1.3625V, according to AMD. Users should be fine pushing to 1.40V with a decent CPU cooler and up to 1.45V with a high-end dual-tower heatsink or dual-fan AIO radiator. At 1.45V, however, AMD suggests that processor longevity could be affected according to their models.
After confirming that our Ryzen 7 1700X chip was not capable of the same 4.1GHz frequency at around 1.44V of our 1800X (our 1700X actually rose to 1.461V using the same voltage and LLC settings, perhaps due to lesser silicon quality compared to the 1800X), we wanted to keep the voltage at load close to 1.4V. We increased the frequency multiplier to its highest level which resulted in a 4000MHz clock speed.
Getting 1.4V with the ASUS motherboard is not easy as the LLC settings cause a large swing in idle and load voltage levels. We settled with an applied VCore of 1.41875V in the UEFI and Level 2 LLC which saw load voltage generally sitting at around 1.395-1.417V depending on the loading intensity. SOC voltage was set to 1.25V and our memory was maintained at 3200MHz 14-14-14-34 with 1.35V.
In short, our final Ryzen 7 1700X overclocking settings using an ASUS Crosshair VI Hero motherboard were:
- 1.41875V CPU VCore.
- 1.25V SOC voltage.
- Level 2 LLC (around 1.395-1.417V load VCore in OS).
- Multiple Cinebench R15 multi-core runs to validate stability, as well as AIDA64 CPU stress test.
- DDR4-3200MHz 14-14-14-34 @ 1.35V.
AMD Ryzen 7 1700X Overclocking – 4.0GHz Stable
Our Ryzen 7 1700X chip at 4.0GHz with a load voltage between 1.395-1.417V was stable through Cinebench, Handbrake, and a short run of Prime 95. We would be happy running at these levels for 24/7 usage with our particular silicon. We were able to drop the UEFI voltage level to 1.40V, which resulted in a 1.373-1.395V load voltage, but this configuration presented issues with Handbrake (every other test was stable).
We have seen reports of 1700X CPUs generally hitting around 3.9-4.0GHz with sensible voltage levels and our results would add to those suggestions. A stable overclock of around 0.1GHz lower than the more expensive 1800X is a good result for the 1700X that certainly adds to its value aspect for overclockers.
Time spent trying to hit overclock levels that we achieved with the 1800X did not result in success. We fed the 1700X with up to 1.46V (under load) but could not garner stability at 4.1GHz. If you really must have a frequency higher than 4.0GHz on the 1700X, you'll either have to cross your fingers in the silicon lottery, push voltages to potentially lifespan-reducing levels past 1.45V, or start disabling threads and cores on the chip.
We preferred 4.0GHz with all eight cores and SMT enabled and a sensible 24/7 voltage level.
High-speed Memory Support
As already highlighted, we were able to use 3200MHz dual-channel DDR4 (2 single-sided DIMMs) with the Ryzen 7 1700X while at stock clocks and when overclocked to 4.0GHz. This was the case using the ASUS Crosshair VI Hero motherboard.
The less-prime silicon forming our 1700X did not seem to have a profound influence on IMC strength, up to our tested level of 3.2GHz CL14, that is.
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