Does my 3570k need too much voltage?

[BonzaiDuck]

Somehow . . . tell me I'm "out of touch" . . . this discussion seems to indicate again the unnecessary confusion about "safe limits" and VCORE.

It seems the VCORE most relevant to that issue is the voltage shown at full load. The idle VCORE will be higher due to the vDroop factor.

Throw in the possibility of using the "Offset" and "Extra voltage for Turbo" settings, and it becomes possible to confuse oneself.

I'd suggest running the processor at stock settings, Turbo enabled. watch the column to the left of the settings boxes for monitored values of VCORE (which would show the idle VCORE at the processor's base speed.)

Given that as a starting point, you would then adjust either the Offset or "Extra" settings as you test for stability at increasing speed settings. Ultimately, you'd probably prefer then to fix "Offset" at either -0.005V or +0.005V and compensate by adjusting the "Extra . . . Turbo" setting (in the ASUS UEFI-BIOS under "Power Management").

Fixed-VCORE overclocking would indicate the idle VCORE you would shoot for with the Offset and "Extra" settings, and there would be no difference in the end result -- except for one thing: You won't much see the monitored idle VCORE except in lightly-loaded situations or briefly when the processor is transitioning from a loaded to idle state.

The advantage of "Turbo" overclocking and EIST-enabled reduces power consumption overall, and probably reduces unnecessary stress on the processor when it's not needed.

 

[Yuriman]

If it's stable at stock voltage with LLC off, it's better to turn it off (unless you want to use a negative offset). PLC raises your load voltage.

 

[Rvenger]

LLC leave on auto. Let it use Intel spec for LLC then adjust voltage accordingly. Turn off C1E and Cstates and leave on EIST. EIST will still allow vcore and clock speed throttle. C1E is known to cause instabilities in overclocks due to the slower vcore response time from idle state to full load. EIST will let the software determine the values.



EDIT: When I had my Asus Z68 board I did have C1E and C-States enabled without issue. Since you said you were running an Asus board, you might be ok. I know my Asrock would freeze at idle when C1E and Cstates were enabled. Try both settings and try to see what is best for you. Also, auto for asus is "Regular" on LLC

 

[miketen587]

I had a coworker earlier tell me to do this...

1. Set my CPU multiplier to whatever I want for speed.

2. Leave voltage on Auto

3. Run Prime and check to see what the chip is requiring for VID and Vcore for that specific speed

4. Subtract VID-Vcore and set that number as my offset voltage in the Bios

5. Leave on CE1 and EIST, turn off C3, C6, and Package C

6. LLC set to High or Ultra High

7. PLL to 1.6

I'm not sure if this is going to allow me to lower my Vcore at 4.4ghz or not but I guess I can try it out as a last ditch effort and see what happens.

If it doesn't work then I'm just going to push my clock down to 4.2 and hopefully get the Vcore below 1.3 that way.

 

[dma0991]

Here's how I did mine.

1. Set voltage to 1.35V manually.
2. Set clockspeed to 4.5GHz with alterations made to multipliers and BCLK untouched.
3. Run stress tests with Prime95, LinX and IBT.
4. If stable, reduce voltage by 0.05V and repeat till instability happens.

It just so happens that my Core i5 3570K wouldn't be very stable at anything less than 1.28V which is after the Vdroop from 1.295V as I did not set any LLC settings. You might want some LLC in yours to prevent instability from the voltage fluctuating lower than its stable point.

 

[miketen587]

Here's how I did mine.

1. Set voltage to 1.35V manually.
2. Set clockspeed to 4.5GHz with alterations made to multipliers and BCLK untouched.
3. Run stress tests with Prime95, LinX and IBT.
4. If stable, reduce voltage by 0.05V and repeat till instability happens.

It just so happens that my Core i5 3570K wouldn't be very stable at anything less than 1.28V which is after the Vdroop from 1.295V as I did not set any LLC settings. You might want some LLC in yours to prevent instability from the voltage fluctuating lower than its stable point.

So you didn't touch any of your power saving options, Cstates, or PLL?

And are you now running on fixed 4.5 1.28v 100% of the time?

 

[dma0991]

So you didn't touch any of your power saving options, Cstates, or PLL?

And are you now running on fixed 4.5 1.28v 100% of the time?

I forgot to mention that I do enable power saving features (Cstates, EIST) but didn't touch any PLL settings. With the power saving features turned on, I'm running 4.5GHz at full load but it would be 1.6GHz with an idle load.

At idle load, the voltage would be 1.295V. The only limitation with my board is that it does not allow me to set an offset voltage, only manual voltage settings are available. The other option would be to set it at 1.28V with some LLC but I'm content as long as the voltage is below 1.3V at any given time/load.

 

[Rvenger]

Except if you have a hot running IVB 1.35v can land you at 100c+ temps. My recommendation is to start low and work your way up. I rather see a blue screen than hit TJMAX.

 

[miketen587]

Except if you have a hot running IVB 1.35v can land you at 100c+ temps. My recommendation is to start low and work your way up. I rather see a blue screen than hit TJMAX.

Maybe I am better off just completely starting over here. I'm going to reset my Bios to optimized defaults and go from there.

If I want to see how high I can get my chip on stock voltage, would I leave voltage on AUTO, or would I put it on Manual and just not enter a value?

I plan on going straight to 3.8ghz and then working my way up until I hit instabilty on stock voltage, at which point I will increase Vcore by .05

For now I'm going to disable all C states and SpeedStep put LLC to Ultra High, and PLL to Auto.

How long of a Prime should I run while testing? 10 mins or so? Then obviously test for a few hours once I think I have found my sweet spot.

Also, do you recommend any specific Prime custom settings, or will a regular Blend Test suffice?

 

[Rvenger]

Run IBT for 10-20 passes on standard to test an overclock quickly.

 

[RAPTORGASMIC]

A debt of thanks from an LL (longtime lurker) with WOWI (warehouse of worthless information).

Landed here due to the wealth of relevant information on this site vs so many others.

Especially helpful, whether intentional or not is the "Sig Rig".

To see the opinions of knowledgeable contributors is valuable (even entertaining at times), but to see what they actually own as a system, is a resource in itself.

Rvenger, you helped specifically on my choice of motherboard brand. When you are a mod at MSI and choose Gigabyte to base both of your systems, that says alot.

Again, thanks.

 

[Rvenger]

A debt of thanks from an LL (longtime lurker) with WOWI (warehouse of worthless information).

Landed here due to the wealth of relevant information on this site vs so many others.

Especially helpful, whether intentional or not is the "Sig Rig".

To see the opinions of knowledgeable contributors is valuable (even entertaining at times), but to see what they actually own as a system, is a resource in itself.

Rvenger, you helped specifically on my choice of motherboard brand. When you are a mod at MSI and choose Gigabyte to base both of your systems, that says alot.

Again, thanks.

I actually have nothing against MSI boards its just my last experience with an MSI Intel board with overclocking was ho hum. It was missing LLC and offset voltage adjustments. A deal breaker for me. Also, I am no longer a mod at MSI, I haven't been for years actually.

I also would like to note that I am not partial to Gigabyte. I just so happened to have good luck with this UD5H and I didn't have much of a choice in my ITX motherboard selection for the price I wanted to pay.