Voltage Issue Overclocking 2600K

[Wakers]

• 2600K
• ASRocks z77 Extreme 4m

No matter what setting I change in BIOS, the CPU will spike to 1.3611 under load, does anyone know why? It's only OC'd to 4.2 at the moment and from what I've read it should be easily able to manage that at 1.2?

• Disabled Internal PLL voltage
• CPU load line calibration set to 50%
• Offset voltage set to 0.005v.  I've even set this to -0.005 despite recommendations against it, it still peaks at 1.3611 under load.
• Max Turbo Voltage set to 0.004v

I have the latest BIOS revision. Thanks.

 

[a1ien]

It's not spiking, that's normal. You just have a slightly below average 2600K on your hands.

 

These processors increase the *normal/base* voltage independent of the BIOS settings when you clock them past stock. You will find that if you try higher multipliers, the voltage will increase further all by itself. This is a part of turbo boost: the processor is factory programmed with higher boost-voltages at the higher multipliers, that turbo-boost will use automatically.

 

I have one that can do 4.6 Ghz at 1.36V, which was an offset of +0.005 IIRC. That's because that processor was better then yours - I had two others that were worse. I would also set the Max-Turbo-V to +0.004, that's a good move because otherwise it can be out of your control.

 

I would set load line to normal or zero, and if you think it will be stable, try more negative offset voltage. -0.01, -0.015, ... until you're happy. The -0.005 attempt is too small to see any change. I don't want to hear about the n00bs recommending against it.

 

If you try 4.8 GHz for example, you'll see the voltage is almost 1.5V without you adding voltage in the BIOS.

[Wakers]

So you can't actually limit the maximum voltage in BIOS, the CPU will do what it wants regardless?

 

In that case, what is the offset actually changing? I notice that it will still peak at 1.3611 at 4.2Ghz, but most of the time it runs at 1.28 something.  I've got offset set to -0.015 at the moment.

 

I would rather it blue screen due to lack of voltage than do what it wants, I shouldn't be getting 65?C with a 212 EVO at 4.2 just from gaming, that's awful.

[a1ien]

There are limits to your voltage control, but the negative offset should pull the automatic value downwards... until you bluescreen because of it. Why don't you try taking it to that point?

 

Normally I've seen maximum load voltage as much as 0.3V more than the average load voltage... so 1.28 -> 1.36 seems too large a difference. Are you using CPU-Z? I trust that utility more.

 

That's a fairly basic MOBO - it's possible they have just not tuned the manual voltage controls that well. Did you try turning off load-line calibration and PLL over-voltage? It seems like the load-line has issues: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2280653

 

You may have to try both ends of the range (100% and 0%) to find out which is less.

[Wakers]

I've already turned PLL off.

 

load line calibration is now set to 0% due to a recommendation from another board.

 

I'm just going to lower the offset until it becomes unstable then.  When I'm gaming, it bounces between 1.36, 1.32 and 1.28, most of the time it's at 1.36 though. 

 

I'm using coretemp, not CPU-Z, I'll see if that gives a different reading.  Thanks for the help.

[alpha2beta]

Try resetting the UEFI bios by removing the battery for a few minuets then try overclocking. I had the same problem on my Asus board with my 2600k. No mater what setting I had it on nothing would change for the multiplier and the voltage. So I did the reset and then everything  works now. 

Plus after that, don't use a saved OC profile, if that's your problem it will only return when loading the profile.

[Wakers]

Well I can change mutlipliers just fine, but I'll try removing the battery anyway.

 

I've started using CPU-Z and it's reporting lower voltages under load, 1.32 most of the time, but still the odd spike up 1.36.

 

Also, I've read elsewhere about temperatures, that they don't scale with ambient?

 

For instance, max temp in an ambient of 20?C could be 60?C, but in an ambient temp of 25?C they could go up to 70?C - is it true that the correlation isn't linear?