I7-6700k high voltage. Please help.

[quick5and]

Hi everyone,

As the title mentions, I am worried about high voltage on my I7-6700K CPU.

I have just built a new PC with the following specs:

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VIII Hero
CPU: I7-6700K
CPU cooler: Zalman CNPS10X Optima
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) 3000 MHz CL15 XMP 2.0 DDR4
PSU: EVGA 650 W G2 GOLD 80+ Modular PC Power Supply Unit
GPU: No GPU yet, using integrated GPU

I have tried to OC through BIOS with ASUS Ez Tweaker but the system was unstable on 4.5ghz so I reset everything to default. CPU is being automatically boosted to ~4.2ghz.

HWmonitor screen

From what I have read, my voltage seems too high for stable, long term run so I was wondering what can cause this issue? Is it even safe to use the system with 1.4v+ on iddle?

I am worried as this was my first build and I don't want to end up with a fried CPU etc. I would appreciate any comments/suggestions. Thank you!

 

[quick5and]

I also want to add that iddle CPU tems are usually 20-25C. Maximum temp under 100% load was 79C

 

[Spectre694]

I would OC manually because unless you are just super unlucky you should be able to hit 4.2 (maybe even higher) at less voltage.

 

[geofelt]

Silicon lottery bins their chips @1.4v.
That should be about your max under load.
Use speedstep and adaptive voltage so your multiplier and voltage will be less when there is little work to do.

 

[synphul]

I've had better luck with hwinfo64 than hwmonitor. Also it appears the value they listed is vid which isn't the same as vcore. Manually overclocking rather than using 'ez' utilities tends to be the better route to take, auto overclocking can sometimes be a bit too aggressive adding too much vcore for a given overclock as a stability measure rather than being efficient.

1.35 to 1.4v for skylake should be safe though the closer to 1.35v the safer I'd personally feel if it were my system for 24/7 use.

 

[quick5and]

Thank you for your reply. Can you please provide some guidance? By OC manually do you mean reduce to voltage manually? What would be a safe value to set?

 

[quick5and]

A screenshot from Asus AI Suite 3
AI Suite 3

P.S

I forgot to mention that I am noob at this, this is my first build and I am only strating to learned about OC and so on. I would prefer stability and peace of mind over OC.

 

[azzazel_99]

Just had the same problem. My cpu at idle was 1.44v thanks to the hero mobo. I had to manually adjust the voltage to 1.2'ish and find where it was happy. Max it goes now even in turbo is 1.28volts and doesn't go over 58c

 

[quick5and]

Thank you for your reply azzazel_99, would you be so kind to provide some instructions on how to do the same? Should I just set the voltage to 1.2 and that's it?

 

[azzazel_99]

I think I set my cpu core voltage to 1.28 I think and saved it in the bios. Used hwmonitor on my desktop to see what the voltage and temps were under load and my max voltage now is 1.29 I do believe. May have to play with it a bit to find the lowest stable voltage you can get so you get best temps. Yours maybe lower than mine as I just picked 1.28 randomly and it's working so far

 

[quick5and]

Thanks a lot for your reply. We have a similar setup with a similar problem so it is indeed very informative. Another question, might sound stupid, but anyway, did you get a decrease in performance (clock speed) after you changed your voltage manually? And btw, what are your temps with 100% load stress test?

 

[Gamer1985]

We have a similar build. Hit F2 or DEL at the boot screen, once youve entered the UEFI bios, set your core ratio to whatever your trying to overclock to, for instance if you enter 44 it will run at 4.4Ghz. Then scroll to cpu core voltage aka VCORE and use the drop down menu and select manual and enter in 1.29. Save your changes and exit. afterwards run realbench for stress testing. Make sure your temps stay at a good level and if you pass the stress test you are stable.

My CPU runs at 4.6Ghz at 1.285 with 100% load temps never exceeding 58C.

 

[quick5and]

Thank you so much Gamer1985! I will follow your advice.

 

[azzazel_99]

No decrease in clock speeds and my load temps are 58c

 

[quick5and]

So today I have tried to set my cpu voltage manually and I must say it worked like a charm! I haven't tried overclocking yet, but after setting the voltage to 1.29, my cpu runs a lot cooler - max temps under full load never exceeded 50 C which is amazing! I will try to OC and lower volage further and post an update. Thank you all very much for your input.

 

[azzazel_99]

No problem man. I have a 6700k too and hero VIII and was having same temp problems. The motherboard sends it to much voltage for some reason in auto. I'm at 1.27 volts and still stable lol.

 

[quick5and]

Posting this update for anyone who has the same issue or is interested. I have now tried to OC my system and it seems that 1.29 is the lowest I can go with 4300 mhz clock speed and RAM OC to 3000mhz. I have tried lowering to 1.28 and OC CPU to 4400 mhz but my system was not stable and I had an instant bsod when running stress tests.
I have also confused CPU VID with CPU Voltage. From what I have read CPU VID is the stock voltage values assigned for your particular CPU and the CPU Voltage or VCore is your actual voltage.

Overall, I have managed to get a stable system at 4300mhz CPU clock, 3000mhz RAM clock. My temps never exceed 52 C on full load and my voltage never goes higher than 1.3v, and usually sits at 1.296, which I think is good enough. I would prefer a higher CPU clock speeds, but apparantly I haven't won the sillicone lottery so I am happy with what I have and at least I know that my system is running a bit faster than stock with good reliability and stability. Thank you all for your help and input!

 

[azzazel_99]

You can raise your vcore and overclock to say 4.4 or 4.6 just try not to go over 1.35 volts. The key is to find a stable voltage at whatever overclock you want then once your stable slowly start lowering voltage little by little stress testing each time until you find the lowest unstavle voltage then raise it back to the last syable voltage and write that info down for future reference. Thats what i do. Pick a overclock and find my lowest possible stable volts. Ideally i wouldnt want to go over 1.35 max voltage. So if i get 4.6ghz at or lower than 1.35v im happy.

 

[quick5and]

Thanks azzazel, I might try that, however I believe my particular chip is not too prone to overclocking as when I did a 4.5 OC (without even setting voltage manually) it was very unstable and I had constant bsods. Do you think I would really see a difference between 4.3 and say 4.5 in gaming? I have bought GTX 970 FTW+ for gaming btw. I wanted GTX 980 ti ofc, but £300 difference in price is quite a lot and I am not a "max out everything" guy. Just need good fps (100-144 as I have a 1080p 144hz monitor) but I can live with high settings instead of ultra.

 

[azzazel_99]

Well thr chip stock boosts itself to 4.2 with turbo mode so 4.3 wont get you much. The most common overclock on this chip is 4.6 and like i said 1.35volts isnt hurting anything and if its stable there slowly start lowering your voltage. Honestly my chip right now is stock. I have no overclock on it. In a few months i'll start dabling with it but right there there isnt much need too.

 

[quick5and]

Yeh, you're probably right, won't see a major difference between 4.2 and 4.3, but I guess I don't really need more power same as you don't. I would rather stick with lower voltage and stable system for now and try to OC in case I am not satisfied with the performance. I mostly use my PC for work and occasional gaming. I'll do some testing with EVGA GTX 970 ftw+ and only then I will be able to judge on the performance.

 

[quick5and]

I have been using low-mid end gaming laptops for the past 5 years so this is a huge leap for me as it is.