Hey I wanted to post this here, because I did the tuning a while back that
@vMax suggested in the videos. I worked great and then I updated the Bios to the newest version in September and it reset everything. It took some messing with, but I finally got it back to what it had been and even a little better.
So I finally had some time to dig back into this after that recent MSI Z790 Pro Bios update on 9-5-2024. I updated it about 2 weeks after it was released and it made changes to my settings that were not optimal. Temps went up and performance went down; and that was on the basic Intel recommended settings that had previously been: 1-stock fan, 2-box fan, and 3-water cooler. I chose setting 1 - intel defaults after the Bios update and was not happy with the result. Before the update, the minimal changes I made to downvolt the CPU provided far better performance and far less power than the "update."
Initially when installing this CPU, 8 months before, I was uncertain what these "cooler" choices meant, so I chose "1" figuring I could go back in and adjust later. I had no idea in the beginning that part of this adventure was the issue with MOBO manufacturers up-ticking board and cpu voltage parameters to get better performance out of Intel CPU's. Yet after catching onto that and investigating a little, doing some bench marking, etc., I learned that it was running a little hot - into the low 90's but that the performance of my i5-14600K was at 150% over performing with 5.4Ghz on performance cores and 125% on the efficiency cores. When I switched that basic "cooler" setting in the BIOS to box fan, temps went up and performance stayed the same, so I knew there was some adjusting I could do. That lead me to learn about the CPU Lite settings.
Some reading and good advice got me into the Bios to adjust the CPU Lite Mode a little lower and with the Mode 5 setting, temps went down and performance stayed at that excellent level organically with what ever other settings the Msi Z790 Pro board had set by default. I was very happy with where it was performing and it took very little effort to achieve it. 24000+ on Cinebench23. My son was ecstatic.
Updated the BIOS on the board to the newest version mid-late-September; temps up, performance down.
Dug in yesterday played with all of the 3 default settings. Somehow by default on both the Intel setting and the MSI performance setting - formally the 1 -stock fan and 2- box fan settings - I could not get performance up to that 5.4 Ghz on performance cores or the almost 4Ghz on the efficiency cores to save my life. I am a novice at overclocking, but everything I tried, I could not get the perfomance up. It was stationary at 5.2Ghz and 3.9Ghz with heat into the 90'sC. I knew it was possible to do better temp wise and get better performance... eventhough those numbers are within spec with Intel.
Finally after playing with Ratios and anything I thought would work, testing temps as I went with the changes and not getting what I knew the CPU was capable of with low temps and lowered voltages, I banged the 3 - watercooler option as the Bios preset. Tested with Cinebench and the temps went thru the roof - almost instantaneously to 100C. Shut it down, went back into the bios and adjusted the CPU Lite down to Mode 5. Also adjusted the P-Core settings to 5.5Ghz and the E Cores to 4.3Ghz and Voila! Temps in the low 80'sC and performance back to where it had been and even better.
My son wanted the PC back to play a little Red Dead, so once I got it to that level I handed it over. I'll likely go in and see if I can bump it down to Mode 4 or 3 with the same results. Anyway, it was a long afternoon yesterday of trial and error before today just banging the top performance in the BIOS (Watercooler setting) and then tuning the voltage down to get these excellent results. Got a Cinebench23 score of 255xx and that was with backgoround stuff wtill on - BitDefender, etc.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram