What controls Turbo Core in Xeons?

[Alex S]

There is an interesting question: is there any way to disable AVX frequency drop on Haswell-EPs? (These are our E5 v3s). Must be, because desktop Haswell-E (Core i7) does not have this "feature".

 

[GTZ]

There is an interesting question: is there any way to disable AVX frequency drop on Haswell-EPs? (These are our E5 v3s). Must be, because desktop Haswell-E (Core i7) does not have this "feature".

It exists on i7 Haswell as well, both my old 5820K and 5930K dropped 1 turbo bin when AVX was in use. It also needed a lot of voltage when overclocked to maintain it. With no microcode Haswell EP should only drop 1 or 2 bins.

 

[SlaterTh90]

Why is it that I cant just delete the microcode from the Asus Z10PE-D16 bios with the methode knowdragon suggested on page 21?

I even tried the "unlocked" bios from post #270, but that does also not change anything.

UBU 1.65.9 tells me that microcode 39 is present (or 38 on stock bios) and ubu 1.66.1 shows a whole bunch of different microcode-versions, but always 38 no matter wich bios i use (maybe a bug?). The normal methode does not work because of the "Error Replacing File" thing.

EDIT: Using UEFITool I verified that the Microcode should be gone. There must be a second location where the bios can load the microcode from....

EDIT2: Ok I got it working now, 3.2Ghz across all cores no drops (at least in blender and cinebench)....

 

[Alex S]

It exists on i7 Haswell as well, both my old 5820K and 5930K dropped 1 turbo bin when AVX was in use. It also needed a lot of voltage when overclocked to maintain it. With no microcode Haswell EP should only drop 1 or 2 bins.

My E5-2686 v3 dropping more - from 2.9 GHz frequency can go as low as 2,6 GHz. (29x - 26x), mostly stays on 27x.

 

[SlaterTh90]

My E5-2686 v3 dropping more - from 2.9 GHz frequency can go as low as 2,6 GHz. (29x - 26x), mostly stays on 27x.

What tool do you use to test AVX-Performance?

 

[Alex S]

What tool do you use to test AVX-Performance?

Different ones. From Corona to Y-Cruncher (last one have binaries with AVX/AVX2 support and without it, so it's easy - HWiNFO on second monitor, benchmark on main).

 

[XDrego]

which bios you using alex p5

 

[Alex S]

which bios you using alex p5

Yes, latest available for this model.

 

[XDrego]

can you upload your present mod bios

 

[SlaterTh90]

Different ones. From Corona to Y-Cruncher (last one have binaries with AVX/AVX2 support and without it, so it's easy - HWiNFO on second monitor, benchmark on main).

I testet AVX with my setup now (2x E5 2620 v3), there are no clock drops, all cores stay at x32 multiplier. I have mcode version 39.

 

[Alex S]

can you upload your present mod bios

Here it is: download from GDrive.

 

[Alex S]

I testet AVX with my setup now (2x E5 2620 v3), there are no clock drops, all cores stay at x32 multiplier. I have mcode version 39.

I also switch 27 to 39 to get rid of LFM bug (no difference in performance anyway), but your processors totally different from mine - yours are using LCC (low core count) crystal (2686 made of HCC, high core count crystal, of course) and have few cores, so they can safely maintain frequency even on AVX2 load. But 2686 have 18 cores and TDP only 120W.

 

[sciff]

Alex S, I don't experience frequency drop, even though my E5-2696 V3 R2 has 18 cores. The thing is in order to achieve this I have to abandon using microcode. But I have absolutely no stability issues when I do that.

 

[b9creations]

Hello Sciff, Awesome, that's great news! Thanks so much for all the contributions everyone!

So far, using VERCETY's instructions I was able to remove the Haswell-E microcode from the x99 deluxe II bios.
Cooler has not arrived yet.

Sciff, so you are saying no microcode in the bios, but as far as the vmware driver goes: 0x27 microcode for best performance or the 0x39 driver for better stability?

Or did you find a way to eliminate the microcode completely?

Also are there options to change turbo MSR's on the fly in windows 10 or is there a workable "idle" setting possible from the bios when there is no CPU load?
I think I read about someone who was able to use idle state for no load?

Same chip E5-2696 V3 on Asus Deluxe II Motherboard.

Thanks very much!

B9C

 

[Alex S]

Alex S, I don't experience frequency drop, even though my E5-2696 V3 R2 has 18 cores. The thing is in order to achieve this I have to abandon using microcode. But I have absolutely no stability issues when I do that.

Do you simply deleted VMWare uCode driver? I'll check that.

 

[korhanby]

Hey,
I have a Z10PE-D8 WS and 2x 2683v3's. Can anything go really wrong with this mod? Does this work with Ubuntu too? Does anyone have a stable setup like mine with the unlock?

Has anyone tried this cpu with Gigabyte x99 gaming g1 wifi motherboard ? I want to use it with microcode on this board. I would appreciate if someone could help me about it.

 

[sciff]

Sciff, so you are saying no microcode in the bios, but as far as the vmware driver goes: 0x27 microcode for best performance or the 0x39 driver for better stability?

Or did you find a way to eliminate the microcode completely?

The thing is, unless you use one of the EFI drivers that have microcode built in (V3x2_cp27.efi, V3x2_cp39.efi, V3x2_cup27.efi or V3x2_cup39.efi), or load microcode via VMWare driver, you end up with no microcode loaded (given you flashed modified BIOS, of course).

 

[b9creations]

@ Sciff, So you are saying skip loading the driver all that and run no microcode? Sorry for my confusion... I have stripped the code from my motherboard, system not finished yet though. Trying to figure this out in advance. Hoping to replicate what you are doing here with your E5-2696 V3 : )

 

[sciff]

b9creations, yes, you understood me correctly
But AFAIK some other people have stability issues when no microcode is loaded. I guess it depends on a particular system.

Guys, does anyone have 8 RAM modules per CPU running at original 2133 MHz? It's just that I've read in Memory Configuration Guide by Supermicro that you can't have 8 double-rank DIMMs per CPU running at 2133 MHz, their speed will be reduced to 1866 MHz. That's unless you use rare and expensive LRDIMMs.

 

[sciff]

Also are there options to change turbo MSR's on the fly in windows 10 or is there a workable "idle" setting possible from the bios when there is no CPU load?
I think I read about someone who was able to use idle state for no load?

I don't exactly understand what you mean. My 2696 V3 R2 does work at x12 or 1200 MHz when idle, because I haven't turned off EIST (Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology) in BIOS.

 

[b9creations]

Thanks sounds good!

 

[Alex S]

Tried it without uCode, even in idle CPU frequency keeps fluctuating, and under AVX load multiplier is х26-27. HWiNFO shows no uCode.

 

[sciff]

Alex S, how soon after system startup have you made this observation? For example, I also notice this for about first two minutes after startup. Then, the core multipliers drop to x12 and unless I run something at least lightly demanding, it stays that way. Кстати, привет Таллину от Дублина

 

[Alex S]

Alex S, how soon after system startup have you made this observation? For example, I also notice this for about first two minutes after startup. Then, the core multipliers drop to x12 and unless I run something at least lightly demanding, it stays that way. Кстати, привет Таллину от Дублина

10-15 mins, if you use balanced power plan - it can drop to x12 (if you select minimal CPU state at 99 % it will stay at x20 without any load and up to 2,9 for all cores or 3.5 for few cores under load). Однако, здравствуйте

 

[Alex S]

Has anyone tried Dual/Quad CPU Supermicro boards and posted the results? I have Supermicro X10DAi and would like to try out this mod.

Is this motherboard any good to unlocked Xeons? Seems pretty nice - 160W supported, etc. And anyway, can anyone recommend good dual mobo, but not asus Z10-PE16 WS, these are damn expensive.