high adaptive voltage on new overclock question

[random betrayal]

So my recent build is a i5-4690k with an ASRock z97 extreme 4 board.

I have gone through with all the bios changes that I can think of as well as those based on some posts and you tube videos I have seen

I am getting the board to throttle down quite nicely and this is a requirement of this as I want the chip and system to spin down when not needed. But I am having an issue with the adaptive voltage ramping up to 1.2 volts under load. This creates temps well into the 90's and I am not really comfortable with this. I have a decent air cooler in the coolermaster hyper 212 evo that idles in the 30's. I have the bios set to -.065 offset in the voltage offset.

The two OC's I have tried are only 4.0 and 4.2 which based on the review here on Anandtech should be able to do this at a fixed voltage no more then 1.05-1.1.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8227/devils-canyon-review-intel-core-i7-4790k-and-i5-4690k/2

Is there a setting to limit the max voltage within the adaptive controls? Or is my chip just not a good overclocker?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

So my recent build is a i5-4690k with an ASRock z97 extreme 4 board.

I have gone through with all the bios changes that I can think of as well as those based on some posts and you tube videos I have seen

I am getting the board to throttle down quite nicely and this is a requirement of this as I want the chip and system to spin down when not needed. But I am having an issue with the adaptive voltage ramping up to 1.2 volts under load. This creates temps well into the 90's and I am not really comfortable with this. I have a decent air cooler in the coolermaster hyper 212 evo that idles in the 30's. I have the bios set to -.065 offset in the voltage offset.

The two OC's I have tried are only 4.0 and 4.2 which based on the review here on Anandtech should be able to do this at a fixed voltage no more then 1.05-1.1.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8227/devils-canyon-review-intel-core-i7-4790k-and-i5-4690k/2

Is there a setting to limit the max voltage within the adaptive controls? Or is my chip just not a good overclocker?

I'm hoping that someone more familiar with your chipset and BIOS chimes in on this, but I'll offer some thoughts. For starters, the expression "adaptive voltage" or "adaptive settings" seemed to arise with the Z77 boards and later. [Note my sig is an SB-K processor and Z68 chipset]. But the basic processor adjustment features would not have changed so much since Nehalem. Instead, the organization of BIOS menus and "nomenclature" may have changed more.

When many of us were overclocking the Sandy Bridge, everyone (mostly) was using "Offset" mode entirely to find their overclock or "turbo" voltage. A few folks were still trying to use "fixed voltage" manual mode, probably without enabling EIST and the other pwer-saving features.

Not patting myself on the back, I discovered a voltage setting in my ASUS BIOS menus that was "not where it would appropriately be" for over-clock tweaking. All the other settings -- "offset," "VCCIO," etc. were on the same page. The "other voltage" I found was "Extra voltage for Turbo" or some similar designation, located in "CPU Power Management." It was not until more recently that I'd seen other folks discover and use it in conjunction with the "Offset" voltage setting.

Now when someone refers to Z77, Z87 or Z97 "adaptive" voltage settings, I'm inclined to assume this is not much different than "Extra Voltage for Turbo." And when I finally settle on X99 versus Z97, I'll have more firsthand confirmation about that.

But there SHOULD be a menu item -- SOME item SOMEWHERE -- to adjust any "adaptive" voltage setting, allow you to "fix" -- increase or decrease -- its specification or to leave on "Auto" [which I suspect my contemporaries were doing as they used exclusively the Offset voltage.]

So. With all this prolix explanation of "what I don't know for sure," I think you should look through the AsRock BIOS menus to see if you cannot find the voltage setting you seek. In the case of those among us who had been tweaking the ASUS Z68 boards, it was not altogether apparent in the BIOS menu organization.

 

[coffeejunkee]

The adaptive voltage bump only happens during AVX loads. Use something like Cinebench, wPrime, HyperPi or an old Prime95 version to see your 'real' vcore.

Personally I wouldn't bother with AVX Linx/Prime/Aida versions, besides the unrealistic high temps they're not that good for stability testing anyway. Use games + lots of real world software for that.

Also make sure to have all c-states enabled for lowest idle draw. They're more important than lowered idle voltage.

 

[biostud]

I prefer using override, so I can control the voltage. My goal was to get my 5820K to run stable @ 4.4Ghz and have started out at 1.3V. Then I use my computer for a couple of weeks and then lower voltage by 0.025V, repeat after a couple of weeks until I get the lowest stable voltage @ 4.4Ghz. Still running fine @ 1.275V.

I have dropped the heavy AVX stress benchmarks as they do not reflect my work load at all and I don't do anything mission critical at my machine. So I just test by regular work and by using ASUS RealBench if I want to stress test my machine.

 

[random betrayal]

The adaptive voltage bump only happens during AVX loads. Use something like Cinebench, wPrime, HyperPi or an old Prime95 version to see your 'real' vcore.

Personally I wouldn't bother with AVX Linx/Prime/Aida versions, besides the unrealistic high temps they're not that good for stability testing anyway. Use games + lots of real world software for that.

Also make sure to have all c-states enabled for lowest idle draw. They're more important than lowered idle voltage.

I am running prime when I get these vcore and temp readings and I have all the c states enabled.

The chip throttles down nicely to around 0.765 when it idles so the C states and speed step are working.

There are several voltage entries in the bios that show a min and max voltage for things that I do not know what they are. They can't be for the processor as the min is 0.4 and max is 2.0.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I am running prime when I get these vcore and temp readings and I have all the c states enabled.

The chip throttles down nicely to around 0.765 when it idles so the C states and speed step are working.

There are several voltage entries in the bios that show a min and max voltage for things that I do not know what they are. They can't be for the processor as the min is 0.4 and max is 2.0.

Is the Haswell-refresh -- for that matter, any Haswell -- an exception to what had been a sort of rule for SB or IB? That you'd want the offset to be as near zero (+ or -) as possible? With all the BIOS features that make my Z68 look more "Model T" than "Corvette," there has to be something there that allows for "adaptive" tuning.

But I'll annoy folks with this. I'm not in the Haswell "club" yet.