4790K Lower Core Voltage

[Wing Fat]

I have a Maximus VII Gene motherboard with a 4790k running at stock speed. I want to lower the voltage on the CPU to bring temps down a little bit.

 

I found the CPU Core Voltage setting in the BIOS and I changed it to 1.20. Everything seems nice and stable; I'm getting about 3-4 degrees cooler at idle and 7-8 degrees cooler at load (AIDA64 CPU+FPU stress test).

 

My question is: Is changing only the CPU Core Voltage the right thing to do? Should I also change the CPU Cache Voltage? Are there any other voltage settings I should be paying attention to?

 

If I keep lowering the CPU Core Voltage, am I going to see much benefit temprature wise? 1.20 seems to be very stable and I don't want to risk having my computer lock up when editing a complex Photoshop document.

[i_build_nanosuits]

I want to lower the voltage on the CPU to bring temps down a little bit.

My question is: Is changing only the CPU Core Voltage the right thing to do?

Should I also change the CPU Cache Voltage? Are there any other voltage settings I should be paying attention to?

If I keep lowering the CPU Core Voltage, am I going to see much benefit temprature wise? 1.20 seems to be very stable and I don't want to risk having my computer lock up when editing a complex Photoshop document.

Yes lowering the vcore voltage is the way to go...this should substantialy lower temperatures as you go down...you could lower cache voltage as well but this will have much lesser impact on temps.

Of course if you go too low and reach unstability you risk having the computer locking on you or BSOD or restart...it's up to you to find the good balance through extensive testing and stress testing.

Your CPU should be able to do 4ghz with less than 1.15v...probably even around 1.1v...somehwere in that ball park.

[Wing Fat]

Yes lowering the vcore voltage is the way to go...this should substantialy lower temperatures as you go down...you could lower cache voltage as well but this will have much lesser impact on temps.

Of course if you go too low and reach unstability you risk having the computer locking on you or BSOD or restart...it's up to you to find the good balance through extensive testing and stress testing.

 

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it.

 

Just to be perfectly clear, I am not risking any kind of damage to the CPU by lowering the core voltage but not changing the cache voltage, correct?

 

There is another setting, I think it's called "Core Initial Voltage" or something like that, and it is at something like 1.824v by default. Is that something I should care about?

 

Your CPU should be able to do 4ghz with less than 1.15v...probably even around 1.1v...somehwere in that ball park.

 

When I got down to 1.14v I got a BSOD running the AIDA64 CPU+FPU stress test after about five minutes. (I have to say, the Windows BSODs look a lot nicer than they used to.) However, my processor turbos up to 4.4GHz. When I bumped it up to 1.15v I was able to run the test for 40 minutes with no problems and I stopped it there. I decided to up it to 1.16v as a margin of safety and leave it at that.

 

You are right about the tempratures. With the stock 1.28v I could not run the AIDA64 FPU-only test as my temps immediately shot up to almost 100c and the processor started throttling. At 1.15v the FPU-only test gave me steady temps of around 80c.

 

Thanks again for the information.

[JustCallMeVlad]

I'd try 1.10v at 4ghz

[i_build_nanosuits]

-I am not risking any kind of damage to the CPU by lowering the core voltage but not changing the cache voltage, correct?

-There is another setting, I think it's called "Core Initial Voltage" or something like that, and it is at something like 1.824v by default. Is that something I should care about?

-However, my processor turbos up to 4.4GHz. When I bumped it up to 1.15v I was able to run the test for 40 minutes with no problems and I stopped it there. I decided to up it to 1.16v as a margin of safety and leave it at that.

-You are right about the tempratures. With the stock 1.28v I could not run the AIDA64 FPU-only test as my temps immediately shot up to almost 100c and the processor started throttling. At 1.15v the FPU-only test gave me steady temps of around 80c.

- no you're not

- i use 1.8v

- ok

- 1.28v seems really high for a stock voltage, you probably didnt win the silicon lottery there...

 

ABOVE ALL when you stress test your CPU make sure you are on manual voltage mode on the CPU because many stress testing utilities are known to overvolt the CPU and AIDA is one of them...and yes stressing the FPU of your chip will make it run hot and it's not necesseraly something i recommend you do for prolonged period of time...

[dragoon20005]

- no you're not

- i use 1.8v

- ok

- 1.28v seems really high for a stock voltage, you probably didnt win the silicon lottery there...

 

ABOVE ALL when you stress test your CPU make sure you are on manual voltage mode on the CPU because many stress testing utilities are known to overvolt the CPU and AIDA is one of them...and yes stressing the FPU of your chip will make it run hot and it's not necesseraly something i recommend you do for prolonged period of time...

slight derp here

 

1.8 volts?!

 

i think you mean 1.18Volts

[i_build_nanosuits]

slight derp here

 

1.8 volts?!

 

i think you mean 1.18Volts

no, there's another voltage called VCCIN on my board and this one will usualy range from 1.75 to 1.9v...1.8 is usualy good.

[dragoon20005]

no, there's another voltage called VCCIN on my board and this one will usualy range from 1.75 to 1.9v...1.8 is usually good.

oh

 

reading from ROG forums

 

they suggest VCCIN = +0.4 VCore

 

so yea 1.3-1.4 and 0.4 will be 1.7 to 1.8 range

 

any value higher than 0.6 and it may damage the CPU in the long run

 

increasing the VCCIN will lead to higher temps

[i_build_nanosuits]

oh

 

reading from ROG forums

 

they suggest VCCIN = +0.4 VCore

 

so yea 1.3-1.4 and 0.4 will be 1.7 to 1.8 range

 

any value higher than 0.6 and it may damage the CPU in the long run

 

increasing the VCCIN will lead to higher temps

yeah i should probably work on lowering this one a little on my machine...op should try lower settings too i think.