Adaptive voltage not working

[AlexMasse]

Greetings,

I'm using a 4790k on my VII hero with BIOS version 2012 and I noticed adaptive voltage is not working at all.

No matter what I enter in "Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage" (tried with multiple values between 1.10 and 1.30 with offsets values varying between -0.015 and +.05) the BIOS, AI suite III and every other monitors I tried (HWMonitor, CPU-Z, CoreTemp, etc.) display 1.216V.

In windows, I get 1.216V vcore for a short while after boot (which I consider normal load) and then the CPU clocks down following by a voltage reduction. In BIOS however the voltage remains constant at 1.216V since I set Boot Performance Mode to "Turbo Performance" and CPU Core Ratio to "Sync All Cores".

Of course, as expected the voltage is going even higher when under high synthetic load (AIDA64 or OCCTPT) up to 1.264V.

From what I red this isn't normal and I don't see anyone has reported the same problem with older BIOS versions, but this is the only version I've tried so far since I flashed my BIOS to this version as soon as I received the board.

Cheers.

[jab383]

Hi AlexMasse, and welcome

The issue may be AI Suite overriding BIOS as soon as AI Suite starts at boot. Try uninstalling AI Suite, then see if the BIOS settings take effect.

Also check Windows > Control Panel > Hardware > Power Options. The balanced option is apparently set since voltages follow speed and load. Check that the setting for max load is 100%.

Jeff

[AlexMasse]

Hey Jeff,

thank you for you quick reply, but I doubt it could be AI Suite since I did most of my testing right in the BIOS taking advantage of the Turbo Boot Performance Mode. When I set the Turbo Mode Voltage to 1.15V directly in BIOS and then restart directly to BIOS not allowing Windows to boot, it still shows 1.216V.

As for the Power Options, I already made sure the Max Load is set to 100% because I had to go manually set the High Performance plan's Min Load to 10% to allow C-states to work (some ppl suggest Balanced, but I only modified the HP one instead).

Thanks for your help and please let me know if you have any other suggestions.

Alex

[Praz]

Hello

What is the stock CPU voltage when under full load? Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage cannot be set lower than this.

[AlexMasse]

Sorry I misunderstood you're statement, now I see that the Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage cannot be set lower than the STOCK CPU voltage as you said. I'm now able to run 4.6 GHz at 1.264 under full load with Adaptive Mode which gives approximately the same core temperatures as with 4.4 GHz.

I understand this chip has to be overclocked to be efficient otherwise it runs 4.4 GHz at a voltage that could be enough even at 4.7 GHz which I'll test once I set up my first Custom Loop in my H440.

Right now, under AIDA64 at 4.6 GHz I'm reaching 80C within 2 minutes (I set Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage to 1.20V which results in 1.216V under regular turbo load and 1.264V under AIDA64) because I'm using Noctua NH-U12P SE2 and I don't want to push it further.

Thanks alot for your help!

Also please let me know if I'm missing something here because I'm new with Haswell and I see it is quite a little bit more complicated than Sandy Bridge.

[AlexMasse]

Hi,

that voltage remains the same (1.264) under full load whether I use Auto or Adaptive Mode (at values below 1.25 and above as well) as I said in my first post. I tried setting Turbo Voltage to 1.30 with +0.001 offset in both the BIOS and AI Suite, but the BIOS still shows 1.216V while in Turbo Mode (x44) and the monitoring tools in Windows still show 1.264V under full load.

If Turbo Mode Cpu Core Voltage cannot be set lower than stock CPU Voltage, there's no way I can use any other voltage mode than Manual to acheive decent overclocks ? With 1.264V I could most likely acheive 4.6 GHz its way too high for 4.4 GHz needs... I guess if I set it to 4.6 GHz on Auto voltage it will run at 1.35V and there's nothing I can do to lower that ?

I dont understand why we wouldn't be allowed to undervolt the Turbo Voltage my CPU is running way too hot under 4.4 uselessly...

[Praz]

Hello

You're welcome. If you wish to run the CPU at 4.4GHz a lower voltage is possible by using a negative offset instead of adaptive mode. Need to keep in mind though that the offset value applies across the entire VID table. You will reach a point where the CPU does not have enough voltage to maintain stability at idle or reduced loads.

[Backfire1]

I had a similar problem. I will refer you to the same site I was referred to. http://www.overclockers.com/3step-guide-to-overclock-intel-haswell

It seems that you have figured your problem out. But it seems that some of the stress test programs can cause the MB to allow more volts than what you actually set. This is a great read. I have to give credit were credit is due. Meanmachine pointed the article out to me.

[AlexMasse]

Yeah I already knew that and it's why I'm not considering negative offset an option. I doubt idle voltage could go way below 0.7V (which is current value) without resulting in system crash.