Seeking new updates/discoveries about the ASUS P8Z68 and i7-2600K

[BonzaiDuck]

I really thought I was tip-toeing into the over-clock experience with this board (a V-Pro). I've posted a lot of stuff here and related forums about what I've discovered thus far.

People were a little daunted by the TPU and EPU switches, how they work with the UEFI-BIOS settings, and so on. I felt pretty relieved for getting this puppy overclocked without any serious mishap and installing the ISRT SSD-caching.

Well, I've discovered something. I wanted to check temperatures and voltage with EIST and C1E off after booting into an idle state.

So I went and disabled those features in BIOS. "Saved and Reset;" booted into Windows.

Brought up the ROG version of CPU-Z. It still shows the SpeedStep frequency!

I'm thinking this might require resetting -- turning off -- the TPU and EPU switches on the motherboard, then entering BIOS and doing another save and reset.

Anyone discovered this? Any suggestions before I proceed into the darkness of uncertainty?

Maybe I'll just have to clear the CMOS after recording my settings and then reinitialize everything. Seems like a lot of trouble for this sort of change I want to make!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Nobody chimed in on this yet. . . . .

My feeling: If there were never any serious mishaps, one should be able to "get back" to initial settings without CLR-CMOS. There was no abuse of the mobo or processor. Very cautiously got it punched up to 4.53 Ghz.

I'm also looking at the software -- per issues covered in another thread about this P8Z68 board and the 2600K. Even latest version of CPU-Z has the multiplier and CPU speed bouncing between a speed that seems like EIST (multi = 16) and the stock value (multi = 34 or 35). At the same time, CoreTemp shows a rock-solid 3.4 or 3.5 Ghz with Turbo "off," EIST "off," C1E "off," and all settings designed to show the i7-2600K stock speed after boot-up. I note that -- having changed everything "back" to what it would have been initially by editing BIOS -- the VID and VCORE readings seem pretty low at idle: 1.146V or so @ 3.4 Ghz. When I see the speed jump down to 1.6+ Ghz, the voltage or VID reading drops to 0.8+V. Even saw it at 0.792V for a moment.

Apparently, I'd never had the EPU switch enabled -- only the TPU switch, which has now been switched off between cold boot-ups.

One thing I WILL say though. With caveat that my operating system (VISTA) isn't really putting the board and CPU through their most strenuous paces, an hour of PRIME95 @ 4.53Ghz shows me that applying the (-) Offset by a small amount further reduces voltage, which in turn reduces the temperatures at load a couple C degrees. It still seems rock-stable.

Under load conditions @ 4.53 Ghz, it looks like the VCORE is close to 1.26+V. I think it's possible to get this lower. All but one of the temperatures shows to be in the mid- to high 50C's degrees.

I think people are overvolting these SB CPU's too much, owing to misleading info from Intel. That may actually lead to more problems. I can't really say for sure.

 

[MTDEW]

Even latest version of CPU-Z has the multiplier and CPU speed bouncing between a speed that seems like EIST (multi = 16) and the stock value (multi = 34 or 35).

Well, I've discovered something. I wanted to check temperatures and voltage with EIST and C1E off after booting into an idle state.

So I went and disabled those features in BIOS. "Saved and Reset;" booted into Windows.

Brought up the ROG version of CPU-Z. It still shows the SpeedStep frequency!

I note that -- having changed everything "back" to what it would have been initially by editing BIOS -- the VID and VCORE readings seem pretty low at idle: 1.146V or so @ 3.4 Ghz. When I see the speed jump down to 1.6+ Ghz, the voltage or VID reading drops to 0.8+V. Even saw it at 0.792V for a moment.

Disable EIST,C1E,C3 and C6 to keep it from trying to down-clock completely.
From your comments, you still have one of those enabled.
Note: When you decide to go back to EIST just enable C1e and leave C3 and C6 disabled if you dont want the voltage dropping so low.(fluctuating so much)

People were a little daunted by the TPU and EPU switches, how they work with the UEFI-BIOS settings, and so on.

I'm sorry but you've got that backwards.
Those switches are actually for people who are daunted by setting these manually.
The switches dont do anything you cannot do manually in the UEFI, that is why most people dont bother with them.
Most would rather change the settings manually so you know EXACTLY what settings are being changed.

The TPU just allows you to adjust overclocks in windows with the Asus autotune software.
As Asus puts it " The TPU chip offers a user friendly way to automatically optimize the system for fast, yet stable clock speeds."

When you set the settings manually with the Asus Turbov Evo software you're just changing the UEFI options anyway, it just allows the software to save the changes to the UEFI for you.
You're doing the same thing as in the UEFI just with a different interface.

The EPU switch just enables you to use three different Asus power saving profiles so you can just choose one instead of setting each individual setting manually thus essentially creating your own personal profile.

While i applaud the mobo makers for offering users an easier way to do things, if you wanna understand it all it is still probably better to do it all manually cuz you'll know more of whats actually going on with your system in the long run.
Some people could not care less and just want things to be simple so they can move on to other things they think are more important, and for those , the "Autotune" stuff is perfect.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

MTDEW --

I was always inclined to the manual BIOS tuning, but with these features, I thought it important to find out how they interact or precisely what they do.

On the power-saving disablements, it may be that I didn't disable the C3 and C6 items on the menu. One was set to "Auto" -- the other as "Enable."

But -- switch(es) or no switch(es) -- whether one uses them or not, they can be used without conflict on the BIOS-tuning -- or apparently, without conflict to the AI Autotune and Turbo_EVO windows approach. I had to be absolutely sure that what the manual says is what it means, or that it means what it says: "the last effective change using any of the three alternatives is the effective change that overrides all" [my paraphrase]

One more point I made in another thread, to which you might agree -- whether "OC-Tuner" in BIOS "Tweaker" menu-tab, the TPU switch or the AI-Suite-II -- these are useful tools even to those who manually tweak. They give you some initial settings and allow you to work forward from there.

What I've discovered is that the OC-Tuner execution will override bCLCK and Turbo-Multi as well as VCORE "offset" combined with an "Auto" VCore, but will honor your choice of VCCIO and other voltages if you fix them at specified values.

Meanwhile, I think I've trimmed about 5W of peak power and about 3 to 4C in peak load temperature from my OC settings based on an initial "OC-Tuner" offering. Probably can be improved a tad more. The peaks may still offer plenty of safe headroom, but it should bear more fruit with higher OC's when I've replaced VISTA64 with Win7 -- probably Tuesday. Understanding is that you get more thermal stress with Win7 in its recognition of the iGPU.

The usual assumption held for years seems to prevail: The mobo always provides more "auto" VCORE than needed.

Even so, I think I shall go back to the "stock-with-Turbo" profile when I change OS versions -- just to ensure the integrity of the OS installation.

Your comments continue to be helpful and appreciated . . .

 

[MTDEW]

:thumbsup: Yep, I Agree on the auto-tune can be useful in that letting auto-tune choose settings and then you can observe the settings and tweak from there.
And it can actually be helpful in troubleshooting your own manual settings when hitting a wall.

Asus does provide a pretty nice software package, The Ai Suite II and all the tools/utilities are very useful, no doubt about that.
Having the entire bios/UEFI also available at the desktop would be nice, since you still have to enter the UEFI to change certain settings.

I'm sure that is where we're heading in the near future, it is the next logical step since it still feels a bit cumbersome to have to use both the AI Suite and the UEFI to access all your settings.

I'm just hoping that the "easytune/autotune" stuff doesn't get to the point in the future where it takes priority and it all gets "dumb-ed down" and we lose manual control over our settings in favor of "ease of use".

That would suck and take all the fun out of this hobby.
It's already too easy to overclock now...LOL

 

[BonzaiDuck]

:thumbsup: Yep, I Agree on the auto-tune can be useful in that letting auto-tune choose settings and then you can observe the settings and tweak from there.
And it can actually be helpful in troubleshooting your own manual settings when hitting a wall.

Asus does provide a pretty nice software package, The Ai Suite II and all the tools/utilities are very useful, no doubt about that.
Having the entire bios/UEFI also available at the desktop would be nice, since you still have to enter the UEFI to change certain settings.

I'm sure that is where we're heading in the near future, it is the next logical step since it still feels a bit cumbersome to have to use both the AI Suite and the UEFI to access all your settings.

I'm just hoping that the "easytune/autotune" stuff doesn't get to the point in the future where it takes priority and it all gets "dumb-ed down" and we lose manual control over our settings in favor of "ease of use".

That would suck and take all the fun out of this hobby.
It's already too easy to overclock now...LOL

Total agreement there, but anything that saves work to accomplish the objective is "working smarter." While we agree with VirtualLarry that this is "a journey . . . a process," it also has an objective -- a goal. I'm SOOO glad I don't have to leave all the powersaving speed-step stuff disabled now. I had some OC'd systems where I'd re-enable, and . . . it would work. At one time, I enabled sleep states but it would come back showing incorrect mem latencies in the monitoring software -- not sure why. So I just figured not to bother with that.

With that -- I made the remark somewhere that the BIOS cuts both ways: easier for people who don't want to trouble but would enter the BIOS anyway [the "OC-Tuner"] - but just as many options and details to tweak.