How do I properly lower my CPU voltage. i7 6700k.

[MrAndyWandy]

Hello, I need to lower the voltage of my i7 6700k. The voltage goes all the way up to 1.44, which from reading around seems to be the cause of my high temps.My motherboard is an asus z170-a and I cant figure out how to change it in the bios menu. Essentially how do I change the voltage to only hit a max of 1.26.

Note: I do not overclock, so my cpu is at the stock 4Ghz.

I have searched everywhere for a tutorial, I cannot find a single video or thread with an answer.
I would really appreciate the help.

 

[elbert]

Basically you have to do the same as overclock. IE set things manually. You should see things like voltage auto in bios. Change it to manual and you should then get to set those. Note you should know how to reset your bios before starting. watch this video and note how they changed the voltage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAr4VygoWWg

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

You should be looking for vcore voltage. It usually comes set on auto. Just manually type in 1.26v. If it doesn't boot or BSOD, then it's too low.

*I agree that finding the lowest voltage is the same concept as overclocking, except in reverse. A little at a time is always recommended.

 

[warmon6]

Hello, I need to lower the voltage of my i7 6700k. The voltage goes all the way up to 1.44, which from reading around seems to be the cause of my high temps.My motherboard is an asus z170-a and I cant figure out how to change it in the bios menu. Essentially how do I change the voltage to only hit a max of 1.26.

Note: I do not overclock, so my cpu is at the stock 4Ghz.

I have searched everywhere for a tutorial, I cannot find a single video or thread with an answer.
I would really appreciate the help.

Well I dont have a said motherboard nor cpu but I would recommend looking at some overclocking guides if you cant find anything on this.

You may not be overclocking but the principles are the same (just in the reverse order)

(Should be similar menu to this board)
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMWCFwKBQtQ"][/video]

Around the 3:00 Min mark he starts to show voltage.

 

[MrAndyWandy]

The menu is similar in both videos. But the manual override forces it to stay at whatever i set it, I don't want it to run at the max voltage i set it at all the time. Is there some way to make it more dynamic so it can fluctuate when it isn't being heavily used?

 

[MrAndyWandy]

You should be looking for vcore voltage. It usually comes set on auto. Just manually type in 1.26v. If it doesn't boot or BSOD, then it's too low.

*I agree that finding the lowest voltage is the same concept as overclocking, except in reverse. A little at a time is always recommended.

Ok so what I just did was manually set it to 1.26 volts. But in doing so I discovered manual mode forces the voltage to stay at 1.26 and I don't want it constantly at max set voltage all the time when i'm not, say, playing games. So I went back into bios and set it to adaptive. Now the max is at 1.26 and it will somewhat fluctuate depending upon use. This seems to have fixed my issue. However is what I did ok? Was it the right way to do it? And will I lose performance from lowering my voltage?

 

[warmon6]

If your at stock speed, you shouldn't loose performance.

Only thing that would happen is system stability. If you Blue-screen or have a system freeze with the new lower voltage, your voltage is to low and needs to be increase slightly. (like 1.26v to 1.28v for example.)

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

I don't know of a way to have it more dynamic than what it does by itself. Also, I've ran Cinebench R15 at same speed different voltages and got different results, but I can get different results even without changing voltage so idk.

 

[MrAndyWandy]

If your at stock speed, you shouldn't loose performance.

Only thing that would happen is system stability. If you Blue-screen or have a system freeze with the new lower voltage, your voltage is to low and needs to be increase slightly. (like 1.26v to 1.28v for example.)

I ran a few stress tests and it passed. My temps are great now to. According to Intel, the stock voltage is about 1.22 so this should be more then enough. Also apparently this high voltage is a common issue with my motherboard. So everything appears to now be good to go, but just one more question. Adaptive mode is fine right? Or should I keep it at manual.

 

[warmon6]

I ran a few stress tests and it passed. My temps are great now to. According to Intel, the stock voltage is about 1.22 so this should be more then enough. Also apparently this high voltage is a common issue with my motherboard. So everything appears to now be good to go, but just one more question. Adaptive mode is fine right? Or should I keep it at manual.

Because im not on that platform, I cant really say if it would be fine or not. (Last Intel system i've built was the Core i7 920 and my most recent system build is AMD a10-7850k from a few years ago).

I can say from these semi-older systems, it wasn't recommended to have adaptive/dynamic voltage as it hard to dial the correct voltage for overclocking and even at stock (if you manually adjusted the voltage), it's sometime didn't change the voltage fast enough for the system demand and you would crash.

But like said, these are newer boards and bios's might have fix those issues from the old(ish) days.

You'll have to wait for someone else on these forums that can properly respond to your question.

 

[AIex]

for stock, voltage should be 1.20 max, at least mine works good at 1.2, just set adaptive + vcore 1.200.

 

[MrAndyWandy]

for stock, voltage should be 1.20 max, at least mine works good at 1.2, just set adaptive + vcore 1.200.

That is what i was seeing. However I noticed I was having insane fps drops in cs go after setting my voltage to 1.25. Not sure if that actually had anything to do with it.

 

[MrAndyWandy]

Ok so now manual doesn't even seem to be working. I set it to 1.25 and and the readings are hitting 1.44 on HWmonitor. However CPU-Z says 1.248.
http://imgur.com/a/n7H7W Link of screenshot.

 

[warmon6]

Ok so now manual doesn't even seem to be working. I set it to 1.25 and and the readings are hitting 1.44 on HWmonitor. However CPU-Z says 1.248.
http://imgur.com/a/n7H7W Link of screenshot.

It's working.

If you look at the top of HWmonitor for cpu vcore. you'll see the voltage that you set .

The voltage VID is sort of like a preset setting that your bios/cpu to determine what voltage is used when running everything stock.

You manually setting the voltage overrides the VID and can be safely ignored.

Better explained here.
http://www.overclock.net/t/665362/vid-voltage-identification-explained

 

[MrAndyWandy]

Ok so now manual doesn't even seem to be working. I set it to 1.25 and and the readings are hitting 1.44 on HWmonitor. However CPU-Z says 1.248.
http://imgur.com/a/n7H7W Link of screenshot.

It's working.

If you look at the top of HWmonitor for cpu vcore. you'll see the voltage that you set .

The voltage VID is sort of like a preset setting that your bios/cpu to determine what voltage is used when running everything stock.

You manually setting the voltage overrides the VID and can be safely ignored.

Better explained here.
http://www.overclock.net/t/665362/vid-voltage-identification-explained

Ok great, thanks a whole lot for giving me some of your time in order to help me out. I really appreciate. Problem has been solved.

 

[warmon6]

Ok so now manual doesn't even seem to be working. I set it to 1.25 and and the readings are hitting 1.44 on HWmonitor. However CPU-Z says 1.248.
http://imgur.com/a/n7H7W Link of screenshot.

It's working.

If you look at the top of HWmonitor for cpu vcore. you'll see the voltage that you set .

The voltage VID is sort of like a preset setting that your bios/cpu to determine what voltage is used when running everything stock.

You manually setting the voltage overrides the VID and can be safely ignored.

Better explained here.
http://www.overclock.net/t/665362/vid-voltage-identification-explained

Ok great, thanks a whole lot for giving me some of your time in order to help me out. I really appreciate. Problem has been solved.

No problem. If you have any other question or problems, just let us know!