We recently did a review of Intel’s latest 10th Gen CPU. In that video we compared the i7 10700k to a 2 year old AMD Ryzen 7 8700k and found the chip performed really well but also ran rather hot. With our existing cooler we would top out at 100 degrees Celsius in no time and then thermal throttle.
Well, since then we have upgraded our cooler and were able to push that chip to 5.3 GHz all cores. We will show you what we did to overclock this chip and for comparison we will throw in a Ryzen 9 3900x.
As our target here is to get the most out of the 10700k, the settings we use are above of what is recommended for 24/7 operation. We, on the other hand, want to see the potential of this chip. All the tests will be focusing on CPU performance and thermals.
Disclaimer – overclocking your CPU technically voids your warranty and can also damage your chip, especially if done incorrectly. So do this at your own risk.
In this graph you can see what we are using for testing, something to note – Intel bench has Fractal Design Celsius+ s24 Dynamic AIO cooler and AMD is using a full custom water cooling loop.
We want to see the difference in results between Intel at stock and overclocked. AMD is here just as a guideline as it is a completely different tier chip.
We have already run all the tests for Intel at stock and it is time to overclock it. First we need to jump into BIOS.
For those who are unfamiliar – to get into BIOS, when you start up your PC just keep tapping the Delete key. Some motherboards have different shortcuts – you may need to check the manual.
Once booted, you want to go to Ai Tweaker and start with AI Overclock Tuner, then enable XMP profile.
This will boost the speed of your memory as by default it is running much slower.
On our ASUS board we have left multicore enhancement on Auto. When you do manual overclock it turns that off anyway.
Next, you want to go lower to CPU Core ratio and change it to manual, just below type in 53 – this will overclock your CPU to 5.3 GHz
When it comes down to voltages we have left it all on default and, yes, if you are a more seasoned overclocker, you will be able to tinker and get much better results – in general this is a good jumping-off point.
In our scenario we had to make the fan curve a little more aggressive as with this overclock our chip gets from medium heat to high heat really fast.
With all of this done let’s see the results.
Starting with Cinebench R15. Here we have about 6% increase from the overclock on the 10700k single core and a whopping 24% on the multicore score. Ryzen on the other hand is considerably worse on single core score but gains 38% on the multi core score due 50% more cores. Overclock pushes that difference by an extra 9%.
During both, single and multi core tests, 10700k was locked at 5.3 GHz, temps during single core test were at a reasonable 40-70 degrees – depending on which cores were active. In a multicore test hitting 90-95 degrees, hot but manageable – mainly because this test is pretty short.
In R20 we see similar results. Overclock provides 5.6% increase on the single core and 23% on the multi core score. Ryzen is again slow on the single core and is faster on the multi core but not by that much – only 25%, overclock pushes that difference by an extra 10%.
When it comes down to speed and temps, in the single core test 10700k would lock at 5.3 GHz and maintain 40-70 degree temperature. In the multicore test it first hits 5.3 GHz and 100 degrees then immediately throttles down to 5.2 GHz. We found that sometimes it wouldn’t finish the test and Cinebench would just close so clearly it is a little too much heat.
Next we jump into the 7Zip test and we see 26% improvement from overclocking the 10700k with 30% improvement using Ryzen 9 3900x, plus extra 7% from overclocking it.
On this test we see all cores clocked solid at 5.3 GHz and actually staying at toasty but not crazy 75-85 degrees.
Lastly we have run Black Magic Raw benchmark and here we see 28% improvement from overclocking 10700k and only 9% difference with Ryzen 9 3900x plus an extra 4% from overclocking it.
Here clock speed stays locked at 5.3 GHz and temperature peaking at 100 degrees.
Let’s look at all of these results. Here’s a table showing improvement from overclocking 10700k to 5.3 GHz. We see about 6% improvement on single core and between 23% and 28% improvement on the multicore tests across the board.
This is a big deal as, for example, overclocked Ryzen 3900x loses single core boost resulting in lower single core performance. However, multi core performance remains high. If you look closely, overclock on AMD chip never gets over 10% improvement.
It’s clear that temperatures play a big role here, so let’s dive deeper into temperature VS performance in what could be the most taxing test – Prime95. We have done a bunch of tests and after about 10 minutes of stress-testing the temperature and frequency was stable.
First Intel i7 10700k:
At Stock we would get just short of 4 GHz on all cores with temperature of 93 degrees
Overclocking to 5 GHz it would stay around 5 GHz on all cores with temperature of 94 degrees.
Overclocking to 5.1 GHz it would stay at around 4.9 GHz on all cores with occasional jump to 5.1 GHz with temperature of 99 degrees. It it clear at this stage it is thermal throttling
At 5.2 GHz overclock it would do similar, jump between 4.8 and 5 GHz while locked at 99 degrees. At 5.3 GHz overclock it would be locked at 5 GHz and 100C.
These results really surprised me, as I would expect the 5.1 and 5.2 GHz to be a little cooler and perform better rather than jump back and forth. I suspect this is due to us leaving the motherboard to decide the voltages and with some tweaking it is possible to get this cooler and squeeze out more performance.
It is easy to call Intel chips hot, but look at AMD here. At stock we have got 4.1 GHz all core and hitting 94 degrees. I have tried to overclock it to 4.3 GHz with undervolt – it immediately turns off so I had to settle for 4.2 GHz. and it still hits 94 degrees. This is considering that we have a full custom water loop.
Ultimately both of these CPU’s get really hot when you push them beyond what they are clocked out of the box. With one main difference – once overclocked AMD chips can only perform marginally better, on the other hand getting a chip like 10700k when overclocked can result in performance improvement equivalent to two generations worth.
With this in mind, you could pick up a new CPU today and overclock it next year and you will likely have a faster CPU than what is released then. This may certainly be very appealing for some people.
Equipment we used:
Intel: Intel i7-10700k Amazon or Lazada Z490-A Gaming Motherboard: Amazon or Lazada Corsair Vengeance LPX RAM Amazon ASUS Strix 2060 OC Graphics Card Amazon or Lazada Fractal Design Celsius+ S24 Dynamic Cooler Amazon Streacom BC1 Open Benchtable Amazon or Lazada AMD: AMD Ryzen™ 9 3900X Amazon or Lazada ASUS X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (WI-FI) Motherboard Amazon Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO RAM Amazon MSI GEFORCE GTX1080 TI GAMING X 11G Graphics Card Amazon Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIE Gen4 SSD Amazon
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What voltages were the cpu hitting at 5.3GHz?