Intel i7 3770 overclocking to 4.5 GHz automatically

[Baanbhatt]

Anyone got an appropriate answer for why my Intel i7 3770 is automatically overclocking to 4.5 GHz. While purchasing and building my system I made sure to know about each and everything properly that I am installing. When I purchased the processor i.e. Intel i7 3770, that time I was told that this processor has a locked multiplier due to which it cannot be overclocked which according to my knowledge was correct.

Now after my rig was ready I started experimenting with the BIOS settings and ended up changing not just the multiplier but also the CPU clock. Obviously I was quite shocked to see that I was actually able to change the multiplier. However I reset everything and rebooted the system. Here came up the issue, I found my clock speed went up to 4.5 GHz surprisingly. What is it? Anyone who is well aware of this change.
I changed the multiplier upto 43 and the CPU clock rate to 106. Please help.

[AshritaS]

That is really surprising, I have never seen such behavior of Intel i7 3770. Even I know that these processors are locked multipliers and cannot be overclocked. I am sure there might be two reasons for such unusual behavior of overclocking. Either there must have something went wrong while you were tinkering around with your BIOS settings or might be you have mistaken with the clock sleep reading. I would suggest you to once again check out the clock speed. This time make sure that you verify the speed with the help of any utility; you can make use of CPU-Z. I think this is the only utility which can help you getting the correct reading. If in case you encounter the same 4.5 GHz clock speed then definitely the problem must have raised due to the changes you made in the multiplier and the CPU clock rate. Also if possible let me know whether you did Turbo Boost?

[Baanbhatt]

As according to your suggestion i verified the Clock speed multiple times and all the time I got the same reading i.e. 4.5 Ghz. Also I ran CPU-Z which gave the same reading and with same clock speed. Let me also tell you that CPU-Z utility was ran with keeping the CPU at idle state

Please elaborate what you were exactly trying to point out in turbo Boost. I don’t think Turbo boost has anything to do with the problem. as far as I know it has the capability of raising the clock speed to only upto 3.9 GHz, at least with i7 3770 processor. Even if the processor single core is at high load the clock speed is not going to exceed beyond 3.9 GHz.

[Bethany Johson]

I cannot assure with the main cause that I am predicting but somewhere it could be a reason for the creation of your problem. According to my knowledge there are boards that have the ability of self overclocking. Self overclocking is a feature that most motherboards has. Might be even your board too have the same feature and it is accidentally enabled while you were messing up with your BIOS settings. see, no doubt the problem started from the time you changed your BIOS settings so there are major chances that something went wrong into your BIOS knowing or maybe unknowingly.

[Habiba22]

I too predict that something is wrong with your board but alongside I would also like to clear certain things. First of all as you said that your max turbo boost not goes beyond 39. Its fine, but how come your max multiplier is going beyond 43. I don’t think it should cross 39, if the turbo boost has a certain range then the multiplier should also remain within the same range. CPU-Z reading can’t be wrong or faulty, they always gives a proper reading. Anyways you can run few more bench marks and then try to compare the results with 4.5 ghz of your i7 3770 processor. On the other hand also keep verifying your board. May I know which motherboard is installed into your system? At least for once take your motherboard to any technical expert and show it to him. They can check the entire board and its BIOS and if possible ask them to reset the BIOS.

[Fadheela]

I have seen in many threads where people do blame their boards for behaving weirdly with the cores. There are cases where the motherboard simply makes the disabled core working for without reason and also without the user doing anything. Sometimes the user does not even know what exactly happens and directly he encounters such issues. Automatic overclocking of your machine might due to your motherboard.