Questions regarding Haswell VID/Vcore readings & ASUS adaptive voltage

unholy_walrus · February 23, 2016

So I'm a bit confused. I'm running a 4770k 4.4GHz at 1.320v using adaptive voltage (1.270v and +0.050v offset) on an Asus Z97-AR board. I'm well aware of the issue of AVX instructions making the voltage jump by 0.1v, but this is different. I'm using HWinfo64 and CPU-Z for monitoring in windows (W7) and the Vcore and VID readings I'm getting are confusing the F out of me. During normal desktop use I some times notice the core VID readings in HWinfo jump up to 1.4-1.42v. The Vcore0-3 readings in HWinfo can spike up to 1.352v, however this doesn't concern me much as it isn't THAT high of a voltage plus I've heard from other users that the readings are often off by about 0.03v. The VID readings are a different story. CPU-Z just seems to show the same max voltage that I've set up in the BIOS; 1.32v. I've never seen it show anything above it.

I really don't like seeing 1.4v and over, but what bugs me even more is why is it happening during normal desktop use? What makes it even more odd is a test I just recently did. I ran BF4 for about an hour to test other things, and during this time the VID readings for all cores stayed at 1.32v while Vcore readings were 1.32-1.35v - aka perfectly normal. But then afterwards during basic internet surfing the VID reading on two cores spiked to 1.42v. Like I really don't get what's going on.

If I'm not mistaken, the core VID reading is something like the voltage that the CPU is asking, not the actual core voltage? If this is correct, how bad is it that it keeps spiking that high every now and then? If it's bad, does anyone have any idea what the hell is going on?

I haven't done any stress testing using adaptive voltage. I've tried using both negative and positive offsets, no change. Thermals aren't a problem, but I'm planning on running this CPU and board for a while and seeing voltages of over 1.4v really make me uneasy.

I did ask Asus support for input on the matter, but they absolutely refused to help me in any way or answer any questions because I'm not running everything at stock settings. Yes, their support actually said that. Even when I told them I'd run my system stock to get answers from them, they refused to answer any questions at all.

And yes, this chip is a worthless overclocker. 4.4 is the absolute maximum I can get out of it. Couldn't boot to windows 4.5 even at 1.4v+ no matter what I tweaked when I was testing it, and eventually just settled with 4.4. I guess I almost should've stayed with my old 3570k which was a pretty golden chip. Oh well, a friend of mine has a 4770k that needs 1.3v+ for 4.1, that's the worst one I've ever seen.