Safe vcore for 6600K? Looking for tips!

[philipew]

Oh yeah absolutely, I have read through the tweak town guide and a couple of other resources to get me to where I am. I have a stable overclock as mentioned running 4.7 @ 1.4 vCore, I just want to get the voltage to drop when at idle versus it sitting at 1.4 all the time. I did notice that at idle my temps are in the 20s. Am I missing something by seeing vCore in hwinfo showing as close to 1.4 despite the fact that the temperature reflects the cpu being at "idle"? I just want to make sure that
I'm not stressing my chip constantly when it's not actively being loaded.

In order for the CPU to slow down at idle, you must have Speedstep enabled (it is by Default) but also in Windows, your Power Plan must be set to "Balanced". The "Performance" plan disables Speedstep and uselessly keeps everything max. running which is effectively wasteful and unnecessary as the full performance is given back instantly when needed.

You should be seeing a drop to around 800 MHz (the absolute minimum CPU operating frequency) on inactive (i.e. idling) cores and low voltage. CPUID HWInfo is great and shows you, in real time, the VCore voltage range(s) in which you operate. Each of the ranges cover 12 mV in span. It can be limited to operating within a single 12 mV range (e.g. with LLC tuning on "High" to counteract the VDroop voltage drop). In my case for 4.6 GHz on VCore 1.355 V set manually in the BIOS, HWInfo shows me an operating VCore range of 1.344 V (min) to 1.356 (max). The following "min. V / max. V" ranges following from there are: 1.356/1.368 – 1.368/1.380 – 1.380/1.392 – 1.392/1.404 – 1.404/1.416 – 1.416/1.428.

I guess that by setting VCore at 1.40 V in the BIOS you would be at 1.404 V max (at idling), and if you are operating within that single range of voltage variation, then get 1.392 V under load (the voltage is lower under load to protect the CPU). This would be a good result and a better chip than mine apparently (all things being equal of course). To achieve a fully stable 4.7 GHz on my rig, I must set VCore up to 1.41 V in the BIOS, and it operates under the next 1.404/1.416 voltage range up (meaning higher temps).

Please ensure that in Windows you have the Power Plan set to "Balanced". That should do it. Otherwise let me know.

 

[ZEBuckeye81]

Alright, I got those settings changed (eist is on, I disabled the couple of cstates as recommended, and Windows is set to balanced) and at idle I'm seeing core clocks of right around 800mhz, vid for each core running from just over 1 to 1.2, and temps in the 20s. However, vCore still is saying 1.392. Will I not see a change there? I mean everything else looks like I think it should at idle, the fact that vCore keeps staying up is throwing me off. It's reading that in hwinfo and cpu z. Based on the ranges you're speaking of, it sounds like I'm right where I should be though.

 

[grimsin]

I had to use use adaptive voltage to get the voltage to drop instead of manual voltage. If you don't have that you can use offset voltage

 

[ZEBuckeye81]

Any thoughts on what it may be called in gigabyte bios? Not seeing adaptive, although there is the option of auto by vCore, but that leads to failure to boot.

 

[burnhamjs]

Any thoughts on what it may be called in gigabyte bios? Not seeing adaptive, although there is the option of auto by vCore, but that leads to failure to boot.

For Gigabyte - Set CPU Vcore to NORMAL (vice AUTO or a manual number) which will give you access to DVID where you can put in a voltage offset. However - I cannot seem to get this to work on my Gaming 3 (at least not with F6 BIOS). Maybe somebody else has got this to work and can explain.

 

[philipew]

Alright, I got those settings changed (eist is on, I disabled the couple of cstates as recommended, and Windows is set to balanced) and at idle I'm seeing core clocks of right around 800mhz, vid for each core running from just over 1 to 1.2, and temps in the 20s. However, vCore still is saying 1.392. Will I not see a change there? I mean everything else looks like I think it should at idle, the fact that vCore keeps staying up is throwing me off. It's reading that in hwinfo and cpu z. Based on the ranges you're speaking of, it sounds like I'm right where I should be though.

Yes, you are "right where you should be". This is a (minor) downside of setting up VCore manually in the BIOS. The value you set remains, no matter what (well, within a narrow 12 mV range). If you leave it on "Auto" in the BIOS (you can try this), VCore will vary a lot more and go right down (about 0.7 V even) but then also much higher when not needed, which makes your overclock unstable. LLC (Load Line Calibration - set on "High") tightens that variation to a narrow range which prevents it from going below the lowest value (the "floor" level) of that range.

As it is explained here: http://www.tweaktown.com/guides/7481/tweaktowns-ultimate-intel-skylake-overclocking-guide/index5.html
Manual/Override Mode: This mode will override CPU power savings by disallowing voltage drop during idle and apply the voltage you type in (of course the VCore will drop depending on LLC settings covered later on). This mode of operation is what is always used for extreme overclocking since the core speed is always 100%. This mode is simple to setup. There is one caveat; the VCore does not drop if the CPU frequency drops. If you do want the CPU voltage to drop when the CPU is at a lower clock speed, then you need to use Offset or Adaptive mode.

Remember also that the voltage (within the narrow range still) goes down under load to protect the CPU from excessive power because the current goes up under load (can't be avoided). Since "Power (P) = Voltage (V) x Current (A)", (i.e. P = V x A), if both the current and the voltage go up, the resulting power can quickly become excessively high. It is the mobo, not the CPU, that curves down the voltage under load by an amount called VDroop, in millivolts.

However, don't worry too much about the voltage having to remain slightly higher for overclocking purposes. What's more important is that the significant drop in frequency (down to 800 MHz) considerably lowers the overall temp of the chip which can then "breathe". You do well, enjoy your OC ;-).

 

[grimsin]

Actually leaving your CPU at full volts is roughly $5 a month if you left your computer on 24/7
Buy that's nothing really. It if he can drop the voltage I would suggest it,why keep it a constant voltage if you.can make it drop too .8v at idle? since he doesn't have adaptive voltage he should try offset voltage

 

[philipew]

Actually leaving your CPU at full volts is roughly $5 a month if you left your computer on 24/7
Buy that's nothing really. It if he can drop the voltage I would suggest it,why keep it a constant voltage if you.can make it drop too .8v at idle? since he doesn't have adaptive voltage he should try offset voltage

You must be paying electricity at a premium. CPU voltage is below 1.5 V (under 80 W most of the time). There is really not much into it IMO ;-).

Yes I agree, if it's (at all) possible to drop the voltage further then it's even better, provided it doesn't interfere with the OC, at least not negatively. The following thread from "burnhamjs" is (admittedly) interesting in that regard and I might investigate it further as soon as I am back home from holidays: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3307057/gigabyte-offset-voltage.html#19188489

There I can already read (on my laptop) that "burnhamjs" (the author of the post) mentions: <<Now voltage is dropping at idle. So all seems to be working correctly, though I did run a short OCCT-SMALL test and noted my CPU voltage was running at 1.284V but had a couple spikes to 1.308V.>>...

BTW, the following much older (« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2011, 08:20:22 am ») forum thread (How does DVID work?) was already dealing with this in quite some length (and it's detailed setting is far from being trivial apparently): http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=6849.0

This in fact may interfere "negatively" with (my) OC if it needs all the C-States to be enabled (see the thread just above):
<<DVID = Gigabyte Dynamic Vcore. Vcore must be set to normal or DVID will not function. All C states and EIST etc must be enabled.>>.
Instead, I much prefer this:
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) = Disabled (it means "C1 Enhanced" and is a primitive version of Speedstep)
C3 State Support = Disabled (not useful, affects temp indirectly)
CPU C3/C7 State Support = Disabled (not useful, affects temp indirectly)

Note that "burnhamjs" seems to have all the C-states DISABLED in his list of setttings... (?). This is conflicting information but I am hoping that C-states are not necesary for this to work.

Further investigation: please refer to my post titled "Let light shine out of darkness." in the "burnhamjs" <<Gigabyte Offset Voltage>> thread (this may have real potential to lower both the "under load and idle" VCore values, where I attempt to "shed some light" on all this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3307057/gigabyte-offset-voltage.html#19190579

 

[burnhamjs]

Any thoughts on what it may be called in gigabyte bios? Not seeing adaptive, although there is the option of auto by vCore, but that leads to failure to boot.

For Gigabyte - Set CPU Vcore to NORMAL (vice AUTO or a manual number) which will give you access to DVID where you can put in a voltage offset. However - I cannot seem to get this to work on my Gaming 3 (at least not with F6 BIOS). Maybe somebody else has got this to work and can explain.

haven't totally figured out CPU offset voltage on the Gigabyte mobo but I had an interesting observation this morning that I detailed in this thread http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3307057/gigabyte-offset-voltage.html#19186031

I'll post more there when I get a chance to try varying the offset (DVID) voltage

 

[burnhamjs]

Any thoughts on what it may be called in gigabyte bios? Not seeing adaptive, although there is the option of auto by vCore, but that leads to failure to boot.

Adaptive voltage seems to be working for me fairly well on my Gigabyte Z170 Gaming 3 (F6 BIOS). See this thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3307057/gigabyte-offset-voltage.html#19180742

Basically change your CPU Vcore from 1.290V to NORMAL, then leave the setting below CPU Vcore (Dynamic Voltage DVID) to 0.000V. A this point is was necessary for me to save & exit and let windows boot, then shut down (not just a restart). Then when I started up again things were working correctly. For me CPU-Z reported a Vcore of 1.308 (MAX) so I booted into BIOS, changed my DVID to -0.010V. Again saved & exited, allowed to boot to windows, shut down, then when I restarted CPU-Z reported a Vcore of 1.296V (MAX).

I now have a vcore that will drop to 0.744V at idle but ramp up to 1.296V during stability testing.

 

[ZEBuckeye81]

Nice, thanks for that info, I'll have to give it a try. What is your core clock running at out of curiosity?

 

[burnhamjs]

Nice, thanks for that info, I'll have to give it a try. What is your core clock running at out of curiosity?

100MHz with a 46 multiplier

 

[ZEBuckeye81]

Nice, I'm at 4.7, but also running at 1.4 volts. No issues with temps though, so I'll probably stay where I'm at. I couldn't get 4.5 or 4.6 stable with much less voltage than what I'm running now. Hopefully I can get the vCore to drop at idle like you have, then I'll be happy with things.

 

[burnhamjs]

Nice, I'm at 4.7, but also running at 1.4 volts. No issues with temps though, so I'll probably stay where I'm at. I couldn't get 4.5 or 4.6 stable with much less voltage than what I'm running now. Hopefully I can get the vCore to drop at idle like you have, then I'll be happy with things.

Awesome and hopefully you can get adaptive voltage working. It took me a bit to get it working on the Gigabyte board but it seems to be working well now.

I could probably get to 4.7, but I have memory using the XMP 1 profile (oc'd to 3000MHz using 1.35V DRAM), and an UNCORE of 4500MHz, so my temps got a bit too high for comfort at 4.7G (at least using OCCT for testing). I'm sure if I didn't OC my memory and left UNCORE at 3500MHz I could probably get 4.7. However, I think the system works better at 4.6G, 1.29 Vcore, UNCORE 4.5G, and XMP 1 memory profile enabled.

 

[ZEBuckeye81]

Yeah that makes sense. I have my uncore at 3.9, with auto voltage, and xmp 1 has my ram at 3200 also on auto voltage. I still need to tweak those a bit to find my sweet spot because ever since I upped the uncore I get some very sporadic artifacting in BF1o

 

[burnhamjs]

Yeah that makes sense. I have my uncore at 3.9, with auto voltage, and xmp 1 has my ram at 3200 also on auto voltage. I still need to tweak those a bit to find my sweet spot because ever since I upped the uncore I get some very sporadic artifacting in BF1o

Do you have an option in BIOS for "Relax OC" under "Memory Enhancement Settings"? I use this when I have XMP Profile 1 enabled and it reduces my temps by approximately 7 degrees (C)

You would be better of setting an manual voltage vice auto while you work on getting adaptive voltage to work.

 

[philipew]

Any thoughts on what it may be called in gigabyte bios? Not seeing adaptive, although there is the option of auto by vCore, but that leads to failure to boot.

Adaptive voltage seems to be working for me fairly well on my Gigabyte Z170 Gaming 3 (F6 BIOS). See this thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3307057/gigabyte-offset-voltage.html#19180742

Basically change your CPU Vcore from 1.290V to NORMAL, then leave the setting below CPU Vcore (Dynamic Voltage DVID) to 0.000V. A this point is was necessary for me to save & exit and let windows boot, then shut down (not just a restart). Then when I started up again things were working correctly. For me CPU-Z reported a Vcore of 1.308 (MAX) so I booted into BIOS, changed my DVID to -0.010V. Again saved & exited, allowed to boot to windows, shut down, then when I restarted CPU-Z reported a Vcore of 1.296V (MAX).

I now have a vcore that will drop to 0.744V at idle but ramp up to 1.296V during stability testing.

Thank You for that, it is what I needed to know ;-)...

 

[ZEBuckeye81]

So for whatever reason normal does not seem to be an option for me. It's either auto or whatever I type in. DVID stays grayed out and I can't change it.

 

[ZEBuckeye81]

Also, I already had relax oc selected for my ram

 

[ZEBuckeye81]

Disregard, I figured out how to change it, basically just type Nor then hit enter.

 

[ZEBuckeye81]

However, it wouldn't boot with vCore set at normal and DVID set to +0.00

 

[burnhamjs]

However, it wouldn't boot with vCore set at normal and DVID set to +0.00

after you "saved and exited" and allowed windows to boot - did you shut down? I had to shut down all the way before it would work correctly for what ever reason.

 

[burnhamjs]

Oh - and so that you can check your "NORMAL" vcore did you reduce your multiplier down to say 44 just as a check. Wondering if you NORMAL vcore is too low to boot at 4.7G

 

[ZEBuckeye81]

Yeah, I shut down completely. I did indeed lower the clock to 44, and vCore at auto, and I was showing vCore in hwinfo to be just over 1.2

 

[burnhamjs]

Yeah, I shut down completely. I did indeed lower the clock to 44, and vCore at auto, and I was showing vCore in hwinfo to be just over 1.2

hmm, so with a clock of 44 it won't boot with the voltage set to NORMAL even after a full shut down. That's frustrating - I was having issues getting adaptive voltage working and what seemed to work for me was going to the full shut down.

Frustrating that adaptive voltage isn't more consistent.