How conservative is MSI's OC Genie?

[Childs]

I just put together a system using Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt and a i7 3770K. I saw the OC Genie section in the bios, and clicked it. OC'd the CPU to 4.2Ghz. My question is, how conservative is their OC? 4.2Ghz is good enough if its rock stable, and I'm sure trying to squeeze that extra 300Mhz or so (using Noctua NH-U12P SE2 cooler) might not be worth the hassle. But if its conservative and the current settings is just a fail safe OC, I might play around a bit.

 

[tweakboy]

That should be rock stable... gl

 

[Puppies04]

If it is anything like the other "auto OC" programs I have seen then you will certainly be able to lower the voltage with a little stress testing. At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference on how far you want to push the OC, 4.2 is a nice "safe" number but you will have to decide for yourself if you want to go any faster or get your hands dirty to lower the voltage and keep the 4.2ghz.

 

[superccs]

If you are totally lazy you can use these OC apps, reduce the final voltage by ~10% and you should be fine.

 

[hans030390]

My friend's OC genie set is 2500k to 4GHz at 1.35V. Very conservative speeds, way too much voltage. I brought it back up to 4.4GHz at that voltage. Didn't try 4.5GHz, but 4.6GHz wasn't stable at that voltage.

 

[chimaxi83]

It is absolutely conservative, giving you lower clocks at higher volts than what you can manually achieve. I use it on my sons machine, because it's an extremely easy set and forget overclock. Only change I make is RAM voltage. I go manual for my own system though.

 

[Childs]

If you are totally lazy you can use these OC apps, reduce the final voltage by ~10% and you should be fine.

I wouldnt say lazy, just practical. I did gut my old PC and rebuild it. But there are tons of options for manual adjustment. What I wasnt clear on was whether it was adjusting all these values based on the specific CPU installed to come up with an optimal config, or simply using canned presets for various CPU models. A developer writing such an app would know the relationship between all the settings better than myself, and spending hours on google trying to understand the relationships for possibly no gain is a foolish pursuit. It came up with that value rather quickly, about as quick as it took me to click on the button. No quick stress test or anything that I was aware of.

 

[chimaxi83]

Yeah, I think it just goes to some programmed preset, because even on my old P67 and Z68 systems with 2600K, it always went to 42 multi and 103 bus. Did the same on my sons Z77 with 3770K.

 

[Childs]

Yeah, I think it just goes to some programmed preset, because even on my old P67 and Z68 systems with 2600K, it always went to 42 multi and 103 bus. Did the same on my sons Z77 with 3770K.

Well, I guess 42 really is the answer to everything. lol Guess I'll do some tinkering tonight...part of the reason I went with the 3770k was the possibility of 4.5Ghz. Might as well try it.

 

[Childs]

So I was able to do 4.5Ghz by simply changing the multiplier. No issues with the Intel Burn Test on Max. I set the vcore at 1.2v just because, so I can work my way down to see where the sweet spot is.

So to answer my own question, its a little conservative, but fairly close for a no hassle OC. Initially when I went to a custom profile and changed the multiplier and left the vcore on auto, the actual vcore was around .985, which failed the stress test on standard. 4.2Ghz at .985v is pretty good. Load temps on max stress test setting is around 83C. I'm not sure the extra 300Mhz was worth the 45 min or so of stress testing, or more if I try to figure out the optimal vcore. I guess thats a sign of getting older...