Core voltage to high when using Adaptive Mode (6900K)

[skmCry]

Hello,
 

my System (most relevant parts):
Intel Core i7 6900K
4x8GB Crucial Ballistix Tacticial DDR4-2666
Asus X99-A II (BIOS version 0601)
Evga Geforce GTX 980
BeQuiet Dark Power Pro P10 650W
Custom Watercooling (just for the CPU)

I've overclocked the processor to 4.0GHz (all cores) and verified that i need 1.20v core voltage
to reach a stable overclock in applications like RealBench.
The RAM is fixed to 2400MHz and stability is verified with Memtest.

But for some reason i'm not able to set Adaptive Mode for the CPU core voltage correctly.
I followed this tutorial during overclocking http://edgeup.asus.com/2016/06/17/broadwell-e-overclocking-guide/
and expected that the "Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage" in the BIOS means the load voltage later in the
OS (applications without AVX instruction set). So I've entered 1.20v, but i get a much higher voltage during system load
in Windows (core voltage read with CPU-Z and HWInfo. System load = boot time, games, ...).
If i'm setting "Offset Mode Sign" to + and "CPU Core Voltage Offset" to "Auto" i get 1.259v and not 1.20v.
The same with "Offset Mode Sign" + and "CPU Core Voltage Offset" 0.001v.
If i'm changing "Offset Mode Sign" to - and "CPU Core Voltage Offset" to 0.001v ("Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage"
still set to 1.20v) i get 1.255v in Windows.

I've attached an example screenshot of these BIOS settings, the other voltages are all set to "Auto":

I don't want to change the CPU idle voltage (or as little as possible), just the load voltage to 1.20v, but for
some reason the load voltage is always much higher. What am I doing wrong?
If i'm using "Manual Mode" instead of "Adaptive" i've no problems getting 1.20v, but i don't want to have such
a high voltage during idle state.
 

Thank you very much,
skmCry

 

 

 

[done12many2]

45 minutes ago, skmCry said:

Hello,
 

my System (most relevant parts):
Intel Core i7 6900K
4x8GB Crucial Ballistix Tacticial DDR4-2666
Asus X99-A II (BIOS version 0601)
Evga Geforce GTX 980
BeQuiet Dark Power Pro P10 650W
Custom Watercooling (just for the CPU)

I've overclocked the processor to 4.0GHz (all cores) and verified that i need 1.20v core voltage
to reach a stable overclock in applications like RealBench.
The RAM is fixed to 2400MHz and stability is verified with Memtest.

But for some reason i'm not able to set Adaptive Mode for the CPU core voltage correctly.
I followed this tutorial during overclocking http://edgeup.asus.com/2016/06/17/broadwell-e-overclocking-guide/
and expected that the "Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage" in the BIOS means the load voltage later in the
OS (applications without AVX instruction set). So I've entered 1.20v, but i get a much higher voltage during system load
in Windows (core voltage read with CPU-Z and HWInfo. System load = boot time, games, ...).
If i'm setting "Offset Mode Sign" to + and "CPU Core Voltage Offset" to "Auto" i get 1.259v and not 1.20v.
The same with "Offset Mode Sign" + and "CPU Core Voltage Offset" 0.001v.
If i'm changing "Offset Mode Sign" to - and "CPU Core Voltage Offset" to 0.001v ("Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage"
still set to 1.20v) i get 1.255v in Windows.

I've attached an example screenshot of these BIOS settings, the other voltages are all set to "Auto":

I don't want to change the CPU idle voltage (or as little as possible), just the load voltage to 1.20v, but for
some reason the load voltage is always much higher. What am I doing wrong?
If i'm using "Manual Mode" instead of "Adaptive" i've no problems getting 1.20v, but i don't want to have such
a high voltage during idle state.
 

Thank you very much,
skmCry

 

Congrats on the 6900k.  

 

First things first, make sure that TPU switch on the motherboard is off if you have that option.

 

Withing BIOS, make sure TPU is set to [Keep Current Settings].

 

Set Offset Mode Sign to "+".

 

CPU Core Voltage offset should be set to "Auto".  Just type an "a" in the box and hit enter.

 

Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage should be set to "1.200" or whatever voltage you determined adequate during your manual testing of voltage for that particular frequency.

 

It is normal for the voltage to increase slightly upon load, but not to the tune of .5v.

 

Make sure that you haven't allowed for overages elsewhere withing BIOS.

 

 

[skmCry]

@done12many2:

Thank you very much for the replay.

All settings are as suggested in your post, still the same result. But i found three new pages in the bios with various settings i'm not
familiar with. Does one of these settings maybe overwrite my values and is the reason for my problem?

[YubinTheBunny]

You don't really have to touch anything on the other pages if your not planing to overclock past what you have right now or if your not encountering any instability. But if you computer start to crash because of the overclock you can try adjusting your Load-line calibration to a higher setting seeing if that helps without putting more voltage in. But on broadwell it's quite hard to get past 4.4Ghz without putting in a ludicrous amount of voltage. (I can't even hit 4.4 lol)

[done12many2]

16 minutes ago, YubinTheBunny said:

You don't really have to touch anything on the other pages if your not planing to overclock past what you have right now or if your not encountering any instability. But if you computer start to crash because of the overclock you can try adjusting your Load-line calibration to a higher setting seeing if that helps without putting more voltage in. But on broadwell it's quite hard to get past 4.4Ghz without putting in a ludicrous amount of voltage. (I can't even hit 4.4 lol)

 

Agreed with Broadwell-E chips being a little more restrictive in overclocking.  I gave two a try (6800k and 6950x) and they didn't work out for me, however I was able to get both chips to run at 4.5 with stability.  It required a healthy does of voltage to get there.

 

 

[skmCry]

Indeed, Broadwell-E is not that great of an overclocker. But 4.0GHz on all cores is more than fine for me.
I've also tried the Offset Mode now. It seems that the load voltage is basically around 1.257, because all
values i put in (in Offset or Adaptive Mode) are always subtracted from that base or added to it.
-0.001 leads to 1.255v, -0.005 leads to 1.249v, +0.001 leads to 1.259, +0.005v ledas to 1.264v and so on
So i can't really get down a lot from ~1.25v without altering the idle voltages to much and risking instability during idle
(because offset voltages are applied to the entire voltage stack, not just load voltages).

Basically i have four options now:
1) Wait for a new bios that maybe fixes this issue
2) Use Manual Mode and use 1.21v at all times => not a very high voltage during load, but much higher voltage for idle operation than required
3) Use Adaptive Mode and use ~1.255v under load and 0.775v under idle => higher voltages than i need for 4.0GHz, so i could increase the core speed
more. But overall higher temperatures and voltages than 4.0GHz with 1.21v
4) Stay with the CPU clocked at stock speeds (3.20GHz for load on all cores, and 4.0Ghz for load on one core)
 

[Modafinil]

Hi SkmCry,

 

I have the same motherboard, and the same chip (6900k), also tried using adaptive voltage, set to 1.20 and set the multiplier to 4.0 ghz. I end up with the same voltage as you do under load. I updated the BIOS and it did not help. I just wanted to know if you found any solution besides using a negative offset (which also lowers the idle voltages).

[skmCry]

Hey Modafinil,

no, i have not found a solution. In other forums people told me that the 6900K/Broadwell-E line-up can't be clocked

lower than the CPU's VID when using Adaptive Mode with the Asus motherboards.
I'm using manual mode with 1,21v all the time now (CPU clocked at 4.0GHz on all cores, so just a moderat overclocking).
Not optimal, but when i'm using my computer I usually run rendering software, VMs or games, so the CPU is not idleing that
much. The temperature of the CPU is around 20-25°C nonetheless when the PC is idle and in manual mode, just the voltage stays at 1.21v.
As i said before, not optimal, but i can live with that. So unfortunately i have no solution for you.

[Tam3n]

It could be the CPU Load Line Calibration. LLC is used to "calibrate" vcore under load to combat vdroop. High settings can result in voltages that go over what you have set in bios manually. You could try and see if setting it to none makes any difference. I'm not really familiar whit the newer generations settings though