Discussion Alder Lake - Builders Thread

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AdamK47

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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This thread is for those of us that own or are looking to get an Alder Lake CPU.

Bought mine on release day. 12900K. Memory selection was limited to only Crucial DDR5 4800 at the Micro Center I went to. Bought two 2 x 8GB kits. Motherboard is a Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Master. I did buy a 360mm Lian Li Galahad 360mm AIO. Ended up returning it since the Lian Li Socket 1700 backplate that I bought separately worked well with my NZXT Kraken X73.

46RRrSN.jpg
 
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JoeRambo

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Jun 13, 2013
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Ed1 said:
when you set uncore to fixed value (in your case 4.7) do you also set ring/LLC clock the same, they both seem to have matching values stock.
Click to expand...
20211128_165456.jpg

20211128_165523.jpg

I set it like this, on MSI "Fixed MODE" does lock CPU and Uncore to whatever is set.
What it does it disables EIST, and "turbo boost" in advanced configuration menu.

What i do for power consumption:
1) I run ~1.18V fixed voltages for 5Ghz and 4.7 uncore
2) In bios i set C-State enabled ( from Auto )
3) I also manually enable Package C state limit to C10

So end result is same clocks 24/7 and CPU power usage is controlled by entering deeper C-States.

1638111876666.png


Looked completely different with higher power usage before manually setting C states in BIOS.
 
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Ed1

Senior member
Jan 8, 2001
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JoeRambo said:
View attachment 53499

View attachment 53500

I set it like this, on MSI "Fixed MODE" does lock CPU and Uncore to whatever is set.
What it does it disables EIST, and "turbo boost" in advanced configuration menu.

What i do for power consumption:
1) I run ~1.18V fixed voltages for 5Ghz and 4.7 uncore
2) In bios i set C-State enabled ( from Auto )
3) I also manually enable Package C state limit to C10

So end result is same clocks 24/7 and CPU power usage is controlled by entering deeper C-States.

View attachment 53501


Looked completely different with higher power usage before manually setting C states in BIOS.
Click to expand...
Ok, Thanks for the info, I would not expected that with EIST, and "turbo boost" disabled (fixed freq/voltage), interesting.
I have to see what max C states are in bios.

Since I don't think much of OC this chip, maybe a little per-core values, I was thinking of setting a - 50-100mv adaptive offset to get power even lower (that range is just a guess, I have not tested anything yet).
 
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JoeRambo

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Jun 13, 2013
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Ed1 said:
Since I don't think much of OC this chip, maybe a little per-core values, I was thinking of setting a - 50-100mv adaptive offset to get power even lower (that range is just a guess, I have not tested anything yet).
Click to expand...

I would not call reducing peak frequency 200mhz, disabling marketing cores OC either :) I could run and cool 5.1, but with 5.2 my cooling cannot cope anymore.
 
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igor_kavinski

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Jul 27, 2020
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DrMrLordX said:
@JoeRambo

What do you attribute the "snappiness" of the system to on your 12900k?
Click to expand...
I really wish there was some objective way to quantify the snappiness of a system, rather than users' subjective experiences. One I've read about is context switch latency. Lower context switch clock cycles should translate to a much snappier experience as the system is able to switch between threads much more quickly. However, check this:

ctx_clock Benchmark - OpenBenchmarking.org

5950X's time of 138 clock cycles is way less than 12900K's time of 262 clock cycles so objectively speaking, 5950X should feel faster. I hope JoeRambo will clarify what exactly he means by "snappiness". Is it faster movement of the mouse pointer across the screen? Start menu opening much quicker? Maybe JoeRambo can try the ctx_clock benchmark in WSL2 to see if disabling E-cores has dramatically reduced context switch latency?
 
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Ed1

Senior member
Jan 8, 2001
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JoeRambo said:
I would not call reducing peak frequency 200mhz, disabling marketing cores OC either :) I could run and cool 5.1, but with 5.2 my cooling cannot cope anymore.
Click to expand...
That fixed voltage your running is low for freq.
I just checked a few things on my side I see max VID going to 1.316 and Vcore of max 1.305. So I run prime95,freq all core 4.5, and VID max is only 1.19 with Vcore max of 1.18. Then I ran CPU=Z ST and all core workloads, same as prime95 with all core but the ST voltages are a lot higher, VID max 1.280 of and Vcore max of 1.288.
So looks like it can be lower compared to freq, they probably added a decent amount for wide range stability across all bin's.

Also looking at VID compared to Vcore and it looks like LLC is pretty good, not a lot of droop.
 
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AdamK47

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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Ran Blender.

Blender - Open Data Benchmark

Blender Open Data is a platform to collect, display and query the results of hardware and software performance tests - provided by the public.
opendata.blender.org opendata.blender.org

Edit: And my 3090

Blender - Open Data Benchmark

Blender Open Data is a platform to collect, display and query the results of hardware and software performance tests - provided by the public.
opendata.blender.org opendata.blender.org
 
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Zucker2k

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Feb 15, 2006
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Newegg discount coupon on ADL



Posting of deals belongs in the Hot deals forum.


esquared
Anandtech Forum
 
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coercitiv

coercitiv

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Jan 24, 2014
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JoeRambo said:
I set it like this, on MSI "Fixed MODE" does lock CPU and Uncore to whatever is set.
What it does it disables EIST, and "turbo boost" in advanced configuration menu.

What i do for power consumption:
1) I run ~1.18V fixed voltages for 5Ghz and 4.7 uncore
2) In bios i set C-State enabled ( from Auto )
3) I also manually enable Package C state limit to C10

So end result is same clocks 24/7 and CPU power usage is controlled by entering deeper C-States.
Click to expand...
To summarize for those running locked CPUs or looking for a bit more power savings on their K parts:
  • set your max core multiplier in UEFI as you see fit (or keep stock config)
  • disable EIST
  • keep Turbo enabled
  • enable SpeedShift
  • enable C-States, use the highest C-State limit available
  • optimize voltage, a static value is always an option but keep in mind you need to test stability at the highest clocks (for locked CPUs with higher ST than MT multiplier this means testing with 1 thread as well). Newer and/or better boards may offer smarter Vcore optimization with specific voltage settings for multiple turbo states.
The result is very close the what @JoeRambo described, as the CPU will vary clocks between the turbo all-core multiplier and the turbo one-core multiplier. The real power savings will come from putting cores to sleep.

Those looking to maximize power savings while still getting a very responsive system can keep EIST enabled, which will let SpeedShift drop core and uncore clocks very low during low usage, and then making sure your Win power plan settings have the "Min processor state" at 100%. This will limit frequency drop to the base frequency of the CPU, or so it did on my Coffee Lake system (3.2Ghz minimum). Won't save you much if anything on idle, may save you some power draw during very light loads.
 
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Ed1

Senior member
Jan 8, 2001
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coercitiv said:
To summarize for those running locked CPUs or looking for a bit more power savings on their K parts:
  • set your max core multiplier in UEFI as you see fit (or keep stock config)
  • disable EIST
  • keep Turbo enabled
  • enable SpeedShift
  • enable C-States, use the highest C-State limit available
  • optimize voltage, a static value is always an option but keep in mind you need to test stability at the highest clocks (for locked CPUs with higher ST than MT multiplier this means testing with 1 thread as well). Newer and/or better boards may offer smarter Vcore optimization with specific voltage settings for multiple turbo states.
The result is very close the what @JoeRambo described, as the CPU will vary clocks between the turbo all-core multiplier and the turbo one-core multiplier. The real power savings will come from putting cores to sleep.

Those looking to maximize power savings while still getting a very responsive system can keep EIST enabled, which will let SpeedShift drop core and uncore clocks very low during low usage, and then making sure your Win power plan settings have the "Min processor state" at 100%. This will limit frequency drop to the base frequency of the CPU, or so it did on my Coffee Lake system (3.2Ghz minimum). Won't save you much if anything on idle, may save you some power draw during very light loads.
Click to expand...
I noticed something odd with min processor state values in Alder lake. I used to make a custom power plan by using HP plan as the base and setting the "min processor state" % so to get a mid clock speed at idle and this worked well , easy to get clocks were you want.
I tried the same thing on the 12600k but even a 5% value on the min processor state doesn't change clocks lower than 4700, from 4900. If you try balanced plan clocks go way down to like 500mhz.
Bios is pretty much stock so turbo is enabled along with EIST and SPeedshift. I'll have to check C states but I didn't mess with it.

There also a bios setting I never seen before which has to do with SVID and how the MB uses this to get Vcore. There 4 settings,
1) Best case
2) typical case
3) worst case
4) Intel fail safe
According to bios auto is typical set but going up or down can change temps (which I assume Vcore).
 
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coercitiv

coercitiv

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Jan 24, 2014
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Ed1 said:
I noticed something odd with min processor state values in Alder lake. I used to make a custom power plan by using HP plan as the base and setting the "min processor state" % so to get a mid clock speed at idle and this worked well , easy to get clocks were you want.
I tried the same thing on the 12600k but even a 5% value on the min processor state doesn't change clocks lower than 4700, from 4900. If you try balanced plan clocks go way down to like 500mhz.
Bios is pretty much stock so turbo is enabled along with EIST and SPeedshift. I'll have to check C states but I didn't mess with it.
Click to expand...
I don't have much experience with the High Performance plan as I prefer tunning from Balanced. With ADL-S I also assume you're running Win11, which is also something I'm unfamiliar with for now.

Ed1 said:
There also a bios setting I never seen before which has to do with SVID and how the MB uses this to get Vcore. There 4 settings,
1) Best case
2) typical case
3) worst case
4) Intel fail safe
According to bios auto is typical set but going up or down can change temps (which I assume Vcore).
Click to expand...
This sounds like a way to adjust voltage safety margins and/or voltage droop based on the quality of your particular chip. If you're not going to optimize voltage by hand (as in undervolt and/or overclock), you may want to test these profiles and see if the more aggressive ones are stable on your 12600K. Will obviously impact temperatures and maybe performance if you have a power limit that is easily reached (I doubt that).
 
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Ed1

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Jan 8, 2001
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coercitiv said:
I don't have much experience with the High Performance plan as I prefer tunning from Balanced. With ADL-S I also assume you're running Win11, which is also something I'm unfamiliar with for now.


This sounds like a way to adjust voltage safety margins and/or voltage droop based on the quality of your particular chip. If you're not going to optimize voltage by hand (as in undervolt and/or overclock), you may want to test these profiles and see if the more aggressive ones are stable on your 12600K. Will obviously impact temperatures and maybe performance if you have a power limit that is easily reached (I doubt that).
Click to expand...
That was my thought too when I saw the option and description, I might try the best case option just to see what it affects. I don't come close to power limits, even stock 150w, at least in stock config. CB R20 seems to use more power (125w) than prime95, at least version I use 266.

I am still on win10 as IMO win11 was to buggy and I don't like GUI, I may move over when it matures.
 
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Aikouka

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
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I'm still in the process of building out my main system with Alder Lake as I'm cleaning out some of my water cooling components, but I also decided to upgrade another one of my systems with an i5. When I chose the components for my main desktop, I didn't realize that the ASUS board lacked an S/PDIF port, which I use for my speakers, and in lieu of that, it has a Type-C Audio port on it. Although, after I was poking around the manual, I realized that isn't entirely true. It turns out the motherboard has a feature that I haven't seen before... an S/PDIF Header. Now, I don't think this is a new feature on the market as expansion cards that I saw for this mentioned multiple vendors for compatibility, but it was the first time that I had seen it, and I thought it was kind of interesting!

Although, in the end, I decided to just swap around the two boards that I have (ASUS ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4 and MSI MPG Z690 EDGE WIFI DDR4) as the other board has S/PDIF by default. I also think the black will look a bit better in an all-black system compared to ASUS's metallic look, which will be in a system with a solid side panel.
 
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