Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Processor Review

Overclocking

Overclocking

The Intel Core i7-7700K’s overclocking headroom depends on the cooling hardware at your disposal and silicon lottery.  Throughout the testing process, I analysed two processors and attempted to find a pattern which outlines the kind of overclocking results you can expect. Achieving 5.0GHz with a decent cooler isn’t overly challenging and it’s possible to reach this impressive figure with a voltage around 1.345v. Unfortunately, 5.1GHz is a much tougher task and requires a huge voltage increase. On average, 5.1GHz needed 1.435v and came perilously close to the 95C mark even with a top-tier closed-loop liquid cooling solution. Despite my best efforts, 5.2GHz just wasn’t a viable option and failed to post with 1.465-1.475v while running the fans at 100%. From my experience, the maximum potential is really 5.1GHz unless you’re using LN2. To put this into context, the highest overclock I managed on the i7-6700K was 4.8GHz.

Despite my best efforts, 5.2GHz just wasn’t a viable option and failed to post with 1.465-1.475v while running the fans at 100%. From my experience, the maximum potential is really 5.1GHz unless you’re using LN2. To put this into context, the highest overclock I managed on the i7-6700K was 4.8GHz. In addition to multipler overclocking, I endeavoured to enhance the overclocking result through BCLK adjustments. However, even the smallest tweak would result in instability alongside the 5.1GHz figure. Honestly, I’d recommend focusing on multiplier overclocking and ignore BCLK tweaking unless you want to eke out every last bit of performance.