Test Setup
For our tests, we used a test rig which includes the Asus ROG Maximus X Hero motherboard, along with an Intel Core i7-8700K (Coffee Lake) at default clock speed of 3.7GHz (turbo boost 4.5GHz), as well as 8GB of G.Skill Trident-Z DDR4-3200 ram in dual channel mode.
All tests were conducted at turbo clock speeds of 4.5GHz at a resolution of 1920×1080. High or Ultra settings enabled.
| CPU | Intel Core i7-8700K (Coffee Lake) @ 3.7GHz / Turbo @ 4.5GHz |
| Overclock | All cores at x50, vCore at 1.35V – Result: 5.0GHz |
| Cooling | Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 |
| Motherboard | Asus ROG Maximus X Hero |
| Ram | 2 x 4GB G.Skill Trident-Z DDR4-3200 |
| XMP 2.0 profiles | Memory timings : 15-15-15-35 @1.35v |
| SSD/HDD | Patriot Hellfire PCIE M.2 256GB SSD |
| PSU | Thermaltake Toughpower RGB 750W |
| VGA card | Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5 |
| Nvidia Drivers | Latest GeForce Drivers v.388.13 – WHQL |
| OS | Windows 10 |
Load Temperatures
During our stress test, the load temperatures reached a high of 89 degrees Celsius. It’s fairly high, but what we expected … we highly recommended a very good CPU cooler. We suggest investing a custom water cooling or a large AIO unit.
Passmark 9
Fast, easy to use, PC speed testing and benchmarking. PassMark PerformanceTest allows you to objectively benchmark a PC using a variety of different speed tests and compare the results to other computers.
Cinebench R15
CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software Cinema 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more. CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and OS X).
PCMark 10
PCMark 10 is the latest in our series of industry standard PC benchmarks. Updated for Windows 10 with new and improved workloads, PCMark 10 is also faster and easier to use. PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With express, extended, and custom run options to suit your needs, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office and an ideal choice for organizations that buy PCs in high volumes.
TimeSpy
3DMark Time Spy is a new DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built “the right way” from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal test for benchmarking the latest graphics cards.
FireStrike
Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today’s high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.
Final Thoughts
And there you go. How to overclock an Intel Core i7-8700K
Happy overclocking …
Related articles
- Overclocking the Intel Core i9-10900K (Comet Lake) to 5.4GHz on all 10 Cores
- Asus ROG Maximus X Hero Motherboard Review
- Buy the Asus ROG Maximus X Hero motherboard from Amazon
- Buy the Intel Core i7-8700K
(Coffee Lake) processor from Amazon or Newegg
- Buy the Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro
240 AIO from Amazon
12 comments
who care about temperature during TORTURE test show temp in gaming
Haha… true, but the torture test is make sure it’s stable at 5.0GHz. Actually I did gaming tests… temps hit a high of around 85-90 degrees.
I have the 8700k and I noticed unbearably high temps even with an AIO. So I did the unthinkable.. Using a Dr. delid tool, careful prying and replacing the thermal compound with liquid metal to reduce the distance between the IHS and chipset and create a better thermal bond. I used gasket sealer and clamped the IHS back down. Lo and behold, I get 60-65 degrees under full load stress test consistently. 10/10 would recommend an thermal replacement.
Nice 👍 I’m always afraid of delidding 😆
CPU torture tests are harder on a CPU then gaming…
You do realize that’s only 700Mhz above stock 4.3Ghz turbo on 6 cores for the 8700K right? Even Bloomfield can outdo that on a single rad AIO in terms of overclock-ability from stock. I don’t even know what I’m doing and my i7 5930K overclocks better than that (4.5Ghz; 900Mhz over stock 3.6Ghz turbo on 6 cores). This isn’t exactly impressive.
Thank you for this excellent guide. i was looking for SIMPLE OC guide and all i could find was endless posts starting about history of intel, blah blah blah, all i needed was someone to say CHANGE THIS, THIS AND THIS.
amen!
Anyone have a quick easy guide like this but for a MSI z370 board??
ei man, i have the msi z370 m5 and the i7 8700k and i am doing some testing, noob here thou, lets share findings..
i am trying to get a stable 4.7 all cores with decent temps before i try to up the game thou. i was getting crazy 100c on prime stress test but reduced it to 88c lowering the voltage from 1.4 to 1.3
Tested with the same motherboard on BIOS 1003:
used the pre-defined 5G overclock BIOS setting (Ratio 50, Voltage auto)
Stable and achieving temp of 78-80C with a phantek PH-TC14PE using Prime95