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Overclocking the Core i7-8700K (Coffee Lake) to 5.0GHz on all 6 Cores

Related article: (New 2020) Overclocking the Intel Core i9-10900K (Comet Lake) to 5.4GHz on all 10 Cores

In this article, we’ll show you how to overclock the Intel Core i7-8700K (Cofee Lake) from the default speed of 3.7GHz to a whopping 5.0GHz on all 6 cores, by simply changing 3 BIOS options on the Asus ROG Maximus X Hero motherboard. You can check out the review of the Asus ROG Maximus X Hero motherboard here.

 

 

The Core i7-8700K is the the top end in the Coffee Lake series of Intel’s 8th Gen Core processors. According to Intel, these new 8th Gen Core processors can deliver a 25% boost in frame rates over previous 6th/7th Gen processors. What’s more it’s Intel’s first-ever 6-core processor for desktops and gaming.

  • Compatible only with Motherboards based on Intel 300 Series Chipsets
  • 6 Cores/12 Threads
  • 3.70 GHz up to 4.70 GHz Max Turbo Frequency/12 MB Cache
  • Intel Optane Memory Supported
  • Intel UHD Graphics 630

According to Intel’s specifications, the Core i7-8700K has a TDP of 95W, which means it can run quite hot if you don’t have sufficient cooling. We highly recommend using a good all-in-one liquid cooler (AIO). See our test rig below. In this example, we used a Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 AIO.

 

Before we start, here’s a quick disclaimer:

Disclaimer: Overclocking is never guaranteed, so the results may vary depending on certain conditions and various hardware configurations. I am not recommending overclocking if you do not know what are you doing. High voltages may damage hardware and it will not be covered by warranty.

 

 

The BIOS settings

After some tweaking in the BIOS, I was able to overclock the Core i7-8700K from a default of 3.7GHz to a whopping 5.0Ghz. That’s an extra 1.3GHz overclock … excellent!

Here’s a screenshot of the BIOS settings to achieve my overclock in 3 simple steps.

  1. Set the AI Overclock Tuner to “Manual”
  2. Set the CPU core Ratio Limit to 50

 

3. Increase CPU core/cache Voltage to 1.35V

Everything else was left at default or Auto.  Save settings and reboot.

 

Now that we’ve managed to overclock the Core i7-8700K to 5.0GHz, let’s check out the full load temperatures on our next page

 

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10 comments

rebrandeon 20 November 2017 at 10:03

who care about temperature during TORTURE test show temp in gaming

Reply
Winston 20 November 2017 at 10:10

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.

Reply
idburns 29 January 2018 at 14:01

CPU torture tests are harder on a CPU then gaming…

Reply
BeehiveRound 18 December 2017 at 22:02

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.

Reply
Greg Kar 8 January 2018 at 15:46

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.

Reply
Daves! 29 January 2018 at 15:11

amen!

Reply
Aranu 28 January 2018 at 00:37

Anyone have a quick easy guide like this but for a MSI z370 board??

Reply
Victor Hernan Aravena Leal 28 January 2018 at 04:04

ei man, i have the msi z370 m5 and the i7 8700k and i am doing some testing, noob here thou, lets share findings..

Reply
Victor Hernan Aravena Leal 28 January 2018 at 04:11

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

Reply
Le zOU 5 February 2018 at 08:35

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

Reply

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