Question Undervolt settings won't stick

[AintGotNoPHD]

I have an i5 13600K and MSI motherboard (MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI), and i've been trying to undervolt, but the only thing i've been able to make stick i changing the CPU lite load from the default 12 to 1. This lowers the voltage by about 0.1 - 0.125 (from 1.350+ to 1.250), but from what i'm seeing other people achieve with the same CPU i should be able to undervolt quite a bit further before the system becomes unstable.

So here's the issue, in the BIOS i first reset the lite load to default (auto=12), set the core voltage mode to offset, then minus, and have tried 0.050 and 0.150, but HWmonitor measures no change when i boot the system back up again and run a test, it's as if all settings were default. It then runs at 1.350+ which causes temperatures to spike to 100C+ when cinebench runs.

I initially tried to undervolt using Intel xtu, but although the setting was not greyed out and all looked ok, any settings i changed didn't take hold, so i changed to doing it in the BIOS and still the same result...

 

[Aeacus]

but from what i'm seeing other people achieve

No same SKU CPU is equal to another. This is called silicone lottery (Google it to learn what it means).

With this, just because you want something from CPU, like lower voltages, doesn't mean that the CPU will let you to do it. There are safeguards built-in to CPU, to forbid users to brick the CPU due to the bad choices or chip limitations. System instability is one such safeguard. If CPU is not capable of operating normally, it will crash the system, resulting in reboot. Another safeguard is thermal throttle. But there are others as well.

As of your underlying issue (high CPU temps), i suggest that you either: improve CPU cooling, remove CPU OC and/or reapply the default power limits on CPU.

With proper cooling, no CPU OC and with power limits set, i5-13600K should hover around 90C during benchmark and around 70C during gaming,
review: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i5-13600k/23.html

 

[AintGotNoPHD]

After finally using the right search terms in google, it looks like this is due to a BIOS update. and updating to the latest version should fix it, so i'll try that tomorrow and report back if i see any success. Other's with Z790 motherboards running i5 13600K have reported success, so i have high hopes.

MSI and, as far as i can tell, many other motherboad manufacturers disabled undervolting in an old BIOS update due to some sort of exploit or security issue (i'm not entirely sure) related to intel CPUs. The latest BIOS update should reenable the feature.

 

[AintGotNoPHD]

No same SKU CPU is equal to another. This is called silicone lottery (Google it to learn what it means).

With this, just because you want something from CPU, like lower voltages, doesn't mean that the CPU will let you to do it. There are safeguards built-in to CPU, to forbid users to brick the CPU due to the bad choices or chip limitations. System instability is one such safeguard. If CPU is not capable of operating normally, it will crash the system, resulting in reboot. Another safeguard is thermal throttle. But there are others as well.

As of your underlying issue (high CPU temps), i suggest that you either: improve CPU cooling, remove CPU OC and/or reapply the default power limits on CPU.

With proper cooling, no CPU OC and with power limits set, i5-13600K should hover around 90C during benchmark and around 70C during gaming,
review: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i5-13600k/23.html

Temperature is not the issue i'm highlighting, but rather the non-functioning of a feature of my motherboard and CPU. When setting CPU lite load to 1, games run at high 70 to low 80 (Cyberpunk specifically, which after PL released runs way hotter than any other games i own, even Starfield), and a cinebench stress test tops out at a max temperature of 89, so i don't think i'm in trouble there. That said, it could always be better considering my system is stable at 1.250, but i currently can't set a custom undervolt. See my other reply for the likely culprit.