What is LLC? I'm confused.

[Oxicoi]

Ok, what I want to do is overclock and not have any frame or speed drops. Does LLC cause frame drops and vdroops and makes something stutter or is it actually helping me have a constant voltage? I want a constant voltage with the stuff I have now. I don't want it fluctuating when at load.

I want my A10 6800k @4.8ghz with a V around 1.4125, but when I check my voltage with Core Temp or CPU-Z, it isn't there. How do I fix this?

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H
PSU: 750W Thermaltake 80+ Bronze
CPU: A10 6800k
GPU: GTX 970
RAM: 8GB
STORAGE: 2TB HDD

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Yes, Load Line Calibration is the one to stabilize your voltage minimizing vdroops. Problem is to find out which value is best, it greatly varies from mobo to mobo, even if they are the same model, i.e. two people with same mobos get different results, one getting better with a value of "normal", the other one with a value of "max".

So in short, you need to play around with your LLC until finding the one option that delivers you the most stable vcore.

Bear in mind as well, the quality of your PSU and your mobo's VRM will be the ones determining how great your LLC setting will work.

 

[Eximo]

Load Line Calibration is an advanced voltage setting.

Under heavy load the Voltage Regulation Modules will provide less voltage then specified. LLC is a setting that adds voltage, non linearly I think, to the result. Basically it adds extra voltage as load increases. The issue here is that it can then exceed the maximum set voltage, both briefly during ramp down and consistently under a full load.

LLC itself won't cause frame drops, though too much voltage can cause overheating. It actively prevents droop on the voltage supplied to the CPU.

If you have set LLC and your computer is having issues, you should be closely monitoring the voltage and temperature. The CPU may be throttling itself for protection.

 

[Oxicoi]

So LLC stabilizes voltage, sometimes increasing it?

If that's the case, I would like to have it. Though on this mobo, there are settings for it. There are options such as "Auto" , "Extreme" , "High" , "Normal" , "Low" , "Standard". Out of these, what should I choose if I want a reasonable voltage?

 

[Eximo]

Try Low first and work your way up. Less voltage is better.

 

[Oxicoi]

Try Low first and work your way up. Less voltage is better.

While working my way up, how should I test the stability of it? Prime95, Cinebench?

 

[BFG-9000]

Basically, with the VRM powering the CPU forced to deliver 100A nowadays thanks to very low vCore voltages, it is impossible to maintain a steady voltage when abruptly switching between light and heavy CPU loads. So Intel was first to deliver a VRM spec that specified an amount of voltage droop that was acceptable when under load, in order to quantify the undershoot drop with load and to minimize the overshoot spike when a load is suddenly reduced.

Overclockers did not like this, because when do you need the highest voltage most but when the CPU is under maximum load?

So motherboard manufacturers devised a way to raise the voltage when under load, by unfortunately also raising the voltages everywhere else except at steady-state low load. At least in its first incarnation, LLC only adjusted the offset of the vCore under load so essentially just lied to you about what max voltage was being applied. But this allowed people who were squeamish about using too much voltage to believe they were using less than they really were.

That's the end of the history lesson, but things aren't likely to have changed much. Core voltages have only got lower and that is simply a huge amperage--any VRM able to completely stabilize voltages with load changes would probably be too large and expensive to fit on a motherboard. And it's not something you can check without an oscilloscope as a voltmeter is too slow.

 

[Eximo]

Try Low first and work your way up. Less voltage is better.

While working my way up, how should I test the stability of it? Prime95, Cinebench?

I'm partial to cinebench since it seems to correlate fairly well with games. Usually if I have stability there, gaming won't be an issue.

Worst case I've used AIDA64 in the past, but that is really an unrealistic test. Might use that to test an overclock on a workstation.

Older versions of Prime95 is what some people use for long duration testing. Though I am not really sure why, especially for gamers. Seems like an unnecessary strain on a system.

 

[BFG-9000]

The fastest way to check CPU stability and if your cooler is sufficient is Intelburntest, which is just an easy way to use Linpack. Prime95 takes at least overnight and is mostly used for testing RAM stability, though the reason people use older versions is to avoid testing AVX (which really heats up Intel processors, and is unnecessary if you won't be using AVX software).

I prefer to use both to make sure the final setting is completely stable, no matter what software I later choose to run. But I will only use Intelburntest while adjusting things, because it is so fast. Then when I'm pretty sure I've got the final settings, I'll let Prime95 run 12-24h to be absolutely sure.

Keep in mind with LLC enabled, your processor will receive a higher peak voltage just as if you had raised vCore, but idle voltage will be lower than if you had done so.