Overclocking Question

[xsadrulesx]

Hey guys i recently bought a 4690k and a Z97 board. This was my first time overclocking on an intel platform and i followed linus' guide on how to do so. I only overclocked it to 4.2ghz to start off with and it all went smoothly. However i noticed that in my games the core speed would flucuate between 3.7-4.2 ghz where i wanted it to constantly run at the 4.2. So i went into my bios and disabled C-States and Intel Sidestep Technology. This fixed the issue however it now constantly runs at 4.2 ghz and doesn't go down to an "idle" frequency. I knew this would happen so i tried enabling C States only but that didn't work. So i'm wondering if there's a way so that when my cpu is under load it will consistently stay at the max frequency and when it's idle go back down in speed?

[Dabasepc]

Fluctuation is normal. you don't want your cpu to run at 100% all the time.

 

if it varies between 3.7/4.2 it's because you have adaptive mode enabled in UEFI BIOS.

[thekeemo]

do you have turbo boost on?

[xsadrulesx]

Fluctuation is normal. you don't want your cpu to run at 100% all the time.

 

if it varies between 3.7/4.2 it's because you have adaptive mode enabled in UEFI BIOS.

 

I know that but if it's under enough stress (i.e. gaming) i would want it to stay consistently at 4.2 instead of fluctuating between 3.7 and 4.2  If you're referring to the voltage control i had it set to manual not adaptive and it still fluctuates. Unless you're referring to some other setting.

[xsadrulesx]

do you have turbo boost on?

 

yeah i do but i have to have it enabled. because when i changed the multiplier from auto to whatever i want (in this case 42) it automatically enables turbo boost. Then i go to disable turbo boost and it changes my multiplier setting back to auto.

 

the motherboard i'm using is the ASUS Z97-AR if it matters. UEFI bios layout is the same as the one Linus had in his Devils Canyon overclocking video. 

[thekeemo]

yeah i do but i have to have it enabled. because when i changed the multiplier from auto to whatever i want (in this case 42) it automatically enables turbo boost. Then i go to disable turbo boost and it changes my multiplier setting back to auto.

thats your issue

[Scratchy1215]

i never really looked into what my clock speed sits at while gaming but while checking some benchmark just a few min ago i have the same 'issue' ill go mess around in bios and see what i find out

and my turbo boost is off

[ProKoN]

what board are you using?

[xsadrulesx]

thats your issue

 

do you know a way around that? i think i also saw another setting referring to turbo boost so i will go play around with it see if i can get the issue resolved.

 

what board are you using?

 

ASUS Z97-AR

[Scratchy1215]

do you know a way around that? i think i also saw another setting referring to turbo boost so i will go play around with it see if i can get the issue resolved.

 

 

ASUS Z97-AR

well i just turned off turbo boost, and put to 4.5 again with 1.25 volts to see if the recent bios upset helps and ill let u know what happens and what settings i changed

[ProKoN]

k heres the thing

 

your cpu has two modes

 

fixed mode - operates at a fixed frequency ie 4.2ghz all the time (cstates disabled)

 

dynamic mode- only achieves maximum core frequency when the software requires 100% cpu load. when in idle state or minimal usage the chip will drop frequency and voltage to conserve energy and increase hardware longevity. (cstates enabled)

 

you can only run one mode not both. if your game is only requiring 3.7ghz from your chip perhaps it doesnt require that much cpu horsepower. even the most demanding titles only utilize about 60-80% of a haswell core i5 cpu

 

its suggested to enable c states. if you want to always have your chip pegged at 4.2ghz while gaming and throttle down while idle you will have to do it manually through the uefi everytime. 

 

couple ways to test your chip with cstates enabled to see if the cpu hits 100% and maximum core frequency 

 

run cinebench r15 and monitor your cpu frequency using cpuz while the program tests your chip

 

download and install intel xtu, run the stress test and observe you cpu utilization core frequency etc. 

 

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/24075/eng/XTU-Setup-exe.exe

 

 

 

clear cmos to enable cstates again, start fresh

[Scratchy1215]

So just did a cinebench and a furmark stress test (not the best for stress testing ik) and before and after im sitting at a golden 4.5

i turned XMP back on (shouldnt have anything to do with it) and oc'd my ram back to 1866

turned off auto ratio and brought up the ratio to 4.5

turned core volt to 1.252 instead of auto left the rest auto

turned off turbo boost and OC genie.

 

seems ur issue is turbo boost, try getting that off with ur oc setting still on

[Django]

Why do you want your processor to run at lower frequencies? When using C-states the core clocks will stop when using core state C1 when idle (0GHz), with higher C-states more power savings can be had.

[xsadrulesx]

Yeah i don't think there's a way to disable turbo boost AND have a manual value for the multiplier. Maybe the cpu needs to be under more stress? It's only under 50-70% usage so maybe it adjusts the core speed as much as it feels it needs to. I guess i could also have different OC profiles so that when i'm going to be in a long game session i could just have all those power saving settings disabled then when i'm done enable them again. Do you guys think that would be bad for my cpu? I like to upgrade frequently so i'm not really worried that much about it but i wouldn't want to cause any issues with it either.

 

 

@ProKoN i don't want to run synthetic benchmarks that stress the cpu that much sorry. I made that mistake early on to test my overclock however it reached it's thermal limit right away and started throttling. I didn't even realize it because speedfan wasn't picking up the right temps. it wasn't until i checked on hwmonitor and coretemp that i saw my cpu was exceeding 90 C! That was with the voltage at 1.715 my cooler is the Hyper 212 Evo. During a normal load scenario though (like i said 50-70% usage) the temps are high 50's low 60's so i'm not sure what's going on there.

 

Thanks for you helps though guys.

[ProKoN]

the two suggestions i made are the best for haswell chips

 

neither of the two synthetic tests i suggested will overvolt your cpu.

 

programs like prime95 aida64 and occt ibt will overvolt so yes you do have to exercise caution.

 

its the only way to answer your question unless you want to render a video instead and observe your cpu core frequency  that way

[xsadrulesx]

So just did a cinebench and a furmark stress test (not the best for stress testing ik) and before and after im sitting at a golden 4.5

i turned XMP back on (shouldnt have anything to do with it) and oc'd my ram back to 1866

turned off auto ratio and brought up the ratio to 4.5

turned core volt to 1.252 instead of auto left the rest auto

turned off turbo boost and OC genie.

 

seems ur issue is turbo boost, try getting that off with ur oc setting still on

 

does it run at a consistent 4.5 under a normal load scenario though? Like gaming, rendering, or something that's still intensive like that? 

[xsadrulesx]

the two suggestions i made are the best for haswell chips

 

neither of the two synthetic tests i suggested will overvolt your cpu.

 

programs like prime95 aida64 and occt ibt will overvolt so yes you do have to exercise caution.

 

its the only way to answer your question unless you want to render a video instead and observe your cpu core frequency  that way

 

yeah you're right it was just prime95 i guess it overvolted my cpu even though i had it set to manual (consistent voltage)

 

so i ran the utility and the stress test and it's just as you said and as i thought. it needs to be under more stress for it to run at a consistent 4.2. When it was under full load it sat at 4.2 the whole time.

 

So my question has been answered. Thank you for all the help.

[ProKoN]

yeah you're right it was just prime95 i guess it overvolted my cpu even though i had it set to manual (consistent voltage)

 

so i ran the utility and the stress test and it's just as you said and as i thought. it needs to be under more stress for it to run at a consistent 4.2. When it was under full load it sat at 4.2 the whole time.

 

So my question has been answered. Thank you for all the help.

 

google search me

 

prokon  intel

 

check out my oc guide

[Scratchy1215]

does it run at a consistent 4.5 under a normal load scenario though? Like gaming, rendering, or something that's still intensive like that? 

yup just went afk to help my brother with his h55 and stayed 4.5... 

[Django]

FWIW my own HSW laptop is configured with HSW hardware registers set for maximum performance, windows balanced mode, adaptive voltage and C-States enabled. While Speed Step and P-States are enabled it is overriden by the HSW hardware performance registers.

 

I'm using adaptive mode as I use a stepped turbo with bins set to 34,34,35,36. Without C-states enabled it would not be possible for me to use the 35 and 36 bins for turbo when using only 2 or 1 core(s), other cores idle. Adaptive mode is used to give additional volts for the 35 and 36 bins while being able to run 34 bin on all 4 cores at a lower voltage. These Haswells get power hungry and hot so the more that can be saved in power the better, especially on a laptop.

 

When the CPU comes out of idle states (clocks not running) the clocks are maximum, not spending any noticeable time below the 34 bin.

 

Here's an old screen shot with bins all set to 34 to show affect of AVX and adaptive mode on my system. Note that while running adaptive mode and Linpack that the voltage does not increase for this setup, instead it drops a little. Note also that while idle, power drops down to less than 4W whilst still able run 34 bin when cores are woken up without any noticeable lower frequency transition above 0GHz.