Overclocking 5960x and CPU Voltage Mode Settings

[Colonel Klink]

I have a few questions that have been hard to get answered with Google searches.

I have tried to do as much reading as I could online, and I’ve built a new setup with the specs listed in my signature and decided to try my hand, for the 1st time, at overclocking the CPU. I have been able to get a 4.5ghz OC (CPU multiplier@ 36, CPU cache multiplier@ 24 for now) @ 1.22v manual setting, BCLK @ 125, and XMP enabled to get 3ghz from my memory. XMP set my BCLK to 125. Running Aida64 for an hour or so, HWMonitor report that the individual cores generally stay around mid 60s-mid 70c. However, the Package” temp is usually reporting higher - mid 70s-80s or so. I plan to stress test longer in the near future.

Should I be looking at the “Package” temp or the individual cores, or some other value?

I notice that once the system load is gone when I stop stressing, the core speeds drop from 4.5ghz to 1.5ghz (which I believe is due to EIST and which I want it to do), temps come down on the individual cores to around mid to low 30s, but the VID stays at 1.22v since it’s set to manual. My question is, even though clock speeds and heat come down and normalize, is it ok to have the core voltage set 1.22, or anything that’s higher than stock, permanently?

I thought to use “Adaptive” mode for CPU voltage to bring it down via Speedstep but since my BCLK is set to 125 due to XMP, I have read that I cannot use the “Adaptive” setting. I’ve been reading OC guides that suggest and walk through using “Offset” instead. My understanding is that “Offset” just adds or subtracts a certain manually entered amount of voltage onto, or from your stock idle core voltage and max voltage under load. OC guides say that once you have determined your max stable voltage for your OC using the manual core setting, change the setting to “Offset”, without adding an offset value, reboot, make note of the idle voltage, and make note of the voltage while running a stress test. Then, the difference between my new max voltage in “Offset” mode and my known, stable manual voltage would be my offset value. Most people are saying the “Offset” mode will generally give you a higher, unwanted voltage than your stable, manual voltage so your offset value will typically be negative. By example; 1.22v(stable manual) - 1.29v(offset mode) = -.07(offset value). This make sense how it’s supposed to work, but after changing from manual voltage setting to offset, my PC won’t boot to Windows. Since Windows won’t load, I can’t take note of the new voltage values at idle or under load in order to obtain my offset value. I notice that the reported voltage in the BIOS changed back to a lower voltage as when it was set at “Auto”, which makes sense, but it won’t load to Windows at that voltage. I started playing with +/positive offset values and was finally able to boot with a value over .10. What I found is that for me to achieve my 4.5ghz OC @ 1.22v, I have to use an offset value of +.22. That seems a rather high value and it doesn’t seem like it should work this way. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Lastly, with Offset mode enabled @ a value of +.22, HWMonitor shows my VID being ~1.22v and core clock speed @ 4.5ghz for 30-45 seconds after initial boot. Then it ramps down to ~.941v and 1.5ghz once Speedstep kicks in. My guess is that was why I couldn’t boot to Windows without applying an offset value to bring the core voltage to over 1.0v. Is this normal?

Sorry for the long, wordy first post and I hope it makes sense. I appreciate any thoughts. Thank you.

Corsair Graphite Series 760T Black Full Tower | ASUS X99-E WS | Core i7-5960X | Corsair Hydro Series H110i GT Liquid Cooler | 2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Super Clocked | 64GB CORSAIR Dominator Platinum DDR4 3000 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 G2 PSU | Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD | WD Black Series 4TB 7200 RPM | LG 16X BD-R SATA Blu-ray Burner | Windows 7 x64

 

[Colonel Klink]

I think I figured out answers to most of my questions via many Google searches and trial and error. I believe I have a pretty stable configuration running Aida64 for over 8 hours with the following:
BCLK @ 125
CPU @ 4500mhz @ CPU Core Ratio 36 @ 1.22v
CPU Cache Ratio 34 @ 1.30v
DDR4 @ XMP 3000mhz @ 1.35v

 

[Neutr1n0]

Hi,

I have limited time now, so I am trying to keep it short...

Actually auto, offset and adaptive voltage are based on VID table 'baked' in the CPU. This VID table gives a certain voltage depending on CPU multiplier and is tailored to 100 strap. Certain multiplier on 125 BCLK will give higher clock then same multiplier at 100 BCLK and thus require higher voltage. That's why it's difficult to get optimal offset voltage on 125 strap and you need to add so much positive offset while others on 100 strap will even be stable at negative offset. The fact that adaptive is 'not working' on 125 strap is because it's supposedly badly implemented by intel... (note that I have been pretty close to stability with adaptive voltage on 4.5G and 125 strap but suffered idle freeze and gave up in the end). Because of the above, with other than 100 strap, mobo manufacturers are also forcing fix core voltage when set to auto (1.200V on X99-deluxe latest bios).

Long story short, for optimal voltage control you should revert back to 100 strap and use offset/adaptive. XMP profile is setting 125 strap for mem speeds over 2400Mhz (=9x1.333x100) for (better) memory stability as some memory multipliers are known to be unstable. 2800Mhz and 3000Mhz are no go on 100 strap, but 2666Mhz (=10x1.333x100) is easily stable on 100 strap and even 3200Mhz (=12x1.333x100) is possible with high enough memory voltage.

Personally I am running 2666Mhz on 100 strap and I don't think you will see any performance degradation compared to 3000Mhz. If you want to go extreme you can always try 3200Mhz...

BTW: Nice OC 4.5G on 1.220V!! (actually exactly same as mine 😉 but more impressive as you have an 8 core)

 

[Colonel Klink]

BTW: Nice OC 4.5G on 1.220V!! (actually exactly same as mine 😉 but more impressive as you have an 8 core)

Thank you. I've been putting PCs together for years but never tried overclocking and this is my first attempt. Also, thank you for the good information. I wouldn't have dared messing with OC'ing without all the good info on the web from the various communities.