ASRock Z170 Pro Overclocking issue

I'm coming here as a last resort, because I feel like I'm losing my mind. I recently got a Z170 Pro4 and a 6600K. Everything works great I can get my DDR4 to 3000MHz no problem, but none of my efforts to overclock the CPU work. 

Cbeers wrote: I'm coming here as a last resort, because I feel like I'm losing my mind. I recently got a Z170 Pro4 and a 6600K. Everything works great I can get my DDR4 to 3000MHz no problem, but none of my efforts to overclock the CPU work.  I can change the multiplier all I want. Set voltages sure, but nothing takes. In the bios it says target CPU clock 4000, cache 3500, 3900 whatever, but if I save and quit nothing changes.  Atuning doesn't work either. I'm on Windows 7 64bit if that helps. If anyone can give me a tip so I can use my CPU as intended that would be great.

Very little to go on here so more questions than answers, if any.

You're saying you have changed the core multipliers above their stock settings in the UEFI/BIOS, but that doesn't change from the stock settings in Windows, right?

What are you using to check your CPU speed/frequency in Windows?

What are you using to change the multiplier, the All Core or Per Core setting? You mentioned a CPU clock of 4000, which is one tick above the max Turbo frequency of your processor. So you've used a multiplier of 40 or more?

What other settings in the UEFI are you changing when you OC?

This sounds like the old fashioned "disable Turbo to OC" technique, which will NOT allow an Intel processor to be over clocked since the Sandy Bridge generation forward.

Did you reset or check the setting Boot Performance Mode options in the OC Tweaker screen?

What UEFI version are you using?

when you say A-Tuning does not work, why do you even need that?

Ok so this is frustrating, but I think I've been overclocking this whole time, but nothing was reporting right. 

I generally use CPUz as a quick test but in your case it sounds like you have some kind of issue with it. Uninstall it and grab the latest version and reinstall. When checking an OC in CPUz I find it helpful to run CPUz's new internal stress test (under "bench") to load the CPU then switch back to the CPU tab while it is running and check the frequency. As Parsec said, if power saving is enabled then the CPU will only run at it's full speed when there is sufficient load. Generally though you can still see if the overclock stuck (even without loading the CPU) by checking the "multiplier" on the CPU tab, it should mirror your OC setting.

Edited by Xaltar - 24 Feb 2016 at 3:20pm